Case file · Cryptid
The serpent of the Bagradas
During the First Punic War the Roman general Regulus's army was said to have fought a giant serpent 120 feet long on the Bagradas river near Utica, killing it with siege engines.
255 BCE · 37.06, 10.06 · status: legend
The account
Livy (as summarised), Valerius Maximus and Pliny repeat the story; its skin was said to have been displayed in Rome until the Numantine war.
The sceptical view
Probably a large African rock python enlarged by retelling and war propaganda.