Note 364 — CANES VENATICI. Class I.

In Pliny’s animated description of the Indian or Albanian dog’s assault, we observe the crafty wiles or fraudes of the Illyrian and Acarnanian breeds.Hist. Natur. L. viii. c. xl. “Horrentibus quippe per totum corpus villis, ingenti primùm latratu intonuit: mox inruit assultans, contraque belluam exurgens hinc et illinc artifici dimicatione quà maximè opus esset, infestans atque evitans, donec assiduâ rotatum vertigine afflixit.” Indeed all the bellicosi thus attack their prey—but generally in silence. The Indian was latrant, it seems, the Acarnanian mute.

Athamania, called also Illyricum, bordered on Thessaly and Acarnania.