Daisy Dunn

Butchered to make a Roman holiday: cruelty to animals in and out of the Colosseum

Brutality might be expected of a people who fed each other to lions – but it extended even to the elephants the Romans regarded as soulmates

Mosaic in the Sultan Ahmet Mosque in Istanbul (Roman, 5th century). Elephants were cruelly mistreated, despite being thought the closest things to humans in the animal world. [Alamy] 
issue 04 February 2023
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  • Battle Elephants and Flaming Foxes: Animals in the Roman World

    Caroline Freeman-Cuerden

    The History Press, pp. 280, £20

Did you know that the elephant was the most written about animal in the Roman world? Pyrrhus of Epirus, of victory fame, was the first to introduce it to Italy as an engine of war when he invaded in 280 BC. Roman soldiers could not decide whether it was an animal or a machine.

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