Today is the official anniversary of the foundation of #Rome, the eternal city 2779 years ago. Five official days of celebration are underway since the past weekend.
📷 my own, #ForumRomanum with the #Colosseum behind.
This little bumble bee 🐝 rested on this dandelion for a while this afternoon.
Our “lawn” is more daisies, dandelions, and sprouting clover than grass.
And isn’t it better that way! I hope this bee made it back to the hive.
📷 my own
#Photography #Bees #Wildlife
I love the picture of the elephants 🐘 on the wall.
Part of a colourful Roman mosaic floor depicting doves drinking from a vase from a townhouse that dates AD 1-50. The house is now below the Caseggiato delle Taberne in #OstiaAntica.
📷 my own.
#MosaicMonday #Archaeology #AncientRome
Two roads - the first in Pompeii, the second in Herculaneum. Both Roman towns were buried in the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
📷 my own.
#RomanEmpire #Archaeology #RomanRoads
Took these photos on #TodaysWalk.
The bees 🐝 are drunk on nectar. Curlews and yellow hammers, skylarks and redstarts, as well as all the usual feathered friends in the chorus.
#Northumberland #Landscapes #BirdSong #Photography.
📷 my own.
Happy Birthday to Rome, founded 2,779 years ago.
#Rome #AncientRome
Two roads - the first in Pompeii, the second in Herculaneum. Both Roman towns were buried in the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
📷 my own.
#RomanEmpire #Archaeology #RomanRoads
It’s easy to get there from Rome on the train. Well worth the effort.
Also it’s #WorldHeritageDay!
Photos showing some of the complex archaeological remains at #OstiaAntica, ancient port of Rome.
#Archaeology #AncientRome #RomanSiteSaturday
📷 my own.
Words penned by @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social from Worlds’ Ends:
“…their limit one of many limits
where they stood and narrowed
across the boundless threat…”
He captures the Roman frontier in this poem and other familiar Northumbrian landmarks.
📷 my own, #Housesteads Roman Fort on #HadriansWall
Iron spearhead
Corner fragment of a geometric mosaic
#RomanFortThursday: Isca Dumnoniorum, in modern-day Exeter, was the base of future emperor #Vespasian's legion. Established in 55AD, it contained regimental headquarters, soldiers' barracks, grain storage, a bathhouse and a workshop. Images: Royal Albert Memorial Museum.
A miniature Roman cameo of fourth century CE is now in Capitoline Museums, Rome.
Faces from the past reach us in many artefacts, from statues to tiny portraits like this.
A shoutout to the forgotten artists who made them.
#FindsFriday #AncientRome #Archaeology
📷 my own
It was lovely chatting to you @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social - it’s this sort of conversation that makes my SM experience a positive one. Check out Paul’s wonderful account and poetry.
You too 😊
Go for it. Until the next time we make a spontaneous thread 🧵 😊
That’s so true. It’s impossible to see how different poetry would have been without Ovid and Virgil. And the grounding of Renaissance cultural forms in the classical world was so pervasive that we are still drawing on it whether consciously or not.
Thanks for amazing chat. Must get to work now 😊
I first learned Latin at university. We were given some pre-course materials to read. One of those stated - you are an English speaker, you already know Latin. The next pages were lists of English words with their Latin roots and their Latin meanings. Best vocab lesson I ever received.
That was pretty brutal. I get a sense Juvenal would have had fun sending up ‘world leaders’ today and enjoyed their discomfort enormously. He’d have loved social media.
Take your point about Dido - there were many stories about her in circulation but Virgil drew a character.
I never felt Virgil was really critical of Augustus, more that he felt his work ought to have been of higher value, perhaps. As an exile, Ovid certainly was vocal. We remember him for it.
Juvenal, however - biting satire, and laughed out loud. Maybe I’m not one for the more elevated Latin poetry haha.
I’m not a huge fan of Virgil. The Aeneid seems a bit sycophantic to me given his patron, derivative too. An unpopular opinion, I know, but I found myself doing a lot of 🙄 when I read The Aeneid.
But I do love how it was important to Roman elites to have their poem as the Greeks had Homer’s Iliad.
I first learned Latin at university. We were given some pre-course materials to read. One of those stated - you are an English speaker, you already know Latin. The next pages were lists of English words with their Latin roots and their Latin meanings. Best vocab lesson I ever received.
So many English words have a Latin parent.
Limes is an evocative word, especially when you stand on the whin sill looking north to the forests beyond. No wonder George R R Martin was inspired to pen his wall in his fantasy novels.
I love the ancient Roman word ‘limes’ - it’s so fitting for places like the two Roman Walls in their most northwesterly province.
A miniature Roman cameo of fourth century CE is now in Capitoline Museums, Rome.
Faces from the past reach us in many artefacts, from statues to tiny portraits like this.
A shoutout to the forgotten artists who made them.
#FindsFriday #AncientRome #Archaeology
📷 my own
Find Worlds’ Ends and two other poems by Paul here:
lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2026/04/thre...
I think it’s all fixed.
🤞🤞🤞
Words penned by @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social from Worlds’ Ends:
“…their limit one of many limits
where they stood and narrowed
across the boundless threat…”
He captures the Roman frontier in this poem and other familiar Northumbrian landmarks.
📷 my own, #Housesteads Roman Fort on #HadriansWall