Historian and author celebrating the endless wonders of the classical world. My book 'Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins' is OUT NOW.
Swindon, Wiltshire
Joined August 2010
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Moneta is out today in paperback!
"Riveting ... An utterly original history of Rome that compels from start to finish. A wonderful read." ― Mail on Sunday
"An excellent 1,000 year history of Rome told in an engaging new way ... well worth a few denarii." ― The Times
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Magna set up this gravestone for Tiberius Claudius Epitropus, her ‘most sweet son’ who lived 7 years, 4 months and 17 days.
1st-3rd century AD, Cortona, Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca
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An archaeologist cleans the mud from the newly discovered bronze statue of a Roman boy - one of 24 bronzes discovered in the remains of ancient thermal baths in San Casciano dei Bagni, near Siena in 2022.
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The coin in hand. As this denarius was being minted in 74 BC, a 25-year-old Julius Caesar had been captured and held hostage by Cilician pirates and a Thracian gladiator named Spartacus was preparing to break out of his training school in Capua. 🤯 {END}
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Interestingly, the British Museum's example of this coin uses both the same (more worn) obverse and reverse dies, a 'double die-match'. We might therefore assume it was minted later the very same day by the very same men.
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When the winged dolphin-headed man flies away with your tuna fish.
This early electrum stater from Cyzicus presents a puzzle, with no such hybrids known in Greek myth – though the coin may represent Apollo Delphinios, 'the Dolphin', who first led sailors to what became Delphi.
Bronze chamfron armour (prometopidion) that protected the forehead of a horse, decorated with the head of a warrior wearing an ornate Chalcidian helmet with cheek guards in the form of rams' heads. The small holes running around the edge of the bridle nosepiece allowed a leather backing to be sewn onto the bronze for cushioning. With a quick recreation for illustrative purposes. From Magna Graecia, c.480 BC, Naples Archaeological Museum.
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"Paul's green throne had been cut from a single Hagar emerald. It suggested growing things and, out of the Fremen mythos, reflected the mourning color. It whispered that here sat he who could make you mourn- life and death in one symbol, a clever stress of opposites"
Dune Messiah
Some delightful Latin sundial mottoes:
1. Horas non numero nisi serenas: I only count the sunny hours.
2. Umbra transit lux manet: Shadow passes, light remains.
3. Lucem demonstrat umbra: The shadow shows the light.
4. Ora ne te fallat hora: Pray the hour does not take you by surprise.
5. Sine sole sileo: Without the sun I fall silent.
6. Lux umbra dei: Light is the shadow of God.
7. Volat irrevocabilis ultima latet: The hours slip away, the final one is hidden.
8. Pereunt et imputantur: The hours vanish and yet are accounted for.
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Tudor photography – the astonishing talent of Antonis Mor. Portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham, 1560.
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3) While comparable in some ways to the Getty Villa in Malibu commissioned by J. Paul Getty in the 1970s, this villa does not seek to reconstruct a specific Roman environment (in that the case the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum) but is freer in its overall conception, and..
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1) One of the most ambitious classical construction projects anywhere in the world is now in the final stages of its decoration. On a Caribbean island, the classical architecture firm Apollodorus are building a grand Roman maritime villa for a wealthy Roman history enthusiast..
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Why did the Jewish people repeatedly revolt against Rome? ⚔️
Join historian Barry Strauss to explore rebellion, power politics and the role of Rome’s rival, Parthia.
📅 Oct 18 | 8PM London
Register: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi…
#ancientromelive #ancientrome
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Leptis Magna- forum of Septimius Severus! @AncientRomeLive
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#PortraitThursday – The extraordinary Antinous Mondragone, a colossal 95 cm-high marble head of the deified Antinous, created shortly after his death in AD 130. Its smooth, idealised features and elaborate centre-parted hair recall Hellenistic images of Dionysus and Apollo.
The head was part of a colossal acrolithic cult statue made for the worship of Antinous as a god. 31 holes were drilled into the hair to attach a metal headdress, possibly a lotus flower or uraeus, while the original inlaid eyes, of metal, ivory or coloured stone, are also lost.
Recorded in the Borghese collection at Villa Mondragone near Frascati, the portrait was greatly admired by Winckelmann and acquired for Napoleon, along with much of the Borghese collection, in 1807. It is now in the Musée du Louvre.
📷 Photographed in 2016 at the exhibition Marguerite Yourcenar et l’empereur Hadrien, une réécriture de l’Antiquité, Bavay, France.
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I’m very pleased to share that I am one of thirteen contributors to the forthcoming volume, Portraits of Hadrian.
The book will be a substantial, large-format, full-colour hardcover of around 500 pages, bringing together the latest research on Hadrian, exceptional illustrations, and some of the best coin images available. We hope it will become an important new reference work on Hadrian and his reign.
My own contribution amounts to around 140 pages devoted to Hadrian’s travels across the Roman Empire, drawing on the latest archaeological, epigraphic, literary and numismatic evidence.
If Portraits of Hadrian is a book you would seriously consider buying, I would be very grateful if you could register your interest here 👉 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…
Maximus (@russellcrowe) outmanoeuvres Tigris of Gaul whilst pinned under one of his dead tigers. Ouch! The magic of cinema.
– Filming ‘Gladiator’ at Fort Ricasoli, Malta, 1999.
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Beautiful gold Roman and Byzantine wedding rings, all bearing the Greek inscription 'OMONOIA', a term that can be translated to 'harmony', 'joined as one' or most charmingly, 'thinking the same thoughts'.
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Happy birthday to Trajan, Hadrian's adoptive father! worldhistory.org/trajan/
Trajan was born in AD 53 in Italica, Hispania Baetica. During his 19-year reign, Trajan sought to extend the empire's boundaries to the east, implemented significant socio-economic reforms, and undertook a vast building program.
