iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Love to go diving back into the twitter archives and find gems such as these

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I bring you the coolest sheep from today's agricultural show

Prize-winning sheep wearing red sunglasses

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Idyllic sky in Dorset this evening

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

I was exceptionally pleased that the museum at Istanbul Airport had a diorama of little guys

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Almost a decade ago, I helped write a policy document saying that the mayor should push for this line. Nice to finally ride it in a quite different place and stage of life.

An on-train screen showing the destinations of Moseley Village, Kings Heath, Pineapple Road and Kings Norton

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Almost as disconcerting a map as this one

Map of Mediterranean, in French, oriented with the West at the top

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

OK, I was reasonably close, decoration for a shield

It is similar in date, design and shape to a silver gilt shield fitting that is part of the enormous deposit of 16,000 military objects found at Illerup Ådal on the eastern coast of Jutland. Most of the objects found in the Illerup river valley deposit, including the Alexander shield decoration, were sacrificed after a battle around 200 A.D. It was war booty taken from an army of about 1,000 men from Norway and western Sweden who sailed down to Jutland and were soundly defeated by local Germanic warriors. Many of the swords, mounts, coins and fittings were of Roman origin, evidence of contact between Scandinavian elites and the Roman Empire.

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

This term's second home/place of work looking very fine in the April sunshine

A view across one of the lawns of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Sadly I think I will never crossover with the other Oliver Clarke, who studies echidna and platypus genetics

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

That the number is so small is a little disconcerting

White men aged 25-34 from the West Midlands, who rent a home in a city, are in work and have a postgraduate degree. There are about 2,000 Britons like this

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Not according to this? www.aol.com/inside-hot-l...

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

She has a pleasingly mad website poemsforparliament.uk/events/

Poems For Parliament

Promoting voluntary, equitable Degrowth, for maximum wellbeing

Menu +expandedcollapsed
Events
Tuesday 18 March 2025 at 16:00-17:30 GMT, Barbara Williams will be answering questions after the half-hour pre-recorded presentation ‘Paths to Paradigm Shift’ is played, see below. The workshop is hosted by the Schumacher Institute. If you wish to attend, please email

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

The last one is the perfect punchline

Harrow School

John Lyon School

AISL Harrow Schools

Harrow International School Bengaluru

Harrow International School New York

Harrow International School Dubai (opening 2026)

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Sometimes they look more like this

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

And as for other evidence, what I just catalogued is pretty good

Reverse of a lifetime issue of Alexander the Great, showing Zeus seated, holding an eagle, with a rooster by his legs, and a legend that reads ΑΛΕΧΑΝΔΡΟΥ

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Up there with Singer Sargent's portrait of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_... (I cannot think of anything but this portrait whenever I handle one of Pozzi's coins that is now in our collection)

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

the final cultural victory of these guys

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Don't know if you've come across this interview, but it may help (archive.org/details/know...)

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Coinage and a Conference in the City of World's Desire: Istanbul, Part 1 open.substack.com/pub/astrocla...

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

"Finn Conway MA (Oxon) MC, 1898-1916, colourized picture, taken during his pioneering tour of the Ionian cities in 1912, of which only his notes were published in 1920. Missing, presumed dead, during the Battle of Bazentin, 16th July 1916, while leading his men of the 1st Battalion of the Glosters"

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com I feel you will appreciate this tiny gold hand from the Istanbul Archaeological Museums I saw today

A tiny gold hand at the end of a long, thin pointer, in a display cabinet)

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

*incredibly* lucky that I get to look at these objects and ask what the hell might be going on

A little silver coin with ??? On the obverse, and a monogram of Themistokles ΘΕ, in an incuse square on the reverse

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Come back quite often to Weber's viva, and what a moment this must have been (from this article on Weber's Dissertation journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...)

On the occasion of his dissertation viva voce on 1 August 1889, the final
hurdle before receiving his doctorate, Weber published his dissertation in a
pamphlet entitled ‘Development of the Principle of Joint Liability and a
Separate Fund of the General Partnership out of the Household Communi-
ties and Commercial Associations in Italian Cities’ (Weber, 1889a).18 Next to
his dissertation, Weber included in the ‘Development of the Principle of Joint
Liability’ his vita and five theses, together with the names of three persons
he had invited as opponents at his viva voce: Otto Baumgarten, his cousin
and the son of Hermann Baumgarten, who had exerted some influence on his
political views while a student; Karl Mommsen, son of Theodor Mommsen;
and Walter Lotz. All of them were friends of Max’s during his student years
(Weber, 1889a: 1, 57–61; see also Winckelmann, 1964). The examination was
uneventful, except for a momentous occasion. After Weber had defended
three of his five theses against his three opponents (called the Rigorosum), the
public disputation part followed. During this, the famous Roman historian
Theodor Mommsen rose to engage Weber on one of his theses on Roman law
– independent of Weber’s actual dissertation – and then proclaimed that ‘he
was still not entirely convinced of the correctness of Weber’s thesis, but that
he did not wish to impede the candidate’s progress and would withdraw his
opposition. The younger generation, so he said, often had new ideas that the
older one could not immediately embrace, and that might be so in this
instance.’ He went on: ‘But when I have to go to my grave someday, there is
no one to whom I would rather say, “Son, here is my spear; it is getting too
heavy for my arm”, than the highly esteemed Max Weber’ (Marianne Weber,
1988: 114).19

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

One of the loadbearing tweets of the last decade

Tweet by @owenbroadcast "the main issue with video games is that a guy who, if he lived in 1820s germany, would have done something like document every type of beetle in his local province instead ends up making a 26 part youtube series about how to get all the rings in every sonic game"

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

It is, the perspective is just off in the first picture - the big stones in front are actually further from the standing one than it appears -

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Thanks to @yuanyiz.bsky.social 's review this astonishingly stupid quote from Clegg's new book is going to be rattling around my head all day

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

That's a faked photo - it was made to sell to tourists as a postcard afterwards

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Underreported by our ancient written sources about Augustus was that he derived some of his political power from having the goddess Nike as his personal hairdresser. rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/2691

laureate head of Augustus (or Caesar?), right, crowned behind by small figure of Nike

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

And they have excellent Disraeliana- his standing desk (later used by Churchill), this fan signed by all the delegates in Berlin, his unused chair from his first election, the copy of Faust Victoria had made for him

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

The preserved Victorian side of the house is a fascinating aesthetic mix of the pleasing and the OTT

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Visited Hughenden Manor on Sunday as an escape from Oxford for the first time in weeks. Perfect sized country house and parkland for a few hours wandering - particularly enjoyed the various techniques the Disraelis employed to get gothic ceilings cheaply.

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Prousias II of Bithynia with some impressively curly sideburns on this coin (later on he has some quite stylish stubble)

Silver Tetradrachm of Prousias II of Bithynia, Kaye 2013 Early Group. Head of Prousias with (magnificent) sideburns facing right, wearing a winged diadem.

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Recently came into possession of fascinating documents for family history: 1) the recollections of a great great grandfather, going back to his grandfather (born 1748) 2) the admittance records of (on another side of the family) my great great grandmother to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orp...

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

While looking through the coinage of Magnesia on the Maeander, I had to chuckle at this Roman era coin I stumbled upon. The description of the reverse says "infant Dionysus seated right on cista mystica around which is coiled a serpent" but I see something else... rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/7.1/56...

IONIA, Magnesia. Gordian III. AD 238-244. Æ 17mm (2.36 g). Obverse: ΑΥΤ Κ ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟϹ Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Gordian III, right, seen from front
/ Reverse: MAΓN-HTΩN, infant Dionysus seated right on cista mystica around which is coiled a serpent

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

This wonderful coin from Mallos in Cilica (c. 340-330 BC) had passed me by before - on the reverse, Nike is carving her own name, part of the legend, with a stylus! greekcoinage.org/iris/id/mall...

A silver stater/double siglos from Mallos in Cilicia. On the obverse, Athena sits holding a spear and leaning on a shield, with an olive trunk behind, all in a dotted round border. On the reverse, the winged Goddess Nike kneels on a club, while inscribing her name NIKH with a stylus, the abbreviated ethnic MAΛ behind her.

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Not very good photos, but one of the many aspects I loved about the RSC's Titus Andronicus is that the stage itself is inscribed with lines from Ovid's version of Philomela and Tereus (the text becomes ever more legible to the audience as more blood is spilled across it through the two acts)

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Today I'm going through the wonderful but desperately understudied silver double sigloi issued by Pamphylian Aspendus pleiades.stoa.org/places/638776. This 5th-4th centuries coinage, wrestlers/slinger was minted in great quantities, and almost certainly associated with funding the Persian fleet.

The inscriptions are written in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamphylian_Greek, with the Pamphylian alphabet, which has some interesting variations on "standard" Greek - note for example two different I letters, where I stands for /i/ and II for the glide /j/ . Thus what we might expect to read as ΑΣΠΕΝΔΙΩΝ or similar is here ΕΣΤϜΕΔΙΙΥΣ

This one is signed by the engrave on the obverse under the feet of the wrestlers - ΜΕΝΕΤΥΣ ΕΛΥΨΑ - I, Menetus engraved

Many of theses coins are countermarked with additional punches - sometimes up to 8 or more! Some of these countermarks have Aramaic inscriptions - the language of Persian Imperial administration

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

2) currently sketching out some questions about how Hellenistic kings spent their time/can we even think about reconstructing their day-to-day (Classic anecdotes from Plutarch about Demetrius I attached)

On one occasion, when he was thought to be riding abroad in a more affable mood than usual, and seemed to encounter his subjects without displeasure, there was a large concourse of people who presented him with written petitions. He received them all and folded them away in his cloak, whereupon the people were delighted and escorted him on his way; but when he came to the bridge over the Axius, he shook out the folds of his cloak and cast all the petitions into the river. 3 This was a great vexation to the Macedonians, who thought themselves insulted, not ruled, and they called to mind, or listened to those who called to mind, how reasonable Philip used to be in such matters, and how accessible. An old woman once assailed Demetrius as he was passing by, and demanded many times that he give her a hearing. "I have no time," said Demetrius. "Then don't be king," screamed the old woman. 4 Demetrius was stung to the quick, and after thinking upon the matter, went back to his house, and postponing every thing else, for several days devoted himself entirely to those who wished audience of him, beginning with the old woman who had rebuked him.

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Or, in (not great quality gif form):

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Last few hours in the most blessed plot in England

Looking out to sea from the beach at West Bay, Dorset

Looking along the cliffs at West Bay towards Burton Bradstock

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

"In those days, the obols had pictures of bees on 'em. 'Gimme six bees for a drachma!', you'd say."

Obverse of a 6th century BC Ephesian obol

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Oliver Clarke @astroclassicist.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Fragment from newspaper (?) headline (?), possibly recording an official response to an otherwise unattested earthquake (?) during the reign of Truman Date ca. 1950-2050 ... ...[r]ocks tumble as Trum[an?]... [o?]ffs This fragment has been dated to the rule of President Truman, c.1940-60

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