Pliny the Elder was one of the great scholars of ancient Rome; he died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. His monumental work, the Natural History, contains a compendium of ancient knowledge about the natural world. Although Pliny is more inclined than Aristotle to include popular folklore and superstition in his accounts of the animals, he still insists that the animals are dumb creatures: physical phenomena in the world, comparable to vegetables and minerals. There is no secret meaning inherent in the animal kingdom, although there is certainly much that Pliny found curious and fascinating. You can find the Latin text of the Natural History online at Lacus Curtius; there is no English translation available online. The illustration below is from a 1472 printed edition of Pliny (perhaps belonging to the famous family of the Medicis, based in Florence, Italy; see websource):
