Hoplite phalanx reenactment

A fine reenactment of a hoplite phalanx by the Australian historical reenactment group Sidney Ancients. Kudos to them for their work.

Seleucid troops

A fine representation of Seleucid troops from a Russian journal as I can recall. Kudos to the creators. As I can see, from left to right there are a Seleucid Elite trooper

Sarissae upright: the Macedonian phalanx advancing on the battlefield

A nice detail from (I suppose) Oliver Stone’s film on the life of Alexander the Great. We mostly see on depictions, images, reconstructions etc, the Macedonian phalanx in battle contact with the enemy force, fighting it (e.g. in the well-known exquisite artwork by Johnny Shumate below).

Urban Plan of Emporion (Ampurias), Iberia

An urban plan of ancient Emporion (modern Ampurias) close to the northeastern edge of Spain.

Exploring Hadrian’s Athens

Republication from Following hadrian

 

Hadrian was a dedicated philhellene who admired Greek culture and did his best to be accepted and admired by the Greeks. He visited Greece three times when he was emperor (AD 124/5, 128/9 and 131/2) and he was especially fond of Athens. Pausanias writes that “the Emperor Hadrian generosity to his subjects was bestowed most of all on Athens” whilst Cassius Dio tells about Hadrian’s generosity in a passage referring to his stay: “He granted the Athenians large sums of money, an annual dole of grain, and the whole of Cephallenia”. The philhellenic emperor did all he could to raise Athens to a special position in the Roman Empire and hoped to restore the city to the greatness of its distant past.