The Anthologia
Latina is a collection of epigrams from Late Antiquity, derived from
various manuscripts of which the Codex Salmasianus is the most important. It
must be noted that the title Anthologia
Latina is a designation is from the 19th century and that the
collection now known under that name never existed as such in Late Antiquity.The
Codex Salmasianus contains a large number of mostly anonymous epigrams from the
1st -6th century compiled in North Africa under the rule
of the Vandals. The codex itself was probably written in North Italy or France
at the end of the 8th century. During their reign of North Africa,
the Vandals became more and more Romanised. Their power ended when in 533 the
Vandal king Gelimer was defeated by the Byzantine general Belisarius.
The epigrams are in no way literary gems, but they are
interesting enough, as they contain reflections on daily life, customs and
curiosities .
This epigram is about an elephant, not the African
elephant, but the Indian elephant, obeying its driver. How could it be – the
poet asks – that such a fierce animal obeys the instructions of tiny men,
subjecting itself to human power (vis
humana)? Indeed a miracle!
Note on the date of composition. As the forest elephant
had died out in North Africa during the first centuries AD – thanks to the
Romans! -, import of Indian elephants in the 5th and 6th
century to North Africa is quite possible. The Indian elephant is easier to
tame than the African elephant.
The text and notes are taken from N.M. Kay’s edition,
published in 2006.
Anthologia Latina
186
Horrida cornuto procedit belua rostro,
quam dives nostris India misit oris.
Sed licet
immani pugnet proboscide barrus,
spondeat et saevis dentibus interitum,
fert tamen
edomitus residentis iussa magistri,
quoque velit monitor, cogitur ire ferus.
Vis humana potest rabiem mutare ferinam:
ecce hominem
parvum belua magna timet.
cornuto rostro:
rostrum refers normally to the trunk,
while of course only the tusks of the elephant are horned (cornutus), so with `horned tusk’ both the tusks and the trunk are
meant.
belua: monster
(note the variation in words for `elephant’: belua, barrus and ferus `wild animal’)
dives India:
rich India. India was notorious for its riches.
immanis –is:
enormous
proboscis –idis
(f.): trunk
barrus (m.):
Indian elephant (a loanword taken from Sanskrit)
spondeo spopondi
sponsum: to promise
saevis dentibus:
the fierce dents are the tusks
interitus –us
(m.): death, destruction
fert iussa:
carries out the orders
edomitus: completely
tamed
quoque:
wherever
monitor (m.):
overseer, leader
rabiem ferinam:
the frenzy of the wild animal
Mosaic of the transport of elephants (Piazza Armerina, Italy)
