... and then there's me, owner of an ancient Roman calendar with all the feasts, qualities of days, and quotes from Ovidius and Plinius throughout the year.

Pupienus antoninianus and Balbinus denarius

Co-emperors

from a recent visit to bath and cirencester

Presume, of course, that the future is uncertain, and Sulla’s victory, when you make this choice, is not foreordained.

Hello fellow History of Rome Devotees. After a 15 year absence from the classroom (teenage level) I'm going back to teach, and interested in what you found most engaging about Ancient Roman history as a beginning student (it is part of my history curriculum to teach). What engaged you, piqued your interest, intrigued you, seduced you? Was there content, a character, a picture, Pompeii, Caesar, the ancientness, the mythology - what FIRST dragged you in? I want to know so I can best plot the way to drag a new generation into the Classics. Many thanks.

'Et tu, Brutus' does sound like something that was added later in history.

I’ve read all about the Julio-Claudians and Republic and whatnot so I’m wondering if there are any good books on the Flavians as well as the Five good emperors (plus Commodus) or both.

The Rubicon River was historically significant as it was the boundary between Cisalpine Gaul and Italy, and crossing it with an army was illegal, making Caesar's action a declaration of war against the Roman state.

The phrase "Alea iacta est" (The die is cast) is attributed to Caesar as he made the decision to cross the Rubicon, indicating his commitment to a course of action that would lead to his eventual rise as dictator for life, fundamentally altering the Roman Republic.

I just finished this one, so I had an idea to make a drawing of our first Emperor of Rome when he was young and Octavian, I realized I had a saved pic for it so I did it.

So I heard about the AIMA prophesy

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIMA_prophecy

And looked it up a bit and can see that it was apparently taken quite seriously, but I can't see why. Where did it originate from and why did the emperors put any stock into it?

I thought of this question recently and when I looked it up the top result seemed to be The Battle of Cannae but I found that result to be odd.

Yes Cannae was a massive and scarring defeat for Rome, but Rome would field large armies later in it's history. In total the participants of Cannae were likely around 125,000-135,000, with 80,000-85,000 Romans. The Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE could have had over 200,000 Romans involved and Cape Ecnomus likely had over 200,000 participants as well. If "biggest" doesn't mean just pure numbers, wouldn't the most significant battle for Rome be Caesar at Pharsalus? His victory essentially ended any chance at the Republic continuing (yes the Republic was dying regardless but Caesar's victory snuffed out any chance at a revival imo).

Just curious what others think qualifies as the "biggest" battle in Roman History to be.

I've listened to The History of Rome podcast several times over the years, but it isn't reflective of the latest academic writing by now I'm sure, and I have the Outline History of the Ancient World books, but I was looking for books more specific to the wars with Carthage, just not sure where to begin.

Any decent history books to do with Carthage itself would also be appreciated!