Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
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paregorios.bsky.social
Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
@paregorios.bsky.social
Roman Historian and Human Digitalist. Works for NYU's https://isaw.nyu.edu, but lives near Huntsville, Alabama. Editor/PI of the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places (https://pleiades.stoa.org).

Primary social account: https://hcommons.social/@paregorios/
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
We are doing @douglassday.bsky.social day with cake 🎂 and digital transcription! And of course a virtual visit from @profgabrielle.bsky.social.
February 13, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Since Monday, the #pleiadesgazetteer editorial college has published 3 new and 251 updated place resources, reflecting the work of nine people. The usual Monday blog post will summarize a full week's worth of such work, but meantime here's a #sneakpeek at one […]

[Original post on hcommons.social]
February 13, 2026 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Bring back calling down the wrath of the gods upon any who would do harm to libraries

“Whoever reveres Anu, Ellil and Ea shall not take it away, shall not deliberately let it be lost... Whoever takes it away, may Adad and Sala take him away.”

medium.com/@nyulibrarie...
Protective Colophons to RFID Tags
A Brief History Of Library Security
medium.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Send us your DCA2027 abstracts! Can’t wait to seeing what you all are working on…
Reminder that the SCS2027 Digital Classics Association panel CFP on "Experimental Contexts for Digital Classics" is out!

Send us your abstract by next Friday 2/20...

classicalstudies.org/annual-meeti...
February 13, 2026 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Living in such a crazy timeline that something like the Historia Augusta feels like a credible, nuanced source.
"I'm not scared of a germ... I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats."
This is a direct quote from the secretary of Health and Human Services. I lack words to describe how unhinged it is to have this person dictating healthcare policy for 350 million people.
news.sky.com/story/robert...
Robert F Kennedy Jr admits he used to 'snort cocaine off toilet seats'
The US health secretary made the confession to podcaster Theo Von during an episode of his show, This Past Weekend, as he opened up about his past drug use.
news.sky.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
lictors
interesting that these people — and fellow travelers like bari weiss — insist on large, expensive security details. they are status markers, i suppose.
“.. using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought ..”

@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...
February 13, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
UoL EpiDoc Study Group met this morning. Things we're planning for the next few weeks:
- marking up an inscription in #EpiDoc and Wikidata, compare the possibilities/affordances
- mark up a notebook page and an epigraphic edition, discuss differences
- do EpiDoc & epigraphy simultaneously
#TEIFriday
February 13, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
For those of you keeping score at home, the actual cut to the Post newsroom was 45%, not the widely reported one third. Remaining journalists are a bit over 400, down from around 1100 four years ago and 580 when Bezos bought the place.
February 12, 2026 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Happy birthday, Frederick Douglass! @douglassday.bsky.social celebrations start at 11 pm CT / 12 pm ET in the History Department here at Iowa. Come on over! douglassday.org
February 13, 2026 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Judge Boasberg has ordered the administration to either return to the US or afford the opportunity to proceed in court from abroad, whichever they prefer, men removed from the country without due process. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 12, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Breaking WSJ:

The highly classified whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Gabbard Whistleblower Complaint Based on Intercepted Conversation About Jared Kushner
The substance of the conversation, which covered in part issues related to Iran, isn’t known.
www.wsj.com
February 12, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
As we dig into this scandal, can we revisit the question about why the president's son-in-law, who has no formal role in this administration, keeps showing up at high-level negotiations with actual world leaders?
Breaking WSJ:

The highly classified whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Gabbard Whistleblower Complaint Based on Intercepted Conversation About Jared Kushner
The substance of the conversation, which covered in part issues related to Iran, isn’t known.
www.wsj.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
This was a chilling, scary read. "...the institute said it “particularly welcomes” projects that align with President Donald Trump’s vision for America...The agency also points to an executive order...and one titled Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again." First the NEH and now the IMLS.
Grant Guidelines for Libraries and Museums Take “Chilling” Political Turn Under Trump
Former Institute of Museum and Library Services leaders from both political parties expressed concern that the new funding guidelines could encourage a more constrained or distorted view of American h...
www.propublica.org
February 12, 2026 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
under questioning by Rand Paul, ICE officials confirm that yelling at officers is not assault and recording officers is not a crime
February 12, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
A Reuters photographer captured this image of a page from Pam Bondi's "burn book," which she used to counter any questions from Democratic lawmakers during an unhinged hearing today.

It looks like the DOJ monitored members of Congress’s searches of the unredacted Epstein files.

Just wow.
February 11, 2026 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Let's be very clear here - this isn't "sorting by ID cards" or whatever; it's sorting by color of skin and appearance.
More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news
February 12, 2026 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
The Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies is looking to strengthen and extend the networks and scholarly expertise available to the journal by establishing an Emerging Editors Board. Read about it here: academic.oup.com/bics/pages/c...
Call for Emerging Editors Board Members
Closing date for expressions of interest: 2 March 2026
academic.oup.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
The so-called Save America Act will force 21 million American citizens to produce passports or birth certificates just to register to vote. Most do not have them ready. Turning paperwork into a barrier is a poll tax by another name. #HandsOffHerVote social.demcast.com/s/L9X3k1fQ
Contact Your MOC
social.demcast.com
February 11, 2026 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Members of Congress reviewing the Epstein files appear to have been surveilled by DOJ. @jayapal.house.gov learned about it shortly before we spoke last night & explains what’s happening here. joycevance.substack.com/p/my-convers...
My Conversation with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
Pam Bondi's Oversight Hearing and the Epstein Survivors
joycevance.substack.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Way-hey! After concerted local pushback, New Jersey company decides not to contract with ICE:

"The contract with ICE will not move forward, a Holman spokesperson told Patch.

"I have been informed that we declined that particular body of work," the spokesperson said...

patch.com/new-jersey/c...
February 12, 2026 at 1:07 AM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
For all the evil that gets done legislatively and judicially, there’s something to be said about the complicity of regular people who are all too willing to be “overly cautious.”
February 12, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
I just published v0.1.0 of tiny.iiif 🚀 - the first official release of my new IIIF server!

• Publish images as IIIF instantly
• Organize images with simple drag+drop
• Image Service + Presentation manifests + user-friendly GUI all in one package

Available now!
github.com/rsimon/tiny-...
February 12, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Every photo from Minneapolis looks like this. Cops decked out with guns and full tac gear facing off against people in bathrobes, parkas, and sweatpants armed only with whistles and cell phones.

Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.
February 11, 2026 at 11:50 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Harrowing thread by an immigration attorney describing DHS’s cruelty and contempt for the law
So it’s a race: how quickly can a person’s family realize they were snatched and find a lawyer, and how quickly can that lawyer get a habeas petition of file? And is that faster than ICE can load the detainee on a plane to Texas?

It’s exhausting and terrifying. It can be life and death.

18/
February 12, 2026 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Tom "Darth Tullius" Elliott
Court battle over surveillance footage at the Broadview ICE detention center reaches new levels of kafkaesque absurdity: The DOJ claimed it *couldn't afford* hard drives to put video footage on. Plaintiffs bought THE US GOVERNMENT hard drives. ICE "lost" them.

www.404media.co/government-l...
Government Loses Hard Drives It Was Supposed to Put ICE Detention Center Footage On
A Kafkaesque saga in which the government has failed to produce critical video footage has reached new levels of absurdity.
www.404media.co
February 11, 2026 at 6:09 PM