THE SCENE: The roman naturalist Pliny the Elder recounts the tale of a crow who learned how to talk, and of the Roman people’s outrage and emotion when that same bird was unlawfully killed.
THE TEXT: The bird, having been taught to speak at an early age, used every morning to fly to the Rostra, which look towards the Forum; here, addressing each by his name, it would salute Tiberius, and then the Cæsars Germanicus and Drusus, after which it would proceed to greet the Roman populace as they passed, and then return to the shop: for several years it was remarkable for the constancy of its attendance. The tenant of the next shoemaker’s shop killed the bird, either out of rivalry or in a sudden fit of anger because he claimed that some droppings had spotted his shoes. This aroused such an uproar among the general public that the man was driven out of the district and subsequently lynched, while the bird’s funeral was celebrated with great pomp. The draped bird was carried on the shoulder of two Ethiopians, preceded by a flautist; there were all kinds of floral tributes along the way to the pyre, which had been constructed on the right hand side of the Appian Way at the second milestone, on what is called Rediculus’ Plain. The roman people considered the bird’s intelligence a sufficiently good reason for a funeral procession and for the punishment of a Roman citizen.
– Natural History, Pliny the Elder, 1st Century AD
