Elephants and rhinos

Usage examples of pachyderms.

Four mahouts had worked every day since-in Utica and Tarentum, on the Via Appia, at Capua-to tame the recalcitrant pachyderms sufficiently to persuade them to act as beasts of slight burden.

Stepping unconcernedly between the gigantic legs of the pachyderms, they busied themselves scooping up piles of dung the size of wheels of cheese from Arpinum.

On the subject of elephants, it must be borne in mind that the Romans were acquainted with African pachyderms, not Indian ones, and that the African species was both larger and far less amenable to taming.