The Battle at Actium in 31 BC, an early Roman Imperial monument, marble relief, first half of the 1st century A.D. (extensively restored in the 16th or 17th century) from the Collection of the Dukes of Cardona, Cordoba. Public Domain image via the Wikimedia Commons . Today's coin was issued in Antioch and comes with the story of the governor of Syria, blocking a team of gladiators from supporting Mark Antony after Actium. Anthony and Cleopatra died in August of 30 BC and the

In 86 BCE Sulla broke Mithridates’ European offensive with back‑to‑back victories at Chaeronea and Orchomenus, achieved under acute supply constraints after the sack of Athens.  This cleared Greece of Pontic forces and opened the road to the 85 BCE peace at Dardanus.  As Mithridates’ general Archelaus leveraged Greek defections (notably Athens under Aristion), Sulla crossed into Greece, besieged and stormed Athens/Piraeus, and financed siege operations by stripping nearby san

Detail from Les Sabines or The Intervention of the Sabine Women by Jacques-Louis David, 1799 , oil on canvas, Louvre , Paris. The...

Today's coin of interest is a scarce Republican denarius struck by L. Appuleius Saturninus in 104 BCE shows the helmeted head of Roma on...