366 
PLIIfy's NATURAL HISTOET. 
[BookJX. 
in the open sea and to range over the whole face of the ocean ; 
while the orcse, on the other hand, do all in their power to meet 
them in their flight, throw themselves in their way, and kill 
them either cooped up in a narrow passage, or else drive them 
on a shoal, or dash them to pieces against the rocks. When 
these battles are witnessed, it appears just as though the sea 
were infuriate against itself ; not a breath of wind is there to 
be felt in the bay, and yet the waves by their pantings and 
their repeated blows are heaved aloft in a way which no whirl- 
wind could effect. 
An orca has been seen even in the port of Ostia, where it was 
attacked by the Emperor Claudius. It was while he was 
constructing the harbour^* there that this orca came, attracted 
by some hides which, having been brought from Gaul, had 
happened to fall overboard there. Ey feeding upon these for 
several days it had quite glutted itself, having made for itself 
a channel in the shoaly water. Here, however, the sand was 
thrown up by the action of the wind to such an extent, that 
the creature found it quite impossible to turn round ; and while 
in the act of pursuing its prey, it was propelled by the waves 
towards the shore, so that its back came to be perceived above 
the level of the water, very much resembling in appearance 
the keel of a vessel turned bottom upwards. Upon this, Caesar 
ordered a great number of nets to be extended at the mouth of 
the harbour, from shore to shore, while he himself went there 
with the praetorian cohorts, and so afforded a spectacle to the 
Eoman people ; for boats assailed the monster, while the sol- 
diers on board showered lances upon it. I myself saw one of 
the boats sunk by the water which the animal, as it respired, 
showered down upon it. 
3* These works were completed by Nero the successor of Claudius, and 
consisted of a new and more capacious harbour on the right arm of the 
Tiber. It was afterwards enlarged and improved by Trajan. This har- 
bour was simply called " Portus Eomanus," or " Portus Augusti and 
around it there sprang up a town known as ^' Portus," the inhabitants of 
which were called Portuenses." 
35 " Naufragiis tergorum." This may probably mean a shipwreck, in 
which some hides had fallen into the sea. 
36 It is remarked by Rezzonico, that Palermus, in the account of this 
story given by him in B. i. c. 1, has mistaken Pliny's meaning, and evi- 
dently thinks that *'unum" refers to the soldiers, and not the boats en- 
gaged in the attack. 
