2««» S. Vlil. July 30. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



83 



sents the youthful Achilles as hunting lions and 

 wild boars in Thessaly (v. 46,), and in his ninth 

 Nemean, he describes the nymph Cyrene as 

 wrestling unarmed with a lion on Mt. Pelion (v. 

 26.) Euripides, in a choral passage of the Al- 

 cestis (v. 580.), speaks of Apollo when he became 

 the slave of Adraetus, and tended his flocks, 

 being accompanied by the lynxes, which came to 

 hear the music of his lyre, and by the lions from 

 the woods of Othrys. Callimachus also mentions 

 lions on Mount Pelion, and on Mount Tmarus 

 near Dodona in Epirus. (Del. 120., Cer. 52., 

 where see Spanheim's notes.) 



The presence of the lion in ITorthern Greece, 

 during the historical period, appears likewise to 

 be indicated by those writers who expressly re- 

 mark that it was not found in Peloponnesus, as 

 Theocrit. Id., xxv. 183., and iElian, N. A., iii. 27. 

 The argument of the latter, founded upon Od. 

 vi. 104., is, however, of no force, as is remarked 

 by Nitzsch, Od., vol. ii. p. 102. Polybius, in cor- 

 recting the mistatements of Timseus respecting 

 Africa, says that the elephant, the lion, the leo- 

 pard*, the antelope, and the ostrich, abound in 

 Africa ; but never occur in Europe (xii. 3. 5.). 

 Whether the lion was extinct in Northern Greece 

 in the time of Polybius (204 — 122 b.c), or whe- 

 ther he was ignorant of its existence in that re- 

 gion, is uncertain. Dio Chrysostomus, however, 

 states that in his time (about 80 — 100 a.d.) there 

 ■were no lions in Europe, and that this apimal had 

 become extinct in Macedonia and other parts of 

 Europe, where it had formerly been found. (Or. 

 xxi. § 1.) Agathion, a man of great height and 

 strength, who lived in the time of Herodes Atti- 

 cus (104 — 180 A.D.), and was popularly called his 

 Hercules, complained that he could not emulate 

 one of the exploits of that mighty hero, because 

 "there were no longer any lions in Acarnania" 

 (Philostrat., Vit. Soph,, ii. 1. 15.). It will be ob- 

 served that the territory designated by Agathion 

 as the former home of the lion agrees nearly with 

 the determination of Herodotus and Aristotle, 

 who carry it as far as the river which bounds that 

 country to the east. It may be added that the 

 piythical story respecting Phalsecus, or Phayllus, 

 tyrant of Ambracia, represented him as having 

 been killed, when hunting, by a lioness. 



The Italian mythology contains no allusion to 

 the lion, and there is no reason to suppose that 

 he ever was an inhabitant of the Italian peninsula, 

 not even of the Alps. The boast of Virgil with 

 respect to Italy may be taken as the expression of 

 a certain fact from the earliest times. 



" At rabidse tigres absunt et soeva leonum 

 Semina." Georg. ii. 151. 



* Leopards were called by the Romans Africans, from 

 tlie country which furnished them to the Roman amphi- 

 theatre. (See Plin. viii. 17., and the commentators on 

 Suet. Calig. 18.) 



The extirpation of the lion in Northern Greece 

 may be compared with its extirpation in Palestine 

 (see Winer, Bibl. R. W. in Lowe), and with the 

 extirpation of the wolf in the British Isles. The 

 mention of the " Caledonian bear " in an epigram 

 of Martial (Z)e Spect, 7.), is not however suffi- 

 cient to prove that the bear was ever a native of 

 Britain. The ideas of the ancients respecting the 

 origin of wild animals brought from foreign coun- 

 tries were often vague and inexact. Thus the 

 tiger is frequently called Hyrcanian ; though he 

 never was a native of the shores of the Caspian, 

 and in ancient as well as in modern times was not 

 found to the west of the Indus. Mr. Paley (ad 

 Prop., iii. 10. 21.) states that the lion was once 

 found in our island : but there is no reason to 

 suppose that this animal ever inhabited any part 

 of central or western Europe ; although the iVi- 

 belungen lied represents Siegfried as hunting the 

 lion on the banks of the Rhine. 



The lion appears to have become extinct in 

 Syria, Asia Minor, and Northern Greece. In 

 other regions this animal, though not extinct, has 

 become rare, where he was anciently common, 

 Buffon says that the race of lions is daily dimin- 

 ishing in Northern Africa. The Romans, says 

 Shaw, derived from ^Libya, for the use of the 

 games, fifty times more lions than could be found 

 there at present. Lacepede remarks that the liou 

 has much diminished since twenty centuries iu 

 Southern Asia, in the mountains of Atlas, in the 

 forests near the great desert of Zaara, and in the 

 different countries adjoining the north of Africa 

 (see NouD. Diet. d'Hist. Nut., tom. vi. pp. 82-3.) 



The abundance of lions in Northern Africa in 

 antiquity is proved by numerous testimonies. Thus 

 Diodorus describes the multitude of lions in Ethi- 

 opia, and he states that many cities of Libya had 

 been depopulated by lions from the desert (iii. 23. 

 30. 43.) .^lian represents a Libyan nation, called 

 the Nomajans, to have been extirpated by lions 

 (ZV. A., xvii, 27.). The abundance of lions and 

 panthers in Mauritania is remarked by Strabo 

 (xvili. 3, 4.), who states that the Nomads of 

 Northern Africa were originally prevented from 

 cultivating the soil, and driven to a wandering 

 life, by the multitude of wild beasts (ii. 5. 33.). 

 Horace characterises Africa as the nursing mother 

 of lions : — 



" Nee JubiB tellus generat, leonum 



Arida nutrix." — Carm. i. 22. 



The large number of lions exhibited at the 

 games of the Roman amphitheatre, which must 

 have been almost exclusively procured from Africa, 

 proves the comparative frequency of this animal 

 in ancient times in that country. It will be ob- 

 served that the wild beasts exhibited at these 

 artificial hunts *, or combats, were all killed, and, 



* Concerning the venationes in the Roman circus, see 

 Panvinius de Ludis Circensibus, ii. 3, in Groev. Thes, 



