De sollertia animalium

[*](There is probably a lacuna before this chapter.) Therefore those who deny that there is any kind of justice owed to animals[*](Cf. 999 b infra; 964 b supra.) by us must be conceded to be right so far as marine and deep-sea creatures[*](Cf. additional sources cited by Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 43.) are concerned; for these are completely

lacking in amiability, apathetic, and devoid of all sweetness of disposition. And well did Homer[*](Iliad, xvi. 34.) say

The gray-green sea bore you,

with reference to a man regarded as uncivilized and unsociable, implying that the sea produces nothing friendly or gentle. But a man who would use such speech in regard to land animals is himself cruel and brutal. Or perhaps you will not admit that there was a bond of justice between Lysimachus[*](Mor. 821 a; the companion and successor of Alexander (c. 360-281 b.c.). Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 143; Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 25; and ii. 40 (cf. vi. 29), of eagles. It may be conjectured that ii. 40 was derived from an original in which ἀετῶν was confused with κυνῶν, as infra.) and the Hyrcanian dog which alone stood guard by his corpse and, when his body was cremated, rushed into the flames and hurled itself upon him.[*](Similar stories in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 40.) The same is reported to have been done by the eagle[*](Dog and eagle are again confused; but the hovering is here decisive. (Cf. also Wilamowitz, Hermes, lxiii, p. 380.) The dog reappears in Pollux, v. 42 (where it is King Pyrrhus), an eagle in a similar tale in Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 18, while Pyrrhus is the name of a dog in Pliny, viii. 144.) which was kept by Pyrrhus, not the king, but a certain private citizen; when he died, it kept vigil by his body; at the funeral it hovered about the bier and finally folded its wings, settled on the pyre and was consumed with its master’s body,

The elephant of King Porus,[*](Life of Alexander, lx. 13 (699 b-c), with Ziegler’s references ad loc. ) when he was wounded in the battle against Alexander, gently and solicitously pulled out with its trunk many[*](Each one of the spears in the Life of Alexander.) of the javelins sticking in its master. Though it was in a sad state itself, it did not give up until it perceived that the

king had lost much blood and was slipping off; then, fearing that he would fall, it gently kneeled and afforded its master a painless glide.[*](Other stories of humane elephants in Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 46; al. )

Bucephalas[*](Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 154; Gellius, Noctes Atticae, v. 2; and see the parallels collected by Sternbach, Wiener Studien, xvi, pp. 17 f. The story is omitted by Plutarch in the Life of Alexander. ) unsaddled would permit his groom to mount him; but when he was all decked out in his royal accoutrements and collars, he would let no one approach except Alexander himself. If any others tried to come near, he would charge at them loudly neighing and rear and trample any of them who were not quick enough to rush far away and escape.