Tiresiam, the blind prophet of Thebes.
6 Amphiaraum, the seer of Argos. One of the Seven against Thebes.
Helenus, son of Priam. A seer of the Iliad and the Aeneid.
10 P. Claudi temeritas. P. Cl. Pulcher (son of Appius Claudius, the blind Censor) defeated by Adherbal off Drepana (N.W. corner of Sicily, between Eryx and Lilybaeum).
15 Iunius. L. J. Pullus, consul 249 B.C. His fleet was destroyed by a storm off Pachynus (C. Passaro) the same year.
Parallel Passage. Florus ii. 2 says that ‘Claudius was overthrown, not by the enemy, but by the gods themselves, whose auspices he had despised.’
The Defeat off Drepana. ‘The reason of the defeat lay in the superiority of the Carthaginian admiral and seamen, and the inexperience of Claudius and of his crews, consisting mainly of landsmen who knew nothing of the sea. This disaster and the destruction of the fleet of Junius crowned the series of misfortunes which befell the Romans in the year 249 B.C., the most dismal time of the whole war.’—Ihne.