Mark Humphries
@profmarkhumphries.bsky.social
Professor of Ancient History
More defaced images of Constantius II and Eudoxia from Friday's Being Human event in Cardiff.
November 15, 2025 at 1:01 PM
More defaced images of Constantius II and Eudoxia from Friday's Being Human event in Cardiff.
Really busy week, part two. I was invited by colleagues in Cardiff to participate in a Being Human Festival event on satire for high school pupils. I got them to deface images of Constantius II and Eudoxia in line with how those figures had been lampooned. The results were fabulous.
November 15, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Really busy week, part two. I was invited by colleagues in Cardiff to participate in a Being Human Festival event on satire for high school pupils. I got them to deface images of Constantius II and Eudoxia in line with how those figures had been lampooned. The results were fabulous.
Really busy week, part one: on Wednesday I participated in an online discussion of Hendrik Dey and Fabrizio Oppedisano's new book in Justinian's Legacy. Thanks to colleagues at Perugia for honouring me with the invitation.
November 15, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Really busy week, part one: on Wednesday I participated in an online discussion of Hendrik Dey and Fabrizio Oppedisano's new book in Justinian's Legacy. Thanks to colleagues at Perugia for honouring me with the invitation.
Pedagogical highlight of the week: (1) discussing Ammianus Marcellinus' account
of the death of Valentinian I, in which the emperor, in his fatal seizure, attempts to communicate by flailing his arms like a boxer; and (2) having one of the students voluntarily acting out what this looked like.
of the death of Valentinian I, in which the emperor, in his fatal seizure, attempts to communicate by flailing his arms like a boxer; and (2) having one of the students voluntarily acting out what this looked like.
November 7, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Pedagogical highlight of the week: (1) discussing Ammianus Marcellinus' account
of the death of Valentinian I, in which the emperor, in his fatal seizure, attempts to communicate by flailing his arms like a boxer; and (2) having one of the students voluntarily acting out what this looked like.
of the death of Valentinian I, in which the emperor, in his fatal seizure, attempts to communicate by flailing his arms like a boxer; and (2) having one of the students voluntarily acting out what this looked like.
And now for something completely different: more proofs! This time featuring: how I became a historian of the ancient world thanks to the combined effects of a trip to Egypt and growing up in Belfast and Dublin.
November 4, 2025 at 10:33 PM
And now for something completely different: more proofs! This time featuring: how I became a historian of the ancient world thanks to the combined effects of a trip to Egypt and growing up in Belfast and Dublin.
This is a terrific novel. The cadences of the language brought me back to a Belfast I left more than forty years ago.
October 10, 2025 at 7:48 AM
This is a terrific novel. The cadences of the language brought me back to a Belfast I left more than forty years ago.
All set for an orchestral concert for the first time in goodness knows how long. I used to go quite frequently to such events. I couldn't pass up a chance to listen to the mighty Seventh: it must be twenty years since last I heard it performed live.
October 3, 2025 at 6:00 PM
All set for an orchestral concert for the first time in goodness knows how long. I used to go quite frequently to such events. I couldn't pass up a chance to listen to the mighty Seventh: it must be twenty years since last I heard it performed live.
#readingcharitably Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, from the Swansea Oxfam Bookshop. A lyrical exploration of the meanings of humanity and existence. The looming presences of the Earth and the space station impressiveness not as much as the astronauts carrying all humankind's dreams and anxieties.
September 26, 2025 at 4:11 PM
#readingcharitably Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, from the Swansea Oxfam Bookshop. A lyrical exploration of the meanings of humanity and existence. The looming presences of the Earth and the space station impressiveness not as much as the astronauts carrying all humankind's dreams and anxieties.
In my lunch today, I found a happy chickpea with a very unconvincing comb over.
September 24, 2025 at 12:29 PM
In my lunch today, I found a happy chickpea with a very unconvincing comb over.
More proofs. This time for a review of a gem of a book.
September 24, 2025 at 8:19 AM
More proofs. This time for a review of a gem of a book.
Exciting new series from @livunipress.bsky.social , Translated Texts from Antiquity (TTA to join TTH and TTB) , launches with two excellent volumes on #pomponiusmela and #suetonius I'm very honoured to be involved in this new venture.
September 17, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Exciting new series from @livunipress.bsky.social , Translated Texts from Antiquity (TTA to join TTH and TTB) , launches with two excellent volumes on #pomponiusmela and #suetonius I'm very honoured to be involved in this new venture.
#readingcharitably I just finished Bernardine Evaristo's _Girl, Woman, Other_. (Purchased for a quid in the Swansea British Heart Foundation shop.) What a revelation of a book: a life affirming, celebration of a Britain enriched by multiculturalism and intersectionalities.
September 17, 2025 at 8:55 AM
#readingcharitably I just finished Bernardine Evaristo's _Girl, Woman, Other_. (Purchased for a quid in the Swansea British Heart Foundation shop.) What a revelation of a book: a life affirming, celebration of a Britain enriched by multiculturalism and intersectionalities.
Summer reading 2025, eclectic as ever. (Not shown: articles, typescripts, student drafts.)
September 17, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Summer reading 2025, eclectic as ever. (Not shown: articles, typescripts, student drafts.)
Hunting the (bitter and belligerent) legacy of antiquity in Place Vendôme, Paris.
September 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Hunting the (bitter and belligerent) legacy of antiquity in Place Vendôme, Paris.
Not only have I made the TTH book cover drawings into t-shirts, but today I wore one (Conference of Carthage 411) to visit its inspiration, Van Loos' Augustine disputing with the Donatists, Note Dame des Victoires, Paris @livunipress.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Not only have I made the TTH book cover drawings into t-shirts, but today I wore one (Conference of Carthage 411) to visit its inspiration, Van Loos' Augustine disputing with the Donatists, Note Dame des Victoires, Paris @livunipress.bsky.social
Congratulations to Dr Croman @croeuan.bsky.social
August 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Congratulations to Dr Croman @croeuan.bsky.social
Further adventures in wearable book covers: tie-dye Hormizd II #TTH @livunipress.bsky.social
August 6, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Further adventures in wearable book covers: tie-dye Hormizd II #TTH @livunipress.bsky.social
#readingcharitably A surprise purchase (from Oxfam Books in Swansea, naturally). I think Mario Vargas Llosa was the first "grown up" author I read for fun, with his "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter". This one gripped me from beginning to end.
August 5, 2025 at 1:13 PM
#readingcharitably A surprise purchase (from Oxfam Books in Swansea, naturally). I think Mario Vargas Llosa was the first "grown up" author I read for fun, with his "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter". This one gripped me from beginning to end.
Wearable book covers! I turned a few of my Translated Texts for Historians cover drawings for @livunipress.bsky.social into summer attire.
July 29, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Wearable book covers! I turned a few of my Translated Texts for Historians cover drawings for @livunipress.bsky.social into summer attire.
Celebrating 40 years of Translated Texts for Historians with @livunipress.bsky.social
July 9, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Celebrating 40 years of Translated Texts for Historians with @livunipress.bsky.social
With the team from @livunipress.bsky.social at the @imc-leeds.bsky.social
July 7, 2025 at 3:04 PM
With the team from @livunipress.bsky.social at the @imc-leeds.bsky.social
Thanks to the amazing team @livunipress.bsky.social for putting this together in honour of the 40th anniversary of Translated Texts for Historians. More details at www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
June 5, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Thanks to the amazing team @livunipress.bsky.social for putting this together in honour of the 40th anniversary of Translated Texts for Historians. More details at www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
My drawing of Gaza depicted in the eighth-century mosaic pavement from the church of St Stephen at Umm er-Rasas, Jordan. For the cover of Childers, Rapp, and Whitby (intro., trans., and comm.), Mark the Deacon: The Life of Porphyry of Gaza.
February 18, 2025 at 11:43 PM
My drawing of Gaza depicted in the eighth-century mosaic pavement from the church of St Stephen at Umm er-Rasas, Jordan. For the cover of Childers, Rapp, and Whitby (intro., trans., and comm.), Mark the Deacon: The Life of Porphyry of Gaza.