Passienus

Strange tales from Ancient Rome.

'These things never happened, but always are.' Sallust

[Passienus @passienus]

Looks kinda Minoan but is actually a design by P. Picasso.

Seen in a London auction house.

[Passienus @passienus]

As late as the 380s the most senior official in Rome was lobbying Valentinian II to bring back the Altar of Victory as the senators had nothing to swear oaths on.

[Roman Helmet Guy @romanhelmetguy]

You have to realize that Roman paganism was a shitshow by the time Christianity gained traction. Nobody believed in the old gods anymore. The whole thing was a mish-mash of foreign cults and cope philosophies. Just look at Julian's disastrous attempts to reform it. This was not Numa's Rome, nor were these the Romans whose piety had astonished Polybius. Nothing of value was lost when what remained was washed away by Christianity.

[Passienus @passienus]

Isn’t anyone who owns a lounge suit basically larping as a British industrialist?

[South Euro 🇬🇷🇮🇹🇵🇹🇪🇦🇨🇾 @South_Euro_]

How many Italians and Greeks do you see larping as British industrialists? Zero.

How many Angloids do you see larping as Ancient Greeks or Romans? A lot.

[Passienus @passienus]

The Chud emperor

Balbinus, who ruled for about 3 months during the Crisis of the 3rdC.

I don’t know why you’d commission such an unflattering portrait - it harks back to Republican-era warts-and-all realism.

[Passienus @passienus]

The Dying Galatian

18th-century copy of a Roman copy of a Greek original

See at Syon House, West London

[Passienus @passienus]

Constantine.

[Ezzy @ezzyskii]

Who is a Nepotism kid with actual talent?

[𝚛𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚝 @rawatthekiid]

i love virgil’s economy in aeneid 2. as troy falls, aeneas says simply: fuimus troes, fuit ilium (“we trojans have been; troy has been”). its force lies in the perfect tense, which turns the city into a memory before it becomes a ruin.

[Passienus @passienus]

The little theatre in Ephesus at the top of town

[Passienus @passienus]

The three genders of ancient Rome

[Daniel Mendelsohn @DAMendelsohnNYC]

When, according to #Plutarch (81.1), Octavian complained that there were “too many Caesars” (polykaisaria), the Roman was actually slyly punning on a line from #Homer #Iliad Bk 2, where Odysseus warns of the danger of having “too many lords” (polykoirania).

[Passienus @passienus]

‘Pomegranates’

Albert Joseph Moore, 1866

Guildhall Art Gallery

[Passienus @passienus]

Recently discovered that the City of London Corporation - the local authority that runs the ancient heart of London - has amassed a sizeable collection of history paintings.

Here, an operatic-looking Clytemnestra by John Collier (1882). She’s just dispatched Agamemnon.

[Passienus @passienus]

Work in progress

The start of a kouros statue - 6th century BC - and the finished article. Love how the chisel marks clearly visible on the marble. Reminds you of a creation myth.

Archaeological Museum of Ephesus

[Passienus @passienus]

The CV of Celsus Polemaeanus, a Greek from western Anatolia. He’d competed every stage of the cursus honorum becoming consul of Rome in the early 2ndC. Last big job was pronconsul of Asia which he administered from Ephesus his hometown. The famous library is his tomb.

[Trierarch the Sea Roman 𓊝🔱🏛️ @Trierarch81]

The first British Empire was led by a Virgil-quoting Roman pirate king with a messianic zeal to restore the Golden Age of Saturn.

He was betrayed and murdered by his treasurer. The father of future Emperor Constantine then retook Britannia, ushering in the dynasty that would transform Rome into a Christian empire. Had this pirate king won, it’s likely Rome would have stayed Pagan.

[Passienus @passienus]

This is clearly fake.

[HerodotusWave @HerodotusWave]

The "Ladies of Leptis Magna," which date back to the 2nd century AD during the Roman Empire.

[Passienus @passienus]

Busts of Dionysus and a youth in a Phrygian cap, perhaps Attis or Ganymede.

Ephesus, Roman era

[Passienus @passienus]

The Generale Prologe to The Savynge of Soudiour Ryen

[Danladi @DanladiUmqr]

The scene is one of the best you will get to come across on the internet today. Trust me 🍿🎬

[Passienus @passienus]

@tommydragna *winks Ovidishly

[Passienus @passienus]

The Romans studied literature so they could win court cases and pick up girls at the Circus Maximus.

[Liza Libes @pensandpoison]

The Ancient Greeks studied literature to become wiser.

The Romans studied literature to become more civilized.

My Columbia Shakespeare class studied literature to determine whether Shakespeare was gay.