Graeco-Roman

Alcetas (Alketas). Younger brother of Perdiccas (J 13.6.15; D 18.29.2; ASucc 1.21), hence probably also a son of Orontes of Orestes (cf. A 3.11.9; 6.28.4; AInd 18.5); possibly of Argead descent (C 10.7.8).30 Born ca. 355, he succeeded Perdiccas as taxiarch of the Lyncestians and Orestians, perhaps as early as 331/0, though Perdiccas retained nominal command of the taxis (cf. A 3.18.5). In 327 he campaigned with Craterus, Polyperchon, and Attalus in Paraetacene (A 4.22.1; cf. C 8.5.2), receiving the news of the abortive attempt to introduce proskynesis and the conspiracy of Hermolaus in a letter from Alexander (PA 55.6). During the Swat campaign of 327, Alcetas, Attalus, and Demetrius the hipparch attacked the town of Ora, while Coenus  was besieging Bazira = Bir-Kot (A 4.27.5–6); the honor of taking the town appears to have been reserved for the King himself  (A 4.27.9).31 At the Hydaspes Alcetas’ battalion, along with that of Polyperchon, remained in the main ca...

Caption: Lycurgus marble bas-relief, one of 23 reliefs of great historical lawgivers in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives  in the United States Capitol. Sculpted by C. Paul Jennewein in 1950. Diameter 28 inches. In Greek history, the reputed founder of the Spartan constitution. Plutarch opens his ​biography of Lycurgus with these words: “About Lycurgus the lawgiver it is not possible to make a single statement that is not called in question. His genealogy, his travels, his death, above all, his legislative and constitutional activity have been variously recorded, and there is the greatest difference of opinion as to his date.” Nor has modern historical criticism arrived at any certain results. Many scholars, indeed, suppose him to be in reality a god or hero, appealing to the existence of a temple and cult of Lycurgus at Sparta as early as the time of Herodotus, (i. 66), and to the words of the Delphic oracle (Herod. i. 65)— δίζω ἤ σε θεὸν μαντεύσομαι ἤ ἄ...