FELIS SPELAA. 165 
§ 2. Evidence derived from history. We have seen that the first mention of the Cave 
Lion is that recorded by Dr. Hain from the Hungarian basin of the Upper Danube. 
Strange to say, the very first historical notice that we possess of the animal is that 
incidentally recorded of its attacks on the baggage Camels of Xerxes, in an area but a 
short distance to the south of this, in the mountainous district of Thrace, between 
Acanthus and the city of Thessalonica. The following exact account is given by 
Herodotus of an incident in Xerxes’ march through Southern Thrace and Macedonia 
before the battle of Thermopylae :—“ And Xerxes' and the army marched from Acanthus, 
striking inland, wishing to come to Therma (Thessalonica), and he marched through the 
Peonian and Crestonian districts to the River Echeidorus, which rises in the 
Crestonian district, and flows through the Mygdonian country, and opens near by 
the marsh that is close to the River Axius. And while he was on the march in this 
direction Lions fell upon the baggage Camels. For the Lions, coming down by night 
and leaving their usual haunts, touched nothing else, neither beast of burden nor man, but 
killed the Camels only. And I wonder what on earth could have been the cause that 
made the Lions abstain from the other animals and attack the Camels only, beasts that 
they had never seen before nor tasted. Now, there are in these districts many Lions, and 
wild Oxen with very large horns that are objects of barter to the Greeks. Now, the boun- 
dary of the district inhabited by the Lions is the River Nestus, that flows through Abdera, 
and the Acheloiis, that flows through Acharnania. For neither to the east of the Nestus is 
there a Lion anywhere in the whole of Europe, nor to the west of the Acheloiis in the rest 
of the continent, but its habitat is the district between these rivers.’’ We undoubtedly 
owe the knowledge that Lions dwelt in this district in the year 480 B.c. to the wonder 
at their strange choice of prey. ‘The story was still fresh in the memory of the hunters 
of Chalcidice when it was chosen by Herodotus, in his travels some twenty-five years after- 
wards, to light up his wonderful narrative. The animal at that time ranged through the 
country south of the Balkans, through Roumania to the west of the River Carasu, and 
1 Herodotus ; book vii, cap. 124-6. 
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22 
