Alexander the Great hunted Asiatic Lions and actively promoted Hunting, Royal Hunting 2300 years ago

December 1, 2007

The Demise of the Asiatic Lion and scores of others; Killed en masse for sport,

the wildlife vanishes; Persecution and Hunting - Roman Slaughters

Alexander the Great hunted and actively promoted Asiatic Lion Hunting, Royal

Hunting 2300 years ago

2004-2007 - pothos.org,

(Website Accessed on November 22, 2007)

Alexander and Lions

Alexander was a lion hunter. The lion subspecies that he hunted was the

Asian lion, officially known as Panthera leo persica, which roamed free from

northern Greece to India in Alexander's time. Our best evidence for Alexander's

fondness of lion hunts is found in Plutarch (Alex. 40-41). After his victories

over Darius, Alexander

noticed that his companions were becoming acquired to luxurious habits. To

ensure that they would keep focussed on war - even in the long lulls between

battles - Alexander actively promoted lion hunting. He tried to set an example

by exposing himself to the hardship and danger of lion hunts.

Lion Hunts

At least two separate occasions of lion hunts are attested in our sources:

the Sidonian lion hunt (in Phoenicia,

332 BC) and the lion hunt in Basista (a.k.a. Bazaira, Sogdiana, in 328/327 BC).

Both events indeed match with periods in which parts of the army must have been

relatively inactive: the long siege of Tyre, in between the battles of Issus and

Gaugamela, and at the advent of the Indian campaign after subjugation of Central

Asia.

IMAGE: Alexander and Craterus fighting a lion. Source: Jona Lendering's

www.livius.org

The Sidonian lion hunt is presumably represented in the well-known mosaic

(found in Pella) showing Craterus

and Alexander fighting a lion. The Sidonian hunt was originally commemorated by

bronze sculptures made by Lysippus and Leochares (Plutarch Alex. 40; also

Heckel, The Marshals of Alexander's Empire, 1992: p. 268-271). Alexander is

said to have speared a great lion, so that an envoy from Sparta

remarked the hunt had represented a battle between kings. Alexander's bodyguard

Lysimachus also killed a lion of extraordinary size, but not before " his

left shoulder had been lacerated right down to the bone " (Curtius,

4.14-17).

In Basista, a large enclosed Persian game reserve, another unusually great

lion charged Alexander. Lysimachus rushed forward to help his king out, but

Alexander pushed his bodyguard aside, stating that he was quite capable of

single-handedly killing the beast. Alexander subtly reminded Lysimachus of his

Sidonian adventure - such a wicked sense of humor (Curtius, 4.16). Alexander

then killed the animal in one stroke.

Lysimachus' Lion Cage

These events gave rise to the popular story that Alexander had deliberately

exposed Lysimachus to a lion. In Plutarch's Life of Demetrius Lysimachus

exposes his scars to ambassadors " and told them of the battle he had

fought with the beast when Alexander had shut him up in a cage with it "

(Plutarch Demetr. 27). Curtius dismisses this " unsubstantiated " story

as fake.

Heckel suggests Pompeius Trogus was the Roman advocate of this tale.

Lysimachus tried to help Callisthenes, who was caged by Alexander, and for this

attempt he was punished by being locked up with the lion. Lysimachus killed the

beast by tearing out its tongue (Justin 15.3). In Roman times the story of the

lion cage had become one of the three prime examples of Alexander's cruelty.

Asian Lion

The presence of the Asian Lion in Europe was attested

by Herodotus and Aristotle. Herodotus recorded how Xerxes' Persian invasion

army of 480 BC was attacked by lions while bivouaking on the eastern fringes of

Greece and Macedonia.

This happened during the night and the lions restricted their attack solely to

Xerxes' pack-camels. Herodotus claims that the habitat of lions in Europe

was small and was confined by the Nestus and Achelous rivers (Herodotus VII,

124-126).

It is generally assumed that around 80-100 AD the Asian lion had become

extinct in Greece

and in the rest of Europe. In Western-Asia they remained

widespread for the time being. In the Holy Land lions

disappeared during the Crusades. In Pakistan

the Asian lion was exterminated in 1810, in Turkey

in 1870. In Iraq

the last lion died in 1918 and in Iran

(Persia) the

last Asian lion was spotted by railway workers in 1942.

Today the Asian lion remains only in Gir

Forest, Gujarat,

India. In 1900 the

population of the Asian lion in Gir had dwindled to a meager 20 survivors.

Thanks to protection the numbers in Gir have risen to today's standards of

202-290 animals. The Asian lion is slightly smaller than its well-known African

cousin. A distinct feature is that the ears of Asian lions are always visible,

while those of African male lions tend to be covered by the longer manes. (You

can verify this by checking Alexander's lion mosaic.) Of African lions an

approximate 30,000 still roam in the wild.

Another subspecies very closely related to the Asian lion - the Barbary

lion or Panthera leo leo - became extinct in the wild in 1922 (in Morocco).

This Barbary lion had been the dominant animal in the

blood sports of the Roman arenas. Sulla had 100 lions killed during a festival

in 90 BC. Pompey managed to have 400 lions butchered in 55 BC, as would Julius

Caesar a few years later. Figures kept rising. Emperor Titus had a grand total

of 5,000 animals killed during a single festival and Trajan surpassed all with

11,000 slaughtered animals during one event. Substantial numbers of these

victims must have been lions. Some lions in Rabat

zoo, Morocco,

have recently been identified as Barbary lions (in

1974), though they are not 'flawless' specimens and a breeding programme has

not yet produced very convincing results.

Royal Hunting

In March 2001 Martin Seyer published his dissertation on Royal hunting in

Antiquity at the University of Vienna, Austria. Seyer emphasizes on the

symbolic importance of lion hunts. As the lion " had been associated with

monsters and demonical beings " the overcoming of these wild beasts

confirmed the ability and the strength of the king to protect his subjects

against enemies, rebellions and wars. The lion hunt became the ultimate

allegory of legitimate power. Therefore, writes Seyer, not all representations

of Alexander on a lion hunt need to refer to real events. Seyer:

" Illustrations of this activity were an ideal instrument of propaganda

within the frame of ideology. "

In an aristocratic society a lion hunt was a political event. This was true

for the Assyrian and Achaemenid kings, as well as for the Argead house of

Macedonia.

According to Seyer nearly each of Alexander's successors " stressed the

fact that he took part in a successful hunt together with the king. [They] used

the subject of the Royal hunt to represent themselves as a fellow-combatant of

Alexander. " It is apparently no coincidence that Curtius, in describing

Lysimachus' intervention during the Basista hunt, immediately adds that

Lysimachus " subsequently gained Royal power " . This incident echoes an

older story about the Persian satrap Megabyzus: " Megabyzus, who on a hunt

had saved king Artaxerxes I from a charging lion, was exiled for killing an

animal before his master " (see: www.san.beck.org/EC6-Assyria.html).

Hunting lions had always been a ceremonial Royal task. The Assyrian king

Tiglath-pileser boasted that he had killed no less than 920 lions during his

lifetime. For the Persian Achaemenids Royal hunting had become part of a long

term planning process. Their big game was kept in large hunting reserves, like

Basista, which until Alexander's arrival had been left untouched for four

generations. But Alexander's lion killing record would not have come close to

Tiglath-pileser's. Not by far.

Links

Martin Seyer's dissertation

(synopsis), Vienna University.

Catfolk, IUCN website

about the big cats.

Asiatic Lion Information

Centre, breeding programme.

Written

by nick

http://www.pothos.org/content/index.php?page=lions

Animals

Bucephalus was Alexander's horse (a.k.a. Boukefalas).

Peritas was his dog (only mentioned by Plutarch).

The most commonly asked question on this site is

" What was the name of Alexander the Great's horse " . Find out all

about the Great Beasts here.

Please select an article from the menu on the left.

Few horses have captured the imagination like Alexander's

horse Bucephalus. Though not much is known about him, we do know he was a dark

stallion, somewhat temperamental. Though he is described as black, it is likely

he was the more common standard bay, which is usually described as " black " .

And though most people imagine a tall stallion, the truth is probably somewhat

less grand.

http://www.pothos.org/content/index.php?page=bucephalus

Roman Slaughters

The tradition of killing animals for pleasure has a long history in Asia and

Europe . So popular was hunting in ancient Rome that

mosaics and paintings often depicted this pastime as a heroic activity.

Slaughtering animals was considered a form of entertainment, and people scoured

the countryside for bears, Lions, stags and boars to pursue with spears and

dogs (Attenborough 1987). As the Roman Empire grew

to encompass the entire Mediterranean basin, its citizens traveled throughout

the region to hunt and bring back animals to be killed in primitive contests in

the coliseums of Rome and other

cities. The coliseum games continued for more than 400 years in more than

70 amphitheaters, the largest seating up to 50,000 people on stone benches

arranged around a central arena (Attenborough 1987).

Roman emperors curried favor

with the public by upstaging their predecessors in killing more animals and

producing more spectacular displays of slaughter (Morris 1990). Emperor

Titus inaugurated the Roman Coliseum by declaring 100 days of celebration,

during which enormous numbers of animals were speared by gladiators. On

the opening day, 5,000 animals were slaughtered, and over the next two days,

3,000 more were killed (Morris 1990). The caged animals were kept

underground in dungeons where they were not fed, and on the day of the

festival, they were hauled in their cages onto lifts that brought them into the

center of the arena. As the crowd roared with excitement, drums were

beaten, trumpets blown, and the terrified animals were set loose (Attenborough

1987). Sometimes the animals were goaded to attack one another, and at

other times, men armed with spears and tridents pursued them around barriers

made from shrubs in imitation of hunts in the wild (Attenborough 1987).

One arena hunt resulted in the killing of 300 Ostriches and 200 Alpine Chamois

(Morris 1990).

Lions, Tigers, bears, bulls,

Leopards, Giraffes and deer died after being tormented, stabbed and gored

(Morris 1990). Big cats that had been starved were released into the ring

where a human slave or prisoner of war was lashed to a post; the animals clawed

at the person before they themselves were speared and stabbed by gladiators

(Attenborough 1987). In some of the larger slaughters, 500 Lions, more

than 400 Leopards, or 100 bears would be killed in a single day (Morris

1990). Hippos, even rhinoceroses and crocodiles, were brought into these

arenas, and sometimes gladiators employed bizarre methods of killing such as

decapitating fleeing ostriches with crescent-shaped arrows (Morris 1990).

The Roman audiences cheered

these brutal slaughters enthusiastically as a rule, but when 20 elephants were

pitted against heavily armed warriors, the screaming of these gentle animals as

they were wounded caused the crowd to boo the emperor for his cruelty (Morris

1990). This did not stop their use in the games however. These

slaughters virtually eliminated large mammals from the Mediterranean

area. North African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) were

exterminated, having been hunted and captured to die in these arenas (Leakey

and Lewin 1995). Elephants were also used by the Romans for transport and

even conscripted for battle by Hannibal, a Carthaginian general who used them

in a deadly march across the Alps , in which all the

elephants died of exposure. Romans were probably the key element in the

disappearances of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) from West

Asia as well (Leakey and Lewin 1995).

Prior to the expansion of the Roman

Empire , Atlas Bears (Ursus arctos crowtheri) lived in the

mountains and forests of North Africa , the only bears

on the African continent. Named for their last refuge in the Atlas

Mountains of Morocco, they were a race of the Brown Bear which is native to

Eurasia

and North America . North Africa

was the species' most southerly distribution. When Romans entered North

Africa , they cut the forest habitat of this bear and slaughtered

thousands for sport. Others were collected for coliseum combat, where

they were attacked by smaller animals, or gladiators wielding axes, spears and

other weapons. Over the centuries, the Atlas

Mountain forests were leveled for

building materials, and colonial landowners used the cleared land for grazing

livestock (Day 1981). The Atlas Bear became restricted to Mount Atlas,

where an 18th century French naturalist discovered a fresh skin, upon which the

first scientific description was based (Day 1981). Even as late as 1830,

the bears were common enough to be captured and sent to French zoos. In

1840, an English scientist concluded that this bear, smaller than the American

Black Bear (Ursus americanus), was a distinct subspecies. It was

stocky, with a short face, blackish-brown, shaggy fur on its back, and

orange-rufous fur on its belly (Day 1981). This differentiates it so much

from the Brown Bear that modern taxonomists might consider the two distinct

species. Although Atlas Bears became increasingly rare, they received no

protection from hunting, and the last of these bears were shot around 1870 (Day

1981).

Herodotus and Aristotle,

philosophers of ancient Greece

, wrote that Lions once lived in that country (Attenborough 1987). Two

thousand years ago, the range of these big cats extended eastward in a

continuous band to India

and Pakistan

and throughout the African continent. The Lion disappeared at an early

time from Italy

and Greece

after being hunted and captured by the thousands for gladiator

spectacles. When European Lions had been killed off, Romans turned to North

Africa . The Barbary or Atlas Lion (Panthera

leo leo), once distributed through much of the region north of the Sahara

, fell victim to hunting and Roman Coliseum games. Known for its enormous

mane, which covered virtually half its body, the male Barbary Lion was one of

the largest of all races of Lions (Day 1981). It was also the nominate,

or first subspecies named. This massive animal weighed as much as 500

pounds and measured up to 10 feet long from the tip of his nose to the tip of

his tail (Day 1981). After centuries of hunting, persecution and habitat

loss, these Lions withdrew to remote forests, where the last of them were

systematically hunted down. Arabian tribesmen in Tunisia

and Algeria

chased them for sport, and later, French colonial governments paid bounties for

their skins; by the 19th century, hunters had exterminated the last of the

lions in Algeria

(Day 1981). Government lists recorded the bounty fees paid, with fewer

each year; only one skin was submitted for payment in Algeria

in 1884 (Day 1981). Their final refuge, like the Atlas Bear's, was the

wilderness forest of Morocco's Atlas Mountains, where hunters killed the last

one around 1922 (Day 1981). Although officially extinct, some of these

Lions may still survive in captivity. Certain circus and zoo Lions resembling

the original Barbary Lion have been identified, and an effort is being made to

gather a breeding colony of these animals. Whether they are, in fact,

direct blood lines from the original North African Lions remains to be seen.

By the 13th century, Lions had

been eliminated in the eastern Mediterranean ; they

disappeared from Iraq

, Iran and Pakistan

by the 1800s (McClung 1976). The last Lion in the Saudi Arabian peninsula

was killed in 1923. For most ancient cultures of the Middle

East and West Asia , killing one of these

great cats, especially a large male, was considered a heroic deed worthy of

being recorded in paintings and mosaics. Many such art works remain from

Assyrian and other West Asian cultures. By the mid-19th century, Asiatic

Lions (Panthera leo persica) had become confined to India

, but were still widespread in that country (McClung 1976). During the

last half of the 19th century, however, Indian Lions came under siege by

British Colonial officers, who traditionally proudly took a Lion pelt back to

England; a single hunter boasted of shooting 300 Indian Lions in 1860 (IUCN

1978). Under such pressure, Lions disappeared from all of India

, save the Gir Forest

in the southwest, by 1884 (IUCN 1978). In 1900, protection was finally

accorded the last of these Lions, when their populations had been reduced to

fewer than 100 animals (McClung 1976). Today, the Gir Forest Lions number

a few hundred animals, all that remain of these proud cats on the Eurasian

continent. Confined to a habitat that was rapidly being whittled away by

villagers cutting firewood, and overgrazed by livestock, the Gir Lions are now

protected in the Sasan Gir

National Park of western India

where, in recent years their population has increased.

Hunting by Romans and later peoples, combined with capture

for the colosseum games, devastated the wildlife of North Africa

and the entire Mediterranean region. Large predators, as well as deer and

other ungulates, disappeared altogether or become endangered. Few

conservation programs exist to protect remaining populations from hunting and

persecution.

http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/persecution_roman.php

http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/persecution.php

*******************************

For more information on

critically endangered Asiatic Lions please also visit:

Asiatic Lion Group:

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/

Asiatic Lion Group Links Section:

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links

Asiatic Lion Group Links on Asiatic Lions,

Click on " Folders " for more links:

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links/Folder_Indian___Iran_0011\

58077222/

Why Should some 10 or 15 lions be sent to Kuno

Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, as soon as possible, please check in "

Madhya Pradesh Folder " :

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links/Folder_Indian___Iran_0011\

58077222/Details_on__KUNO_Wil_001158438437/

Gir Sanctuary, " Gujarat Folder " :

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links/Folder_Indian___Iran_0011\

58077222/Details__GIR_Nationa_001158438899/

ASIATIC LION

" CRISES " in India

(Please see all links collected in

this folder)

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links/Folder_Indian___Iran_0011\

58077222/ASIATIC_LION__CRISES_001175900857/

Atul Singh Nischal

atulsinghnischal

Life Member, Bombay

Natural History Society (BNHS) (http://www.bnhs.org/)

Life

Subscriber, World Wide Fund for Nature / WWF-India

(http://www.wwfindia.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/index.cfm)

ASIATIC LION GROUP

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/

Asiatic Lion

Messages & Links are accessible to

all:http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/messages

Asiatic Lion

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links/Folder_Indian___Iran_0011\

58077222/

http://pets.Asiatic_Lions/links

Also see:

Asiatic Lion

From