Elizabeth Heintges

Screenshot of Weather app forecast for Chicago

Two pairs of gloves were definitely a necessity on this morning’s dog walk (love you, Chicago, but was not prepared for the 2°F/-17°C, feels like -13°F/-25°C, mornings)

Poster for course HIST 21013 "Plunder, Theft, Forgery! Crime and Cultural Property in the Ancient Mediterranean and Today"; background image is a 16th c. engraving depicting part of a triumphal procession, with chariots holding war booty.

The idea for this course has been slowly percolating for *years*, and I am so happy to finally teach it at UChicago this fall!

Congrats to the newly minted Dr. @heintgestae.bsky.social! So proud of her 😊

We’re off to the Bay of Naples for some much needed R&R—with plenty of ancient sites and delectable eats @heintgestae.bsky.social

A bit bittersweet to vote in what may be my last NYC election today but hyped to rank Mamdani as my #1!

Photo in front of the Fontanone

AAR cortile

An inscribed lead sling bullet

Fellows’ portraits at the AAR bar

So incredibly happy to be back in Rome for the first time since 2020 (and what a wonderful conference this has been!)

welcome table: bags nametags programs.

Jetlag is inexplicable. Or maybe it is just my excitement for the events of today that robbed me of my sleep. Anyway. I'm buzzing with excitement for perhaps the most important conference I've ever co-hosted. It is both in person and online: aarome.org/events/coins...

Screenshot of a paragraph of text, reading: "Dahlmann’s comment on this, that ‘Welch andere Lösungen man auch immer ausdenken mag, es erscheint geraten, auf diese zu verzichten’, deserves to be considered for the De Quincey Prize for Fearless Understatement. (‘I do affirm, and always shall (let what will come of it), that murder is an improper line of conduct, highly improper; and I do not stick to assert, that any man who deals in murder, must have very incorrect ways of thinking, and truly inaccurate principles.’)”

Amusing tidbit du jour (from E.J. Kenney's 1978 review of H. Dahlmann (1975), 'Cornelius Severus')

Riverside Park in the snow

V. glad we decided to flee DC/depressing inauguration chaos this weekend for a peaceful respite back home in NYC

Oh goodness, no!

archaeological drawings of Glandes

There are SLING BULLETS with FASCES. I'm losing my mind. This is so damn cool. Also, Sertorius was never elected consul, but that doesn't stop him being proconsul!
doi.org/10.1017/S104...

A very large drink next to a normal sized drink at a bar.

Made the mistake of agreeing to the “big” sbagliato at our favorite Italian place in the neighborhood. Happy snow day from DC!

Thanks! I think I had come across it at one point, but I definitely need to spend some more time with the Sertorian material — it’s so cool!

Working on a chapter for publication: The min amount of beeswax required to make five "ten" rams for Antony/Cleopatra's fleet is around 1,274 kg. This is 36.4% of the total amount of beeswax needed (~3,500 kg) to produce 200 rams for the Egadi fleet. Assuming no reuse of beeswax. Damn.

Post Conference Reflections Skip to the second half of this post if you just want notes on actual scholarly stuff. Most of this at the top is about the meta-experience of conferencing, but it does contain links to earlier pos…

Good morning! Here's my last AIA/SCS post. Earlier Post in thread. 1/ livyarrow.org/2025/01/06/p...

Thanks so much for coming to my paper (and for these incredibly kind words—it means a lot)! Re: the dress of the slingers on the Ascoli Piceno relief, I remember reading sthg discussing it as influenced by representations of gladiators? Can try to track that down in my Zotero if of interest!

3 people seated together at dinner & smiling at the camera

Am especially grateful for the AIA/SCS reunion with my two amazing friends, @asharpless.bsky.social and Mev! (h/t @caeliambulator.bsky.social for snapping this pic, since I basically forgot to take photos all weekend)

Haha indeed! (it was great to finally meet you!)

Oh no!!! Hope they find it!

(Forgot alt text (oops!): pile of 5 books, titles including “Dirae: A Poem from the Appendix Vergiliana”, “Poetics of the First Punic War”, 2 vols of Shackleton Bailey’s Cicero ad Fam, and “Comedy and the Rise of Rome”)

The obligatory #AIASCS book haul, feat. some oldies but goodies and a couple of newer things I’m eager to dive into! (Many more new books that I wished I could buy, but will resign myself to being the first person to check them out from the library!)

Excellent news!!

Had such a fun time giving my paper on late Republican sling bullets & communication earlier today at the AIA/SCS - fantastic Qs & just great energy/interest all around. My last in-person SCS was way back in 2020 (!!), and it’s just been lovely to see/catch up with old friends & meet new folks!

Congrats!!! 🎉🎉🎉

More Thucydides today, this time the Mytilenean debate. We also discussed Paula Arnold’s “The Persuasive Style of Debates in Direct Speech in Thucydides” (Hermes 120, 1992). She makes a compelling case for why the speeches he puts in the mouths of historical actors are so tricky but worth reading 🧵

Them: Don't spend too much time on teaching. Focus on research.
Me:

A section of a letter: “This sounds like little, but means much, for as I said, the reading of old mss. takes up the best part of two days, at least it does at present, for the subject is quite new to me, and the handwriting of the old monks of a thousand years ago is not very legible according to our modern ideas. I can read your handwriting with the greatest ease now. Voila the benefit of classical study!”

The pains and gains of paleography, per George N. Olcott, writing to his sister about his coursework during his first term as a student at the American School of Classical Studies in Rome (now the AAR), on November 20, 1896

Thanks!

Would love to be added, if possible!

What are your election night beverages of choice tonight? Was a bit too anxious to go watch out at a neighborhood bar with the inevitable crowds of staffers/lobbyists so have kicked things off here at home in DC with a martini (plus NBC’s “Kornacki cam” in the background)