U.S. Vice President to Fox News: We have prevailed whether Iran changes its approach or chooses not to adhere to the agreement.

A toast to our fallen Airmen, a group of highly skilled aviators that advanced aviation every time they left the ground. Prayers for the families who are missing their loved ones tonight. 🍺

"Carthaginian pikemen" is why you need ancient languages and specialization. [Real conversation when an officer asked me about the Roman Helmet Guy debates]

Since today is National Barbecue Day, 🔥 remember to give a nod to the patron saint of Barbequers, Saint Lawrence, who—when being persecuted on a hot gridiron under Valerian in 258 CE—noted: “Assum est, versa et manduca.” “This side is done, turn (me) over & eat.” csla.history.ox.ac.uk

Good evening for some minor league baseball. I hope someone there will let me talk at them about the Thucydides Trap discourse.

One ping only for blue books.

The BMCR review of Seleukids at War reminded me to post a preview of my chapter on Academia, which you'll find here: www.academia.edu/166835760/Ge... and I'm happy to send a copy upon request. A study of the where from, how many, and by what means of putting together Seleucid armies.

BMCR write up of a fine volume which included my chapter on the Battle of Magnesia (190 BC). (DM or email if you would like an offprint) Also includes a great chapter by @profpaulj.bsky.social and many others! bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2026/2026.04...

In Nat Museum of Denmark: the Lindos Chronicle (massive inventory of offerings at shrine of Athena Linda on Rhodes, incl some fictional ones) & the Gundestrup Cauldron, silver vessel decorated with Celtic deities Both items deeply impressive— and perhaps contemporary (ca. 100 BCE). 1/

90% sure if you could time travel to 800 BC, contrary to Plutarch and others, if you went and found the kings of Sparta, neither would be named Lycurgus, and even if one was they'd have no idea what the Agoge was, or the public messes.

Goliath didn't lose because slings were revolutionary. He lost because slings in single combat was transgressive (to him).

Fell into a ravine and exploded? Exploded?!

OpenAI: We’re burning money like the Joker. A miracle needs to happen for us to turn a profit Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse Media and universities: AI is here to stay

Ah but what does "completely open" mean? Declarations on the state of the Strait are getting treated like Michael Scott's bankruptcy.

Mandalorian and Grogu really did seem to go with "what if the heroes are the tricked-out 0-turn mower in a 'mowing the grass' counter-terror campaign?" as their top story board concept. At least pair them with a strategist who wants to hit the COG in the imperial buildup as a system of systems.

What these admins will never tell you is that the *courses* in these majors are often full. Students don't *major* in these fields, but they really want to take the classes. They use number of majors as a metric on purpose so they can achieve their cuts.

A good morning of diligent editing, and I've cut... just over 800 words. Sigh. But I think the Keraunos bit is worth keeping. Can I find the cuts elsewhere?

Polybius is such a funny writer, says no one ever. But then there's this, where Philip pardons Marcus Aemilius for interrupting him, for 3 reasons: πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι νέος ἐστὶ καὶ πραγμάτων ἄπειρος, δεύτερον ὅτι κάλλιστος ὑπάρχει τῶν καθʼ αὑτὸν — καὶ γὰρ ἦν τοῦτο κατʼ ἀλήθειαν — μάλιστα δʼ ὅτι Ῥωμαῖος.

OTD in 2022 Russian warship Moskva, that was told “go fuck yourself”, went & fucked itself and sunk. By a country without a navy. In a land war. I remain a master strategist.

Paging Athenians

Sometimes some Greek vase art will actually have really dynamic perspective and it always catches me off guard

Amazing. From an Air Force history of the MH-53 Pave Low, the backstory of how the Air Force helped Tom Clancy get Pave Low details right in the book Clear and Present Danger, and jealous Army SOF officers allegedly then connived to have MH-60s replace the Pave Low in the movie

Proposition: a nation that is flippant, dismissive, or sophistic with respect to Just War principles cannot be Christian. Being scrupulous about Just War does not make a nation Christian, of course, but it is a necessary condition.

Now think three steps ahead. Snyder's prescience foils the false flag. Now think four steps ahead. Someone is going to have to steal the Declaration of Independence...

Sweet Southern Lights

It's a tough spot to say the "Brettian shield" from Festus on the rearmament of the Late Republican velites was likely to have been anything other than a thureos, but Brettian shield is also a weird name for a shield almost everyone was using.

This video breaks my heart every single time. A little boy, just 3 years old, wounded during one of Russia’s attacks in 2022, crying out: “Where is my dad?”. Those words are almost impossible to listen to. Russia must pay for everything it has done.

@bretdevereaux.bsky.social at SMH is now attacking all nine sub-components of the Marian reforms to defeat each element in detail.

Locked in for SMH. Ancient armies panel Friday at 10:30. I'm talking about Seleucid military reforms and the historiographic tradition around a Seleucid "standing army"

This word, Kleptocracy, how did someone living in one, historically, know they were living in it?

So here's a fragment of fresco from Herculaneum. But what do you see? There's a hand on a spear. I *think* there's a bluish shield with a nude male figure painted upon it on the right side of the fragment. And if I'm not nuts, it reminds me of a Cretan archer's shield from a stele.

Struggle win!

So the leukaspides (white shields). Sekunda is plainly wrong in his suggestion they were thureophoroi, and I think he backed off that position. They were phalangites. A second division next to the bronze shield chalkaspides. But how did Macedon raise them?

Hear me out, Smitty's "Secret Ambition" music video *rocks*

Support for the war in Vietnam didn't get this bad until after the Tet Offensive, although it was teetering in late 1967. Could come down to question differences but potentially historic.

The numerous name-recognizable people on "X" posting AI-generated "takes" on the Iran War is _______. A. Despicable B. A death knell of discourse C. Par for the course D. An improvement on their original thoughts?

Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating in the war if if indirectly. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Prudence alongside Moral Virtue determines the complete performance of the human being's proper function: Virtue ensures the rightness of our aim, Prudence ensures the rightness of the means we adopt to gain our aim. Arist. NE 6.12.6

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed. Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

And to think all I did was wear my Alexander the Great tie to seminar

If the professors with phds in question randomly make shit up then lie about it, sure.

So... preventive or preemptive? It matters.

As we start the fifth year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I hope and pray for peace, which Russia could bring about anytime by relenting from its illegal invasion.

I've read many books to my kids. About half an hour every night for years. We've almost finished The Princess Bride--they've not seen the movie yet--and it's been my favorite book to read to them yet. I get that's the conceit from go. Turns out it frickin works.

Pentagon weighs in on Eternal Subordination of the Son and Federal Vision?