What evidence do we have to claim the Ancient Romans kept African grey parrots as pets?
score:6
I'm going to go with 'There is no evidence'.
Parrots (psittaci).—Varro mentions them among rare birds exhibited at public shows. The increase of trade between Egypt and India in the time of Augustus probably helped to make the parrot a common pet in Italy under the Empire. For it was chiefly, at least, the green Indian parrot that the Romans knew. "India sends us this bird," says Pliny; and he adds that its whole body is green, except for a red band on the neck. Of the grey West African parrot, a far better talker than the Indian, there is no trace in the Roman Empire. But green African parrots may have found their way to Italy.
—Jennison, 'Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome'
Below, the full page from which I got the above, is shown for the primary sources on whom Jennison based itself:
Lazenby also only refers to the green Indian parrot, and, further, adds:
The Greeks were also acquainted with the parrot: Ctesias, 100 years before Alexander, is the first Greek writer to make mention of the bird, calling it bittakos, and a curious animal of India.
—Lazenby, 'Greek and Roman Household Pets'
No other parrots are mentioned in that work, but this suggests the Greeks would have probably been keeping the Indian and not the African variety.
Lastly, I contacted the authors of 'Birds: Myth, Lore and Legend' and the reply said that they based the claim regarding grey parrots off secondary sources, particularly Dotterer on Shakespeare's use of Pliny:
Although Shakespeare uses Pliny a good deal in Othello (apparently both the Latin and the 1601 Philemon Holland translation), Baldwin concludes that Shakespeare does not rely very heavily on him as a source elsewhere in the canon. Pliny does, however, include in his catalogue of talking birds not only parrots and nightingales, but ravens and starlings as well. Apparently, the African Grey Parrot, brought to Rome by Scipio Africanus, stimulated a keen interest in talking birds.
—Dotterer, 'Shakespeare: Text, Subtext, and Context'
Dotterer's claim is unsourced, and, as noted above, the comprehensive review of all parrots in Rome by Jennison did not use Pliny to support the hypothesis of the grey African parrot being kept by Romans. I did some investigating into links between Scipio Africanus and parrots, and couldn't easily find anything to say he brought one to Rome—indeed, the only link seemed to be Dotterer.
The authors also referred to this secondary source:
The history of the grey parrot’s domestication dates at least as far back as 2000 BC with Egyptian hieroglyphics clearly depicting grey parrots as pets. The ancient Greeks also valued them, as did wealthy Romans who often kept them in ornate cages.
—Espley, 'The Journey from a Bustling Forest Community to Solitary Life in Your Living Room'
Hence, there was no primary source evidence for this as used by the authors.
More post
- 📝 Who had a private jet before Frank Sinatra?
- 📝 How do historians and linguists know how to pronounce the names from non-phonetic scripts?
- 📝 What was the timetable for Germany's Invasion of the Low Countries (Fall Gelb) in WW2?
- 📝 Has any losing general in history tried to save his mens' lives by offering to disband, rather than surrender, his army?
- 📝 How would ancient Greeks have exercised?
- 📝 Did the Germans attempt the easier or harder of two possible objectives in the Caucasus?
- 📝 What ship is this and which military campaign?
- 📝 How frequently did the KMT use telegrams to communicate; from where (roughly) and to whom?
- 📝 Do Pashtuns belong to Greek heritage?
- 📝 Why didn't Nixon erase the smoking gun?
- 📝 Are Amazighs the inventors of the so called Arabic numerals?
- 📝 Were the events in Nemmersdorf a PR stunt of the Nazi propaganda?
- 📝 What does the Aztec word "calpuleque" mean?
- 📝 Which Babylonian tablets contains the list of squares and cubes?
- 📝 Why did Coloman of Slavonia leave Sajó bridge weakly defended against the Mongols?
- 📝 Earliest use of Renaissance Era innovations in Islamic countries & culture?
- 📝 Was there a nation/state which conquered other ones to gather forces and fight against an even greater enemy?
- 📝 What's the origin of the legend that this rock formation in America had a 12th century Welsh Origin?
- 📝 Was the danger of radiation in the case of nuclear war overestimated during the cold war?
- 📝 How cheap were sailing ships in Gold Rush California?
- 📝 Has there been a war whose declared goal was a mere land grab without any attempts to ethically justify it?
- 📝 A Rake's Progress: What is that weird hat-like thing?
- 📝 What was the context of this famous Genghis Khan quote?
- 📝 Why are the capitals of central Asian countries right against the borders?
- 📝 Was Rome obliged to expand its territory whether it wanted to or not?
- 📝 Was every Roman citizen part of a curia?
- 📝 What is the context for Napoleon's quote "[the Austrians] did not know the value of five minutes"?
- 📝 Why did Xerxes choose Hellespont over Bosphorus?
- 📝 Why couldn't the Allies clear out D-Day gun emplacements before landing troops?
- 📝 Why did Ancient Greek city-states fight each other and how did they morally justify it?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What evidence do we have to claim the Ancient Romans kept African grey parrots as pets?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 What is the primary source evidence for the theory that the African Ancient Egyptians are not black Africans whose origin is sub-Saharan Africa?
- 📝 What historical evidence do we have regarding the Lost Colony of Roanoke?
- 📝 What were the thoughts of the Celts, Romans and other ancient European people about the standing stones which survive from prehistoric times?
- 📝 What historical evidence do we have for the existence of Mohammed?
- 📝 How have African countries kept the boundaries divided by colonists and countries unified for decades, despite the many ethnical groups and conflicts?
- 📝 What is the historical evidence behind the claim that the Soviet armies perpetrated mass rapes during their stay in Germany?
- 📝 What would have been on the menu in an Ancient Egyptian tavern?
- 📝 What was the ancient Greeks view on people of African descent?
- 📝 What evidence support the theory that the killing of unwanted children was practiced in ancient Athens?
- 📝 What is the earliest archaeological evidence of silk presence in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 What literary or philosophical works did the ancient Egyptians have that have influenced ancient civilizations or the modern word?
- 📝 What evidence supports the claim that Shivaji's father was Muslim?
- 📝 What materials would have been used in the ancient Mesopotamian crown?
- 📝 What evidence do we have that historical accounts we've found of ancient civilizations weren't fictional?
- 📝 What historical evidence do we have for the Prophet Muhammed?
- 📝 What Evidence Do We Have For Samaritans Living In Babylon in the 6th or 5th Century BC?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 What knowledge may have been lost at the Library of Alexandria?
- 📝 Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 What is the source of quote attributed to W.E.B. Du Bois: "When you have mastered numbers..."
- 📝 What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?
- 📝 What would have been the typical drinks for a US farmer in the late 18th/early 19th century?
- 📝 Did the Romans have winter uniforms?
- 📝 Did ancient Romans anticipate the fall of Rome?
- 📝 What evidence is there for chain stores or restaurant chains in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 What is the significance of barley as opposed to wheat in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 Why didn't the Greeks or Romans have an Industrial Revolution?