bookandswordblogAn article in the Roman praetor Quintus Antistius Adventus Postumius Aquilinus https://www.livius.org/articles/person/antistius-adventus/ #romanEmpire #histodons #antiquidons #ancMedToot
In the last winter of the Before Times, I told a cheerful winter story about a hundred years of scholars repeating what a German professor told them not what any ancient source actually says https://www.bookandsword.com/2019/12/21/herodotus-meyer/ #histodons #antiquidons #ancMedToot
Parenthically to the above, it is just possible that Socrates was present at the first siege where Greeks used rams and tortoises like civilized people in 441/440 BCE https://www.bookandsword.com/2020/01/11/how-the-greeks-got-battering-rams/ #ancMedToot #histodons #philosophy #militaryHistory
A quick note on "two battles in three years" https://www.bookandsword.com/2026/01/18/a-quick-note-on-two-battles-in-three-years/ #histodons #researchHistory #ancMedToot #antiquidons #militaryHistory
What if we take Bret Devereaux's argument about the Roman Republic engineering Italy and run with it? There was no typical polis in ancient Greece https://www.bookandsword.com/2026/01/11/there-was-no-typical-polis/ #histodons #antiquidons #ancMedToot
Bret Devreeaux has another excellent post in his hoplite series https://acoup.blog/2026/01/09/collections-hoplite-wars-part-iva-the-status-of-hoplites/ #histodons #ancMedToot #hopliteWars #militaryHistory #politicalEconomy
2300 years ago, one of the tyrants of Syracuse had too much money and decided to build the biggest ship ever. It was going to have a cargo hold and a library and luxury apartments with marble decor. He hired the best engineer in Hellas to build it. And it made one voyage after which he figured out that no harbour in Sicily would hold it and gave it to the KIng of Egypt. Because money can solve many problems but nature cannot be fooled. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracusia #ancMedToot #antiquidons #histodons
Oops, my post on books I read in 2025 was missing the section on the ancient Near East! Eckart Frahm's learned overview of how the Assyrians got kings who destroyed them, a skinny trade book on the historical Jesus (and whether there was a historical Jesus), and a weighty companion to war in ancient Iran https://www.bookandsword.com/2026/01/03/books-read-in-2025/ #bookReview #iranistik #ancMedToot
In 2021 I wrote a magazine article on how a translated French summary of a medieval Roman chronicle gave English-speaking classicists misconceptions about linen armour https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/glued-linen-armour/ #materialCulture #antiquidons #ancMedToot #byzantine
Body-armour of glued linen? - The origin of the idea of glued linen armour
Many people believe that the ancient Greeks used, among other things, armour that was made of layers of linen cloth glued together. But there is no ancient text linking linen armour and glue. No other culture made armour this way. So where does this idea come from?
@paninid the Romans did not know how this happened either, but they guessed that in the old times nobody needed a name for January or February because you just sat at home in your hovel waiting for the plants to start growing again. Thus the count of numbered months from the start of the civil year in March https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar#Romulus #ancMedToot
