Bad Ancient/ Owen Rees

It is publication day for The Far Edges of the Known World! If you love ancient history, global history, unusual stories from the past, or if you want some nice historical escapism about life at the edges of the ancient world - pick up a copy today! #AncientBlueSky #BookSky #Skystorians

NEW BOOK: my first children's book is out this week. It's an encyclopedia of Europe for 8-12s.

Featuring Ben Paites, Senior Curator at @colmuseums.bsky.social, Kate Sumnall, Curator of Archaeology at @londonmuseum.bsky.social and Lexi Diggins, archaeologist and guest curator at @stalbansmuseums.bsky.social... Ancient History 101 presents: BOUDICA Part 1: Prelude to Destruction

I am one of those! 'Super sexy Alcibiades' is the best way to describe him anf understand why people kept letting him get away with so much cr@p.

After his wonderful episode discussing the Thirty Tyrants, @roelkonijn.bsky.social has returned to give us a crash course in the Sicilian Expedition this week! Crack open your copy of Thucydides, we're going sailing...

📣 Announcement! We’re delighted to share a brand-new podcast series that invites expert historians to challenge your perceptions of the past. CHALLENGING HISTORIES is hosted by historian and author, @amyfuller.bsky.social. Listen wherever you get your podcasts! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

Some fun stuff in here about Aphrodite as a war-god.

New Bad Ancient article is out, with a new contributor from @uonclassarch.bsky.social ... so obviously it is about Sparta! www.badancient.com/claims/ares-...

New Bad Ancient article is out, with a new contributor from @uonclassarch.bsky.social ... so obviously it is about Sparta! www.badancient.com/claims/ares-...

Took my 11yo to the videogaming museum in Sheffield today and found these two beauties! Wasn't happy to see things in glass cases as exhibits that I distinctly remember playing as a kid. That was just rude.

Last day of the holidays, so here are a few things I have coming up once I get back to work 🧵

Working through a draft of a new Bad Ancient article submitted by a new contributor. Always an exciting prospect, but I am particularly happy because this question on Spartan religion has been in our backlog for years!

I am VERY EXCITED to see the ad come out for post-doc positions associated with my Cambridge Lab for Ancient World Studies: please pass on to anyone who might be interested and works across ancient regions/languages/worlds... www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

New books have arrived so I can practice my Sanskrit (I'm definitely not procrastinating from the book I need to finish). Very excited to find that there is a Loeb-like edition of some texts (i.e. dual language), less excited to have numerous book retailers claim to have then but actually not!

Fun data: this year the most ordered book via my blog's Amazon links is @badancient.bsky.social's The Far Edges of the Known World, followed by 1942: Crux of War and The War People. Last year it was @michaellivingston.com's Agincourt, followed by Infantry in Battle, 1733-1783 and Waging a Good War.

New episode alert! @drdragases.bsky.social joins 101 to give us a crash course in Late Antiquity, a fascinating period that gives Game of Thrones a run for its money. Was the Roman empire really 'split in half'? How did Christianity become the official religion? And when did Rome *actually* fall?

Had a chat with the WarTalk team about The Odyssey www.chinatalk.media/p/wartalk-od...

In my life time? Gladiator, 300, Troy, and Alexander all come to mind and all since the year 2000. What happens each time is people say it will save the study of ancient history, it is loved for a bit before the next big thing happens: all while ancient history depts across the world shut.

Very short notice (deadline 18 August) but we're advertising a 0.5fte lectureship in public history for next year. Covers my 3rd year undergraduate course on public history of Rome (ancient to modern) plus some MA public history teaching.

Historians and archaeologists have mixed feelings about the spectre haunting Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster. www.iflscience.com/were-the-mys...

Yay! It’s here

The Bad Ancient team's interview with @iflscience.com is live! Inspired by the Odyssey film, it focuses on the question of the Sea Peoples and 'collapsing civilisations'. Also, it is the first time we have ever been called a 'ragtag team' and I like it. We should put that in a bio somewhere!

Like if the Powerpuff Girls fought bad history takes 💪

The Bad Ancient team's interview with @iflscience.com is live! Inspired by the Odyssey film, it focuses on the question of the Sea Peoples and 'collapsing civilisations'. Also, it is the first time we have ever been called a 'ragtag team' and I like it. We should put that in a bio somewhere!

Something a little different this week! Our new episode with @alexvandewalle.bsky.social talks about the various ways that video games treat and portray Greek myth, and it's more diverse than you might imagine! We discuss more than half a dozen games, from the good, the bad to the downright weird!

When I was governor of a local primary school, reading for pleasure was the latest obsession (rightly so). But every solution was to look like they were fostering a love of reading (posters, book reviews up on walls, etc) - not to actually do anything about it. This is great thread on the topic.

This has been sent off and was as difficult as you would expect. Nuance is hard at the best of times, but the Sea Peoples is a topic that is difficult to cover in enough detail to be fair, but also useful enough for a public audience to engage with! I hope we managed it.

Bad Ancient is getting recognition in the academic world! The new website for the International Sparta Seminar has a 'resource' section that includes our Sparta articles, and I also spy a blog series by @bretdevereaux.bsky.social as well as some @askhistorians.bsky.social threads on there! 🏺🗂

Not sure if I will have to hand in my 'ancient historian badge' for this, but ... I did not enjoy this film.

If the new Odyssey film has got you interested in the idea of ancient combat trauma and how it is described in our sources, here is an interview I did with The Ancients podcast on that exact topic!

This will challenge anyone who says accuracy does not matter in historically themed films #BadAncient

And some military historians question the relevance of gender studies...

A phalanx is only strong if it is unified and cohesive. It only takes one false move for a phalanx to crumble in the face of competence. #BadAncient

A new episode dedicated to the birthday boy: Alexander the Great himself! Stephen Harrison jumps on the pod to talk about knotty source issues, cultural identity, military 'necessity', Andy Murray and the Great Man Theory. Think you know Alexander? Think again...

Tutankhamun - the disabled Pharaoh! What conditions did he have? Listen to our episode with Alexandra Morris to find out what the discoveries made in his tomb tell us about the disability aids he used, how he managed his pain, and why some Egyptologists refuse to believe he was disabled at all!

'Ancient Sparta was a communist state'. I never knew this was a thing until recently, the whole having 2 kings thing is surely an issue? We ended up getting the world's leading Sparta scholar to debunk the idea: www.badancient.com/claims/spart...

Back at work today and am very pleased to see my discussion about the Firearm Revolution out on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast:

I am once again begging Hollywood to stop using the Greek alphabet for an Ancient World movie, if they can't afford to even throw a couple of quid at anyone with an inkling of the language. Unless they really think audiences are dying to see THS THDPSSSSPS

This should be a great episode. Anyone who has read the work of @disabledarchaeo.bsky.social knows this will be a good one, anyone who hasn't is in for a treat! #ancientbluesky 🏺

My children had to suffer the embarassment of having their dad be the only one laughing at a joke about Medea opening a new child care facility. Oh well!

Bought at Lisbon Airport to while away the trip back. Very good so far

The Trung Sisters were, indeed, amazing! If you do not know the story, give them a look.

⚠️NEW EPISODE⚠️ Jane Draycott talks about Fulvia, a woman with an astonishing impact on the late Roman Republic. In this biography episode, we discuss how Fulvia managed this from within the confines of ancient Roman gender roles - dangerous virago? Or ideal Roman wife and mother?

What military force in Greece could defeat a Spartan army? In the 4th century, that would be the Sacred Band. Our full episode on Theban myth and history with @profboeotia.bsky.social is available now on all platforms! www.ancienthistory101.org/p/thebes

Lovely to see this review of The Firearm Revolution in the WSJ

This is a great listen. If you know the work of @debscavator.bsky.social, then you know how good this will be!

I have been giving talks on my book for over a year now and the one thing that is guaranteed to get an audience reaction is the Berenike Buddha in Egypt. People seem amazed it exists and then what it tells us about the ancient world. So I wrote the whole thing up as a Bad Ancient article: