Talking
about the Hercynian forest, East of the Rhine and of immense magnitude, Caesar
describes some animals unfamiliar to the Romans. He starts with a description
of a unicorn, a species that has drawn the attention of writers up to the
renaissance. After that it was gradually realized they never have existed – which
I think is a pity: unicorns and dragons ought to exist. Caesar had never set
foot in the Hercynian forest, so why tell about animals you have never seen?
Well, it was more or less required by the genre of literature: in describing
foreign lands it was expected that the writer should also mention strange animals
and weird customs. Of course these animals did not live where Caesar himself
had been: such animals always live one
forest further away…
Did Caesar
really believe in what he wrote or is there a touch of irony?
The Hercyniam
unicorn differs from the normal unicorn known to us in having a horn that at
its top it spreads out in palm leaf like branches.
Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book 6:
[26] Est
bos cervi figura, cuius a media fronte inter aures unum cornu exsistit
excelsius magisque directum his, quae nobis nota sunt, cornibus: ab eius summo
sicut palmae ramique late diffunduntur. Eadem est feminae marisque natura,
eadem forma magnitudoque cornuum.
bos: any big animal was called a bos by the Romans, even elephants!
cervus: stag,
deer
frons, frontis (f.) forehead
directus: straight
summo: the top of the horn
palmae ramique:
branches like palm leaves (hendiadys
)
late: broadly
diffundo diffudi diffusum: to spread, extend
mas, maris: male
The next
animal is the elk. But the elk is a real animal, isn’t it? Indeed, but compare
this description with the picture of an elk below: did you know that an elk is just a
bit larger than a goat (actually large bulls can reach a height of 2 m. at the
shoulder…), that it has no horns, has no joints in its legs, that it never lies
down (procumbit) and when by some
accident (quo casu) it is cast down (adflicta) and falls (concidit), it can’t get up (erigit) or even raise a little (sublevat) itself and that it takes its
rest leaning (applicat) against a
tree? This is very convenient, because now it can easily be captured and killed
by my Germanic ancestors: from their
tracks they make up where it uses to withdraw itself (se recipere). The hunters either dig out (subruunt) the tree form the roots on or cut (accidunt) the tree in such a way that it still seems to be
standing. When the elk comes at night to lean against that tree, it overthrows
(adfligit) by its weight (pondus ponderis,
n.) the tree and falls down together with (una)
the tree as an easy prey…
Fantastic
as this may sound, this way of capturing an animal also occurs in an ancient
Chinese source, were it is said of capturing rhinoceroses. In the Physiologus, a Greek text from about 200
AD, the same is said about elephants, including the detail that they have no
joints.
[27]
Sunt item, quae appellantur alces. Harum est consimilis capris figura et
varietas pellium, sed magnitudine paulo antecedunt mutilaeque sunt cornibus et
crura sine nodis articulisque habent neque quietis causa procumbunt neque, si
quo adflictae casu conciderunt, erigere sese aut sublevare possunt. His sunt
arbores pro cubilibus: ad eas se applicant atque ita paulum modo reclinatae
quietem capiunt. Quarum ex vestigiis cum est animadversum a venatoribus, quo se
recipere consuerint, omnes eo loco aut ab radicibus subruunt aut accidunt
arbores, tantum ut summa species earum stantium relinquatur. Huc cum se
consuetudine reclinaverunt, infirmas arbores pondere adfligunt atque una ipsae
concidunt.
alces, alcis (f.): elk
Harum est consimilis capris figura et varietas
pellium = figura et varietas pellium harum consimilis
capris
caper, -is/capra:
he/she-goat
varietas pellium:
variance of their skins
mutilaeque sunt cornibus: and are mutilated concerning their
horns, i.e . they lack horns
paulo antecedent: they surpass (the goats) a little
cubile cubilis (n.): bed, resting place
vestigium: track
animadverto –verti –versum: to direct the mind, notice
venator, -oris (m.): hunter
tantum ut summa species earum stantium
relinquatur: to
such extent that the utmost impression is being left of them standing.
huc = ad has
arbores
With the
final animal we are on firmer zoological ground: the now extinct aurochs (urus). They are captured in pits (foveae) and then killed. Young men harden
themselves (se durant) in hunting these
animals and the one who has killed the most is much praised.
Aurochses
don’t accustom (adsuescere) to men
and cannot be tamed (mansuefieri), not
even when captured young (ne parvuli
quidem excepti possunt). The breadth, form and appearance of their horns
differs much from those of Roman cattle. These horns are eagerly sought after (haec studiose conquisita) and the
Germanics enclose from the tips with silver (ab labris argento circumcludunt) and use them as beakers during
most magnificent banquets (in amplissimis
epulis).
[28]
Tertium est genus eorum, qui uri appellantur. Hi sunt magnitudine paulo infra
elephantos, specie et colore et figura tauri. Magna vis eorum est et magna
velocitas, neque homini neque ferae quam conspexerunt parcunt. Hos studiose
foveis captos interficiunt. Hoc se labore durant adulescentes atque hoc genere
venationis exercent, et qui plurimos ex his interfecerunt, relatis in publicum
cornibus, quae sint testimonio, magnam ferunt laudem. Sed adsuescere ad homines
et mansuefieri ne parvuli quidem excepti possunt. Amplitudo cornuum et figura
et species multum a nostrorum boum cornibus differt. Haec studiose conquisita
ab labris argento circumcludunt atque in amplissimis epulis pro poculis
utuntur.
quam: antecedent grammaticaliy ferae,
but it also includes homini
parco peperci parsum (+ dat.): to spare
Hos studiose foveis captos interficiunt: they (the Germanics) kill them, being
diligently captured in pits
relatis in publicum cornibus: the horns being brought forward in
public
Horns of
Aurochses plated with metal (Basilica of Saint Servatius, Maastricht, the
Netherlands)
Translation:
