Really proud Fall of Civilizations has been named a Waterstones paperback of the year. Get it at your local Waterstones! LINK: www.waterstones.com/book/fall-of...

Some of the most remarkable lost artefacts from the ancient world were the titanic wrecks of the Nemi ships, built for a Roman emperor. In their first-century heyday they held gardens, palaces and baths in a floating wonderland. But barely a decade after their recovery, they were lost forever.

For #RomanSiteSaturday let's go to my favourite #Roman site: the temple complex of #Baalbek, located in the Bekaa Valley, #Lebanon. The breathtaking site contains some of the largest Roman temples ever built. The so-called....🧵1/2 📷 Rami Rizk 🏺 #archaeology

The remains of the south west turret of Aesica Roman Fort (Great Chesters) on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland. The fort was built in around AD 128, the ninth fort built along the line of the Wall. 📸 My own. #AdoorableThursday #RomanBritain #HadriansWall #Northumberland

Excavations at Rome ahead of a new subway route have found a Roman-era street preserved nearly as well as parts of Pompeii, some walls still with remains of plaster!

Beauty of wild flowers next to stones in the ruins of the Roman city of Valeria. Cuenca.

On a hill in Tuscany, the spectacular Castello di Sammezzano was originally constructed in Moorish style in 1605 as a private palazzo, later used as 365-room luxury hotel, then abandoned for a number of years until recent eye-boggling restorations

It's hilarious. 3rd C authors look back to the glory days of Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius looks back to the glory days of Trajan. People in Trajan's day look back to Cicero. Cicero looks back to Cato the Elder. Cato looks back beyond them all. And none of them are happy in their own time.

All murdered—for within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court

For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings: How some have been depos’d, some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed, Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping kill’d,

According to @fallofcivspod.bsky.social one of Genghis Khan’s sons used this strategy

'...most people experienced the fall of the Roman Empire as, “One day a bridge collapsed, and no one came to fix it.”'

Every so often you do feel like a citizen of the Late Roman Empire watching Honorius worry about his chickens

I believe this means the sun will set over the entirety of the British Empire tonight for the first time in several hundred years. Chagos is the dot below India on this map. Sunset in the Pitcairns (dot in the Pacific) will happen ~40 minutes before sunrise in Akrotiri and Dhekelia (dot on Cyprus).

☀️We're giving away 5 special edition mugs, plus a free copy of the Sunday Times bestseller Fall of Civilizations! ☀️ To enter, just repost this and follow the publisher @duckworthbooks.bsky.social! Giveaway closes at midnight on Friday 23rd May. Good luck!

In this superb 2,000 year-old mosaic from Palestrina in Italy, men and women relax on cushioned benches in a latticed bower, drinking, reading and playing music in celebration of a flooding Nile, as a passing boatman gathers lotus blossoms www.smb.museum/en/museums-i...

I enjoyed chatting to Flint Dibble about history, the Fall of Civilizations, and some of our mutual annoyances in the field. Catch it on YouTube at 7pm BST tonight.

I'll be in Oxford tomorrow talking to @moudhy.bsky.social about history and Fall of Civilizations and signing books. Come join us! Date: 22 apr • 17:30 Location: 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BQ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/moudhy-al-...

The brilliant bookshop.org are doing a promo where can now get the Fall of Civs book at 15% discount when checking out using promo code FALL15. If you don't know them, they share their revenue with local bookshops. Bezos seething! uk.bookshop.org/p/books/fall...

Basically yes

Really proud that Fall of Civilizations came in at number 6 on the Sunday Times bestseller list today! Thank you so much to everyone who pre-ordered and helped spread the word.

I'm going to be at Hatchards bookshop tomorrow in London, talking about the release of the Fall of Civilizations book. Come join me! Date: 10 apr • 18:30 Location: 187 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LE

Really and truly, if I could communicate anything about history it's that genuine dumbasses can be key historical agents, and that has pretty massive implications for how we make sense of the past and present both.

April 7th is the last day that custom dedications will be available, so don't miss out! Great for birthdays, Christmas etc for the Fall of Civs fan in your life...

If you'd like a signed special edition, you can still get one from West End Lane Books, with custom dedications available:

Today is release day of the Fall of Civilizations paperback! I was in London today signing copies in Daunts, Foyles and Waterstones around the city.

Episode 19 is now available on YouTube! With state-of-the-art drone photography, original reenactments, Mongolian folk music and CGI recreations, find out how the world's largest land empire rose and fell, and left the modern world in its wake.

Great photos!

I'll be doing events at Blackwell's around the country over this month, in Edinburgh today and Oxford on 22nd April. Come join me! web.duckworthbooks.co.uk/fall-of-civi...

Very excited to announce that Fall of Civilizations has been named a "Book of the month" by Blackwell's bookshop. Just a short thank you video to everyone who has helped make this possible. Pre-order your copy if you haven't already: blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...

An absolutely stunning photo! The 35m-long #Roman shipwreck, along with its cargo of 6,000 (!) amphorae was discovered in 2019 off the coast of the Greek Island of Kefalonia. It’s one of the largest Roman shipwrecks found in the Mediterranean. Photo: Ionian Aquarium 🏺 AncientBluesky

The first official event for Fall of Civilizations paperback! Signed copies will also be available from Toppings Edinburgh from 2 April. @toppingsbath.bsky.social

I'm going to be in Edinburgh talking about the release of my book, Fall of Civilizations next week. Come and join me!

One of the world’s most chilling ruins is the Ploutonion at Hierapolis, otherwise known as “the Gate to Hell”. Here crowds once watched priests lead animal sacrifices down into a cave, where they died mysteriously as if dragged down to the underworld. And no one knew how they did it until recently.

This is going to be so fun! Join us in Oxford if you can make it

From Giza’s spectacular Grand Egyptian Museum, opening shortly ~ forty marching soldier figurines, carrying shields and lances, dressed only in short tunics, found in the tomb of a local governor (photo: Mohamed Elshahed/Anadolu/Getty) news.artnet.com/art-world/wh...

With only ten days until paperback release day, you can still pre-order these limited edition signed paperbacks! ** Custom dedications are available if you want me to write someone's name on the signed page! ** LINK: www.welbooks.co.uk/shop/p/fall-...

Go and order up one of these bad boys from my local bookshop at West End Lane bookshop. This is the limited edition independent bookshop exclusive with sprayed edges. Once they’re gone, they’re gone! So grab yours this weekend.

Get your Fall of Civilisations, people! I've ordered two (one each for me and my brother).

There's still time to get one of these limited edition signed copies of the Fall of Civilizations paperback, with exclusive page-end designs. We've partnered with the beautiful @WELBooks who do international deliveries and custom dedications also available! Link: www.welbooks.co.uk/shop/p/fall-...

One of the best podcasts (in both audio and video formats) is Fall of Civilizations. There’s now a book. Get it! It’s excellent. Your brain needs it.

There's still time to get one of these limited edition signed copies of the Fall of Civilizations paperback, with exclusive printed page-end designs! We've also partnered with this beautiful independent bookshop that does international deliveries everywhere Link: www.welbooks.co.uk/shop/p/fall-...

Once again loving this interpretation of Caesar’s last words #IdesofMarch 🗡️

This is the strongroom in the headquarters building of the Roman fort at Corbridge, just south of Hadrian's Wall. Corbridge was a base for the Second Legion Augusta and the money to pay the troops who garrisoned the Wall would have been stored down in this underground chamber #RomanFortThursday

Today I visited Ocmulgee Mounds National Park, Georgia, USA, site of human habitation for 12,000+ yrs but, for me as a medievalist, particularly interesting for the Mississippian period, c. 900-1600 CE. Fabulous ceramics & of course the impressive ritual landscape, particularly the Funeral Mound.

Finally snagged a copy of @moudhy.bsky.social's Between Two Rivers and gobbled up the first 100 pages on the train. Very lucid writing that elicits lots of little pleasurable shocks of recognition - recognition of shared humanity with ancient people. Look forward to finishing it!

🐎🐎 Episode 19 is now available on video for Patreon subscribers! 🐎🐎 With drone photography, original reenactments and stunning footage of the landscape of Mongolia and much of the rest of Asia, we find out how the Mongol Empire rose and fell and left the modern world in its wake.