Recently, I've gone somewhere, done something, or seen something amazing I've shared in these pages. Here, you'll find my most recent posts, covering a wide range of topics that pique my interest. Whether you're passionate about travel, captivated by photography, enchanted by music, or intrigued by computer programming, there's likely to be something here for everyone!

Dive in and explore the latest insights, stories, and adventures that I have to share. Enjoy your stay!

My Fair Laddy

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/11/2026
Hashtags: #History #LucianofSamosata #Massilia #Gaul
In Massilia, Lucian decides to give Tanno a makeover.
Estimated reading time: 10 minute(s) (2202 words)

Massilia burst upon them like a dream of Greece transplanted to the coast of Gaul. The harbor was vast and sheltered, crowded with merchant vessels from across the Mediterranean. The city rose in terraces of pale stone, with temples and columned buildings that could have been transplanted from Athens or Corinth. The air smelled of salt and commerce, wine and olive oil, the dust of grain being loaded onto ships. And underneath it all, something else: the particular smell of a place where Greeks had lived for six hundred years, long enough to make it feel like home.

Bad Air

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/9/2026		Page Views: 6
Hashtags: #LucianofSamosata #History #Corsica #Trauma #Slavery
Lucian and Tanno approach an island haunted by the past.
Estimated reading time: 11 minute(s) (2560 words)

The voyage from Rome to Massilia would have taken perhaps three days if Lucian and Demetrios had been in a hurry. But they were not. The merchant vessel that carried them hugged the coast, stopping at small ports to pick up cargo and passengers, which meant the journey stretched out to nearly two weeks. It was, Lucian realized, the perfect arrangement. The ship would dock overnight at cities large enough to have a theater or gymnasium, and Lucian could perform. The money he made paid for their passage and their lodging, and Demetrios had or made contacts in each port who could arrange venues and spread word of the famous Syrian rhetorician's arrival.

Freedom Isn't Free

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/8/2026		Page Views: 128
Hashtags: #History #Rome #Slavery #Bureaucracy #Freedom
Lucian attempts to buy a slave's freedom and discovers that bureaucracy is more complicated than generosity.
Estimated reading time: 12 minute(s) (2635 words)

Lucian woke to sunlight and the particular happiness that comes from being exactly where you want to be, with exactly the person you want to be with. For a moment he simply lay there, aware of Demetrios sleeping beside him, aware of the warmth of another body, aware of the fact that for the first time in his life, he felt like he belonged somewhere. Not to a place. To a person.

Syria Conquers Rome

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/7/2026		Page Views: 144
Hashtags: #History #Rome #Rhetoric #Slavery #CulturalUnderstanding
Lucian faces criticism in Rome, learns from an enslaved man's wisdom, and discovers the power of embracing difference.
Estimated reading time: 11 minute(s) (2430 words)

The house that Demetrios had rented came with three slaves. This was not unusual for Rome—even a modest house of this class typically came furnished with domestic help. What was unusual was that Lucian had never lived with slaves before. In the Greek cities, slavery existed, certainly, but it was not as systematized, not as complete a part of the social infrastructure. Here in Rome, slavery was not an aberration but the foundation upon which the entire society was built. The three slaves—a cook, a cleaner, and a general attendant—moved through the house with the quiet efficiency of people who understood that their bodies belonged to someone else, and that this was simply how the world was ordered.

Reunited (And It Feels So Good)

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/6/2026		Page Views: 134
Hashtags: #History #Travel #Rhetoric #Mediterranean #Demetrios #Demetrios #Demetrios
Lucian embarks on his world tour as a famous rhetorician, reunites with Demetrios, and discovers the sea.
Estimated reading time: 10 minute(s) (2233 words)

By the time Lucian was twenty-eight, he had become a fixture of Ephesian intellectual life. The scandal of Open Mikon Night had, paradoxically, enhanced rather than damaged his reputation. Everyone in the city knew about the Stoic-Cynic brawl. And everyone wanted to see the young man who had sparked it. His performances grew more sophisticated, more subtle, more carefully aimed at absurdity rather than at individual men. The wealthy merchants who had once paid sophists to teach them rhetoric now paid Lucian to entertain them at dinner parties. The gymnasium invited him to lecture. Even Philostratos, that most demanding of critics, had begun to attend his performances regularly, and always with an expression of satisfied approval.

Sophists: 2, Cynics: 0

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/5/2026		Page Views: 139
Hashtags: #History #Ephesus #Sophistry #Satire #Comedy #LucianofSamosata
Lucian discovers his voice as a satirist and learns the power of gentle critique.
Estimated reading time: 10 minute(s) (2364 words)

Three years dissolved into Ephesus like rain into the harbor. Lucian moved through the city's gymnasia and lecture halls like a man learning to breathe in a new atmosphere. By day, he studied with the sophists—men who taught the art of persuasion, the craft of words, the intricate dance of rhetoric. He read Homer until he could recite the entire Iliad without stumbling. He studied Plato until he understood not just what the man had written, but the gaps between what Plato claimed and what Plato actually believed. He learned the comic poets— Aristophanes especially—and began to understand that there was a kind of truth that could only be told slantwise, through humor, through exaggeration, through the distorting mirror of satire.

The Mithraic Temple

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/4/2026		Page Views: 153
Hashtags: #History #Mithraism #MysteryReligions #Christianity
Lucian encounters the mysteries of Mithras and recognizes Christianity's debts to older faiths.
Estimated reading time: 8 minute(s) (1899 words)

The city of Pergamum sat on a steep hillside overlooking the plain, and like many cities in Asia Minor, it was a palimpsest of empires. Here the Seleucids had built a great library to rival Alexandria's. Here the Attalids had ruled before Rome absorbed their kingdom. And here, in narrow streets that descended from the Temple of Athena to the marketplace below, the worship of Mithras had taken deep root—particularly among the soldiers and merchants who filled the garrison and the harbor.

Meet the Christians

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/3/2026		Page Views: 137
Hashtags: #History #Miletus #Christianity #EarlyChurch #LucianofSamosata
Lucian encounters a Christian woman and observes the faith of the early church.
Estimated reading time: 11 minute(s) (2406 words)

It was in the middle of the night that Lucian woke suddenly. He had been too enrapt in the subject to have noticed her consciously, but there had been a woman at that lecture, he was certain of it! What was she doing there? She didn't seem to be serving, and she wore the clothes of a free woman. So, why? She had been sitting near the back of the garden, listening with the kind of focused attention that suggested she was actually engaging with the ideas rather than merely passing time. And when Kallimachos had made a joke about the absurdity of pursuing wealth, she had laughed as if she understood.

The Epicureans of Miletus

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/2/2026		Page Views: 182
Hashtags: #History #Miletus #Epicureanism #Philosophy #LucianofSamosata
Lucian learns philosophy, pleasure, consent, and the difference between lust and love.
Estimated reading time: 9 minute(s) (1984 words)

Miletus in the second century CE was a city in decline. Once one of the great centers of Ionian learning, home to Thales and Anaximander and the first natural philosophers, it had been sacked, rebuilt, sacked again, and was now a shadow of its former glory. And yet, the shadow was still vast. The harbor was busy. The gymnasium still stood. And in a modest house near the harbor, Kallimachos maintained a school where the teachings of Epicurus were still discussed, preserved, argued over, and defended against the endless misunderstandings of people who thought Epicureanism meant doing whatever felt good in the moment.

The Stoics of Smyrna

By: Paul S. Cilwa	Posted: 5/1/2026		Page Views: 192
Hashtags: #History #Smyrna #Stoicism #Philosophy
Lucian encounters Stoicism and discovers the nature of his friend Demetrios.
Estimated reading time: 12 minute(s) (2772 words)

Philostratos's house was not as grand as Hippias's, but it was comfortable in the way of a man who lived well without ostentation—the furniture was fine but worn, the walls displayed an excellent collection of portrait busts, and the dining room opened onto a small courtyard where herbs grew in terra cotta pots. When Lucian and Demetrios arrived at dusk, slaves were already lighting oil lamps, and the air carried the smell of bread baking in the kitchen, mingled with the scent of rosemary and olive oil.