Silvae II.5 (Mozley): The Tame Lion

What now has it availed thee to quell thy rage and be tamed, to unlearn crime and human slaughter from thy heart, and endure dominion and obey a lesser lord? To have been wont to leave thy cage and return again to imprisonment, and of thy own will yield up the captured prey, to open thy jaws and let go the inserted hand? Thou art fallen, O skilled slayer of tall beasts, not caught within the enclosing circle of a Massylian hunting-band, nor flinging thyself with dreaded spring against the spears, nor deceived by the hidden yawning of a pit, but overcome by a beast that fled thee. The unlucky cage stands open, while behind their barriers all around the quiet lions grew wrathful that so great a wrong should have been suffered. Then all their crests fell, and shame came on them to see the corpse brought back, and they drew down all their brows upon their eyes. Yet when the first stroke o’erthrew thee the unwonted shame o’erwhelmed thee not: thy valour remained, and even in the hour of death thy brave spirit rallied as thou didst fall, nor did all thy fierceness straightway own defeat. Just as the dying warrior who knows his wound is mortal yet goes against the foe, and lifts his hand to strike, and threatens even while the weapon falls from his grasp; so he with laboured step and reft of his wonted pride steadies his eyes as with open mouth he pants for breath and for the foe.

Great solace, nevertheless, shall be thine, poor victim, for thy sudden fate, that people and Senate mourned in sorrow to see thee die, as though thou wert some favourite gladiator fallen on the deadly sand; that amid so many beasts of Scythia and Libya, from the banks of Rhine and the tribes of Egypt, beasts so cheaply slain, the loss of one lion alone drew a tear from mighty Caesar’s eye.