Humanity Against Cruelty to Animals in Historical Literature, Timeline of Animal Rights History

Animal Rights History »» Pliny the Elder

Pliny recounted anecdotes about the alleged intelligence and religiousness of elephants, the medical skill of the hippopotamus and the love that dolphins showed for music and young children. (Richard Ryder, Animal Revolution, "The Ancient World")

1st c. | Natural History

["The agonized trumpetings," often quoted as part of Cicero's letter to M. Marius, are actually related by Pliny in his Natural History.]

When, however, the elephants in the exhibition given by Pompeius had lost all hopes of escaping, they implored the compassion of the multitude by attitudes which surpass all description, and with a kind of lamentation bewailed their unhappy fate. So greatly were the people affected by the scene, that, forgetting the general altogether, and the munificence which had been at such pains to do them honour, the whole assembly rose up in tears, and showered curses on Pompeius. (Pliny [23-79], Natural History,"The Combats of Elephants")

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Pliny the Elder [23-79], The Natural History, trans. by John Bostock & Henry Thomas Riley (London, 1855; Online at Persues). [First English Edition: The Historie of the World. Commonly called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus, Translated by Philemon Holland (London, 1601) ]

Richard D. Ryder, Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism , [First Edition: Oxford & Cambridge: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1989] Revised & Updated Edition Oxford, 2000; Preview digitized by Google, 2007 ).

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