Friends who are asking how we are holding up: we have been in and out of the shelter. Elderly, baby, children, beloved neighbours, we are all stuck together underground, with an occasional trip to our apartment to bring food and drink. But we are strong and patient. And holding together.

Only in Italy: train-station bookstore, six copies of Lucretius from five different publishers, each of course with facing-page Latin text. To me, that’s civilization.

And back to the shelter…

Apparently the title of my monograph is “Pamphilus of Caesarea and Early Christian Book Culture” and my edited book with J. Verheyden is titled “Collective Biography from Ancient Greece to the Early Islamic World: A Critical Guide“ 🫡🎊 this one has great (and many!) contributions.

Our colleague's yesterday paper recording. Enjoy!

this looks very very interesting! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Thinking about attending the SCS in Boston? Love monks and Late Antiquity? Submit an abstract for this panel!

Just in case you want to know what’s up with my dawg

A great opportunity for PhDs interested in the history of #antisemitism, #antijudaism and #judeophobia (complete lexicon here 🥵)! www.theologie.uni-wuerzburg.de/.../stellena...

I can relate

You might want to reconsider using this particular platform:

free to read! www.ucpress.edu/books/the-im...

See some of you tomorrow!

📯It's (already) #SBL2026 Time!⏰ The SBL Unit "Ancient Education" led by @monikaamsler.bsky.social @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social Coogan has a terrific program, and will host three sessions: Letter-Writing and Education; Magical Texts and Education; Education and Emotion. Send us an abstract!

Do not miss this if you are @orieloxford.bsky.social on February 19th!

Now, back to footnotes work. Honestly, that is like slow death to me🪦

For #ValentinesDay, I'll be posting #HistoricalHearts. Let's start with this life-size papier-mâché heart by the French anatomist Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux from the 19th century. Photo: Alex Peck.

All the CSEL volumes prior to 2010 now available in PDF online. This is really going to bring the CSEL series right to the front of everyone's minds. Someone over there is being very clever.

The founding #MCRHumNetwork Zoom meeting will be on a Tuesday. How does February 17 feel like? What would be good time (needs to be UK time and suitable for CET and EET at least).

Congrats to our collaborators @worldlyscribe.bsky.social, Giorgia Nicosia, @madalinatoca.bsky.social, and Adrian Pirtea for their articles in the newly published thematic issue of the Journal of Eastern Christian Studies (co-edited by Marion). Several in Open Access! brill.com/view/journal...

The deadline is close but it is not to late!!

One of the greatest scholars of Philo and early Christian literature passed away yesterday. RIP Madame Monique Alexandre.

Wonderful to see Dan Sperrin’s State of Ridicule reviewed in @thetls.bsky.social! Read more about this “erudite survey of English political satire” here:

Just published: William A. Ross, Marieke Dhont, and Christopher J. Fresch, eds., Language and Identity in Hellenistic Judaism: Essays in Memory of James K. Aitken (Bloomsbury: 2026). www.bloomsbury.com/us/language-...

Summer school course: Old Georgian, 4–14 August 2026, Summer School of Ancient Languages, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. For those interested, register here for more information: forms.gle/J6HZYbAZwgAx...

The volume I’m co-editing with Prof. Joseph Verheyden — Writing Collective Biographies from Ancient Greece to the Early Islamic World — has also passed final reviews at Cambridge University Press. Many thanks to the participants for their fantastic contributions to the volume!

Marc Bloch, historien et résistant juif, entrera au Panthéon le 23 juin

I’m very grateful that my book on Pamphilus and Caesarea has now passed final acceptance at Cambridge University Press, following two generous and careful reports. Back to revisions and production work…

In Munich, before the conference starts. Soaking up some Germanness

We have now a bsky page for the Vienna project, which just announced the 2026 online seminar. Check it out, it's a nice series of talks – organised by @dekayra.bsky.social.

If you have an active SBL membership (or access through your library), I strongly encourage you to check out this paper by @sccarlson.bsky.social. It's a great read!

Congratulations to profs. Maren Niehoff and @markschies.bsky.social for their new edited collection "Aspects of Time in Jewish and Christian Exegesis" which will be out soon! www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isb...

Next week we are hosting another paper, this time by Nicolas Atas (KU Leuven) on Syriac lexica! Tune in on Thursday 5 Feb at our regular time of 10 AM CET. As always, don't forget to register w/ @andyhilkens.bsky.social if you're not yet on our mailing list!

#OnThisDay - 30 January - in 9 BC the Senate declared a public holiday to celebrate the dedication of the Ara Pacis Augustae - 'The Altar of Augustan Peace'. The Altar had been decreed by the Senate on 4 July 13 BC in celebration of Augustus' return from Spain and Gaul. #AncientHistory 🏺

I didn’t know this painting before, but I find it utterly charming. The identification of the boy as Cicero has been debated: other proposals range from Augustus’ grandson to a contemporary child. The Young Cicero Reading by Vincenzo Foppa (fresco, 1464), now at the Wallace Collection (London)

Join us for our conference on Roman Law in Non-Legal Writings in Munich, in collaboration with prof. Ulrike Babusiaux from @universitätzurich and the support of the Siemens Stiftung!

Very excited to participate in this great conference with @romanaerc.bsky.social. I will talk about the poena cullei in Christian texts: some Eusebius, Lactantius, Constantinian legislation, Prudentius, a pinch of Tertullian and Kedrenos. 🐕🐓🐍🙈. Come over for more joyful details if you are around!

Very pleased to be able to finally announce "The Critical Edition in the Infrastructure of Philology," a special issue of Philological Encounters edited by me and @danielpicus.bsky.social out this Spring.

asked ChatGPT the best food brand for my big dog. Anwer: Orijen Large Breed Dry Dog Food. Didn't we know from the start?

It is time to drop 🎗️. Relief and sadness.

A new issue of Viator with a thematic cluster: 'Cultivating and Contesting the Spiritual Meaning of Male Hair', edited by Dawn LaValle Norman and Lea Niccolai. If you feel un urgent need to read why clerics started to shear their heads (or why the bishops made them to), let me know:)

Good morning

Ancient Jewish History in Medieval Lombardy in Renaissance Florence Boccaccio wrote > 1,000 marginalia in a MS of Josephus's Jewish Antiquities copied at Monte Cassino. Silvia Finazzi (Roma Tre)'s critical edition of all of them, published by Olschki: #bookhistory www.olschki.it/libro/978882...

Our forum on the new translation of Origen's Contra Celsum continues with a piece from David Satran, "Plato, Politics, and Faith" #lateantiquity #Origen www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2025/9/...

Looted libraries : Politics, Memory, and German- Polish Entanglements @European Review of Books: europeanreviewofbooks.com/looted-libra...

🥁🥁🥁Hello academic blueskyers, we are hiring again. We are looking for a proactive, communicative, motivated post-doc 🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️ for our ISF project Josephus Christianus (sinowloc.wixsite.com/josephus-chr...). Feel free to circulate!

The amazing @rialibrary.bsky.social is now up and running on BlueSky, come follow us for exciting collections content and more! 🤗🎉

Our forum on Origen's Contra Celsum continues with a piece from Teresa Morgan, "In Defense of Celsus" www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2025/9/...