Summary In the opening of his “Histories”, Thucydides portrays the Peloponnesian War as a conflict between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. However, modern scholars tend to view the war from either an Athenian or a Spartan perspective. This article assesses the involvement of Sparta’s Peloponnesian allies in the Peloponnesian War, and argues that, despite the efforts of Spartan propaganda to portray the conflict as a war inter alia in defence of the Peloponnese, at least some Peloponnesians did not fully identify with this perspective. This was reflected in their limited participation in joint military operations and, in some cases, even their attempts to disengage from the conflict and adopt a neutral stance towards the warring parties.
Summary This article investigates the symbolic evolution of the vulture in Roman thought, exploring the paradox between its prestige in augural law and its denigration as a filthy, ill-omened bird in Imperial literature. Historically, the vulture was central to the ‘perfect augury’ ( augurium augustum ) that provided divine sanction for Romulus’ foundation of Rome, a motif later appropriated by Octavian to legitimise his own rule. This positive status was rooted in observations of the bird’s natural behaviour that cast it as a prescient attendant of Mars, whose presence on battlefields signalled Roman victory over foreign foes. Such prestige weakened over the centuries until the civil wars and Octavian’s claim on the founding omen in 43 BCE permanently recast them as vulgar symbols of internecine strife. The shift was further cemented by the influence of Greek literature, specifically the myth of Tityos, which depicted vultures as inauspicious agents of the underworld. Ultimately, the study illustrates how political trauma redefined the sacred founding vultures as loathsome dire birds. All translations are from the Loeb Classical Library (with modifications where necessary), unless otherwise indicated. Original Greek and Latin quotations are provided in footnotes.
Summary According to a recent widely-cited article in this journal, the commonly accepted view that Antimenidas, brother of the Archaic poet Alcaeus of Mytilene, served as a mercenary on the side of the Babylonians during their campaign against the Philistine city of Ascalon in 604 is problematic. This article argues, by contrast, that the evidence in favour of this view, chiefly provided by Strabo, is robust, and that as a consequence 604 can be maintained as a precious absolute date within Alcaeus’ poetic career. The question of what Antimenidas’ involvement tells us about Greek mercenaries in the ancient Near East is also addressed.
