Hello Roman historians,
I was wondering if y'all knew the source for this story, which supposedly took placed during the Pyrrhic wars. It is cited in the book I'm reading as Frontinus (I, 13.9), but upon research Frontinus (AKA Sextus Julius Frontinus) wrote a book on aqueducts and military strategems in which there are no stories of trunk-chopping. Any of you have any insight? I was able to find the story in another source (Orosius IV), but Frontinus, being more contemporary to the event itself, seems a better source. Any help is appreciated!
Your text is wrong, C. Numicius is Florus 1.13.9:
Gaius Numicius quartae legionis hastatus unius proboscide abscisa mori posse beluas ostenderat
C. Numicius, a front-ranker of the fourth legion, had shown by cutting off the trunk of one of them that the beasts could be killed
For the record, Frontinus also wrote a military treatise, significant fragments of which survive.