Tom Gavin π§
@tomgavin.bsky.social
Studying DPhil in Ancient History at Uni of Oxford | Roman Asia, Numismatics, Post-Classical Polis | Butter lover (he/him)
I reckon I can force a student to write one for November...
December 29, 2025 at 10:39 AM
I reckon I can force a student to write one for November...
One of the people I always thought should have a Substack actually now has one - very much worth a follow.
December 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
One of the people I always thought should have a Substack actually now has one - very much worth a follow.
Reposted by Tom Gavin π§
My first substack post can be found here: open.substack.com/pub/astrocla...
dic, age, frigoribus quare novus incipit annus, qui melius per ver incipiendus erat?
First musings, on the old and the new year
open.substack.com
December 28, 2025 at 7:03 PM
My first substack post can be found here: open.substack.com/pub/astrocla...
(I also very much enjoyed this)
December 28, 2025 at 8:16 PM
(I also very much enjoyed this)
Club where we read Ovid's Fasti as 2026 progresses?
December 28, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Club where we read Ovid's Fasti as 2026 progresses?
Reposted by Tom Gavin π§
#CFP plug for this exciting annual symposium on gender and/or otherness in creative writing or pre-modern drama. Having attended last year I can confirm firsthand what a lovely bunch of people the GOTH team are!
fass.open.ac.uk/research/cen...
fass.open.ac.uk/research/cen...
The Open University
The 6th Annual GOTH Symposium welcomes scholars from within and outside The Open University for productive interdisciplinary discussion and debate. The Program Committee invites proposals for presenta...
fass.open.ac.uk
December 4, 2025 at 10:17 AM
#CFP plug for this exciting annual symposium on gender and/or otherness in creative writing or pre-modern drama. Having attended last year I can confirm firsthand what a lovely bunch of people the GOTH team are!
fass.open.ac.uk/research/cen...
fass.open.ac.uk/research/cen...
I learnt a lot from this, including which early modern nation was associated with butter consumption. It's none of the ones you think.
Wonderful surprise to see that Shakespeare Survey 78 is now out in the world, including a piece by yours truly on inter-English conflict in The Merry Wives of Windsor that I am actually quite proud of!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...
βHereβs Companyβ: Fractured Englishness and Conflicted Communities in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V - Shakespeare Survey 78
Shakespeare Survey 78 - October 2025
www.cambridge.org
October 14, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I learnt a lot from this, including which early modern nation was associated with butter consumption. It's none of the ones you think.
Reposted by Tom Gavin π§
Wonderful surprise to see that Shakespeare Survey 78 is now out in the world, including a piece by yours truly on inter-English conflict in The Merry Wives of Windsor that I am actually quite proud of!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...
βHereβs Companyβ: Fractured Englishness and Conflicted Communities in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V - Shakespeare Survey 78
Shakespeare Survey 78 - October 2025
www.cambridge.org
October 14, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Wonderful surprise to see that Shakespeare Survey 78 is now out in the world, including a piece by yours truly on inter-English conflict in The Merry Wives of Windsor that I am actually quite proud of!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...
Always strive to have the confidence of Apollonius of Tyana in writing to Vespasian after he had the temerity to demand Greece pay taxes.
August 19, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Always strive to have the confidence of Apollonius of Tyana in writing to Vespasian after he had the temerity to demand Greece pay taxes.
Adding this as the epigram to the doctoral thesis
July 9, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Adding this as the epigram to the doctoral thesis
Reposted by Tom Gavin π§
Many thanks to Dr Francesca Beretta for organising last night's Classics School Lockdown Translations Unlocked event. We heard creative translations of Plautus, Ovid, Lucan, Rabelais, Huysmans, Pavese, Borges, Suskind, Ritsos, and Goldman. We were joined by VIP guests Michael Hall and Emily Hayes.
June 17, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Many thanks to Dr Francesca Beretta for organising last night's Classics School Lockdown Translations Unlocked event. We heard creative translations of Plautus, Ovid, Lucan, Rabelais, Huysmans, Pavese, Borges, Suskind, Ritsos, and Goldman. We were joined by VIP guests Michael Hall and Emily Hayes.
I've been studying Roman history for almost a decade, and it's only now that I've come across the claim that Roman general and dictator L. Cornelius Sulla had only one testicle (Dig. 49.16.4).
June 2, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I've been studying Roman history for almost a decade, and it's only now that I've come across the claim that Roman general and dictator L. Cornelius Sulla had only one testicle (Dig. 49.16.4).
Reposted by Tom Gavin π§
*Such* an enjoyable weekend after so much preparation, hosting New Voices on the Polis here in Oxford
So grateful to our excellent speakers, to the inimitable @nakhthor.bsky.social, and to my fellow organisers for making this all possible
And now: an early night and a lie-in, I think
So grateful to our excellent speakers, to the inimitable @nakhthor.bsky.social, and to my fellow organisers for making this all possible
And now: an early night and a lie-in, I think
May 18, 2025 at 7:24 PM
*Such* an enjoyable weekend after so much preparation, hosting New Voices on the Polis here in Oxford
So grateful to our excellent speakers, to the inimitable @nakhthor.bsky.social, and to my fellow organisers for making this all possible
And now: an early night and a lie-in, I think
So grateful to our excellent speakers, to the inimitable @nakhthor.bsky.social, and to my fellow organisers for making this all possible
And now: an early night and a lie-in, I think
Reposted by Tom Gavin π§
Tonight was the termly BNC-STA Classics Research Symposium. Many thanks to Scott Arcenas and Tom Gavin for very exciting papers on Stasis and Economic Growth in Classical Greece and on Koina and Cooperation between the Greek Poleis of Asia Minor.
March 3, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Tonight was the termly BNC-STA Classics Research Symposium. Many thanks to Scott Arcenas and Tom Gavin for very exciting papers on Stasis and Economic Growth in Classical Greece and on Koina and Cooperation between the Greek Poleis of Asia Minor.
Also note:
Good, upstanding Brit - pencil
Bad, no doubt loutish American - pen
Good, upstanding Brit - pencil
Bad, no doubt loutish American - pen
February 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Also note:
Good, upstanding Brit - pencil
Bad, no doubt loutish American - pen
Good, upstanding Brit - pencil
Bad, no doubt loutish American - pen
Ordinarily I despise people who write in library books - I will make an exception here.
February 24, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Ordinarily I despise people who write in library books - I will make an exception here.
Short but (in my opinion) fun note on plague, kissing, and Aelius Aristides by me in here - enjoyable merely for the question of ancient 'social distancing' if nothing else!
New issue of Phoenix Vol. 78, Nos. 1-2 (2024) muse.jhu.edu/issue/54238 @projectmuse.bsky.social @cacscec.bsky.social @phoenixjournal.bsky.social @tomgavin.bsky.social
February 10, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Short but (in my opinion) fun note on plague, kissing, and Aelius Aristides by me in here - enjoyable merely for the question of ancient 'social distancing' if nothing else!
Reposted by Tom Gavin π§
come along for some excellent seminars this term, all either online or in hybrid format! especially excited for this week's paper given by @brendankanect.bsky.social!
The programme for this term's Celtic Seminar with @yganolfangeltaidd.bsky.social is now out. Join us for our first session next Thursday with an online talk by @brendankanect.bsky.social on Irish bardic poetry.
January 20, 2025 at 11:21 AM
come along for some excellent seminars this term, all either online or in hybrid format! especially excited for this week's paper given by @brendankanect.bsky.social!
Reposted by Tom Gavin π§
Applications are now OPEN for 2025 UNIQ+ postgraduate research internships at Oxford University. Find out more about UNIQ+ open to UK undergraduates from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds (and spot the Greek vases opportunity!) β apply by 19/02/2025: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g...
What is a UNIQ+ Research Internship? | University of Oxford
What is UNIQ+?UNIQ+ Research Internships are designed to provide students from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds who are ordinarily resident in the UK with the opportunity to experience
www.ox.ac.uk
January 15, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Applications are now OPEN for 2025 UNIQ+ postgraduate research internships at Oxford University. Find out more about UNIQ+ open to UK undergraduates from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds (and spot the Greek vases opportunity!) β apply by 19/02/2025: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g...
The Google Maps page for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre giving some real wisdom.
January 17, 2025 at 7:39 PM
The Google Maps page for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre giving some real wisdom.
Some really solid work in one of the Oxford Classics Faculty basement rooms.
December 13, 2024 at 2:24 PM
Some really solid work in one of the Oxford Classics Faculty basement rooms.
Nah I need it to be a dog and dolphin just going ham on each other.
December 13, 2024 at 9:35 AM
Nah I need it to be a dog and dolphin just going ham on each other.
Chunkage is an important metric in the evaluation process.
December 12, 2024 at 9:01 AM
Chunkage is an important metric in the evaluation process.
Day 12: 4 Fruits. The name is a lie. This was one fruit. This was just strawberry. A good strawberry but we have to demand more. Inklings of other flavours but not substantial at all. 6/10.
Day 11: Mango, Raspberry, Lime. Just all raspberry, no lime at all, very little mango. Even eating a chunk of mango gave no mango taste. Not bad tasting but ill conceived. 5/10.
Day 10: Caramel with Madagascan Vanilla. The bourgeois decadence of eating caramel for breakfast was going to get this one far, but this was just absolutely delightful; the vanilla flavour is natural and comes in strong. Very much canelΓ© vibes. 10/10.
December 12, 2024 at 8:50 AM
Day 12: 4 Fruits. The name is a lie. This was one fruit. This was just strawberry. A good strawberry but we have to demand more. Inklings of other flavours but not substantial at all. 6/10.
Day 11: Mango, Raspberry, Lime. Just all raspberry, no lime at all, very little mango. Even eating a chunk of mango gave no mango taste. Not bad tasting but ill conceived. 5/10.
Day 10: Caramel with Madagascan Vanilla. The bourgeois decadence of eating caramel for breakfast was going to get this one far, but this was just absolutely delightful; the vanilla flavour is natural and comes in strong. Very much canelΓ© vibes. 10/10.
Day 9: Blueberry and Maple Syrup. Really surprising here, nicely acidic and fresh. Maple flavour actually comes through, big blueberry pancake vibes. Actual chunks of blueberry really put this over the top. There's a little room for improvement but we love to see a creative risk. 8/10.
December 12, 2024 at 8:48 AM
Day 11: Mango, Raspberry, Lime. Just all raspberry, no lime at all, very little mango. Even eating a chunk of mango gave no mango taste. Not bad tasting but ill conceived. 5/10.