it should have been repeated, with few corrections or
additions, by Aristotle (_Hist. An._, ii. 1. and 7.; viii. 24.) and
Diodorus (i. 35.). Compare Camus, _Notes sur l'Histoire des Animaux
d'Aristote_, p. 418.

None of the Greek writers appear to have seen a live hippopotamus; nor
is there any account of a live animal of this species having been
brought to Greece, like the live tiger which Seleucus sent to Athens.
According to Pliny (_H. N._, viii. 40.) and Ammianus Marcellinus (xxii.
15.), the Romans first saw this animal in the celebrated edileship of
AEmilius Scaurus, 58 B.C., when a hippopotamus and five crocodiles were
exhibited at the games, in a temporary canal. Dio Cassius, however,
states that Augustus Caesar first exhibited a rhinoceros and a
hippopotamus to the Roman people in the year 29 B.C. (li. 22.) Some
crocodiles and hippopotami, together with other exotic animals, were
afterwards exhibited in the games at Rome in the time of Antoninus Pius
(A.D. 138-80. See Jul. Capitolin. in _Anton. Pio_, c. 10.) and Commodus,
against his various exploits of animal warfare in the amphitheatre, slew
as many as five hippopotami (A.D. 180-92. See Dio Cass. lxxii. 10. and
19.; and Gibbon, c. 4.). Firmus, an Egyptian pretender to the empire in
the time of Aurelian, 273 A.D., once rode on the back of a hippopotamus
(Flav. Vopiscus, in _Firmo_, c. 6.): but this feat was probably
performed at Alexandria.

The hippopotamus being an inhabitant of the Upper Nile, was imperfectly
known to the ancients. Fabulous anecdotes of its habits are recounted by
Pliny, _H. N._, viii. 39, 40., and by AElian, _De Nat. An._, v. 53. vii.
19. Achilles Tatius, who wrote as late as the latter half of the fifth
century of our era, says that it breathes fire and smoke (iv. 2.); while
Damascius, who was nearly his contemporary says that the hippopotamus is
an unjust animal, and represents Injustice in the hieroglyphic writing;
because it first kills its father and then violates its mother (ap.
Phot. _Bibl._ cod. 242., p. 322., b. 36. ed. Bekker.).

Strabo (xv. 1.) and Arrian (_Ind._, c. 6.) say that the products of the
Indian rivers are similar to those of Ethiopia and Egypt, with the
exception of the hippopotamus. They add, however, that according to
Onesicritus, even this exception did not exist: for that the
hippopotamus was found in the rivers of India. The report of Onesicritus
was doubtless erroneous.

Herodotus, Aristotle, and the other