A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
Hey folks! Fireside this week; next week we'll be back to seperating out the components of Carthaginian armies, looking at the real backbone of those armies, which are Carthage's North African subjects. Ollie (left) looking shocked and Percy (right) looking annoyed that their Itty Bitty Kitteh Committee has been interrupted by a photo-op. But for … Continue reading Fireside Friday, April 17, 2026
This is the first part of a series looking at the structure of the Carthaginian army. Although Carthage has an (unfair!) reputation for being a country of "peaceful merchants who tended to avoid wars," Carthage was, I will argue, without question the second greatest military power the Mediterranean produced - eclipsed only by Rome. If … Continue reading Collections: Raising Carthaginian Armies, Part I: Finding Carthaginians
This week we're going to look a specific piece of early Roman military equipment, the humble bronze pectoral, which it turns out is surprisingly tricky for us to confidently reconstruct, in part because the period of its use that most interests us (the run from c. 264 to c. 146 where Rome is winning its … Continue reading Collections: Reconstructing the Roman Pectoral