Herodian
3ἀνδρείας παρέχοιτο δεῖξιν. ἐλάφους μὲν οὖν καὶ δορκάδας ὅσα τε κερασφόρα πλὴν ταύρων, συνθέων αὐτοῖς καὶ καταδιώκων ἔβαλλε φθάνων τε αὐτῶν τὸν δρόμον καὶ πληγαῖς καιρίοις ἀναιρῶν· λέοντας δὲ καὶ παρδάλεις ὅσα τε ζῷα γενναῖα περιθέων ἄνωθεν κατηκόντιζεν. οὐδέ τις εἶδεν ἀκόντιον δεύτερον οὐδὲ τραῦμα ἄλλο πλὴν τοῦ θανατηφόρου· 4ἅμα γὰρ τῇ τοῦ ζῴου ὁρμῇ κατὰ τοῦ1 μετώπου ἢ κατὰ καρδίας2 ἔφερε τὴν πληγήν, καὶ οὐδέποτε σκοπὸν ἄλλον ἔσχεν οὐδὲ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλο μέρος ἦλθε το ἀκόντιον τοῦ σώματος, ὡς μὴ ἅμα τε τρῶσαι καὶ φονεῦσαι. τὰ δὲ πανταχόθεν ζῷα ἠθροίζετο αὐτῷ. τότε γοῦν εἴδομεν ὅσα ἐν γραφαῖς ἐθαυμάζομεν· 5ἀπό τε γὰρ Ἰνδῶν καὶ Αἰθιόπων, εἴ τι πρότερον ἄγνωστον ἦν, μεσημβρίας τε καὶ τῆς ἀρκτῴας γῆς ζῷα πάντα φονεύων Ῥωμαίοις ἔδειξε.3 τὸ δ᾿ εὔστοχον τῆς χειρὸς αὐτοῦ πάντες ἐξεπλήττοντο. λαβὼν οὖν ποτὲ βέλη ὧν αἱ ἀκμαὶ ἦσαν μηνοειδεῖς, ταῖς Μαυρουσίαις στρουθοῖς ὀξύτατα φερομέναις καὶ ποδῶν τάχει καὶ κολπώσει4 πτερῶν ἐπαφιεὶς τὰ βέλη κατ᾿ ἄκρου τοῦ τραχήλου ἐκαρατόμει, ὡς
Book I. 15
his courage. He shot down deer and gazelles and 3other horned animals (apart from bulls) by pursuing them as they ran and stopping them dead in their tracks with a well-timed shot just as they made a dash for it. The lions and leopards and other fine animals of this kind he speared from above by running around the enclosure. One never saw him take a second shot and it was always a fatal wound. As 4the animal dashed away he caught it with a blow through the head or the heart. This was his only target, and his spear only hit a part of the body that wounded and killed the animal outright. Wild beasts were brought from all over the world for him to kill, species which we had admired in pictures but saw for the first time on that occasion;1 from India and 5Ethiopia, from the North and South they came. All of them, if any were previously unknown, were now on show for the Romans to see as they were killed by Commodus. His marksmanship was generally agreed to be astonishing. For instance, on one occasion he used some arrows with crescent-shaped heads to shoot at Mauretanian ostriches,2 birds that can move tremendously quickly because of the speed at which they run and because of their folded back wings. Commodus decapitated the birds at the top
- 1The first direct reference by H. to his own presence at events; cf. 1.2.5. This therefore is the terminus post quem for H. lifetime; Christ–Schmid–Stählin, Gesch. d. griech. Lit. 799; Introduction, pp. xi ff.
- 2Dio (Xiph.) 72.21.1 tells a more sinister story of how C. used a decapitated ostrich as a warning to senators; possibly the origin of the rumour that C. intended to enact Hercules and the Stymphalian birds by shooting some of the spectators, Dio (Xiph.) 72.20.2. H.’s description receives confirmation from the frieze around the Meleager sarcophagus in the Capitoline Museum, Rome, which shows an arrow with a half-moon head used to kill an ostrich; illustration in Hohl, Kais. Comm. 26.