129. St. Anthony likewise met one of these monsters, whose
existence was seriously asserted by the emperor Claudius.
The public laughed; but his praefect of Egypt had the
address to send an artful preparation, the embalmed corpse
of an Hippocentaur, which was preserved almost a century
afterwards in the Imperial palace. See Pliny (Hist. Natur.
vii. 3), and the judicious observations of Freret (Memoires
de l Acad. tom. vii. p. 321, etc.).