Need that copy of Soldiers and Silver? Now is a great time to buy: use the code UTXGIFTS to get 40% off the print version or 50% off the Ebook when you buy direct from the Press. More soldiers for less silver....can't beat that! utpress.utexas.edu/9781477330777/

Post Halloween experimental archaeology

Lots of elections today! I voted early in local elections here in Upstate New York... not as exciting as NJ, VA or NYC, but wherever your are...exercise your suffragium!

I reflect on this grimly: if we are lucky, RFK Jr. will be the cabinet secretary that kills the most Americans by his malice, whereas if we are unlucky, it will be Hegseth who does it by his incompetence.

Anyone who lives on the same planet as a terrorist or drug trafficker can be killed with impunity it seems.

Slap this quote on the side of Air Force One, the White House, your front lawn, everywhere. We should hear this on every media outlet and echoing through the streets.

Great book, with ominous implications.

Retired U.S. Army Major General Randy Manner: "The deployments we’re currently seeing inside American cities…are not only un-American and wrong, they’re being done at the expense of our young men and women in uniform." newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/i-helped-l...

Autumnal read: Rhyne King's House of the Satrap. Fascinating dive into the basic building block of the Achaemenid empire, the satraps house, and argues that the imperial system should be viewed as a set of hierarchically structured overlapping houses: the king, his satraps and their subordinates.

Doug Krugman is a 24-year Marine Corps veteran who chose to resign rather than participate in Trump's and Hegseth's #ForeverWars. His voice carries the weight of someone who has personally made "life and death targeting calls" in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trump’s tearing down the East Wing to build himself a $350M ballroom while Americans struggle to afford health care. Senator Ruben Gallego went to the site of the Trump teardown.

NEW: NBC News confirms that the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, on the east side of the White House, has been destroyed as part of the demolition of the East Wing. (📸 Getty Images)

American institutions don't crumble. But they can be destroyed.

Not sure why this image is so shocking, given everything he’s done but: it’s shocking! www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

I guess if I *had* to pick my favorite part of the video the president posted where he’s a big boy pilot and he pew pew pews his poop all over everyone, it would be the part where he shits on the American flag?

The Nika riots but instead of turning soldiers on his people Justinian returns to the Blachernae and sketches pictures of elephants defecating on the Hippodrome

World War 2 veterans, the original antifa, took part in the nationwide protests against the fascist Trump regime. #3E #NoKings #50501Movement #indivisible #wearetheflood

Albany NY

Go time!

Since today is #nokings, worth reflecting on the deep anti-monarchic currents in ancient Rome. The city of Rome had been ruled by kings (seven in myth, but the last few were certainly real). Roman tradition recalled the late kings obtained power violently and ruled tyrannically.

Grim but exciting news. Near Roman Mursa in Croatia, skeletons of 7 soldiers were found who may have perished during the third century crisis c. 260 CE. One of the most pivotal yet poorly documented periods in Roman history. Looking forward digging into the scientific report. tinyurl.com/5bn2zsyx

Treating the Declaration of Independence’s list of grievances like a to do list. "He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing … his invasions on the rights of the people." "For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate …".

11 million is a lot---like, busloads---of humanities faculty

I wrote a thing! thedispatch.com/article/pent... Writing in @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social, I argue that Hegseth's new 'Department of War' is a foolish break with the most successful parts of America's military past: our civ-mil relationship and the American 'way of war.'

'A pint of your finest Imperial-Gallic, landlord! And have one for yourself!!' 'If it's all the same to you, sir, I prefer another glass of nice crisp Montefortino.' 'Does that make you a re-publican?' I thank you ...

What if @umassamherst.bsky.social just gave faculty time, space, resources to actually do research?

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

I’ve put together a quick overview of all naval rams and related artifacts on my personal website, along with some relevant publications. It’s meant to serve as a handy reference and a “current count” table. Will updated will more info later! stephendecasien.com/naval-rams/

US conservatives under Obama would sometimes wistfully post training footage of Russian special forces, like "look at what the real manly countries are doing instead of our woke baby military" and then all those VDV guys got annihilated within the first 3 days of the Ukraine invasion

And the cult of SOF is a real problem given that, if we've seen one thing in Ukraine, it is that in a near-peer conflict, highly-trained, ultra-elite infantry cost a lot to form and field but get shredded by firepower at exactly the same rate, if not faster than, regular infantry.

don't mind me, just military sociology posting

We're not at war with Venezuela, these boats are many hundreds of lines from our waters, much less our shores, there is no threat, this is just murder. I really do think everyone from the SecDef to the guy who pushed the button should be tried for murder on this.

And I got the edition wrong, 3rd was print, this is the new online edition!

Very happy to announce that my article *armies, Roman, Republic Republic* has been published online as part of the Oxford Classical Dictionary 3rd Edition. doi.org/10.1093/acre...

Pete Hegseth thinks he's Patton, but because he's a doofus who doesn't know anything about his job, he thinks he Patton from the movie, rather than actual Patton in the war, and also he's neither of those guys, he's supposed to be Henry L. Stimson (who, unlike Hegseth, managed to get past Major).

Building a "comrades massacre" vibe. That's the meeting in July 79 when Saddam Hussein announced his Baath party purge and had bewildered party officials led out of the auditorium and ... well. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Ba...

The entire "warrior ethos" is one of many toxic legacies left over from the Iraq debacle and needs to be nuked from orbit at the next possible opportunity.

CHOTINER: So, tell me about this ‘possession for all time’ idea. THUCYDIDES: Well, my book should be useful to anyone who wants true understanding of the past. CHOTINER: Because present and future events tend to resemble the past, right? THUCYDIDES: Absolutely.

A passage of Plautus links up quite explicitly national greatness, a large citizen body, success in war, and the fruits of victory: (Truc. 55-56) postremo id magno in populo multis hominibus, re placidia atque otiosa, victis hostibus

Fun story this morning. I spoke with Curtis Evans, the retired Marine in the viral photo below who took part in the anti-ICE protest at Broadview. He's a thoughtful guy, well read and with a dry sense of humor. Story @taskandpurpose.com taskandpurpose.com/news/marine-...

This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.

Great series!

Wow, Aemilius Paullus had a straight up classic mid-life crisis: Career setback (lost bid for 2nd consulship) Divorced first wife for no reason Took up a bunch of hobbies (supposedly to educate his kids)

In a win for federalism, got my COVID shot today in New York.

I hadn't thought I needed to see the image, but this is the case where it really is worth 1000 words. That is not the body of an adult woman.

I hope everyone will forgive the bluntness of my language, but it seems like bluntness is warranted: it now seems pretty clear that the president raped children or at least knew about and actively facilitated the rape of children. I think it is time we stopped using coded language to say that.

It wasn't the Warrior Elite who prevailed at Little Round Top, or Missionary Ridge, or Omaha Beach or Guadalcanal. When shit hit the fan it's always just some guy who was a Liberal Arts Professor, a Soda Jerk, A lumberjack, an Accountant until the war started who fucking got the job done.

Hegseth's insistence that 'Department of War' fake-name-change is about 'warriors' and 'warfighters' is the dumbest s*** I think I have ever heard. The guys that created the Department of Defense in 1947 - in NINETEEN FORTY-SEVEN - had done more warfighting than Trump's entire cabinet put together.