CHAP. 82. (56.)—ANIMALS WHICH ARE TAMED IN PART ONLY.
Hares are seldom tamed, and yet they cannot properly be
called wild animals; indeed, there are many species of them
which are neither tame nor wild, but of a sort of intermediate
nature; of the same kind there are among the winged animals,
swallows and bees, and among the sea animals, the dolphin.
(57.) Many persons have placed that inhabitant of our
houses, the mouse, in this class also; an animal which is not
to be despised, for the portents which it has afforded, even in
relation to public events. By gnawing the silver shields at
Lanuvium,[1] mice prognosticated the Marsian war; and the
death of our general, Carbo, at Clusium,[2] by gnawing the
latchets with which he fastened his shoes.[3] There are many
species of this animal in the territory of Cyrenaica; some of
them with a wide, others with a projecting, forehead, and some
again with bristling hair, like the hedgehog.[4] We are informed by Theophrastus, that after the mice had driven the
inhabitants of Gyara[5] from their island, they even gnawed the
iron; which they also do, by a kind of natural instinct, in the
iron forges among the Chalybes. In gold mines, too, their
stomachs are opened for this purpose, and some of the metal is
always to be found there, which they have pilfered,[6] so great
a delight do they take in stealing! We learn from our Annals,
also, that at the siege of Casilinum,[7] by Hannibal, a mouse was
sold for two hundred denarii,[8] and that the person who sold
it perished with hunger, while the purchaser survived. To
be visited by white mice is considered as indicative of a fortunate event; but our Annals are full of instances in which the
singing[9] of a mouse has interrupted the auspices.[10] Nigidius
informs us, that the field-mouse conceals itself during winter:
this is also said to be the case with the dormouse, which the
regulations of the censors, and of M. Scaurus, the chief of the
senate, when he was consul,[11] have banished from our tables,[12]
no lebs than shell-fish and birds, which are brought from a
foreign country. The dormouse is also a half-wild animal, and
the same person[13] made warrens for them in large casks, who
first formed parks for wild boars. In relation to this subject,
it has been remarked that dormice will not mate, unless they
happen to be natives of the same forest; and that if those are
put together that are brought from different rivers or mountains, they will fight and destroy each other. These animals
nourish their parents, when worn out with old age, with a
singular degree of affection. This old age of theirs is put an
end to by their winter's rest, when they conceal themselves
and sleep; they are young again by the summer. The field-mouse[14] also enjoys a similar repose.
1. This is referred to by Cicero, in his treatise, De Divinatione, B. i. c.
44, and B. ii. c. 27; in the latter he treats it as an idle tale.—B.
2. See B. iii. c. 8.
3. C. Papirius Carbo, a contemporary and friend of the Gracchi. In
B. C. 119, the orator, Licinius Crassus, brought a charge against him, the
nature of which is not known; but Carbo put an end to his life, by taking
cantharides.
4. These different species are thus characterized by Cuvier: "Les premiers sent les souris et les rats, de formes ordinaires; les seconds, les
grandes musaraignes [shrew-mice] de la taille du rat, telles que l'on te
trouve en Egypte; les troisiemes, une espece de souris particuliere i
l'Egypte, et peut-être á la Barbaric, armée d'epines parmi ses poils dont
Aristote avait deja parle (B. vi. 1. 37, cap. ult.) et que AM. Geoffroy a re-
trouvée et nommée mus cahirinus." Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 467, and Le-
maire, ubi supra.—B. See B. viii. c. 55, and B. x. c. 85.
5. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11, mentions this circumstance, but says
that it occurred in the island of Paros. For Gyara, see B. iv. c. 23.
6. We have two passages in Livy, B. xxvii. and B. xxx., where gold is
said to have been gnawed by mice.—B.
7. See B. iii. c. 9. In B. C. 217, this place was occupied by Fabius with
a strong garrison, to prevent Hannibal from passing the Vulturnus; and
the following year, after the battle of Cannæ, was occupied by a small body
of Roman troops, who, though little more than 1000 in number, withstood
the assaults of Hannibal during a protracted siege, until compelled by
famine to surrender.
8. This sun would be about £ 7.—B.
9. It is by no means improbable that "occentus" here means "singing,"
and not merely "squeaking;" as the singing of a mouse would no doubt be
deemed particularly ill-boding in those times. At the present day, a mouse
has been heard to emit a noise which more nearly resembled singing than
squeaking; and a "singing mouse" has been the subject of an exhibition
more than once.
10. We have frequent allusions to this occurrence in the writings of the
Romans, some of which are referred to by Dalechamps; Lemaire, vol. iii.
p. 563.—B.
11. A.U.C. 639; it does not appear what was the cause of this prohibition.—B.
12. See B. xxxvi. c. 2.
13. Fulvius Lupinus, as already stated in c. 78.—B.
14. "Nitelis." See B. xvi. o. 69. Probably the animal now known as
the Myoxus nitela of Linnæus.