1. Piazza Armerina
Magistri
procurator ad elephantos
Venatores immunes
Ursarii
Vivarium/vivaria
Syrian Goddess
Sol Invictus

2. Zoo traditions in the ancient world
Assyrians
Pharaohs
Ptolemies
Rome
Elites and emperors
Syrian Goddess
Sol Invictus

3. Roman empire showing location of Assyria

4. Temples of Sol Invictus and the Syrian Goddess and their precincts (located in Trastevere)

5. Syrian Goddess riding a lion (Coin of Philip II, reg. 244-49)
(Photo: Classical Numismatic Group)

6. Antonius Proculus to Valerianus
Antonius Proculus to Valerianus. Write the note to say that from the month of Agrippina until now we have been hunting every species of wild animals and birds for a year under the orders of the prefects. We have given what we caught to Cerealis and he sent them and all the equipment to you...
Papyrus from Egypt (late 1st/early 2nd century CE)

8. Piazza Armerina

10. How to catch a tiger (mosaic, Piazza Armerina)
Piazza Armerina, Sicily, 4th century

11. Wagon for transporting captured animals (mosaic, Piazza Armerina)

12. Capturing a rhino (Piazza Armerina)

13. Elephant covered in a net, pulled by chains( Piazza Armerina)

14. Animals being carried on board (Piazza Armerina)

15. Ostia and Rome

16. Vivaria in and near Rome
Porta Maggiore (Porta Praenestina)
Porta Labicana (?)
Elephants: Ardea and Laurentum

17. Porta Maggiore/Praestina, Rome, where the vivaria were close to

19. Trailblazers in Rome
M. Curius Dentatus: elephants (275)
Pompey the Great: elephants in harness (80, 81, or 79 BCE)
rhino (the elephant’s deadly enemy!)
Julius Caesar: giraffes;
elephants carrying torches in triumph (46 BCE)
Mark Antony: lions in harness (46 BCE)
Emperor Tiberius: elephants on tightropes
Germanicus: dining and dancing elephants (12 CE)
Septimius Severus: zebras

20. Coin of Antoninus Pius, showing elephant with legend saying munifcentia Aug. (148-9 CE)