Nero was a fan of Greek Athletics. He tried to set up the Neronia, a Roman counterpart of the Olympics and other Pan-Hellenic festivals...

Maximinus II is known in coin auctions as Daia, this name perhaps a misspelling from the writing of Lacantius, that is challenged by...

Sewage systems have a long history. One ancient sewer from the Sumarian city Eshnunna in central Mesopotamia, consisted of brick sewers...

My coin of interest today is one of few coins, that I have, issued in the name of a reigning Queen (βασίλισσα). The AE coin also appears...

The Phoenician city of Aradus issued attic weight drachms closely imitating the Ephesian types from 171/0 BC (year 89) to 110/09 BC (year...

This post was originally published in August 27, 2020 and has been updated with additional coins, references and images. I had been...

A brief note today on a small coin from Hadrian, contrasted here with a large sestertius from Rome. The smaller coin is an uncertain...

This week, we return to Rome with a (Crawford 399) denarius depicting Neptune and Amphitrite/Salacia. The time period a few years after...

This 1831 mezzotint print depicts the battle of Ascalon (circa CE 1192), with Richard I King of England, on a white charger, wielding an...

This Islamic coin captured my interest with it's unusual highlight of "lillah" in an eye shape with dots from the 14th century (Note:...

I have accumulated a few coins from ancient India. Today's post shares several and focuses on the Buddhist symbols on a particularly...

Today's post looks at another coin from the unraveling Roman Republic. This coin issued in 47 BC only a few years before the...

Perhaps close to Valentine's day it is appropriate to begin with a love story between fish and goats. These passages from Oppian's...

Inflation for the moment seems to be relaxing a bit, the price of gas, one of the more daily visible symbols, was $3.30 a gallon...

Page of the Rajatarangini in Sarada script (Public Domain Source: River of Kings, 1935) Having just returned (and still jet-lagged) from...

My coin of interest today is a rare civic issue of a small town from the time of the Roman civil wars, perhaps very near to the time of...

Marseille Greek Colony, P. Puvis de Chavannes, 1869, oil on canvas, commissioned in 1867 by the city of Marseille for the west wing of...

In 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian the title of "Augustus" and he became the first Roman Emperor, effectively ending the Roman...

Ruins of Nicopolis ad Istrum - public domain image via wikimedia commons. Novius Rufus was a legate (hypateon) or praeses (hegemon) of...

The capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty (Алматы), formerly known as Alma Ata, has a name derived from the word Apple (Алма). "Apples,...