Browse Items (299 total)

Samnium was located between the silver minting Greek colonies of the south and the colonies of the north that favored bronze. This prime location meant that these middle cities-states did not mint their own coinage until relatively late, around 290…

The Attalid King Eumenes II of Pergamon first introduced the cistophori (basketbearers), the main denomination of coinage in Asia Minor for 300 years, around 166 BCE. The last Attalid king, Attalos III, died in 133 BCE, leaving his kingdom to the…

The history of Thurii, one of the last Greek settled colonies, starts with the history of the colony Sybaris. Founded in 720 BCE, it was conquered by neighboring Croton in 510 BCE. After several unsuccessful attempts to re-occupy the city, Thurii was…

Antiochia-on-the-river-Orantes was fouded by Seleucus I Nicator in honor of his father Antiochus. The western Seleucid Empire used this city as its capital and its mint became one of the most important in the empire. Antioch was a very large city for…

Agathokles (361-289 BCE) was the son of a wealthy ceramics manufacturer who made himself king of Syracuse. He eventually ruled over much of East Sicily and even parts of mainland Italy. He had some military success against the Carthaginians but was…

Augustus was the first real Roman emperor (27 BCE – 14 CE), following in the footsteps of his adopted uncle, Julius Caesar. During a tumultuous civil war for control of the empire, Augustus defeated his enemies, including Pompey and Marc Antony, and…

The year of 69 CE was a turbulent one for the Roman Empire. With Nero committing suicide in 68 CE and no successors in place, the door was open once again to civil war within Rome. First to succeed to the throne was Galba who quickly lost power to…

Antoninus Pius was the longest reigning emperor since Augustus, taking power in 138 CE, after being adopted by Hadrian, and reigning relatively peacefully until his death in 161 CE. He was a largely successful emperor whose reign was celebrated by…

Trajan is and was one of the most celebrated Roman emperors. He was an excellent warrior and his execution of stately affairs was fair, efficient, and sensitive to the republican roots of the city. In court ceremonies of the late empire, emperors…

Claudius II Gothicus was part of a long line of emperors to take control through military power. In the fifty years after the death of the last member of the Severan dynasty in 235 CE until Diocletian came into power in 284 CE, there was no order to…