An elephant at Rome

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Philip of Thessalonica, anthologist and poet of the first century AD, witnesses an imperial triumph or pageant:

No longer, tower-girt and phalanx-bred,

The elephant with its prodigious tusk

Charges unchecked and eagerly to fight.

He sets his stout neck fearful to the yoke,

And draws the car of Caesar deified.

Even a beast can see the fruits of peace:

He casts aside the gear of bloody war,

Escorts the father of good governance.