Descendants of The Roman Canis Pugnax

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This is a summary on Cane Corso Italiano: the origin, the history, the integration in socio-economic context into the masserie of the Meridione, and the decline, recovery and recognition of the Corso breed. It must be qualified that this summary on Cane Corso is compiled from articles, books, and the Cane Corso Pages web site.

 

The copy right of this compilation remains with Hu Song and the Cane Corso Pages. Permission in writing is required for reproduction of the whole or part of this compilation.

 

Hu Song Thursday, May 15, 2000, 2nd revision December 1, 2001, 3rd revision May 25, 2003.

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The most ancient testimony regarding existence of molossoid comes from Sumeria, a great civilization developed 3rd millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia. There is the sculpture of a broad-mouthed dog found at Lagash and the sculpture recovered in the city of Ur depicting a bitch giving milk to her pups.

 

The mastiff-type broad-mouthed dog of Mesopotamia was called the “Indian Dog” by ancient Greeks, confirming the undeniable oriental roots. The Indo-Sumerian civilization of Harappa, which grew up between 3rd and 2nd millennium B.C. in the Pakistan region of the same name, was perhaps one of the most important highways of penetration into the “land between the 2 rivers”, Tigris and Euphrates plains, for our dogs.

 

The Assyrian civilization succeeding the Sumerian has also left us most superb and living testimony of the Mesopotamian molossoid. The Assyrians who had extended their dominion from Mesopotamia to the shores of Mediterranean held their dogs in high regards, to the point that they used one as the emblem of their god Gula. Terracotta statuettes depicting mastiffs in threatening poses were placed outside the entrances of their houses to keep evil spirits away.

 

From the Nimrud tablet of the Assyrian dated about 850 B.C. one sees a tall and enormous mastiff of shoulder height near the belt of his handler. The weight of the dog seems heavy, not suitable for chasing in a hunt but more probably used as a guard.

 

But the molossoids found on the Nineveh bas-reliefs of the Assyrian from 7th century B.C. are different. One of the bas-relief shows handlers, on their way to hunting area with dogs, seem having trouble holding them. The other describes with exceptionally crude realism and accuracy of details mastiffs hunting wild donkeys. Yet another found in the palace of King Ashurbanipal (669 - 626 B.C.) at Nineveh, dating from about 645 B.C., depicts the king hunting lions. All these dogs shown are lean, dynamic, of medium size, and look a great deal like present day Corso.

 

It would seem that there are 2 types of Mesopotamian molossoid, heavy and light, as seen from the Assyrian Nimrud tablet and Nineveh bas-reliefs. They delineate the lines of selection that will take us through the centuries to the present molossoids.

 

Are these Mesopotamian molossoids the origin, the only origin, of the European molossoids we found in history and today? Greek and Roman culture, so rich and detailed in other sectors, has given too few historical and archaeological remains and too generic to form the base for a credible historic and scientific answer as regard to the origin and morphology of the European molossoid. But as shown by the remains of dogs found dated from Palaeolithic age, Bronze age, and 5th century B.C., there existed in Continental Europe native mastiff-like dogs. Thus leaving the scholars continued to dispute whether they are descendants of the Mesopotamian molossoids or rather native dogs whose development parallels that of the Asians. However if we note that commercial contact and trading among geographic zones and their populations has been frequent from the earliest recorded times, it is probable that both theories contribute to the truth.

 

It must be noted that the Mediterranean Europe and Continental Europe had different historic and economic peculiarities until they were joined in the Roman Empire. In the pre-Roman world of Central and Eastern Europe, the antique Celtic and Germanic peoples who inhabited these vast areas were nomads and as yet had no written language. Consequently the knowledge of them is based only on the rare archaeological finds and the testimony of Greek and Roman writers of the period.

 

The “situla Benvenuti”, 600 B.C., depicts on 3 embossed sides, the life of the Venetians, ancient tribes of the area around what is now Venice. On the 2nd side there is a large molossoid on a leash, which, even though highly stylised, seems to be very close to those Assyrian dogs on the Nimrud tablet.

 

This ethnic group of old Venetians had its roots in the Central-eastern Europe and later divided and migrated to lands where we know that molossiods existed in the far or near past. Roman historians believed that they were expelled from Paflagfonia, a region of Asia Minor where the presence of the Mesopotamian molossoid is certain, and that they subsequently settled in Troy.

 

Some Roman historians who encountered them in Gaul, had noted the presence of Celtic influence in the Venetian dialect, and believed that they were Celts. We cannot help but think then of the Celtic molossoids. Other Roman historians related their presence in the Balkanic Peninsula and in Central-northern Europe - a zone corresponds to the present Danzig. Epirus, a region famous for its Molossian dogs, is in the Balkan and Danzig turns our thoughts to the  “danziger”, one of the breeds indicated as precursor of the Boxer.

 

Marselle in southern France, was colonized first by the Greeks and then by the Phoenicians. A large part of Iberian Peninsula fell under the Phoenician dominion. These same Celts were to be found from the 3rd century B.C. in Galizia, the region of Asia Minor that took their name.

 

Migrations, wars and commerce have certainly favoured from the most remote times the diffusion of the Mesopotamian molossoid into pre-Roman continental Europe. And it is natural to believe that they bred with native dogs, similar at least in size, thus giving birth to canine populations with special characteristics.

 

An example of this is to be found in pugnaces britaniae which perhaps arrived in the British Isles in the 5th century B.C. with the Phoenician navigator Medacrito, or else from nearby Gaul, and were bred for such morphological and characteristics that they became a myth with the Roman conquerors for their strength and ferocity. These qualities were evidently known to the Gaul as well and it was written that they had brought a great number back from Britain to fight at their sides.

 

The ancestral migratory flux of the Indo-European populations, beginning in the 3rd Millennium B.C. and coming from the Anatolian highlands and the Russian steppes, colonized the continent in successive waves. It is, in fact, quite plausible to think that in this thrusts from the east to the west, which had their highest point at the time of the barbarian invasions, and the fall of the Roman Empire, and which continued into the early Middle Ages, close relatives of the old Sumerian and Assyrian molossoids came along with the tribes. If we can only guess about their presence in pre-Roman Europe with the help of historic comparisons, it becomes easier to trace a picture of their expansion in the Mediterranean area, and especially in Greece and in Rome.

 

The Persian Empire took the place of Assyrian in the role of leading power in the Middle East. We have ample testimony of the extended use they made of these dogs in war. They certainly contributed to the diffusion of molossoids in the Mediterranean area. The Persian king Ciro the Great (600 - 528 B.C.) defeated the king of Lydia, Alyates. Thanks in great part to the participation of their dogs in war, even though Alyates himself had dogs trained for battle. The Egyptians came into contact with this tremendous instrument during the Persian invasion into Egypt in 505 B.C. The Medes and the Hittites used them not only as military aids, but also for guarding, hunting, and defence of their herds. It was during the 2nd Greco-Persian war in 480 B.C. that the Greek troops made the undesired acquaintance of war dogs, used against them by the army of Persian king Serese.

 

The ability of the molossoid to adapt to any kind of training was the base of their popularity with the aristocracy of many eastern and Anatolian populations. This ability, the cost of their upkeep and the need to breed them carefully had made these molossoid dogs exceptionally precious and sought after. It must have stimulated the appetites of the merchants, the Phoenician and the Greek above all, who certainly played a large part in diffusion of the molossoids in numerous Mediterranean ports.

 

It is Aristotle (348 - 322 B.C.) who distinguishes a type of molossoids from the Indian dog. He describes that this type of dogs was used in guarding herds and in hunting, and overcame wild beast with his size and courage. This distinction between the 2 types of molossoids made by Aristotle, the Indian and the Epirean, demonstrates that these large Mesopotamian molossiods had already inhabiting Epirus, a mountainous region of northwest Greece and southern Albania, with the ancient race of Molosi in the 4th century B.C. And it is from the name of these Molossian people we have our modern word “molossoid”.

 

Philip II who reigned in Macedonia from 360 - 336 B.C. is the father of Alexander the Great and the husband of the Epirean Olimpia. He used groups of large dogs, probably Epirean, to search out the Thracian troops who ambushed his soldiers from places they hid in the forests. It is not certain if Alexander the Great used dogs in battle as there has left no record of their presence.

 

And from the Greek historian Magastene sent by king of Syria, Seleuco, in 302 B.C. on a mission to the Indian king Chandragupta, we learnt that the dogs he observed there were of enormous bone and large heads.

 

However the Hellenic iconography of the period is scarce in representations of dogs. A few sculptures show animals, although still of a mastiff type, quite unlike either the Mesopotamian or the present molossoid. The muzzles are about five-tenths of the length of their heads, the coat on neck and head is long and seems to be fringed: these sturdy and broad-chest dogs remind us more of a cross between a mastiff and the present day Maremmano-Abruzzese than of the Assyrian ones. It is known that from remote times shepherds have used molossoids in cross-breeding with their large white dogs, the cani pastorales described by the Latins, Varrone and Columella. This is still being done; a cross between Abruzzese and the Corso is even now highly appreciated in the South of Italy.

 

The Italian peninsula, reaching as it does into the Mediterranean, has always been a crossroads of commerce and populations: everyone knows that all roads lead to Rome. In addition to the Phoenician and the Greek merchants who traded and helped the diffusion of the Mesopotamian molossoids in Mediterranean ports, there were presence of Greek colonies in the south of Italy from as far back as the 8th century B.C., so numerous that the area assumed the name Magna Grecia. It is more probable that in the frequent contacts with the mother country some examples of their dogs reached Italian shores.

 

The Etruscans prior to the Romans possibly possessed dogs of this type as shown in the “situla della Certosa”, conserved in the archaeological museum in Bologna. One side of the four sides shows a dog of mastiff type following peasants on their way to the fields; another side shows a dog of mastiff type, particularly resembles Cane Corso, and a hunter returning from the chase.

 

The Romans almost certainly made the acquaintances of war dogs in the battles of Eraclea (280 B.C.) and Ascoli Satriano (279 B.C.), fought against the armies of Pirro, king of Epirus. It was mentioned by Tito Livio (59 B.C. - 17 A.D.) that the triumphant entry into Rome by Consul Paolo Emilio after defeating Perseo of Macedonia was followed by at least one hundred Epirean mastiffs.

 

The wars against the barbarians offered opportunities for the Romans to meet molossoids. The campaigns in Gaul provided opportunity to meet the Celtic branches of the molossoids. The Roman legions invading Britain in 55 B.C. found themselves worried more about dogs of imposing size, with large mouth and indomitable aggressiveness used by the natives than the wild and ferocious natives, who, with their bodies nude and painted, fought with more choreography than efficiency.

 

The Roman seems to have used war dogs less often than many other populations although they had trained dogs to attack, defend and carry messages. One supposes that the high technical and strategic military levels reached by the Roman officers, combined with the extraordinary efficiency and discipline of the troops, made the use of dogs superfluous in pitched battles. But even when they were not used in battle, the Roman armies kept dogs as auxiliaries. The heavy, powerful but hardly dynamic molossoids were perfect guardians of the forts and camps; the light, lean and tense molossoids were the faithful companions of the troops following the enemy and in the hunt of dangerous games.

 

However, the Roman iconography is lacking in representation. A Roman sarcophagus from the 2nd century A.D. conserved in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence bears sculptures of mastiff-like dogs very similar to Corso. Lean dogs with tight skin, long and reactive muscles, large jaws, wide-set eyes, and ample chest: only the size seems to be inferior to that of the Corso.

 

But there is in the Roman villa built by Emperor Massimiano Erculio near Piazza Armerina, Sicily (3rd - 4th A.D.) a stupendous mosaic in a room called 'small hunt' depicting moments of hunting probably near the villa. In the scene which shows a wild boar wounded by a hunter armed with a lance there is a fawn coloured mastiff-like dog ready to attack the beast. This mastiff-like dog is larger than the dogs depicted in the sculptures in Uffizi, but his body is quite similar: large with well-developed muscles giving the dog a solid and compact appearance without heaviness.

 

The molossoids in Rome were not only used for hunting and defence, they were priced protagonists of circus games, the venationes. Strabone (860 B.C. – 20 A.D.), Greek historian transplanted to Rome about 45 B.C., mentioned that it took four molossoids to face a lion. The spectacles offered by these molossoids must have been considered of great importance, given that there was an officer, the magister et procurator, whose job it was to oversee the selection and the breeding of these subjects used in the circus.

 

The Romans, like the Greeks before them, are known to use dogs in their religious rites and trusted their dogs with the custody of their temples.

 

It is known that the Romans were inclined to group various type of dogs together on the basis their function and talents. Thus there were villatici (house and property guard dogs), pastorales (sheepdogs and flock guardian), and vanatici (hunting dogs). These vanatici (hunting dogs) were further sub-classified into nare sagaces (trackers), pedibus celeres (chasers), and   pugnaces (attackers/fighters). And in the pugnaces group, there are the Erpirean molossoid, the India/Mesopotamian molossoids, and the Celtic branch of molossoids including the molossoid from Britain.

 

Cane Corso Italiano as well as Mastino Napoletano, contended the Italians, are descendants of these Roman canis pugnaces in Italy.

 

With the fall of the Roman Empire and the consequential barbarisation of social order, economy and literary, the evidence of our dog is diluted and practically disappears. And the presence of our dogs returns only centuries later when the lights of first the Humanism and later the Renaissance re-illuminated the path they trod since the beginning of human history.

 

 

 

 

Notes On Descendants of The Roman Canis Pugnax      

 

 

Evidences from iconography:

 

There is in Lourve a splendid sculpture of a molossoid found at Lagash of the Sumera civilization in Mesopotamia, 3rd millennium B.C. And in Chicago Museum there is also another splendid sculpture depicting a bitch giving milk to her pups recovered in the city of Ur from the same civilization of the same period.

 

From the Assyrian tablet of Nimrud (850 B.C.) in British Museum one sees a tall and enormous mastiff. His shoulder height is near the belt of his handler; the skin of his head seems to be loose forming an abundant dewlap over his collar; his muzzle is short with marked stop; his bones heavy; his legs in line with the stifles; and the weight of the dog as a whole show him to be useless for racing and thus probably used above all as an exceptional guard.

 

In British Museum, the Assyrian bas-reliefs of Niveneh (7th century B.C.) one see subjects of different features. These are dogs with highly reactive muscles, tight skin, and bellies gently tucked-up. Their handlers, who are on their way to the hunting area with wickers baskets on their backs, seem to have trouble holding these dogs, who are pulling their leashes, already excited by the coming activities. Another bas-relief of exceptionally crude realism and accuracy of details describes mastiffs hunting wild donkeys. The 2 dogs have large heads with wide set eyes, the muzzle only a bit more than a third of the length of the head, and the legs are long and sturdy. Yet another bas-relief found in the palace of King Ashurbanipal (669 - 626 B.C.) at Nineveh, dating from about 645 B.C., depicts the king hunting lions. The dog shown hunting with him is lean, dynamic, of medium size, and is ready to attack the felines with his ears laid back, his tail extended, and his teeth bared. These lean, dynamic dogs of medium size look a great deal like present day Corso.

 

The remains of a dog from Palaeolithic Age with short muzzle and rounded jaw of a molossoid was found in 1886 on the shores of Lake Bourget in France. Other remains of a large dog of the same type were found in the digs around the ancient installation of Maching, near Munich. These were dated about the 5th century B.C. It is mentioned that Prof. Th. Studer maintained that as early as the Bronze Age (Halstatt period 1299 - 800 B.C.) there existed a mastiff-like dog breed of medium size (65 - 70 cm. or at the withers) in Central Europe, more precisely in the area now known as Switzland.

 

The “situla Benvenuti”, 600 B.C., in the Atestino National Museum in Padua depicts, on 3 embossed sides, the life of the Venetians, ancient tribes of the area around what is now Venice. On the 2nd side, showing scenes of agricultural labour, there is a large molossoid on a leash, which, even though highly stylised, seems to be very close to those Assyrian dogs on the Nimrud tablet. It is interesting to note that among the figures in the 1st and 2nd sides there are sphinxes and centaurs as well as palms and other trees of oriental influence.

 

The decorations from “situla della Certosa” (Etruscan art from the end of the 6th century B.C.) conserved in the archaeological museum in Bologna represent moments in the life of the antique Felsinei on four of the sides. One of the sides shows a dog following peasants on their way to the fields; another of the sides shows a dog and a hunter returning from the chase. Both subjects are clearly mastiff types, and the second in particular resembles the Corso.

 

Bas-relief of Roman sarcophagus from 2nd century A.D. depicts sculptures of molossoid (Uffizi Gallery, Florence).

 

The Roman villa of Casale at Piazza Armerina in Sicily (3rd-4th century A.D.) built by Emperor Massimiano Erculio has a splendid mosaic of a boar hunt. This mosaic found in a room called 'small hunt' depicts moments of hunting probably near the villa.. In there is a cropped-ear fawn molossoid, with extraordinarily likeness to the Corso, ready to attack the wild boar wounded by a hunter armed with a lance. The body of this molossoid is large with well-developed muscles giving the dog a solid and compact appearance without heaviness.

 

 

Evidences from historiography:

 

Plinio del Vechio (23 - 79 A.D.) testifies to this (Naturalis Historia, III), referring to Catone, who believed the Venetians came from Troy. Tito Livio (Historia, I, I) and Virgilio (Eneide, I, 247) say that the Venetians were expelled from Paflagonia and led, between 12th - 11th centuries B.C., by Antenore to the northern shores of the Adriatic.

 

Cesare, Strabone and Polibio encountered them in Gaul and believed that they were Celts, since Celtic influence is present in the Venetian dialect.

 

Erodotus speaks of them as present in the Balkanic Peninsula, perhaps in Epiro - region famous for its molossoids (Historia, I, 196). Tacito in his I Germani puts them in central-northern Europe, in a zone which corresponds to the present Danzig.

 

Strabone (860 B.C. – 20 A.D.), a Greek historian transplanted to Rome about 45 B.C., wrote that the Gauls brought a great number back from Britain to fight at their sides (Geografia, IV, 5). Straborne told us that it took 4 molossoids to face a lion in the amphitheater of Rome.

 

Herodotus (480 - 430 B.C.) referring to Tritantecmes, satrap of Babylon at the time of Persian domination and these molossoid dogs, wrote in his Historiae: “He kept such a great number of Indian dogs that four villages in the plains were exempt from all taxes on the condition that they obtain food for them”.

 

Ctesia of Cnido, personal physician of the Persian king Artaserse Memmone, described these dogs to be of such imposing size that they even dare to fight lions. He theorized that the Indian dogs he had seen in the court descended from Babylonian roots. He added that Cinomolgi, a barbarian tribe of the southern Ethiopia, had used them as defence against the periodic invasion of wild buffalos.

 

Senofonte (427 - 355 B.C.) mentions the used of Indian dogs as a defence against buffalos in his Anabasi.

 

Aristotle (348 - 322 B.C.) distinguishes the Epirean molossoid from the Indian dog and described this type of dogs was used in guarding herds and in hunting, and overcame wild beast with his size and courage  (Book III, Book VIII, and Book IX of Storia degli Animali).

 

Plinio del Vechio (23 - 79 A.D.) reports that in the battle of Boukephala, 326 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered the kingdom of a certain king Poro, a territory situated between the Jehoun and the Indo rivers. The vanquished king Poro presented Alexander with 2 dogs of enormous size. Alexander dedicated the name of a city to one of these dogs, Perite. (An anecdote in Book VIII of Naturalis Historia). He also mentioned that the dogs of the vanquished defended their encampments strenuously against the marauding victors when legions of the consul general Caio Mario annihilated the hordes of the Cimbri near Vercelli in 101 B.C. In the same book he recounted the story of a king of the Garamanti (a Libyan population conquered by the Romans in 19 b.c.) was able to return from exile with the help of 200 dogs fighting against his opposition. He mentioned that the inhabitants of the ancient Greek cities, Colafane and Gastabala, kept packs of dogs trained for war. He commented with his usual pragmatism: "They fought in the front ranks without ever refusing, were faithful auxiliary troops, and never asked to be paid".

 

Tito Livio (59 B.C. - 17 A.D.) relates in his Naturalis Historia) that after having defeated Perseo of Macedonia at the battle of Pidna (168 B.C.) the consul general Paolo Emilio made his triumphant entry into Rome followed by at least one hundred Epirean mastiffs.

 

Appiano (90 a.d.-165 A.D.), a Greek historian transplanted to Rome, wrote in his Storie de Roma that the Romans, at war with the Allobrogi, received the ambassadors sent by their king Betuito and found them escorted by enormous dogs as bodyguards (Book XII, De Rebus Gallicus).

 

Polieno (2nd century A.D.) testifies that they trained them to attack, defend and carry messages (Strategemata).

 

Like the Greeks, the Romans used dogs in their religious rites. It is known that 5th February of every year, the ludi lupercali were held. This was a feast in honor of the ancient Roman god Luperco, first identified with the wolf sacred to Mars and later with Fauno, the beneficent Roman protector of forests, fields and flocks. In this god’s sanctuary, the natural grotto at the foot of Monte Palatino, dogs were sacrificed to thank him for keeping wolves away from the herds. Dogs skin were used to cover the Lari, the benign spirits of Etrucan origin represented as adolescents, who were placed in pairs at the sides of the fireplace to watch over the fortune of the household and to protect the family. Again like the Greeks, Romans trusted their dogs with the custody of their temples. Plinio del Vechio relates in his writing a specific occasion when the Romans crucified their dogs because they failed to bark when the Gaul scaled the Capitol. He tells us that the Romans thought the flesh of suckling whelps particularly fine meat and used these animals for sacrifice and expiation.

 

Mario Terenzio Varrone (116 B.C. - 27 B.C.) followed the general grouping of dogs based on their function and talents. In Book II of De re rustica he wrote about epirotic, laconic, selentic etc. types of dogs by the place they came. Varone says that dogs should be kept to protect sheep and goats from wolves. There were two kinds of dogs, one for hunting the wild beasts of the woods, and the other trained for purposes of defence and used by shepherd. Varone notes the later was a prognathous molossoid, of large size, had blackish or reddish lips, and with two teeth slightly protruding to left and right but the teeth of the upper jaw are more straight than protruding.  In addition, he wrote that to protect the herders from wild animals, they wore collars called melli, made of strip of hard leather from which nails project and covered on the inside with soft leather to protect the dogs’ necks. These collars are very similar to those still being used for the Corso.

 

The great Latin poet Publio Virgilio Marone (70 B.C.-19 B.C.) had attempted a morphological description of the molossus: "enormous head, pendant ears, sturdy bones, dark coat, large paws and strong toenails". And in his Book III of Georgiche he discusses the perfect combination of breeds to produce an efficient guard dog with molossoid as based component: "The dog should not be an afterthought - but the speedy Spartan and the fierce molossoid combined - with such a guardian you need fear neither burglars nor the attack of wolves nor indomitable thieves at your back".

 

Lucio Iunio Columella (1st century A.D.) gave us the most vivid description of the molossus, both the morphology and the temperament of the dog, which is being quoted by many authors (Book II of De re rustica). This description is about a heavier dog more similar to the Mastino Napoletano. From De re rustica of Columella: "The guard dog must be black, so that he will frighten the malintentioned by day; when this arrives at night, similar to the shadows and confused with them, he can attack without being seen. The head so big that it seems the most impressive part of the body, the dropped ears forward, the black or light-grey eyes are penetrating, the chest wide and hairy, the shoulder broad, the legs powerful, the toes and the nails strong, and it is preferable that he be compact build rather than square or long. His character should be neither too mild, nor too respectful, nor mordant ….. it is enough that they be hard and not playful ….. in order to guard successfully they must be not only vigil and courageous, but above all constant and cautious ….. they will do their job well if they, sensing the odor of the intruder, first frighten him astutely with their growl and then attack forcefully if he comes ahead. The first quality is in the afct that of never being taken by surprise, the second that of reacting with courage and tenacity if provoked".

 

In the archaeological excavations at Pompei, among the numerous remains there is the body of a large dog lying protectively over that of a little boy. Their story is told in the inscription on the dog’s collar. His name was Delta. He had already save the life of his young master Severino on three different occasions: the first time from drowning, the second tin from interrupting a kidnap attempt, and the third time from defending Severino from the attack of a wolf as they made their way to Ercolano on a pilgrimage to the temple of Diana. As the lava from the volcano of the Vesuvius in 79 A.D. began to cover the city of Pompei, Delta tried to honor his role as guardian of his young master one last time.

 

Oppiano di Siria (3rd century A.D.) provided useful indications when he divided types of dogs based on their geographic origins (Molossi, Celtics, Iberians etc,) and described a large dog with flat head, joint eyebrows and pendant lips. He further recommended that the largest dogs be preserved in breeding with those less so (Book I of Cynegetikon). This lead us to think that in spite of the scarce attention Romans paid to morphological description of the various breeds, they were very conscious of the criteria of zootechnical selection leading to the preservation of morpho-functional characteristics.

 

Quinto Aurelio Simmaco (340 a.d.-402 A.D.), a famous Roman politician, wrote to his brother that he had recently seen dogs imported from Ireland applauded at the colosseum for their courage against lions (Lettere).

 

Nemesien, Latin poet of 3rd century A.D., refers to hunting molossian dogs, different from those that guard, "high on the leg", with a "broad chest", with "elegantly curved" ribs, "lean belly", "solid flanks", and ears "that fly when she runs".

 

Latin poet and philosopher Lucretius (98 - 56 B.C.) provides a vivid description of the behavior of molossus in "The nature of things, Book V, History of the world": he threatens, curl up his "soft and trembling flews"; he shows his "fearsome fangs"; he licks his pups "gently", plays with them, "touches them delicately", "utters a soft growl"; he doesn’t retaliate when beaten by his master but "moans imploringly", "crouching down", trying to "avoid the blows".

 

Dr. Dieter Fleig believes that the large aggressive Molossian dogs were used principally as flock guardians but that they were also superbly suited for use as war dogs. He further thinks that the illustration of guard and fighting dog (Canis bellicosus et homines defensor) by Swiss naturalist Konrad von Gesner (1516-1565) in his Historia Animalium depicts a true Molossus. He stated that Roman author Gratius Falsius from the year 8 A.D. written of big exhibition fights in the Roman amphitheatre between the pugnaces from Epirus and the pugnaces from Brittain and it turn out that these wide mouth dogs from Brittain were far superior to the Greek Molossus.

 

In "Le Chien dans Antriquite, Histoire et evolution du Chien" by Peters, published 1994 by SFC, quoting Martial (Epigrammata 12,1), Nemesien and Elianus 3,2, Peters describes the appearance of these hunting molossians, "of dogue type, with massive and imposing body, smooth coat, heavy head with a short nose and a pronounced stop, large chest, powerful paws", had "semi-erect ears" and a "bushy tail". Peters draws attention to a "Molossian hunting dog marking a boar" on a "bas-relief in Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, the present Colonge". (Page 127, English version of Prof. Raymond Triquet’s ‘La Saga Du Dogue De Bordeaux’.)

 

Col. David Hancock is in the opinion that there were 2 types of Molossian dogs: the huge flock guardian and the big hunting hound. He believes that the strong-headed, broad-mouthed mastiff-type ‘gripping’ and ‘holding’ dogs have a quite separate Central Asia origin, different from the Molossian dogs.

 

 

 

References:

 

 

"IL Cane Corso: Origini e prospettiv del molosso italico" by Prof. Fernando Casolino and Dr. Stefano Gandolfi, published 1996 by Mursia. Prof. F. Casolino is from the Meridione and speaks the dialects. A historian in Italian history, he researches and teaches the subject in Italian university.

 

"The Mastiffs: The Big Game Hunters" by Col. David Hancock, 2ed published 2001 by Charwynne Dog Features.

 

"The Natural History of Dogs" by Richard and Alice Fiennes, published 1969 by Bonanza Books. Richard Fiennes: Head of the Department of Pathology at Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine, the Zoological Society.

 

"History of the Fighting Dogs" and "Fighting Dog Breeds" by Dr. Dieter Fleig, translated by William Charlton, published 1996 by T.F.H. Publications. 

 

"The Saga of Dogue De Bordeaux - From the Antique Molossus to the Modern Dogue" by Prof. Raymond Triquet, English version published 2000 by Bas Bosch Press.

 

"The Origin and History of the Molossers" page and "The Mastiff in Scandinavia" page in the Molosser World web site of Kaare Konradsen.

 

"History" page in the Cane Corso Pages web site of Christian Ferraro.

 

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