AIMS Mini-Conference

Save The Date! AIMS Event
February 28th 2026, 1:00 – 4:00 pm ET

Save the date! The first AIMS event of 2026 will take place on Saturday 28th February. All participants must register using the form here.

1 PM: Interactive Presentation by the Source Databases Committee
The Source Databases Committee will present its work creating a tag manual for AIMS members and seek input from the community regarding edge case tagging (e.g., “Hercules” vs. “Herakles”). It would be helpful for attendees to read either “Hercules in White” and/or “Hellboy: A Kinder, Gentler, More Modern Heracles” beforehand, but this is not required!

2 PM: Reacting Through the Past MicroGame Testing Workshop: When Have Women Paid Taxes? The Roman Matrons’ Protest of 42 BCE
This workshop is a playthrough and debriefing discussion of a game-in-progress for the Reacting Through the Past classroom roleplaying simulation series, focusing on the experiences and interrelationships of elite Roman women at a moment of political crisis in the late Republic. Players will receive 2-page simple character sheets ahead of time and then, after a brief introduction, engage in a 60-minute virtual roleplaying simulation, going into smaller breakout rooms (“villas”) for small-group discussions as necessary. The proposed game is a tool of classical reception designed to focus on a marginalized group, Roman women, who are largely excluded from traditional games (video/TTRPG/LARPs) that portray this era, although not from televisual series. Players will both help to improve and refine the game and be able, if they wished, to freely adapt or use it themselves. The game takes place at a documented moment in 42 BCE when the Second Triumvirate decided to raise funds for their forthcoming war against Caesar’s assassins by instituting a tax on the 1400 wealthiest women in Rome. Those women met in a “council of matrons,” appealed to the female relatives of the triumvirs, and ultimately stormed the Forum to publicly protest against the tax.

3 PM: AIMS Social Hour