When the news spread that Julius Caesar’s adopted nephew Octavian had defeated Mark Antony at the battle of Actium (31 B.C.), thereby ensuring that he would become the emperor Augustus, at least one parrot appeared among his well-wishers, greeting him with the words “Hail Caesar, conqueror and leader!” (Macrobius 3.30; my translation). This was a calculated appeal to the victor’s largesse, of course; it takes a long time to teach a parrot to say anything, so the bird’s greeting offered powerful evidence of its owner’s loyalty.
In this case, the ploy worked, and Octavian bought the bird from its owner for a handsome sum. But another fortune-hunter used a raven for the same purpose, with less than ideal results:
It happened that a man appeared before Caesar with a raven, which he had taught to say, “Hail Caesar, conqueror and leader!”
Caesar, marveling, bought the dutiful bird for twenty thousand coins. But a companion of the bird’s trainer, who had received nothing of this generosity, declared that the trainer had another bird, too, which Caesar demanded to see as well. When brought forward, it greeted him with the words “Hail Antony, conqueror and leader!” (Macrobius 3.30; my translation)
The bird-trainer evidently had been hedging his bets.
from Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird by Bruce Thomas Boehrer.
