Of the canine breeds mentioned by classical authors, the best known were the small, swift Laconian (Spartan) and the heavier Molossian, both of which were native to Greece and used by the Romans for hunting (canis venaticus) and to watch over the house and livestock (canis pastoralis). "Never, with them on guard," says Virgil, "need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief, or onslaught of wolves, or Iberian brigands at your back."
Varro, writing in De Re Rustica (37 BC), a treatise on farming, recognizes "two sorts of dogs--the hunting-dog suited to chase the beasts of the forest, and the other which is procured as a watch-dog and is of importance to the shepherd" (II.9.2). He speaks only of the sheep dog, which should be large, with a deep bark, and white in color so as to be more easily recognized in the dark. To protect the neck from the bite of wolves, it should wear a nail-studded leather collar (melium).
A hundred years later, Columella provides a more systematic treatment of the subject in his own agricultural manual De Re Rustica. He says that buying a dog should be "among the first things which a farmer does, because it is the guardian of the farm, its produce, the household and the cattle." He agrees that the dog should be big and have a loud bark, and that color is important. An all-white dog is recommended for the shepherd to avoid mistaking it for a wolf in the half-light of dawn or dusk, and an all-black guard dog for the farm to terrify thieves in the daytime and be less visible to intruders at night. The dog should be neither too mild nor too savage, so as not to fawn over the thief or attack the inhabitants of the house. Columella disagrees with Varro, however, about the Laconian. He considers it to be a hunting dog, which "not only does not help the farmer but actually lures him away from his work, and makes him lazy about it."
Cynegetica ("On Hunting"), a poem in Greek ascribed to Oppian and dedicated to Caracalla sometime after AD 212, recommends the Laconian "for the swift chase of gazelle and deer and swift-footed hare." Black and white dogs are considered undesirable. "Among all dogs those are the best whose colour is like that of ravenous wild beasts...or those which have the colour of Demeter's yellow corn; for these are very swift and strong." (It the Laconian hounds that cause such a din outside the dining room in the Satyricon of Petronius and then burst in, dashing around the table.)
Oppian also describes the Molossian, "impetuous and of steadfast valour, who attack even bearded bulls and rush upon monstrous boars and destroy them....They are not swift, but they have abundant spirit and genuine strength unspeakable and dauntless courage." Used by the shepherds of Epirus in the mountains of northwestern Greece, the Molossian was a heavy mastiff . "If you are not bent on looks and deceptive graces," writes the poet Grattius, a contemporary of Ovid, and "when serious work has come, when bravery must be shown, and the impetuous War-god calls in the utmost hazard, then you could not admire the renowned Molossians so much." They were used to protect the flock and guard the house.
Trimalchio, in the Satyricon, has an enormous Molossian named Scylax (Pup), brought in on a chain and introduced to his guests as guardian of the house and slaves. The Molossian also participated in the spectacle of the animal hunt. Marital, in De Spectaculis, a series of poems commemorating the opening of the Colosseum by Titus in AD 80, describes the sight of a deer in the amphitheater being chased by Molossians. Stopping in front of the emperor's podium, it was left untouched by the hounds.
Around AD 150, Arrian wrote Cynegeticus ("The Hunter"), a supplement in Greek to the manual of the same name attributed to Xenophon, written five hundred and fifty years earlier. Indicating how hunting and hounds have changed in that time, Arrian describes the Vertragus, a Celtic breed named for their swiftness, and ancestor of the modern greyhound. (Grattius, too, writes that "great glory exalts the far-distant Celtic dogs," and refers to the Vertragus, "swifter than thought or a winged bird it runs, pressing hard on the beasts it has found.")
Xenophon must not have known of the Vertragus, says Arrian; otherwise, he never would have written that hounds cannot catch hares except by luck. If the Celtic hound does not run down the hare, it must be only because of broken ground or a concealing thicket or ditch. Indeed, he complains, a hare startled too close to the dog will not have a chance to run at all. "In appearance," says Arrian, "they are splendid animals, the best bred of them, with fine eyes, fine bodies all over, fine coats, and fine appearance." They should be long from head to tail, and the eyes prominent, large, and bright that "should astonish the man who sees them." Again, he corrects Xenophon: "The color makes no difference, whatever it may be, not even if hounds are black or tan or white all over."
Chasing the hare by sight rather than by scent, the Vertragus revolutionized the hunt or venatio. "Swifter than thought or a winged bird it runs, pressing hard on the beasts it has found," says Grattius. The Laconian hounds used by Xenophon were slow and hunted by smell alone and, if the trail was uncertain, the prey frequently escaped. That is why in Xenophon's account there is a description of other equipment, such as nets and snares. With the Vertragus, however, the hunter was able to follow the chase on horseback, rather than running behind on foot. So swift was the Vertragus that it also was used in coursing, a sport introduced by the Celts sometime before the second century AD, the purpose of which was not to hunt the hare at all but simply to enjoy the sport of the chase. "For one does not take hounds out in order to catch the beast," says Arrian, "but for a race and competition, at least if one is a true sportsman."
Hounds from Celtic Britain were famous, as well, and exported to Rome even before the conquest. (Writing at the beginning of the first century BC, the Greek geographer Strabo mentions dogs "that are by nature suited to the purposes of the chase.") "It is not only Spartan whelps or only Molossian which you must rear," says the poet Nemesianus in Cynegetica (c.AD 283), "sundered Britain sends us a swift sort, adapted to hunting-tasks in our world." Claudian also speaks of "slender Spartans, and Britons that can break the backs of mighty bulls." Such animals, which may have been Irish wolf hounds, can be seen chasing rabbits on the Celtic Castor ware beakers of Britain from the second century AD.
As Arrian said of Horme (Impulse), his own gray-eyed Vertragus, so for all who have had such a companion: she was "most swift and wise and divine."
References: Hunting in the Ancient World (1985) by J. K. Anderson (who also translates Arrian, Cynegeticus); Hounds and Hunting in Ancient Greece (1964) by Denison Bingham Hull; Arrian of Nicomedia (1980) by Philip A. Stadter; Animals in Roman Life and Art (1973) by J. M. C. Toynbee.
Xenophone: Scripta Minora (1968) translated by E. C. Marchant (Loeb Classical Library); Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella: On Agriculture (1941) translated by Harrison Boyd Ash (Loeb Classical Library); Minor Latin Poets [Grattius] (1935) translated by J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff (Loeb Classical Library); Marcus Porcius Cato: On Agriculture and Marcus Terentius Varro: On Agriculture (1935) translated by William Davis Hooper, revised by Harrison Boyd Ash (Loeb Classical Library); Martial: Epigrams (1968) translated by Walter C. A. Ker (Loeb Classical Library); Strabo: Geography (1923) translated by Horace L. Jones (Loeb Classical Library); Oppian, Colluthus and Tryphiodorus (1928) translated by A. W. Mair (Loeb Classical Library); Claudian [On Stilicho's Consulship] (1922) translated by M. Platnauer (Loeb Classical Library); Euripides: The Bacchae (1959) translated by William Arrowsmith.
Additional illustrations have been taken from The Climax of Rome (1968) by Michael Grant; Mosaics of Roman Africa (1996) by Michèle Blanchard-Lemeé, Mongi Ennaïfer, Hédi Slim, and Latifa Slim; Pompeii: The Vanished City (1992) by the Editors of Time-Life Books; What Life Was Like: When Rome Ruled the World: The Roman Empire, 100 BC-AD 200 (1997) by the Editors of Time-Life Books.