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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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Reposted by Paul Johstono
Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu · 06/10/2026
The situation in the Black Sea is increasingly concerning. Commercial ships – and innocent crews – are being targeted, with lives already lost at sea. Today, two commercial vessels were hit in Bulgaria’s economic zone in Black Sea.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Had not seen the first one. Is it at Paestum or elsewhere?
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Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Putin ordered Russian troops to disregard the rules of war, Zelenskyy tells the FT. ​Ukrainian intelligence intercepted information indicating that in September, Putin ordered the Russian military to intensify strikes on civilian infrastructure. Since then,
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Drawn again to this letter (which also emphasized the sober study of the professional qualities of past commanders in the ellipsed clause) by its mention in the following WOTR article: warontherocks.com/school-of-wa...
warontherocks.com
School of War or School of Battle? Educating for an Uncertain Future
In 1901, military analyst Jan Bloch declared that new military technologies had changed war so radically that the study of history had become useless. He
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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
My .02 on the tenure at academies story: Most government civil servants are GS, but academy professors are administratively determined (AD). That means even after years of outstanding service a grant of tenure to an AD is still weaker than what a GS has after 3 years.
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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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Wayne E. Lee @milhistlee.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The University of North Carolina is hiring a historian of Science and Technology, with time, place, and theme otherwise open. Military historians with that expertise should feel encouraged to apply. careers.historians.org/jobs/2260958...
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
But in the larger sense, Polybius definitely has the Greek transfer wrong. Pyrrhus probably played a large role introducing or popularizing shielded cavalry in Hellenistic armies, and was borrowing what he encountered in Italy, especially Southern Italy.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I don't have my archive of images at hand but I think (again, would like to be able to look at images to be sure of this) this understates the number of popanum shield depictions in Latium and Etrurium in the early period. But it was definitely present in Sicily, too.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yes. I think the largest question is whether Roman cavalry really did transition from primarily popanum shields to primarily parma shields, perhaps around the Pyrrhic War
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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It's just like in my Tom Clancy novels!
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The iron Montefortino seems to have been considerably more popular than we thought once. The use of quite large cavalry shields by Roman-like cavalry poses some problem for Polybius' cavalry shields comment (which we already knew) unless these date post-Pyrrhus
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Helmet as shield device! Magnificent!
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Nick Saban looks like he's got a sarisa out there as his poker for Gameday. Hold it with two hands, bud!
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This is a good point. But you are describing a distinction about care as well as capability. Some "popularizers" are brilliant and responsible at this, and I admire them so much.
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James Pirruccello 🎃🦇🧹 @jamespirruccello.com · 02/03/2026
Read theory
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Hell yes! The study of Euclidean geometry as a through line: "the value is in reasoning through why it is that the lines remain parallel within the system constructed by Euclid...learning that if one thing is true, and another thing is true, then a third thing must by necessity also be true."
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
From Nemrut Dağ, then? Lots of interesting armor details to be seen there on several figures, but not sure I'd seen this one before. But the date should then be 1st century, depicting an ancestor
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John Ma 🇺🇦 @nakhthor.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
@drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social 's excellent take on the Odyssey. TLDR: tension between the fantasy treatment and the dogged LBA collapse setting (the latter would be better served by Eggers style obessive realism) classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/mik...
classicalstudies.org
Blog: Bronze Age Collapse on the Silver Screen: Thoughts on Chistopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. | Society for Classical Studies
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Like Loebs? Every fall semester, I like to remind people that while Perseus has many free Loebs sectioned up into book and chapter, if you want to download and read the public domain Loebs (277 of them) as PDFs or txt files, Duke U's very own Ryan Baumann created _Loebolus 📗📕_. ryanfb.xyz/loebolus/
ryanfb.xyz
Loebolus
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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 · 04/08/2026
"I am serious and don't call me Sherden"
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I just wanted a boat of Sherden and Odysseus' ship to pass each other like
static.klipy.com
Umbrella Academy: Vanya & Five in Cars
ALT: Umbrella Academy: Vanya & Five in Cars
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
True! I've caught 3 of them so far.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Happy to share this build with you. It's a card and placards 11 Group, first week, defensive air campaign. But for teaching reasons we've been working on an e-version instead of printing 50 copies.
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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 · 03/08/2026
Looking forward to CENTCOM's "is it a hack?" series about Tomahawks
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I'll be honest, unless he's going to be *launching snake attacks* onto the decks of enemy ships in the Propontis, and then taking poison, I daresay he's a more than a tad too old... Or be Massinissa as king, and tell the whole story in flashbacks?
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 31/07/2026
I used to do some work on the ethical use of satellite and drone imagery for aid and disaster response, and it is genuinely hard to express in words what a dangerous, stupid thing Google is doing by making it easy to use GenAI to create faked satellite imagery:
digitaldigging.org
How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran
The question is: what on earth is Google doing?
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Already most military institutions restrict tenure to those at rank of full professor*, it is subject to an additional review after getting rank at full, and is not real tenure anyway. *In regular academia tenure comes at associate rank.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
But also, those Trojan helmets were some of the crappiest helmets of any kind of all time. Egads they're atrocious. So bad I wonder if they're a send-up I didn't get.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Really enjoyed the Odyssey. Lots of fantasy armor but wondered if Menelaus' was intentionally evoking Sea Peoples armor from Egyptian sources. What ancient tale would you like to see in a film adaptation next? For me, it's Leucippe and Clitophon, by Achilles Tatius.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Odyssey Part IV: Orestes: Far From Home(r)
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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 · 22/07/2026
Decent bit of variety in top decorations, although a knob is weird. But it has an Attic "visor" and the neckguard is expected on an Attic. Frankenhelm perhaps?
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
But isn't that more likely an "Attic" style helmet?
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Christopher Miller @christopherjm.ft.com · 21/07/2026
BREAKING: Volodymyr Zelenskyy has chosen Mykhailo Drapatyi to be commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces and dismissed controversial general and close ally Oleksandr Syrsky in the biggest shake-up of the country’s military leadership since 2024. @financialtimes.com
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I was just wondering whether @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social might have discussed this piece in his Etruscan arms article. I believe there's at least one other Etruscan mirror with a Montefortino'd soldier, by the way.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
At this rate France may wish they were signing the Treaty of Bretigny again over this match.
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Shipwreck @shipwreck75.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Oil markets and Middle East producers appear to be aligning around a new reality: The Strait of Hormuz is no longer expected to return to a prewar norm.
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Jake Broe @realjakebroe.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Russians in Crimea are now paying 450 rubles per liter ($22 per gallon) to buy gasoline.
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
BREAKING: BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) - Homeland Security secretary said man killed by ICE in Maine was not the target of warrant, Maine Sen. Angus King says.
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
ἵνα παρρησιάσωμαι ὡς δεῖ με λαλῆσαι Contemplating obligations of frank speech
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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 · 11/07/2026
Gotta feed the beast
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Mbappe the Bastard/Conqueror twist on the General memes
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Battle of Stamford Bridge: key to the match is the play of the star from the Norse side, freshly returned from what some called a "mercenary" turn as star for Istanbul's "Varangians" club. #keepchopping
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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I heard it can be used for time travel
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