According to the representation in the Odyssey (xiv. 100.) Ulysses had twelve flocks of sheep, and as many of goats on the continent opposite to Ithaca. At a much later period Neoptolemus, a king of Molossis, in possession of flocks and herds, which were superintended by a distinct officer appointed for the purpose[308]. In Macedonia also the king, though living in a state of so little refinement that his queen _baked the bread for the whole household_, was possessed at an early period of flocks of sheep and goats together with horses and herds of oxen, which were entrusted to the care of separate officers. We are informed that three Argive brothers, having taken refuge in the upper part of Macedonia bordering upon Illyria, became hired servants to the king, one of them having the custody of the horses, another of the oxen, and a third of the sheep and goats[309]. Here then we find in Europe a state of society _analogous to that which_, as we have seen, _existed in Palestine under David_. Indeed we may observe, that all the countries bordering on Macedonia were contrasted with Attica and Arcadia in this respect, that, while the Athenians and Arcadians were in general small landed proprietors, each shepherd tending his flock upon his own ground, Phrygia[310], Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and even Bœotia belonged probably to an aristocracy, the richest and most powerful individuals of which became shepherd kings, their landed possessions giving them a superiority over the rest of their countrymen, and leading to the employment of numerous persons as their servants engaged in tending their cattle and in other rural occupations. [308] Plutarchi Pyrrhus, p. 705. ed. Steph. [309] Herod. viii. 137. [310] Theopompus, as quoted by Servius on Virgil, Buc. vi. 13, makes mention of the shepherds, who kept the flocks of Midas, king of Phrygia. Respecting the attention paid to sheep-breeding in Epirus we have the testimony of Varro in his treatise De Re Rustica. He informs us (ii. 2.) that it was usual there to have one man to take care of 100 coarse-wooled sheep (_oves hirtæ_), and two men for the same number of “_oves pellitæ_,” or sheep which wore skins. The attention bestowed upon dogs is an indirect evidence of the care which was devoted to flocks. It is worthy of remark, that the dogs used to guard the flocks in the modern Albania, appear to be the genuine descendants of the ancient “canes Molossici,” being distinguished by their size as well as by their strength and ferocity[311]. Further notices respecting them may be found in Virgil’s Georgics, l. iii. 404-413, and in the Notes of his editors and translators, Heyne, Martyn, and J. H. Voss. See also Ælian de Nat. An. iii. 2. and Plautus, Capt. l. i. 18. [311] Holland’s Travels, p. 443. Hughes’s Travels, vol. i. p. 483, 484, 496.