[1598] We may conclude, from the account given by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 2, and by Ælian, B. viii. c. 17, that this opinion was generally adopted by the ancients.—B. We learn from Cuvier, who mentions the results of M. Corse’s observations, that there is no such modesty in the elephant, and that the two at the Museum of Natural History at Paris gave proof of the fact.
[1599] This is erroneous; the males do not arrive at puberty before the females, which takes place about the fourteenth or fifteenth year. In the elephant which was under the inspection of M. Corse, the period of gestation was between twenty and twenty-one months, so that there may be some foundation for the biennial period, but the term of five days is entirely imaginary. Aristotle makes the interval three years.—B.
[1600] There is a passage in Suetonius, in his Life of Augustus, and one in Macrobius, where the custom of offering pieces of money to elephants, which they took up with the proboscis, is referred to.—B.
[1601] In the Epitome of Livy, B. xiii., it is said, that Valerius Corvinus was unsuccessful in his engagements with Pyrrhus, in consequence of the terror produced by the elephants.—B.
[1602] Varro, De Ling. Lat. B. vi. calls the elephant “Lucas bos,” “the Lucanian ox,” from the fact of this large quadruped being first seen by the Romans in the Lucanian army.—B.
[1603] According to Seneca, Manius Curius Dentatus was the first who exhibited elephants in his triumph over Pyrrhus. See also Florus, B. i. c. 18.—B.
[1604] There are coins extant struck to commemorate this victory, in which there is the figure of an elephant.—B.
[1605] The number of elephants brought to Rome by Metellus is differently stated; Florus, B. ii., says that they were “about a hundred;” in the Epitome of Livy, B. xix., they are one hundred and twenty, and the same number is mentioned by Seneca.—B.
[1606] Who were their allies, or rather vassals; for in such case, they might make a dangerous use of them.
[1607] Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 2, gives an account of the brutality of Hannibal on this occasion, in forcing the Roman captives to fight against each other, until only one was left; but he does not make mention of the combat with the elephant.—B.