Louis the Pious counterfeit solidus

This counterfeit solidus of Louis the Pious (814–840), was discovered in Norfolk in 2024. The imitation was based on a very rare original coin minted by Louis the Pious in about 816. A similar fake coin sold for £36,000 ($48,627.95) in 2024. 22 imitation solidi have been found in the U.K. Perhaps minted by Vikings, the fakes chart the route of the Viking Great Army.

The Vikings traversed rivers and Roman-era roads to cross England as they gained control of East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria by 880. Louis the Pious succeeded his father, Charlemagne, as sole Holy Roman emperor in 814.

Extremely rare, a genuine example sold for 120,000 euros, or about $141,495, in a 2025 auction. It is the best of the four known. Norfolk was the northern half of East Anglia, a kingdom ruled by the Anglo-Saxon Wulfing or “wolf clan” dynasty. The 'heathen force' of Vikings attacked Norfolk in 865. Edmund, the final king of East Anglia, was killed by the Vikings in 869.

Roman gold mining

Pliny: "Gold in our part of the world ... is found in three ways: first, in river deposits. ... No gold is more refined, for it is thoroughly polished by the very flow of the stream and by wear. The other methods are to mine it in excavated shafts or to look for it in the debris of undermined mountains." Placer deposits are the easiest and first to be exploited. Where the Romans recognized ores on the surface, they followed them into the ground by strip-mining. Opencast was used for many metals. Deep-vein mining was the most difficult and dangerous. Only gold and silver were valuable enough to justify this kind of mining.

'Ruina montium' was the Roman method to systematically dismantle entire mountainsides.

Las Médulas is an otherworldly landscape in northwestern Spain that served as the largest and most important open-pit gold mine in the Roman Empire. Located near the town of Ponferrada in the El Bierzo region (province of León), the site is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Las Médulas mine operated for about 250 years, from 25 BC until the early 3rd century AD. Roman engineers built over 700 kilometers of canals to divert water into massive, elevated reservoirs. Upwards of 60,000 slaves tunneled into the core of the mountains. Water was abruptly released through sluice gates into the networks of cavities. The immense hydraulic pressure caused catastrophic landslides, tearing the mountain apart. The collapsed material was washed down inclined channels to isolate the gold.

Rock-cut aqueduct in La Cabrera.

Pliny the Elder witnessed and described the site in full operation around 74–77 AD. The Romans abandoned the mine in the early 3rd century AD as the gold ran out. Las Médulas yielded an estimated 1,500 tons of gold. Pliny stated that 20,000 Roman pounds (6,560 kg) of gold were extracted each year.

Today a kilo of Au is $135k giving $855,600,000

Removing rock was a difficult and time-consuming process in Roman mines. Iron was used for most tools, though stone hammers and wedges have been recovered. Wood was used for buckets to remove ore. Remains of wooden ladders have been found. Leather sacks, miners' sandals and caps have been recovered.

It was labour intensive work: "those individuals of outstanding physical strength break up the quartz rock with iron hammers, applying to the work not skill, but force". Shafts were vertical or inclined passages that provided access, ventilation, and a path for ore removal. They were normally square, small (1-2 meters square), and braced with wood to prevent collapse.

The deep mine workings created problems with ventilation, lighting, and drainage. The Romans knew the dangers. The huge state-controlled operations relied heavily on slaves, prisoners of war, and condemned criminals. Life expectancy of a Roman miner was short. Most enslaved laborers sent to the mines were essentially given a death sentence. Virtually none survived 5 years of brutal conditions marked by physical exhaustion, poor diet, harsh punishments, and regular fatal accidents.

Chemical warfare is ancient history - Dura-Europos

Researchers claimed in 2009 to have found the first evidence of chemical weapons, dating from a battle fought at the ancient Roman fortress of Dura-Europos in modern-day Syria. 20 Roman soldiers unearthed beneath the town's ramparts didn't die of war wounds, but from poison gas.

War in antiquity rarely matched the heroism of myth. To stave off a Roman siege in A.D. 189, the defenders of the Greek city of Ambracia built a flamethrower that coughed out smoking chicken feathers.

At Themiscrya, another Greek outpost, Romans tunneling beneath the city contended with not only a charge of wild beasts but also a barrage of hives swarming with bees. Roman armies routinely poisoned the wells of cities they besieged.

Roman general Sertorius in 80 B.C. had his troops pile mounds of gypsum powder by the hillside hideouts of Spanish rebels. When kicked up by wind, the dust became an irritant, smoking the insurgents out.

In 332 B.C., the citizens of the doomed port of Tyre catapulted basins of burning sand at Alexander the Great's advancing army.

Poisoned arrows appear in classical literature. The epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey both insinuate the use of the poisoned arrows in the Trojan War. The myths of Hercules also allude to the use of poisoned arrows; after he slew the Hydra he dipped his arrowheads in the venom. Scythians were famous for their poisoned arrows. The poison was a concoction of decomposed poisonous snakes and human blood incubated in a manure heap. One of the terms that the Greeks used to describe this poison was toxikon, which stemmed from toxon meaning a bow. Our modern word toxicology derives from this.

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon developed c. 672 and used by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. The Byzantine formula was a closely guarded state secret. The composition of Greek fire remains a matter of speculation with proposals including combinations of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime, calcium phosphide, and sulfur. Byzantine use of incendiary mixtures used pressurized nozzles or siphōn to project the liquid onto the enemy.

Even in antiquity, some feared the lurking consequences of unleashing what we call chemical weapons. The ancient Greek tale of Pandora's box offers a metaphor for their use. Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology which contained all the evils of the world. The phrase "to open Pandora's box" means to perform an action that may seem small, but that turns out to have severely detrimental and far-reaching consequences.

The Dura-Europos shield is the only surviving fully intact rectangular 'long shield' (scutum) from the Roman Empire. It was discovered in the 1930s in Dura-Europos. The artifact dates to the mid-3rd century CE (about 250–256 CE)

The rectangular arched shield is mainly made of wood. It was found broken up into thirteen parts. It is made from strips of wood that are 30 to 80 mm wide and 1.5 to 2 mm thick. They are put together in three layers, so that the total thickness of the wood layer is 4.5 to 6 mm.

In the center of the shield is a hole that was cut into the wood after the board was made, the umbo (central boss) is missing.

Fall of Troy

On this day in 1184 BC, according to ancient chronologists, the Fall of Troy occurred. It was the legendary climax of the Trojan War.

After 10 years of siege by the Greeks, they feigned departure and left behind a hollow wooden horse. Inside were Greek warriors who emerged at night, opening the city gates to the returning army, resulting in the city's destruction.

Late Bronze Age records confirm the existence of a very powerful city not far from the Dardanelles strait called Wilusa (Greek Ilios/Troy) ruled by a king called Alaksandu. (Paris's birth name according to Homer was Alexander.) Archaeologists have discovered skeletons, arrowheads and traces of destruction which point to a violent end for Troy Level VII – as the late Bronze Age city has been designated. The tale of the fall of Troy is recorded in two epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer and written about 400 years after the events. More than a century of archaeological and historical research confirms that there was a war on Troy when Homer says there was. Homer's account centres around the affair between Paris and the Spartan queen Helen.

Helen was the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and considered the most beautiful woman in the world. Menelaus persuaded his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to besiege Troy and recapture Helen.

Thousands of years after Homer’s Iliad described the Trojan War, it was thought to be nothing more than an entertaining legend. That all changed in 1868 with the discovery of a burned, truly ancient Troy.

See ---- Priam's Treasure

"Ides of March" coins

The most famous Roman coin in existence, a Brutus EID MAR silver denarius from 43 or 42 B.C. made $533k.

“the obverse struck slightly off center and with minor weakness and light marks, otherwise, Extremely Fine” — brought 420,000 Swiss francs on May 30, 2026. One from 42 B.C. made $332k in a 2016 auction. Brutus’ EID MAR issue directly relates to a crucial turning point in world history: the assassination of Julius Caesar on March 14, 44 B.C. A group of more than 60 senators led by Marcus Iunius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus attacked the dictator and stabbed him to death.

Brutus issued a silver denarius celebrating the assassination of Caesar on the Ides of March (March 15). The denarius has a portrait of Brutus on the obverse, with on the reverse a liberty cap flanked by two daggers over the inscription EID(ibus) MAR(tiis). The liberty cap was the garment given to a manumitted slave to indicate his free status, so the reverse side symbolizes Brutus and Cassius liberating Rome with their daggers. There are about 85 known copies of the silver denarius. Silver specimens in extremely fine condition have sold at auction for $150k. Low grade silver examples will make $50k.

An ‘Ides of March’ aureus is one of three known examples. It was purportedly discovered in a private European collection. The coin is in mint condition and has been described as “the undisputed masterpiece of ancient coinage.” It made $3.5m. It was later revealed it's providance was fake and the coin was stolen. It was repatriated to Greece.

In October of 42 B.C., months after the coins were struck, Brutus and Cassius were routed by Marc Anthony and Octavian’s forces and died in the Battles of Philippi. Their coins were outlawed and very few survived.

The famous 'Eid Mar' aureus on loan to the British Museum for a decade was offered for sale. It sold at auction in Zurich on May 31, 2022 for 2.2 million CHF. The coin features a portrait of Brutus with the inscription “BRVT IMP” or Brutus, Imperator. The coin has a hole. It is believed that it could only have been worn by a senior supporter and perhaps even one of the conspirators of Caesar’s murder.

The world's oldest customer complaint: Ea-nasir's bad copper

Around 1750 BCE in Mesopotamia a clay tablet in Akkadian cuneiform was sent to Ea-nasir, a copper trader based in Ur from merchant Nanni. Nanni sent his servants across the desert to purchase high-grade copper ingots from Ea-nasir. Instead of premium metal, Ea-nasir tried to force them to accept low-quality, sub-standard copper. When the servants refused, Ea-nasir was rude to them and sent them away empty-handed through enemy territory. The tablet reads ... "What manner of man are you? You have offered bad copper to my messenger... Saying: 'If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!'... How have you treated me for that copper? You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory." A standing male worshiper votive figure from ancient Mesopotamia, dated to 2,750–2,600 BC. It was placed in a temple to pray eternally on behalf of its owner.

The tablet became a viral internet meme due to its surprisingly modern, relatable tone of frustrated customers.

When archaeologists excavated Ea-nasir's house in Ur, they discovered Nanni's complaint wasn't alone. His home was filled with dozens of other clay tablets from angry customers complaining about missing shipments, bad grades of copper, and broken promises. Ea-nasir is remembered very well by history as the world's oldest conman.

Death of Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great died on this day (June 10) in 323 BC at age 32.

Ancient depictions of Alexander the Great usually show a youth. A Roman copy of a bronze made by Lysippus, Alexander’s personal sculptor, is thought to be among the best showing Alexander's true likeness.

When he fell ill and mysteriously died after 12 days of excruciating suffering, his mind was alert until the very end. Before burning himself alive on a funeral pyre in 324 BCE, the Indian philosopher Calanus (Kalanos) said to Alexander "We shall meet in Babylon."

Nobody knew what this meant as Alexander had no plans to go there. In February 323 BC, Alexander ordered his armies to prepare for the march to Babylon. He was warned not to enter the city.

When Alexander the Great died in Babylon his body didn’t begin to decay for six days. To the ancient Greeks, this confirmed that he was not an ordinary man, but a god. It may have been because he was completely paralyzed and still alive. In the week before Alexander's death, accounts mention chills, sweats, exhaustion and high fever. He may have suffered from the neurological disorder Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), which caused his death. Guillain–Barré syndrome is a rapid-onset muscle weakness caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system.

After Alexander died the future of his empire was uncertain. His generals scrambled to determine who should succeed him as Alexander had no heir. On his deathbed, Alexander passed his signet ring to Perdiccas, nominating him as his successor, but Perdiccas did not claim power immediately.

This coin was minted within a year of Alexander’s death

Princess Roxana of Bactria was pregnant with Alexander’s child at the time, and the gender of the baby was unknown.

Roxane - Wife of Alexander the Great

The factions reached a compromise, and when Alexander IV was born in August 323 BCE, he and Philip III were jointly made kings but acted only as figureheads, while Perdiccas would actually rule the Empire as regent. The new regime was met with confusion, resulting in the assassination of Perdiccas in 321 BCE and 40 years of war between the fragmented generals, splitting Alexander’s Empire into the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the Seleucid Empire, the Kingdom of Pergamon, and Macedonia.