Seleucid King Antiochus The Great (223-187 BC), expanded his empire by installing Artaxias as the governor (strategos) of Greater Armenia...

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...

“There are many rats depicted on ancient coins, this one has an actual rat.” - Frank Robinson, ancient coin dealer, in one of his online...

‘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...

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

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

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)...