Henry Davis

Historian. BA Classical Studies. Roman history, how Rome was ruled, and Christian origins. Author of Creating Christianity.

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

I currently research Christian origins within the political and social context of the Roman world, with a focus on power, elite family networks, and historical method.

My work and writing can be found here:
https://t.co/5NZfwwNubW

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

Very exciting.

[Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunt]

Yes, great but how about they just let me move in permanently?
Please?
https://t.co/awxo3DwKlo

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

@ArmandDAngour @wmarybeard This is why I never trust a quote unless the person quoting it gives the source, and where in that source it appears.

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

@AntigoneJournal @timothy_kenny I very much enjoyed watching that!

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

@whencyclopedia "Lost much of his popularity” needs qualifying. The article itself shows Nero’s fall was driven by the Senate, generals, army, and Praetorian Guard. That is not quite the same as saying ordinary Romans simply turned against him.

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

@wmarybeard This is exactly why Rome still matters. Not because it sits safely in the past, but because it keeps pressing on how we think about politics, power, society, and ourselves

[History Today @HistoryToday]

Nero died #OnThisDay in AD 68.

Was he the Antichrist? The bestial image of the Roman emperor as the enemy of Christians persists, but the truth is more complex.

🔓 This archive article is free for 7 days

https://t.co/2gNnF1rAHC

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

@HistoryToday Malik makes a very good point here. Nero as “the Antichrist” is much clearer in later Christian tradition than it is in the actual first-century evidence.

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

Mary Beard has made this point in her own way - classics is not boring.

Power, sex, war, religion, corruption, murder, money, family feuds, and propaganda are not boring.

If there is a connection and relevance problem, perhaps the root problem is how it is being presented.

[Lindsay Powell FRHistS @Lindsay_Powell]

"Somewhere along the line, academia parted company with readers. Academics sniff at history books that the public enjoys."
— Catherine Nixey, Culture correspondent, @TheEconomist.
How did we get to this point in writing history?

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

A good reminder: This is how cumulative evidence works in scholarship. No single item proves the case, but the pattern is treated as meaningful.

That standard has to be applied consistently, especially when the conclusion is uncomfortable.

https://t.co/0SznzLPy5a

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

This is too sweeping. Plenty of learned and interesting people are on here. The problem isn’t that they’re absent, but that the platform often rewards the loudest and least reflective voices.

[Antigone Journal @AntigoneJournal]

A sobering reminder to self: the most learned and interesting people are not on X/Twitter, and good for them.

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

@wmarybeard @walkinstownd12 Not surprising, really. The Roman elite did have a habit of keeping things in the family.

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

@AntigoneJournal @theo_nash I agree that the whole thing is tedious, but the basic point matters. If a translation is not trying to represent the original accurately for readers who cannot read it, then what is it supposed to be?
Style, tone, and idiom involve choices. Accuracy still has to be the aim.

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

@BretDevereaux Exactly. Treating ancient texts seriously means asking who wrote them, who had the ability and resources to write them, what they could know, and what pressures they were writing under. That isn’t hating the classics. It’s refusing to treat them as sacred texts.

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

This cuts through the lazy “great man” version of Alexander.

He was great at conquest. That doesn’t make him wise, humane, or good at ruling. It just shows how easily military success gets mistaken for greatness.

["Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @BretDevereaux]

A number of responses here are shocked, shocked! that I could say that Alexander was only great at killing, but if you challenge them to say what else he was great at...they mostly sputter.

So was Alexander great at things other than warfare and killing? 1/

[Jim Loughran @walkinstownd12]

Want to Fall in Love With Classics? Try a 4,000-Year-Old Bread Roll. https://t.co/o8Lwe9IzQ1

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

Mary Beard is right. Universities matter because they defend complexity and difficulty in a world drawn to simplification. The challenge is making sure that ideal applies beyond established academic boundaries, to difficult arguments and uncomfortable questions from outside them.

[mary beard @wmarybeard]

Here’s an account of what I said at Georgetown Graduate Commencement, should you be interested! https://t.co/PjY7L9rNUN

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

A useful discussion. But historians need to answer the public’s question in simple terms:

Why should we care?

That means explaining why ancient history matters to people outside universities, not just why it matters inside them.

[Classical Wisdom @ClassicalWisdom]

Is ancient history essential...or becoming obsolete?
New #podcast on the challenges facing the study of the ancient world w/ leading scholars who don’t all agree... but all believe the stakes are high @barrystrauss @drangiehobbs @WalterScheidel :
https://t.co/NfM4ktCTiL

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

Morally? Whoever had the lowest score for killing and corruption, so probably no one.

Politically? Augustus. Turning one-man rule into “restored republic” was quite the trick.

[Michael McGill 🏛 @mcgillmd921]

Your favorite Roma emperor tells us a lot about you.

So tell us...

Who is your favorite Roman emperor?

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

A lot of ancient “prophecy” was written after the event and backdated to look like prediction.

Less crystal ball, more ancient spin.

[World History Encyclopedia @whencyclopedia]

The Marduk Prophecy is historical fiction created to celebrate the victory over the Elamites of Nebuchadnezzar I.  #history https://t.co/0cVGi3mWPP

[Henry Davis @HenryDavisCC]

Very odd, very worth reading. Less for Putin than for what it says about how Latin still gets used to dress up power.

[Antigone Journal @AntigoneJournal]

Latin is still alive, and not just for scholars and enthusiasts; in some places, it's still used as imperial propaganda, just as it was in Ancient Rome. Today, Michael Fontaine of @Cornell investigates the strange case of Vladimir Putin's Latin orations... https://t.co/BLhANF5NfP