3*9 
of the wild Boar, and Animal incognitum . 
to be considered as wholly fabulous, but the recital of events 
which really happened, although probably in many instances 
. much exaggerated and embellished. 
Ovid’s description of the wild boar killed by Meleager, 
which he asserts to be larger than the Sicilian bulls, with tusks 
equal in size to those of the elephant, was probably taken from 
some Greek account, which, being founded on tradition, may be 
supposed, from the preceding observations, to have been in its 
origin a true history.* 
It is deserving of remark, in proof of the Roman poets having 
considered the wild boar as an animal that lived to a great age, 
and grew to an enormous size, that, while Ovid gives the parti- 
culars of its bulk, Virgil thinks it sufficient, when he means to 
describe the animal in all its power, to say it had lived many 
years, without at all particularizing its size.-f 
* Inquit ; et CEneos ultorem spreta per agros 
Misit aprum, quanto majores herbida tauros 
Non habet Epiros ; sed habent Sicula arva minores. 
Sanguine et igne micant oculi, riget horrida cervix, 
Et setae densis similes hastilibus horrent ; 
Stanlque velut vallum, velut alta hastilia setae. 
Fervida cum rauco latos stridore per armos 
Spuma fluit ; dentes aequantur dentibus Indis. 
Ovid. Metam. lib. viii. 1 . 281 
f Ac velut ille canum morsu de montibus altis 
Actus aper, (multos Vesulus quem pinifer annos 
Defendit, multosque Palus Laurentia,) sylva 
Pastus arundinea ; postquam inter retia ventum est, 
Substitit, infremuitque ferox, et inhorruit armos. 
Nec cuiquam irasci, propiusve accedere virtus ; 
Sed jaculis, tutisque procul clamoribus instant. 
Virg. Ain. lib. x. 1 . 707. 
Uu 
MDCCCI. 
