Matt Notarian

The Roman empire built 300,000 kilometres of roads: new study A new comprehensive map reveals the true scale of the ancient Roman road network – but it is still incomplete.

theconversation.com/the-roman-em...

‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network A high-resolution digital map nearly doubles the known length of the ancient road network.

'A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire. Combining historical records with modern mapping techniques, researchers mapped hundreds of thousands of kilometres of roads. The findings nearly double the known length of Roman roads.'

Wait. Did I get some kind of light up thing there? Maybe.

This makes me sad. Hopefully it’s being fixed up though given the construction material?

I was just telling this story after Ben got dragged out of Congress the other day

Does anyone know of a collection or resource with examples of op-eds comparing the US to Ancient Rome? Good or bad. Actually bad ones would be even better. I’m trying to come up with a course assignment but having trouble finding these even though I know I’ve read plenty over the last few years.

Almost ate the baby this year. Happy Mardi Gras day!

Just trying to imagine Churchill going to see FDR in 1940, cap in hand, and being publicly berated in the White House while being pushed into making a "peace deal" with Hitler.

Changing Labels in Esri Vector Basemaps Esri Vector Basemaps provide the flexibility to make custom changes to map labels on the map by quickly editing the JSON through our VTSE.

ESRI is updating their basemaps automatically to incorporate The Gulf of America starting tomorrow 2/20.
Unrelatedly, here's a workflow that you can use to manually edit your vector basemap labels: www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/...

Ancient MakerSpaces 2026: Proposal Submissions Ancient MakerSpaces showcases digital approaches to the study of the ancient world. Since 2017, Ancient MakerSpaces has served as a venue at the AIA/SCS Annual Meeting for scholars, librarians, and st...

CFP: Ancient MakerSpaces 2026. Deadline: March 14. Please spread the word! forms.gle/ZBdF36Y5ANgr...

AI stomped out the vestigial ember of motivation that used to pull me through the semester.

That’s my current struggle. We just discussed Polybius on the Roman constitution. Hard not to editorialize.

a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on

Just more auctoritas:

Thinking about my dad on what would have been his 88th birthday. I don’t remember why exactly, but at some point when I was in 6th or 7th grade he pulled his old college text and showed me the Greek alphabet in an appendix. I promptly memorized it for no good reason. Guess my path was set early.

Please come sooner so I have something to distract me from this dumpster fire of a country around me

Love this project as I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about urban neighborhoods in ancient cities. It would be really interesting to dig into this data and figure out *why* people chose the boundaries they did. Structural boundaries (streets, landmarks)? Social/cultural knowledge?

A horrific image of a someone who seems to have his hands tied behind his back. A big cat (the predator kind, not the overfed pet kind) has jumped up at him and is devouring his face. Blood splashes on the floor.

For Blue Monday we can't think of anything more appropriate than this charming depiction of a man getting his face eaten off by a leopard.

#MosaicMonday

A screenshot of Maggie Smith's "Good Bones" Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children. For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children. I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.

Poetry Foundation not fucking around with today's poem of the day
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/89897/...

Insert advertisement for a book rack featuring an illustration of the rack with some books on it. Text reads BOOKS THAT READ YOU. You've read books, now it's their turn. Five blank books will be shipped to you along with their home (book rack). Set them in the room you sleep. Do not touch the books. The books may make sounds. Do not open the books. Everyone wants to be in a book. IT IS THEIR TURN Do not open the books Listen to instructions Set up like this - no exceptions To order send an empty envelope with a return address to the address below and you shall receive the books. No questions. No charge. The books may bleed. Tell no one of the books: Paperback Paradise Books That Read You Offer 123 Skeleton Street Suite 69 Man Screaming, ND 45535-7175 The books will know if you tell.

books

Cerveteri - Mengarelli Tumulus - Download Free 3D model by MNotarian (@notarian) Captured in April 2024 with an iPhone 15 Pro using the Scaniverse app. 📍 Cerveteri, Lazio, Italy - Cerveteri - Mengarelli Tumulus - Download Free 3D model by MNotarian (@notarian)

Class prep gave me an excuse to look back at this awesome scan of the Mengarelli tumulus I captured at Cerveteri last April using my iPhone's LiDAR. skfb.ly/ptJRr

I can vividly remember dad taking me down to see our field level seats in the pouring rain. Most exciting and most disappointing childhood memory. In other words, baptism for a Mets fan.

No puncture wound. You must be confusing this with the time I stepped on a nail. But I did get harassed by John Guare while bleeding on the ground.

Actually it was a metal spike sticking out on a dirt path in a public park. And I broke my arm.

A snowy trail in the woods

A brisk 11 degree morning 6 miler on packed snow and ice to get the blood flowing and the beard frozen. And yes this post is entirely to troll @anotarian.bsky.social who doubted my insanity.

Pasta hand made by centenarian Sardinian nonnas has a standard deviation of .01 mm

His article on the suburbium of Rome was, if I’m not mistaken, the first in English on the subject and remains really influential, at least for the textual evidence.

Argh. I just checked and it turns out I never actually received it from him. It was a different file I was remembering. Sorry to get your hopes up!

Are you a GIS user? A friend once sent me a shapefile with the location of all the street phalluses. Not sure if they’re all in situ still. But I could dig that up if helpful!

Screenshot from Ben Schmidt's data visualization program showing student evaluations by gender for the term "smart" -- men across disciplines being called this at far higher rates than women. https://shorturl.at/To24L

Screenshot from Ben Schmidt's teaching eval analysis site, https://shorturl.at/To24L

Evaluation time! Don't forget to use @bschmidt.bsky.social's amazing tool to help your students see that these mechanisms of surveillance are fundamentally discriminatory and, as evidence of teaching quality, effectively useless!

shorturl.at/To24L