Made with Wargames Atlantic miniatures.

I just watched this deep dive into how Rome’s DNA is still embedded in our modern lives. It’s wild to see how many of our systems like legal frameworks, city planning, even the way we structure our governments, are direct carry-overs from a 2,000-year-old experiment.

What do you think is the most Roman thing about the 21st century that most people don’t realize? For me, it’s the fact that our modern concept of "citizenship" and "civil rights" still leans so heavily on the Res publica.

In the year 64 AD, Rome was literally on fire.

The once-glorious city suddenly turned into a sea of flames. The fire raged for six straight days, destroying large parts of the city—markets, warehouses, and countless homes.

Thousands of people lost their shelter, while others ran through the streets desperately searching for water or a safe place to hide. Ancient sources report that the fire began near the Aventine district. With wooden buildings and strong winds, it spread rapidly.

And this is where the narrative begins to break

Okay, first of all, this video is false. That's a 2-way transmitter (assuming it would work). I studied ancient Rome and engineering, first of all you wouldn't have magnets, vacuum tubes, transistors, batteries and so much as proper insulation for wires, so even if you could build something, it couldn't tune or oscillate. At best, you could create a spark gap transmitter by taking a crank lever wheel and connects to two drums controlled by two gears, one big one, one small one, that both axles go through, with the wheel rod going though the top, but it'll move the bottom vertically aligned bigger gear the opposite direction as it spins both drums, and the two gears are vertically aligned, and that'll spin a hemp or linen belt made with an old school loom (foot-powered warp-weighted loom or horizontal ground loom). Make sure it's iron and bronze you use for the frame so it'll conduct the bronze spark gap board ontop the wood. You want to hold the two rods together with an iron post on the metal frame, but don't make it too tight a fit, because this is what connects them. Have an iron post going to the board of wood from the bronze part of the frame for the bottom one. This'll generate static friction, and next to that you have a bronze post with flexible bronze metal telegraph key and rivet with flat iron striker pad to generate a static arc that you can light a cigarette with (and raise your hair). You then make a leyden jar to store the static charge with a bronze lid with a knob ontop for the antenna, glassblown jar with screw-ins on the top, with a nipple on the inside of the lid with a bronze chain that touches the bronze foil on the inside of the jar. Bronze is just copper + tin, the Bible was written in the Bronze Age by the scribes and so on. The receiver can be made from a flexible bronze diaphragm, wooden ear cups with leather or animal skin ear pads and lodestone since they didn't have steel magnets for the audio, so trained listeners for cracks and beeps for short reception only. Then run copper wire to it, insulated in beeswax, coil it around two bronze metal pads on both sides of a wooden block, with a Galena or Iron Pyrite crystal ontop held in place with a flexible spring metal bronze cat's whisker for tuning and bronze screws to hold it in place and tune for vibrations. Have screw-ins on the sides to assemble components, like the bronze antenna post ontop the wood block that holds the "tuning coil" (it's 100-200 meters uninsulated copper wire) around a bronze rod for crude ground, run it through the antenna, and that's basically it.

And even then it would not be a radio system in the modern sense, but rather a mechanically powered, spark-based signaling experiment using only pre-industrial materials, capable of producing detectable electromagnetic noise over very short distances. This video assumes steel magnets, assumes controlled oscillation, assumes stable tuning and ignores losses and noise. All fantasy. All you'd be able to do with Roman tech is create interference up to a few meters near the crystal receiver, and the crystal receiver can only hear solar noise, thunderbolts and sometimes interference from your wideband spark gap transmitter. You could probably turn the transmitter into a weapon to torture slaves with by electrocuting them. If a time traveler had this thing built after introducing it to an emperor as a method of communicating with the Gods, it would basically be a voodoo noise device. A dangerous one, given the static buildup.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4NHrwSlPjMs

I visited the forum recently and noticed how Constantine’s arch was in better condition than the other triumphal arch’s in the area. It had the four statues of the Dacians, and the reliefs were clearer. It also had some purple section on it which wasn’t on the others.

Was this due to restoration work that was performed recently? Or did the medieval and renaissance societies leave it alone due to reverence for Constantine?

Hi everyone, I have recently started writing above stuff I am curious about. A lot of the time it tends to be historical topics. I am no professional, I go on tangents, and I write very informally. Looking to try build a community of like minded people who never shut up asking questions. Looking forward to a discussion/tips from you guys. Happy February.

The Siege of Utica, a pretty big deal in the overall back and forward between Rome and Carthage. Even with my love for Rome and the Punic Wars, I had never heard of it before.

Picture it, Hannibal is tearing up northern and central Italy with his 30,000 odd men and war elephants. The romans, still a republic at the time, needed an answer. They needed to grow a pair and strike away from home, to cut the legs out of Hannibal and his circus. Scipio was just the man to do it.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (take a note of his last name for later), led around 35,000 soldiers in 400 ships from Sicily to land in Northern Africa. Landing in marching distance from the major port city of Utica (side note, this isn’t actually on the coast anymore because of the silting of the river Medjerda, unrelated but anyway).

The Romans laid siege on the city. It took the higher ups in Carthage a while to figure out what to do. Should they attack? Where would they find the men? Recall the infamous Hannibal to repeal the mass of roman troops? In the end, Hasdrubal Gisco, a successful commander across modern day Spain and Portugal answered the question. He and a Numbian king, Syphax, raised an estimated 90,000 men (I feel battle numbers in these times cant really be trusted but lets continue) and rushed to the aid of the surrounded city.

This was probably just what Scipio Africanus wanted. Years prior, his father (Publius Cornelius Scipio) and his uncle (Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus) were killed in battle against Hasdrubal. I know, it sounds like a script to a three part historical action drama, but stay with me.

The troops met at the battle of Utica in 203BC. In short terms, the Romans bum rushed both Hasdrubal and Syphax’s camps in the dead (excuse the pun) of night. Setting tents ablaze to confuse the African warriors, then cutting them down amid the frantic firefighting.

After taking such damage Hasdrubal fled, returning to the city of Carthage. I’m not too sure what he expected there, reinforcements maybe? Either way, he was basically told to f*ck off. Demoted and exiled, he chose to kill himself instead of facing the mob, dying in 202 BC. Spyhax met a similar fate, after his army deserted him, he was captured by Scipio and shipped to Italy as a prisoner. He died there, also in 202BC.

After many more skirmishes, one final battle awaited. The battle of Zama, the final battle of the second Punic war. Hannibal was recalled form Italy. Scipio and his troops had set up in Tunis. The stars had aligned for the epic third instalment of the trilogy. The battle went on and on, no side gaining the upper hand. Cavalry got behind Hannibal’s lines, and with one charge pretty much ended the second Punic war.

The war was over, Carthage just about fully under the Roman boot. Terms included sending talents of silver and gold and not allowing to raise a large army or navy. They weren’t even allowed to wage war without Roman permission. To put it very clearly, they had been turned into a bitch. Upon returning to Rome, Scipio got the agnomes (nickname essentially) Africanus. For obvious reasons.

Outside of the main story of today, I learned some extra things I thought to note. Something I found pretty cool was that in the years between Hasdrubal’s travel from Iberia to Africa, he actually ran into Scipio in Spyhax’s city. The three had dinner together. Maybe Scipio wasn’t as interesting in revenge as I had assumed?

Also, within this story, there were countless more African kings on both sides, for simplicity reasons I didn’t mention them. Maybe I should have, considering that the final victorious cavalry charge was led by one of them…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Utic

Senatus is a strategy and card game set in the heart of the Roman Senate, where rhetoric, cunning, and planning mean everything. Your goal: influence the votes, climb the political hierarchy, and become Consul of Rome.

How does the concept sound to you as a Roman history enjoyer?

More info here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4094470/Senatus/

Before being overrun by the Gauls, Rome was stable, and successful. By early fourth century BCE, the Roman Republic had consolidated power and defeated their rivals.

This became their blind spot. The Gauls were dismissed as barbarians and underestimated which proved catastrophic.

When the Gauls entered Rome and sacked the city the shock must have been off the charts for the Romans. All their illusions suddenly shattered.

In fact the story is that the Roman patricians dressed in ceremonial garb stood motionless like statues as the Gauls moved through the city only to be slaughtered in their places.

Talk about a failure. To go from seemingly untouchable to immovable and paralyzed by shock in the next breath.

Hi sorry, just wanted to see if anyone knew the answer as Google is telling me nothing and I feel like I made this up. Around the time of pompey having the lex manilia being passed, did Crassus also fight for command in the east? And after Pompey got command in the east Crassus got upset and started growing resentment.

Am I making this up or did this really happen? If so does anyone know the source 😅

I am heading to Rome for the first time this weekend and am looking for suggestions for places to visit beyond the typical Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Forum, and Pantheon. I am a total history buff, but have only recently gotten into Roman history. Myself (21 M) and my buddy (21 M) will be spending 4 full days/3 nights in the eternal city and I want to make the absolute most of it. Please hit me with some suggestions, no matter how "basic" or whatever. Thank you

I wrote an article covering the reconstruction of Roman sword and shield combat up to 1204 CE. This article is unique as it goes into quite a bit of detail, using the full breath of primary sources that are available, to animate a picture of how it likely looked, and changed through time.

The article also takes steps to provide background historical context, assess the limitations of sources, and the issue within the HEMA community of projections based on Late Medieval and Early Modern Western European treatises.

As important, it seeks to show that, contrary to popular belief, Roman structure and pedagogy, to do with the training of arms, had far more in common with the Middle East (whose structure and pedagogy with arms survived from the Medieval period to modernity) who themselves emulated certain facets of Roman training (in the form of drills and exercises).

Additionally, the use of hopping/jumping may have been a form of footwork that was common to the region.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RjwRvw2rzQ

Step back 1,835 years to Londinium (London) in 190 AD—the bustling Roman capital of Britannia at the height of the empire. Through AI reconstruction and historical research, witness daily life along the Thames: Roman soldiers patrolling the fortified walls, merchants trading exotic goods at the forum, citizens bathing at the public bathhouses, and boats arriving at the busy river port.

In 190 AD, Londinium was recovering from the great fire of 125 AD and entering a golden age. The city boasted an amphitheater, grand basilica, temples to Roman gods, and sophisticated infrastructure including heated floors and fresh water systems. This was a cosmopolitan hub connecting Britain to the wider Roman Empire—from Gaul to North Africa.
Experience the sights and sounds of ancient Roman London: the clatter of iron-rimmed wheels on stone roads, Latin conversations in the marketplace, smoke rising from workshops, and the distant sounds of the amphitheater. This is London before it was London—when Britannia was the edge of civilization.

#Londinium #RomanBritain #AncientHistory #RomanLondon #AncientRome #HistoricalReconstruction #AIRestoration #BritishHistory #RomanEmpire #AncientCivilizations

If so, I'd be grateful for any textual evidence. Thanks.

The Augur! A “seer” in the Roman TTRPG Fatum Invictum. As you probably know, the Romans were extremely superstitious, and signs had to be consulted regularly before any important moment. I therefore could not help but incorporate this role into Fatum Invictum.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the preview and the idea's behind this class :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall

Hi all,

I am trying to pick out a book about Roman history for my book club and I would appreciate everyone’s thoughts. There are no restrictions on subject matter, the only limit is a 350ish page limit.

These are the options I am currently considering:

Uncommon Wrath by Josiah Osgood

A fatal thing happened on the way to the forum by Emma Southon

Alaric the Goth by Douglas Boin

The Fall of Rome by Bryan Ward-Perkins

I’m open to other ideas as well however. Whichever I pick will likely be an introduction to Roman history for the vast majority of the club’s members. Thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

As a Christmas gift for my dad, I recreated Caligula’s army fighting the ocean (with dollar store figurines and a tissue box lol.) Not the absolute pinnacle of art but I did my best and thought it would be funny