In the third class, entitled _pedibus celeres_, those dogs alone are
comprehended, which ran on sight of their game, as the Vertragus,
and possibly the Sicamber: of the latter, however, I know nothing
beyond the meagre allusion of Gratius to his speed, and the apparent
distinction made between him and the Vertraha, in the Cynegeticon of
this poet:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 201.]
Petronios (sic fama) canes, volucresque Sicambros,
Et pictam maculâ Vertraham delige falsâ.
[Sidenote: Strabo L. +vii.+]
Janus Vlitius considers the Sicambrian to be the Gallo-Belgic hound of
more modern days, and identical with the Ovidian canis Gallicus: but
the latter is more probably the Vertraha of Gratius, the οὐέρτραγος of
the younger Xenophon. The Sicambrian people, strictly speaking, were
Germans, and not Belgians; as they dwelt on the eastern, or Germanic
side of the Rhine.
[Sidenote: Cynographia Curiosa c. +ii.+ 12.]
On first comparing the different types of the Oppianic Canes Venatici
with those of the Latin Cynegetica, I was misled by the authority of
annotators to an admission that the type, so particularly described
by the Greek poet in his first book, μηκεδανὸν κρατερὸν δέμας, κ. τ.
λ. vs. 401. ad vs. 412. was of the sagacious hound, the Petronian
or such-like. But this interpretation, in addition to the want of
resemblance of the picture to the supposed original, implies, in a
notorious copyist of his predecessors’ labours and a keen observer of
natural history, the entire omission of the swiftest of the canine
tribe, the canis Gallicus or Vertragus; which, if known by fame in
the age of Gratius, alluded to by him in his Cynegeticon, accurately
portrayed by Ovid as to his style of running, and subsequently, and
more minutely, by the younger Xenophon, could not, under any balance
of probabilities, have been lost to the sporting world, between the
time of Arrian and that at which Nemesian flourished:—by the latter
of whom the greyhound is most beautifully depicted, and the mode of
initiating greyhound puppies in the hare-course detailed with the hand
of a master. I am, therefore, on more mature reflection, inclined to
consider the passage referred to descriptive of the greyhound type, the
third class of ancient hounds, the family of _pedibus celeres_.[330]
That Rittershusius makes no allusion to such a resemblance, does
not surprise me; for, by pointing out a supposed defect of the
picture, compared with a sketch of Gratius, this learned and laborious
commentator proves that he was not aware of the variety of dog intended
to be delineated by his author—perhaps himself unacquainted with its
type in nature. The very feature of the δολίχοσκιος οὐρὴ, condemned
by this editor as burthensome to Canes _cursores_, with a preference
of the “cauda brevis” of Gratius, (suited to the Canes _bellicosi_
alone,) is so remarkable and useful an additament to the greyhound’s
form, that, instead of burthening, it essentially assists him as a
Canis _cursor_, (“ad conversiones in cursu reciproco regendas,”) and
much strengthens the resemblance of the Oppianic picture to its Celtic
prototype in Arrian.
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 413.]
[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 467.]
The conclusion of this sketch is followed by that of the Canis _pugnax_
or _bellicosus_ of the first class, hereafter cited, θοῦροι δ’ αὖθ’
ἕτεροι, κ. τ. λ.; and this again by the amusing and lively picture
of the keen-scented beagle or hare-hound—σκυλάκων γένος ἄλκιμον
ἰχνευτήρων, κ. τ. λ.—the representative of which is taken from Britain,
and constitutes, according to my theory, Oppian’s specimen (rather a
sorry one, it must be allowed) of the second class of Canes Venatici,
termed _nare sagaces_. Are we not, then, allowed to conclude that the
same tripartite distinction of Canes Venatici was acknowledged by
the Cilician poet, as we have already traced in the more systematic
authorities cited?[331] The latter did not escape the notice of the
learned writer of the Venatio Novantiqua, himself an experienced
and ardent sportsman; but he has not corroborated the earlier
classification of others with the more recent evidence of the poet of
Anazarbus—indeed, he seems to view the Oppianic hound (Cyn. +i.+ 401.)
as _sagaci-celer_, and the Vertragus as unknown both to Pollux and
Oppian.
The Cilician gives a decided preference to those canine tribes which
are specifically pure in their breed—φῦλα μονόφυλα—and enumerates,
without any attempt at classification, all the tribes known to him,
under their geographical appellations:[332]
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 367.]
Παίονες, Αὐσόνιοι, Κᾶρες, Θρήϊκες, Ἴβηρες,
Ἀρκάδες, Ἀργεῖοι, Λακεδαιμόνιοι, Τεγεῆται,
Σαυρομάται, Κελτοὶ, Κρῆτες, Μάγνητες, Ἐπειοὶ,
ὅσσοι τ’ Αἰγύπτοιο πολυψαμάθοισιν ἐπ’ ὄχθαις
βουκολίων οὖροι, Λοκροὶ, χαροποί τε Μολοσσοί.
[Sidenote: Hist. Animal L. +ix.+ c. +i.+]
But if the kennel-master acted on the principles laid down by this
poet, and his Latin predecessor, Gratius, and crossed his pack with
irreconcilable varieties out of different families, belonging to
different countries, (and that he did so we have evidence in the
irregular and ill-disciplined muster-roll of Ovid,) although the names
on Oppian’s file might remain, the animals must have been so changed
by the “superinduction of opposite qualities,” that a genuine breed of
any one variety must have been most rare. To this general amalgamation
of heterogeneous forms and qualities in the canine race, must be
attributed the custom of applying the terms Molossian and Spartan to
the Canes _bellicosi_ and Canes _sagaces_ respectively, _gregatim_—the
dogs of Epirus and Sparta being held the best of their several
classes.[333] And, for the same reason, a true Molossian or Spartan of
pure blood must have fallen to the lot of few of Dian’s worshippers.
Aristotle speaks with praise of the Spartan and Molossian cross,[334]
but awards the highest price in the Spartan kennel to the purest blood:
and Themistius, in his first oration, states it as an acknowledged rule
in breeding, that the kennel be supplied from bitches of the purest and
most unadulterated blood.
Even after the introduction of the Vertragus, and the commixture of his
breed with the older varieties of sporting dogs—
[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi L. +v.+]
et unà
Præcipites pedibus catulos habuêre sagaces,—
the names derived from Sparta and Molosse were still kept up, and
prostituted in many instances on most degenerate brutes.
[Sidenote: Spelmanni Glossar. p. 113.]
With regard to the original geographical distribution of the three
varieties of _bellicosi_, _sagaces_, and _celeres_, and of their
respective chases,[335] the most prevalent opinion of continental
writers, who have devoted their attention to the Cynegetica of Greece
and Rome, is that the last mentioned originally came from Gaul, the
sagacious from Greece, and the bellicose from Asia. War-dogs of pure
blood are nearly extinct in the British islands, and are becoming
more rare on the continent of Europe; being much crossed with the
sagacious and swift-footed tribes. Vlitius, himself a Dutchman,
naturally espouses the Belgic origin of the Belgic, or, more correctly
speaking, the Celtic dog. Spelman, on the contrary, claims him for
the honour of Britain; and, in addition, we have always deemed some
sorts of _bellicosi_ and _sagaces_ indigenous of this country. Mr.
Whitaker, in his History of Manchester, gives to the ancient Britons
the old English hound, or talbot, as the parent stock of the celebrated
sagacious hounds of our island: and it is found, by experience,
that this dog degenerates in every other part of the world—a strong
presumptive proof of his being indigenous of Britain. The earliest
record of the greyhound allots him to Gallia; and we have no hesitation
in considering him of Celtic origin, notwithstanding the offensive
disclaimer of Savary of Caen—
[Sidenote: Venationis Cervinæ Leges. L. +i.+]
Gallos non hæc infamia tangit.
No exclusive national claim can be made for the pugnacious tribe,
almost every nation of antiquity having had its particular variety; of
which none surpassed the Britannus and Molossus, natives of regions
remote from each other, unconnected, probably, in their lineage, and
united alone in untameable ferocity of character.
[Sidenote: Certaine Illustrations of the Cynegeticall Poem, &c. p. 34.]
The translator of Gratius, after enumerating the various sorts of the
British hound, greyhound, and mastiff, (which he calls “_indigena_,
or native of England,”) observes:—“all these dogs have deserved to be
famous in adjacent and remote countries, whither they are sent for
great rarities, and ambitiously sought for by their lords and princes,
although only the fighting dogs seem to have been known to the antient
authors: and perhaps in that age hunting was not so much cultivated by
our own countrymen.”