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Constantine is one of the most famous emperors from Roman history. He was the first emperor to legalize Christianity and possibly the first to convert to it.

The famous story says that, just before the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 307 CE,…

Constans II was baptized as Herakleios and reigned under the name Constantine, but Constans II was used in older texts and is now his standard nickname. He was the last emperor to ever serve as consul, in 642 CE, and also the first emperor in over…

Magnentius began his career under Constantine the Great as a successful military general. He was very popular among his troops and, in response to the inattentive rule of Constans, was proclaimed emperor in 350 CE. Constantius II did not accept this…

This coin marks a radical departure from the typical Roman Republican coinage that almost always featured the head of Roma on the obverse. Janus graces the obverse of this coin, and, after this point, it becomes more and more common to put different…

The story of Medusa as recounted by Ovid, first century BCE, is a sad one. Medusa starts out as a beautiful young maiden whose long, golden hair enticed the god Neptune. She was violated in the temple of Minerva - of course angering the chaste…

We do not know much about Gaius Hosidius Geta, son of Gaius, the individual who minted this coin in 68 BCE. We know that he was a triumvir monetalis, one of the three men in charge of minting coins during the Roman Republic. The boar on the back is…

This coin shows the traditional standard markings of a denarius: Roma on the obverse and the Dioscuri on the reverse. After the next few years, the standard changed to reflect whatever the moneyers cared to feature on their coins.

Constantius was the third son of Constantine the Great. He was in control of the eastern Roman empire while his two brothers struggled for the west. He survived after his brothers had been killed and successfully ruled until 361 CE, when he died on…

Justinian I was commonly known as Justinian the Great. He was the last Roman emperor to speak Latin as a first language and focused on a goal of reuniting the East and West empires. He was an important figure of Late Antiquity and was called by some…

Cybele was associated with Magna Mater, a very old goddess of the Roman pantheon. Shrouded in secrecy and mystery, the worship of this foreign goddess came with the Second Punic War. The Romans feared defeat and sought an oracle, which told them to…