Procurator Gynaecii - The Supposed procurator Cynegii

The Supposed procurator Cynegii

An often repeated claim in the mastiff and bulldog community is that British fighting dogs were brought to Rome and proved superior to the molossi. The widely-repeated "fallacy" (as M. B. Wynn describes it in his 1886 book History of the Mastiff) "that at the time of the Roman dominion over Britain there existed an officer (Procurator Cynegii), who was stationed at Winchester, and that his business was to select mastiffs or bulldogs, and forward them to Rome to fight in the amphitheatre" originated in a misreading or conjecture in the text of Notitia Dignitatum by the 16th century author Wolfgangus Lazius: for the manuscript's gynaecii ("of the weaving factory") he proposed cynegii ("of the hunt"). Lazius's reading is noted, but not accepted, by William Camden in Britannia; it is not even mentioned by most modern historians. In spite of dismissal by Camden, Wynn and later authorities, the story of a "Procurator Cynegii" can still be found in recent dog literature.

Lazius's reading makes no sense in context because the procurator gynaecii in Britannis Ventensis is listed alongside the thirteen other procuratores gynaeciorum and among procuratores of imperial treasuries and stores. Although there was a British breed of dogs in Roman times (see Catuli Britanni) there is no evidence for Imperial kennels. Libourel doubts that the Romans, being used to fights involving "lions, tigers, bears, wild bulls, elephants, rhinos and men", would have been thrilled by pit dog matches. He traces this notion back to a hunting poem by Grattius, summarizing the relevant passage as: "Britain produced plucky hunting dogs".