Shame it wasn’t brown or mustard coloured.

Balfron Tower 1970s

Current mood.

Archaeologists stunned to find copy of Homer’s Iliad inside ancient Egyptian mummy Papyrus fragment discovered inside mummy buried in Roman-era tomb around 1,600 years ago

www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

Unusually large group of students booked on to the online Antigone session for the OU this morning. Not sure why.

If I’d been sitting the Latin A level exams in 2013, I would have enjoyed doing the prose composition about the death of Cicero.

Been invited to chair the opening session at the conference in Poland next month. No pressure.

2,000-Year-Old Roman Murals Reveal a Surprisingly Advanced Painting Technique Learn more about how 1st-century Roman painters in Hispania used a surprising technique to make their murals vibrant and long-lasting.

www.discovermagazine.com/2-000-year-o...

Some brutal trolling from the algorithms this morning: golf, care homes, palliative care and funeral plans. Titchmarsh is in there as well, plus ads for the Telegraph.

Our Aeneid primer episode is now live, and fantastic! thanks to our special guest @avensarah.bsky.social.

It is the perfect companion episode to our Augustus double bill with @mikebeer.bsky.social

Links below⏬️

Hidden treasures: Spanish archaeologists discover trove of ancient shipwrecks in Bay of Gibraltar Researchers identify wrecks at the bottom of the sea from as far back as fifth century BC, from Europe and beyond

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

For Roman Workers, Life Was Nasty, Brutish, and Short Our images of the Roman Empire are dominated by the monuments and lifestyles of wealthy urban elites. An important new history shifts our attention to the 90% of Rome’s population whose brutally explo...

jacobin.com/2026/04/bowe...

Casa del Portuale, Napoli

Morning.

CA conference done for another year. Always good to catch up with friends and colleagues and meet new people. Inscriptions and archaeology papers particularly interesting.

Hoping for a sympathetic hearing this morning for my paper on Roman coin legends and trilingual inscriptions at the CA conference. As long as I do not have to flee whilst being pelted by rotten vegetables by disgruntled numismatists and epigraphers.

www.bbc.co.uk/culture/arti...

This metro stop is Ancient Rome's new attraction Construction on Rome's Metro C has uncovered spectacular Roman ruins, and its new "archaeo-stations" are giving visitors a whole new way to experience the city's ancient past.

www.bbc.co.uk/travel/artic...

Draft programme out for the Colloquia Ceranea at the University of Łódź in Poland next month. Looks like my paper is one of the first on day one. Very interdisciplinary set of papers over three days. Definitely glad to being going and first visit to Poland.

Off to Manchester for a few days to the annual Classical Association conference. Giving a paper this year on Roman coinage and trilingual inscriptions. Scarcely any opportunity for a disparaging Cicero mention but I’ve managed it.

This Bold '80s Sci-Fi Anime Tackled The Odyssey Decades Before Christopher Nolan - SlashFilm Before Christopher Nolan got there, the 1981 French/Japanese/Luxembourgian anime series called Ulysses 31 adapted The Odyssey.

This Bold '80s Sci-Fi Anime Tackled The Odyssey Decades Before Christopher Nolan
www.slashfilm.com/2136633/ulys...

Monica Vitti in front of industrial landscape

Morning!

Rod Hull with Emu and Easter eggs.

Morning.

It has just occurred to me that the person in China that I am tutoring for A level Latin on a Friday evening is doing that at 1 am in her country. That is dedication.

Fate versus Fortune in epic poetry - which affects the narratives of heroes more? Listen to the full episode with @greekmythcomix.bsky.social, out now wherever you get your podcasts, or on our website: www.ancienthistory101.org/p/gods-in-ep...

Lone sheep in front of tower block.

Good morning.

Let’s get metaphysical! Existentialist cinema is back, if anyone cares The philosophy was embraced by film noir, the French New Wave and modern hitmen questioning life’s purpose. Now dust off your turtlenecks, for Sirāt and a new version of Albert Camus’ The Stranger loo...

www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ap...

Series 1, Episode 4 is now live! We're joined by Laura Jenkinson-Brown of @greekmythcomix.bsky.social fame, who chats about the vital role the gods had in epic poetry, driving and moulding the narratives - and why adaptations of Homer's poems skip the gods at their peril...

After Poland and before Sicily, a spot of travelling around the Aegean: Athens,Ephesus, Paros, Crete, Kefalonia and Corfu.

Goodnight.

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You can find us on instagram! Click here to find a clip from our latest episode with @mikebeer.bsky.social, discussing the Battle of Actium

www.instagram.com/reel/DWhFxdh...

Working on the first draft of my paper for the Poland conference, which touches briefly on the career of the delightful Locusta of Gaul, expert ‘poisoner’ under the Julio-Claudians. Given the sources, I wonder whether ‘herbalist’ or ‘healer ‘ was a more accurate description.