I know that lots of blogs that are far more popular than mine often do lists of “top posts” at the end of each year. My blog here is not especially popular; only four of my articles have received more than two thousand views this entire year and the vast majority of my articles have received less than four hundred views all year. Even my most popular articles rarely ever received more than ten views a day.
Nonetheless, I figure I might as well do a list of the articles that have been most popular this year just for the fun of it. Besides, I figure a list like this one may offer my followers an opportunity to see some of my older articles that have been popular this year that they may not have read yet.
Thirty most-viewed posts of 2019
As of the day I am writing this, 31 December 2019, I have 185 articles published on this website. Of those articles, many of them were published in the past year, since, although I have been publishing articles on this website since November 2016, I have published far more articles here in 2019 than in any previous year. Here are the thirty posts that have received the most views in the past year:
- “Why the Idea of ‘Roman Orgies’ is a Complete Misconception” (originally published 25 February 2019; has received 5,871 views this year)
- “Why Do Fraternities and Sororities Have Greek Letters for Names?” (originally published 23 February 2019; has received 5,273 views this year)
- “Hades: Not Such a Bad Guy After All” (originally published 19 December 2016; has received 3,298 views this year)
- “What Is the Difference between a Siren and a Mermaid?” (originally published 1 May 2019; has received 2,858 views this year)
- “‘Ring around the Rosie’ Is Not about the Black Death, Nor Has It Ever Been” (originally published 3 May 2017; has received 1,914 views this year)
- “The Ancient Greek Cinderella” (originally published 16 November 2016; has received 1,806 views this year)
- “The Most Depressing Book Ever Written: Death by Starvation by Hegesias of Kyrene” (originally published 23 May 2017; has received 1,731 views this year)
- “Ares: The Most Pathetic and Impotent God in the Olympian Pantheon” (originally published 13 April 2019; has received 1,630 views this year)
- “Are There Any Living Descendants of Julius Caesar?” (originally published 30 August 2019; has received 1,601 views this year)
- “How the Ancients Greeted Each Other” (originally published 15 June 2018; has received 1,567 views this year)
- “Was Jesus a Historical Figure?” (originally published 10 March 2018; has received 1,532 views this year)
- “Caesar’s Real Last Words” (originally published 25 March 2017; has received 1,499 views this year)
- “Christian Adaptation of Pagan Iconography” (originally published 11 December 2017; has received 1,369 views this year)
- “Just How Gay Were the Ancient Greeks Really?” (originally published 24 June 2019; has received 1,248 views this year)
- “The Bizarre Origins of the Word Idiot” (originally published 7 November 2016; has received 1,247 views this year)
- “Who Was Hypatia of Alexandria Really?” (originally published 6 August 2018; has received 1,089 views this year)
- “Why Everything about Your Toga Party is All Wrong” (originally published 3 January 2017; has received 1,083 views this year)
- “Misconceptions about Roman Gladiators” (originally published 4 February 2019; has received 1,072 views this year)
- “No, Throwing Apples at People Was Not Considered a ‘Marriage Proposal’ in Ancient Greek” (originally published 15 February 2019; has received 1,063 views this year)
- “Debunking the So-Called ‘Dark Ages’” (originally published 25 May 2019; has received 1,057 views this year)
- “What Did the Ancient Greeks Contribute to Civilization? A Lot, It Turns Out.” (originally published 22 March 2019; has received 989 views this year)
- “Who Was Ozymandias?” (originally published 15 August 2019; has received 952 views this year)
- “Debunking the Misconception of the Flat Earth” (originally published 7 February 2019; has received 899 views this year)
- “Archimedes’s Death Ray Debunked” (originally published 11 April 2019; has received 850 views this year)
- “Did Pythagoras Discover the Pythagorean Theorem?” (originally published 24 March 2018; has received 801 views this year)
- “The Fascinating Evolution of the Word Silly” (originally published 28 November 2016; has received 801 views this year)
- “The Truth about Atlantis” (originally published 26 March 2019; has received 788 views this year)
- “Fake and Misattributed Ancient Quotes” (originally published 16 July 2019; has received 772 views this year)
- “Did the Trojan War Really Happen?” (originally published 13 March 2019; has received 716 views this year)
- “Was Septimius Severus a Black Roman Emperor?” (originally published 7 September 2019; has received 692 views this year)
You may be noticing a few themes here; articles related to sex and sexuality, fraternities and sororities, Greek mythology, modern folklore, and Julius Caesar seem to be my most popular.
I can’t say that I am especially surprised to find that my article debunking the misconception that orgies were common in ancient Rome is my most popular article of the year. After all, sex tends to be a rather popular subject. Sex isn’t consistently popular, though; for instance, my article from 1 October 2019 about ancient Greek penis size is actually one of my less popular, since it has only received 268 views all year.
It is interesting that people seem to be so interested in Julius Caesar. I have written just as many articles about Alexander the Great as I have about Julius Caesar, but, for some reason, Alexander the Great does not seem to attract as much attention, since none of my articles about Alexander even made the list of most-viewed articles for the whole year of 2019. (One of them did make the list for the month of December, which I give below, but, ironically, the one that made it is actually my least favorite.)
Once again, though, for some reason, Julius Caesar is not consistently popular; my article from 3 March 2017 debunking the misconception that Julius Caesar was born by cesarean section is one of my less popular. Apparently people are more interested in what Caesar’s last words were and whether or not he has any heirs than they are in how he was born.
It is interesting to note that only two of my articles about the history of Christianity made this list: my article about the historicity of Jesus and my article about how Christians adapted aspects of traditional Greco-Roman religious iconography in late antiquity to suit Christian figures. The article about the historicity of Jesus probably only made the top thirty list because of Richard Carrier’s lengthy response to it, which I am pretty sure receives more views in a single day than all of my articles that I have ever written combined.
Aside from those two, none of my many articles about Christianity (such as my article from 29 July 2019 about the historicity of King David, my article from 7 August 2019 about the historicity of Pontius Pilate, my article from 23 August 2019 debunking the idea that Constantine I was responsible for establishing the New Testament canon, my article from 2 September 2019 about the Ark of the Covenant, or my article from 20 October 2019 debunking the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married) even made the list.
Meanwhile, I have no idea how my article about Ozymandias managed to become so popular, since I assumed when I wrote that article that it would probably attract very little attention, since most people have never heard the name Ozymandias. It turns out, though, that may be part of the reason why the article is popular; if I search for “Who was Ozymandias?” in Google, my article is the third result that comes up.
Thirty most-viewed posts of December 2019
Unfortunately, the list of which articles have received the most views this entire past year does not tell us very much about which articles are most popular right now, since articles that were published in previous years or towards the beginning of the year will inevitably be higher on the list than articles that have been published more recently, even if the more recent articles are actually more popular, simply because they have had more time to receive views.
For this reason, I have decided to also give a list of the thirty articles that received the most views this month. This list should be a somewhat more accurate reflection of which articles people are most interested in currently:
- “Why the Idea of ‘Roman Orgies’ is a Complete Misconception” (originally published 25 February 2019; has received 917 views this month)
- “Why Do Fraternities and Sororities Have Greek Letters for Names?” (originally published 23 February 2019; has received 725 views this month)
- “What Is the Difference between a Siren and a Mermaid?” (originally published 1 May 2019; has received 871 views this month)
- “Are There Any Living Descendants of Julius Caesar?” (originally published 30 August 2019; has received 506 views this month)
- “Just How Pagan Is Christmas Really?” (originally published 8 December 2019; has received 489 views this month)
- “Who Was Ozymandias?” (originally published 15 August 2019; has received 413 views this month)
- “Hades: Not Such a Bad Guy After All” (originally published 19 December 2016; has received 403 views this month)
- “Ares: The Most Pathetic and Impotent God in the Olympian Pantheon” (originally published 13 April 2019; has received 294 views this month)
- “Just How Gay Were the Ancient Greeks Really?” (originally published 24 June 2019; has received 284 views this month)
- “The Bizarre Origins of the Word Idiot” (originally published 7 November 2016; has received 260 views this month)
- “Was Septimius Severus a Black Roman Emperor?” (originally published 7 September 2019; has received 230 views this month)
- “What Makes Alexander the Great Different from Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun?” (originally published 12 September 2019; has received 213 views this month) Ironically, my least favorite of all my articles about Alexander seems to be the most popular.
- “The Long, Strange, Fascinating History of Santa Claus” (originally published 7 December 2019; has received 185 views this month)
- “When Was Jesus Really Born?” (originally published 25 November 2019; has received 182 views this month)
- “What Did the Ancient Greeks Contribute to Civilization? A Lot, It Turns Out.” (originally published 22 March 2019; has received 178 views this month)
- “Ancient Greek Views on Women” (originally published 7 June 2019; has received 177 views this month)
- “The Real-Life Female Warriors Who Probably Inspired the Legendary Amazons” (originally published 20 June 2019; has received 172 views this month)
- “‘Ring around the Rosie’ Is Not about the Black Death, Nor Has It Ever Been” (originally published 3 May 2017; has received 165 views this month)
- “Who Was Hypatia of Alexandria Really?” (originally published 6 August 2018; has received 149 views this month)
- “No, the New Testament Canon Was Not Decided by Constantine I” (originally published 23 August 2019; has received 148 views this month)
- “Christian Adaptation of Pagan Iconography” (originally published 11 December 2017; has received 148 views this month)
- “Why Most So-Called ‘Medieval Torture Devices’ Are Fake” (originally published 11 November 2019; has received 147 views this month)
- “The Ancient Greek Cinderella” (originally published 16 November 2016; has received 145 views this month)
- “Archimedes’s Death Ray Debunked” (originally published 11 April 2019; has received 140 views this month)
- “Was Hypatia of Alexandria Black?” (originally published 14 October 2019; has received 139 views this month)
- “Caesar’s Real Last Words” (originally published 25 March 2017; has received 139 views this month)
- “Misconceptions about Roman Gladiators” (originally published 4 February 2019; has received 139 views this month)
- “Why Do So Many Ancient Sculptures Have Their Noses Missing?” (originally published 9 July 2019; has received 133 views this month)
- “How the Ancients Greeted Each Other” (originally published 15 June 2018; has received 124 views this month)
- “Was Jesus Copied Off the Greek God Dionysos?” (originally published 3 December 2019; has received 123 views this month)
You may notice that my article from 8 December 2019 debunking the idea that most modern Christmas customs are of ancient pre-Christian origin, which was not even on the list for the whole year, was the fifth most popular article for the month of December 2019. The popularity of this article probably has to do with the time of year, since, obviously, articles about Christmas are more likely to be popular around Christmastime.
Many of my other articles from the latter part of 2019 are also much higher in popularity on the list for December 2019 than they are on the list for the whole year. For instance, my Ozymandias article, which was number twenty-two on the list for all of 2019, is number six on the list for December 2019.
It is interesting that both my articles about Hypatia of Alexandria, my article about ancient Greek views on women, and my article about the real-life female warriors who most likely inspired the legendary Amazons all made the list for the top thirty most popular articles for December 2019. It seems that a lot of people are interested in the topic of women in the ancient world.
Once again, though, articles about women in the ancient world are not consistently popular, since my article from 11 August 2019 debunking the popular legend about Cleopatra committing suicide by snakebite, my article from 22 October 2019 about female rulers in ancient Greece, and my article from 14 December 2019 about Sappho’s poems did not make either of these lists at all. I think this rather unfortunate, since I consider all three of those articles to be among my better ones.
Twenty most-viewed posts of the past seven days
Obviously, the list of which articles were most popular this month still privileges articles that were already published at the beginning of the month. You may have noticed that none of my most recent articles appeared on that list at all, because they just have not been published long enough to have racked up enough views to actually appear on the list. Here, then, is a screenshot of the list of my articles that have received the most views in the past seven days, as of 31 December 2019:
I won’t bother to list and link them all, since most of them are repeats from the lists above. Here are links to the articles that appear only on this list and not on either of the previous two:
#8. “Here Are Some of the Most Ancient Christmas Carols” (originally published 25 December 2019; received 102 views in the last week of 2019)
#11. “How Violent Was the Pre-Modern World Really?” (originally published 28 December 2019; received 54 views in the last week of 2019)
#15. “Why Are Ghosts Depicted Wearing Bedsheets?” (originally published 27 October 2019; received 49 views in the last week of 2019)
#17. “No, the Antikythera Mechanism Was Not Unique” (originally published 24 December 2019; received 43 views in the last week of 2019)
All but one of these are articles that I published towards the end of the month of December 2019. It is rather curious that the article about ghosts from the end of October 2019 suddenly became popular in late December. Maybe a bunch of people had sudden Halloween nostalgia right after Christmas? Who knows?
Conclusion
It seems that, if I want to get more views, I should write more articles about sex and sexuality, women in the ancient world, Greek mythology, modern folklore, and Julius Caesar, since these seem to be the topics that generally tend to attract the most views. None of these topics are consistently popular, but they all seem to generally be more likely to attract attention than articles about other subjects.
It also seems that articles about ancient Rome are perhaps slightly more likely to be popular than articles about ancient Greece (albeit not consistently so) and articles debunking specific, singular misconceptions are generally more likely to be popular than articles debunking large numbers of misconceptions about a given topic all at once.