This #FrescoFriday we travel to the tomb of Gaius Vestorius Priscus, Pompeii. This scene is part the inner west wall of the tomb and depicts gladiators squaring off. It seems reasonable to suppose this fresco captures a fight held in honour of the departed Gaius Vestorius Priscus.

This #FrescoFriday we travel to the tomb of Gaius Vestorius Priscus, Pompeii. This scene is part the inner west wall of the tomb and depicts gladiators squaring off. It seems reasonable to suppose this fresco captures a fight held in honour of the departed Gaius Vestorius Priscus.

✨New Episode - The Gallic Sack of Rome - Part 1✨ We’re about to embark on a stunning period of Rome’s history in the middle Republic. We begin with some of the important details from the latter part of 391 BCE which will have flow on effects for 390 BCE! #AncientRome #Podcast

The only reason to be on #AncientBluesky it's #HillfortsWednesday 🥳🍻 Lou Barker facing the majestic cliff castle of Gurnard's Head, west Penwith, #Cornwall. The far end is crowded with houses & dominated by a towering outcrop ⛰️😮 In the care of @nattrustarch.bsky.social 📷 Yesterday

This #ReliefWednesday we celebrate Hecate, the goddess of the crossroads and transitions. This is a votive relief to Hecate and the inscription warns against defacement of the place where the relief was located. Presumably the relief was originally located in a sanctuary to the goddess.

Watch this space! There’s a brand new episode coming your way later this week. Could the Romans be anymore entangled with the Gauls? Of course they could! #AncientRome

✨Caracalla’s athletes✨ Among the decorations of the Baths of Caracalla is s sequence of mosaics depicting athletes. The fascination with the bodily prowess of the athlete comes to the fore in such moments. Today these mosaics are held in the Musei Vaticani collections. #MosaicMonday

Why the Parthenon Sculptures Belong in Athens – greekcitytimes.com/2025/11/02/w...

🎃 Happy Halloween 🎃 May the spirits be settled and placated and the night sit lightly upon you. This blackbird is our pick for #FrescoFriday and #Halloween

Is it even podcasting about ancient Rome if there hasn’t been any swordplay or silly shenanigans? #AncientRome #History

✨The Eleusinian Mysteries✨ Demeter and Persephone flank a young youth thought to be Triptolemos. This beautiful Augustan era rendition based on a Greek relief is our pick for #ReliefWednesday and #ClassicsTober25.

✨The Eleusinian Mysteries✨ Demeter and Persephone flank a young youth thought to be Triptolemos. This beautiful Augustan era rendition based on a Greek relief is our pick for #ReliefWednesday and #ClassicsTober25.

#ClassicsTober25 27: ERINYES

Detail from the gladiator mosaics housed in the Villa Borghese. This #MosaicMonday we bear witness to the gruelling stakes of the arena where death was always a possibility.

✨We are in a documentary - and it's out now! ✨ We’re part of the National Geographic documentary, “Gladiators: Warriors of the Ancient World”! Each episode explores the world of the arena by focusing on the story of a particular gladiator, like SPARTACUS! Catch it if you can 🥳 #AncientRome

‼️Riot in Pompeii ‼️ This #FrescoFriday we travel to Pompeii to bear witness to the riot that broke out in 59 CE during the games. This scene shows the arena of Pompeii and fighting breaking out into the surrounding streets.

✨Something exciting is coming✨ We’ve been podcasting together for many years, revelling in our love for the ancient world, and poking fun at those Romans along the way. But our expertise as scholars is in main two topics - the Vestals and Spartacus.

✨Gladiator Season✨ This #ReliefWednesday we celebrate those who gave their lives (many unwillingly) over to the fighting in the many arenas of the Roman world. This fragment is part of a commemorative relief depicting the victory of a secutor against a retiarius called Improbus. #AncientRome

Sometimes #MosaicMonday is just a reminder that it’s Monday! At least this figure, often identified as the personification of Spring, seems less than happy about the situation… Hopefully your own Monday is going better ☺️ #AncientRome

🌿Villa of Livia🌷 is our pick for #FrescoFriday. Now housed in the Palazzo Massimo, this extraordinary fresco shows all kinds of plants in bloom or with fruit at the peak of ripeness. Birds can be seen amongst the foliage like in this detail. #AncientRome

✨Special Episode - The Emergence of Rome with Dr Francesca Fulminante✨ Fulminante’s work on the transportation networks that shaped Central Italy in the Bronze Age lends insights into the rise of Rome in the Archaic Period. How did Rome emerge to become the top dog? Let’s find out!

Extremely excited to have Debby Sneed (@debscavator.bsky.social) here at UMBC today as part of our Ancient Studies Week, giving a talk on "Disability and the Ideal in Archaic Greek Art" dreshercenter.umbc.edu/humanities-f...

Enter the mid-week in style with The Dance of the Maenads for #ReliefWednesday This relief of a maenad is a Roman reimagining of an Athenian relief from the late C5th BCE. The flowing lines of the gown and the elegance of the pose are just exquisite! #AncientRome #AncientGreece

@classicstober.bsky.social Day 24 of #ClassicsTober25: Cocytus or Kokytos is the river of wailing in the underworld in Greek mythology. Cocytus flows into the river Acheron, on the other side of which lies Hades, the underworld, the mythological resting place of the dead. #ClassicsTober

An acting troupe and their aulos player are our pick this #MosaicMonday. This panel comes from the House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii and is held by the MAN Napoli. The sense of festivity is a delight! #AncientRome

To enter the Underworld, first you must cross the river Styx. Charon will be your guide. This interpretation by Flemish painter Joachim Patinir is our pick for #ClassicsTober25 Day 12: Styx. With these delightful blues and greens, the entrance to the other side looks positively delightful…

To enter the Underworld, first you must cross the river Styx. Charon will be your guide. This interpretation by Flemish painter Joachim Patinir is our pick for #ClassicsTober25 Day 12: Styx. With these delightful blues and greens, the entrance to the other side looks positively delightful…

Hecate for #ClassicsTober25 - although a minor figure in the magnificent Jupiter and Semele by Gustave Moreau - Hecate’s presence as a chthonic goddess is significant to this work. Who should wait patiently in the shadows? Hecate stands ready to meet Semele. #AncientRome #History

I've been travelling and have a feast of phalli to share over the following weeks! We'll start with an old favourite. This one often appears here, but I've added some photos showing its context for those who might not have the chance to visit. 1/2 #PhallusThursday

Registration now open for our upcoming 3D Spring School: shorturl.at/GpY8r 3D Imaging and Modelling for Classics and Cultural Heritage 13-17 April 2026 This in-person course will introduce you to issues, methods and technologies in the 3D imaging and modelling of ancient artefacts and buildings.

Classics hivemind! I have in my head that there's a passage somewhere where a ruler (a Roman emperor?) comes across a woman tilling her own fields and orders some arrangement to be made for her? I don't know if I am imagining it, but I can't find it again. Wonder if anyone recognizes it?

Witness Augustus as you’ve never seem him, re-sculptured to look nothing like himself! The scene is ostensibly Augustus driving a chariot of Tritons. The imagery includes Tritons holding a shield with an oak wreath (thought to be the clipeus virtutis) and Victoria. #ReliefWednesday #AncientRome

‘The Magic Circle’ 1886 by John William Waterhouse is our pick for φαρμακίς ‘witch, sorceress’ #ClassicsTober25 This painting captures the power and potential of harnessing a knowledge of nature to achieve certain ends. Could this be Medea, Circe or yet another powerful ancient figure? #Witch

Hector for #MosaicMonday? Very little is known about this mosaic including the provenance, but the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna offers a tentative date of C1st–C2nd CE and the tantalising hint that this may be part of a Trojan War cycle depicting Hector. #AncientRome #AncientGreece #TrojanWar

Hermes Psychopompos for #ClassicsTober25 This plaster sculpture entitled ‘Hermes Psychopomp’ by Dervis Yusuf Akdemir combines a Greek classical style portrait head with cut out sections. Does it really feel like you should trust this guy with your journey to the underworld?? Not sure we would!

A woman’s linen shroud from Roman Period Egypt is our pick today for #ClassicsTober25. The artistry is phenomenal. The woman is surrounded by uraeus-cobras and the goddesses Isis and Nephthys depicted as red kites. At the bottom we see the woman led by Horus and Anubis into the afterlife.

It’s time to celebrate #FrescoFriday with a little bit of monkeying around 🐵 We travel back in time to Knossos. Dating to c. 1580–30 BCE this fresco panel is largely fragmentary. Flowers and nature seem to be abundant but the exact composition of the scene remains elusive. #AncientHistory

What do you mean most of your photos together are outtakes? This is what we mean! For every photo where we’re both looking at the camera there’s at least two (or more!) where something drastic has been caught on camera. At least we know our Roman history 😅 #RomanRepublic #RomanEmpire #Podcasting

😴Hypnos, the personification of sleep💤 We’re celebrating all the delights of restful slumber with this beautiful bronze head of Hypnos (not sure about where the rest of the body may be!). #ReliefWednesday #ClassicsTober25 #AncientGreece

😴Hypnos, the personification of sleep💤 We’re celebrating all the delights of restful slumber with this beautiful bronze head of Hypnos (not sure about where the rest of the body may be!). #ReliefWednesday #ClassicsTober25 #AncientGreece

🪷Lily pad frog 🪷 This #MosaicMonday we’re enjoying the sparky cuteness of this little frog enjoying their lily pad amongst the water birds in this Nilotic scene. #AncientRome

🪷Lily pad frog 🪷 This #MosaicMonday we’re enjoying the sparky cuteness of this little frog enjoying their lily pad amongst the water birds in this Nilotic scene. #AncientRome

Catch Dr G over on the livestream event celebrating International Podcast Day with the Memory Collective! She’ll be online from AEST 10:30am until about 1pm 🥳 www.youtube.com/live/0VN_BKq...

This #FrescoFriday we travel to the villa of Publius Fannius Synistor to enjoy the complex and engaging architectural fresco complete with theatrical masks! The use of colour, perspective, and drama all come together to create a brilliant and arresting whole. #AncientRome

✨Brand New Episode - Surf the Celtic Wave✨ The Romans were truly unprepared it seems for the influx of Gauls into northern Italy and their misjudgement of the situation is about to get VERY messy 😬 Tune in for all the chaotic details! #AncientRome #Podcast partialhistorians.com/2025/09/25/e...

Brace yourself! We’ve got a brand new episode coming out later this week. What are those Romans up to now? Well, in the fractured landscape of the middle Republic, just about anything is possible. We recommend donning your armour and picking up the closest swords for all the loin girding to come 😅

This #MosaicMonday we are drawn to the knowing stare of this figure, identified as a genius of the year who was originally surrounded by the four seasons. Knowing gaze ✅ Fruity wreath ✅ What look like grape earrings ✅ This gent is clearly here for serious seasonal business! #AncientRome

Dr G chats all things Vestals with the fabulous Liv from @mythsbaby.bsky.social 🥳 open.spotify.com/episode/0jXS...

💃Bring on the weekend, Pompeii style 💃 These dancing maenads are here to invite you to join in a Bacchic rite or two as part of the culmination of the week. These gorgeous figures were part of the Villa of Cicero in Pompeii. #FrescoFriday #AncientRome

💃Bring on the weekend, Pompeii style 💃 These dancing maenads are here to invite you to join in a Bacchic rite or two as part of the culmination of the week. These gorgeous figures were part of the Villa of Cicero in Pompeii. #FrescoFriday #AncientRome