top of page


Pompey the Great
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...

sulla80
Apr 267 min read
19 views


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

sulla80
Mar 275 min read
12 views


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

sulla80
Mar 214 min read
13 views


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

sulla80
Mar 1510 min read
21 views


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

sulla80
Mar 73 min read
10 views


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

sulla80
Feb 226 min read
93 views


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

sulla80
Feb 202 min read
20 views


Italy and Rome: The World Turned Upside Down
Rome turned against its allies and against itself, redefining the Roman city-state, and paving the way for future upheavals...

sulla80
Feb 1514 min read
471 views


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

sulla80
Jan 258 min read
36 views


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

sulla80
Jan 158 min read
12 views


Sulla Portrait Coin
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...

sulla80
Jan 114 min read
54 views


The 3rd Punic War
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...

sulla80
Dec 19, 20247 min read
62 views


Civil War Money, 42 BC
After Caesar's assassination (42 BC) as the triumvirate prepared to avenge his death, this denarius of C. Vibius Varus was issued.

sulla80
Nov 24, 20244 min read
50 views


2024 - Top 10 Ancients
2024 has had ups and downs - it seems that every year I start with same thought. This has been an unusual year with and earth quake,...

sulla80
Nov 20, 202410 min read
234 views


Triumphs of Augustus
Augustus' refusal to celebrate personal triumphs after his triple triumph in 29 BCE cultivated imperial image and shifted power dynamics.

sulla80
Nov 16, 20246 min read
158 views


The Historian & Moneyer
I can imagine that there are probably not a lot of individuals who are going to add a copy of T.J. Cornell 's The Fragments of the Roman...

sulla80
Oct 4, 20243 min read
46 views


The Torquati
Manlius Torquatus Sentences His Son to Death, Alexandre-Romain Honnet, 1799, Paris, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Public...

sulla80
Aug 24, 20246 min read
101 views


Cicero's Savior from Exile
I was pleasantly surprised to discover the DPRR today (Digital Prosopography of the Roman Republic). I don't know how long it has been...

sulla80
Aug 22, 20244 min read
42 views


Index to Sulla
The lifetime of Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138 - 78 BC) was the time period that initially inspired this website - this page begins to...

sulla80
Aug 3, 20244 min read
77 views


Silenus-Silanus
This week we look at a series of three coins from 91 BCE, near the start of the Social War or Marsic War. In this war, Sulla...

sulla80
Aug 3, 20246 min read
48 views
bottom of page