Gaius Plinius Secundus, HN  8.7.19-21  (ca. A.D. 65): Romae pugnasse Fenestella tradit primum omnium in circo Claudi Pulchri aedilitate curuli M. Antonio A. Postumio coss. anno urbis DCLV, item post annos viginti Lucullorum aedilitate curuli adversus tauros. Pompei quoque altero consulatu, dedicatione templi Veneris Victricis, viginti pugnavere in circo, aut, ut quidam tradunt, XVII, Gaetulis ex adverso iaculantibus, mirabili unius dimicatione, qui pedibus confossis repsit genibus in catervas, abrepta scuta iaciens in sublime, quae decidentia voluptati spectantibus erant in orbem circumacta, velut arte non furore beluae iacerentur. Magnum et in altero miraculum fuit uno ictu occiso; pilum etenim sub oculo adactum in vitalia capitis venerat. Universi eruptionem temptavere, non sine vexatione populi, circumdatis claustris ferreis. Qua de causa Caesar dictator postea simile spectaculum editurus euripis harenam circumdedit, quos Nero princeps sustulit equiti loca addens. Sed Pompeiani missa fugae spe misericordiam vulgi inenarrabili habitu quaerentes supplicavere quadam sese lamentatione conplorantes, tanto populi dolore ut oblitus imperatoris ac munificentiae honori suo exquisitae flens universus consurgeret dirasque Pompeio quas ille mox luit inprecaretur. Fenestella states that the first elephant fought in the circus at Rome in the curle aedileship of Claudius Pulcher and the consulship of Marcus Antonius and Aulus Postumius, and also that the first fight of an elephant against bulls was twenty years later in the curule aedileship of the Luculli. Also in Pompeius' second consulship, at the dedication of the Temple of Venus Victrix, twenty, or as some record, seventeen, fought in the Circus, their opponents being Gaetulians armed with javelins, one of the animals putting up a marvellous fights—its feet being disabled by wounds it crawled against the hordes of the enemy on its knees, snatching their shields from them and throwing them into the air, and these as they fell delighted the spectators by the curves they described, as if they were being thrown by a skilled juggler and not by an infuriated wild animal. There was also a marvellous occurence in the case of another, which was killed by a single blow, as the javelin striking it under the eye had reached the vital part of the head. The whole band attempted to burst through the iron palisading by which they were enclosed and caused considerable trouble among the public. Owing to this, when subsequently Caesar in his dictatorship was going to exhibit a similar show he surrounded the arena with channels of water; these the emperor Nero removed when adding special places for the Knighthood. But Pompeius' elephants when they had lost all hope of escape tried to gain the compassion of the crowd by indescribable gestures of entreaty, deploring their fate with a sort of wailing, so much to the distress of the public that they forgot the general and his munificence carefully devised for their honor, and bursting into tears rose in a body and invoked curses on the head of Pompeius for which he soon afterwards paid the penalty. (H. Rackham, trans.)