There is a famous combat mentioned of a Roman with an elephant, when Hannibal compelled our prisoners to fight against each other. The one who had survived all the others he placed before an elephant, and promised him his life if he should slay¹ it; upon which the man advanced alone into the arena², and, to the great regret of the Carthaginians, succeeded in doing so. Hannibal, however, thinking that the news of this victory might cause a feeling of contempt for these animals, sent some horsemen to kill the man on his way home. In our battles with Pyrrhus it was found, on making trial, that it was extremely easy to cut off the trunks of these animals. In the second consulship³ of Pompey at the dedication⁴ of the temple of Venus Victrix, twenty elephants, or, as some say, seventeen, fought in the Circus against a number of G?tulians, who attacked them with javelins⁵. One of these animals fought in a most astonishing manner; for, although pierced through the feet, it dragged itself on its knees towards the troop, and seizing their bucklers, tossed them aloft into the air: and as they came to the ground it greatly amused the spectators, for they whirled round and round in the air, 67 just as if they had been thrown up with a certain degree of skill, and not by the frantic⁶ fury of a wild beast. Another very wonderful circumstance happened; an elephant was killed by a single blow. The weapon pierced the animal below the eye, and entered the vital part of the head. The elephants attempted, too, by their united efforts, to break down the enclosure, not without great confusion among the people who sat next to the iron gratings. It was in consequence of this circumstance, that C?sar, the Dictator, when he was afterwards about to exhibit a similar spectacle, had the arena surrounded with trenches⁷ of water. These were lately filled up by the Emperor Nero, when he added the seats for the

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