The belief that certain animals cannot rise if pushed over has historical antecedents, though cattle have never been so classified. Julius Caesar recorded a belief that a European elk had no knee joints and could not get up if it fell. Pliny said the same about the hind legs of an animal he called the achlis, which Pliny's 19th-century translators Bostock and Riley said was merely another name for the elk. They also noted that Pliny's belief about the jointless back legs of the achlis (elk) was false.