African panthers and forty bears and elephants. These
latter animals were sometimes introduced to fight with bulls.
Sylla, when Praetor, exhibited one hundred lions, which were
pierced with javelins. We also read of hippopotami and crocodiles
being introduced for the same purpose, while cameleopards were
also hunted in the games given by Julius Caesar in his third
consulship. He also introduced bull fights, and Augustus first
exhibited the rhinoceros, and a serpent, fifty cubits in length.
When Titus constructed his great amphitheatre, five thousand wild
beasts and four thousand tame animals were slain; while in the
games celebrated by Trajan, after his victories over the Dacians,
eleven thousand animals are said to have been killed. For further
information on this subject, the reader is referred to the article
'Venatio,' in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,
which valuable work contains a large quantity of interesting
matter on this barbarous practice of the Romans.]

[Footnote 3: _Into the breezes._--Ver. 43. 'In ventos anima
exhalata recessit' is rendered by Clarke-- 'his life breathed out,
marches off into the wind.']

[Footnote 4: _Limbs lie scattered._--Ver. 50. The limbs of Orpheus
were collected by the Muses, and, according to Pausanias, were
buried by them in Dium in Macedonia, while his head was carried to
Lesbos.]

[Footnote 5: _Methymnaean Lesbos._--Ver. 55. Methymna was a town in
the isle of Lesbos, famed for its wines.]

[Footnote 6: _Side by side._--Ver. 64. 'Conjunctis passibus' means
'at an equal pace, and side by side.']

[Footnote 7: _Springing forward._--Ver. 78. 'Exsultantem' is
rendered by Clarke, 'bouncing hard to get away.']

EXPLANATION.

Some of the ancient mythologists say that the story of the serpent,
changed into stone for insulting the head of Orpheus, was founded on
the history of a certain inhabitant of the isle of Lesbos, who was
punished for attacking the reputation of Orpheus. This critic
excited contempt, as a malignant and ignorant person, who
endeavoured, as it were, to sting the character of the deceased
poet, and therefore, by way of exposing his spite and stupidity, he
was said to have been changed from a serpent into a stone. According
to Philostratus, the poet's head was preserved in the temple of
Apollo at Lesbos; and h