RHINOCEROS. 
94 
-is, however, an additional circumstance which attaches to 
the coin a curious confirmation, and great classical im- 
portance. 
The exhibition of the two -horned rhinoceros to the Ro- 
man people, probably of the very same animal represented 
on the coin, is particularly described in one of the epigrams 
attributed to Martial, who lived in the reigns of Titus and 
Domitian. 
The following are the lines : 
Sollicitant pavidi dum rhinocerota magistri, 
Seque diu magnae colligit ira ferae. 
Desperabantur promissi prselia Martis : 
Sed tamen is rediit cognitus ante furor. 
Namque gravem gemino cornu sic extulit ursum, 
Jactat ut impositas Taurus in astra pilas. 
By this description it appears that a combat between a 
rhinoceros and a bear was intended, but that it was very 
difficult to irritate the more unwieldy animal, so as to 
make him display his usual ferocity : at length, however, 
he tossed the bear from his double horn, with as much facility 
as a bull tosses to the sky the bundles placed for the purpose 
of enraging him. 
Thus far the coin and the epigram perfectly agree as to 
the existence of the double horn ; but unfortunately com- 
mentators and antiquaries would not be convinced that a 
rhinoceros could have more than one horn, and have at once 
displayed their sagacity and incredulity in their explanation* 
On the subject. 
Hence we find a similar coin engraved in the second 
volume of Cooke’s Medallic History of Rome, where 
the animal is misrepresented, and particularly the horns, 
which appear like tusks bending in different directions. 
After quoting the lines of Martial, Mr. Cooke observes. 
