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I don't want to trash the fellow who did this interesting project, but I think he needs to rethink some of the skin-tone choices.

We have a lot of frescos which give us a good sense of what the Romans thought the range of Italian skin color, and it's mostly darker than this. 1/7
Like, *all* of this. Now, it's true that women in Roman fresco are often drawn with very light skin - that was part of the beauty standard (complete with whitening cosmetics). But men did not generally avoid tans (the sun in Italy not being avoidable) and are darker. 2/7
I'm also struck by Septimius Severus here. We have period artwork of him (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimius…) and he's way darker than this.

This fits into a broader problem where the popular imagination of Rome is defined by English BBC actors. That's not accurate. 3/7
And I know the question is "why does this matter" - but the study of the ancient Mediterranean has a real diversity problem and this is part of the reason - the Roman past gets literally white-washed and many students feel they cannot see themselves in it. 4/7
But they absolutely can, if we present it accurately!

Rome was a fusion society and a Mediterranean one at that; Romans had a wide range of skin-tones. Most of them had dark hair (though light hair was prized). And the empire was diverse by definition. 5/7
Septimius Severus was North African, with Levantine heritage - as in he openly claimed Punic descent through his mother's side. Hadrian's mother was Spanish. Elagabalus was Syrian on his mother's side and by upbringing.

Rome was not a 'white guy club.' 6/7
So again, not to trash this wonderful project - it is really impressive. But some of the assumptions need to be rethought. The reflexive tendency to think Rome in 50 CE looked like the cast of I Claudius needs to be pushed against. end/7
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Bret Devereaux
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Statues are back in the news; I suppose I ought say something about statues, because I'm a historian and people keep saying that statues are about 'remembering history.'

Folks, statues are not about remembrance, they are about commemoration; not teaching, but moralizing. 1/22
Let me explain that a bit. Our statue tradition comes from Egypt, by way of Greece; most of the Egyptian mega-statuary that compares to the statues we are talking about was state art. It was paid for by the state, and the state was the pharaoh.

Smaller statues might be....2/22
...used for the private commemoration of the deceased. But you can see what was important in the design of these sorts of statues. They are mostly formulaic and idealized (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushabti), often presenting a 'standard' face rather than the face of the deceased. 3/22
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Bret Devereaux
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I think anyone who reads the blog probably knows what I'm going to say, but:

Calling in elements of the military to deal with civil protest and civil unrest is a bad idea that is likely to lead to more violence, not less. 1/16
This is not what soldiers are trained to do. Yes, there is a riot control field manual (FM 3-19.15; you can find the 2005 version here: fas.org/irp/doddir/arm… ). Yes, they have some training. But this is not the primary mission they prepared for.

And as we've discussed... 2/16
...when you ask a force to do a mission outside of their core training and competence, things tend to go more than a little bit screwy.

Introducing military force into these sorts of circumstances generally tends to escalate, not calm down, the situation. 3/16
Read 17 tweets
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Bret Devereaux
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I find the current odd twitter debate over if PHD non-MDs should get the honorrific prefix 'doctor,' particularly in news or formal contexts really very telling.

First, 'doctor' meant 'teacher' (Latin, because ofc it is) long before it meant physician. It was ours first. 1/13
...it was only later that 'doctor' - which again, means something like 'teacher' or 'learned one' - was used of physicians, out of, one assumes, understandable respect for the learning required of a physician.

But what is most telling isn't the history of the term... 2/13
...but the modern values being suggested here. Dr. isn't the only honorific prefix common in English.

We of course also have honorific prefixes for religious figures (Rev., Fr., Pr., Rabbi, Ven., etc.). I don't hear any complaining when cleric gets a Rev. in his news chyron 3/13
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