En route to Iowa City to attend the AAH! Hope to see some of y’all there!

Two pairs of gloves were definitely a necessity on this morning’s dog walk (love you, Chicago, but was not prepared for the 2°F/-17°C, feels like -13°F/-25°C, mornings)

The idea for this course has been slowly percolating for *years*, and I am so happy to finally teach it at UChicago this fall!

Congrats to the newly minted Dr. @heintgestae.bsky.social! So proud of her 😊

We’re off to the Bay of Naples for some much needed R&R—with plenty of ancient sites and delectable eats @heintgestae.bsky.social

A bit bittersweet to vote in what may be my last NYC election today but hyped to rank Mamdani as my #1!

So incredibly happy to be back in Rome for the first time since 2020 (and what a wonderful conference this has been!)

Jetlag is inexplicable. Or maybe it is just my excitement for the events of today that robbed me of my sleep. Anyway. I'm buzzing with excitement for perhaps the most important conference I've ever co-hosted. It is both in person and online: aarome.org/events/coins...

Amusing tidbit du jour (from E.J. Kenney's 1978 review of H. Dahlmann (1975), 'Cornelius Severus')

V. glad we decided to flee DC/depressing inauguration chaos this weekend for a peaceful respite back home in NYC

Oh goodness, no!

There are SLING BULLETS with FASCES. I'm losing my mind. This is so damn cool. Also, Sertorius was never elected consul, but that doesn't stop him being proconsul! doi.org/10.1017/S104...

Made the mistake of agreeing to the “big” sbagliato at our favorite Italian place in the neighborhood. Happy snow day from DC!

Working on a chapter for publication: The min amount of beeswax required to make five "ten" rams for Antony/Cleopatra's fleet is around 1,274 kg. This is 36.4% of the total amount of beeswax needed (~3,500 kg) to produce 200 rams for the Egadi fleet. Assuming no reuse of beeswax. Damn.

Good morning! Here's my last AIA/SCS post. Earlier Post in thread. 1/ livyarrow.org/2025/01/06/p...

The obligatory #AIASCS book haul, feat. some oldies but goodies and a couple of newer things I’m eager to dive into! (Many more new books that I wished I could buy, but will resign myself to being the first person to check them out from the library!)

Had such a fun time giving my paper on late Republican sling bullets & communication earlier today at the AIA/SCS - fantastic Qs & just great energy/interest all around. My last in-person SCS was way back in 2020 (!!), and it’s just been lovely to see/catch up with old friends & meet new folks!

More Thucydides today, this time the Mytilenean debate. We also discussed Paula Arnold’s “The Persuasive Style of Debates in Direct Speech in Thucydides” (Hermes 120, 1992). She makes a compelling case for why the speeches he puts in the mouths of historical actors are so tricky but worth reading 🧵

Them: Don't spend too much time on teaching. Focus on research. Me:

The pains and gains of paleography, per George N. Olcott, writing to his sister about his coursework during his first term as a student at the American School of Classical Studies in Rome (now the AAR), on November 20, 1896

What are your election night beverages of choice tonight? Was a bit too anxious to go watch out at a neighborhood bar with the inevitable crowds of staffers/lobbyists so have kicked things off here at home in DC with a martini (plus NBC’s “Kornacki cam” in the background)

Somehow missed that the AWMC's Antiquity-à-la-Carte app went dark a few months ago (it'd been my go-to for creating custom maps for teaching/research) 😭 The new AWMC Interactive looks great but doesn't seem to allow for the same customization of plotted points, etc. yet–any suggestions/alternatives?

"Why is the same university that capitalizes on the legacy of Edward Said and enshrines The Wretched of the Earth into its Core Curriculum so scared to speak about decolonization in practice?" - Student Editorial Board for the Columbia Spectator www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2024...

We began working on this project many years ago, but the finish line is finally in sight! Currently in the process of revising our catalog of the 3,500+ (!) Roman & provincial coins in Columbia’s Olcott Collection, so @asharpless.bsky.social & I took the train up yesterday for some quality coin time

🚨 SCS Task Force Report on the Future of the Annual Meeting now available 🚨 SCS members: please do read this carefully. There is a LOT on the table here. The SCS will be canvassing views on all of this (exactly when/how TBD); make sure to respond!

Starting off 2024 in a new place, learning new things (my first-ever attempt at a squeeze — need some more practice, I think!)

Any ancientbluesky folks happen to have access to the most recent issue of L’Année épigraphique (AE 2020) that came out earlier this year? My digital access only goes up to 2019 and the LoC and Columbia libraries don’t have hard copies yet!

Damning report by Clifford Ando on financial mismanagement at the University of Chicago and its negative impact on the humanities uchicago.app.box.com/s/siblbp8s6z...

It’s been three weeks already but some big life news! 🥰

Birthdays are a time to play with one’s food, even at age 34 (in this case, a delightful pear pâté de fruit with ramp powder)

I’m getting married at the end of the month so inevitably everything feels very chaotic right now, but I just need the world to take a moment to appreciate that @asharpless.bsky.social made this fascinus, which may be the best/most hilarious gift I have ever received

Aaaand I just realized that I misread the AIA abstract deadline as Aug 27 & have missed it (again!! How does this keep happening??). Pretty bummed since the paper I’d planned (on late Republican coin hoards & the movement of peoples/ideologies) was right in line w/ the Mobility/Displacement theme 😭😭

Perfect evening for @heintgestae.bsky.social and I to support the (somewhat beleaguered) home team! Go Nats!

Crab season is the best season, and I am also now obsessed with this amazing Tsimshian crab figure in the NMAI collection 🦀🦀🦀

It’s not spooky season yet, but here are my chosen candidates for “most extra headstone (pre-Revolutionary War ed.)” encountered on my Boston walk du jour: #1 Elizabeth Pain (d. 1704), whose life—or, more likely, grave—may have inspired Hester Prynne’s in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. That crest!

The ever industrious @rogueclassicist.bsky.social has created a Classics/Ancient World feed here. It tracks the phrases "BlueskyClassics", "ClassicsBluesky", "AncientBluesky". We will be using the latter. https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lyrmsmhhg7vzz4ghj44y5xzq/feed/7cb2f06b13c0

We've completed Wk 3 of the Performance of Roman Comedy NEH Institute & start filming scenes on Monday! Can't wait to share our masked "Casina" with the group, though our backstage prep may be a bit more chaotic—inflatable props everywhere!—than that of the tragic actors/choreuts on this MFA pelike.