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Ex Urbe
Personal blog · exurbe.comhistoryphilosophy
Ex Urbe is a personal blog at exurbe.com about history and philosophy. Since 2014, 57 different Hacker News readers have linked it 79 times, most often “The Shape of Rome (2013)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Often recommended · 19 of 33 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ex Urbe, Ada Palmer's history blog, for long essays on Rome's layered architecture, Machiavelli, the Renaissance, censorship and Stoicism. Commenters often call the writing excellent.
- Recommended for · 19 comments
- Called 'most excellent', 'great', 'wonderful' and 'absolutely excellent'; Machiavelli series 'the best explanation'; 'The Shape of Rome' a favourite; 'fast, alm
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 33 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- The Shape of Rome (2013)10 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2019-04-16
- We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Ages (2020)10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2020-06-06
- Stoicism's appeal to the rich and powerful (2019)8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2019-03-28
- Machiavelli I – S.P.Q.F (2012)6 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2019-03-28
- Tools for Thinking About Censorship3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-01-22
- Accuracy in Historical Fiction (2013)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-12-22
- Machiavelli I – S.P.Q.F. (Begins Machiavelli Series)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-09-18
- The Lost Towers of the Guelph-Ghibelline Wars3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-01-16
- /on-crimes-and-punishments-and-beccaria/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-06-13
- The Shape of Rome (2013)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-12-01
What Hacker News says?
Indeed, and there's a most excellent essay that goes into considerably more detail on this: https://www.exurbe.com/tools-for-thinking-about-censorship/ , written partly in response to the Chengdu debacle, but also covering lots of Western examples, including Galileo vs the church, the comics code, and more.
Comment linking /tools-for-thinking-about-censorship/
on “Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China”Submitted The Shape of Rome (2013) as a story · 204 points
HN discussionI think that's a mis-characterization of stoicism. That sounds more like Epicureanism (quit stressful things and live a simple life) or cynicism (quit everything and live like a stray dog so that you don't have to worry about losing anything). Stoicism because popular with Roman elites specifically because it didn't ask the adherents to quit anything, but simply to adapt themselves to whatever adversity they might f…
Comment linking /stoicisms-appeal-to-the-rich-and-powerful/
on “An intact slave's room found in Pompeii's ruins”Submitted Stoicism's appeal to the rich and powerful (2019) as a story · 201 points
HN discussionI think the definition of slavery doesn't change when people do awful things. I don't think it's great for the economy either. I think people need to think more about their theory of justice, and about psychology and sociology, and I hope nobody is deciding their ideas about what a justice system should be based on an anecdote like that. The idea of justice as retributive punishment, a penalty you pay, is older than…
Comment linking /on-crimes-and-punishments-and-beccaria/
on “US prison workers produce $11B worth of goods and services for little to no pay”Submitted We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Ages (2020) as a story · 155 points
HN discussionHere's a great blog post about San Clemente https://www.exurbe.com/the-shape-of-rome/ (in which Freud battles his vertigo...)
Comment linking /the-shape-of-rome/
on “The Notre Dame fire and the future of history”Submitted The Shape of Rome (2013) as a story · 141 points
HN discussionThanks! And this is the article I remember https://www.exurbe.com/the-shape-of-rome/
Comment linking /the-shape-of-rome/
on “Four strange places to see London's Roman Wall”Submitted Teaching Machiavelli through his letters as a story · 135 points
HN discussionJust a reminder (I think it has been posted here) of this wonderful read about the many layers of Rome: https://www.exurbe.com/the-shape-of-rome/
Comment linking /the-shape-of-rome/
on “Roman mosaic floor found under Italian vineyard”Submitted The Lost Towers of the Guelph-Ghibelline Wars as a story · 117 points
HN discussionAda Palmer's "On Progress and Historical Change" https://www.exurbe.com/?p=4041 "So when I tell people about this election, and they ask me “Does it always have the same outcome?” the answer is yes and no. Because the Great Forces always push the same way. The strong factions are strong. Money is power. Blood is thicker than promises. Virtue is manipulable. In the end, a bad man will be pope. And he will do bad thin…
Comment linking /?p=4041
on “Ask HN: What essay/blogpost do you keep going back to reread?”Submitted The Shape of Rome (2013) as a story · 114 points
HN discussionThe end justifies the means? This is - of course - a very rough synopsis of Machiavelli's treatise - even if he never actually said that. But the other way of looking at his work was that he was the first person to develop a code of ethics that led to the idea of "doing the greatest good to the greatest number of people" I highly recommend the series from the blog of the this Renaicance scholar and specialist in Mac…
Comment linking /machiavelli-s-p-q-f/
on “The Basic Problem of Democracy (1919)”Submitted Stoicism's Appeal to the Rich and Powerful as a story · 102 points
HN discussionSlightly off-topic, but on a related theme: http://www.exurbe.com/?p=2219
Comment linking /?p=2219
on “Found: A Colossal Statue of Ramses II Hiding Under a Cairo Street”Submitted Accuracy in Historical Fiction (2013) as a story · 24 points
HN discussionAnd to go along with that, the Renaissance was actually an incredibly violent and turbulent time. https://www.exurbe.com/black-death-covid-and-why-we-keep-tel... is a good post about that, and the Dark Ages myth. There's a lot of propaganda from this time period that people still believe today because it was used to justify a lot of the European nationalism of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Comment linking /black-death-covid-and-why-we-keep-telling-the-myth-of-a-renaissance-golden-age-and-bad-middle-ages/
on “What you can learn about medieval Europe if you focus on peasants”Submitted Machiavelli I – S.P.Q.F (2012) as a story · 23 points
HN discussionA note, the pictures seem to have vanished in the Tor version of the article. It would probably be better to link to the original version on Ex Urbe: https://www.exurbe.com/the-borgias-vs-borgia-faith-and-fear/
Comment linking /the-borgias-vs-borgia-faith-and-fear/
on “Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part IVa: Dyed in the Wool”Submitted Tools for Thinking About Censorship as a story · 15 points
HN discussionThere’s a long essay about how terrible the renaissance was at https://www.exurbe.com/black-death-covid-and-why-we-keep-tel...
Comment linking /black-death-covid-and-why-we-keep-telling-the-myth-of-a-renaissance-golden-age-and-bad-middle-ages/
on “Ask HN: What’s a big trend we should all be following?”Submitted Why We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Ages as a story · 4 points
HN discussionEx Urbe's writing is generally pretty great. Do check out her series on Machiavelli, the inventor of Consequentalism: https://www.exurbe.com/?p=1429 .
Comment linking /?p=1429
on “The Shape of Rome (2013)”Submitted The Shape of Rome (2013) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFun to see Ada Palmer posted here! One of my favorite essays by her is The Shape of Rome, which tells Rome’s history through its architecture. It is a fascinating history of course but her writing is what stood out to me: it felt fast, almost breezy, while still conveying the sense of just how much time had passed between events. I wish more history writing were like it, and if folks have recommendations I’d appreci…
Comment linking /the-shape-of-rome/
on “Teaching Machiavelli through his letters”Submitted Tools for Thinking About Censorship as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFor those not familiar with that blog, She previously wrote a long series on Machiavelli which was a great deep dive into his life If interested start here: https://www.exurbe.com/machiavelli-s-p-q-f/
Comment linking /machiavelli-s-p-q-f/
on “Teaching Machiavelli through his letters”Submitted The Shape of Rome as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
