Greeks’ reliance on natural, astronomical, phenomena, rather than calendars, for syn-
chronizing the Panhellenic games.
- Asheri 1991 – 92, 58.
- Asheri 1991 – 92, 87.
- “One of those coincidences that in ancient history would be dismissed as obvi-
ous fictions,” Blackburn and Holford-Strevens 1999, 282. Let me recommend this
splendid book in the warmest terms: every household should have a copy. For a divert-
ing collection of ancient coincidences, see Plut. Quaest. Conv.717C–D. - For the ancients’ fondness for deaths of famous men in the same year, see Diod.
Sic. 15.60.3 – 5 on the deaths in the same year of Amyntas of Macedon, Agesipolis of
Sparta, and Jason of Pherae; esp. Polyb. 23.12.1 – 14.12, Diod. Sic. 29.18 – 21, and Livy
39.50.10 on the deaths in the same year of Hannibal, Scipio, and Philopoemon; cf. Wal-
bank 1957 – 79, 1:229, 3:235 – 39; Clarke 1999b, 268. In British history the most striking
coincidence of dates is a linear, not a parallel, one — 3 September, the day on which
Oliver Cromwell won the victories of Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651), and the
day on which he died (1658). - How many people do you need together in a room to guarantee a 50-percent
chance of two of them having the same birthday? The answer is twenty-three; Belkin
2002, 35 (my thanks to Michael Flower for the reference). See Charpak and Broch
2004, chap. 2, “Amazing Coincidences,” for a demonstration of how knowledge of ele-
mentary statistics dispels the sense of amazement. - Hdt. 8.15.1 for Artemisium and Thermopylae; 9.101.2, with explicit mention of
counting up the days to establish the coincidence of Plataea and Mycale: Asheri 1991 –
92, 60; Flower and Marincola 2002, 276 – 77. The tradition continued: see App. BCiv.
4.116 for the amazing synchronism of a naval battle in the Adriatic and the land battle
at Philippi. Salamis also figured in a meaningful chain of coincidence supposedly link-
ing the three great Attic tragedians — Aeschylus fought in the victory, Sophocles
danced in the chorus celebrating it, and Euripides was born on the very day itself:
Mosshammer 1979, 309 – 10.
9.FGrH70 F 186; see Pearson 1987, 134; Vattuone 1991, 82; Asheri 1991 – 92, 57. - Dench 1995, 51, on Himera and Salamis; cf. Dench 2003, 299, on the Taren-
tines’ attempt to get in on this act by claiming that their victories over “various south
Italian barbaroi” are part of “the struggle against the now generic barbarian.” - T. Harrison 2000b, 96. On the ideological resonances of the Himera-Salamis
synchronism, and the links between the wars against the Carthaginians and Persians,
especially in Pindar and Herodotus, see Gauthier 1966; Bichler 1985; Asheri 1991 – 92,
56 – 60; S. P. Morris 1992, 238, 374. There will be an important reassessment of these
topics in the forthcoming book by Sarah Harrell, based on her 1998 Princeton PhD
dissertation. - Asheri 1991 – 92, 56 – 57.
notes to pages 43 – 45. 231