“Xenophon sacrificed on account of an expedition :”1 divination and the sphagia before ancient Greek battles

Warfare is a process, perhaps the main means, by which human beings have historically sought to settle their political, historical and cultural differences. In archaic and classical Greece, battle and animal sacrifice were intrinsically bound together. There was no violent conflict between cities without the violence of animal sacrifice. Each armed conflict, involving the slaughter of hoplites and the shedding of human blood, was p receded by a slaughter of animals and the spilling of their b...