Plutarch says: "One day in Rome, Caesar, seeing some rich foreigners nursing and petting young lapdogs and monkeys, enquired whether in their parts of the world the women bore no children; a truly imperial reproof to those who waste on animals the affection which they ought to bestow on mankind." 2

(The writer goes on to say that we should choose worthy objects of study and imitation, and that the life of Pericles forms an example which we should do well to follow.)

Athenaeus says: " It is customary among them, even for the children, until they are grown up, to wear purple robes and curls plaited with gold. It is also customary among them to bring up in their houses homuncules and dwarfs, and also little Maltese dogs, which follow them even to the gymnasia. And it is these men, and men like them, to whom Massinissa, King of Mauretania, made answer (as Ptolemy relates, in the eighth book of his Commentaries) when they were seeking to buy some monkeys: 'Why, - do not your wives, good friends, have any children?' For Massinissa was very fond of children and kept about him and educated his grandchildren, of whom he had a great many; and he brought them up till they were three years old and then sent them home to their parents and had them replaced by younger ones."

2 " Life of Pericles," 40 ad. (The passage quoted is the opening paragraph of the biography.)

The same sentiment has been expressed by Eubulus, the comic writer, in the words, written in his "Graces ": "Is it not much better, I pray you, for a man who can afford to do so to nurture children than for a gobbling goose to undertake the work, or a sparrow or a mischievous ape?"

Again, Athenodorus, in his work on "Serious Studies and Amusements," says that Archytas of Taren-tum, who was both a statesman and philosopher, had many slaves and was always delighted when any of them presented themselves at his feasts. But the Sybarites cared for nothing but Maltese puppy dogs and effeminate men.

Lucian has the following (the passage quoted relates to a philosopher's experiences on the occasion of an expedition into the country, during which he was compelled to dance attendance on his patroness):

1 "Symposium," Book XII, paragraph 16, 190 a.d. (The Sybarites.)

"As likely as not it is a wet day. Your turn for the carriage, as might be expected, comes late. You wait and wait, till at last its return is out of the question, and you are squeezed into some vehicle with the cook or the lady's maid, without even a proper allowance of straw. . . . Then my lady calls him to her and says: ' I have a great favour to ask of you; now please don't say no, and don't wait to be asked twice, there's a good fellow.' Of course he says he will do anything she wishes. ' I only ask you because I know you are to be trusted; you are so good-natured and affectionate! I want you to take my little dog Myrrhina in with you and see that she wants for nothing. Poor little ladyl she is soon to become a mother. These hateful inattentive servants take no notice of me when we are travelling, much less of her. You will be doing me a great kindness, I assure you, in taking charge of her; I am so fond of the sweet little pet!' She prayed and almost wept; and Thes-mopolis promised. Imagine the ludicrous picture.

The little beast peeping out from the philosophic cloak; within licking distance of that beard, which perhaps still presents evidence of the thick soup of yesterday; yapping away with its shrill pipe of a voice, as Maltese terriers will; and no doubt taking other liberties which Thesmopolis did not think worth mentioning. That night at dinner, the exquisite, his fellow traveller, after cracking a passable joke here and there at the expense of the other guests, came to Thesmopolis. ' Of him,' he remarked,' I have only this to say, that our Stoic has turned Cynic' According to what I heard the little animal actually littered in his mantle"1

Otto Jahn ("On the Representation of Greek Poets on Ancient Vases " 1) gives a discussion of two British Museum amphorae and of the whole class of vase paintings which they represent. They date from about 450 b.c. The picture with the dog represents an Athenian playing a lyre, and the one on the other side represents a youth playing flutes.

1 160 a.d. "The Scholar in Servitude."

Several scholars, including Tzetze and Schneider, have stated that the man represents Anacreon, the poet, of Teos, who, it is said, set out one day, accompanied by his dog and his servant, to a distant town to make some purchases. The slave carried the purse. He was obliged on the way to turn aside from the main road to run some errand, and as he did not wish to be burdened with the purse he laid it aside in the under-wood and left the dog on guard. He was longer away than he expected; and when the master returned to the spot to see what had become of the slave he found the dog faithfully waiting there in a starving condition.

Ives Jahn's opinion is that this is only a tale told by the anecdotal Aelian about a certain merchant of Colophon and has nothing to do with Anacreon. His conclusion is that this class of vase pictures, of which there are a good many in existence, representing a man, or more frequently a youth, playing the lyre, accompanied by a little dog, and often by women, has no literary or musical signification, but a purely social and domestic one. He thinks that the pictures represent family or festive groups from which we can learn a good deal about the social life of the time; and that the long-haired little "Pomeranian" dog (which in many cases looks very like a pig) is the much-prized Maltese dog which doubtless played a large part in the domestic life of the upper classes in ancient times.

1 "Transactions of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences," Book III, pp. 32-34. Classical Section.

Asterius, Bishop of Amasia (about 375-405 A.D.), writes in "Sermons on Divorce" (on Matt. XIX. 3); "You meet a man by the wayside and like him, and go a little way conversing; and you are sorry to part with him when his road diverges from yours.

"In a short space of time you form so close a friendship that you do not like to be parted from him and leave him only because you are obliged to. Would you who are so friendly hold your wife, who is your equal and your life-partner, in as low esteem as you would a broken dish or a cheap, travel-stained, worn-out garment, or a little Maltese dog that has stolen out and run away from home? "

" A slaughter-house near this Mosque (the one built by the Grand Vizier of the Sultan Amurat, at which sick and hungry people of all nationalities, and even dogs and birds, were received and given food and medical treatment) is always haunted by the dogs of the neighbourhood. As I said something before about the prize dogs of Laeonia, I must also say something about the dogs that are left to shift for themselves in the street. The best of them are employed for hunting in the country; but the Turks who live in the towns do not keep domestic dogs, and the dogs have no special masters, except the very little tiny Maltese and Polonian ones, which are much prized, and which the women of good family rear for pleasure. The others make their bed in the streets, and never leave them day or night." 1

Alciphron, a Greek writer of literary letters, who lived about 180 A.D., writes in "Letters from the Country" (III. 22.): "I have set a trap for those wretched mischievous foxes - a bit of meat hung on a noose; for not only did they constantly make raids on the bunches of grapes, but they literally tore the clusters from the vines. Besides, the master has sent word that he is coming - a harsh, cross-grained man he is, who often goes and holds forth and acts the wiseacre before the assembly of the people, and gets a good many folk sent to prison through his blustering manner and the violence of his language - and I was afraid I should get into trouble myself, having a despot like that to deal with, and wanted to catch the fox, which still did thieving, and hand it over to him as my trophy. But, as luck would have it, Plangon,1 that miserable little Maltese dog, that we kept as a plaything to please the mistress, must needs be greedy enough to eat too much meat, and has lain dead for three days and is now in a state of decomposition. So, unawares, I've piled one trouble on the top of another. And what mercy can I expect from the gloomy old tyrant? I'll take to my heels and run for all I'm worth. Good-bye to the fields and all my goods.

For it is high time I looked out to save my own skin. I expect I shall get into a row, but all the same 1'll try and get out of it.

1 "Lacedaemon, Ancient and Modern." A.D. 1676 by Guillet de Saint-George, Book III, p. 413.