iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

✨Rome: Empire, Power, People✨ We journeyed back in time today to soak up the details of this exhibition at the Melbourne Museum.

Dr Rad hangs out with C2nd CE Capitoline style Venus. The goddess of appears to have just emerged from her bath.

Dr G hangs out with C2nd CE Capitoline style Venus. The goddess of appears to have just emerged from her bath.

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

For this #MosaicMonday we look up into the spectacular presbytery vault of San Vitale in #Ravenna. To me, the Ravenna #mosaics are an astonishing collection, the last magnificent product of late antiquity. But whose empire does this shimmering C6 CE ceiling actually represent? #AncientBluesky 🏺

PRESBYTERY VAULT MOSAICS, C. 547 CE. BASILICA OF SAN VITALE, RAVENNA

A view looking straight up into the vaulted ceiling of the presbytery. At the apex within a starry medallion is the Lamb of God. The central wreath is supported by four white robed angels, a visual inheritance from classical winged Victories. They stand upon blue globes, an ancient symbol of cosmic dominion. The vault sections are filled with a lush paradise of acanthus vines and birds, echoing Augustan imagery of abundance. This shared classical vocabulary reflects the complex political reality of C6 CE Ravenna. The basilica was begun under Ostrogothic rule, a regime using Roman art to present themselves as theoretically still part of the empire. When Justinian consecrated the church in c. 547 CE he did not have to replace the Ostrogothic aesthetic. The Gothic kings' official style was already Roman, allowing this final flowering of late antiquity to bridge two competing empires.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This marble anemoscope was used to indicate the direction of the wind. The names of the winds and their personifications in the act of blowing (hot?) air are engraved on the disc. It's thought to date from the C5th CE and can be found today in the Parco Archeologica del Celio, Rome. #AncientRome

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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A #Roman glass bowl, in a beautiful cobalt blue with an irregular swirling white pattern. It looks amazing - especislly given that it is nearly 2000 years old! #Archaeology #AncientBlueSky

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

You were never mine, never mine. This #FrescoFriday we're admiring a #megalography, a large-scale #fresco, from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at #Boscoreale, now in the #MANN. Perhaps the lower woman is Stateira II, dejected that #Alexander preferred #Hephaestion. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO FROM BOSCOREALE, C1 BCE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI

A large Roman fresco from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor set against a brilliant red background. On the left an allegorical female figure representing Macedon sits on a rock wearing a greyish tunic, a purple cloak and a flat Macedonian kausia hat while grasping a tall spear. Between them rests a bronze shield embossed with the Argead star of the Macedonian royal house. On the right a seated woman representing defeated Persia wears a pale gown, a blue mantle and a yellow head wrap. She rests her chin on her hand sadly, looking up to seek female solidarity in the eyes of her captor but finding none. This figure of subjugated Persia may be a portrait of Stateira II, daughter of the defeated Persian King Darius III, taken as a political trophy wife by Alexander the Great. She had ample reason to be dejected, as Alexander's primary romantic devotion was to his companion and cavalry commander Hephaestion.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

We don’t mean to scare anyone, but sometimes when we get into toga mode the knives come out. #AncientRome #Podcast #Toga

Dr Rad avoids a blade from Dr G while both wear bedsheets in an attempt to get into an ancient Roman state of mind.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

✨New to Patreon - Mark Antony with Alex Gough✨ We sit down with @alexgoughauthor.bsky.social to learn more about his historical fiction series on Mark Antony which explores Antony’s career and follows him all the way through to his demise.

Book cover for ‘Caesar’s Nemesis’ by Alex Gough which shows a Roman soldier looking over a naval battle with a flaming shield in the background.

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A roar of loneliness. For #ReliefWednesday, this beautiful late C4 BCE Etruscan terracotta askos. Its deeply modelled mane echoes the frescoes of the François Tomb where it was found. The tomb's dispersion proves that scattering a collection destroys its context. #AncientBluesky 🏺

ZOOMORPHIC LION ASKOS FROM THE FRANÇOIS TOMB, LATE C4 BCE. VILLA GIULIA, ROME

A terracotta vessel shaped like a crouching and snarling lion, resting on a narrow black-glazed base decorated with a wavy pattern. The surface combines painted and heavily modelled relief-like decoration, featuring deep tongue-shaped locks forming the mane and short hatched brown brushstrokes indicating the hide. The open mouth ingeniously serves as a secondary pouring spout. Discovered in 1857 in Vulci, this beautiful object is currently on loan from the British Museum, serving as a stark reminder of the tragic dispersion of the grave goods of the François Tomb. While the famous C4 BCE frescoes were stripped from the tufo walls, objects like this askos were scattered through sales to foreign collectors and institutions. This permanent dismemberment of a unified context is the curse of Italian cultural patrimony. It mirrors the fate of medieval polyptychs broken into isolated panels, Roman mosaics ripped from their architectural settings, monastery libraries sold off piecemeal, and intact family archives pillaged for individual gain. When private greed triumphs over the public good, the original meaning of these masterpieces is gravely diminished and the connective tissue of our history is lost.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The ‘Tellus’ panel from the Ara Pacis is one of the most striking pieces of relief work from the Augustan era. The central divine figure has a layered iconography that has led to a variety of theories as to her identity including Ceres and Roma.

The Tellus panel depicts a goddess (variously identified as Tellus, Roma, or Ceres amongst other theories) surrounded by the abundance of nature. She’s accompanied by two personified winds and she holds two infants (potentially the twins Romulus and Remus). Various animals and plant life make for a rich scene.

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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A beautiful #Roman glass bottle, in vivid shades of blue, green, & gold. It was probably originally used to hold perfume or some other cosmetic product, some 2000 years ago #Archaeology #AncientBlueSky

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

We are starting the week on the Oppian for #MosaicMonday. These late C1 CE wall #mosaics from beneath the #BathsofTrajan show Roman maritime villas. But they look like ghosts, because Trajan's engineers despoiled the glass tesseræ of the water. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC OF A MARITIME VILLA, 64-98 CE. MUSEO DELLE TERME DI TRAIANO

This is part of the lower register of the Great Mosaic, one of a row depicting maritime villas, seemingly floating on a rough, blank mortar background. The structure features long colonnaded porticoes extending into the sea on two moles, terminating in tower like pavilions known as diaetae. This architectural pincer enclosed a private harbour, creating a protected mooring that displays the extreme luxury of the C1 rich. The villa appears to float in empty white space because the original background was destroyed. The ocean and sky were likely made of expensive glass paste tesseræ. These were picked out for recycling by Trajan's demolition crews, a state-sanctioned salvage operation also evident in the Polyphemus mosaic of the Domus Aurea. Only the less valuable stone and terracotta pieces forming the architecture were left behind before the hall was walled up to serve as foundations for the Baths of Trajan.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Do you feel like you’ve just been tossed unceremoniously into a chariot race? Welcome to the all new *empathetic* #MosaicMonday where your feelings about still having to engage in capitalism while tech billionaires ruin it for us all are validated by ancient mosaics. #AncientBluesky🏺

Image description from World History Encyclopaedia: Mosaic representing four charioteers from different parts of a Roman circus and their horses, Roman work (end of the 3rd century CE) from the villa located near the Baccano wood, and exhibited at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome (Italy). Photo credit to Jean-Pol Grandmont.

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Sistory History Podcast @sistoryhistory.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A scene of animals hunting at the #Roman villa in Desenzano del Garda. 📸 Us #MosaicMonday #Archaeology #AncientBluesky #Classicsbluesky #AncientRome

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Andromeda is trapped and chained as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus. Turns out that some parents are not only willing to anger the gods but to also then offer up their child to get back in the gods’ good graces… #AncientGreece #AncientBluesky🏺 #FrescoFriday

Description from The World History Encyclopaedia: “Fourth style fresco depicting Perseusfreeing Andromeda from her chains on the rock, from the House of the Dioscuri in Pompeii, National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
Andromeda, chained helplessly on the rock, a prey to pacify a sea monster sent by Poseidon to punish Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother, who had boasted of her daughter's beauty. Perseus comes face to face with the beautiful Andromeda, immediately falls in love with her and rushes off to kill the sea monster. Photo credit: Carole Raddato.”

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I am shamelessly returning to the #CittàDipinta (late C1 CE) in the Museo delle Terme di #Traiano for #FrescoFriday. This upper left detail is the urban centre of the idealised cityscape: walls for strength, an emporium for commerce, a temple for piety, and a theatre for art.

DETAIL OF THE CITTÀ DIPINTA, LATE C1 CE. MUSEO DELLE TERME DI TRAIANO

Rather than serving as a literal topographical map, this section of the fresco functions as an ideological checklist of Romanitas. The painter has condensed the essential elements of civilisation into a single, idealised bird's-eye view. Heavily engineered walls and a naval gate project military and infrastructural strength, while an emporium portico and an adjacent open-air theatre symbolise commerce and the arts. A gabled temple topped with a statue represents civic piety, and the surrounding residential blocks feature rooftop pavilions for the otium of the elite. The physical history of the fresco itself is visible at the bottom left, where the painted plaster curves over the edge of a structural brick arch. Originally a window or doorway in this Neronian- or Flavian-era pavilion (a dating supported by stylistic ties to the nearby Domus Aurea, including the exquisite sfumatura of the Egyptian blue pigment of the water), the void was pragmatically walled up when Trajan's architects entombed the entire structure in darkness to serve as foundational terracing for his imperial baths.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The cuckoo in the nest. For #ReliefWednesday we have the magnificent Ara Casali from the late C2 CE, now in the #VaticanMuseums. Its reliefs show the domino effect of myths that led to the founding of #Rome. But the name of the dedicator is a later insertion. #AncientBluesky 🏺

ARA CASALI, C. 170-190 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS

A richly carved marble altar showing the front and right side. On the front, a circular wreath encloses a dedication by Tiberius Claudius Faventinus from c. 230 CE, carved into an erased surface likely resulting from the Severan purges of the 190s CE. Above and below this palimpsest are reliefs of Sol and the lovers Mars and Venus. The altar operates like clockwork to narrate Roman destiny. The visible right side and unseen left side feature scenes of the Trojan War, leading to the inevitable conclusion on the unseen back depicting the discovery of Romulus and Remus. This repurposed monument was a happy purchase for Faventinus, allowing him to benefit from an implied connection to the first imperial house. The Julio-Claudians famously claimed descent from both Mars, via Rhea Silvia, and Venus, the divine ancestress of the Julian line.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just a little tour of Livia’s garden fresco. #AncientBluesky🏺

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

For #MosaicMonday, a colossal discovery. This is the Great #Mosaic, which I visited last Tuesday beneath the #BathsofTrajan in #Rome. Though fragmentary, this wall mosaic almost defies comprehension due to its quality and vastness. Let's have a look. #AncientBluesky 🏺🧵

HALL OF THE GREAT MOSAIC, 64-98 CE. MUSEO DELLE TERME DI TRAIANO

A steep downward perspective into a subterranean space beneath heavy brick vaulting. A vast vertical wall dominates the centre, covered in the remains of a monumental mosaic. This hall measures 10 by 15 metres and is 12 metres tall. The ground level has not yet been excavated, and the lower three metres, still buried, were originally faced with marble slabs. At the centre of the long wall, part of a rectangular niche is visible, which must once have contained a statue. It is far too large to be part of a private domus and is built on lands expropriated by Nero for the Domus Aurea, whose main Oppian pavilion is nearby. The gigantic size and high quality of the surviving mosaic suggest an imperial commission, but of what? And was it a Neronian building or a Flavian or Domitianic one? At the very bottom right edge, a modern blue metal railing provides a sense of the staggering scale.

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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A mummy portrait from #Roman Egypt, depicting an older woman with loosely-curled grey hair, a gold wreath, & gold-pearl earrings. Unlike portraits of younger women, she doesn't seem to be following the fashions of the Imperial court - just her own sense of style? 🏺 #AncientBlueSky

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Cam Hawkins @camhawkins.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The emperor #Hadrian didn’t just build a wall across Britain! During a career that involved a “world tour” to pretty much every province of the Roman Empire, he rubbed elbows with provincial aristocrats... #AncientBlueSky #Classics havetogawilltravel.com/podcast/have...

havetogawilltravel.com

Hadrian Tours the Roman World | Have Toga, Will Travel

The emperor Hadrian didn’t just build a wall across Britain! During a career that involved a “world tour” to pretty much every province of the Roman Empire, he...

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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A #Roman cheese press, found at Balmuildy fort on the #AntonineWall (Scotland). The cheese was put in the press & pressed down by a weight, forcing out any moisture through the holes. The resulting cheeses would have the concentric circle pattern from the press 🧀 #Archaeology #AncientBlueSky

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

For this #MosaicMonday, the dolphins and cantharus at Bradford on Avon some years ago; now covered over. Apologies for oblique pic. Any blurring is because of the excitement of seeing the excavation.😉🐬 1/3 📷2003 #AncientBlueSky 🏺

An oblique view of a colourful Roman mosaic in a straight-sided apse. In the centre is a cantharus/crater with its base to the right and mouth to the left in this photo. It is flanked by dolphins whose heads point towards the corners of the apse and whose tails are on level with the cantharus/crater handle.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Our interview with @greekmythcomix.bsky.social about “You Are Odysseus” is out now wherever you enjoy excellent podcasts 🎙️ We get into the nitty-gritty, including the role of aidos and kudos when thinking about kleos (glory). #AncientGreece #Odysseus partialhistorians.com/2026/09/10/s...

Image: Odysseus and the Sirens by Edmund Dulac (1882–1953). It is an illustration of three sirens calling Odysseus on his way back from Troy. Superimposed below Odysseus’ ship is the title of Jenkinson-Brown’s book ‘You Are Odysseus’.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

✨New Episode - You Are Odysseus with GreekMythComix✨ We chat with Laura Jenkinson-Brown about her amazing book ‘You Are Odysseus’ which shakes up Homer’s epic poem by placing the reader in the centre of the story and all its complexities.

Book cover for 'You Are Odysseus' with a boat, an eye, a siren, and other ancient motifs on a teal background.

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

For #FrescoFriday, the astonishing "Città Dipinta" unveiled this week at the #Oppian Hill. Painted on the exterior of a pre-Trajanic basilican hall, it might have been an ideological billboard promoting good government, before being buried as a foundation wall for Trajan's Baths. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO OF THE CITTÀ DIPINTA, LATE C1 CE. MUSEO DELLE TERME DI TRAIANO

This large fresco fragment depicts a rare bird's-eye view of a fortified city. Defensive walls with crenellated towers enclose a dense urban landscape featuring residential buildings, a theatre, and porticoes rendered in sophisticated perspective. The artwork was painted on the exterior wall of a three-aisled hall on the Oppian Hill. This building perhaps functioned as an administrative basilica connected to a nearby schola for a collegium of scribes. While the adjacent mosaic hall follows a strict north-south orientation aligning with the Domus Aurea and the Sette Sale reservoir, this hall sits on a different axis. In an administrative context, the fresco would have served as an ideological billboard projecting Roman urban prosperity to those conducting business. Dating to the Neronian or Flavian period, the building and its masterpiece of urban topography were later deliberately buried to serve as retaining walls for the Baths of Trajan.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Let’s hope your weekend doesn’t all take a turn like this riot in the amphitheatre at Pompeii which led to the closure of the amphitheatre in 59 CE! There’s partying hard and then whatever brawl *this* turned into! #FrescoFriday #Pompeii

This fresco depicts fighters in the arena but also outside the arena. Fighting for displays seems to have turned into a a riot that broke out in 59 CE during games involving people from Pompeii and Nuceria. This riot led to the closure of the amphitheatre for ten years. The fresco was found in the house of Actius Anicetus in Pompeii. It is now held in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Photo credit to Carole Raddato via The World History Encyclopedia.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

A glimpse of faces that see both ways. Ancient nods to Janus in the Palazzo Chigi, Aricca. #ReliefWednesday

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Hope your Monday hasn’t shocked the system like it seems to have for this guy! His Leafiness comes from a larger mosaic depicting a bear hunt from the C4th CE. He’s not involved, but is hanging about in the foliage border. #MosaicMonday #AncientRome

Description from the Getty: “Enough of the fragmentary floor survives to identify the subject as a bear hunt…The outermost border is a luxurious acanthus scroll. Heads emerge from elaborate leaf complexes in the corners, and smaller figures of erotes with armor, fruits and animals (both real and imaginary) are tucked into the scrolling acanthus along the edges.” Object Number: 72.AH.76.21

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Ancient History 101 Podcast @ancienthistory101.org · 07/09/2026

The punishment for an unchaste Vestal Virgin was to be buried alive - but were all condemned Vestals truly guilty, or were some merely convenient scapegoats? Our full episode on the Vestals with Peta Greenfield of @partialhistorians.bsky.social is out now...

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

For #MosaicMonday, a sacro-idyllic #emblema from Hadrian's Villa. Notice the famously priapic goat seeking an anatomy lesson from a phallic votive tablet, alongside an unusually androgynous #Dionysus in female dress. A bit of rustic irony for an imperial dining room. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC EMBLEMA WITH GOATS IN A LANDSCAPE, FROM VILLA ADRIANA, C. 130 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS

This polychrome mosaic emblema depicts a rocky landscape with a flock of goats. In the background stands a statue of Dionysus holding a thyrsus and grapes. The god is depicted in an unusual androgynous manner, clean-shaven and wearing a long female chiton, reflecting his liminal nature. Resting beneath the statue is a pinax, a painted votive tablet resembling a modern book. Its blue surface displays a stylised human phallus, an apotropaic ward and symbol of fertility. One goat stares intently at the tablet, a deliberate piece of rustic comedy contrasting the animal's natural priapic reputation with the painted symbol. Discovered in 1779 by Count Marefoschi, the mosaic was found in the Sala a Tre Navate at Hadrian's Villa. This hall functioned as a summer dining room where reclining banqueters could admire the minute opus vermiculatum. It was unearthed alongside a matching pendant mosaic to anchor the imperial cœnatio.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

✨New Episode - Etruscan Evil Plans✨ What is Rome to do when they gaze out from the Capitol and all they can see are the neighbours they don’t like or the neighbours that don’t like them?

Image of modern Sutri (site of ancient Sutrium). Text reads: Episode 177 - Etruscan Evil Plans.

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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A #Roman shield found in Dura-Europos (Syria), where it was lost during a siege in the C3rd AD. The only rectangular shield to survive from the Roman world, it is a wonderful find, & gives a great insight into how elaborately decorated these items were #Archaeology #AncientBlueSky

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RoaminTheEmpire @roamintheempire.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

New post this week! The second and final part on ancient Kisamos finishes up with necropoli an an ancient road, and a great museum with a couple of top tier mosaics, among other objects: www.roamintheempire.com/index.php/20... #RomanSiteSaturday #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientBlueSky🏺

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Hello, mother. #SarcophagusSaturday in the #VaticanMuseums brings us this #sarcophagus, famous from the #Renaissance onward, which shows the tragedy of #Orestes as a metaphor for suffering and redemption, with a structural surprise hidden in the #relief. #AncientBluesky 🏺

ORESTES SARCOPHAGUS, C. 140 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS

This marble sarcophagus front depicts the myth of Orestes carved in high relief. The scene shows the hero avenging his father by slaying his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Though seemingly too brutal for a tomb, Romans viewed his ultimate absolution as a salvific metaphor for the soul achieving divine purification and peace after earthly suffering. Displayed for centuries in the Aracoeli sacristy before passing to the Barberini and then Clement XIV, its accessible figures deeply influenced Renaissance artists. Beyond the narrative, the composition reveals a sophisticated geometry. The standing figures at the corners and centre act as vertical supports, while the sweeping arcs of drapery and the slumped bodies of the slain form two distinct drooping swags. This underlying structure transforms the scene into a hidden garland sarcophagus, proving how deeply established that rhythmic format was in Roman workshops.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

🌸Flora🌸 Sydney feels like it’s jumped straight from winter to summer these last few days, but really it’s Spring in the air. This fresco fragment is often identified as the goddess Flora and was found in the Villa of Ariadne in Stabiae. Now held in the MAN Napoli. #AncientRome #FrescoFriday

A female figure often identified as Flora, is seen from behind as she picks flowers while wandering in a lush green space. She is dressed in gowns of white and yellow, wears a golden diadem and carries a cornucopia. The fresco is from the Villa of Ariadne in Stabiae near Pompei, circa 15-45 CE. Photo credit to Levan Ramishvili via Wikimedia Commons.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

✨New Episode - Etruscan Evil Plans✨ What is Rome to do when they gaze out from the Capitol and all they can see are the neighbours they don’t like or the neighbours that don’t like them?

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Ancient History 101 Podcast @ancienthistory101.org · 02/09/2026

We've got an episode on religion for you this week, and it focuses on one of the most extraodinary priesthoods in the ancient world. Welcome to the world of the Vestals! Our special guest expert is Peta Greenfield of @partialhistorians.bsky.social renown.

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

For #ReliefWednesday, a #Severan Magna Mater. In late antiquity, "going to the #Vatican" meant something very different: visiting her sanctuary, the #Vaticanum. Here, initiates were drenched in bull's blood in the taurobolium, practically in the shadow of Old St Peter's. #AncientBluesky 🏺

RELIEF OF THE MAGNA MATER, EARLY C3 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS, ROME

This Severan marble relief depicts the goddess Cybele seated frontally within an architectural aedicula complete with a pediment and pilasters. She rests her left hand on a tympanum while flanked by two stylised seated lions. Despite antiquarian restorations to the head and right arm, the piece captures the static authority of her cult. The current location of the relief is a striking historical coincidence. In late antiquity, "going to the Vatican" meant something entirely different than it does today. One of her primary Roman sanctuaries, known as the Vaticanum, was located directly adjacent to Old St Peter's. At this shrine, aristocratic devotees underwent the taurobolium, a visceral rite where they were drenched in the blood of a slaughtered bull. This intense pagan space operated side by side with the centre of Roman Christianity until the final suppression of the old cults in the late fourth century.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

✨The Two Princes✨ Gaius and Lucius or Britannicus and Nero? The figure on the left holds the orb of the world and a ship’s stern ornament indicative of his place at least as an imperial heir. #ReliefWednesday

Two youths stand naked, wearing cloaks. The left figure holds the orb of the world in one hand and in the other a ship's stern ornament (aphlaston). The details of what the figure to the right held is now unclear. This relief is part of the collection of the Aphrodisias Museum

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Enjoy this extremely fine parrot who looks like they might just know a secret or two. This mosaic is from Pergamon and dates to the mid-C2nd BCE. The parrot is known variously as the Alexandrine Parakeet or the Alexander Parrot in honour of Alexander the Great. #MosaicMonday #AncientBluesky🏺

This is a panel from a larger mosaic floor and depicts a parrot standing on a white block against a dark background.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 31/08/2026

Enjoying the holiday, a mosaic of an idealised image of the Nile Valley during the flood season, with everyone having raucous good fun. Second century CE, Rome (Museo Nazionale Romano) 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

Detail from a black and white mosaic depicting three people on a reed boat (with a donkey figurehead). One steers the craft, the middle person dances with two crossed sticks and the third person plays the flutes (aulos)

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Scipione #Borghese is the sun. #SpoliaSunday brings us the eastern front of the Casino dell'Aurora Pallavicini, covered in #spolia which unsubtly equates Scipione with #Apollo. #AncientBluesky 🏺

ANCIENT RELIEF DECORATION ON THE FAÇADE OF THE CASINO DELL'AURORA, 1611. PALAZZO PALLAVICINI ROSPIGLIOSI

The crisp, deeply carved classical reliefs embedded across this structure represent a masterful and highly cynical use of architectural salvage. Cardinal Scipione Borghese used this garden and pavilion as a party space. The spolia decoration of this façade has a strong propagandistic tilt. The panel above the right-hand grated window details the flaying of Marsyas, a potent myth where Apollo defeats a satyr in a musical contest and punishes him severely to assert divine power. Other reliefs, like the large panel over the central arch featuring triumphant Dionysiac figures, are also pressed into service: what's a party without wine? These reliefs, referring to episodes in the myth of Apollo, god of the sun and of the arts, serve to make Apollo a stand-in for the corpulent prelate. Antiquities here have nothing to do with their original funerary context. Leave your troubles outside!

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This #FrescoFriday is for lovers! Though we hope your romances have better success than Dido and Aeneas. This beautiful fresco is from the House of the Citharist in Pompeii.

Fresco shows Dido with her arms around Aeneas. Both are partially nude. Two other figures can be seen to the right. A woman sitting (Dido’s sister maybe?) and a man standing who may be an attendant. Fresco held in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (inv. 112282); fresco originally from the House of Citharist in Pompeii. Copyright of this image is held by Stefano Bolognini.

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Saturnalia every day. This #FrescoFriday shows us the solemn self-exaltation of the enslaved, in a #fresco from the #Severan period high on the wall of the later #ScholaPræconum on the #Palatine slope. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO OF IMPERIAL SERVANTS, C. 230–240 CE. SCHOLA PRÆCONUM

This fresco, high on a barrel-vaulted wall in the Schola Præconum on the Palatine hill, features an aedicule architectural layout composed of slender painted columns. Within this framework stand three life-sized male figures dressed uniformly in short, tightly belted tunics. They hold administrative attributes such as a staff and a scroll. These figures represent tricliniarii, or imperial banquet managers, who occupied this corporate clubhouse before the later guild of præcones laid their C4 CE floor mosaics. By depicting themselves in servile clothing to avoid offending the traditional aristocracy, yet placing those figures within monumental architectural settings normally reserved for gods or heroes, this powerful guild of imperial servants privately celebrated their immense functional authority at the heart of the Roman bureaucratic machine.

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The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This #FrescoFriday is for lovers! Though we hope your romances have better success than Dido and Aeneas. This beautiful fresco is from the House of the Citharist in Pompeii.

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Reposted by The Partial Historians 🏺

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Owl of Athena! 🦉❤️ The goddess’s sacred bird with helmet and weapons transformed into a tiny armed warrior! Red-figure ceramic vessel made in Athens around 2,400 years ago! 📷 Louvre Museum, Paris collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/5335... #Archaeology

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