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Paul Johstono

@profpaulj.bsky.social
1.7K followers 162 following 323 posts

Ancient Military Historian @DukeU PhD; @FurmanU My opinions only

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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"when the serious student of the military art delves into the reasons for the failure of a specific attack … he is, by this very activity, preparing for a day in which he, under different circumstances, may be facing decisions of vital consequence to his country." -President Eisenhower
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Excited to see in print Warfare in Ancient Egypt, edited by Anthony Spalinger, out today from Brill, including a chapter by me, on warfare in the Ptolemaic period
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Don't want to leave out the Trojans and their allies...
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Fun with the Dowding System
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
But for the knob there'd be *zero* argument with identifying an Attic helmet.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Winner faces Mbappe at Hastings
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Okay, it's not lost Hieronymus of Cardia or a missing book of Polybius, but columns of late 3rd-early 2nd century BC Stoicism is a surprising find... AND, its (AI-located) critiques of technological learning and of learning that departs from our personal nature, are striking. Dear Prudence!
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Nifty Macedonian power move was the 7-arc phalangite pelte, which, contrary to 6-arc or 8-arc designs, required an impressive little piece of geometry to measure out.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Paging Athenians
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Didn't realize how low-res the images I attached were. Here's another one from wildwinds that is easier to see.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
It's a tough spot to say the "Brettian shield" from Festus on the rearmament of the Late Republican velites was likely to have been anything other than a thureos, but Brettian shield is also a weird name for a shield almost everyone was using.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
So here's a fragment of fresco from Herculaneum. But what do you see? There's a hand on a spear. I *think* there's a bluish shield with a nude male figure painted upon it on the right side of the fragment. And if I'm not nuts, it reminds me of a Cretan archer's shield from a stele.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
So the leukaspides (white shields). Sekunda is plainly wrong in his suggestion they were thureophoroi, and I think he backed off that position. They were phalangites. A second division next to the bronze shield chalkaspides. But how did Macedon raise them?
Modern artist's rendering of the whiteshields in phalanx formation
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
As we start the fifth year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I hope and pray for peace, which Russia could bring about anytime by relenting from its illegal invasion.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
And then Spartan Oliganthropia enters the chat
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
An Air Force officer-student joked they were "remove before fight" tags. (Nicer looking as tassels than knots alone)
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Tidings of comfort and joy and new books
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Egads what an ugly helmet. Those are... brass vertebrae, perhaps?
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
The battle was fought south of Beth Zecharia, when the Seleucid force advanced north from Beth Zur further south to meet the army of the Maccabees. The battle is famous for the story of Eleazar attacking the lead Seleucid elephant on its belly. But the Maccabean army was defeated.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
First, the bronze coin from Side is recognizable by the helmeted Athena and the pomegranate. A quite small bronze coin isn't exactly great proof of the Seleucid professional army, but a good indicator at least of a Pamphylian, and perhaps a mercenary.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Right at Hanukkah the Maccabees are in the news, as archaeologists reveal finding a bronze coin from Side and several lead sling bullets at the site of ancient Beth Zecharia. A few thoughts on the finds and how they do--AND DON'T--connect to the Maccabean battle. And happy Hanukkah!
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
In hoc signo, Hippostratos! #advent #indogreeks
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Happy Halloween from Captain Rex
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
In the flesh and it's fantastic. Great resource from @historianabel.bsky.social with beautiful set of figures
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Russian strategic Air Force has become the "How do you even stop this I mean seriously??" meme
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
It's happening!!!!
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Andor with the gifts for the childhood PC gaming nerds
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
But, in related thoughts... any one who sees this happen to have the other frescos from the allegedly-from-Capua Voronezh sarcophagus?
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Rats. Surely I can find one. It's the slab not in this picture of the four other slabs...
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Here's the example from the Athena Polias balustrade at Pergamon, so spoil from the Seleucids, perhaps a naval example. It is front-on, and you can see the arm a bit between the frame and the muscled cuirass.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
I'd not previously noticed the Galatian or Galatian-influenced sword with bilobate pommel here. There's also a trilobate pommel elsewhere on the Athena Polias weapons frieze. The details on the armor are intriguing as well.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
I mean, look at these beauties
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Fun in the Other place with Grawk being bad at drawing ancient things
X-Grok attempts to illustrate four common ancient shield types and does a bunch of pseudo-medieval stuff instead
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Got a kick out of @nakhthor.bsky.social's term for the activity of Greek poleis in the decades after Roman power swept across the Eastern Med: "Indian Summer" #polis In the text he mentions oval shields among Samian monuments; I'm hopeful he'll direct me to one. I know mostly aspides.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
A doe has been dropping these two off in my backyard every morning for several days.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
It's been a pleasure, Utrecht. Great place to talk about the Seleucid army.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Writing on the Seleucids
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Death cult.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 11/12/2023
Anyone ever seen an early photo or watercolor of the stele of Nikogenes of Kalymnos, a mercenary who was buried at Amathous in Cyprus? The stele is at the British Museum, but nothing is visible now. I've read descriptions, but never come across a visual.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 22/09/2023
#OTD in 189 BC, a draft receipt recording how a local official received wine rations for Macedonian soldiers serving their liturgy. Considering there were armies fighting rebels in the Thebaid that year, a post in Philadelphia in the Fayum was a cushy gig. P.Yale I 37 papyri.info/ddbdp/p.yale...
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