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The author examines the circumstances of the early youth of Octavian and Agrippa and the beginning of their friendship. Agrippa’s family was probably wealthy but its origin was quite humble, and Octavian’s lineage was not much higher; his ancestors, except his grandmother Julia, belonged to Italian municipal families. It appears that Agrippa met Octavian in the house of the latter’s stepfather Philippus, and in the same house Agrippa’s brother made acquaintance with Cato, the son-in-law of Philippus.

The games sponsored by Octavian in late July 44 BC were the means through which he wanted to communicate with the Roman people and Caesar’s veterans. During the games Octavian publicly declared his desire to preserve Caesar’s memory as a member of his family and he was applauded by the spectators, both the people and veterans. As result of the games he acquired a great political prestige that forced Antony under the pressure Caesar’s veterans to agree to public reconciliation with him.

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The article deals with the problem of seniority of Crassus’ sons. The author argues that, contrary to the opinion of several modern researchers, Marcus was the elder son of Crassus born in the first half of 85 B. C., and Publius was the younger son born in 82 or 81 B. C. The latter didn’t hold quaestorship or enter the senate. Nevertheless he served in Gaul under Caesar earlier than his elder brother.

The article considers the military and diplomatic activity of Marcus Claudius Marcellus in Spain (152–151 BC). In 152 BC he was elected consul for the third time to finish arduous war in Hispania Citerior. He successfully attacked the Celtiberians, efficiently combining method of force with flexible diplomatics, then he helped Atilius Serranus, governor of Hispania Ulterior in his fighting against Lusitanians, this was to contribute to Celtiberians’ conciliation.

Notes continue a subject of explanatory system in Greek vase painting. At first geometrical badges, then symbolical figures of animals, and, at last, an inscription are consistently applied as signs commentators. The inscription role in a graphic field of a vase is various, one of examples – Corinthian aryballos with the image of “jumping dance” under flute sounds, shows that the inscription can be used not only as semantic, but also a graphic element, and here it gives a rhythm of dance and as though “sounds” a scene.

In this article, the principles of analyzing the structure (oikonomia) of historical works in Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ rhetorical treatises On Imitation, Letter to Pompeius, and On Thucydides are discussed. It can be said that Dionysius of Halicarnassus notes the consistency of story and narrative technique.

The article deals with the analysis of Xenophon’s note in Anabasis (VII. 4. 3–4) about frozen wine during his expedition to Thrace in January or February 399 B. C.

The battle of Sardis took place in the period of the Spartan-Persian War, when the Spartan king Agesilaus made a surprise attack on Sardis – the residence of Persian satrap Tissaphernes, in the spring of 395 B. C. Probably the Spartan king hoped to take the city even before the arrival of satrap’s troops. Besides, the capture of one of the centers of the western satrapies of the Persian empire was a threat to the internal regions of Asia Minor. In the battle of Sardis Agesilaus defeated only cavalry of Tissaphernes.

The article gives some consideration to the hypothesis that Herodotus used the “Thucydides method”. I.E. Surikov (2010; 2011) believes that the sentence at the end of Herodotus’ work (9. 121: και κατά το έτος τούτο ούδέν έπι πλέον τούτων έγένέτο) shows that the historian from Halicarnassus had borrowed the temporal principle from his junior Athenian colleague. The researcher assumes that Herodotus must have been determined to continue his account of the Persian Wars waged after 478 B.C.