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King Perdiccas II, considering switching sides again

King Perdiccas II (rule: 454 BC-413 BC) is one of these individuals of antiquity who is known to anyone who ever read even just the first two books of Thucydides‘ Peloponnesian War, but obscure enough for not being known by anyone else.
His rule over Macedon is far from secure. When you read even just the first books of Thucydides, Perdiccas strikes the reader as ruthlessly opportunistic. However, it’s not always unreasonable. Athens, having control over a lot of important cities on his doorstep, does regularly try to undermine his position. Hostilities in the area start when Athens - „friend of Perdiccas“ - allies with Perdiccas‘ brother and rival to the throne Philip. Thus, Perdiccas supports Sparta from that point forward.
In 429 BC, Athens concludes an alliance with the Thracian king Sitalces, who ravages Macedonia for 30 days with his 150.000 soldiers which forces the Macedonian king into a peace with Athens. By 424 BC, he is again ready to undermine the Athenian position in his neighbourhood by supporting the Spartan general Brasidas in kicking out the Athenians from a few cities, most notably Amphipolis. A failed joint campaign with Brasidas against Perdiccas‘ enemies, however, sours the relations with Sparta and in 423 BC, Perdiccas is back in the Athenian alliance.
During the short „peace“ of Nicias (421-415 BC) between the Athenians and Spartans, Athens supported Sparta‘s rival Argos in attacking Sparta. The endeavour failed at the disastrous battle at Mantinea (417 BC) and Argos was incorporated into the Spartan alliance, which Perdiccas promptly joined in, as well. Thus - again - Athens attacks Perdiccas‘ territory on a couple occasions until 413 BC, where they join together in a campaign against Amphipolis (though Perdiccas dies later that year).

The material is mainly taken from Aigai (dated to the 6th-4th centuries BC) and the coin is from Perdiccas‘ own coinage.

Thracian man playing the pan-flute, ca. 7th century BC

This is probably the most stereotypical-looking Thracian I could’ve drawn. He is donning clothing and weaponry that most Athenians would’ve associated with the term „Thracian“ in the Archaic (c. 800-480 BC) and Classical Periods (c. 480-323 BC).
Herodotus, in the 5th century BC, describes them like this:
„The Thracians served (in the Persian army) having fox-skins upon their heads and tunics about their body, with loose mantles of various colours thrown round over them; and about their feet and lower part of the leg they wore boots of deer-skin; and besides this they had javelins and pelte (shield) and small daggers.“ (Hdt. 7.75)
I felt inspired by a fragment in Athenaeus 4.82 that two Thracians - Seuthes and Rhomances the Maedi - might have been the inventors of the one-reeded syrinx, from which Pan‘s-pipe („many-reeded syrinx“) derives.

The material mainly comes from the site of Katrishte (which could correspond to the later area of the Maedi tribe near the upper Strymon (mod. Struma) river): the axe is from tomb 6 dated to the late 7th to early 6th century BC, the spears and dagger from tomb 11, dated to the 7th century BC (Georgieva; Nehrizov; Aljakova, (1998): La necropolis du premier age du fer près du village de Katrište). The pelte shield, from which the Thracian warriors which were called „peltasts“ derived their name, is taken from 6th century BC Attic black figure pottery.
I considered using a pelte shields from later pottery, which are often decorated with smiley-like faces or other motifs, but early Attic pottery shows them usually as just made up of wicker without decoration or facing.
The Maedi, also called „Strymonians Thracians“, were one of the oldest and longest living Thracian tribes, already mentioned by Thucydides in the 5th century BC, and finally conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC.

Woman from Lake Ohrid, ca. 7th century BC

This woman comes from a region southwest of Lake Ohrid, the big archaeological site of Kuç i Zi in modern Albania. This region saw some changes to the people living there in antiquity.
When the Romans came to conquer the region, it was inhabited by the Illyrian Dassareti. Before them the Enchelei lived around it, among whom the mythical Kadmos and Harmonia resided. In the Archaic Period (c. 800-480 BC) they probably shared the lands in the south with the Brygians, who are located by ancient authors either at the (north-)western borders of Macedonia and the (north-)eastern borders of Epirus, thus corresponding to the strip of land reaching right through the mountainous area south of the lakes.
This could mean that the archaeological site of Kuç i Zi, particularly the 7th century BC female grave whose objects I used as inspiration, belonged to a Brygian woman.
What the Brygians were exactly, is somewhat of a mystery. There was a later tribe with that name during the Persian Wars that was counted to the Thracians, but the old „Brigians“ were seen as ancestors of the Macedonians and the Phrygians according to Herodotus. Residing in a land usually associated with the Illyrians, I wanted to make her look more active, according to ancient Illyrian and Epirote stereotypes, where women had a bigger role in society and the economy, and thus she tied her dress into a knot to gain more freedom of movement.
She also wears a hooded cloak, rather typical for the Archaic Alpine area (later ascribed to „Northern Illyria“ in the Roman period), where images of clothing styles survive as visual sources, which are sadly entirely absent for southern illyria until the Greek influences of the Hellenistic Period (see the drawing of the Epidamnian woman)

Berenike, regent of the Odrysian Kingdom ca. 280 BC.

Women in ancient Thrace are basically invisible in our sources. In contrast to the neighbouring Illyrians, I am barely aware of any woman known from the Thracian peoples.
Additionally, our ancient authors paint a rather grim picture of the position of women in Thracian society. Like the Macedonians, the Thracians practiced polygany (a man having several wives), as various sources speak of this (Herodotus, Aristotle, etc.). Herodotus says Thracian men focused on warfare, implying that women and slaves did most of the economic work, which was somewhat confirmed in the fictitious dialogue of Plato‘s laws, where the Athenian says: „Shall [the mode of life for women] be that of the Thracians […], who employ their women in tilling the ground and minding oxen and sheep and toiling just like slaves?“

With the conquest of Thrace and other „barbarians“ by the Macedonian king Philip II (the father of Alexander the Great) in 341 BC, it came to an intermarriage between the Macedonian and these „foreign“ dynasties.
Berenike‘s own name points to her being a daughter of a Macedonian. She became wife of Seuthes III, a philhellenic Thracian king of the Odrysian dynasty, heavily involved in the wars of Alexander the Great‘s successors in the late 4th century BC.
Seuthes built one of the few hellenised cities in Thrace called „Seuthopolis“ („city of Seuthes“). We only know this, due to it being mentioned in a diplomatic inscription, made by his wife after his death, „Oath of Berenike and her sons to Epimenes.“ (SEG_42.661). It demonstrates that Berenike acted as regent for her sons, continuing the management of the realm after her husband‘s death. Though the inscription doesn’t tell us much about her, I always wanted to put her in center of a drawing. The material is early 3rd century BC, contemporary to the inscription and her fashion derived from a wall painting on the ceiling of the Seuthopolis site.

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Epidamnian woman pouring libations, ca. 3rd century BC

Epidamnus (Dyrrhachium, modern day Durrës in Albania) was a Greek city founded ca. 627 BC by Corinthian and Corcyraean (mod. Corfu) settlers on the Adriatic coast in ancient Illyrian lands. Its history, though obscure, is still very interesting. In 435 BC, the banishment of Epidamnian oligarchs by their own population was one of the many points of conflict that would eventually lead to the famous Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) between Sparta and Athens.
Epidamnus and the other Greek city in the area, Apollonia, always had to maintain good relations with their Illyrian hinterland. Oftentimes, Greek cities founded in „barbarian lands“ had to find some sort of arrangement with their neighbours, and Epidamnus seemed to have managed that quite well. In 313 BC, during the Wars of the successors of Alexander the Great, Epidamnus put itself under the protection of the local Illyrian King Glaucias, the man who also raised Pyrrhus of Epirus in his court.
In 228 BC, as the Northern Illyrian Kingdom of the Ardiaei was expanding into Southern Illyria and Epirus, the Epidamnians (along with the Apolloniates) appealed to Rome for protection, where it stayed well into the Middle Ages (then in the realm of the Eastern Romans).
The items depicted here are taken from the collection included in Neritan Ceka‘s chapter in „Albanien. Schätze aus dem Land der Skipetaren“ (1988). The objects were all was found in Epidamnian necropoleis, with close dating. The earliest might be the statue of a girl/woman, dated to the late 4th century BC, though I mainly used it as an inspiration for clothing and hair style. The gold earrings are broadly dated to the 3rd century BC, the oinochoe to the second half of the 3rd century BC and the gold necklace to the 3rd-2nd century BC.

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Paionian horseman, ca. 5th century BC

A horseman of the Paionian tribe, based on 5th century BC findings from Zhdanets (Skopje). He‘s trying to catch his bison and whistling for help

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

First time presenting at a conference! Of course it’s about the Thracians! #WAWIC26

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Easter egg but it’s the Athenian acropolis

Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

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They’re telling me a great empire will be destroyed if I attack Persia. Even the oracles who don’t like me very much, very nasty, they all said to me, “Sir, it’s one of the great empires, and it’ll be destroyed. And all because you attacked Persia.” That’s what they’re telling me.

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Weege (1910) about Italian farmers eating an Italic wall painting in form of dust pills

Quote from Weege (1910) about Italian farmers eating an Italic wall painting, as well as a surviving depiction of said wall painting

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Eerily 🎃 🔮 @millyrose.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

168 Doctors attend a graduation ceremony in the ruins at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Palestine.

The ruins of al-Shifa Hospital, a graduation ceremony is taking place with doctors in white coats and men dancing on the stage, a crowed is watching.

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Wear The Peace @wearthepeace.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

We were honored to be a sponsor of the Samir Foundation's largest medical graduation since the genocide began. It celebrated the graduation of 250 new doctors from universities across the Gaza Strip. The ceremony was held outside the wrecked Al-Shifa Hospital.

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

King Rhoimetalkes of Thrace, ca. 40 AD. Description in the Alt-Text #RomanHistory #AncientBlueSky #AncientHistory

Reconstruction of King Rhoimetalkes of Thrace, ca. 40 AD.

This one is based on the findings from a tomb in Vize (ancient Bizye, one of the major Thracian cities of the 1st century BC into the Roman principate).
The tomb is generally dated to the period before the Roman takeover of Thrace after the death of the last King Rhoimetalkes III (ca. 44 AD - Mansel (1940), ‚Les Fouilles de Thrace‘, p. 139).
First I wanted to depict the equipment found at Karanovo (Ignatov, Gospodinov (2013)) but it seems to remain unpublished and it’s hard to access literature on the analogous items of Thrace in the first half of the 1st century AD. The quality of the image of the helmet was very good in Mansel (1940), but I relied on the reconstruction of the hybrid armour of Negin (which I found in Wijnhoven (2022), p. 158), but chose to depict the original finding, which I saw in Miks (2015): ‚Eine späteisenzeitliche Spatha in des Kaisers Diensten‘, p. 297.
The tomb at Vize did not contain a shield umbo and the ones from Karanovo were unpublished so I chose the bronze umbo from Bryastovets, which is dated more towards the late of the 1st century AD, which I got from the Flickr pictures of Dan Diffendale. For the shield decoration I vaguely chose a number of somewhat contemporary Thracian rider as inspiration, but not a specific one.
Last but not least, I‘m no expert on Roman horse equipment, so I chose a minimalist approach, sticking to the drawing of a Tiberio-Claudian harness in M. Bishop‘s (1988): ‚Cavalry Equipment of the Roman Army in the First Century A.D.‘, p. 113 (though I think I remember seeing some similar elements in a burial from Serdica, which would be fitting) and checked the wall painting of Alexandrovo for some colour choices.

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

King Rhoimetalkes of Thrace, ca. 40 AD. Description in the Alt-Text #RomanHistory #AncientBlueSky #AncientHistory

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

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Thracian Hoplite, 4th century BC. Details in the ALT-Description #ancientbluesky #art

Thracian Hoplite, 4th century BC.

When hearing Thrace, most of you probably have in mind the famous Thracians peltasts of the Classical Period, or the rhomphaia-bearing thureophoroi of the Third Macedonian War.
This reconstruction, however, is more speculative, working with the vague and unspecified mentions of “Thracian infantry“ or simply “Thracians“ in the literary records of the latter half of the 4th century BC and the ambiguous weapon‘s findings from the area. The shield remains are from Vishegrad Peak, Yambol region (Stoyanov 2015, p. 430), the machaira is from Kabile (also Yambol region), dated to the 4th century BC (Getov 1991, no. 55, in: Velkov, V. Kabile Vol. 2), and the helmet from Zareva Tumulus in the Kazanlak Valley (I did not find literature on it, though the helmet is shown by Archaeology Bulgaria here on Facebook, also dated to the 4th century BC). This type of helmet generally found a lot of popularity in Thrace, particularly in the Rhodopes, though occasionally findings of it - like this one - can be found beyond the mountain range. The scene of a fighting warrior with Phrygian-type helmet and aspis is from a quite obscure wall painting in the Alexandrovo Tomb, which I first saw in Webber‘s Gods of Battle (2011), but since I don’t own the work of Kitov on the Alexandrovo Tomb, I’ve not seen this particularly scene discussed very often. The switch of Thracians from using their native colourful clothing to the typical Macedonian Hellenistic chitons and exomides can be well observed in visual sources like Alexandrovo or Kazanluk.
Lastly, the spearhead and sauroter are from the site of Dragoevo castle, which contained a lot of significant military findings, among them 150 spearheads and 7 sauroter (Nankov (2021): Thracian Warfare, p. 229). (Photographs of the items from Dragoevo, among others, can be found in Atanasov, G. (1995), 29-91.

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Thracian Hoplite, 4th century BC. Details in the ALT-Description #ancientbluesky #art

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

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Dardanian warrior of the late 4th century BC (see alt text for more info) #ancientbluesky

Last one of „Southern Illyria“ for a while now probably (unless I manage to convince myself to squeeze a horse into this format).

What we learn from the written sources about the Dardanian military is basically … nothing at all, except a few mentions here and there.
They are often handled a bit as their own thing though broadly understood as being Illyrian or Illyrian-related. This is also reflected in the archaeological findings. In modern Kosovo, where a large part of ancient Dardanian land was located, the archaeological findings of militaria are still pretty sparse, though the record often includes items and elements of the Glasinac-Mat culture. In terms of militaria, these include Illyrian type helmets, small knives, axes and a preference for spears.
Due to the scarcity of such findings, however, this piece is a bit cobbled together of items from the second Iron Age period of Dardania (6th-4th c. BC):
the helmet is a III-A2 type from Korishë
the bracelet is from Lubozhdë
the axe necklace from Gadine e Epërme, as is the 18cm large knife
the javelin tip (11.1 cm) is from Cernicê and the spear tip is from Përçevë
(Due to the hard accessibility of literature on items found in Kosovo, most info of these I got from the doctorate thesis of Premtim Alaj (2020): Les habitats de l‘âge de der sur le territoire de l‘actuel Kossovo)
Lastly, this reconstruction builds mainly on one finding: the coinage of Patraos: https://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?results=100&search=patara
I chose to identify this defeated warrior with a Dardanian though this is of course easy to argue against, hence my long preamble.
The small shield, the bare top and the javelin tip finding made me want to depict more of a skirmisher, though a heavy infantryman would’ve also made sense given the information in our sources. Since my last drawing was already a pikeman, however, I went for something more dynamic.

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Hellenistic South-Illyrian Hoplite, ca. 3rd-2nd century BC.

The main inspiration for this reconstruction is the belt plate found at Gostilj, on the northern shore of Lake Skadar, which would have been inside the territory of the Illyrian tribe of the Labeates, the centre of power of King Genthios (reign: 180-168 BC).
Hoplites among the Illyrians are already mentioned in the army of Kleitos, son of Bardyllis, and Glaukias, the king of the Taulantians at the battle of Pelion against Alexander the Great (335 BC, Arr. Anab. 1.5.12). This is increasingly emphasised in the Hellenistic Period, like in Akarnania (233 BC), where the heavy infantry of the Ardiaean king Agron rout the Aitolian forces due to the “weight of their arms [τὰ βαρέα τῶν ὅπλων.]“.(Pol. 2.3.3), at Sellasia (222 BC), where the Illyrians are paired with the Chalkaspides in alternating lines and pushed the Spartans off the Euas, who “were forced back by the weight of their adversaries‘ weapons and formation [βάρει τοῦ καθοπλισμοῦ καὶ τῆς συντάξεως]“ (Pol. 2.68.9) or on Pharos, where the Romans saw the Illyrians „advancing resolutely and in good order“ (Pol. 3.19.5).
A large amount of graves had been excavated at Gostilj and 130 of them recorded by Duro Basler in 1969 in the Bulletin Glasnik Zemaljskog Muzeja Bosne I Hercegovine U Sarajevu (GZM) Vol. 24 (pp. 5-107), which is available online on the website of GZM.
The speartip I used here is from grave 125 (approximate original length 300mm) and the sauroter from grave 126 (approximate original length 195mm). The coin is a typical Labeatan coin (Basler: Kenotaph 1/1, p. 44) of the helmet/shield type which - like the belt plate - depicts the Illyrian helmet without crest, and the helmet itself is from Dushk in the hinterland of ancient Epidamnos, dated to ca. the 4th century BC (Neritan Ceka, in: Arme Eggebrecht: Albanien. Schätze aus dem Land der Skipetaren (1988), p. 284).

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Illyrian warrior reconstructed from the Bosnian tomb of Arareva Gromila (excavated by Truhelka in 1890); second half of the 6th century BC.

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

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Illyrian Warrior based on findings from Rechitsa, from the 6th-5th century BC #AncientBlueSky

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Welcome back artists!🖌🎨✨️ Quote Post with an old piece that you still like!

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Velite Aquila @veliteaquila.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Ligurian warrior of the 2nd Punic war Private commission

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Because I’ve seen it pop up a couple of times @bretdevereaux.bsky.social there is an article by Roscoe which deals with the allegedly „ritualistic warfare“ on Papua New Guinea in „Dead Birds“ (umaine.edu/anthropology...) The movie‘s battlefield was obstructed in contrast to usual PNG battles

Page from Paul Roscoe‘s article „Dead Birds: The “Theater” of War among the Dugum Dani“ which elaborates on the usual battles of Papua New Guinea, which include more casualties, pursuits into the opponent‘s settlement and more direct fighting

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

There was a lot of cursing behind the scenes of this thread, it's truly one of the articles of all time

Velite Aquila @veliteaquila.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

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This article has to be one of the most misinformed and irresponsibly written I've seen. I recommend you read the article to catch what I'm about to say here, but a tldr: "statues are poorly painted in reconstructions because academics are trolling the public"

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Luis Illingworth @heyraguio.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

"they don't know how to express the idea" here's rian johnson's storyboard for knives out pick up a pencil and a napkin

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Julius Obsequens would like to know your location

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

It's not like they already told everyone their plans, is it?

Section of Project 2025: "Privacy Shield. For many years, the European Union (EU) has tried to force U.S. companies operating in Europe to follow its data privacy regulations. Misleading claims in the 2013 Snowden leaks destroyed the initial Safe Harbor Framework that allowed American companies to transfer data across the Atlantic; its successor, the Privacy Shield Framework,45 was struck down by European courts on the grounds that it provides insufficient protections for EU citizens against hypothetical U.S. government surveillance. Those same European courts exempted the intelligence services of EU member states from the standards applied to the U.S., suggesting that trade protectionism may be the real motive behind data privacy regulations."

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Just saw the new US security strategy. My takeaway is that it's still only about money. A weak and divided (or destroyed) EU is easier for the tech companies in the government to exploit, so they don't have to pay attention to regulations and protection laws. All the ideological stuff is a farce

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. It’s not that I hadn’t read any good books before that, but the the way atmosphere was conveyed through the pages, often through pure implications, completely rewired my brain. Even thinking about „the tower“ still gives me instant goosebumps

Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Teaser of the new Dev Diary for our Etruscan faction Volsinii, that will come out with the new update next year. Game: Rome Total War: Remastered Mod: Rome Total Realism: Imperium Surrectum Full Dev Diary can be found here: discord.com/channels/714...

Images of two of the units that Volsinii will be able to recruit.

Images of two of the cavalry units that Volsinii will be able to recruit.

Teaser of the starting situation of Volsinii on the Campaign Map as well as its faction banner.

Two Screenshots of the new Etruscan units.

Corrugated Cavalier @corrugatedcavalier.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

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I've had an article published! Thanks to @workingclassicists.bsky.social for the opportunity. This is an article about how the ancient Greek world viewed martial dance as training. Would love it if folks read and shared. It's short! www.workingclassicists.com/zine/kd36lab...

workingclassicists.com

Slide to the Left: Training Martial Attributes Through Dance in the Ancient Greek World — Working Classicists

Jeffrey Cierniak explores the role of dance in ancient Greek war - prepare for some surprises!

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Sending ancient out-of-context text passages that I find interesting to my friends like a cat leaving a dead animal on the doorstep

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

WIP - Odrysian King, 4th century BC

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Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Arendt famously noted that mechanisms of internal oppression developed in a colonial context soon get directed at folks at home (concentration camps, etc.). These slobs apply *the aesthetic* of the Iraq/Afgan occupations to unconstitutional oppression at home. Instagram fascism.

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Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Delighted to share more feline news since, after the Indian Tiger, our British Lion is now out as well with Ancient History Magazine!

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Velite Aquila @veliteaquila.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Mexica Cuāuhtli warrior

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Jan on a train 🚈 @jottel.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Publius Claudius Pulcher in shambles