Collections: How to Raise a Tribal Army in Pre-Roman Europe, Part II: Government Without States

This is the second part of our (planned) three part (I, II, III) look at how some 'tribal' or more correctly, non-state agrarian peoples raised armies to fight the Romans (and others) in the third through first centuries BC. Last time, we looked at the subsistence basis of these societies - they're agricultural - and … Continue reading Collections: How to Raise a Tribal Army in Pre-Roman Europe, Part II: Government Without States →

Collections: On the Reign of Cleopatra

This week on the blog we're going to talk about Cleopatra or to be more specific, we're going to talk about Cleopatra VII Philopator, who is the only Cleopatra you've likely ever heard of, but that 'seven' after he name should signal that she's not the only Cleopatra. One of the trends in scholarship over … Continue reading Collections: On the Reign of Cleopatra →

Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part III: Constructivisting a Kingdom

This is the third part of a four part series (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV) examining the historical assumptions behind the popular medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, made by Paradox Interactive. In the last part (in two sections), we discussed how CKIII attempts to model decentralized political power in the fragmented polities of … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part III: Constructivisting a Kingdom →

Fireside Friday: July 9, 2021

Fireside this week, but also some announcements! First, I have added an additional tier to the ACOUP Patreon for the patres et matres conscripti. The phrase patres conscripti was a somewhat fancy way to refer to the members of the Roman senate, literally the 'conscript fathers.' They were conscript in the sense that they were … Continue reading Fireside Friday: July 9, 2021 →