Julius Caesar’s Elephant

Caesar once crossed the Thames on the back of an animal previously unseen by Britons. Here, C.E. Stevens assesses just how much of a historical anomaly this pairing was.

A coin minted in Italy around 49 BCIf one wants to know where Julius Caesar crossed the Thames in 54 B.C., somewhere near Lambeth Bridge is the most likely answer and this is becoming common knowledge. That an elephant crossed with him is not common knowledge, and some people would say that this was just as well. But there is literary evidence for the elephant which I shall try to take seriously - and there may be other evidence, too.

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