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What is this about
Very strange article. Is this about a subspecies of lions or is it just about literary descriptions of lions from Gaetulia? --
Mlewan (
talk)
07:21, 4 June 2015 (UTC)reply
There is no subspecies of "Gaetulian lion", but ancients did refer to it as a distinct kind of lion, both in a literal and literary device. Romans also sometimes thought of barbarians as part animal (who even mated with animals), and would attribute animal qualities to their barbarian enemies. It was racism, in the same way 19th century slavers were racists about blacks and monkeys, some even likely believed they were not fully human. It makes slavery and genocide easier when they are animals. You can see hints of this in Flavius Philostratus's quote. This source describes in more detail
[1] though it's a different Galatia, same idea. Nevertheless many of the quotes are about actual lions. --
GreenC17:21, 21 November 2015 (UTC)reply