Chap. 21.] 
LIONS. 
271 
surpassed even the most monstrous spectacles that were to be 
seen at that calamitous period. It is said that Hanno, one of 
the most illustrious of the Carthaginians, was the first who 
ventured to touch the lion with the hand, and to exhibit it in 
a tame state. It was on this account that he was banished ; 
for it was supposed, that a man so talented and so ingenious 
would have it in his power to persuade the people to anything, 
and it was looked upon as unsafe to trust the liberties of the 
country to one who had so eminently triumphed over even 
ferocity itself. There are some fortuitous occurrences cited 
also, which have given occasion to these animals to display 
their natural clemency. Mentor, a native of Syracuse, was 
met in Syria by a lion, who rolled before him in a suppliant 
manner ; though smitten with fear and desirous to escape, the 
wild beast on every side opposed his flight, and licked his feet 
with a fawning air. Upon this. Mentor observed on the paw 
of the lion a swelling and a wound; from which, after extracting 
a splinter, he relieved the creature's pain.^"^ There is a picture 
at Syracuse, which bears witness to the truth of this trans- 
action. 
In the same manner, too, Elpis, a native of Samos, on landing 
from a vessel on the coast of Africa, observed a lion near the 
beach, opening his mouth in a threatening manner ; upon which 
he climbed a tree, in the hope of escaping, while, at the same 
time, he invoked the aid of Eather Liber ; for it is the appro- 
priate time for invocations when there is no room left for hope. 
The wild beast did not pursue him as he fled, although he might 
easily have done so ; but, lying down at the foot of the tree, 
by the open mouth which had caused so much terror, tried to 
excite his compassion. A bone, while he was devouring his 
food with too great avidity, had stuck fast between his teeth, 
and he was perishing with hunger ; such being the punishment 
inflicted upon him by his own weapons, every now and then 
he would look up and supplicate him, as it were, with mute 
entreaties. Elpis, not wishing to risk trusting himself to 
woman and mistress of Volumnius Eutrapelus, and then successively the 
mistress of Antony and the poet Gallus, who mentioned her in his poems 
under the name of Lycoris ; she did not, however, continue faithful to him. 
Aulus Gellius, B. v. c. 14, and ^lian, Anim. Nat. B. viii. c. 48, re- 
late a similar anecdote of Androclus or Androcles, who extracted a thorn 
from the foot of a lion. — B. 
^5 The text is in a state of extreme confusion here, and so hopelessly man- 
