Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr Crom

@doccrom.bsky.social

Likely #OnThisDay - 24 October - in 14 BC Agrippina the Elder was born. One of the most significant women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in her own right and the mother of the emperor Gaius Caligula. 🏺

Image: RIC Gaius 13; British Museum (R.6330). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

A Roman aureus. Obverse: Head of Caligula, laureate, right; Reverse: Bust of Agrippina, draped, right; her hair is waved from brow downwards and knotted in a long plait at back; one lock falls loose down neck.

October 24, 2025 at 2:33 PM Everybody can reply

4 reposts 25 likes 1 saves

4 25

alabandine2.bsky.social

@alabandine2.bsky.social

"A Youth on Horseback," Julio-Claudian dynasty collection, British Museum, London. marble

October 14, 2025 at 2:51 PM Everybody can reply

2 reposts 13 likes 1 saves

2 13

Jason Baluyut

@jasonbaluyut.bsky.social

#FotoVorschlag
At the #Museum

They each felt something was missing, but when they met at the museum they felt complete. It was like they were made for each other.

#photography #statue #sculpture #metmuseum #nyc

Photo of two marble Roman sculptures on pedestals at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. At left is an armless, headless statue of a male youth, with one leg braced against a sculpted tree stump. At right is the sculpted head of a man. The lighting throws the shadow of the headless statue onto the tiled marble wall between the two artifacts.

Info from the museum placards:

Marble statue of the Diadoumenos (youth tying a fillet around his head)
Roman, imperial period, 1st-2nd century A.D.
Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 430 B.C. by Polykleitos

Marble head of a youth
Roman, probably Claudian period, ca. A.D. 41-54
Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 450 B.C. attributed to Polykleitos

October 13, 2025 at 11:26 AM Everybody can reply

14 likes

14

Ulla Rajala

@ullamr.bsky.social

The Roman Theatre at Faesulae (modern Fiesole, Italy) has a seating capacity of 2,600-3,250. It was began during the Augustan period (27 BC- AD 14), with the scene added during the Claudian period (AD 41-54) and renovations during Septimius Severus (AD 193-211). #RomanSiteSaturday

September 27, 2025 at 3:55 AM Everybody can reply

10 reposts 39 likes

10 39

Patch Zircher

@patrickzircher.bsky.social

Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.

"He strikes all things because he fears all things."
-- Claudian

September 24, 2025 at 10:32 PM Everybody can reply

2 reposts 35 likes 1 saves

1 2 35

Jeffrey Phillips

@11thjeff.bsky.social

I fear it won't be up to Vance, but a higher Peter.

But surely he would be a temperate Claudian, like Emperor Claudius who followed Caligula. Or whoever followed Claudius (it was probably fine)

September 10, 2025 at 7:50 PM Everybody can reply

8 likes

8

Anthony Majanlahti

@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social

#FrescoFriday takes us into a ruined #imperial #villa at #CasteldiGuido along the via #Aurelia outside #Rome. This room's #fresco work is 5 metres tall, and dates from the early C1 CE. The best-surviving part is the #frame at centre, a black background with a twisted #vine.

WALL FRESCO, C1 CE. PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME

This huge damaged fresco comes from an œcus in the long-lived villa called "delle Colonnacce" outside of Rome almost 17 km outside of the city walls along the via Aurelia at a place called Castel di Guido. It became a spacious villa where the emperor Antoninus Pius was born and where he died in 161 CE. These frescoes are made in the Third Style, with figural pictures, much faded, within frames. The work here dates from the early Julio-Claudian period, when the villa belonged to one L. Cælius, a magistrate during the reign of Tiberius. A fragmentary scene of Mars and Venus can be seen at left, and a deep cinnabar red panel matches it at right, but the really interesting part is at centre, a stylised doubled vine twisted into one, with an Eros climbing up it and leaves growing from it.

September 5, 2025 at 7:45 PM Everybody can reply

6 reposts 27 likes

2 6 27

Emma Southon

@emmasouthon.bsky.social

I actually can't do a proper alt text for this image because words cannot express how much of a tangled nightmare this attempt at the Julio Claudian family tree is

The most confusing family tree you've ever seen but worse. Imagine someone dropped a family tree and it got tangled up like wires in the bottom of a drawer

September 2, 2025 at 3:43 PM Everybody can reply

3 reposts 35 likes

4 3 35

Greg Jenner

@gregjenner.bsky.social

And, the conventional narrative is that Claudius’ invasion was technically a support mission to help a British king reclaim stolen lands — so, we get a sense of high-status diplomatic ties in the years between the Julian & Claudian benchmarks. Maybe British aristocracy could speak basic Latin?

August 29, 2025 at 7:55 PM Everybody can reply

15 likes

1 15

Dr Crom

@doccrom.bsky.social

The Image at the head of this thread is the 'Matsuri Yatai Phoenix' by Katsushika Hokusai, 1844.

Hokusai Museum Link - hokusai-kan.com/obuse-and-ho...

#LatinForTheDay #Claudian 🧵🏺

January 1, 2025 at 3:22 PM Everybody can reply

8 likes

8

Tony Keen

@tonykeen58.bsky.social

Also, to jump back several skeets, I think there's a false dichotomy between 'Romans' and 'Gaulish merchants'. A good number of those Gaulish merchants were Roman subjects, and may have thought of themselves as Romans as well as Gauls, increasingly so as we get closer to the Claudian invasion.

August 29, 2025 at 10:57 PM Everybody can reply

2 likes

2 2

Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー

@tomaashby.bsky.social

5/14 In the third chapter, Jamie Wheeler Cessna (Princeton) offers an innovative analysis of Sidney's use of classical Latin poetry and how it shapes his work - especially Lucan, but also Juvenal, Claudian, Horace, Virgil, and Seneca, as well as writers such as Livy and Tacitus.

Detail of text from Discourses: the poet ingeniously flattering a good emperor, said, that liberty was not more desirable, than to serve a gentle master; but still acknowledged that it was a service, distinct from, and contrary to liberty: and it had not been a handsome compliment, unless the evil of servitude were so extreme, that nothing but the virtue and goodness of the master could any way compensate or alleviate it."

September 17, 2025 at 10:50 AM Everybody can reply

1 likes

1 1

Kenji Hayakawa

@kenjihayakawa.com

One of the few essays dedicated to the legendary Claudian letters is Revilo Oliver's 1949 piece titled "The Claudian Letter Ⱶ", in which a meticulous analysis is presented to argue that phonetically, Ⱶ=ў.

The three letters, namely Ⱶ, Ↄ and Ⅎ, play a crucial role in chapter I.5 of Finnegans Wake.

The Claudian Letter I on JSTOR

Revilo P. Oliver, The Claudian Letter I, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1949), pp. 249-257

www.jstor.org

December 9, 2024 at 8:08 PM Everybody can reply

Shaun Manning

@fasterthanshaun.bsky.social

Considering we're a bookstore that rather wears its heart on its sleeve, we've taken much less aggro than I might have expected for our displays and events. But it looks like somebody did try to hide our copy of Peter Stothard's Palatine (about the early Julio-Claudian Roman emperors), so 🤷

April 25, 2024 at 9:27 PM Everybody can reply

1 likes

1

ioaqvin secvndvs magnvs

@joaquinsecundus.bsky.social

All in one picture:

Mini-family-tree (the whole Julio-Claudian tree is insane):

Caesar's wives:
Cornelia
Pompeia
Calpurnia

1st triunvirate:
Crassus
Pompey
Caesar

His sisters & daughter = Julia
Octavian (1st emperor) & Cleopatra are there too.

November 20, 2024 at 9:44 PM Everybody can reply

1 reposts

1 1

Dr. Christina Hotalen

@drchristinah.bsky.social

Can’t sleep, must post.

Head of a Julio-Claudian woman, possibly Livia
Roman, ~14-40 CE
Boston MFA

This head may represent Livia, wife of Augustus, as it was carved in a dark hardstone used for important figures in ancient Egypt. The extensive damage is consistent with purposeful defacement.

Carved in a dark hardstone used in ancient Egypt for important figures, this head may represent Livia, influential wife of the emperor Augustus. The youthful features and hairstyle parted in the fashion of Greek goddesses fit well in the visual program promoted by Augustus. Yet the simplification of the features and the large eyes, along with the type of stone, suggest that an Egyptian artist sculpted this portrait.
The extensive damage is consistent with purposeful defacement.

March 21, 2025 at 9:17 AM Everybody can reply

1 quotes 12 likes

12

Roman History

@romanhistory1.bsky.social

Roman Conquests: Britain

Get this book USA at amzn.to/3ORu8Mt
Get the book UK at amzn.to/3rwssfu
Dr Elliott draws on the latest research and archaeological evidence to present a new narrative of the conquest of Britain from Caesar to the Claudian invasion of 43 AD

Britain (Roman Conquests)

Britain (Roman Conquests) [Elliott, Simon] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Britain (Roman Conquests)

amzn.to

July 19, 2025 at 8:10 PM Everybody can reply

Ennius

@enniusredloeb.bsky.social

Authors included: Prudentius, Claudian, Ovid, Tibullus, Horace, Juvenal, Persius, Martial, Petronius, Virgil, Calpurnius, Terence, Sallust, Boethius, Cicero, Quintilian, Seneca, Plautus (Querolus), Macrobius, Aulus Gellius, Caesar, Sidonius, Cassiodorus, Suetonius

October 14, 2023 at 4:47 PM Everybody can reply

2 likes

1 2

Dr Crom

@doccrom.bsky.social

#ReliefWednesday - Relief showing a cloth merchant's shop: ca. Mid-1st Century AD. Originally part of a funerary monument, the scene shows the merchandise being presented to two toga-clad clients. #Archaeology #Art 🏺

Image: Uffizi Gallery, Florence (inv. 1914, 315). 📸 My Own

Dating to the Claudian or Neronian eras, the scene stands beneath a portico (or colonnade) supported by four Corinthian-capitalled columns. Two tunic-sporting figures hold the sides of a bolt of cloth, while two seated figures inspect the wares. Between the two groups stands the merchant himself, explaining his product to the customers. Behind the two customers stands another figure, likely a slave or attendant, who looks out of the scene with what seems a rather bored expression.

June 11, 2025 at 1:12 PM Everybody can reply

7 reposts 31 likes

7 31

Preston Fassel דָּוִד פשל 🎗️🕎 ✡️

@prestonfassel.bsky.social

The Claudian family had financial and political power going back to the dawn of Rome- their patriarch won the first road paving contracts. Publius came from a relatively unremarkable branch, though his father was a supporter of Sulla, the brutal dictator who briefly usurped control of Rome...

May 5, 2025 at 3:14 PM Everybody can reply

1

On This Day In

@chroniclebot.bsky.social

Drusus Caesar was the grandson by adoption and heir of the Roman emperor Tiberius, alongside his brother Nero. Born into the prominent Julio-Claudian dynasty, Drusus was the son of Tiberius' general and heir, Germanicus.

Drusus Caesar

Drusus Caesar was the grandson by adoption and heir of the Roman emperor Tiberius, alongside his brother Nero. Born into the prominent Julio-Claudian dynasty, Drusus was the son of Tiberius' general and heir, Germanicus.

en.wikipedia.org

October 18, 2025 at 12:53 AM Everybody can reply

1

gordondohertybooks.bsky.social

@gordondohertybooks.bsky.social

"What was it to be a Claudian, if not to step up and face the impossible?"
mybook.to/LegionaryX
#Roman #HistFic

April 11, 2025 at 9:54 AM Everybody can reply

1 likes

1

Mappa Dan

@mappadan.bsky.social

I had a conversation with Dr Pat about this, and she pointed me towards tigers in Roman mosaics. Maybe she gave me this link or I found it, but it's from before either Ambrose or Claudian wrote their stories: www.researchgate.net/figure/The-m...