illvedere:Jennings Dog, (also known as The Duncombe Dog or The Dog of Alcibiades) is a Roman sculptu
illvedere:Jennings Dog, (also known as The Duncombe Dog or The Dog of Alcibiades) is a Roman sculpture of a dog with a docked tail. It is named after its first modern owner Henry Constantine Jennings. It is a 2nd-century AD Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze original.British Museum. Though it is one of only a few animal sculptures surviving from antiquity, a pair of similar marble mastiffs of the same model can be seen in the Belvedere Court of the Vatican Museums.The Molossus (Μολοσσὸς) is an extinct breed of dog from ancient southern Europe.This ancient extinct breed of dog is commonly considered to be the ancestor (in rivalry with the Alaunt, the dog of the Alans) of today’s Mastiff type dogs and of many other modern breeds. Mastiff-type dogs are often referred to as Molossus dogs or Molossers. It is one of the best-known breeds of Greco-Roman antiquity; however, its physical characteristics and function are debated. Though the Molossus breed no longer exists in its original form, this large ancient breed was, along with the Tibetan Mastiff, an important ancestor of modern breeds such as the English Mastiff, St. Bernard, Great Pyrenees, Rottweiler, Great Dane, Newfoundland, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, and Bernese Mountain Dog. The breed was native to Greece and the rest of the Balkans. It was later spread to Italy and other places in the Greek World by colonizing Hellenic peoples. Virgil says that in ancient Greece the heavier Molossian dogs were often used by the Greeks and 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.” -- source link
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