The Partial Historians 🏺

✨Know Thyself✨ Spooky season is here and we’re getting into the Halloween vibe with this quite robust specimen of a skeleton.

The C6 #mosaics of S. Vitale in #Ravenna are often read as a transition from classical to #Christian visual language, but they are also highly polemical. The lunette’s Old Testament scenes operate as assertions of theological orthodoxy for #MosaicMonday. #AncientBluesky 🏺🧵

This month, Rose Su compares depictions of Adonis on a Roman sarcophagus to a Peking opera to provide a new perspective on the motif of departure scenes. You can read Rose's blog 'Eternal Waiting: from an Adonis sarcophagus to a Peking opera' here: warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cla... #AncientBlueSky

#SarcophagusSaturday and #SpoliaSunday unite on the garden façade of the Villa Medici. This C3 CE #Roman #sarcophagus front depicts the Judgement of #Paris. It looks like a continuous narrative frieze, but Renaissance restorers heavily altered it before installation. 🧵 #AncientBluesky 🏺

The unbearable lightness of being #Nero. For a belated #FrescoFriday, this delicate #fresco survives from his #DomusTransitoria. Surviving examples beneath the Cœnatio Jovis confirm the missing parts held blue glass hemispheres to reflect the adjacent nymphaeum. #AncientBluesky 🏺

✨Down by the harbour ✨ This idyllic landscape scene is from the Casa del Frutteto (House of the Orchard), at Pompeii. The figures on the shore seem to signal to the vessel in the distance. #FrescoFriday #AncientRome #Pompeii

The ancient Canosans were of the opinion that more pigment and gilding was better, and - contrary to a well-known historian who found their work 'vulgar' - I completely agree. This polychrome bust of an aristocratic woman looks like a classic movie film star, ready for her closeup. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

With all the accoutrements he posseses from his club to the skin of the Nemean lion, it is perhaps the apples of the Hesperides hidden behind his back that are the most surprising detail. #AncientRome #Hercules #Herakles #Hunkules

For #ReliefWednesday, this C4 BCE #Greek #relief in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is dedicated to #Apollo Patroos. Civic brotherhoods commissioned these as youths entered the citizen body. The painted pinax on the wall is a brilliant meta-reference to the dedication itself. #AncientBluesky 🏺

For #MosaicMonday, this framed Nilotic scene is actually a surviving fragment of the famous Asàrotos òikos (Unswept Floor) from the Aventine. It formed the high-art centrepiece of the dining room, admired by guests looking past the trompe-l'œil food debris at their feet. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Sometimes it feels like Monday is off to a flying start! This chariot racer with horse is clearly affiliated with the red team. This mosaic dates to the C3rd CE and can by found in the Palazzo Massimo all Terme in Rome. #MosaicMonday #ChariotRacing #AncientRome

See any books you love or would love to read? #AncientRome #AncientGreece #Classics #Books

An early entry for #MosaicMonday this week: the powerful and splendidly bearded head of Oceanus which I was lucky enough to see when the site was newly excavated. 📷 1990 #AncientBluesky🏺

For #FrescoFriday, this wall of #fresco in the #HouseoftheVettii in #Pompeii shows the phantasmagorical #architecture of the late Fourth Style. Though relatively small, this ala or wing off the peristyle was cleverly enlarged by different planes of painted illusion. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Are you a woman* in Classics**? Do you want to add loads of interesting women into your feed? Well: here is the list for you! #ClassicsBluesky

New this week, the second and final post on Faesulae! We finish up with the archaeological area, including the theater and an Etrusco-Roman temple, as well as the Etruscan fortifications: www.roamintheempire.com/index.php/20... #RomanSiteSaturday #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientBlueSky🏺

A #Roman coin minted in 8/7 BC in the province of Africa. It features the portrait of Publius Quinctilius Varus, the proconsular governor of Africa at the time - long before he ran into disaster in the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9... #Archaeology #Numismatics #AncientBlueSky

✨Special Episode - Mark Antony with Alex Gough✨ We sit down with @alexgoughauthor.bsky.social to learn more about his historical fiction series on Mark Antony which explores Antony’s career and follows him all the way through to his demise.

Swimming into #FindsFriday with this gorgeously detailed bronze mermaid, dated 2nd century CE. Loving the detail of the scales on her tail, and how protectively she's holding that cornucopia 🧜🏻‍♀️. 📸 us at Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija, Seville #Sevilla #archaeology ##skystorians #ancientbluesky

For #ReliefWednesday, we examine this C2 CE #Roman copy of a C5 BCE #Greek #relief of #Medea and the Peliades. Discovered in 1814 at palazzo De Carolis on via del Corso, its wear pattern suggests it was used upside down as a paver. Now in the #VaticanMuseums. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Mask of Jupiter ~ thought to have been originally and architectural feature. Certainly he conveys a stern expression suggestive of a potential thunderous temper! The date for this artefact is listed as between C1st–C3rd CE. From the MAN Firenze; seen at the Melbourne Museum. #AncientRome #Jupiter

Before 1777, Falerio Picenus was a nearly perfectly-preserved #Roman town. Then Pius VI’s diggers arrived. For #MosaicMonday, we examine this Antonine-era leopard #emblema, stripped from a private #domus and treated as #spolia in the Vatican's Scala Simonetti. #AncientBluesky 🏺

✨Cave Canem✨ We’re not saying this excellent doggo is particularly dangerous, but they are guarding the Casa di Paquius Proculus in Pompeii, so best be careful! Also this doggo comes with a labrys (double axe) and a shield and spear! #MosaicMonday #AncientRome

✨ Special Episode – A Day in the Life of a Roman Gladiator with Harry Sidebottom✨ Ever wondered what it would be like to walk in the calcei of a Roman gladiator? How did gladiators pass their days? Join us as we chat with Harry Sidebottom to find out more by discussing his book on Roman gladiators.

The *other* holy trinity is our focus for today's #SarcophagusSaturday. This late C2 CE #sarcophagus in the #VaticanMuseums shows three distinct Dionysi in one relief: the mythological lover, the ecstatic sponsor of #theatre, and the solemn object of worship. #AncientBluesky 🏺

✨Pan and Hermaphroditus ✨ Hermaphroditus embodied androgyny in the ancient world and is thought to offer protection in domestic settings. Here they appear with Pan (or a Satyr).

"You can tell the sun in his jealous sky / When we walked in fields of gold." For #FrescoFriday, the House of #Livia on the #Palatine. Painted c. 30 BCE during the ascendancy of #Augustus, this Second Style wall depicts his Golden Age of perpetual abundance. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Statue of a young satyr (or Eros) wearing a theatre mask of Silenus. This sculpture is thought to date to the C1st CE and depicts a young figure attempting to wear a theatre mask. The image would also go on to be used on a child’s sarcophagus (see previous post). #AncientRome #Silenus #Eros

For #ReliefWednesday, this C5 BCE Athenian stele is a physical fragment of Phidian brilliance and a historical fragment of the dispersed Giustiniani collection. Breakage stimulates the imagination. As Sondheim wrote: "Nothing's changed / Only maybe slightly rearranged." #AncientBluesky 🏺

Special K. For #EpigraphyTuesday, we look at two instances of the archaic K in the word EVOKATVS, normally EVOCATVS, recalled veterans who were "called out" of retirement to re-enlist, with many privileges for doing so. This one, Ingenuus, was a career soldier. #AncientBluesky 🏺

This delightful mosaic once decorated the courtyard of the so-called House of the Drinking Contest, near the port of Antioch-on-the-Orontes. The mosaic is thought to date to C3rd CE and depicts erotes frolicking among Mediterranean marine life. #MosaicMonday #Dolphins

Curious about what the Roman Emperor #Hadrian did to earn that fancy monumental arch in Athens? Wonder no more! In our new episode, we talk about Hadrian’s love for #Athens… havetogawilltravel.com/podcast/have...

We didn't mean to schedule our series 1 finale for International Podcast Day, what a happy little accident. But this does provide a perfect opportunity to thank our contributors and all of our lovely listeners! Also, allow us to show some love to other indie podcasts that we listen to and admire: