Caesar’s Bestiary: using classical accounts to statistically map changes in the large mammal fauna of Germany during the Pleistocene and Holocene

Abstract

ABSTRACT In De Bello Gallico, Gaius Julius Caesar describes the various campaigns waged by the Romans under his leadership against the ‘Gauls’ and the geography, wildlife, and the various tribes of the lands he observed during his time in ‘Gallia’. Caesar remarks in one passage in chapters 26–28 of book 6 on the large mammals of an area of wilderness known to him as ‘Hercynia Silva,’ the Hercynian Forest. This passage, analyzed previously by several authors who identified the animals Caesar described and compared his descriptions with those of several mythological creatures, allows for a unique glimpse into the large mammal fauna of Germany of ~ 2000 years ago, as the mammals Caesar mentions include several species either locally extirpated from Germany or extinct altogether. Here, I review these descriptions and prior analyses of their meaning to compile a faunal list of the Hercynian forest megafauna from the Classical period. Additionally, I briefly statistically compare this faunal to several from Pleistocene Germany. These comparisons serve to both demonstrate changes in the megafauna of Europe during the late Quaternary and the use of classical sources in paleobiogeography and paleoecology.