clever guesswork.
26 If ever a landscape made its people See Salmon pp. 14–27 for a fuller description of Samnium.
27 about 450,000 persons Ibid.
28 They had their pubic hair shaved Ath 12 518b.
29 The Samnites have a splendid law Strabo 5 4 12.
30 the first-century poet Horace Hor Car 3 6 39–41.
31 invented by Oscans For the origins of gladiatorial contests, see Grant, Gladiators, pp. 19 and 55.
32 A short first war Some modern authorities have argued that this war never took place, but see Oakley vol. 2 pp. 307–11.
33 “Let us pitch camp facing each other” Livy 8 23 8–9.
34 greater number of troops contributed by the allies and the Latins Ibid., 10 26 14.
35 A female deer Livy 10 27 8–9.
36 “nearest run thing” Thomas Creevey, Creevey Papers, p. 236 (London: John Murray, 1903).
37 followed his father’s example Some modern opinion challenges the historicity of this devotio; however, there is abundant testimony for both of the Decius Mus devotiones, and it is beyond doubt that the younger Decius Mus fell at Sentinum. See Oakley 4, pp. 290–91.
38 They could carry on no longer Livy 10 31 15.
39 For an individual Roman soldier The paragraphs about the experience of battle are indebted to Randall Collins’s Violence, which summarizes much research about modern warfare. With caution, I have assumed that some basic findings can plausibly be applied to the emotions of a Roman legionary.
40 von Clausewitz’s fog of war Carl von Clausewitz, On War, Book 2, chap. 2, paragraph 24.
41 Battles often have a rhythm Collins, p. 40.
42 only a quarter of them actually attack Ibid., pp. 44ff., regarding fighting in the Second World War. 166 A paralysis of terror Ibid., p. 47.
43 about one-third of combatant soldiers Ibid., p. 69. The percentages are based on a review of photographic evidence of Second World War fighting.
44 “in ancient and mediaeval warfare” Ibid., p. 79.
45 The Romans look not so much Polyb 6 24 8–9. 167 its territory had grown See Oakley 4, p. 3.
46 twenty-five percent of all adult male citizens CAH 7 pt. 2, pp. 383ff.
Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius wrote lives of Alexander. Embedded inside the fanciful Greek Alexander Romance are quotations from the court day book covering the king’s last days. Plutarch is the main literary source for Pyrrhus.
1 What, exactly, was the matter is unknown Some time after his death, it was alleged that Alexander had been poisoned. This is unlikely, because he survived for nearly a fortnight after being taken ill, and the ancient world almost certainly did not have access to very slow poisons. Unexpected deaths from disease were often wrongly put down to foul play.
2 “There will be funeral ‘games’ ” Arr 7 26 3.
3 He would never have remained idle Arr 7 1 4.
4 “to strive, to seek, to find” The final line of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Ulysses.
5 “The same wickedness” Cic Rep 3 14 24.
6 killed its aged king, Priam Readers will recall the Player’s speech in Hamlet act 2, scene 2, which describes the deed.
7 Alexander called to him in a dream Plut Pyr 11 2.
8 his appearance “conveyed terror” Ibid., 3 4–5.
9 sufferers from depression Ibid., 3 4–5.
10 the king wore a bone or ivory denture An alternative suggestion (see Champion, p. 19) is that Pyrrhus had fused teeth, but these usually come only in pairs and not as a complete row of teeth.
11 naturally brilliant Dio 9 40 3–4.
12 ate his heart away Hom Il 1 491f.
13 The city was “leafy” Hor Epist 1 16 11.
14 “mild winters” Hor Car 2 6 17–18.
15 To me the bonniest square miles Ibid., 13–16. Hymettus is a mountain range in Attica famous for its bees. Venafrum is a plain in central Italy crossed by the river Volturnus, where olive trees flourished.
16 army of more than thirty thousand men Strabo 6 3 4.
17 Later, because of their prosperity Ibid.
18 offered their services as neutral mediators Livy 9 14 1.
19 Postumius was invited The episode that follows was recorded in Dio 9 39 3–10 and Dio of H 19 5 and 6.
20 “This time they did not laugh” App Samn 7 3.
21 a famous anecdote of Plutarch’s Plut Pyr 14 2–7.
22 Archaeologists have discovered some of the tablets This paragraph is indebted to E. S. Roberts, “The Oracle Inscriptions Discovered at Dodona,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 1, 1880.
23 “Lord Zeus, Dodonean, Pelasgian Zeus” Hom Il 16 233ff.
24 During the great war Paus 8 11 12. According to Peter Levi, “Sicily” is probably one of the small hills above Syngrou Street, on the way to the Piraeus.
25 “construe the advice according to his wishes” Dio 9 40 6.
26 Those issued under Pyrrhus’s aegis See CAH 7 pt. 2, pp. 4636.
27 By this time the elephants were boxed up Arr 5 17.
28 Pyrrhus jumped up Plut Pyr 15 3–4.
29 “the mass of people were incapable” Ibid., 16 2.
30 “they fought out their country’s battles” Ibid., 16 2.
31 King Pyrrhus to Laevinus, Greeting Dio of H 19 9–10. Whether Dio is quoting from the original correspondence or making it up, the sense of the exchange is historical.
32 “The discipline of these barbarians” Plut Pyr 16 5.
33 Granicus The accounts are contradictory. The best hypothesis has Alexander send his army to cross the river Granicus uncontested downstream at night, surprising the Persians in the morning. See Green, Alexander of Macedon, Appendix.
34 “Another victory like this” Plut Pyr 219.
35 “King Pyrrhus and the Epirotes” CAH 7 pt. 2, pp. 468–69.
36 “He is like a player with dice” Plut Pyr 26 2. The speaker was Antigonus Gonatas, the king of Macedonia.
37 “After being cut to pieces” Zon (Dio) 8 4.
