had finished dinner, he entered his own forum
wearing fancy sandals and garlanded with all sorts of flowers; thence he
proceeded homeward with the entire populace, so to speak, alongside
escorting him, while many elephants carried torches. He had himself
adorned the forum called after him, and it is distinctly more beautiful
than the Roman (Forum); yet it had increased the reputation of the other
so that that was called the Great Forum. This forum which he had
constructed and the temple of Venus, looked upon as the founder of his
race, he dedicated at this very time. In honor of them he instituted
many contests of all kinds. He furnished with benches a kind of
hunting-theatre, which from the fact that it had seats all around
without a canopy was called an amphitheatre. Here in honor of his
daughter he had animals killed and contests between men in armor; but
whoever should care to write down their number would doubtless render
his narrative tedious besides falling into errors; for all such things
are regularly exaggerated by boasting. [-23-] I shall accordingly pass
over this, and be silent on the other like events that subsequently took
place--unless, of course, it should seem to me thoroughly necessary to
mention some particular point,--but I will give an account of the
so-called camelopard, because it was then for the first time introduced
into Rome by Caesar and exhibited to all. This animal is in general a
camel, except that it has sets of legs not of equal length. That is, its
hind legs are shorter. Beginning from the rump its back grows gradually
higher, appearing as if it would ascend indefinitely, until the most of
its body reaching its loftiest point is supported on the front legs,
while the neck stretches up to an unusual height. It has skin spotted
like a leopard, and for this reason bears the name common to both
animals. Such is the appearance of this beast.

As for the men, he not only pitted one against another in the Forum, as
had been customary, but he also in the hippodrome brought them together
in companies, horsemen against horsemen, fighters on foot against
similar contestants, and others that were a match for one another
indiscriminately. Some even, forty in number, fought from elephants.
Finally he produced a naval battle, not on the sea nor on the lake but
on land. He hollowed out a certain tract on the Campus Martius and by
letting water into it introduced ships. In all the contests the captives