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Rodney Mancuso

@amancuso.bsky.social
401 followers 822 following 1.2K posts

PhD student at SLU studying late 5th/early 6th century Gaul and Italy. Italophile. (Sorry, France.) Purveyor of fluffy pastries. Has a Turkish goat hide in the garage.

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Rodney Mancuso @amancuso.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Time for a paleographical shot in the dark - can anyone help? This is from a 14th century indulgence letter near Stowe, England. It's written in Anglicana Formata script. The big question is what the "ex" with a superscript "cc" means. Can't find this abbreviation in my references.
a line from an English medieval document written in Latin
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Rodney Mancuso @amancuso.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
My brother-in-law has written a book! It's in Spanish, so I cannot say for certain, but he tells me it is quite good and I, trusting soul that I am, believe him. The description sounds very interesting - early 20th c. Mexican Revolution historical fiction. www.amazon.com/Bajo-el-polv...
amazon.com
Bajo el polvo de la frontera (Spanish Edition)
Amazon.com: Bajo el polvo de la frontera (Spanish Edition) eBook : Bañuelos, Carlos César: Kindle Store
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Rory Naismith @rorynaismith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Early medievalists may be happy to know that Simon Keynes’s collection of maps of Anglo-Saxon England has now been made freely available via @trincolllibcam.bsky.social These were commissioned by Simon and drawn (by hand) by Reg Piggott between 1991 and 2012. archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/ma...
archives.trin.cam.ac.uk
Maps of Anglo-Saxon England - archives.trin.cam.ac.uk
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Just like today: A #Roman carpenter's plane (and a replica of it) from Üttfeld,around 300 AD.   On display at Landesmuseum Trier   📷️ me 🏺 #archaeology
A museum display featuring the corroded metal remains of a Roman carpenter’s plane, with only the metal parts surviving. Above it hangs a modern wooden and metal replica, showing the tool’s full original form against a purple background.
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
🐈 At a Roman villa In Adramytteion (Turkey) 🐕 the owners put the name of their cat and dog in a mosaic—I am reading σμαράγδιη (“emerald”) for the cat. (I am a little bit mystified by the eta on the end unless it is a nu, but this is cool). Dog is named ὠκεανός (“ocean”) arkeonews.net/1800-year-ol...
Mosaic depiction of a cat from the Roman villa at Adramytteion, accompanied by an inscription giving a name interpreted as meaning “Emerald.” Credit: AAMosaic depiction of a dog from the Roman villa at Adramytteion, identified by an inscription with the name “Okyanos” (“Ocean”). Credit: AA
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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
slow day in the office so we're starting beef with archaeologists
One of those 'STOP DOING X' memes, ripping into archaeology. It has images of soil stratum, a trowel, and a flint shard. The text mocks archaeologists for digging for pottery sherds and saying everything has a 'ritual purpose'.
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Like Loebs? Every fall semester, I like to remind people that while Perseus has many free Loebs sectioned up into book and chapter, if you want to download and read the public domain Loebs (277 of them) as PDFs or txt files, Duke U's very own Ryan Baumann created _Loebolus 📗📕_. ryanfb.xyz/loebolus/
ryanfb.xyz
Loebolus
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Dr Carolyn La Rocco 🏺🍃 @carrielarocco.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
More late antique Iberian funerary inscriptions! This time, Anduires, a distinguished (inlis) woman who founded a church (hanc ecle[siam]) with her husband (viro suo) in Casa de Vildé (Burgos de Osma, Soria, Castilla y León) in the 6th or 7th century. (Illustration: me, after image from AEHTAM.) 🏺🗃️
A drawing of a tall, thin stone with a Latin inscription ‘† in nomine Domin[I // loc]us Anduires inlis // [femina]e qui hanc ecle // [siam] cum viro suo // [. . .]uiro inluste // [---] fecerunt // [fue] runt par //[ticipes an]nos XXX // [quat]er nutri[vera]nt filios re // [cessit] supradicta // matrona in pace // et in summa ca[s] // titate cum cert[o.. .. ] //.’
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John Penniman @historiographos.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I'm working on a chapter about the pharmacology of eucharistic bread in antiquity, with some attention to the role of bread stamps. And because academic research is WILD I'm eagerly learning about how this history leads us directly to Waffle House waffles.
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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
A #Roman clay tile, on which someone wrote out in Latin cursive the first lines of the 'Aeneid' before it was fired - well, that's one way to get some handwriting practice in! It was found in Italica (Spain), where it was written about 2000 years ago #Archaeology #AncientBlueSky
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Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Whoa, just saw an inscription from Alba Fucens, 3rd century BC, dedicated by a colonial magistrate who calls himself a consul! He dedicated a statue to Hercules on behalf of the people (pro poplod) and the Alban muster (legioniquei Albesid, probably a cohort).
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Ancient Jew Review @ancientjewreview.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
New pod! Susanna Elm and Tina Sessa talk with Mike about War and Community in Late Antiquity. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s... open.spotify.com/episode/0jcw...
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Andrew McCabe @andrewahala.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Late Roman era textiles preserved in the sands of Egypt. Red robe is 1.5m x 1.5m, akin a Chinese Imperial robe, red dye from Kermes insects that live oak tree sap. Green & beige child smocks. Decorative embroidery plaques red & black. Most vibrant and attractive. Allard Pierson museum Amsterdam 📸 me
the red emperors robe thingie is 5 foot by 5 foot. Kermes is a red dye derived from the dried bodies of the females of a scale insect in the genus Kermes, primarily Kermes vermilio. The Kermes insects are native to the Mediterranean region and are parasites living on the sap of the host plant, the Kermes oak (Quercus coccifera) and the Palestine oak (Quercus calliprinos).Green and beige childs smocksRed round horseman embroidery about 30cm acrossBlack square horsemen and hunt scene embroidery about 30cm
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thedzarina.bsky.social @thedzarina.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Never forget that person who inscribed that they made bread on the 13th day before the Kalends of May (April 19)
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Jon Dell Isola @medievaljon.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Never realized that we have the epitaph on Louis II's tomb in St. Ambrose in Milan, neat *you can find a transcription in MGH Poetae 3, p. 405. #medievalsky
Stone epitaph for the Carolingian Emperor Louis II. Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, 2007. From wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0111_-_Milano_-_Sant%27Ambrogio_Lastra_tombale_Ludovico_II_(%2B_875)_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_25-Apr-2007.jpg
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Christian Cooijmans @ccooijmans.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
When Bulgar khan Boris sent Pope Nicholas a list of questions about Christianity in 866, he asked if it was sinful for Christians to wear pants (breeches). Nicholas replied that he couldn't care less, as long as we 'spiritually wear pants' against carnal hijinks (spiritaliter induimur femoralibus) 🩳
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Ricky Broome @karanthir.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
My new post on the blog is an interview with @ericabuchberger.bsky.social in which we talk about her excellent recent article on identities in Visigothic Iberia #MedievalSky longhairedkingsblog.wordpress.com/2026/04/15/l...
longhairedkingsblog.wordpress.com
Local Identities in Visigothic Iberia: An Interview with Erica Buchberger
This interview is part of an ongoing series in which I talk to fellow researchers about topics more or less related to the themes of this blog and my own research. If you’re a postgraduate, early c…
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John Penniman @historiographos.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Here's my contribution to the forum: "Spoliating the Fathers." I enjoyed the chance to think with Burrus about the impulse to take selfies at ruins and why this might be important for historiography. www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2026/4/...
ancientjewreview.com
Spoliating the Fathers: On Burrus, Ruins, & the Self-Reflective Gesture in Late Antiquity — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW
In Earthquakes and Gardens , Burrus pulls a few short lines from the very end of Jerome’s Life of Hilarion and applies immense analytical pressure to them. It is a mode of historiography as spoliat...
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
History without historians is doomed to fail. With an interdisciplinary team of scholars we show how the purported link between late Roman conflicts and drought has been misunderstood. We also outline a path forward in the use of sources in paleoclimatic research. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Drought, Conflict and the Use of Historical Data and Methodologies in Interdisciplinary Palaeoclimatic Research - Climatic Change
Climatic Change - A major challenge in the interdisciplinary study of past climates is ensuring that evidence and data relating to different disciplines are analysed effectively using appropriate...
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And-Boo 👻 Jacobs (he/him) @drewjakeprof.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
🗣️ new Element in Religion in Late Antiquity! 🗣️ @monikaamsler.bsky.social's EDUCATION IN RELIGIOUS CONTEXTS OF LATE ANTIQUITY ⚡⚡⚡ free through April 8! ⚡⚡⚡ www.cambridge.org/core/element...
cambridge.org
Education in Religious Contexts of Late Antiquity
Cambridge Core - Religion: General Interest - Education in Religious Contexts of Late Antiquity
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Kevin M. Levin @civilwarmemory.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Conservatives love to celebrate Robert E. Lee, but in the attempt to respond and dismiss Lee, the liberal response often results in its own historical distortions. #CivilWarMemory 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...
open.substack.com
Robert E. Lee Was Already a Legend Before Appomattox
Stop Blaming the Lost Cause for a Myth That Was Built During the War
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Ulla Rajala @ullamr.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
A bilingual inscription from the 2nd c. BC, written on a schist stone, discovered in 1960 in Piedmont. This boundary stone delimitated the land of Acisius "Argantomaterecus". One text in Latin with the Latin alphabet and the second in Gaulish with Gallo-Etruscan alphabet. #EpigraphyTuesday
Source: RIG II 1, E-2. Musée Camillo Leone (Vercelli)
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Dan Conway @magisterconway.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:
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Medievalist.net @medievalists.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Early Medieval Mosaic with Playful Inscription Discovered in Turkey www.medievalists.net/2026/03/earl... #archaeology #Turkey
medievalists.net
Early Medieval Mosaic with Playful Inscription Discovered in Turkey - Medievalists.net
A 1,500-year-old mosaic discovered in Syedra, Turkey, features a playful inscription warning the envious, offering insight into daily life in late antiquity.
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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
::nods approvingly in Isidore of Seville at the logic of both::
Tweet one: interesting that eight people boarded Noah's ark and there are only eight blood types. 

Tweet two: interesting that Jesus had 12 disciples and eggs come in cartons of 12.
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Rodney Mancuso @amancuso.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Seeking an acting career in New York, Tallulah Bankhead was warned by her father to avoid alcohol and men. "He didn't say anything about women and cocaine."
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
I guess I didn’t wake up thinking I needed to know the names of the 279 named triremes ⛵️in the 4th century BCE Athenian navy, but it appears we all do. link.springer.com/article/10.1... I do like that 3.58% had animal names like Λεοντῆ (lion skin) and Λέαινα (lioness). Greek epigraphy is fun! 🪦
link.springer.com
Names of Athenian Triremes: Investigating Group Cohesiveness and Social Identity in the Athenian Navy of the 4th Century BC - Journal of Maritime Archaeology
The set of inscriptions known as the Naval Inventories of Athens (IG II2 1604–IG II2 1632) provide a wealth of information regarding the state of the Athenian navy in the fourth century BC. The inscri...
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Michel Summer @leafandstream.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
A large early medieval settlement from the #Merovingian period was discovered in Rolleng (Luxembourg) in 2019. The excavation, which is still ongoing, has yielded around 6000 objects so far. Article in Luxembourgish and German w. link to the French press release: www.rtl.lu/kultur/news/...
rtl.lu
6.000 Géigestänn aus der Merowenger-Zäit um Site zu Rolleng fonnt: "Um europäesche Plang gekuckt, ass eis eng Sensatioun gelongen"
D'Ausgruewungen um Site, déi mëttlerweil scho sechs Joer amgaange sinn, si just ee Brochdeel vun der Aarbecht.
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The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 22/02/2026
Wow, they found medieval painted planks under a house in Toledo! Look, MORE COLOUR ;) www.eldebate.com/espana/casti...
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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Precisely. The subject of one of my favorite pieces by Lynn Hunt, which I love teaching
historians.org
How Writing Leads to Thinking (and Not the Other Way Around) – AHA
Writing is stressful. Sitting in my computer chair my neck and shoulder muscles almost immediately tense up as I dig around in my brain for the best phrase or even any coherent string of words.
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Minimus @minimuslatin.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
#fabulamurina (mouse story) 489 hodie breviter ningit, itaque Silvius foris festinat et traheam novam experitur. (Today it's snowing for a little while, so Silvius hurries outside and tries out his new sledge). carpe nivem! (Seize the snow!)
Photo of Silvius, the little Latin mouse, sitting on a red-painted wooden sledge in the snow. He's wearing his paenula (hooded cloak) with a red leather belt to keep it closed against the cold. Silvius has been waiting weeks for the rain to stop, and he made the most of the short snowfall!
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rogueclassicist ~ david meadows @rogueclassicist.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
[old news]Roman mosaic in Britain reveals a 2,000 year old Trojan War secret | ScienceDaily www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
sciencedaily.com
Roman mosaic in Britain reveals a 2,000 year old Trojan War secret
A remarkable Roman mosaic found in Rutland turns out to tell a forgotten version of the Trojan War. Rather than Homer’s famous epic, it reflects a lost Greek tragedy by Aeschylus, featuring vivid scen...
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Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 13/02/2026
!!! a new manuscript was recently discovered written in the Syrian Monothelite community in the early 700s that describes the end of the Roman / Sassanian war *and the rise of Islam in the Levant!* www.medievalists.net/2026/02/prev...
medievalists.net
Previously Unknown Medieval Chronicle Discovered - Medievalists.net
A newly discovered chronicle from the early eighth century is giving medieval historians a rare new window onto the political shocks and religious debates that reshaped the eastern Mediterranean in th...
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
New discovery: During excavations in Cologne, archaeologists have unearthed a lararium, a household shrine, dating back to the 2nd century. This discovery is considered unique north of the Alps. Similar examples were found in Pompeii and Herculaneum. www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft... 🏺
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
February 9, 71 CE: A Roman military diploma notes: Liccaius, veteran of the Classis Misenensis (“Fleet of Misenum“) received citizenship, along w/ land, right to marriage, & citizenship for his children & wife. 5% of American troops are foreign born. They’re not guaranteed citizenship (RMD IV 204)
Roman military diploma from Slavonski Brod,ancient Roman town Marsunnia.Issued on February 9th, 71AD. [1080x723]
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R F Kennedy (not Jr.) @kataplexis.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Xenophanes adds: “But if cattle and horses or lions had hands, or were able to write with their hands and do the works that men can do, horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had themselves.” [fr. 15]
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Ethan Gruber @ewg118.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
After reindexing the Roman Republican coins in the ANS database, there are 350 (up from 123) objects featuring architecture, after NLP-derived concepts in descriptions like 'temple' link to Wikidata. The 123 previous objects contained the word 'architecture' explicitly in the textual description.
Search results in the American Numismatic Society database for 'architecture' from natural language processing-derived concepts of coin descriptions that may include 'temple', 'altar', 'column', etc.
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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Coptic spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice, 6th–7th century CE, Egypt, ink on papyrus, 37.3 x 25.4 cm (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven) archives.yale.edu/repositories...
Worn papyrus with drawings of figures, symbols, and writing in Coptic. More here https://smarthistory.org/coptic-magical-text/
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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Nearly finished reading all 59 (!) essays in the Centenary issue of Speculum. And I have to say that this paragraph (to me, someone utterly clueless about music history) has been one of my great delights. Camprudi, "Unwriting the History of Medieval Music," www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.....
"With oral transmission being customary, an anecdote in which two of the most prominent musicians in early ninth-century Baghdad communicated music through writing stands out among the Book of Songs’s narratives.[12] When news reached the innovative performer and briefly enthroned caliph Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī (r. 817–19, d. 839) that the famed musician Isḥāq al-Mawṣilī (d. 850) had composed a novel song on a poem of his own, he decided to write to him inquiring about the matter. Al-Mawṣilī replied with a letter that contained his composition notated in painstaking detail, including the song’s lyrics (shiʿr), its rhythm (ʾīqāʿ), its melodic mode (majrā wa-iṣbaʿ), its poetic feet and subdivisions (tajziʾa wa-qisma), the notes’ positions on the ʿūd fingerboard (makhārij nagham), the structure of its sections (mawāḍiʿ maqāṭihi), and its metric patterns (maqādīr awzānihi). The detailed notation of al-Mawṣilī’s composition—employing a system with which the recipient must have been familiar—allowed al-Mahdī to perform the song without having heard it. Indeed, when the two musicians later met and al-Mahdī performed the song, al-Mawṣilī observed that not only had he not missed a single note or detail, but that al-Mahdī’s performance was even better given his beautiful voice.[13] Or so the story goes."
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Morgan Quinn Ross @mqrmobile.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
I haven't felt this seen in a while. Highly recommended! www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
nytimes.com
Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Fascinating glimpse into everyday Roman life: This samian ware bowl was repaired with lead rivets, clear evidence that it was valued enough to mend rather than discard. The repair reflects either the practical mindset and economic realities of a Roman household, or it may have been a...🧵1/3 📷 me 🏺
A reddish Roman samian ware bowl with richly figurative and geometric decoration, its surface pierced and repaired with several lead rivets.
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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
A blast from my past - the Medieval Soldier database takes nearly 300,000 military service records from 1369-1453 and makes them available as a searchable database. An invaluable resource for understanding medieval warfare, society and the English medieval state. Learn more in the link. 🗃️
theconversation.com
We built a database of 290,000 English medieval soldiers – here’s what it reveals
We created the database in order to challenge assumptions about the lack of professionalism of everyday soldiers.
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Greg Woolf @gregwoolf.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Delighted that from January 2026 all research articles published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology @cambup-archaeology.cambridge.org will be Open Access view.updates.cambridge.org?qs=85c24bbd7...
view.updates.cambridge.org
Cambridge University Press
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Dan Conway @magisterconway.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Omg this is great. The initial reading is so bananas www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa...
uni-koeln.de
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
There is and was only one Curtis Lemay and one Thomas power Jr. So why is every Hollywood portrayal of the SAC/STRATCOM commander the same: a man deep in Nebraska who is ready to initiate Armageddon at a moments notice without deliberation or hesitation? I explore in my latest⬇️
secretaryrofdefenserock.substack.com
A House of Jack Ripper
The Nuclear Warlord and a Hollywood Portrayal that Refuses to Die
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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
I’m delighted to hear that the translation has been useful! You can find it and many others by myself and @ralphtorta.bsky.social here: salutemmundo.wordpress.com/primary-sour...
salutemmundo.wordpress.com
Primary Source Translations
Often on this blog, we translate primary sources for 9th-11th century France and its neighbours into English, and it occured to me that it might be useful if I put them all together. So here they a…
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