Changes, Plans and New Formats!

"Let us go where the signs of the gods and the injustice of our enemies call us." He declared. "The die is cast!"

A Roman Art Lover, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1870

One thing that has always presented something of a problem when trying to answer questions about the Romans is considering the ever-varying concept of change. If, for example, someone asks me whether soldiers were allowed to get married, the answer is no ... and then the answer is yes ... and then no again for a little while ... but then quickly back to yes, where it stayed.

The Roman Republic and then Empire were both subject to great and varied change and rules, laws, customs, traditions, and, yes, answers changed constantly. We always like to think of the Roman period as some sort of easily described, generic period of time, like we do with all other periods, from the Tudors to the Victorians and so on. All we have to do is think about our own lifetimes to see how unrealistic that notion is. In my own lifetime, being gay was illegal. I grew up in a world without internet to the extent that I still have to write notes down on pieces of paper, even as I sit here before my rather powerful PC, with a full suite of Adobe software (including some programmes whose purpose I am still unsure of, but it's a package, right?), because otherwise it just doesn't fell as if I have the notes to hand.

Roman rulers came and went with a sometimes alarming pace and constantly tried to churn he world around them to fit whatever whim or flight of fancy flapped their way. Nero was praising his mother one moment and trying to build an elaborate Baron von Bomburst-style trap to drop ceiling tiles on her the next.

In this spirit, I too embrace change. Not that I'm trying to have my mother squashed by falling roof tiles - not yet, anyway, although there is plenty of time. And so, once more, as we are now over a year into our journey together, it is time to ring the changes around these dusty corridors a little.

It is my intention, going forward from next week, to introduce a slight tweaking of the format. I am still a Roman historian and as such, this will remain the focus of my work, so don't expect anything too radical, just something new and, I hope, more rewarding and exciting for everyone who currently subscribes and to entice future subscribers to join us as we race towards the magic figure of 1,000. Some of you have been here right from the start, and it still seems a little amazing to think that we will soon number over a thousand subscribers. I don't know how to thank you.

Well, I do know how to thank you, of course ... with more free shit!

At the moment, you receive an article about every five days or so, once I've bashed it together and done all the scouring of sources to make sure my bashing together holds up to some sort of scrutiny, but from Monday forward, there will be more regular output and more output regularly.

On Tuesdays, there will be something like what you are getting now - a question about Roman history answered as best I can. Those questions, some of which are supplied by yourselves, will continue to be so, and they will remain as esoteric and interesting and fun as I hope you still find them.

On Thursdays, there will be a weekly newsletter which will contain a broader and slightly longer article on Roman history and some other news, both from what I am up to behind the Substack scenes (which currently involves dabbling in the murky world of medieval scribal Latin - which is more fun than it sounds, honest!), news of future book releases and so on, but also spreading out a bit into my other love (apart from mykids, Current Mrs Roman History and the dogs) namely archaeology. So I'll bring you some interesting news from the world of Roman archaeology, spread my wings a little with the subject matter, and hopefully still do it whilst entertaining you. The great historian Keith Hopkins always used to say of written history, "That's nice, but so what?". I intend to provide you with more 'what'.

Saturdays will introduce something new and much shorter, namely some snippets of Roman source material that I come across on my ferreting that are interesting just in themselves but don't fit into anything I am working on at that particular moment. A little scrapbook of interesting epigraphy, graffiti or wild quotes from the maniacal world of ancient sources. Postcards from the past, if you would like to describe them with some romantic flourish. Social media snippets from a bygone era. Stuff to read on the toilet each morning. Fun stuff.

As all this now means that writing is my full-time job, and, in a vain attempt to avoid penury, I am forced to try and monetise all this, of course. Some of you already pay the optional $5 (or $50 a year) subscription fee, and I am immensely grateful to all of you, but if I am to avoid having to stand outside the temple, bounding from one leg to another, crying "alms for a poor ex-leper", then I must increase the number of paid subscribers considerably. My hope in the next 6 months is to push the subscriber base up towards 5,000 (I have plans!) and to turn around 10% of those into paid subscribers, which will allow me to make a living from doing this.

Of course, I want more people to read my work than not, and so what you are already getting, and what you will be receiving on top in the future, as described above, will always be free. If you cannot or wish not to pay for a subscription, I understand perfectly, and, as always, you are more than welcome. I’d rather someone read it than nobody read it. You can help in other ways, by sharing my content wherever you like (there’s normally a ‘share’ button in each article, unless I forget), or just telling others about my work. Thank you!

As an incentive, then, to entice you to try out a paid subscription, I will be adding exclusive content for paid subscribers. Initially, it will consist of an extra, longer, monthly newsletter that will bring paid subscribers features and content not available elsewhere. There will also be other drops of those snapshot postcards of Roman epigraphy and source material, gleaned from the cavernous bunkers of my personal library by one of my staff of gnome-like butlers (or me, as there is only me here, of course).

So if you'd like to also get that extra content, then I invite you to take out a paid subscription. Like I said, they are only $5 a month, or $50 a year, and they are really going to help me build a little empire of history where I can sit, Nero-like, at the centre, planning elaborate ways of killing my mother. Your $5 will help see her off.

Only kidding.

Or if, you know, you'd just like to help out a poor old historian ... please give me money. I spent a long time trying to think of a snazzy way of asking you for money, and couldn't think of one. So ... please give me money.

Anyway, enough rambling, I have work to be getting on with! I hope you like the new format, and please, as always, drop me a line with what you think or any questions you have about it, or Roman history, or dogs, or ways of killing ... no, not that last one ...

Don't forget to follow me on Bluesky (@jamescoverley.com) for questions, fun, and other things of such jolliness. I might re-evaluate the new format if it all goes horribly wrong and 300 people unsubscribe, but I hope you like it.

As always, thank you for reading and interacting. Every kind word said about what I do is incredibly humbling.

All the best.

James xxx

The Twelve Caesars, translated by yours truly, is available as an ebook and now in paperback by clicking the link below or online everywhere you expect to find books.