From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, November 15, 2024
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Hey folks, Fireside this week! For the musing this week, I want to talk about, at least for a humanities field, what ‘research support’ from a university means and why it is valuable, b…
on Sat, 1AM
From acoup.blog
Collections: The Afterlife of the Roman Republic
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This week we are taking a look at what ended up being the ‘runner-up’ in the latest ACOUP Senate poll (we’ll also do the winner, “The Problem with Sci-Fi Body armor” b…
on Nov 8
From acoup.blog
Referenda ad Senatum: November 1, 2024: Ancient Weapons, Lost Works and Roman Spooky-Stuff!
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Welcome back! At last, the hiatus has ended and we are back to regular weekly posts. As we’ve done a few times before, this week I am breaking the hiatus by taking a chance to answer a few sh…
on Nov 1
From acoup.blog
New Acquisitions: 1933 and the Definition of Fascism
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Today we’re going to look at definitions of fascism and ask the question – you may have guessed – if Donald Trump is running for President as a fascist. Worry not, this isn’…
on Oct 26
From acoup.blog
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIIb:
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This is the second half of the third and final part of our three-part (I, IIa, IIb, IIIa) look at Paradox Interactives ancient grand strategy game, Imperator: Rome, which covers (inter alia) the pe…
on Aug 31
From acoup.blog
Collections: Why Are There No Empires in Age of Empires?
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At long last, Relic Entertainment has announced that Age of Empires 4 is coming. Strategy gamers rejoice! I am excited – I played the first one back in ’98 (I may be dating myself here)…
on Aug 28
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, August 16, 2024
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Fireside this week! I find I have my thoughts more or less together for the last part of the Imperator series, but I have not yet gotten them into a satisfying order – a common hazard of writ…
on Aug 24
From acoup.blog
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part I: Making It Personal
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This is the first post in a four-part (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV) series examining the historical assumptions of Crusader Kings III, a historical grand strategy game by Paradox Interactive set during th…
on Aug 24
From acoup.blog
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIIa: De Re Publica
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This is the first half of the third part of our three-part (I, IIa, IIb) look at Paradox Interactive’s ancient grand strategy game Imperator: Rome, running from the late fourth through the first ce…
on Aug 24
From acoup.blog
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIb: Built in a Day
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This is the second half of the second part of our three part (I, IIa) look at Paradox Interactive’s ancient grand strategy game Imperator: Rome which covers the broader Mediterranean and Sout…
on Aug 10
From acoup.blog
Collections: The Roman Dictatorship: How Did It Work? Did It Work?
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This week, we’re taking a break from the modern world to tackle the ‘runner up’ question from the first ACOUP Senate poll: How did the Roman dictatorship work and was it effective…
on Aug 2
From acoup.blog
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIa: Pops and Chains
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This is the first half of the second part of our three part look at Paradox Interactive’s Hellenistic-era grand strategy game Imperator: Rome. I had hoped to do this part in a single post, bu…
on Jul 27
From acoup.blog
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part I: Divisa in Partes Tres
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This is the first part of a three-part (if I can keep it) series, examining the historical assumptions of Imperator: Rome, a historical grand strategy game by Paradox Interactive, set during the ri…
on Jul 20
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, July 12, 2024
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Fireside this week! I had hoped to have the start of the Imperator Teaching Paradox series ready for this week, but it has been a bit stubborn and I do not want to derail my book writing/revising s…
on Jul 12
From acoup.blog
Collections: The Philosophy of Liberty – On Liberalism
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It is once again the week of July 4th and so, as is customary here, I am going to use this week’s post to talk about the United States or more correctly this week about the political philosop…
on Jul 7
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, June 28, 2024
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Fireside this week! My hope in terms of the upcoming schedule is to have my usual July 4th post next week (we’re discussing political philosophy in an election year, so I am sure everyone wil…
on Jun 28
From acoup.blog
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This is the third and final part of our three-part (I, II, III) look at how some ‘tribal’ or more correctly, non-state agrarian peoples – particularly the Celtiberians, Gauls and …
on Jun 26
From acoup.blog
Collections: How to Raise a Tribal Army in Pre-Roman Europe, Part II: Government Without States
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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) i…
on Jun 25
From acoup.blog
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For the next few posts (I, II, III), I want to take a look at how some ‘tribal’ peoples raised armies, in contrast to the way that ancient (or later) states raised armies. As moderns, w…
on Jun 22
From acoup.blog
Collections: Why No Roman Industrial Revolution?
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This week we are taking a look at the latest winner of the ACOUP Senate poll, which posed the question “Why didn’t the Roman Empire have an industrial revolution?” To answer that,…
on Jun 4
From acoup.blog
Collections: On the Reign of Alexander III of Macedon, the Great? Part II
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This is the second and final part of our look at Alexander III of Macedon (Part I), who you almost certainly know as Alexander the Great. Last week, we looked at the sources for Alexander’s l…
on May 25
From acoup.blog
Collections: On the Reign of Alexander III of Macedon, the Great? Part I
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This week, in part as a follow-on to our series on the contest between Hellenistic armies and Roman legions, I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about Alexander III, who you almost certainly k…
on May 21
From acoup.blog
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Fireside this week! Next week, with luck, I’ll have my ‘On the Reign of Alexander III of Macedon’ up as an addendum to our discussion of Hellenistic armies. But in the meantime, i…
on May 12
From acoup.blog
New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part I
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This series is now available in an audio format; the entire playlist can be listened to here. The following post is the first part of a three part series where we look at the question “how me…
on May 7
From acoup.blog
Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part V: Epilogue
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This is the fifth part of our four(ish) five part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb, IVc) look at how the Roman legions were able to overcome the Macedonian sarisa phalanx in the third and se…
on May 3
From acoup.blog
Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IVc: Perseus
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This is the third part of the fourth part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb) look at the how the Roman military system and its manipular legion were able to defeat the H…
on Apr 27
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, March 29, 2024 (On Roman Values)
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Fireside this week! Apologies for having two of these in a row, but as I noted last week, I’ve had some unexpected (but good) travel, which has made a bit of havoc in my schedule and I am sti…
on Apr 3
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, March 22, 2024
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Fireside this week! The ACOUP schedule might end up being a little unstable for the next few weeks as the coincidence of illness, the dense part of the teaching semester and unexpected travel are p…
on Mar 22
From acoup.blog
Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IVa: Philip V
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This is the first part of the fourth part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb) look at why the thing to use to beat a Macedonian sarisa phalanx is, in fact, a Roman legion in the th…
on Mar 15
From acoup.blog
Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IIIb: Pyrrhus
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This is the second part of the third part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa) look at the performance of the Roman army and its legions in the third and second century BC against the Hel…
on Mar 9
From acoup.blog
Meet a Historian: James Baillie on Digital Humanities and the Medieval Caucasus
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Note from the Editor: I’m excited to feature another guest post with you all! This week we have James Baillie discussing how digital humanities and prosopographic methods can be used to bette…
on Mar 5
From acoup.blog
Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IIIa: Peak Pike-Phalanx
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This is the first part of the third part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa) look at the triumph of the Roman legions in the third and second century over the Hellenistic armies of the h…
on Mar 3
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, February 23, 2024 (On the Military Failures of Fascism)
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Fireside this week! We’ll pick up looking at some of the successes of Hellenistic armies next week. Percy, having found a use for some of my books. And of course, less I miss a chance to note…
on Mar 1
From acoup.blog
Collections: Who Were ‘the Celts’ and How Did They (Some of Them) Fight?
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This week we’re going to take a bit of a detour to talk about how we should imagine the warriors of Gallic/Celtic armies were equipped and fought. I wanted to write about the topic because th…
on Feb 19
From acoup.blog
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Since the WordPress archives are far from the easiest thing to navigate and it can be difficult to find what you are looking for even though it is, I am putting together a couple of ‘index…
on Feb 11
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, February 2, 2024 (On City Building Games)
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Fireside this week! I have just finished up a draft of a chapter (to be in one of those multi-multi-author companion volumes) on how video games (particularly more abstract simulation games) depict…
on Feb 2
From acoup.blog
Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part Ib: Subjects of the Successors
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This is the second part of the first part of our four part look at the context between the Hellenistic army and its Macedonian phalanx and the Romans with their legions. Last week, we looked at the…
on Jan 26
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday: April 24, 2020
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Hey folks! Fireside this week, but next week, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the blog (the first post went up May 3rd) we’re diving into a look at Helm’s Deep in both the book…
on Jan 25
From acoup.blog
Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part Ia: Heirs of Alexander
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This week on the blog we are starting what is a planned four-part series looking at the twilight of Hellenistic warfare and the triumph of the Roman legion. Our core question is a really common one…
on Jan 23
From acoup.blog
Collections: Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part III: Spin Me Right Round…
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This post is also available in audio form, thanks to the efforts of our volunteer narrator. This is the third part of our four part (I, II, III, IVa, IVb) look at the production of textiles, partic…
on Jan 21
From acoup.blog
Collections: That Dothraki Horde, Part I: Barbarian Couture
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This series is now available in audio format. You can find the playlist here. This is the first part of a three four part (I, II, III, IV) look at the Dothraki, the fictional horse-borne nomads of …
on Jan 9
From acoup.blog
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So I stirred up a bit of conversation on Twitter last week when I noted that I had already been handed ChatGPT produced assignments. For those who are unaware, ChatGPT is an ‘AI’ chatbo…
on Jan 7
From acoup.blog
Collections: The Journey of the Roman Gladius and Other Swords
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This week I want to do something a little different and discuss the evolution and development of a specific weapon, in this case the famed Roman gladius, the sword of the legions. As we’re go…
on Jan 5
From acoup.blog
Collections: Punching Through Some Armor Myths
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This week, we’re going to talk about armor effectiveness, comparing the value of body-armor before gunpowder with what gets portrayed in fiction and broader pop culture. What does it take to …
on Jan 2
From acoup.blog
Collections: How Many People? Ancient Demography
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One of the first questions anyone asks about past societies is, ‘how many people were there?’ It is one of those basic bits of information and generally speaking those of us who teach t…
on Dec 25
From acoup.blog
Collections: Shield Walls and Spacing: Hollywood Mobs and Ancient Tactics
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This week, we’re going to take a look at a different aspect of ancient infantry tactics: how heavy infantry shield formations work. While I’ve framed this around ‘shield walls,…
on Dec 15
From acoup.blog
Collections: Roman Infantry Tactics: Why the Pilum and not a Spear?
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This week’s post is intended to answer a question which came up in response to the last post looking at the most common type of Mediterranean spear, which to put it simply is: what is up with…
on Nov 24
From acoup.blog
Collections: The Mediterranean Iron Omni-Spear
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This week, on a bit of a lark, we’re going to discuss the most common weapon, by far, in the Iron Age Mediterranean (focusing on the period from the 8th to the 1st centuries BC): the humble, …
on Nov 11, 2023
From acoup.blog
Collections: How to Roman Republic 101, Addenda: The Provinces
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This is the second and (in theory) last addendum to our series on Roman civic governance (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc, IV, V, A1). Having discussed how Rome handles those parts of Italy it controls but…
on Nov 3, 2023
From acoup.blog
Fireside Friday, October 27, 2023 (On Politics in Strategy)
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Fireside this week! Next week we’ll finally close out the addenda to the How to Roman Republic 101 series with a look at provincial governance, but I don’t think that will be done in ti…
on Oct 27, 2023