Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/193

Rh injury from his fangs and the mere force of his jaws.”

In one of the books of Livy, now lost, there was an account of a terrible serpent, which kept the whole Roman army at bay. Valerius Maximus gives us this abridgment of the story: “And since we are on the subject of uncommon phenomena, we may here mention the Serpent so eloquently and accurately recorded by Livy; who says, that near the river Bagrada, in Africa, a Snake was seen of so enormous a magnitude, as to prevent the army of Attilius Regulus from the use of the river; and after snatching up several soldiers with his enormous mouth, and devouring them, and killing several more by striking and squeezing them with the spires of its tail, was at length destroyed by assailing it with all the force of military engines and showers of stones, after it had withstood the attack of their spears and darts: that it was regarded by the whole army as a more formidable enemy than even Carthage itself; and that the whole adjacent region being tainted with the pestilential effluvia proceeding from its remains, and the waters with its blood, the Roman army was obliged to remove its station. He also adds, that the skin of the monster, measuring one hundred and twenty feet in length, was sent to Rome as a trophy.” Silius Italicus and other writers mention this Serpent, which was doubtless a Python; and Pliny speaks of its existence as a matter of notoriety, adding, that its skin and jaws were preserved in a temple at Rome till the Numantine war.

Diodorus Siculus mentions a Serpent which was