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Still, I believe that I should not pass over one example at least of a dog’s learning, Cf. the bears that acted a farce in Script. Hist. Aug., Vita Car. xix. 2. of which I myself was a spectator at Rome. The dog appeared in a pantomime with a dramatic plot and many characters and conformed in its acting at all points with the acts and reactions required by the text. In particular, they experimented on it with a drug that was really soporific, but supposed in the story to be deadly. The dog took the bread that was supposedly drugged, swallowed it, and a little later appeared to shiver and stagger and nod until it finally sprawled out and lay there like a corpse, letting itself be dragged and hauled about, as the plot of the play prescribed. But when it recognized from the words and action that the time had come, at first it began to stir slightly, as though recovering from a profound sleep, and lifted its head and looked about. Then to the amazement of the spectators it got up and proceeded to the right person and fawned on him with joy and pleasure so that everyone, and even Caesar himself (for the aged VespasianVespasian became emperor in a.d. 69 when he was 60 years old and died ten years later, so that this incident can be dated only within the decade. was present in the Theatre of Marcellus), was much moved.
