Pliny
The Natural History
Translated with Copious Notes and Illustrations by the late
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. and H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Late Scholar of Clare Hall, Cambridge
Published by Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, London, 1855
The chapter numbers do not correspond with more recent translations of Pliny, therefore I have used only the book number and chapter title with each excerpt and have appended the current Loeb references in parentheses. All footnotes for these excerpts are from the nineteenth century translation.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VIII – Chapter: Lions; how they are produced.
(Refer to Book VIII. 43 – 45 in Loeb edition..)
I find that it was a common belief, that the lioness is able to bear young no more than once, because, while delivering herself, she tears her womb with her claws. Aristotle, however, gives a different account; a man of whom I think that I ought here to make some further mention, seeing that upon these subjects, I intend, in a great measure, to make him my guide. Alexander the Great, being inflamed with a strong desire to become acquainted with the natures of animals, entrusted the prosecution of this design to Aristotle, a man who held the highest rank in every branch of learning; for which purpose he placed under his command some thousands of men in every region of Asia and Greece, and comprising all those who followed the business of hunting, fowling, or fishing, or who had the care of parks, herds of cattle, the breeding of bees, fish-ponds, and aviaries, in order that no creature that was known to exist might escape his notice. By means of the information which he obtained from these persons, he was enabled to compose some fifty volumes, which are deservedly esteemed, on the subject of animals; of these I purpose to give an epitome, together with other facts with which Aristotle was unacquainted; and I beg the kind indulgence of my readers in their estimate of this work of mine, as by my aid they hastily travel though all the works of nature, and through the midst of subjects with which that most famous of all kings so ardently desired to be acquainted.
Aristotle then informs us, that the lioness, at the first birth, produces five whelps, and one less every surrounding year, until, after having produced one only, she ceases to bear. The young ones, when first born, are shapeless and extremely small in flesh, being no larger than a weasel; for six months they are scarcely able to walk, and until they are two months old, they cannot move. Lions, he says, are found in Europe, but only between the rivers Achelous and Nestus; being much superior in strength to those which are produced in Africa or Syria.*
*Herodotus, B. vii. c. 126, and Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 28, give a similar account of the district in which lions are found. – B. Littre remakes, that this statement of Pliny is probably formed, as originally suggested by M. Maury, upon the fact, that the lions of Europe, as we learn from Herodotus, attacked the camels of Xerxes, on his invasion of Europe.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VIII – Chapter: Wonderful feats performed by lions.
(Refer to Book VIII. 54 in Loeb edition..)
It was formerly a very difficult matter to catch the lion, and it was mostly done by means of pit-falls. In the reign however, of the Emperor Claudius, accident disclosed a method which appears most disgraceful to the name of such an animal; a Gaetulian shepherd stopped a lion, that was rushing furiously upon him, by merely throwing his cloak over the animal; a circumstance which afterwards afforded an exhibition in the arena of the Circus, when the frantic fury of the animal was paralyzed in a manner almost incredible by a light covering being thrown over its head, so much so, that it was put into chains without the least resistance; we must conclude, therefore, that all its strength lies in its eyes. The circumstance renders what was done by Lysimachus(1) less wonderful, who strangled a lion, with which he had been shut up by command of Alexander.(2)
(1) This story is given also by Plutarch, in the life of Demetrius. Lysimachus was a Macedonian by birth, but son of Agathocles, a serf of Thessaly. Through his great courage, he became one of the body-guard of Alexander. Quintus Curtius tells us that, when hunting in Syria, he killed a lion of immense size single-handed, though not without receiving severe wounds in the contest. The same author looks upon this as the probable origin of the story here referred to by Pliny.
(2) This is mentioned by many ancient authors; by Plutarch, Pausanias, Seneca, Justin, and by Quintus Curtius, who thinks that the account usually given is fabulous. - B
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VIII – Chapter: Stags.
(Refer to Book VIII. 118 - 119 in Loeb edition..)
The stag is generally admitted to be very long lived; some were captured at the end of one hundred years with the golden collars which Alexander the Great had put upon them, and which were quite concealed by the folds of the skin, in consequence of the accumulation of fat.*
*Graguinus, Hist. Franc. B. ix. c. 3, relates a still more wonderful anecdote of a similar nature; but, as Buffon remarks, such tales are without foundation, the life of the stag not being more than thirty or forty years. Cuvier, also, says that its life does not exceed thirty-six or forty years. – B
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VIII – Chapter: The qualities of the dog; examples of its attachment to its master; nations which have kept dogs for the purpose of war.
(Refer to Book VIII. 149 - 150 in Loeb edition..)
When Alexander the Great was on his Indian expedition, he was presented by the king of Albania with a dog of unusual size; being greatly delighted with its noble appearance, he ordered bears, and after them wild boars, and then deer, to be let loose before it; but the dog lay down, and regarded them with a kind of immoveable contempt. The noble spirit of the general became irritated by the sluggishness thus manifested by an animal of such vast bulk and he ordered it killed. The report of this reached the king, who accordingly sent another dog, and at the same time sent word that its powers were to be tried, not upon small animals, but upon the lion or the elephant; adding, that he had originally but two, and that if this one were put to death, the race would be extinct. Alexander, without delay, procured a lion, which in his presence was instantly torn to pieces. He then ordered an elephant to be brought, and never was he more delighted with any spectacle; for the dog, bristling up its hair all over the body, began by thundering forth a loud barking, and then attacked the animal, leaping at it first on the one side and then on the other, attacking it in the most skilful manner, and then again retreating at the opportune moment, until at last the elephant, being rendered quite giddy by turning round and round, fell to the earth, and made it quite re-echo with his fall.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VIII – Chapter: The nature of the horse.
(Refer to Book VIII. 154 - 155 in Loeb edition..)
King Alexander had also a very remarkable horse;* it was called Bucephalus, either on account of the fierceness of its aspect, or because it had the figure of a bull’s head marked on its shoulder. It is said, that he was struck with its beauty when he was only a boy, and that it was purchased from the stud of Philonicus, the Pharsalian, for thirteen talents. When it was equipped with the royal trappings, it would suffer no one except Alexander to mount it, although at other times it would allow any one to do so. A memorable circumstance connected with it in battle is recorded of this horse; it is said that when it was wounded in the attack upon Thebes, it would not allow Alexander to mount any other horse. Many other circumstances, also, of a similar nature, occurred respecting it; so that when it died, the king duly performed its obsequies, and bult around its tomb a city, which he named after it.
*Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander, gives some account of this celebrated horse, and Aulus Gellius, B. v. c. 3, devotes a chapter to it. – B
Complete chapter from Natural History, Book IX – Chapter: The sea monsters of the Indian Ocean.
(Refer to Book IX. 4 - 7 in Loeb edition..)
But the most numerous and largest of all these animals are those found in the Indian seas; among which there are balaenae, four jugera in extent, and the pristis, two hundred cubits long: here also are found cray-fish four cubits in length, and in the river Ganges there are to be seen eels three hundred feet long. But at sea it is more especially about the time of the solstices that these monsters are to be seen. For then it is that in these regions the whirlwind comes sweeping on, the rains descend, the hurricane comes rushing down, hurled from the mountain heights, while the sea is stirred up from the very bottom, and the monsters are driven from their depths and rolled upwards on the crest of the billow. At other times again, there are such vast multitudes of tunnies met with, that the fleet of Alexander the Great was able to make head against them only by facing them in order of battle, just as it would have done an enemy’s fleet. Had the ships not done this, but proceeded in a straggling manner, they could not possible have made their escape. No noise, no sounds, no blows had any effect on these fish; nothing short of the clash of battle were they to be terrified, and by nothing less than their utter destruction were they overpowered.
There is a large peninsula in the Red Sea, known by the name of Cadara: as it projects into the deep it forms a vast gulf, which it took the fleet of King Ptolemy(1) twelve whole days and nights to traverse by dint of rowing, for not a breath of wind was to be perceived. In the recesses of this becalmed spot more particularly, the sea-monsters attain so vast a size that they are quite unable to move. The commanders of the fleets of Alexander the Great have related that the Gedrosi, who dwell upon the banks of the river Arabis,(2) are in the habit of making the doors of their houses with the jaw-bones of fishes, and raftering the roofs with their bones, many of which were found as much as forty cubits in length. At this place, too, sea-monsters just like so many cattle,(3) were in the habit of coming on shore, and, after feeding on the roots of shrubs, they would return; some of them, which the heads of horses,(4) asses, and bulls, found a pasture in the crops of grain.
(1) Ptolemy Philadelphus.
(2) Also called the Cophetes. The commander of Alexander’s fleet more especially alluded to, is probably Nearchus, who wrote an account of his voyage, to which Pliny has previously made allusion, and which is followed by Strabo in B. xv. And by Arrian, in his Indica.
(3) Onesicritus, quoted by Strabo, B. xv., says that in the vicinity of Taprobane, or Ceylon, there were animals which had an amphibious life, some of which resembled oxen, some horses, and various other land animals. Cuvier is of the opinion, that not improbably the “Trichecum manatum” and the “Trichecum dugong” of Linnaeus are alluded to, which are herbivorous animals, though nearly allied to the cetacea, and which are in the habit of coming to pasture on the grass or sea-weed they may chance to find on the shore.
(4) It is remarked by Cuvier, that there is no resemblance whatever between the domesticated animals and any of the cetacea; but that the imagination of the vulgar has pictured to itself these supposed resemblances, by the aid of a lively imagination.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book IX – Chapter: Human beings who have been loved by dolphins.
(Refer to Book IX. 26 - 27 in Loeb edition..)
Before this, there was a similar story told of a child at the city of Iasus,* for whom a dolphin was long observed to have conceived a most ardent affection, until at last, as the animal was eagerly following him as he was making for the shore, it was carried by the tide on the sands, and there expired. Alexander the Great appointed this boy high priest of Neptune at Babylon, interpreting this extraordinary attachment as a convincing proof of the favour of that divinity.
*The island and city of Caria.