Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/432

 408 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, ple^ Ten elks, and as many camelopards, the loftiest ^^^- and most harmless creatures that wander over the plains of Sarmatia and ^Ethiopia, were contrasted with thirty African hyaenas, and ten Indian tigers, the most im- placable savages of the torrid zone. The unoffending strength with which nature has endowed the greater quadrupeds, was admired in the rhinoceros, the hip- popotamus of the Nile *, and a majestic troop of thirty- two elephants ". While the populace gazed with stupid wonder on the splendid show, the naturalist might in- deed observe the figure and properties of so many different species, transported from every part of the ancient world into the amphitheatre of Rome. But this accidental benefit which science might derive from folly, is surely insufficient to justify such a wanton abuse of the public riches. There occurs, however, a single instance in the first Punic war, in which the . senate wisely connected this amusement of the multi- tude with the interest of the state. A considerable number of elephants, taken in the defeat of the Car- thaginian army, were driven through the circus by a few slaves, armed only with blunt javelins The use- ful spectacle served to impress the Roman soldier with a just contempt for those unwieldy animals ; and he no longer dreaded to encounter them in the ranks of war. The amphi- ^he hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was con- ducted with a magnificence suitable to a people who styled themselves the masters of the world ; nor was the edifice appropriated to that entertainment less ex- pressive of Roman greatness. Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the amphitheatre wild asses. Cuper (de Elephantis Exercitat. ii. 7.) has proved from Op- pian, Dion, and an anonymous Greek, that zebras had been seen at Rome. They were brought from some island of the ocean, perhaps Madagascar. t Carinus gave an hippopotamus : see Calphurn. Eclog. vii. 66. In the latter spectacles I do not recollect any crocodiles, of which Augustus once exhibited thirty-six. Dion Cassius, 1. Iv. p. 781. " Capitolin. in Hist. August, p. 164, 165. We are not acquainted with the animals whom he cbMs archeleontes, some read nrgoleonles, others ugrio- leontes: both corrections are very nugatory. " Plin. Hist. Nat. viii. 6. from the annals of Piso.
 * They are called onagri ; but the number is too inconsiderable for mere