Book VIII of Pliny the Elder's Natural History centres around the concept of zoology, and mainly that which pertains to terrestrial animals, including mammals, amphibians, reptiles, as well as some birds and insects.Pliny the Elder (1940). "Pliny: Natural History, Book VIII". Natural History. Translated by Rackham, Harris. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 3–161. https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pliny_elder-natural_history/1938/pb_LCL353.3.xml?rskey=tUPirO&result=3&mainRsKey=IbCw1e. Pliny discusses these animals as being a part of specific categories, firstly starting with those he considers to be wild, including, but not limited to, elephants, snakes, lions, giraffes, rhinoceroses, lynxes, camels, leopards, hyenas, foxes, rabbits, skinks, beavers, frogs, seals, geckoes, chameleons, deer, reindeer, jackals, porcupines, bears, hedgehogs, squirrels, snails, crocodiles, and lizards.Natural History VIII: 8.1-60.1-141. He then goes on to cover those he considers to be domesticated, such as dogs, horses, donkeys, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, and pigs.Natural History VIII: 8.61-77.142-209. Following this, he mentions animals that are “half-wild,"Natural History VIII: 8.79.213. or what he considers to be wild varieties of commonly domesticated animals, including boars, chamoises, ibexes, oryxes, antelopes, monkeys, and hares,Natural History VIII: 8.78-81.210-219. as well as those that are “neither wild nor tame but of a character intermediate between each,"Natural History VIII: 8.82.220. such as swallows, bees, dolphins, and mice.Natural History VIII: 8.82.220-224. Lastly, on various occasions he mentions animals that would be considered mythological, such as unicorns, pegasi, basilisks, and werewolves, of which he considers only the existence of werewolves to be obviously improbable.Natural History VIII: 8.34.80-84.
Pliny describes the anatomical traits of these various animals in a way that champions morphology over scientific specificity, visualizing each animal by describing it as an amalgam of other animal parts.
Throughout these broad sections, Pliny applies the behavioural topics of cognition, symbiotic relationships, and the relevance of animals to humans. However, the perspective through which Pliny observed animals and their various attributions was biased by the fact that he lived during the first century AD (23-79 AD), and thus was subjected to the political, religious, and intellectual beliefs that were upheld in ancient Rome, such as Stoicism. Many of his observations prove to be factual, even by today's standards, while others are representative of the period in which he lived.
Cognition Intellectual capacity Pliny spends many pages discussing the cleverness of elephants, describing them to be "the nearest to man in intelligence" and as having "virtues rare even in man," such as justice, wisdom, and honesty.Natural History VIII: 8.1.1. Pliny even goes so far as to present various instances of elephant intelligence, such as some elephants who were known to have performed choreographed dances and walk on tight-ropes at a gladiatorial show given by Germanicus Caesar, one who had learned how to write, as reported by Mucianus, the phrase "'I myself wrote this and dedicated these spoils won from the Celts'" using the Greek alphabet, and one elephant who, after being beaten for not understanding the instructions for a particular task, was later found to be practicing the same endeavour.Natural History VIII: 8.2-3.4-6. He even gives an example of elephants being able to sense human malevolency, in the way that they will remain calm and polite when faced with a human that means no harm, even having been known to show humans the way if they are lost, but will become fearful and quickly alert other elephants if the human is of ill-intent, which they ascertain by the smell of the human's footprints.Natural History VIII: 8.5.9. The memory of elephant's is also a topic the Pliny discusses, providing the example of an elephant who was able to recognize an old man who many years prior, in its youth, had served as its trainer.Natural History VIII: 8.5.15.
Further to this, Pliny also spends time discussing the ability of various animals to engage in the conscious contemplation of specific actions that help them to avoid being hunted or poached. For example, he covers elephants smashing their tusks on trees when cornered by ivory poachers,Natural History VIII: 8.4.8. seals intentionally vomiting up their gall, a useful ingredient in drugs, and rennet, a cure for epilepsy, to avoid being killed in order to harvest them,Natural History VIII: 8.49.111. and hedgehogs knowingly urinating over themselves to decrease the value of their hide, for which they are hunted.Natural History VIII: 8.56.133-134.
In addition to elephants, Pliny also places a great amount of focus on particular domesticated species, including dogs and horses which he describes as being the animals "most faithful to man."Natural History VIII: 8.61.142. Pliny often praises a dogs' recognition of their master, their own name, a family member's voice, and locations, even saying that "no creature save a man has a longer memory" than a dog.Natural History VIII: 8.61.146-147. Additionally, their uses in hunting and tracking are also highly valued.Natural History VIII: 8.61.147. Meanwhile, Pliny states that "the cleverness of horses is beyond description," such that they have an unwavering docility and an understanding of their duty, whether that be to pull a chariot or to assist a javelin toss.Natural History VIII: 8.65.159. The docility of Sybarite horses is stated to be so great that they will mourn the death of their masters who die in battle, even shedding tears at their loss.Natural History VIII: 8.64.157-158.
Emotional competence Pliny the Elder describes elephants as not only exhibiting impressive brilliance with regards to their memory, learning, and methods of survival, but also with their capacity to feel emotions. Pliny outlines the ability of elephants to shame, such that in battle they offer their conqueror leaves and dirt, and their predilection towards modesty which forces them to mate only in secret.Natural History VIII: 8.5.12-13. Additionally, Pliny also comments on their morality by putting forward that elephants never engage in adultery or any of the intermale competition "that is so disastrous to the other animals."Natural History VIII: 8.5.13. However, Pliny specifies that this is not due to a lack of emotion, and provides several examples of elephants falling in love with humans, and in one instance so intensely that the elephant refused to eat without the presence of its preferred person.Natural History VIII: 8.5.13-15.
Pliny repeatedly refers to the distinct behavioural phenomena of animals feeling gratitude and respect towards humans. For example, he recounts the tale of a lion who, after having a painful bone pulled from its teeth, always brought any game it caught to its saviour,Natural History VIII: 8.21.57-58. a female panther who guides a man out of the desert after he rescues her cubs from a pit,Natural History VIII: 8.21.59-60. a snake who, after being formerly kept as a pet by a man, came to his aid when he was later ambushed by brigands,Natural History VIII: 8.22.61. and a dog who continued to defend his deceased owner in battle despite being severely wounded.
Interspecies relationships
Competition Pliny states that elephants "hate the mouse worst of living creatures," and if they happen to find one in the fodder they are eating they will become disgusted.Natural History VIII: 8.10.29. He also asserts that snakes are continuously at odds with elephants.Natural History VIII: 8.12.33.
As well, it is suggested that "the greatest enemy of the snail is the lizard."Natural History VIII: 8.60.141.
Hybridization As described by Pliny, it was apparently a practice of Indians to breed tigers with female dogs to obtain a fiercer animal, while it was a practice of the Gauls to breed wolves with dogs and the results of these matings then serving as the leaders of their dog packs.Natural History VIII: 8.61.148.
Pliny states that lions can interbreed with leopards,Natural History VIII: 8.17.42. and he also suggests that lionesses can mate with hyenas to produce a mythical species called the corocotta.Natural History VIII: 8.45.107.
Human relevance
Domestication and companionship Pliny frequently recounts tales of famous animals that were either devoted to their owners, exceptionally brave in battle, or hilariously amusing at the circus or coliseum, such as Alexander the Great’s famous horse, Bucephalus, who engaged in great feats of bravery during war and when adorned with a royal saddle would not let anyone else mount.Natural History VIII: 8.64.154.
Julius Caesar is also said to have had a horse that would not let anyone else mount it, and that it possessed front hooves that resembled the feet of a human.Natural History VIII: 8.64.155. Pliny states that this horse, complete with human feet, was represented in a statue that stood in front of the Temple of Venus Genetrix.
In addition, Pliny describes many famous instances where dogs displayed loyalty for their owners, such as at the funeral of King Lysimachus, whose dog, Hyrcanus, threw himself into the pyre in which his master was being burned, and how the dog of King Nicomedes of Bithynia is believed to have bitten his wife, Consingis, when she played a joke on him.Natural History VIII: 8.61.143-144. He also recounts an elaborate story in which Titius Sabinus and his slaves were put in prison and a dog belonging to one of them could not be driven from his side, even refusing to leave his dead body when it was thrown onto the Steps of Lamentation.Natural History VIII: 8.61.145. It is described that any food that the public offered the dog was directly delivered to the mouth of the dead man, and that when the corpse was finally thrown into the river Tiber the dog swam after it and attempted to keep it afloat.
Medicines and other animal resources One point to note about Book VIII of Natural History is Pliny’s insistence on the beneficial effects of animal products for human health, which would now be considered homeopathy or folk medicine, as they do not have a scientific basis. Pliny’s medicinal substances cover a wide range of animals, internal and external organs, diseases, and purposes. In the article titled Animal Substances in Materia Medica: A Study in the Persistence of The Primitive, Loren MacKinney proposes that animal resources were commonly used for ancient medicinal practices within many civilizations, such as those found in Egypt,MacKinney 1946, p. 151. Greece,MacKinney 1946, p. 155. and Rome.MacKinney 1946, p. 158. In particular, MacKinney considers Pliny the Elder to be an influential source as to the use of natural remedies in the Roman Empire, and that Natural History is “one of the most comprehensive of all sources of information concerning the materia medica of the ancient world."MacKinney 1946, p. 160.
In terms of the supposed medicinal values present in various animal parts, Pliny states that the gall and rennet of a seal are useful for drugs and “epileptic attacks,” respectively, the shedded skin of a gecko can cure epilepsy, the right horn of a stag is imbued with a potent healing drug,Natural History VIII: 8.50.15. goat liver can cure night-blindness,Natural History VIII: 8.76.203. the skink can act as an antidote to poisons and an aphrodisiac for males,Natural History VIII: 8.38.91. the smell of burning deer’s horns can stop epileptic seizures,Natural History VIII: 8.50.115-116. the consumption of venison from a deer that has been killed with only one wound prevents feverish diseases,Natural History VIII: 8.50.119. and that bear fat is useful in the preparation of medicines and for preventing baldness.Natural History VIII: 8.54.127.
Historical influence