The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
(5.) Elephants always move in herds.[1594] The oldest takes the lead,
and the next in age brings up the rear. When they are crossing a river,
they first send over the smallest, for fear lest the weight of the
larger ones may increase the depth of the channel, by working away the
bed of the river. We learn from Antipater, that King Antiochus had two
elephants, which he employed in his wars, and to which he had given
the names of celebrated men; and that they were aware too of this mark
of distinction.[1595] Cato, in his Annals, while he has passed over in
silence the names of the generals, has given that of an elephant called
Surus, which fought with the greatest valour in the Carthaginian army,
and had lost one of its tusks. When Antiochus was sounding the ford of
a river, an elephant named Ajax, which on other occasions had always
led the van, refused to enter the stream; upon which proclamation was
made, that the first rank should belong to the one which should take
the lead in passing over. One called Patroclus hazarded the attempt,
and as a reward, the king presented it with some silver pendants,[1596]
a kind of ornament with which these animals are particularly delighted,
and assigned it all the other marks of command. Upon this, the
elephant that had been degraded refused to take its food, and so
preferred death to ignominy. Indeed their sense of shame is wonderful,
and when one of them has been conquered, it flies at the voice of the
conqueror, and presents him with earth and vervain.[1597]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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