I sacrificed basic life skills in exchange for an obsession with historical minutiae.
Can’t check the engine of a car to save my life, but you can bet your ass I can talk at length about the favorite hobbies of Roman Emperors or the history of the crossbow!
About Diocletian retiring to farm cabbages? Epitome de Caesaribus is one source.
Diocletian actually relinquished the imperial fasces of his own accord at Nicomedia and grew old on his private estates. 6. It was he who, when solicited by Herculius and Galerius for the purpose of resuming control, responded in this way, as though avoiding some kind of plague: “If you could see at Salonae the cabbages raised by our hands, you surely would never judge that a temptation.”
I learned most of this stuff from listening to “the History of Rome” podcast by Mike Duncan. There are many resources available to learn about Rome and the ancient world, and they are full of interesting anecdotes that have survived the passage of time
How do you know all these small facts?
I sacrificed basic life skills in exchange for an obsession with historical minutiae.
Can’t check the engine of a car to save my life, but you can bet your ass I can talk at length about the favorite hobbies of Roman Emperors or the history of the crossbow!
Ooh I’ll take the history of the crossbow.
Sure, I could look it up myself, or I could let a fellow nerd indulge and share in their delight.
Relatable.
I miss OkayBuddyPhD on Reddit because it was basically all memes about this.
Point me to your sources! (They’re not in my history books from college/ University ;)
And miniscule/mundane was the word I was looking for last night…I was tired :p
About Diocletian retiring to farm cabbages? Epitome de Caesaribus is one source.
I learned most of this stuff from listening to “the History of Rome” podcast by Mike Duncan. There are many resources available to learn about Rome and the ancient world, and they are full of interesting anecdotes that have survived the passage of time