iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I was at the Royston Book Fair where I sold many books & chatted to some interesting folks

LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Baby guinea pig Pepsi is not easy to capture on camera as he's a kinetic dynamo of energy. I had to wait with the patience of a BBC wildlife camera man until he stopped propelling himsrlf round the cage for a drink.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Hey, all three of the episodes of that Channel 5 documentary I was in on the Julio Claudians are now on you tube. Got me a credit on IMdb (which is a thrill) & I also thrilliing was getting the line 'a Pandora's box of perversion' on mainsteam telly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICM_...

youtube.com

The Women Who Made And Destroyed Rome’s Rulers | Emperor: Rise And Fall Of A Dynasty | All Episodes

YouTube video by Channel 5

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome is on sale at HALF price! Which is a lot of phallus talk for your pennies, not to mention eunuchs, circumcison, adultery laws and Emperors with colourful sex lives. #romansex #sexhistory #ancientRome www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Sex-and-Sexu...

pen-and-sword.co.uk

Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome

From Emperors and empresses, poets and prostitutes, slaves and plebs, Ancient Rome was a wealth of different experiences and expectations. None more so than around…

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Ancient History 101 Podcast @ancienthistory101.org · 07/06/2026

Our full biography of Domitian with @ljtrafford.bsky.social is out now, come for the drama, stay for the measured character study! www.ancienthistory101.org/p/domitian-a...

ancienthistory101.org

Domitian - a Biography - Ancient History 101

with LJ Trafford

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Ancient History 101 Podcast @ancienthistory101.org · 05/06/2026

What's the worst dinner party you've ever attended? It can't be more intense than the Black Banquet... The full episode about Domitian with @ljtrafford.bsky.social is out now!

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Historia – the HWA @historia-hwa.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Sex in Ancient Greece is the subject of LJ Trafford’s new book. She found that the Greeks were much stranger, and much smuttier, than we might think, and shares some of her research with us in Historia at historiamag.com/sex-in-ancient-greece @ljtrafford.bsky.social

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

My book Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Greece is officially published today! Here's a taster for some of the content. historiamag.com/sex-in-ancie...

historiamag.com

Sex in Ancient Greece – Historia Magazine

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Phil the Guinea Pig having serious thoughts. Possibly about interest rates, youth unemployment, whether he heard somebody just open the fridge. Deep things

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

What I also learnt writing this book is that we, like the ancient Greeks themselves are a product of our own cultural baggage. You can't deny that, you have to face it head on & admit that our society struggles with some of their social norms. Then you can dissect, discuss & contextualise.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Less than a week now until Sex & Sexuality in Ancient Greece is published! Make the hours I spent trawling through hardcore Greek porn cups worth the time! Because otherwise I'm going to start questioning my life choices. www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Sex-and-Sexu...

pen-and-sword.co.uk

Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Greece

The debt of Ancient Greece to our own society has long been recognised. However, there is another side to the culture that bequeathed us such…

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I am watching the FA Cup final for the 1st time in my life. I normally only ever watch England play. It feels odd to watch football without that heavy stone of hope mixed with dread in my stomach.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

A piece on Milo of Croton. A superior athlete who created his own legendary status by being the original Man v Food. If in Man V Food they had to butcher their own eating challenge, which they don't (as far as I'm aware) the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2026/05/anci...

the-history-girls.blogspot.com

Ancient Greece's Strongest Man by L.J. Trafford

Sometime around about the year 220 CE a philosopher named Philostratus was getting annoyed with the days in which he was living. Now since I...

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Vitellius would never had been emperor if it had not been for two men, the Emperor Makers: Fabius Valens & Caecina Alienus Full video available here www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zwx...

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

A teaser for my video on Didiud Julianus, full link here www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gjV...

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

I hit the socials to talk about the fabulous I Claudius 50 years after it first aired. vm.tiktok.com/ZNRbyYtD8/

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Filling in one of those publisher marketing forms for the release of Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Greece & it's asking me for selling points. Resisting the urge to just type: IT HAS A CHAPTER CALLED PENISES WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? www.amazon.co.uk/Sex-Sexualit...

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I'm in Berlin! Where the green man has a hat on and appears to be strolling along carrying an enormous phallus. Which is everything I hoped and imagined Berlin to be.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

As someone who has watched middle age whistle past her I do not really get the flashing lights & all round loudness of Tiktok. But nonetheless I have found a quiet corner for myself to talk about Romans. vm.tiktok.com/ZNRXfUjg6/

vm.tiktok.com

TikTok - Make Your Day

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Tian Valerian @tian-v.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

This is great fun as are LJ Trafford’s books. Worth a few minutes of your time in these latter days of would-be emperors.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Nice to see James Trafford adding lustre to the Trafford name by doing what I understand to be good goalkeeping for Manchester City in the cup final of something or other.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Very telling line from Pliny the Younger in my a.m. research. 'Slaves lose all fear of a considerate master once they are used to him, but they wake up at the sight of new faces and try to win his favour by giving his guests the service due to him.'

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Quote of my a.m. research from Valerius Maximus who has clearly witnessed the carnage of a girls' night out. 'The use of wine was formerly unknown to Roman women, for fear that it might bring them into any disgrace'.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

I went to see that Wuthering Heights film. I've never read the book, nor seen any adaptation of it, nor did I know anything about the plot aside from it includes people called Cathy & Heathcliffe. I have heard the Kate Bush song, that's ace. Which possibly explains why I rather enjoyed it.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Including chapter sub headings such as: The stone sausage of man 'Er indoors - the seclusion The paedophile poet of Sardis Women out of control I may have gone all out in this book. It is a tricky and complex subject matter.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Tacitus totally getting what January is like in the UK, 'The climate is wretched, with its frequent rains and mists but there is no extreme cold. Their day is longer than in our part of the world.'

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Had an operation on my arm on Friday, it was a surprisingly smooth process. Arrived for 7 a.m. I was first on the list, in theatre by 9 a.m. Woke up at 10.30 a.m. Home by 13:30 p.m. Very impressed by the way the staff worked around my medication timings to ensure I took my Parkinsons pills on time.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Come hell & high water I am shoehorning this Livy quote into my WIP. It's too delicious. "The year was marred by omnious signs, fires blazed in the sky, there was a violent earthquake & a cow talked - there was a rumour that a cow had talked the previous year but nobody believed it"

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Morning Livy research gem "In the Palace about this time there occurred a very odd thing [] A little boy named Servius Tullus was lying asleep when his head burst into flames."

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

It's been a long time since I read a book for pleasure. Why? I have a full time job, a chronic illness, two children, my own books to write that involve reading many serious books. Picked up a battered copy of an 80s Danielle Steel/Barabara Taylor Bradford style novel. Am bloody loving it.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Which I then HAD to follow up with Valens and Caecina because they are ruddy fascinating. Naturally you can't get all the bonkers details in this format, unless anyone has a spare three hours to listen to me natter on. youtu.be/4ZwxtFJHAZw?...

youtu.be

Vying for Attention - The case of Fabius Valens and Caecina Alienus.

YouTube video by LJ Trafford

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

My new toe dipping into the world of TIktok and You Tube has somewhat reignited my passion for ther year of the four emperors. I had forgotten all the amazingly bonkers stuff that went on. Here's my short bit on Vitellius. youtu.be/RmRCfUZsRoE?...

youtu.be

The Short but Dramatic Reign of the Emperor Vitellius

YouTube video by LJ Trafford

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Ritterton here and elsewhere! @ritterton.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Absolutely stunning coin shared by the awesome @doccrom.bsky.social of a gold coin minted for #Vitellius. Now, there is also a really good video by @ljtrafford.bsky.social in which she talks just about this event. Thanks Doc Crom and all the best for 2026!

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

BARGAIN ALERT How to Survive in Ancient Rome my guide to the city in 95 CE is now only £7.50. Contains crucial information such as which festivals to avoid if you're squeamish, how not to upset the emperor & why you should carry a cabbage with you at all times www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/How-to-Survi...

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Dr Simon Elliott FSA @simonelliott20.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

More Happy Archaeologist goodness for 2026! Women of Power in the Roman World, thru Greenhill, with a forward by amazing @ljtrafford.bsky.social !

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Sent back the first proofs of Sex & Sexuality in Ancient Greece and was feeling pretty chipper about it until I remembered I've still got the indexing to do. My least favourite part of the process...

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

I grew up watching Carry On films & That’s Life, a TV show that devoted a whole segment each week to vegetables that had grown into amusingly rude shapes, a primordial soup of an upbringing that means I am pre-programmed to enjoy a good knob gag. the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

How to Survive in Ancient Rome is going to be translated into Chinese, adding to the Japanese and Polish versions. Interesting that it has not been yet been published in a country that was part of he Roman Empire, aside from Britain of course.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

I am off to the big city today and to my new workplace's office for the first time. Im doing public transport and taxis. I have Passenger Assistance booked to help me on and off the train but this is rush hour in London, which I haven't attempted before. Wish me luck.

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Well i had a fabulous day at the #RoystonBookFair as it was general audience I wasn't expecting too much. But I had several fascinating conversations about Romans with punters, gave my 10 minute talk twice because one lady missed it, so I did it again just for her. And I sold a few books too!

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LJ Trafford @ljtrafford.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

I'm at the #RoystonBookFair this Saturday giving a short talk on how the Romans measured time, why boiled flamingo never caught on with the lower classes & why insomnia caused the death of so many Romans (according to Juvenal). Come say hi if you are in the area. www.roystonbookfair.co.uk

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