﻿FELIS SPEL^A. 167 



down into the " anaviov yevog," " the rare animal " of the other ; he adds also that the 

 wild beasts of Europe are more courageous than those of Asia or Africa. 1 



We have no mention of the animal in Europe from this time recorded by any writer 

 down to the year a. d. 80 or 100, when it is mentioned by Dio Chrysostom Rhetor 2 in his 

 ' Essay on Beauty.' " The honorable/' he writes, " have vanished away in time, as they say 

 the Lions have done which formerly dwelt in Europe, for there are no longer any more ; but 

 formerly they dwelt in the district of Macedonia and in other places. 3 Philostratus, also, 

 writing in his ' Lives of the Sophists,' about the year 220 a.d., relates that Agathion, the 

 athlete, who lived in the time of Herodes Atticus, 104 — 180, a.d., complained that he could 

 not rival Hercules because there were no Lions in Acarnania. It is therefore clear that the 

 Lion had deserted Europe before the end of the first century after Christ ; or, in other words, 

 that the "rare animal" of Aristotle had become extinct during the four hundred years that 

 followed his time. It is, of course, impossible to fix the exact date, just as in the parallel 

 case of the Brown Bear in Scotland or the Beaver in South Wales. 



In the literature of Rome there is nothing that would lead to the supposition that the 

 Lion lived in Italy during the Historic period. 



" At rabidse tigres absunt et sseva leonum 

 Semina." — Georg. ii, 151. 



According to the high authority of Sir Cornewall Lewis, it is not even alluded to in Italian 

 mythology. 4 



§ 3. Evidence afforded by Myths. In bringing Mythology to bear upon the question of 

 the former existence of the Lion in countries where it was extinct before the Historical 

 Period, we are justified only by the high probability of its truth, afforded by the fossil 

 remains on the one hand and by history on the other. The evidence, indeed, afforded by 

 the myths is so strong that Sir G. C. Lewis has admitted its value without knowing of 

 the corroborative witness of the fossil remains. That eminent critic sagaciously inferred 



1 Aristotle, 'Nat. Hist.,' edit. Schneider, lib. vi, 28, 1; 



"Eiraviov yap to yivog to twv \wvtwv Ioti, kou ovk lv ttoWoj yiyveTai tottc^, aXXa r?jc EupwVjjc 

 ot7ra(TT}c lv rw \xt.TaZ,v tov 'A^eXwou kcu tov NIo-ctov woTafxov. 



Lib. vili, 27, 6. — Etc oe XlovTeg fxlv iv rrj Eupa>7rrj /naXXov, Kai Trig Evpuwrig lv r<J /jtTa^v tottio 

 tov 'AxtXuov leal tov Nto-a-ov. IlapSaXetg 8e iv rrj 'Asm" lv 8e ttj 'EupwVp ov yivovTai. "0\iog 8e 

 to. plv aypia aypiWTepa lv rrj Aexta, avSpuoTepa Be iravTa to. lv Ty Evpwirr), iroXvpop^OTaTa di tcl lv 

 Aifivr)' Kai \tytTai Tig irapoifiia, otl oti fyipu ti Atj3urj naivov. 



2 'Orationes/ edit. J. J. Reiske, Orat. 21, mpl KaWovg, sec. 269: 



EfcXtXot7ra(Tt t$ XP° v V °' naXoi, oiov 8r) (j>a<ri Toi/g Xsovrag iraOsiv rovg lv tjj Evpwirr)' 6v yap 

 sn avTwv elvai to yivog, rrpoTtpov 8' rjaav, Kai 7T£pi MaKsSovtav Kai lv aXXolg ronoig. 



3 ' Vit. Apoll.,' lib. i, cap. xv. 



* 'Notes arjd Queries,' second series, vols, viii, ix, "Lions in Greece." 



