Ari Bryen's new book is a remarkable historical sociology of Roman law *and* a compelling diachronic account of its transformation from a lively site for the telling of stories and making of meaning to a cold instrument of state power & social control.
And the writing is sharp. Highly recommended.
Graphic featuring a landscape photograph of the city of Rome skyline, interspersed with trees and greenery. The text around the image reads “Healthy Living in Rome’s Green Spaces with Andrew Fox”.
We continue our Earth Month series with a #PeoplingBlog post from Andrew Fox @acfox.bsky.social. Here, Andrew introduces us to the ways in which Roman writers contemplated the potential health benefits of integrating green spaces into the city of Rome: peoplingthepast.com/2026/04/17/b...
Sigh, terrible that I don't even need sourcing, I know this quote so well. The cite for this is in the alt but you can also learn about it's context here.
theintercept.com/2022/08/25/s...
Bright teal-y blue background with black and white text that reads: Support Hampshire College Staff and Faculty! DONATE TO OUR EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND Hampshire College is closing, and hundreds of staff and faculty are facing sudden job loss.
As you know, Hampshire College is closing, and hundreds of our wonderful staff & faculty colleagues are facing sudden job loss without severance.
Hampshire staff & faculty have launched an Emergency Relief Fund—if you’re able, please donate or share!
www.helphampshireworkers.com
Art by flaroh illustration; on the left, a couple are walking past the thermopolium wearing their finery. On the right, two children play in the road with their dog while their nursemaid orders them onto the pavement. Behind them, a matrona enters the street from some steps, shielding her eyes from the sun while her attendant holds a parasol. Across the road from the two, a togate man and his two attendants walk towards the thermopolium and are acknowledged by one of the old-timers at the door. Moving further to the background, a donkey cart loaded with amphora approaches the stepping stones. To its left two people chat at the fountain, and a child plays with his doll next to the man. Above, people look out from windows and balconies, gossiping or doing household chores.
My illustration of Life in a Roman Street 🏛️🍷🌿🚶🏻♀️
Go read Amy Fallas’s important new piece on scholasticide in Lebanon
www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1658...
Graphic featuring a photo taken inside an ancient building, with a view through a large window on to an exterior garden space. Around the photo is text that says "Artificial Lighting Systems in Pompeian Gardens and Baths with Emily Lime"
On today’s #PeoplingBlog we are continuing our Earth Month series! Here, graduate student Emily Lime discusses how Pompeians engineered light to address the concerns of the home, in environments where darkness, smoke, and fire posed real challenges: peoplingthepast.com/2026/04/10/b...
Have you ever wondered what life was really like for most of the population in Ancient Rome? Kim Bowes’ "fascinating" new book explores the ancient Roman economy and how the poor (around ninety percent of the population) survived. Read the review in @thespectator1828.bsky.social:
In honor of today’s discourse: consider reading God, Slavery, and Early Christianity!
Ch. 3 is esp. meaningful for showing how Paul’s language of slavery and the Holy Spirit gets read as “God the enslaver dwells within you & surveils you”
www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...
The latest Pasts Imperfect is out! 📚 This week, Nandini Pandey, Niek Janssen & Christopher Londa discuss enslaved readers & writers in Roman antiquity. Then, Venice & the Mongols, a podcast on Cahokia, ancient astrological practices, ancient world journals from @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social & more.
Title page of A Workshop of Eloquence: A Collection of Gazan Literature from Late Antiquity, by Chance E. Bonar. Above the title is the logo for Dar al-Kalima University Press.
Proofs day for A Workshop of Eloquence: A Collection of Gazan Literature from Late Antiquity!
I'm grateful to be working with DAK University Press in Bethlehem and a Gazan Arabic translator to offer an introduction and selection of translated texts by, from, and about late ancient Gaza.
NEW Analysis of ash residue from incense burners preserved at #Pompeii reveals the substances burnt as offerings to the gods in Roman households and the long-distance trade undertaken to acquire them.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
![CIL 1, 3556a = SupIt 27 T, 39
Bovianum Vetus / Isernia, Italy (4). ca. 130-80 BC
[Above, in Oscan] H(ere)n(neis) Sattiieis DETFRI / seganatted plavtad.
[Below, in Latin] Hereneis Amica / signavit, q(u)ando / ponebamus teg<u=I>la(m).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:byohyhodi6iknxngf3oypcge/bafkreiax2id2ivlcyzcto7oaziucudz6yqjs56wfpllhqykxqiynx2i73u)
CIL 1, 3556a = SupIt 27 T, 39 Bovianum Vetus / Isernia, Italy (4). ca. 130-80 BC [Above, in Oscan] H(ere)n(neis) Sattiieis DETFRI / seganatted plavtad. [Below, in Latin] Hereneis Amica / signavit, q(u)ando / ponebamus teg<u=I>la(m).
We love Roman women at work! Two female tile makers at Bovianum Vetus (Italy): (CIL I, 3556a, 130-80 BCE)—one of them signs the rooftile with her foot.
'Detfri of Hn. Sattis signed with a footprint.' 🦶
See @katherinemcdon.bsky.social's brilliant analysis: katherinemcdonald.net/2016/01/14/f....
Graphic featuring a collage of screen grabs from gaming platforms and the text "Let's Play Antiquity with Eduardo García-Molina"
Our latest instalment of the #PeoplingBlog, features the exciting pedagogical work of @egarcmol.bsky.social. Here, he takes us through his course “The Ancient World in Video Games” to highlight the value of bringing gaming into the modern university classroom: peoplingthepast.com/2026/03/27/b...
How much did it cost to unload and reload cargo onto various vehicles in the Roman Mediterranean? ⛵In the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, James Page calculates these costs in a new, open access article. Such an interesting paper for GIS transit modeling & for labor cost (bookkeepers got 20 nummi!).
Bronze figurine of an enslaved person from Roman Britain on a conference poster advertising a conference next month in Toronto
Bluesky friends, I am happy to advertise a conference on ancient and medieval slave trading in the Mediterranean, co-organized by myself and Elizabeth Fentress, to be held in Toronto next month (April 15-17, 2026). Contact me via email (rather than here) or the email on the poster for more info!
Well, I am not sure what my analysis here is worth, but here is my 7,500 word primal scream of a military historian's take on the War in Iran.
My best summary: this war is dumb as hell.
acoup.blog/2026/03/25/m...
This archive is produced by a group of academics to honor and commemorate these lives and those of the many other teachers and researchers in higher education murdered in Gaza during the genocide perpetrated by Israel and its patrons, especially the United States. They were members of the global intellectual community, and we are all impoverished by the loss of their contributions that would have enriched the worlds of the humanities and sciences. The liquidation of these colleagues squandered the many years of higher education and training they embodied, often acquired with great personal and collective effort. The death of so many of our colleagues is a massive blow to higher education in Palestine: they were the teachers of the rising generation who were to take their places as the writers, theologians, social scientists, engineers, and doctors who would help to weave the social fabric and develop the world of knowledge in Palestine. We record their lives in a spirit of grief for their loss and admiration for their accomplishments and to demand that their killers face accountability for their crimes.
REMEMBERING GAZA SCHOLARS A group of academics have spent the past 18 months creating an archive that commemorates the lives of Palestinian scholars killed by Israel. 83 of our colleagues, so far, have bios; the group's work continues rememberinggazascholars.org
given the modern conservative fascination with Sparta it's at least a little funny that they've engineered a situation in which Persia is able to level a dramatically uneven battlefield by forcing the conflict into a narrow pathway
New episode is live! This week @curtisdozier.bsky.social joins to discuss his new book The White Pedestal on how hate groups appropriate and distort ancient history for their modern political goals
youtu.be/mu8xBLZ9qw0
So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:
Now available for preorder, with promo code TCCCR2026, "The Cambridge Companion to Classics and Race," a major intervention against the decades-old orthodoxy of the alleged anachronism of "race" and "racism" for the study of the ancient past. www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
✨Don't know where to start on your #Research? Check out SASA's #OpenAccess database for all things Ancient Studies!
💻Find 1300+ articles, sources, and exciting new projects and topics. Search by keyword, category, and cost. Most sources are FREE!
➡️saveancientstudies.org/online-resources
Themistocles decree?
Top, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. dives into home plate wearing a blue Toronto Blue Jays uniform. Bottom, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. dives into home plate wearing a white Team Dominican Republic uniform.
Replace the Mona Lisa with it
It is my enormous pleasure to share the most recent issue of #ResDiffJournal, Res Diff 2.2 (2025).
"Rez Diff: Indigenous Perspectives," guest-edited by Ashley Lance (@aerl.bsky.social) and Tara Wells.
#OpenAccess
resdifficiles.com/res-diff-2-2...
According to the ancient historian Eutropius (Brev. 2.27), today marks the anniversary of the Battle of the Egadi Islands, fought on March 10, 241 BCE. I have the privilege of working on the battle site itself, where excavations have recovered a remarkable range of material!
Screenshot of article abstract and title: Inscriptions, Writing Cultures, and Epigraphy as Play in Video Games Abstract: This article explores the intersection of epigraphy, archaeology, and game studies within the reception of writing cultures in video games. It argues that video games serve as a unique medium for experiencing ancient material culture, a medium wherein digital inscriptions act as intermediaries between designers and players for worldbuilding and immersive storytelling. We offer a cursory typology with which to research the variety of ways that historical writing cultures interact within both historical and fictive ludic settings: epigraphy in games (or the in-game representation of attested real-world inscriptions), epigraphy of games (or the fictional epigraphy creatively invented by and embedded in contemporary games), and epigraphy as games, where the act of deciphering, reading, and inscribing become gameplay mechanics that fosters a deeper, more active engagement with historical and fictional writing cultures. Ultimately, the article shows that these digital inscriptions shape player perception of historical "truth" and cultural depth, demonstrating that the interactive nature of video games provides a unique pedagogical space for experiencing the materiality of the past in an increasingly digitized world. Keywords: Video games, inscriptions, epigraphy, digital humanities, museum studies, archaeogaming, worldbuilding
Happy to report that @alexvandewalle.bsky.social's and my article will be published in the forthcoming inaugural issue of the American Journal of Classical Reception. Hopefully it serves as an entryway piece for anyone interested in the intersection of games, epigraphy, and digital humanities.
Congrats!
A big proofs day!!! I worked on this chapter for a long time and it’s so exciting to finally see it in this form! This is part of a wonderful volume edited by @chrissieplastow.bsky.social and @hilarylehmann. Shoutout to @dominicmachado.bsky.social @antiquethought.bsky.social
