CHAPTER XII. Remains of Elephants and Wild Beasts found in Italy France -Sicily Spain Germany; and other Countries. CHAP. MOST of the following extracts of the places, where bones have XII. been found, in Europe, are from the Baron Cuvier's great work. IN ITALY. Ar Rome, in the valley of the Tiber, great numbers of fossil bones of elephants and various wild beasts were found. Note. At Rome there were amphitheatres; and one at Fidene, on the banks of the Tiber, a few miles distant from Rome. By the sudden fall of this amphitheatre, fifty thousand persons were killed or hurt. At Verona, three leagues distant, many bones of elephants and other animals. Note.--At Verona there was an amphitheatre; and it is shewn, in Ch. X. that animals were generally kept at some distance from cities. At Puzzuoli, remains of elephants. Note.-There was an amphitheatre at Puzzuoli. REMAINS OF ELEPHANTS, &c. At Pisa, remains of elephants. Note.-Pisa was an important municipium, and, we may suppose, had its amphitheatre. At Orvieto, remains of elephants. Note. The amphitheatre at Otriculi is near Orvieto. At Ancona, remains of elephants, Note.-Ancona is about twelve miles from Sena (now Sengaglia.) "Both the Roman army commanded by Nero, and the Carthaginian army under the command of Asdrubal, who had elephants, encamped near Sena."-Catrou, III. P. 415. At Metauro, remains of elephants. Note. The Consul, Claudius Nero, at the battle of the Metaurus, defeated Asdrubal. He captured four elephants; and six were killed by the Carthaginians, being quite ungovernable, and creating much confusion.-Livy, B. XXVII. Ch. XLVIII. Catrou, III. 416. Near Turin, elephants' bones. Note.-Hannibal besieged and took Turin, on his descent from the Alps. Catrou, Vol. III. p. 68. Piedmont: in the province of Asti, two skeletons of elephants. Note.-Hannibal marched from Turin by Chivas, north of the Po. It is not said whereabouts the bones were found, but the province of Asti commences close to Turin. See the map in Ch. IX. At Plaisance, distant nine miles, and two from the Trebia, a fossil elephant. "If ever there was a fossil elephant, which might be considered as one of Hannibal's, it is that found two miles from the Trebia, and nine above Plaisance; but, as if to contradict these conjectures, the head of a rhinoceros was found near it.”—Cuvier, p. 94. Note.-Asdrubal besieged Placentia, twelve years after Hannibal had been there.-Catrou, III. p. 411. There was an amphitheatre (the 339 CHAP. XII. 340 REMAINS OF ELEPHANTS AND WILD BEASTS. CHAP. largest in Italy, Rees's Encyc.) at Placentia, which may account for XII. the rhinoceros. Little Mount St. Bernard; at the foot of the mountain, all the bones of an elephant were dug up. Note.-Hannibal crossed the Alps over the little St. Bernard; and, twelve years afterwards, Asdrubal passed over the same route. Histoire du passage d'Annibal, d'après Polybe par A. J. De Luc: also, Catrou, Vol. III. p. 65, and the notes, by Father Rouillé.-See the map of Hannibal's march, in Chap. IX. Near Florence parts of the skeletons of at least a hundred hippopotami, mixed in great abundance with the remains of elephant and rhinoceros, with those of horses, oxen, deer, hyæna, bear, tiger, wolf, mastodon, hog, tapir, and beaver.-Quarterly Review, LVII. p. 153. Note. To what possible origin can these be attributed but an amphitheatre, which there undoubtedly must have been at Florence, and probably at Fæsula? Two or three hundred years would produce all these hippopotami, which were to be had from the Roman province of Egypt, without much difficulty. Many of their bones are found near a hollow or valley, similar to that at Kirkdale, and which might easily be converted into a lake for the hippopotami. In the Upper Val d'Arno, great numbers of elephants' bones. At Figlene, upon the Arno, great numbers, mixed with bones of the rhinoceros. Note." To the classical tourist, the road from Incisa (not far from Figlene) to Levane, presents the site where Hannibal halted his army, previous to an engagement at Thrasymenus, with the Roman legions under the Consul Flaminius. The fossil bones of elephants have been found there, and are considered to be the remains of those animals slain in the engagement: but it is probable that they are the remnant of some conflict of the elements."-Lady Morgan's Italy, Vol. II. REMAINS OF ELEPHANTS, &c. 341 p. 144. See the description of Hannibal's march in Ch. IX. and the CHAP. remarks. At Cortona and at Perugia some elephants' bones. Note.-Cortona is about five miles on the north, and Perugia about six on the east side of the lake Thrasymenus. The last elephant may have died of fatigue, or have been killed in the battle, at one of those places. See Ch. IX. The Val de Chiano, bones of the elephant. Note.-The Val de Chiano is about forty miles north of Rome. There is an amphitheatre at Otriculi, which is in the neighbourhood of the Val de Chiano. At Lake Lamporecci, some bones of the elephant. At Val de Nievole, numbers of elephants' bones. Near Benevento and at Avellino, elephants' remains. There were eight elephants captured, at the terrible battle of the Taurasian fields, near Beneventum, by Curius, who defeated Pyrrhus. Four died, and four were led in triumph at Rome.-Catrou, II. 483. At Bologna, elephants' remains. Note.-Bologna was a colony and a municipium, and therefore had, probably, an amphitheatre. It is on the road from Placentia, from which place Asdrubal, with his elephants, marched to Sena.-Catrou, III. 415. In Tuscany, hippopotamus' and rhinoceros' bones mixed. Note.--Florence was built by Sylla, and must have had an amphitheatre, and also Pisa. No one can doubt this after reading the chapter on amphitheatres. At Coxence, in Calabria, elephants' bones. XII. 342 CHAP. REMAINS OF ELEPHANTS, &c. Note.-Hannibal was encamped at Croton in further Calabria, where he beat Sempronius in a second battle: the consul killed four thousand Carthaginians. Cosentia trembled at the consul's approach, and surrendered at discretion. Livy, B. XXIX. Ch. XXXVI. Catrou, III. 501. Hannibal was about twelve years in Italy, and was kept constantly supplied with great numbers of elephants, by way of the gulph of Taranto. The fossil bones are few indeed compared with the vast number of elephants killed in the wars and amphitheatres; especially when it is considered, that one animal produces a cart load of bones, and eight grinders. Hannibal lived generally at Capua; and, south of that city, many fossil bones of elephants must have been buried by the frequent earthquakes in Italy. IN FRANCE. AT Paris, remains of the elephant, ox, rein-deer, and other fossil bones have been found, and, near them, trunks of trees. Note.-Gratian, Emperor of the West, brother of Theodosius the Great, made large parks in several places in Gaul, and one at Paris; all of which were plentifully stocked with wild beasts. He was amusing himself in slaughtering lions and bears in his park at Paris, with his Scythian hunting friends from the Volga, when the British Emperor, Maximus, invaded Gaul; and Gratian was driven away.-See the chapter on Britain in this volume. The trees and the rein-deer prove, apparently, that this was the very park alluded to. Have the remains of white bears been found? The amphitheatre at Paris was on the south of the present university.-See Gibbon, Ch. XIX. At Serre St. Antoine, St. Valier, Lavoute, (Dep. of Ardeche); at Tain, diocese of Vienne, remains of elephants. |