THE SCENE: Pliny the Elder, the great Roman naturalist, describes the affectionate relationship between a dolphin and the residents of a Tunisian port … that is, until the jackass governor takes things too far and ruins it for everyone.
THE TEXT: Dolphins are not afraid of humans as something alien, but come to meet vessels at sea and play and leap around them; they try to race ships and overtake them even when they are under full sail. In recent years a dolphin at Hippo Diarrhytus on the coast of Africa used to eat out of men’s hands and allow itself to be stroked and play with the swimmers; it carried men on its back. Flavianus, the governor of Africa, covered it all over with perfume, but because it was not used to the smell the dolphin drifted in a stupor, and avoided men for some months as if it has been driven away by this insult. Later, however, the dolphin returned and was regarded with the same wonder.
– Natural History, Pliny the Elder, 1st Century AD
