The First Triumvirate was a powerful coalition between Julius Caesar, a young and charismatic populist, two more senior leaders who both...

This past week these notes pages tipped over 200 posts - which gives me an excuse to think about how to better organize these posts going...

August Signs I picked up this little coin mostly for the well executed scorpion. It is a little bronze weighing, 2.88mg and 13mm in...

If you look beneath the surface and consider what happened and what it felt like to the people who lived in these times, the environment in which our European ancestors lived must have been brutal and inhumane. The story of this hurried and inelegant series of denarii gives pause to reflect on the events of the time: could the Romans have reached a different outcome? Lessons from ancient Rome appear to me to be no less relevant, 2000 years later, to policy debates and our ind

Terrence was a former slave who became a famous playwright from the Roman republic. He wrote six comic plays in the mid 2nd century BC, then inexplicably disappeared circa 160 BC. All of his 6 plays have survived to today. Suetonius wrote a short biography, which primarily highlights the conflicting and varied stories about the author. Publius Terentius Afer, born at Carthage, was the slave at Rome of Terentius Lucanus, a senator, who because of the young man's talent and go

M. Aemilius Scaurus & M. Caecilius Metellus chosen as consuls in 638 AUC (ab urbe condita or 'from the founding of the City'). Image from...

A Roman republican denarius from a moneyer with a family name that traces to the legendary origins of Rome (7th century BC) and the...

My coin of interest today is a Roman Republic denarius with a sphinx on the reverse, the style of the sphinx is similar to this 1st...

Seleucid King Antiochus The Great (223-187 BC), expanded his empire by installing Artaxias as the governor (strategos) of Greater Armenia and Zariadres as governor of Sophene. Then when Antiochus was defeated by the Romans in 191 BC and shortly before the signing of the Treaty of Apamea in 188 BC, these two generals of Antiochus, turned to Rome and were recognized as independent kingdoms. "According to historians, Armenia, which was formerly a small country, was enlarged by A

Some questions are best avoided. When faced with three beautiful coins, it seems that asking "Which is fairest?" is perhaps not a good...

Eventually this post will reach two denarii that were issued to commemorate Julius Caesar's victories in the Gallic Wars with Celtic...

This post starts with a few thoughts on the ingredients that make up an attractive ancient coin and will eventually get to a coin of...

There is no better illustration of the cursus honorem, the political career ladder in the Roman republic, than a coin from a moneyer who...

I have been slowly adding Cistophoric tetradrachms from various cities in Asia minor, and today was looking back at one of my first posts...

It is a new year, 2022! Appropriately, today's post opens with new beginnings and Aeneas arriving from Troy to the shores of Italy and...

Public Domain Image published by Chez le citoyen Mirys in Paris, 1799 This coin interested me for several reasons : the link to the time...

Public Domain Image, etching "Aurora" by Guido Reni 1886 In 1637, Francescus Junius published "De Pictvra Vetervm Libri Tres" (Of Ancient...

Next week is Thanksgiving, and I am looking forward to the family gathering and a return to Thanksgiving traditions that we missed last...

This week I am adding an extra "Note" commemorating 3 years of "Notes on Ancient Coins" and post number 160. The photos celebrate the...

"Paul replied, “I am standing before the judgment seat of Caesar, where I ought to be tried. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews, as...