Michael J. Taylor

Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele

Wow! @dominicmachado.bsky.social "The Carthaginian Masters" debuted as a top 20 article at JHU Press! Thanks everyone for reading! www.press.jhu.edu/newsroom/top...

Michael J. Taylor reposted

@drdragases.bsky.social

A personal anecdote about Chris Wickham, whose passing - like everyone in our field - comes as shocking news. Other people will be able to replicate this with myriads of their own examples. In the spring of 2016, I was spending three months in the Belgian Academy of Rome on a modest stipend.

Rory Naismith@rorynaismith.bsky.social

(Shared from various people on FB) RIP Chris Wickham

🚨🚨🚨🚨Calling SCS members: would anyone be interested in writing an essay reflecting on Nobel Prize winner Anne Carson for the SCS blog? 500 to 1500 words, ASAP. Publication within days of submission. @scsclassics.bsky.social PS: Is the first Nobel Prize for a Classicist since Mommsen?

Also, not first come first serve...this is a BFD for the field, so hope to publish multiple reflections!

One of the fundamental failures of higher ed leadership is caring about the inputs of research (grants) over the outputs (published research).

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org

Another way to put this is that the status of the humanities in R1/R2 US universities are just as dependent on external funding as STEM (whether in the form of grants or private endowment capital); there's just so much less of it for the humanities, which is why we suffer.

18 Sept

New Ancient Warfare arrived! Theme is Alexander, but Spurius Ligustinus makes a cameo in a special. @ancientwarfare.bsky.social

washingtonpost.comMore U.S. troops have died amid Iran war than Pentagon has disclosed publiclyOfficials who spoke with The Post expressed frustration that the additional loss of life in the Middle East is not reflected in the Defense Department’s casualty database.

18 Sept

Impeach Hegseth

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

Exclusive: More American service members have died in the Middle East during the ongoing Iran war than the Pentagon has disclosed publicly, according to six U.S. officials familiar with the data.

classicalstudies.orgThe Erich S. Gruen Prize | Society for Classical StudiesAbout the Gruen Prize On behalf of the Society for Classical Studies (SCS), the Erich S. Gruen Prize Committee invites all graduate students in North America to enter the seventh annual competition fo...

4 Sept

For graduate students: considering submitting for the SCS Erich Gruen Prize if you have written a paper about multiculturalism in the Mediterranean. classicalstudies.org/awards-and-f...

Society for Classical Studies

3 Sept

RETVRN

Wonderful Starfish@wonderfulstarfish.bsky.social

You mean from that time when all the characters you'd followed for a year died horribly in a volcanic disaster?

Michael J. Taylor reposted

@scsclassics.bsky.social

6 Aug

Today on the blog, editor Michael Taylor shares his take on Christopher Nolan's Odyssey and the Late Bronze Age Collapse. classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/mik...

youtube.comRome's First and Second Macedonian Wars (feat. Michael J. Taylor)YouTube video by Thersites the Historian

2 Sept

Thersites the Historian gets the only vote that counts because its his show, but I'd love to drone on about the Social War, THE turning point (mostly very bad!) in Republican history.

Borners@borners.bsky.social

I love these videos with @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social , but I really really want to Dr Taylor give us "Social War is the real turning point of the Republican era army not the non-existant Marian reforms" online lecture version of his @bretdevereaux.bsky.social post. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZGO...

2 Sept

DO IT

Benjamin L. Carp 🎏@bencarp.bsky.social

Hic, haec, hoc

Michael J. Taylor reposted

1 Sept

So I recall remarking a while back at the MET had two iron kopides that I was *sure* couldn't have been completely legally acquired (they stopped answering my emails when I asked about provenance) given their acquisition date and I check back on them and what do I see? LOL. ROFL. ROFLMAO, even.

@patrickwyman.bsky.social

29 Aug

Yes. Also, the whole “mentor” schtick worked when there were actually jobs for grad students to go into. For most, grad school is the academic career, performing labor that sustains the entire enterprise.

This post is unavailable.

Michael J. Taylor reposted

Patrick Wyman

23 Aug

@drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social Soldiers and Silver was one of the best books I've read in the past few years!

Michael J. Taylor reposted

Mitch Wolfe

@whrwlfthrwlf85v.bsky.social

17 Aug

Replying to @ardentreader.bsky.social

Extending this further, it’s also Hegseth intentionally humiliating the military out of resentment at only being an alcoholic National Guard major limited in both intelligence and management skills that couldn’t truly make a career out of the military.

Michael J. Taylor reposted

Ancient Warfare magazine

@ancientwarfare.bsky.social

14 Aug

Nineteen years of *Ancient Warfare* magazine: a look back and a big announcement. Jasper Oorthuys is passing the editorial baton—could you be the next editor? Find out more. https://bit.ly/4buAgGL

Michael J. Taylor reposted

Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele

@drdragases.bsky.social

13 Aug

This is an important question but very difficult to answer. A thread on the Christianization of the Roman _State_ which by proxy gives us some insight on the Christianization of the Roman _World_

Matt Gabriele@profgabriele.com

I know the era of mass conversion to Christianity didn't happen until at least the 4th century, but is there a point at which we can definitively say that the Roman world was MAJORITY Christian? #medievalsky

Michael J. Taylor reposted

John Ma 🇺🇦

@nakhthor.bsky.social

7 Aug

@drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social 's excellent take on the Odyssey. TLDR: tension between the fantasy treatment and the dogged LBA collapse setting (the latter would be better served by Eggers style obessive realism) classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/mik...

classicalstudies.orgBlog: Bronze Age Collapse on the Silver Screen: Thoughts on Chistopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. | Society for Classical Studies

Michael J. Taylor reposted

Society for Classical Studies

23 July

Replying to @bretdevereaux.bsky.social

Apologies if I sound angry, but it is a real problem that the 'smart' commentary on this war is trying hard to avoid the core lesson ("the president is a fucking moron") because it doesn't sound very clever when it is absolutely the most important takeaway from this debacle.

Michael J. Taylor reposted

@scsclassics.bsky.social

20 July

Today on the blog, Rachel Lesser reviews Christopher Nolan's new Odyssey film: classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/rle...

Michael J. Taylor reposted

Society for Classical Studies

@scsclassics.bsky.social

17 July

Looking for some summer reading? Check out our latest blog posts! Justin Vorhis shares strategies for building a strong undergraduate Greek program: classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/jus...

18 July

Chuds are gonna chud, but I would note there is a very clear mechanism for ensuring faculty stay current in their field---it's called research output. We freely share our CVs! You can go see the last time I published an article in a scholarly journal! (June 2026, cough cough).

This post is unavailable.

18 July

And yes, different institutions provide different levels of research support. But a curious college student should be able to figure out their professors research interests and recent research activity through a simple google search. We most certainly do not try to keep that stuff secret.

18 July

And if you want it quantified, google scholars metrics, while biased towards the sciences, do offer some sense of frequency and intensity of citation. Imperfect, yes, but more informative than how well I score on high school geometry (which is what the GRE does).

Michael J. Taylor reposted

4 July

A good day to remember that one of the indictments against George III in the Declaration was, "He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither"

Michael J. Taylor reposted

4 July

This week on the blog: a few thoughts on the Declaration of Independence for its 250th birthday, with particular attention to "every act which may define a Tyrant." acoup.blog/2026/07/04/c...

Michael J. Taylor reposted

2 July

Happy BAYONETS!! Day to all who celebrate.

Michael J. Taylor reposted

Micah

@rincewind.run

30 June

trans rights are human rights and nothing will change that, no matter what a bunch of unelected law wizards and bigoted legislators say

27 June

The paper version just arrived!

Michael J. Taylor@drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social

Thrilled to announce publication with @dominicmachado.bsky.social of our article: "The Carthaginian Masters: Settler Colonialism and Racecraft in Ancient North Africa" Arethusa 59: 151-178. We destroy Carthage one more time, only with theory. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

27 June

A draft map of the Battle of Second Herdonia, 210 BC. Hannibal envelopes a poorly deployed Roman army besieging Herdonia. Based on the brief narrative of Livy 27. 1 (also App. Han. 48 and Fronteinus 2.5.21. Terrain explains why the legions and Ala were not deployed abreast.

classicalstudies.orgBlog: Fatherlessness in Antiquity and Now | Society for Classical Studies

22 June

OTD, June 22nd 168 BC, the Battle of Pydna ended the Third Macedonian War, and the Macedonian monarchy. Re-upping, w @profpaulj.bsky.social our reconstruction of this decisive battle, open source at GRBS. grbs.library.duke.edu/index.php/gr...

Michael J. Taylor reposted

Javal Coleman

@javalac.bsky.social

19 June

Out today. it means a lot for this to be published on Juneteenth and before Father’s Day. classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/jav...

Ancient historian thoughts on Iran mess. One thing that always struck me about the Hellenistic kingdoms is how quickly they surrender. These are kings who build up their whole self-definition about being good at war, but they quit as soon as they lose a battle.

I'm not a constitutional scholar, but I suspect we need a war powers constitutional amendment, which makes it so that military officers who engage in Congressionally unauthorized wars can be prosecuted without statute of limitations (and ineligible for Presidential pardons).

That is, make it legal to say no if the President orders you to invade Greenland out of the blue.

Currently there is massive flaw in the US Constitution that a President could launch such an illegal war in the first place. The fact that there hasn't ben a declaration of war since 1942 suggests the problem goes beyond just Trump, although he's clearly the worst actor.

But the whole point of Congressional authorization is it suggests that there is a critical mass of popular support for a war. Which means the US would be more likely to avoid wars it can't win and shouldn't fight. And force politicians to build consent in a way that makes it more likely we win.

And like our brittle Hellenistic kings, we see the same combination of martial bluster combined with willingness to accept bad terms as soon as his unpopular war of choice goes south.

This is the autocrat's dilemma, when you don't care about building consent, you can do whatever you want, but you have no backstop when things go badly.

The main reason the Romans are able to absorb defeat after defeat is the simple fact they are a republic. Yes, other factors too, but republics/democracies are more resilient because you have political mechanisms to mobilize collective action and express popular will.

The US is still a democracy, albeit under grave threat. But Trump himself governs like an autocrat---not seeking consent, surrounding himself with a team of hacks and lackeys, and demanding his same party congress behave like a docile Duma.

This is an illustration of the brittleness of military autocracy. The politics are boastful but brittle. And once you lose, its better to stop losing, even under unfavorable conditions, than keeping up the fight.

Which is why the Hellenistic kingdoms go down so hard against the Romans. The Romans inflict just one big defeat and the kings cry uncle, because they don't have the political legitimacy to keep fighting. There just isn't a deep consensus for their wars...or their rule.

Michael J. Taylor reposted