"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social
Ancient & military historian specializing in the Roman economy and military. PhD from UNC History. More impressive credential is that I have beaten both Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Blogs at acoup.blog
Someone asked r/askhistorians a question on Ancient Greek amphibious warfare, specifically as depicted in Troy. I wrote a quick answer. www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
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Whereas I've always considered him kinda a happy, smiling lil axe-guy
Accented Cinema@accentedcinema.bsky.social · 2d agoBehold, a 3000 year old Chinese ceremonial bronze axe bearing a human face of which archeologists described as "fearsome and fierce".
This is strange. As someone who accidented into being a kind of content creator (I mean, I prefer the term 'public historian' but, y'know), it sure seems like it is generally a lot of work and sometimes more socially isolating than you'd expect.
victoria scott@victoriascott.bsky.social · yesterdayit is extremely ironic that, even for the guys deputized as a roving secret police to kill other Americans basically at their leisure, the highest form of existence they can conceive of and project is still basically “lifestyle influencer”. Everyone wants to be a fucking Content Creator
Pat Buchanan must think he was born in the wrong generation. Too late for uncut antisemitism; too early for whatever the hell this is. New from me in Morning Shots.
Also, fwiw, I find ancient Greek individuality easy to overstate: only for adult citizen males, of course, but also even citizens really didn't have any rights the community was bound to respect. It's an individualistic society by pre-modern standards, but I wouldn't say fiercely so.
Sarah E. Bond@sarahebond.bsky.social · yesterday90% of how Rubio described “the West” while in Athens (e.g., "fierce individuality,” “relentless ambition”) is just a rehashing of ideas plucked from Ayn Rand. Encouraging people to “ethical egoism” is how we got this level of inequality—which now sits at a higher level than Ancient Athens ever had.
beyond parroting the greek miracle component of white supremacy, Rubio also presents a version of Greek thought that has neither the delphic imperative of self-knowledge nor the corrective warning of "nothing to excess"
Sarah E. Bond@sarahebond.bsky.social · yesterday90% of how Rubio described “the West” while in Athens (e.g., "fierce individuality,” “relentless ambition”) is just a rehashing of ideas plucked from Ayn Rand. Encouraging people to “ethical egoism” is how we got this level of inequality—which now sits at a higher level than Ancient Athens ever had.
Decided to start a new Dark Souls 3 run and I'm not sure if I should take it as a sign of my Dark Souls street cred that I one-shot Iudex Gundyr on the first attempt, or a sign of just how deep the layers of rust are that I did so with just this tiny sliver of health left at the end:
Curious question: has anyone compiled a decently large sample somewhere of the white supremacist and Nazi imagery used in social media by official Trump administration accounts (esp. official department accounts, rather than individuals)?
there's a pretty strong case to be made for abolishing fraternities just on a comparative basis with other countries. in the UK, to the best of my knowledge, no examples of the kind of campus gang rape cases that happen with depressing regularity in the US.
Arizona State better be milking this for all it is worth, "according to the Vive President, our peer institutions are Harvard, Stanford and Yale."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoVance: "Some of America's most elite universities bring in foreigners to undercut wages of American residents. There are 9 universities in particular we believe merit an investigation. Those are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburg, UC Davis, Cal Tech, Arizona State, and MIT."
🧵 The Wehrmacht was a CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION responsible for mass crimes against humanity and genocide.🧵 🔥The mother of threads.🔥 Click below for an exhaustive discussion of the criminality of the German Army during WWII as I try to once again kill the cockroach that is the Clean Wehrmacht Myth!
There's never enough Classics content here so let's talk about a couple of (as I tell my students) 'load-bearing culture words' in Latin and some of their cultural significance: beneficium: a favor, kindness, service officium: a duty, kindness, service & munus: a service, favor, obligation, gift.
Absolutely LOVE the floral initials in this copy of the works of Apuleius, one of the first books printed at Rome (by Sweynheym & Pannartz) in 1469. The initials apparently added in France, perhaps in the 1480s or 90s. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.2.B.2.1[1124].
I am struck that the political theory of MAGA in Trump 2.0 is the GOP can win without sound or moral government if everyone throws red meat to the cameras as the occasional bribe. You see it with Trump, Patel, Hegseth, all of them. Anyway, Trump's approval is at, like, -23, so...no luck on that.
You can really see the different phases of the war play out in this radar imagery. These first two show the damage from the most intense bombing, before ground forces entered Gaza, when the IDF was announcing the destruction of “power targets” and sometimes dropping more than 1,000 bombs in a day.
Wesley Morgan@wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 4d agoStriking in this animation of damage in Gaza by the Conflict Ecology team: there’s an intense initial surge of destruction in Oct-Dec 2023 coinciding with by far the heaviest Israeli aerial bombing—but the bulldozer-based phase of the war in spring and Aug-Oct 2025 lights up the map almost as much…
Man, no matter how much you tell students, "you cannot guess later Latin principle parts for verbs from earlier ones" there are always a few who try in every class. And it turns out - wait for it - you cannot guess later Latin principle parts for verbs from earlier ones.
Cool, cool, Thom, just checking real quick, but uh, who voted to confirm all of his advisors? And who nominated them for confirmation? Like, classic good tsar, bad boyars nonsense, but c'mon, seriously. You're leaving the Senate anyway, have some damn dignity on the way out.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4d agoRUHLE: Why do you think the president is taking this position? TILLIS: Uhhh. I think he got bad advice RUHLE: Why do you talk about advice? He's the president! You said he's got great political instincts, and millions of Americans are suffering
You might also be aware that gymnasia predate modernity by around 2,000 years, so it isn't 'modern day' work that is the issue.
Vituperative Erb@vituperativeerb.bsky.social · 5d agoI think one reason it’s good to have a liberal arts education in the classic sense is that you don’t then spend time trying to invent the concept of “intellectual pursuits” from first principles
I find myself concerned that the widening midterm map may create a set of expectations where we end up getting a D+7/D+8 year with some strong candidate effects but it gets read as a disappointing performance because the Dems didn't pick off Kansas, South Carolina, Iowa or Texas etc.
I have to admit, I would have expected the second attack on the East-West Saudi pipeline (yesterday, apparently, the pipeline is shut down) would cause bigger waves because it demonstrates that the first shutdown was not a one-off and Iran/Houthis/whoever can *keep doing this* forever.
Indeed the frequently accurate stereotype of developing world politics was that the political choices were between different corrupt and patrimonial parties. The USA traditionally avoided this but we now have one patrimonial party; what remains to be seen is if a non-patrimonial one can compete.
rev. howard arson@theophite.bsky.social · 6d agothere is no leftist literature as embarrassing as the "anticorruption is bourgeois and you have to understand that the politics of the working class are inherently patrimonial" literature which followed Lavo Jato and PT's total failure to do literally anything to reform.
2. i knew this one would be a popular one & it was @bretdevereaux.bsky.social on how the roman republic worked www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/roman-republic
The Roman Republic with Bret Devereaux
The strange historical reality behind the inspiration for so many political systems, & what we can learn from it.
politicalphilosophypodcast.com
Today is the day! The deadline to register to vote is October 5 in AZ, AR, FL, GA, IN, KY, MS, MT, OH, TN, & TX. Check out all these resources & get prepared. #VotingIsPunk #VoteEarly
I do think this should put some of the hand-wringing over the uniquely sinful American electorate, uniquely feckless institutions, etc in perspective. The truth is that there is a large trans-national constituency of people who actively want this. They aren’t deceived. They want this.
Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq.@clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 6d agoOn the one hand, it’s comforting to know that Americans aren’t uniquely stupid, voters everywhere have skulls filled with mush and worms. On the other hand, global fascism is probably not an ideal state of affairs.
