Molossiann.adj.

1563 R. Reynolds Foundacion of Rhetorike f. 8 Lycaon..was king and gouernor ouer the Molossians.

a1592 R. Greene Mamillia (1593) ii. sig. G3 Sarcas the king of the Molossians.

1683 E. Brown tr. Plutarch Life Themistocles in J. Dryden et al. tr. Plutarch Lives I. 409 He prostrated himself before the King's Houshold Gods; this being the most sacred and onely manner of supplication among the Molossians, which was not to be refused.

1866 C. R. Kennedy Hannibal 32 Here sit ye, chaffering For base conditions with an upstart king, A beggarly Molossian.

1878 Encycl. Brit. VIII. 483/2 The Molossians [inhabited] the inland district of which the lake of Pambotis or Yannina may be regarded as the centre.

1990 A. Momigliano Alien Wisdom (BNC) 14 About 333 Rome made some sort of treaty with Alexander the Molossian during his Italian campaign.

1896 J. Curtin tr. H. Sienkiewicz Quo Vadis lv. 432 Whole packs of dogs,—gigantic, yellow Molossians from the Peloponnesus, pied dogs from the Pyrenees.

1921 E. L. White Andivius Hedulio i. vii. 109 It was a wonder to see the Aquitanian obey, to see the Molossian obey was a portent.

1993 Dog World Feb. 158/1 The Molossians of ancient Greece were in fact usually sheepdogs, sometimes shaggy coated and often white.

1577 R. Holinshed Hist. Irelande i. 8/2 in Chron. I It chaunced that certaine of the Scottish nobilitie had got out of Greece (as some write) a Molossian hound, which both in swiftnesse of foot, and pleasantnesse of mouth, was accompted peerlesse.

?1615 G. Chapman tr. Homer Odysses (new ed.) xxiv. 369 My Father Aphidantes; fam'd to spring From Polypemon; the Molossian King.

1647 J. Abbot Devout Rhapsodies ix. 72 Thy friend Pyrrhus springs From Alexander, and Molossian Kings.

1725 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey III. xiv. Observ. 351 The service was perform'd by three aged Priestesses, call'd in the Molossian tongue πέλειαι.

a1770 M. Akenside Pleasures Imag. in Poems (1772) iii. 188 From those brave tribes Chaonian or Molossian whom the race Of great Achilles governs.

1837 Penny Cycl. IX. 481/1 Alexander was the first of the Molossian princes who bore the title of king of Epirus.

1868 E. H. Plumptre tr. Æschylus Prometheus Bound in tr. Æschylus Trag. I. 157 Thou cam'st To the Molossian plains.

1970 Oxf. Classical Dict. (ed. 2) 697/2 After the fall of the monarchy c.232 b.c. the Molossian state was a constituent part of the Epirote Confederacy.

1587 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Iland Brit. (new ed.) iii. vii. 231/2 in Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) I Thus much of our mastiffes, creatures of no lesse faith and loue towards their maisters than horsses;..nor of lesse force than the Molossian race, brought from Epiro into some countries, which the poets feigne to haue originall from the brasen dog that Vulcan made, and gaue to Iupiter.

1638 R. Farley Kalender Mans Life Avtvmne The Daunian wolves, Spartan, Molossian dogges, The Marsian Bores Arcadian beares, and hogges.

1649 J. Ogilby tr. Virgil Georgics (1684) iii. 434 But feed Fleet Spartan Whelps, and thy Molossian Breed.

a1788 R. Colvill Poet. Wks. (1789) i. 24 He rous'd the angry savage, with his men, And staunch Molossian dogs.

1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul II. ix. xxxi. 17 The carcase of a Molossian hound.

1957 B. Vesey-Fitzgerald Domest. Dog 170 The Molossian Group. These dogs are large and resemble more or less the Mastiff.

1971 F. Hamilton World Encycl. Dogs 86 Tibetan Mastiffs, used as guard dogs in China more than 1,000 years b.c., became the forebears of the great Molossian Hounds.

1994 Dog World Jan. 10/3 It is thought that during the Middle Ages the molossian dog and the English Mastiff were combined to create hunting dogs.