I was having
a friendly discussion with someone I know recently about whether Dinosaurs are
actually dragons. In the discussion I recounted how when I was a teenager I
found a book at my local library that told the account of how a Roman force
encountered a dragon, fought with it and slew it at great cost, and sent its
corpse back to Rome as a trophy. Of course my friend wanted to read about this
account, so I tracked it down.
During one
of the Punic wars, the wars between Rome and Carthage one Marcus Atilius Regulus
was sent to Africa with a large force to deal with the forces of Carthage, but
he and his force encountered a wholly
different foe,
“Regulus and his army had landed on Cap Bon, the promontory
which extends from just south of Carthage, in a north-easterly direction,
towards Sicily. From there, they marched towards Carthage, which took them
through hostile territory, thanks both to enemy settlements as well as the
natural environment. It also forced them to march across the river Bagradas
(the modern Medjerda River). It was here that they met with their enigmatic
enemy.
Our oldest source for this event comes to us second hand, as
a fragment, from Aulus Gellius, who copied the version of Quintus Aelius Tubero
(NA 7.3). Tubero was writing in the late first century BC, while
Gellius’ Attic Nights was assembled in the second century AD.
According to Tubero (source):
The consul Atilius Regulus, when encamped at the Bagradas
river in Africa, fought a stubborn and fierce battle with a single serpent of
extraordinary size, which had its lair in that region; that in a might struggle
with the entire army the reptile was attacked for a long time with hurling
engines and catapults; and that when it was finally killed, its skin, a hundred
and twenty feet long, was sent to Rome.
The next earliest version of the story we have is brief in
the extreme, and comes from the Periochae of Livy, summaries
of the books of his Ab Urbe Condita written between the second
and fourth centuries AD. Livy’s flourish, however, was the end of the first
century BC through to about AD 17, placing the original source material earlier
than other mentions of the incident.
In this work, we hear for Book 18 that “in Africa, Atilius
Regulus killed an unnaturally enormous serpent with significant losses to his
forces” (transl. Jane D. Chaplin).”[i]
The Greek
accounts note that this was a dragon, of some variety. Of course, this is the
response of many modern thinkers, “It should be obvious that whatever the
Romans encountered was not a dragon.”[ii]
But this is by no means an obvious assumption.
Of course, if
you assume dragons are mythical creatures, that could never have lived with
man, then of course this is a mythical or exaggerated account. However, if you
believe that mankind lived alongside God’s other creations from the beginning,
then this story is not only not a problem, it sounds relatively familiar and
consistent with a different account. Note what we read in the book of Job,
“15 Behold, Behemoth,
which I made as I made you;
he eats grass like an ox.
16 Behold, his strength in his loins,
and his power in the muscles of his belly.
17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;
the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
18 His bones are tubes of bronze,
his limbs like bars of iron.
19 “He is the first of the works of God;
let him who made him bring near his sword!
20 For the mountains yield food for him
where all the wild beasts play.
21 Under the lotus plants he lies,
in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.
22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him;
the willows of the brook surround him.
23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not
frightened;
he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.
24 Can one take him by his eyes,
or pierce his nose with a snare?
41 “Can
you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook
or press down his tongue with a cord?
2 Can you put a rope in his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he make many pleas to you?
Will he speak to you soft words?
4 Will he make a covenant with you
to take him for your servant forever?
5 Will you play with him as with a bird,
or will you put him on a leash for your girls?
6 Will traders bargain over him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8 Lay your hands on him;
remember the battle—you will not do it again!” (Job
40:15-41:8).
The book of
Job recounts how these fantastical beasts guard the waterways and are
terrifying to battle with. If you attempt battle with them, “You will not do it
again!” we read.
Such
accounts of large “serpents” or dragons exist all throughout history. They are
written about in all ancient cultures, they are incredibly consistent, and
match many observations about the habitats and sizes of known dinosaurs. I encourage
you to read Dragon’s or Dinosaurs by Darek Isaacs if you want a good
summary of these accounts, including the many references to dragons in the
Bible.
There are 34
references to dragons in the KJV version of the Bible. There are countless references
to them in history. But think about this, we have an actual account of a Roman
legion doing battle with a dragon of some kind. How awesome is that?
I encourage
you to explore this topic more, you will both be encouraged about the truth of
the Scriptures, and also see that there is a whole wealth of information out
there about a topic many Christians are not aware of: that man once walked, ran
and fought with dinosaurs. We just called them something else.
[i] Joshua Hall, 2018, Regulus and the Bagradas Dragon
https://www.joshobrouwers.com/articles/regulus-bagradas-dragon/
[ii] Ibid.
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