30 THE MASTIFF TYPE. 



mastiff. Many people therefore, erroneously think the word 

 molossus necessarily means a mastiff, whereas the Greeks only 

 became acquainted with the true mastiff about the time of 

 the Macedonian conquest at 336 B.C., being about 300 years 

 after the breed was cultivated by the Assyrian kings. 



History informs us that Molossus was the name of a king 

 of a people living in Epirus, who took the name of Molossi 

 from him, and the district obtained the name of Molossis, 

 where were the mountains of Selli or Suli. This country 

 became famous for its dogs as guardians of flock and home- 

 stead, and they were imported to Rome, and became well 

 known under the name of canes molossi. 



Grote in his History of Greece Lib. iii. chap. xxiv. page 558, 

 states that the Molossians and Chaonians were two of the 

 principal nations of Epirus, and that Epirus is essentially a 

 pastoral country, that its shepherd dogs were celebrated 

 through all antiquity. 



Of the unmastiff-like type of the Molossian we may learn 

 from Aristotle who says : Of the Laconian dogs, that they 

 were produced from a cross with the wolf. " Laconic: canes ex 

 vulpe d cane genevantur" Arist. Hist. Animals, Lib. viii. ch. 

 xxviii., and of the Molossian he says, they differ nothing from 

 the Laconian, but as a guardian of the flocks and herds they 

 are eminent against wild beasts for size and courage." Lib. 

 ix. ch. i. 



The difference in the period of gestation between the Lacon- 

 ian and ordinary breeds of dogs is mentioned in Lib. vi. ch. 20, 

 which goes a long way towards furnishing positive proof that 

 the Laconian and Molossian dogs were in reality in the 

 opinion of the ancients, the result of a union between some 



