Dawn Del Vecchio

Obverse of a Roman aureus: Bust of Elagabalus, laureate, draped, cuirassed, right.

Reverse of a Roman aureus: Slow quadriga moving right, on which is set the conical stone of Emesa surmounted by eagle; in carriage, the stone is surrounded by four parasols.

#OnThisDay - 11 March in AD 222, the controversial reign of Elagabalus came to an end, assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard. #AncientHistory 🏺

Image: RIC IV Elagabalus 143d; Münzkabinett Wien (RÖ 37688). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

🙂 Daily Quordle 1507
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m-w.com/games/quordle/

#Wordle 1,726 4/6

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Blossom Puzzle, March 11
Letters: C H I A M S T
My score: 377 points
My longest word: 11 letters
🌸 🏵 🌹 🌻 💐 🌼 💮 🌺 🌷 🌸 🏵
#MerriamWebsterGames

Tightrope, a daily trivia game | Britannica

Mar. 11, 2026

T I G H T R O P E
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My Score: 2480
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Let's understand trig functions and their inverses

🙂 Daily Quordle 1506
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m-w.com/games/quordle/

#Wordle 1,725 4/6

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Blossom Puzzle, March 10
Letters: C E I D S T V
My score: 346 points
My longest word: 11 letters
🌷 🏵 🌺 🌹 🌸 🌼 💐 💮 🌻 🌷 🏵
#MerriamWebsterGames

Tightrope, a daily trivia game | Britannica

Mar. 10, 2026

T I G H T R O P E
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My Score: 1830

Terracotta statuette of a dog with upright, pricked ears and a fluffy upright tail. He has an oval object - supposedly meat - in his mouth, painted red. Black pigment can still be seen on his ears and the tip of his tail, in addition to some traces of red on his coat.

Every dog owner: ‘What’s that in your mouth?? Omigod, drop it, drop it!’ 😱

This Greek (Boeotian) terracotta dog appears to have a red piece of, um, meat in its mouth. I’m sure he earned it (‘Hey, that dead guy over there wasn’t using this.’)

1st half of the 5th c. BCE. #MetMuseum 📸 me 🏺

In a rare pause, Keith Devlin reflects on why he could not write as usual and what this moment means for our shared values as a mathematical community.

Read the Math Values post: https://bit.ly/49YfHSA

Cover page of a manuscript of al-Khwārizmī’s Ninth Century book Algebra. Al-Khwārizmī has been falsely claimed to have been the inventor of algebra, but the ancient Greek mathematician Diophantus had written an algebra text in the Third Century, and in any case a form of algebra had been in use long before then. Moreover, in his introduction, al-Khwārizmī says clearly that the work he presents is a compilation of what was known at the time. However, his book Algebra was the first such in Arabic, it did put algebra “on the map”, and it did initiate the chain of books that leads to present day algebra. Moreover, Islamicate scholars who followed him did much of the early development of algebra. That’s quite a legacy. Images of al-Khwārizmī in circulation are all works of fiction.

I learned algebra without ever thinking about where it came from. Algebra literally means "reunion of broken parts": using logical reasoning to discover what is unknown.

It's a tool for clarity of thought...among many other things.

Great essay by Keith Devlin at link. 🧪

maa.org/math-values/...

Obverse of a Roman aureus: Head of Otho, bare, right.

Reverse of a Roman aureus: Victory, draped, advancing left, holding wreath in right hand and palm in left.

#OnThisDay - 9 March - in AD 69 Otho, having usurped the principate in January, was appointed Pontifex Maximus. At almost the same time he set out to suppress the rebellion of Vitellius and the German legions. #History 🏺

Image: RIC Otho 15; BnF (IMP-7283). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

🙂 Daily Quordle 1505
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m-w.com/games/quordle/

#Wordle 1,724 3/6

🟨🟨⬛⬛⬛
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Blossom Puzzle, March 9
Letters: A C I T N O V
My score: 420 points
My longest word: 12 letters
🏵 🌹 🌷 🌻 💐 🌺 🌸 🌼 💮 🏵 🌹 🌷
#MerriamWebsterGames

Tightrope, a daily trivia game | Britannica

Mar. 9, 2026

T I G H T R O P E
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My Score: 2430
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Hot take: Can we retire the word "borrow" when subtracting?

🙂 Daily Quordle 1504
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m-w.com/games/quordle/

#Wordle 1,723 5/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛
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Blossom Puzzle, March 8
Letters: C H L E O S T
My score: 385 points
My longest word: 12 letters
🏵 🌹 💐 🌺 🌸 🌷 💮 🌼 🌻 🏵 🌹 💐
#MerriamWebsterGames

Tightrope, a daily trivia game | Britannica

Mar. 8, 2026

T I G H T R O P E
✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ 🎉

My Score: 2240
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Round shallow terracotta plate with black-figure (really dark brown) decoration. In the middle is the profile of a man asleep on his kline (bed), tightly wrapped in a himation or blanket, his head and shoulders propped up on a pillow. The kline is quite high on its turned wooden legs, and so a footstool is seen underneath. A lyre floats above, affixed to an unseen wall, turned sideways with its hand-strap and plectrum hanging down. Three stripes of the same dark stain borders the central tondo and again on the edge of the plate. Greek, Corinthian, ca. 595-570 BCE. Met Museum, New York (06.1021.26)

Goodnight moon ...

A bearded man is swaddled tight, asleep on his kline, a little footstool underneath. A lyre with a hand-strap and plectrum hangs on the wall. The man seems to be wearing an ivy-leaf fillet/wreath - perhaps a musician in the theater. 🏺

Corinthian, 595-570 BCE. #MetMuseum
📸 me

Elements from Egyptian and Greek mythology are combined in this delicate figure. The view taken here is that Anubis is represented, wearing military costume and breastplate that signify his role as a fighter against the enemies of Osiris. He holds a staff topped by a cone-shaped object - the thyrsus carried by followers of Dionysus with whom the Greeks equated Osiris. In his other hand he carries a falcon. On the other hand, the snout and ears appear short for Anubis and more like those of a cat, and the short dress can be worn by Artemis who is associated with Bastet. The identity of the figure is, therefore, not certain. Roman, from Egypt, 2nd-3rd century CE. Height: 1 15/16 in. (4.9 cm) Met Museum, New York (67.190)

This l’il fella is a gold amulet from Roman Egypt, possibly representing the Egyptian god Anubis as a defender of Osiris-Dionysus. He wears a military tunic and breastplate, signifying him as a defender of Osiris; he also holds a thyrsus of Dionysus, equated with Osiris. 🏺 1/

📸 me #MetMuseum

My photo shows a museum display with colourful Minoan pottery cups arranged on three clear shelves, one above the other. These cups, known as Kamares Ware, are from Phaistos, Crete. They were made in palace workshops, c. 1800-1700 BC. The cups range in shape and size from conic and cylindrical cups (top and middle shelves) to hemispherical and carinated shaped cups (bottom shelf). They are decorated with multi-coloured geometric motifs; with spirals and swirls painted in red and white pigment on black.

Sipping my coffee ☕️ and thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups!

They look so modern it’s incredible to think they were made during the Bronze Age some 3,800 years ago!

Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete. 📷 by me

#Archaeology

#OnThisDay - 7 March - in AD 161 the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius died. Accounted one of the 'Five Good Emperors', much of his coinage celebrated the idea of a new 'Golden Age'. #AncientHistory 🏺

Image: RIC III Antoninus Pius 131d; ANS 1954.256.38. Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

#OnThisDay - 7 March - in AD 413 Heraclianus, a usurper against the emperor Honorius, died at Carthage following an unsuccessful attempt to invade Italy. #AncientHistory 🏺

Image: RIC X Honorius 1319; Münzkabinett Berlin (18213243). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

ClassicsBluesky 🏺🧵

#LatinForTheDay – 7 March #Claudian

“par volucer superis, stellas qui vividus aequat
durando membrisque terit redeuntibus aevum,
non epulis saturare famem, non fontibus ullis
adsuetus prohibere sitim; sed purior illum
solis fervor alit ventosaque pabula potat...

🙂 Daily Quordle 1503
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m-w.com/games/quordle/