Changes

The Roman Period reflects a mixture of wonderment, where many exotic animals were collected as the Roman Empire expanded. This included elephants, leopards, lions, ostriches, and parrots, in addition to bears and other native animals to Italy. However, the Romans are also well known for the their cruelty towards animals in the colosseum, where many animals were killed in combat or even just pleasure. Nevertheless, the Romans were very fascinated by wild animals, where they seem to have promoted the use of animals in public display, such as parading elephants, showing animal tricks, and even dressing animals (e.g., monkeys were dressed as soldiers and even rode in chariots pulled by goats). They even began to study animals that they held in captivity, similar to Aristotle. Rome's experience with Carthage led them to respect the power of the elephant, even if it had relatively little military value. However, it was a symbolic animal to the Romans as a powerful animal that could be used to frighten their enemies, similar to how they were frightened by the animal when they first encountered it against Carthage.<ref>For more on how the Romans treated wild and exotic animals, see: Vernon N. Kisling (ed.) (2001) <i>Zoo and aquarium history: ancient animal collections to zoological gardens</i>. Boca Raton, Fla, CRC Press, pg. 19.</ref>

What the Roman period shows is that animals were now beginning to be seen not just as wonderment for the wealth wealthy or powerful, but now animals were beginning to be shown in more public settings and displayed for their wonder and power. While clearly animals were often treated with cruelty, the period of Rome also began a process where people increasingly came into closer contact with wild animals and those that were very exotic.

In the Medieval period in Europe, menageries were once again popular among monarchs. Gifts of wild animals, such as the Abbasid Caliph sending an elephant to Charlemagne, occurred between monarchsfrequently. In effect, zoos (or really animal collections) became, once again, more private and the privy of royalty or very high sectors of society. In the reign of Elizabeth I, however, descendants of leopards that were once owned by Henry III (a gift from Fredrick II) were put in one of the first public animal displays (Figure 2). Elizabeth had moved the animals to what became known as the Lion Tower in the western entrance of the Tower of London.<ref>For more on Medieval in England and animal gifts and the lion enclosure in London, see: Sophie Page (ed.) (2010) <i>The unorthodox imagination in late medieval Britain</i>. UCL/Neale series on British history. Manchester ; New York : New York, Manchester University Press ; Distributed in the U.S. exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, pg. 198.</ref>