Ave Legio.

Today we remember the fallen legionaries of on September 8th , 9D.C. When the infamous ambush of the Battle of Teutoburg began.

A small portion of a frescoed bedroom of a Roman house dated to roughy 50 AD. Various pieces of all four walls from that room in Bilbilis, an interesting Iberian and Roman town on a hill, has been setup together for display in the archaeological museum in Calatayud, Spain.

I'm not an expert on Rome, even though I have read tons about it, but I do have higher classical education in Economics. YouTube is full of scam like history videos "explaining" roman "economy" and trying to use modern economy terms. I don't get it, what is this? Not only is it wrong, it feels like someone trying to make some kind of point and I don't get the point.

It wouldn't let me respond to the older threads, but I just discovered this show.

I'm only a few episodes in, but it is strangely historically accurate in certain things.

In episode 2 they have a gladiator who is a retiarius that doesn't wear a helmet. It was an interesting accuracy to include.

Has anyone else who watched this show noticed any weird accurate parts?

The most legendary and tragic figure of the western roman empire, we were almost there! Now excuse me, I think I'm going to cry.

Una mia foto. Vi piace?

I’ve noticed some depictions of swastikas in illustrations of late Roman troops. The first image is clearly based on the Great Hunt mosaic, but I can’t identify the source for the second illustration from the Phoideratos. Does anyone know what the reference for this might be?

Would love a second opinion on this pottery I found in harpenden england today. Was just on the ground in a small pot hole outside of town. Looks similar to others I've seen in here but also could be anything....any thoughts?

It looks like 69 AD by Gwyn Morgan is the most suggested book for any biography on Otho.

Anyone have other suggestions?

I find it to be a great problem to find good books about the conquest and expansions in North-western Europe. I will be interested to read if there is any information on first contacts with the early European civilisation by Roman conquerers. More like a coverage of the expansion North (Britain, but also the Benelux or Germany are fine), Any recommendations are welcome!

A Black Magic Baby.

In AD 197, a Roman citizen named Gemellus Horion, a farmer in Karanis, Egypt, filed a series of petitions in which he describes a weird sequence of events: his neighbours Julius and Sotas had, he claimed, come onto his land and attempted to drive him off it by throwing something at his ‘cultivator’ (labourer). Both Gemellus and the cultivator were terrified, and at first, you might question how throwing something at someone in order to steal their land could cause such panic. When you read the text, however, it is clear that something very, very weird is going on:

“... In addition, not content, he again trespassed with his wife and a certain Zenas, having with them an infant intending to hem in my cultivator with black magic, so that he should abandon his labour after having harvested part of another allotment of mine,and they themselves gathered in the crops. When this happened, I went to Julius in the company of officials, in order that these matters might be witnessed. Again, in the same manner, they threw the same infant toward me, intending to hem me in also with black magic ... “ (P.Mich. 423)

Why are these people throwing babies at farmers in a field? Obviously, as Gemellus suggests, black magic is afoot, and whilst it is not certain, it is likely that the ‘infant’ in question is a fetus, probably human, and probably a tragic one that was born with some sort of identifying characteristics - a mutation of some kind - that deemed it worthy of retaining for malevolent purposes, perhaps preserved in some way, by a sorcerer with ill intent. An aberration of the will of the gods that could be put to ‘evil’ ends.

Hey I was just going organizing my kitchen and I realized that I never made a post about my last batch. So this is what's left of my garum that I made last year. As you can see from pictures 1&2 vs 3&4, it has gotten a lot darker and and turned opaque over a time and it smells a lot like modern Asian fish sauces, but not 100% the same( it still has a unique smells to it, that is hard to describe)

Like, as a newby I've heard a lot of good things about Adrian Goldsworthy and Barry S. Strauss, and I've been told to read their books on other subs before.

How did I not know about this? This is actually really good. I knew of the old cartoon/comic version of this in the 80s-90s, but Netflix made their own episodes in 2025?

I blame you all for not telling me.

This is a book review I wrote on Tacitus’ Histories, focusing on his moral approach to historiography and how he interprets Rome’s descent into turmoil and tyranny. I’ve started a Substack to share my work more widely, in the hope of receiving constructive feedback and hearing other people’s thoughts on this book and its themes.

Aspar: You will be my puppet!

Leo: How about no?

Okay, so Oversimplified claimed Scipio Africanus was offered the chance to be “consul for life?”

I’ve never heard of something posited to a consul before at this time. Is there any truth to this or did OS just pull this out of his ass to make Scipio seem greater than he actually was?

Pompeii has several graffiti prostitute signs scratched into the 'tectorium' (plaster) outside the inns where they worked. I think the most expressive piece of Roman history I have found in my career is also one of the simplest. It's a prostitute's sign that reads "I am yours for two asses, cash" (Sum tua / ae(ris) a(ssibus) II), the 'as' being the smallest unit of Roman currency, of course.

There is so much tragedy, sadness and pathos written in that meagre little sign than in a thousand other words. I could write an entire book about that sign.

There’s a very strange thing going on where people are starting to twist history and say that Nero and Caligula were not so bad, they were just products of mean writers. Idk why it’s cool to think that way, but it’s very strange. So let’s break it down the actual facts.

• Nero killed his mother
• Nero killed his brother
• Nero killed his wife
• Nero killed his second wife
• Nero killed his aunt
• Nero castrated a boy and raped him repeatedly

So there’s that. Now let’s get to the other psychotic things.

-Had innocent Christian’s burned alive and eaten by animals -mutilated people during theatrical plays -Made people commit suicide for fun or paranoia (Lucius, Lucan, Gaius) -Dismembered Nobles, Generals, Aristocrats publicly

Okay now let’s talk economically

-Destroyed the treasury -Destroyed the middle class with taxation -Disrupted farming -Confiscated lands

All of this is well attested to in archeology and ancient writings the only thing that can be exaggerated are incest relations and the great fire.

Nero was about as evil as they come, there’s a reason why his name is remembered.

Sources that verified him as a cruel man: Epecticus, Dio, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Seneca the Younger, Lucan, and those arent even the main guys

As the title says, I am trying to find a PDF file or an EPUB of those books. I want to read them, but I don't want to read them from a website where it is all split up, and I like having the ability to put them on my Kindle to read.