I edited myself as Sappho’s companion in John William Godward’s 1904 painting, In the Days of Sappho, also known as Reverie."
I’m feeling down for missing #ClassicsTober24, something I’d looked forward to all year. October 25 was my favorite day since it focused on Sappho—I even planned to update my profile with an edited image of myself as her companion in Godward’s 1904 painting "In the Days of Sappho", or "Reverie".
This is a thank you to all us who participated in #ClassicsTober24
Basically, if you learned something or saw something interesting, you’ve won!
We hope it was fun. See you next year x
#classicstober24 #classicstober
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR #classicstober24 ClassicsTober24 POSTS THIS YEAR! From GreekMythComix and Dr CoraBeth Fraser and all the Classicist, Historian, Archaeologist and Author prompt-pickers!
We hope you had a great time contributing or just reading and learning about our pickers’ favourite ancient figures! Maybe you learned something about someone you already knew about, or found out about someone new!
Thanks for joining us for #ClassicsTober #ClassicsTober24 this year!
With the world being what it is right now, everyone is just tired. We thought this would be the best way to run things this year, with some real-people-in-history, known and unknown, and take the pressure off.
The #ClassicsTober24 is now over. In the end, I put together 31 posts in Twitter and copied them to Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon and Facebook.
My most popular post in Bluesky was Day 9: Eritha with 14 likes. The runner up was Day 8: Boudicca with 11 likes.
Thank you @greekmythcomix.bsky.social
Bless him, Patrick Stewart #ClassicsTober24 😁🤩
Patrick Stewart and his wig, dressed up in Roman military clothing.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 31: Sejanus. A still from an unseen holodeck episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 31. Sejanus Picked by Dr Emma Southon, Roman Historian, Author and Podcaster As it’s the last one, let’s have a lil🧵!
#ClassicsTober24 Day 31. Sejanus
Picked by Dr Emma Southon, Roman Historian, Author and Podcaster @emmasouthon.bsky.social
As it’s the last one, let’s have a lil🧵!
#ClassicsTober24 Day 31: Sejanus. The last figure of #ClassicsTober: Lucius Aelius Sejanus (c. 20 BC-AD 31), a soldier who remodelled the Pretorian Guard, went to govern Rome when Tiberius withdrew to Capri. He became a consul in AD 31, but was accused of conspiracy & executed.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 30 by Dr Helen Forte who suggested Flavius Cerealis to #ClassicsTober
Photo of a paper model of Flavius' office at Vindolanda with wooden peg doll figures. Flavius is behind his desk, which has wooden writing tablets on, representing the 80 ink tablets surviving from his correspondence. His youngest child Rufus is peeking out from a cupboard, and Vibrissa from under his desk. Minimus is standing on Flavius' wolfskin rug (we know he was a keen huntsman)
ClassicsTober 30
Flavius Cerealis, prefect of the 9th cohort of Batavians, lived with his wife Lepidina and their three children in the praetorium at Vindolanda in about 100 AD. He's one of the main characters in the Minimus books, seen here with Rufus, Vibrissa the cat and Minimus.
#ClassicsTober24
A Roman fort (Vindolanda) from the air, showing excavated areas within and outside the fort, and reconstructed buildings at the bottom of the picture.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 30: Flavius Cerialis. Just one of many commanders of Vindolanda fort, but by chance, much of the correspondence from his time in charge has survived, showing a life spent mainly hunting and replying to requests for leave. One wonders if he got the promotion he so craved.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 30. Flavius Cerialis from Vindolanda Picked by Dr Helen Forte @minimus_latin , Illustrator and Latin teacher
(c.100CE) Prefect of the ninth cohort of Batavians, who lived with his family in the praetorium (official residence of the Roman governor) at Vindolanda in the years around AD 100. His correspondence accounts for over 80 of the letters contained on the wooden tablets found there, written in ink. Some personal details are suggested by his correspondence: his name ‘Flavius’ suggests his family may have gained citizenship under Vespasian (the first Flavian emperor), and he must have been of equestrian status to gain his position. He was keen to keep his fellow soldiers happy, requesting ‘beer’ for them.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 30. Flavius Cerialis from Vindolanda
Picked by Dr Helen Forte @minimuslatin.bsky.social @drhelenforte.bsky.social , Illustrator and Latin teacher
A final #Phryne for #Classicstober24: Gustave Boulanger's exoticizing and challenging version of everyone's favorite hetaira
#ClassicsTober24 Day 30: Flavius Cerealis. This soldier is the best known person from Vindolanda. He was the prefect of the ninth cohort of Batavians who lived in the praetorium of the fort with his family around AD 100. His correspondence covers 80 letters. #ClassicsTober
For our 4th Phryne of the day, Karla Kelsey's verse novel, On Certainty, which features a narrator who takes on the qualities of #Phryne from various works of art: poetrysociety.org/poems-essays...
#Classicstober24
Following up with a less scandalous image (the last one was labelled "adult content"!), let's add in Gina Lollobrigida playing #Phryne in the 1952 film Altri Tempi ("Olden Days") and starting the trend toward buxom Italian screen stars (the "maggiorata physica"). #classicstober24
A woman with a pixie bob haircut, in a black dress, and holding a gold-plated revolver, lying prone on a rug, looking at the camera, and no doubt thinking kinky thoughts. This is Phryne Fisher, of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 29: Phryne.
#classicstober24 Day 29. Phryne Picked by Dr Melissa Funke, Classicist @MelissaKAFunke
(c. 371 BC – some time after 316 BCE) Born Mnesarete, she originally came from Thespiae in Boeotia but lived most of her life in Athens. Her original status is unclear, but she became one of the wealthiest women in Greece as the courtesan (hetaira) Phryne. She was the first woman to dedicate a statue of herself in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, and offered to pay for the rebuilding of the walls of Thebes after they were destroyed by Alexander the Great . She was famously acquitted of impiety in a high-profile trial, and was apparently so beautiful that she inspired the sculptor Praxiteles to make her the model for several of his statues, possibly even Aphrodite of Knidos, and Apelles of Kos, the famed painter, again for a painting of Aphrodite.
#classicstober24 Day 29. Phryne
Picked by Dr Melissa Funke, Classicist @melissakafunke.bsky.social
#ClassicsTober24 Day 29: Phryne. This Greek prostitute (heteira) became one of the richest women in Greece. Her real name was Mnesarete & she was from Thespiae in Boetia. She was prosecuted for impiety & is said to have been the model for the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles. #ClassicsTober
My contribution to #ClassicsTober24, because I can only draw stick men, but I love to feel included.
www.badancient.com/claims/crass...
Now, I can't draw for toffee, but I love #ClassicsTober24 - so here I am mythbusting Crassus' death, along with a little 🧵 www.badancient.com/claims/crassus-gold-pour...
Laurence Olivier as Crassus in Spartacus (1960), looking sternly at the camera, with Roman haircut and fake nose, dressed in white Roman armour with god decoration.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 28: Marcus Licinius Crassus. Memorably played by Laurence Olivier, the richest man in Rome, the man who beat Spartacus, and thean who got himself killed fighting the Parthians, because he was an idiot.
It is #ClassicsTober24 and one of our editorial team @belovedofoizys.bsky.social gave today's suggestion of Crassus.
She has also written a new #BadAncient article all about his death!
www.badancient.com/claims/crass...
#ClassicsTober24 - Day 28: Marcus Licinius Crassus
Probably the greatest piece of Classical Reception on Crassus, thanks to 'Horrible Histories'.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wINL...
#ClassicsTober24 Day 28. Crassus Picked by Alexandra Sills, Ancient Historian, Working Classicist of the Year 2023 @BelovedOfOizys
(115 – 53 BCE) Marcus Licinius Crassus, ‘the richest man in Rome’. Member of the plebeian gens Licinia, his father was an eminent senator. Was a military commander under Lucius Cornelius Sulla during the Roman Civil War. When Sulla became dictator, Crassus amassed an enormous fortune through slave trafficking, silver production, and property speculation – he bought up property confiscated through proscription, and collapsed and burnt buildings; he created a 500-strong slave fire brigade, who only acted upon payment, or on agreement that Crassus could buy the building at a cheap price. He then bought up the surrounding properties and rebuilt them with an army of slave architects and engineers.
(Crassus’ wealth is estimated by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History at approximately 200 million sesterces, which was like the yearly budget of Rome.) He then became politically important when sent as commander to quell the uprising of Spartacus, becoming consul with Pompey the Great, then forming The First Triumvirate with Pompey and Julius Caesar. After his second consulship, Crassus became governor of Syria, and launched a military campaign against the Parthians. It failed spectacularly and he was killed.
#ClassicsTober24 Day 28. Crassus
Picked by Alexandra Sills, Ancient Historian, Working Classicist of the Year 2023 @belovedofoizys.bsky.social
#ClassicsTober24 Day 28: Crassus. Marcus Licinius Crassus (115-53 BC) was the wealthiest key political figure during the Late Republican times. He defeated the Spartacus slave revolt, was a consul with Pompey and in the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey. #ClassicsTober
Drawing of Regulus looking dramatically sad, next to his son's funeral pyre. Dogs, ponies and birds are gathered by the pyre and watching him suspiciously. The caption reads: Marcus Aquillius Regulus prepares to immolate his son's pets as an extravagant gesture of mourning. Regulus says "Alas! I am the most wretched member of this afflicted household!" One of the ponies mutters "Debatable..."
ClassicsTober 21
Marcus Aquillius Regulus was a rich and famous orator, legacy-hunter and informer. Pliny the Younger tells us that when his son died, Regulus ordered statues and a biography of him, and the wholesale slaughter of the boy's pets as funeral sacrifices.
#ClassicsTober24
A sliver coin, showing a clean-shaven man facing right, with a fillet binding his hair, a sign of royalty. There is a Greek text, which reads BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU ("Of King Meander Soter").
#ClassicsTober24 Day 27: Menander I Soter. Another person I knew little about, a Greco-Bactrian king who converted to Buddhism.
