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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 25733453, member: 128351&quot;]<img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/upload_2024-10-11_13-53-14-png.1642638/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Domitian (81-96), quadrans, Rome 83-92. AE 17 mm, 2.60 g, 6 h.</p><p>Obv.: two-horned rhinoceros walking left</p><p>Rev.: IMP DOMIT AVG GERM around S C. </p><p>RIC II.1 249</p><p><br /></p><p>This African &quot;black&quot; rhino appeared at the Ludi Magni of Domitian, in the Colosseum. The poet Martial composed two epigrams about it. It was not opposed to <i>venatores</i>, he was opposed to a bull and to a bear. </p><p><br /></p><p><i>IX. ON THE RHINOCEROS.</i></p><p><i>The rhinoceros, exhibited for thee, Caesar, in the whole space of the arena, fought battles of which he gave no promise. Oh, into what terrible wrath did he with lowered head, blaze forth! How powerful was that tusk to whom a bull was a mere ball!</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>XXII. ON A RHINOCEROS.</i></p><p><i>While the trembling keepers were exciting the rhinoceros, and the wrath of the huge animal had been long arousing itself the conflicts of the promised engagement were beginning to be despaired of; but at length his fury, well-known of old, returned. For easily as a bull tosses to the skies the balls placed upon his horns so with his double horn did he hurl aloft the heavy bear.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Other rhinos, Indian or African, would be shown by later emperors in the Colosseum and/or the imperial menagerie. It does not seem any of them had to face human opponents, or there is no record of it. In <i>Gladiator </i>2, a movie to be released soon, there is a scene in which a gladiator rides a bloodthirsty rhino, his horn covered with blood, but that&#039;s just Hollywood... </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1644009[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>In real life the last living rhino reported in Ancient Rome was the one belonging to Gordian III, and paraded by Philip the Arab in 248 for the <i>Ludi Saeculares </i>celebrating the 1000th Anniversary of Rome. </p><p><br /></p><p>No living rhino is reported in Europe after this until 1515. In this year the Portuguese brought a living Indian rhinoceros in Lisbon. It was a gift from Muzaffar II of Cambaya to Alfonso de Albuquerque, who soon sent it to his king Manuel I. What could he do with a rhino? There was a lavish parade in the streets of Lisbon, in which the rhino was covered with green velvet. After that, reading that ancient Romans used to oppose in the arena rhinos to other wild beast, and reading in Pliny that the rhino&#039;s arch-enemy was the elephant, Manuel organized a kind of medieval tournament opposing his rhino to his elephant (he happened to have one, too). But there was no blood : when the elephant saw the rhino, it panicked and rushed back to the railings, tore them apart and ran away in the streets. The rhino was proclaimed the winner. </p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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