Ancient Rome

This is a painting from 1887 by Henryk Siemiradzki entitled Choosing Between the Slave Girl and the Precious Vase:

The title, along with the fact that it is set in the era of Ancient Rome, should pretty much explain it… I love the expression of the bearded “salesman” in the middle.

Speaking of Ancient Rome… in an otherwise totally un-related way…

Dan Carlin, whose libertarian Common Sense podcast is linked on the right side of this here esteemed porn blog, has finally finished the last episode in his epic series on the fall of the Roman Republic.

It’s the sixth episode in the series. While the previous ones have clocked in at about 90 minutes, as is typical for Hardcore History episodes, this one is five-and-a-half hours long!!!

It’s a massive undertaking. I imagine that history fans everywhere have been eagerly anticipating it. I haven’t listened to it yet, since it just came out a few hours ago and I need to get a little high first… but I fully expect it to be the best episode of what is IMHO the best podcast ever. The summary is tantalizing:

In a massive finish to the “Dan Carlin version” of the fall of the Roman Republic, conspiracies, civil wars, beatniks of antiquity and a guy named Caesar figure prominently. Virtually everyone dies.

That’s the title of this painting by Paul Jamin from 1893:

History Porn Lesson After The Jump…

Or, What To Get The Woman Who Has Everything (So She Doesn’t Kill You Out Of Revenge):

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This is from the HBO series Rome. It came out a few years ago but I just got it on DVD recently. It was visually spectacular and totally engrossing. Not so historically accurate, though.