#also only marginally related. but i have been desperately wanting to play call of cthulhu invictus recently

[fateology]

hiiii so i know u like classics/ancient roman stuff — how does one get into that? like what books do u recommend etc etc

HELLO and ok i’m so not an authority on this because i’m really just getting into the classical antiquity scene myself..but probably the start of my ancient rome madness was shakespeare’s julius caesar which i CANNOT stress enough slaps so hard. ***not like fully historically accurate i gather, but i love the drama and i’ve been delighted that actually most of roman politics WAS that dramatic in reality. cut bc i love to run my mouth

in terms of books i haven’t been reading that much because school term :-// but i read erich segal’s classical comedy anthology (aristophanes’ birds, menander’s samia, plautus’ menaechmi, terence’s eunuchus) recently because i wanted something free and easy and i liked the roman ones (plautus & terence)! recommend if you’d like something mindless (though ancient comedy does still tell u important stuff about society at the time) BUT much caution because as with a lot of classical antiquity the plays deal heavily with rape and misogyny (ancient comedian voice: watch how hard i can hate women!!!)

for poetry i’ve been in the middle of ovid’s metamorphoses (horace gregory’s translation) for a while but i like what i’ve read, like that the myths are split and small enough to uhh eat one at a time. ovid = snack real…….other stuff on my reading list are rubicon and attis by tom holland who other than being a critically acclaimed young british actor has also written some fantastically insightful historical non fiction …… this is a joke clap if you wish

what i HAVE been consuming however is loads of podcasts. they’re fantastic because i can put them on while i’m doing work..it’s really like SING MUSE! OF THE BATTLE OF PHILIPPI. come hither fair bard and play me some mother f*cking odes. in particular The Ancients which is on spotify and has loads of stuff on ancient history and the like; the guests on the show are all historians/classicists who’ve written about the content of their episode so if you like the topic you can do the further reading really conveniently. i recall that battle of philippi episode in particular made me very upset about cassius and the collapse of the roman republic….it’s a little scattered sometimes but i like it because it makes me feel like i’m piecing together gossip bit by bit. E.G. i think on one of the cicero episodes they mentioned his clodius feud and i, very unlearned at the time, went CLODIUS? OF THE CATULLUS BITTER BREAKUP POETRY FAME? WHO IS THIS GUY and i found other episodes of other podcasts about him and they just kept saying things. the scandals didn’t stop. #problematicfave #prettyboysupreme #legitimateplebeiantribune #gangleader

speaking of catullus YES also read catullus’ poetry. most of it you can find online and gay people on tumblr me included do translations like they’re being held at gunpoint (honestly maybe one of my favourite ways to consume translated works though it’s about the personal yet communal nature of it….sharing verses..sigh..) AND—re podcasts, i heard the cicero audio drama is really good, but it costs a bit to listen to and i haven’t figured out how debit cards work so that’s on hold for me rn, but i’m PLOTTING

ik you asked about ancient rome but ...read war music by christopher logue recently and ooohhh goodness. it’s great!!! i love fight scenes and the like so i suppose it appealed directly to me but it’s really cool in general (iliad books 16-19 translation/adaptation but guy didn’t speak greek at all! and it F*CKED! my idol). i’m in the middle of cold calls atm. i’d recommend the actual iliad but i can’t yet because i’m terrible, glossed it until i got to the river fight scene and haven’t gotten around to my reread, though i like caroline alexander’s translation a fair bit from what i remember. anne carson has loads of really good stuff but i’m biased bc autobiography of red cracked my head open and drank the meat the first time i read it. Float’s a great collection too and has the plus side of looking really pretty in a shelf. also gotta start the euripides play collection i got, eventually…! will update