Michael J. Taylor

@drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social

2.5K followers 250 following 640 posts

Associate Professor, University at Albany SUNY
Greek and Roman History
PhD UC Berkeley

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Economics 30%

History 25%

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Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 23h

Not all of us have beaten Dark Souls Bret.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Oh yeah. Too bad there is the chink here, but presumably Septer[esmom]? Another "Howler"?

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Did convince Frank 1919 (often too credulous, although I have a soft spot for the guy who trained TRS Broughton and LR Taylor).

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Oh yeah, triresmos!

And Fay 1920 is not terribly impressed.

On triresmos: Prima facie, triresmos seems a genuinely archaic form and it has been eagerly exploited by morphologists. For all that, the form is probably a veritable howler.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

The Latin habit of adding "reme" to the number seems to be somewhat later development in Latin (quick L&S search suggests "quinquereme" first in Livy and Cicero, and "trireme" in Caesar and Nepos).

@sdecasien.bsky.social would know more about this than me.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

In Greek they are just called "Threes,", "Fives" etc,

"Threes" align both banks of oars and rowers per sweep....so presumably when they moved to "fives" (*probably* 2-2-1 rowers per sweep) they were counting rowers instead of banks.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Without question Rome had a small naval footprint prior to 264-the Antine rams on the rostra, the duumviri navales, the squadron in Tarentum, etc.--. So there's institutional no-how about how to build and operate warships. But the fleet construction program in 261/0 is still a major intensification.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Carthaginian naval supremacy pre-264 basically seems to be vaporware. Can't stop Agathocles invading Africa, can't stop the Romans from crossing the straights, and loses the first set of major fleet engagements to Rome between 260-255.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Rome has no major fleet until 264, but then suddenly builds one and instantly challenges Carthage on the water.

During the Second Punic War, Carthage has a significant fleet, but never bothers to challenge Roman naval superiority.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Absolutely. And Carthage never wants to make the trade-off really necessary to beat Rome, which would basically be incorporating Libyans into the state on a more equal footing ( @dominicmachado.bsky.social and I have some thoughts forthcoming)

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Also, the story Carthaginian power is quite meme-able

Big dog: Carthage fighting Rome, 264-201
Little whimpy dog: Carthage fighting Syracuse, 415-264

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

It seems to me the main problem is that Carthage only bothers to develop into a superpower in response to Rome (especially the final Barcid configuration), and by then it's too late.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

Seems like he gets paid because rich people like the way he's wrong....

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 3d

If you want a good summary of what we know about when various bits of Roman kit are showing up in Italy, @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social 's "Panoply and Identity During the Roman Republic" PBSR 88 (2020): 31-65 has a good rundown of the often scattered and difficult evidence.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 7d

Seems like something Princeton should teach?

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 7d

Since we're apparently debating the popularity of military history, the department I generally teach for probably fills close to 300 seats of military history each year.

It also has no tenure lines assigned to the field and no intention to assign any in the future.

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 7d

We don’t teach military history at Princeton.

For a while Jim McPherson and John Murrin did a great “war and society” course, but even then it was a seminar with a dozen students.

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 7d

I don’t know how things are at Harvard, where Hankins is, but I can tell you that military history is popular, but not uniquely so, at my public university.

Alan Allport @alanallport.bsky.social · 7d

90% of military history is about where the latrines are dug. You cannot make war if you have dysentery.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 10d

At least you got to keep the book, right…..?

a man in a suit is standing in a field of grass

ALT: a man in a suit is standing in a field of grass

media.tenor.com

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 12d

To what extent would illegally spending money constitute a crime (Fraud against the United States or the like)?

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Trevon D. Logan, Michael J. Taylor , and 2 more Anna O. Law, Trevon D. Logan, Michael J. Taylor, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Jesse R. Lasky

Justin Zimmerman @jztidecat.bsky.social · 13d

UAlbany, one of those, NY state universities, has been hovering around 4 percent tenure track Black faculty since ever. I am THE Black tenure track political scientists. These folks are just little liars.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 13d

You’ll never guess who else experienced ‘racism’ on the job market despite their unimpeachable academic credentials.

Naomi Wolf: I got pretty far along in the hiring process for a wonderful position teaching at a NY state university before a dean in the department told me I couldn’t go any further because I was white.

Reposted by Ben Barr, Rosemary A. Joyce, Lesley A. Hall , and 7 more Ben Barr, Rosemary A. Joyce, Lesley A. Hall, Trevon D. Logan, Julia Lynch, Michael J. Taylor, Sebastian Karcher, Meredith Farkas, Manisha Sinha, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 13d

You’ll never guess who else experienced ‘racism’ on the job market despite their unimpeachable academic credentials.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 13d

AI is just terrible at Roman stuff, in no small part because a lot of its training set seems to be 1950s Sword and Sandal epics.

One reason among many to never use AI!

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 13d

I’m increasingly uneasy about the flood of AI images on social media. They are mostly absurd and frustrating. They may sometimes be creative experiments, but the fact that so many users take them at face value says a lot about our collective loss of visual literacy.

www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 13d

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 14d

Yes. Disbanding ICE is the small-c conservative position at this point.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 14d

We call our family act T̶h̶e̶ ̶A̶r̶i̶s̶t̶o̶c̶r̶a̶t̶s̶ "The Crime-Fighters."

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 15d

Absolutely mandatory reading on the Republican Roman army.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 16d

Annual repost of my thread on Hasmonean military equipment. ]

Happy Hanukkah!

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · Dec 28

I celebrate Xmas by family tradition, but as a military historian of the Hellenistic (c. 300-100 BCE) Mediterranean, Hanukkah is the holiday that falls within my professional bailiwick.

So, a Hanukkah themed military history 🧵

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 16d

And they even have a foundational epic about a siege where it’s very clear no one knows how a siege actually works, except maybe Andromache.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 16d

Bad news, the Visigoths are also heretics.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 17d

😆

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