It is, therefore, evident that between the time when cats are first known to have been kept and the point at which they became domesticated an intervening period of some thousands of years elapsed, far longer, that is, than for any other domestic animal. This may be attributed to the known fact that the cat is not sociable, but lives an aloof, independent life. The presence of the domestic cat in Crete some 4,000 years ago has been established, as has its presence in China some 2,500 years ago, where it was introduced by way of India.
The house cat appears in ancient Chinese literature of about 800 BC. Like the tiger, which destroys the wild boar in the open country, the cat is revered as sacred for its extermination of destructive mice. Moreover, at this time the cat is a symbol for longevity. Throughout successive dynasties until approximately 200 BC, the strangest rites accompanied the worship of the cat and the tiger.
In Ancient Greece the cat does not seem to have been very common but in Roman times it became more widely known and spread throughout the empire. Domestic cats were probably introduced into England by Roman colonists.
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