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...

Entry for the denarius of C Valerius Flaccus in Monnaies de la République Romaine by Ernest Babelon (1854-1924) Romans considered...

This coin is my latest RR denarius a story of family propaganda from ancient Rome in the run-up to and early phases of the Caesar–Pompey...

Richard Witschonke’s 2012 article, published in the Revue Belge de Numismatique , tackles a long-standing puzzle in Roman Republican...

Auctions are the main place to buy rare collectibles such as coins and fine art, and auction design and behavioral factors can impact final prices. A number of questions captured my attention today...

Today's coins are 2 denarii from 116-117 BC from the Roman republic. They are beautifully toned and well executed examples with more...

Head of Pompey the Great, 1st century AD, Marble, 41 cm tall, from the Tomb of the Licinii, Via Salaria, currently at the Ny Carlsberg...

Suetonius describes how Julius Caesar broke all norms with his return to Rome in 46 BC, after defeating the Pompeians in North Africa. ...

While Lavinium was building, the following omens are said to have appeared to the Trojans. When a fire broke out spontaneously in the ...

Circa 50 BCE, Marcellinus struck coins honoring his ancestor, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, victor over Viridomarus and conqueror of Syracuse..

Antiochus III was defeated by the Romans in two successive defeats, first at Thermopylae and afterward in Magensia and forced to accept ...

Juno-Sospita-Antefix (Latium, c.500-480 BC), Altes Museum, Berlin, Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, used under CC BY 2.0...

The Eravisci  were a Celtic tribe that settled in the region later known as Pannonia, corresponding broadly to parts of modern-day...

Rome turned against its allies and against itself, redefining the Roman city-state, and paving the way for future upheavals...

The Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great ended with Pompey's assassination shortly after his defeat...

There is little known about the moneyer of today's coin of interest, Petillius Capitolinus, one of the last moneyers to strike independent..

In Melville's Moby Dick, Captain Ahab stands in his boat, harpoon in hand, and in the final moments of his chase of the great white whale...

It could be argued that the Roman Republic reached its peak in the second half of the 2nd century BCE. The final war with Carthage...