84 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"* S. VIII. July 30. '5P. 



therefore that the same lion did not appear on 

 successive occasions. Pliny informs us that Sylla, 

 when Praetor, exhibited 100 lions with manes in 

 the fiji;hts of the circus ; that afterwards, Pompey 

 exhibited 600, of which 315 had manes ; and 

 Caesar, 400. (JV. H., viii. 16.) The number of 

 lions exhibited by Pompey is stated by Dio Cas- 

 sius at 500 (xxxix. 38.) It seems that Sylla was 

 the first to exhibit the lions loose in the arena ; 

 previously to his time they had been tied up, and 

 had been killed without any risk to the assailant. 

 The lions in question were despatched by javeli- 

 neers, who had been sent by Bocchus, king of Mau- 

 ritania, from which region the animals themselves 

 had probably been procured (Sen. de Brev. Vit., 

 c. 13.). Strabo likewise mentions that the Ro- 

 mans procured the slayers of wild beasts from 

 Mauritania, on account of their experience and 

 skill (ii. 5. 33.). Gerraanicus exhibited fights of 

 200 lions in the Hippodrome (Dio Cass., Ivi. 27.) ; 

 300 lions were slain with javelins by the body- 

 guards of Nero (7&., Ixi. 9.) ; 100 lions and 100 

 lionesses were slain in the time of Adrian (/&., 

 Ixix. 8). The emperor Marcus Antoninus ex- 

 hibited 100 lions in the amphitheatre, all of which 

 were killed by arrows (Jul, Capitol, in M. An- 

 tonin., c. 17. ; Eutrop., viii. 6.). In the time of 

 Gordian there were sixty tame lions at Rome (Jul. 

 Capitol, in Gord, 33.). The emperor Probus 

 exhibited 100 lions and 100 lionesses in the games 

 of the circus (Vopiscus in Prob., 19.). 



Other accounts describe the total number of 

 animals killed ; but without specifying the species. 

 Thus Titus is stated, at the dedication of his am- 

 phitheatre, to have exhibited in one day 5000 

 -wild animals of all sorts (Suet. Tit. 7. ; Eutrop. 

 vii. 14.). Dio Cassius describes 9000 tame and 

 wild animals as being slain on this occasion (Ixvi. 

 25.). At the games celebrated by Trajan in 107 

 A.D., after the termination of the Dacian war, 

 1100 tame and wild animals are stated to have 

 been killed (Dio Cass. Ixviii. 15.). Seven hun- 

 dred animals of all sorts, including lions and 

 lionesses, were slain at an exhibition of Severus 

 (Dio Cass. Ixxvi. 1.). The number of panthers 

 exhibited on different occasions is likewise worthy 

 of notice, as these animals were procured from 

 Africa. Thus Augustus is reported to have ex- 

 hibited 600 panthers at the dedication of the 

 theatre of Marcellus, all of which were slain for 

 the amusement of the people (Dio Cass, liv. 26.). 

 Augustus himself states, in the Monumentum 

 Ancyranum, that he had given twenty-six exhibi- 



Bom. Ant., vol. ix. p. 375. ; Becker, Handbvch der Rom. 

 AH., vol. iv. p. 522. 6G6. ; Rheinisches Museum, vol. x. 

 (1856) p. 563. 



The combatants, who despatched the wild beasts, were 

 called "confectores feravum " (Suet. Oct., 43.). The first 

 venatio of )ions and panthers was exhibited in the Roman 

 circus iu 186 b.< . (Livy, xxxix. 22.) 



tions of panthers in the circus or forum or amphi- 

 theatres, at which about 3500 were killed (p. 34., 

 ed. Zumpt). It may be true, as Dio remarks 

 (xliii. 22.), that these numbers are likely to have 

 been exaggerated : but after all due allowance for 

 exaggeration has been made, it must be admitted 

 that the number of lions and panthers exhibited 

 at a single festival by the Romans far exceeds the 

 number which could be procured from the same 

 countries at the present day. Zimmermann, cited 

 by Camus, in his notes to Aristotle's History of 

 Animals (p. 482.), attributes the diminution of 

 lions in Northern Africa to two causes. 1. The 

 large number killed by the Romans. 2. The use 

 of fire-arms. 



The wild animals in the Roman provinces were 

 preserved, in order that they might be taken alive, 

 and transported to Rome for the sports of the 

 circus. A law of Honorius, of the year 414 a.d., 

 addressed to Africa, permits Romans to kill lions, 

 but not to hunt or to sell them (Cod. Theod. xv. 1 1 . 

 1. ; Cod. Just. xi. 44.). Claudian, in his poem on 

 the Second Consulship of Stilicho (vv. 237. sfjq-), 

 describes at length the process by which wild 

 animals were collected from various regions for 

 the fights of the amphitheatre, and conveyed to 

 Rome. Africa is specified as the country from 

 which lions are procured, and these animals are 

 described as brought in ships across the Etruscan 

 sea. 



Grimm, Reinhart Puchs, p. xlvi., remarks that 

 the importance of the part played by the Hon, as 

 king of beasts, in the w^sopian fable, renders the 

 European origin of this class of fiction suspicious. 

 But it is to be remembered that the lion was 

 a native of Syria, and of the interior of Asia 

 Minor; that in the age of iEsop he was still found 

 in Northern Greece ; and that his name and habits 

 were familiar to the Greeks from the Homeric 

 poems. On the other hand, the tiger, which was 

 unknown to the Greeks until the age of Alexan- 

 der, never appears as a character in the ^sopian 

 fables. The most ancient fable in which the tiger 

 bears a part is that of Avianus (Fab. 17), who 

 probably lived about the fifth century. 



G. C. Lewis. 



MOLLY MOG. 



The Quarterly Review has, of late years, usually 

 had a pleasant article on one or other of the coun- 

 ties of England; and, in the number jifst issued, 

 Berkshire is celebrated. On the traveller's pre- 

 sumed arrival at Wokingham, the writer ob- 

 serves : — 



" Of course he will put up at the Eose Inn, and order 

 his dinner in the parlour where Swift and Gay and 

 their company caroused one wet da}', and wrote the song 

 of 'Molly iMog' in tiieir cups. John Mog, the father of 

 the fair maid of the Inn, was then landlord of the Ro.se, 

 and had two daughters, Molly and Sally, of whom Sally 



