CHAPTER XII.
Those who think that the parts of the elephant that project from the mouth are teeth and not horns, should consider the case of Celtic elks and Ethiopian bulls. For male elks have horns on their foreheads, but the female elk has none whatever. And Ethiopian bulls have horns growing in their nostrils. Who would therefore think it very wonderful after these examples that a beast should have horns growing out of its mouth? One may also get further light from the following particulars. Horns in animals take a certain definite period to grow and grow more than once: and this is the case with stags and antelopes as well as elephants. But no animal after full growth has second sets of teeth. If they are teeth therefore and not horns that project from elephants’ mouths, how could they grow a second time? Moreover teeth are not acted upon by fire, but horns both of oxen and elephants can by the action of fire be made straight from round, and can in fact be turned into any shape. [But in hippopotamuses and boars the lower jaw has projecting teeth: and we do not see horns growing out of their jaws.] Let anybody be certain therefore that they are horns in the elephant that project and grow out from the temples. I don’t make this assertion as mere hearsay, for I have seen the skull of an elephant in the temple of Artemis in Campania. The temple I refer to is about 30 stades from Capua, which is the chief town of Campania. And the elephant is not only different from other animals in the growth of its horns, but also in its size and appearance. And the Greeks seem to me to have shewn great munificence and an absence of parsimoniousness in respect to their worship of the gods, seeing that they procured ivory both from India and Ethiopia for their statues.
At Olympia also in the temple of Zeus is a woollen veil, adorned with Assyrian tapestry and dyed with the Phœnician purple, the votive offering of Antiochus, who also gave to the theatre at Athens a golden ægis with the Gorgon’s head on it. This veil is not drawn up to the roof as in the temple of Ephesian Artemis, but let down to the pavement by ropes. And among the votive offerings in the temple or ante-chapel is the throne of Arimnestus king of the Tyrrhenians, (who was the first foreigner that offered a votive offering to Olympian Zeus,) and the horses of Cynisca in brass, the memorials of her victory at Olympia. These horses are rather smaller than life, and are on the right as you enter the ante-chapel. And there is a tripod covered with brass, on which before the table was made the crowns for the victors were laid. And of the statues of the Emperors, Adrian’s in Parian marble was a gift of all the cities that joined the Achæan league, and Trajan’s a gift of all the Greeks. This last Emperor added the Getæ beyond Thrace to the Roman Empire, and waged war against Osroes (the descendant of Arsaces) and the Parthians. The most famous of all his works are the Baths which are known as Trajan’s Baths, and a large theatre perfectly round, and a building for horse-races two stades in length, and the forum at Rome well worth seeing for various beauties and especially its brazen roof. And there are two statues in the round parts of the building, one of the Emperor Augustus in amber, the other in ivory is said to be Nicomedes, the king of Bithynia: from whom the largest town in Bithynia, that had been previously called Astacus, got called Nicomedia. It was originally founded by Zypœtes, a Thracian as one would infer from his name. And the amber of which they made Augustus’ statue, the native amber which is found in the sands of the Eridanus, is most rare and precious to man for many purposes. But the other kind of amber is gold mixed with silver. And in the temple at Olympia there are several of Nero’s votive offerings, 3 are crowns to imitate the wild olive, the fourth is an imitation of oak. And there are 25 brazen shields to be worn by the competitors in the race in armour. And there are several pillars, and among them one which has the covenant of the people of Elis and the Athenians Argives and Mantineans for an alliance for 100 years.