240 APPENDIX. 



In Epiced. gemit inter bella peremptum 



1 ileti Ursi. Parthus equum, fidosque canes flevere Molossi ; 



— a manifestation of kindly and affectionate feeling, of which their 

 congeners of an earlier date, on the authority of Tryphiodorus, 

 were totally unworthy : 



Tryphiodori of 8' v\doi'Tes 



uypla KOirTOiievoiffiv en avopaaiv uSvpovro 



vs. G08. 



vi)\iis, ov5' a\iyt^ov eovs ipvovns AvaKras. 



L. III. c. II. 



In the capacity of dogs of war, they do not fall under my plan ; 

 nor indeed as ohovpol, nor as fighters in the Venatio of the amphi- 

 theatre, do they strictly come within this arrangement. On these 

 points of their character the reader will find illustrative anecdotes in 

 Julius Pollux, Pliny, and Solinus. 



As dogs of the chase, their strength, size, and undaunted courage, 

 enabled them to contend with the most terrific wild animals ;^ and 

 we are assured that the lion himself has been mastered by the dog of 

 Epirus — the tiger, pard, panther, and boar, have yielded to him. 

 The epithets applied to the Canis Molossus all indicate his fire 

 De Nat. Anim. and resolution. iElian calls him Ov^xiKwraTos ; Virgil, " acremque 

 Molossum," (Georg. in.); and Seneca uses the same epithet, 

 " teneant acres lora Molossos," (Hippolyt. Act i.) But there is 

 much difference of opinion whether he was an open or close hound, 

 when employed in the field.- To the latter conclusion I am induced 

 to accede from the following passage of- Statins, 



1. For a fine representation of the Canis Molossus Venaticus, see De la Chausse, 

 JMuseum Romanum, Tab. lxiv. and Montfaucon Antiquite expliquee, Chasse au 

 Sanglier, Tom. iii. pi. 179. Several hunters are returning from the chase with the 

 Magister Venationis, bearing in his hand a shield ; — a cart drawn by oxen conveys a 

 dead boar, on which lies a huge dog apparently killed in the fray, and by the side 

 walks a second hound of the type alluded to. See also the Venationes Ferarum of 

 Stradanus and Galle, plate viii. and the Genii hunting, from Maffei, at the beginning 

 of this Appendix, where a IMolossian-like hound is on the point of seizing a wild 

 boar. 



2. Lucan has "ora levis claniosa Molossi" — and Claudian " Molossi latrantes" — 

 and into the error of his poetical predecessors Cardinal Adrian has fallen, in his 



