I did not like humanities, but I have changed my mind a long time ago. “History is a humanities discipline through and through, whereas political science attempts to hybridize humanities and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) approaches; that’s not… Read More »Collections: The Practical Case on Why We Need the Humanities
The boring documents are often the most important. “it is difficult to overstate the value of the papyri we do recover from Egypt. Documents containing census and tax information can give us important clues about the structure of ancient households… Read More »Collections: Why Roman Egypt Was Such a Strange Province
Sometimes creating a permanent empire is just a side effect. “At first, a provincia was a temporary assignment, which came into existence when assigned and ceased to exist when completed. As the Romans decide to permanently garrison their overseas possessions,… Read More »Collections: How to Roman Republic 101, Addenda: The Provinces
Having allies is easier than having subjects. “By contrast, the socii recruit themselves, equip themselves and organize themselves. And they fight hard, because they’re fighting for their home communities, to show their bravery to their own neighbors and family (who… Read More »Collections: How to Roman Republic 101, Addenda: The Socii
Laws mean nothing if people do not take them seriously. “The lion’s share of Sulla’s reforms consisted, after all, in writing into law limits that had once been customary and codifying expectations which before had been unspoken and it did… Read More »Collections: How to Roman Republic 101, Part IIIc: Ten Tribunes, Two Censors and Twenty-Six Guys
Many reasons.
This is some stupid mafia level shit people just get along with.
Dictatorship was a different thing in old and new Rome. “This point is often missed in teaching Roman history because Roman history is very long and so gets very compressed in a classroom environment. Even in a college course focused… Read More »Collections: The Roman Dictatorship: How Did It Work? Did It Work?
Crash course on WWIII.
I was tought history of communists so plebeian were always depicted as oppressed. Well. “So, repeat after me: the patrician/plebeian distinction is not particularly meaningful in the Middle Republic. There are rich plebeian families in the Middle Republic who are… Read More »Collections: How to Roman Republic 101, Part I: SPQR