“Yes,” his father answered, “Scipio Africanus captured Carthage, leveled every house to ground, sowed salt on the ruins and in the name of Rome forbade any building to be erected there again. But I’ve told you the story of Regulus, son, so that you might see that such a man was scarcely likely to invent a story about a dragon to help his reputation.”
“Where did he fight the dragon? In Africa, too?”
“Not very far from Carthage. It was in the year 256 B.C., after the first Punic War had been raging for eight years, that Regulus captured the city of Utica, about sixty miles northwest of Carthage, near the modern city of Tunis. Between Utica and Carthage flowed a river, then called the Bagrada, difficult to cross except at one ford. When Regulus and his soldiers came to this ford, they found the passage disputed by an enormous dragon, one hundred and twenty feet long.”
“A real monster!” ejaculated the boy.
“Wasn’t he? And, so the old Roman historian tells, the skin of the monster was so tough that the Romans could not pierce his hide. Several times Regulus led the attack upon the dragon, but each time the beast killed and devoured several of the soldiers. At last Regulus brought up the artillery, the ballistæ and catapults, and bombarded the dragon. Supported by the artillery, Regulus plunged across the river alone, fought the dragon single-handed and slit his throat. The skin was carried to Rome and graced Regulus’ triumph.”
“What do you suppose it really was?” queried the boy.
“I think,” his father answered, “it must have been a huge crocodile. That would explain why the Roman swords could not pierce the so-called dragon’s hide, and why the combat seems to have taken place at the ford of a river.”
“But a hundred and twenty feet long, Father!”
“Possibly that was worked out from the skeleton. In those days it would be quite easy to put the backbones of several animals together. That trick was done only thirty years ago, when Dr. Albert Koch collected the bones of two or three Zeuglodons or primitive whales and made a monster which he called ‘Hydrarchus, the Water King,’ and which he exhibited all over Europe. Regulus’ dragon, carried in his triumph, might have been something of the kind. As for the Zeuglodons, I’ve often thought that the discovery of skeletons of antediluvian beasts might have been one of the reasons for popular belief in dragons.”
