In the COVID-19 pandemic world, it is a bit too easy to imagine the plagues of ancient Rome. Plagues are often referenced in ancient...

Wandering again from Sulla, and the Roman republic, I stumbled on a debate amongst botanists about Tiberius' favorite food. The ancient...

J. M. W. Turner, Dido Building Carthage, oil on canvas, 1815, Public Domain image. It seems clear that Augustus was good at marketing:...

The coins of interest today are not Roman republican. They are from a time period that is my secondary collecting interest: coins from...

‘With these beans I throw I redeem me and mine.’ -Ovid, Fasti Book V, Lemuria Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz by Thomé,...

In response to several requests, today's post provides an entry point to other notes on this site. There are many coins that a collector...

This coin weighs in at 0.49g, about half weight of the last small coin that I posted and about the same weight as this Litra from...

In his introduction to “The Roman Republic”, Michael Crawford writes: “Some parts of the story may perhaps seem unduly dramatic; I can...

In an post not long ago, I shared a Litra from Akragas. This is another entry under the heading of "good things come in small packages"....

Lex Titia, passed by the senate on November, 27 43 BCE, formed the "2nd Triumvirate", and granted broad authority to Mark Antony, Lepidus...

The newest addition to my collection is tied to Alexander the Great at a turbulent time near the end of his life. As Alexander proposed...

This note will start with a drachm from Cappadocia, a key point of conflict between the Roman republic and the Kingdom of Pontus. There...

My coin of interest today is a mysterious AE from the late first century with no shortage of competing views on whose portrait appears on...

The history of the Roman Republic has no shortage of dramatic figures and events, and yet the story of Cato the Younger (Cato Minor)...

Although countermarked Byzantine coins are not usually something I seek out, I couldn't resist this one. It was described in the auction...

Ann Johnson writes about the challenges of differentiating provincial coinage of Caracalla and Elagabalus: Johnston, A. (1982). Caracalla...

My denarius of interest today was issued by a relative of Lucius Cornelius Sulla. The relationship between this moneyer and the dictator,...

The struggle for power was intense in the years after the death of Alexander III the Great, as the diadochi, his generals and successors,...

"Good things come in small packages" - this is certainly the thought I have today with this 0.56 gram coin. Although unusual for Greek...

My coin of interest today comes from Asia minor, the west coast of modern Turkey, just south of Pergamon and east of Kyme. This coin has...