Armchair Classicist (Ryan Schaller)
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armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Armchair Classicist (Ryan Schaller)
@armchairclassicist.bsky.social
3K followers 4K following 2.2K posts
Ancient history and lit, photos of my cats. Writer, reader, fantasy, sci-fi, 🏳️‍🌈Ally, No🚫GenAI content. Lawyer by day.

Probably followed you for mentioning reading, history, or writing in your profile.

"Armchair Classicist: The Page" on FB
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Armchair Classicist (Ryan Schaller) @armchairclassicist.bsky.social · Sep 3
1/4
One of my posts earlier this week has been shared 500+ times over the past few days. So if you're looking at the page for the first time, here's a pin status explaining what this page is:

I am not a professional Classicist or historian. I am an enthusiastic amateur who works by day as a lawyer
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Diodorus was a Sicilian writing in Greek during the early years of the Roman Empire.

#Classics
📚💙
#justice #law
"The man who puts his hands to lawless and unjust deeds may never properly be considered wise." This quote is in white text over a black and white photo of a Greek style temple.
February 12, 2026 at 1:52 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
🙃😂
A photo of the giant stone statute of Jesus in Brazil with the text: Medusa: 1 Jesus: 0
February 12, 2026 at 1:25 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Chaucer may have knocked a pillow out of a chair to make a new sit spot.

#CatsOfBlueSky #Cats
Large gray cat on a pillow
February 12, 2026 at 12:20 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
I recently Christopher Priest's "Inverted World" and John Williams' "Stoner". Really enjoyed both and it reminded me of something I haven't thought of in a while:
the publishers of the New York Review of Books Classics

1/4 📚💙
The covers of "Inverted World" by Christopher Priest and "Stoner" by John Williams A stack of books, top to bottom: Ramon Del Valle-Inclan "Tyrant Banderas" Leonora Carrington "The Stone Door" Dino Buzzzati "the Stronghold" John Wyndham "The Chrysalids" John Williams "Butcher's Crossing" David R. Bunch "Moderan" John Williams "Augustus" Vladimir Sorokin "Ice Trilogy" Vladimir Sorokin "Telluria"
February 11, 2026 at 10:06 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Chaucer and Zora doing their best to look like serious employees today.

#CatsOfBlueSky
#Cats 🐈📷
#Chonky #Fluffy
Two large cats. On left, brown tortoiseshell Maine Coon and on right, chonky gray boy.
February 11, 2026 at 5:07 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Dion was a tyrant of the Greek city of Syracuse on the island of Sicily. Cornelius Nepo was a Roman writer of political and military biographies - similar but inferior to Plutarch.

#Classics #biography
On the fall of the tyrant Dion: "the hatred of absolute power and the wretched life of those who prefer to be feared rather than loved was readily apparent to all."
February 11, 2026 at 4:59 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
“The Three Fates” by Odilon Redon, 1900.
Redon was a French painter who lived from April 20, 1840 to July 6, 1916, considered a Symbolist and Post-Impressionist painter. The Fates, also known as the Moirae, were
1/2
#art #myth
A pai8nting of three women, each in a different colored robes, clustered together with faces unseeable, against a neutral color background.
February 11, 2026 at 1:54 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
I really need to find a 12 step program for book buying.
February 11, 2026 at 1:33 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
February 11, 2026 at 1:33 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Someone asked "day job" me to give a CLE (continuing legal education class) on Real Property Law without specifying my topic.

[cracks knuckles]

So if I give a CLE on "land title in the ancient world" then history books suddenly become a work related expense....? right? 🙃😂

#historybooks 📚💙
#law
Cover photo of a book titled "Judicial Decisions in the Ancient Near East"
February 10, 2026 at 4:49 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Older picture of a marginally smaller Zora.
🐈‍⬛📷
#CatsOfBlueSky
Brown tortoiseshell cat sitting on cat tower
February 9, 2026 at 8:18 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Some of my better work:
Face book memory from 5 years ago from poster Ryan Schaller: "Idea for a new period piece on Netflix: Mongol Empire era buddy comedy called 'Steppe Brothers.' "
February 9, 2026 at 3:02 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
More of the kitties for #Caturday eve
#CatsOfBlueSky
🐈📷
Two large cats next to one another, one gray and the other brown tortoiseshell. Both extremely fluffy.
February 7, 2026 at 2:00 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
I’m enjoying the first few chapters of Stoner by John Williams, but Chaucer is rather ironically sleeping through this novel about an English lit teacher.
📚💙 🐈‍⬛📷
The described book and a sleeping big gray cat.
February 6, 2026 at 1:21 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
The Greek poet-politician Solon was famous for his democratic reforms, but he also lived long enough to see that democracy fall to the tyrant Pisistratus:

“In this way public calamity comes to each man’s home, and the doors of the courtyard no longer can hold it back; over
#Classics #History
“In this way public calamity comes to each man’s home, and the doors of the courtyard no longer can hold it back; over the high wall it leaps, and assuredly it finds even one who flees to the innermost corner of the room. "This is the lesson that my spirit urges me to teach the Athenians, how many evils Unlawfulness brings about for the city, while Lawfulness puts all things into good order and makes them sound.” Solon Fragment 4, part 4, translated by Andrew M. Miller
February 5, 2026 at 10:31 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Zora
🐈📷
#CatsOfBlueSky
Brown tortoiseshell cat lying on a chest of drawers with books behind her.
February 5, 2026 at 4:39 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
1/2
I've been off on a Mongolian/Eurasian Steppe tangent with my reading lately. This is a description from the late 1800s-early 1900s of the ritual by which a newly married Buriat -
#folklore #ritual #history #Mongol
“Each Buriat, as soon as he marries and has a home. must set up in the field one of these posts or pillars and place images of his gods in it. The Shaman assists him. When a man dies the box containing his Ongons is removed from the pillar, carried to the forest and hung high up on a tree, and there it remains till it rots away. The person carrying the Ongon from the pillar to the forest must not look back; should he do so it would bring grave misfortune to the family of the dead man.” Jeremiah Curtain, The Mongols
February 5, 2026 at 4:27 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Archilochus is one of many Greek poets whose work only survives in fragments.

#poetry #classics
For such was the passion of love that coiled itself beneath my heart and poured thick mist across my eyes, robbing me of my tender senses."
February 5, 2026 at 2:57 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Started rereading some of Emerson's essays this week and forgot how fond I am of his work.
📚💙
"By a deeper apprehension, and not primarily by a painful acquisition of many manual skills, the artist attains the power of awakening other souls to a given activity."
February 5, 2026 at 1:02 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
My most recent fantasy read was The Fionavar Tapestry by @guygavrielkay.bsky.social in these beautiful editions by @grimoakpress.bsky.social 🪐📚💙 This short series may resonate with fans of myth. In addition to nods to LOTR and Narnia, Kay's world-building seems to have been deeply influenced 1/2
The three described books
February 4, 2026 at 8:40 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
February 2, 2026 at 7:50 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Morning cuddles vs morning glare.
A Tail of Two Kitties
🐈‍⬛📷 #CatsOfBlueSky
Brown tortoiseshell cat on lap Big gray cat on tower with perturbed look
February 2, 2026 at 3:17 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
I love the over-the-top prose used by the 19th century translators of folklore. I admit it can get old after a bit, but a small dose is delightful.

#folklore #prose 📚💙
The diver in the sea of Destiny extracted the pearl of my father’s life from the shell of his existence. All his property became mine; and having sat down in the depository of my father’s welfare and ease, I spread like him the carpet of the self-same employment and occupation. The tree of greediness for money had struck deep roots in my heart; and worldliness had obtained such a complete dominion over me that I was deprived once for all of the reins of self-control. In lucrative speculations and mercantile transactions I took dishonesty and fraud into my partnership; and, although I endeavoured to cover the reproving eye of conscience with the sleeve of prohibition, I was unable to cope with my insatiable greediness
February 1, 2026 at 7:29 PM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Shoutout to all of the websites that have let me keep the same password for 15+ years.
February 1, 2026 at 2:30 AM
armchairclassicist.bsky.social
Chaucer watching the consumption of chips and queso.
#Caturday 🐈📷
An adorable big gray fluffy cat with puppy dog eyes.
January 31, 2026 at 9:03 PM