This summer, the Interlochen Shakespeare Festival is staging "Julius Caesar."
I don't think it's a spoiler to mention that this play has a rather high mortality rate ... some deaths unexpected and some foreshadowed.
In Act V, Cassius described a bad omen: the two mighty eagles which once followed his army had disappeared, but had been replaced by crows and ravens which suggested impending death.
The European species known as the imperial eagle was esteemed by the ancient Romans as the symbol of imperial power, strength and victory — eagles were used as the standard of a Roman legion.
As people of ancient Rome and Shakespeare's England certainly were aware, crows and ravens are carrion eaters.
And if they were circling a battlefield, Cassius believed that his soldiers were doomed.
While these avian scavengers were dreaded and detested once, ecologists now appreciate their dead meat removal services.
In addition to picking rotting carcasses to the bone, they prevent the spread of diseases by removing toxins, bacteria and other pathogens before they can spread into the local environment.
Consequently, carrion eaters play a pivotal role in protecting wildlife and human health.
Crows and ravens — in Europe and here — are carnivores.
But they are opportunists and will feed on dead meat whenever it becomes available.
Curiously, imperial eagles, like our own beloved bald eagles, are carnivores and opportunists also.
Let's face it: it's easier to feast on dead meat than to hunt, so they do.
When defeated Roman legions met their fate, the imperial eagles were likely right out on the battlefield with the crows and ravens, surviving on the carnage of war.
