UK Spitalfields skeleton a high ranking Roman woman

A noble young Roman woman who lived in the fourth century was buried under what is now a market in London. She was in her early 20s and grew up in Italy. Her body was discovered in March 1999 under London's Spitalfields Market. The body was found in a decorated lead coffin that itself was placed inside a stone sarcophagus, indicating she was someone of great wealth and status.

She was embalmed with expensive Mediterranean and Middle Eastern oils and resins, and wrapped in a silk garment interwoven with fine gold thread. Her burial clothing was found to be purple — a hallmark strictly reserved for Roman elite.

Judaea Capta

Judaea Capta coinage was a series of coins issued by Vespasian to celebrate the capture of Judaea. Coins inscribed Ivdaea Capta (Judea Captured) were issued throughout the Empire. Coins were issued by Roman Emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian to celebrate the victory over the Jewish revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem's Second Temple in 70 CE.

Coins were struck for 25 years in gold, silver, and bronze.

The Great Revolt between the Romans and the Jews in 63 CE occured after Roman governor Gessius Florus looted the Second Temple. The First Jewish Revolt (66–73/74 CE), was the first of three major rebellions by Judaea against Rome. In 69 CE, Galba, the governor of Hispania (Spain), rebelled against Nero marking the start of the 'year of 4 emperors'.

After the capture of Jerusalem, the last rebels committed suicide at Masada.

Vespasian. AU Aureus (7.05 g), AD 69-79. ‘Judaea Capta’ type.

Winner Vespasian levied the punitive Fiscus Judaicus tax against all five million of his Jewish subjects. Vespasian then began striking vast numbers of Judaea Capta coins in all denominations. One element of the Judaea Capta imagery is a group of military trophies. Captured weapons and armor hung from a tree or post represents a military victory over the defeated enemy.

A rare shekel produced in Year 4 plus the ultimate rarity, a Year 5 shekel. The Second Revolt was circa 132-135 CE.

Judaea Capta gold aureus features the inscription DE IVDAEIS (Latin - "concerning the Jews") Hybrid features the strange legend IVDAEA AUGUST.

Titus, AD 79-81. Gold Aureus. A true rarity, the date is early in AD 70, which places it before or during the siege of Jerusalem (May-September 70). Titus as Caesar features the legend IVDAE DEVICTA, or “Judea is conquered,” It realized $956,000 in 2011. The undated coin is the only known example with a complete inscription on the shield.

Galba ruled for eight months from AD 68 to 69. His aureus is one of the great rarities of Roman coins. This example, near XF, made £52,000.

Roman military victories on coins

Rome’s territorial expansion was synonymous with military conquest. Coins served as both the messenger and message in ancient Rome.

AEGVPTO CAPTA (Egypt Captured) was a series of coins struck in 28-27 BCE by Octavian. The first Roman coins explicitly glorifying conquest were a novelty for the time.

The Nile crocodile was a symbol of ancient Egypt. The dupondius of Nimes continued to be struck for several decades, from 29 BCE up to 10 CE. The obverse portrays Augustus and Marcus Agrippa. The reverse is a crocodile chained to a palm tree.

The dupondius was a low value copper coin, used in everyday transactions.

DACIA CAPTA (Dacia Captured). Under Trajan, the Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent. Trajan’s campaign over the Danube brought Rome both new territory and the gold mines of Dacia. The conquest of rich Dacia (101-102 and 105-106 CE) was the last major territorial addition of the Empire.

Parthia Capta. Rome fought many wars against the Parthian Empire but had few triumps. One of the few Roman leaders to humiliate the East was Emperor Trajan. His 115-117 CE campaign was celebrated with PARTHIA CAPTA (Parthia Conquered) coinage.

The Armenia Capta gold aureus of Lucius Verus, issued in A.D. 163 in Rome made 14,000 Swiss francs ($13,963 U.S.) in 2019 against an estimate of 7,500 francs. In 163, the Roman general Marcus Statius Priscus invaded Armenia and captured the capital Artaxata. The second coin was issued in Rome, sometime in early 218. It features a bust of Macrinus on the obverse, and the reverse shows Victory seated. The reverse proclaims a victory over the Parthians, which is ironic, since Macrinus agreed to a humiliating peace treaty. 20,000 Swiss francs ($19,946 U.S.) against an estimate of 5,000 francs.

Lost Roman city of Neapolis

In 2017, archaeologists confirmed the discovery of the lost Roman city of Neapolis off the coast of Nabeul, in northeast Tunisia

The lost Roman city was found in the waters of northeast Tunisia in 2017. The find confirmed an old theory that the settlement was swallowed up by a colossal tsunami 1,600 years ago. Divers discovered the remains of streets, monuments, and around 100 tanks used to store garum, a fermented fish sauce sometimes called 'Rome’s ketchup'.

On the morning of July 21, 365 CE, the Mediterranean was rocked by an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.5. The epicenter was in Crete, where most towns were destroyed. Large portions of Greece, Cyprus, Sicily, Spain, and North Africa suffered.

The earthquake caused an uplift of nine metres of the island of Crete.

Neapolis was once the largest centre in the Roman world for the production of garum.

See ----- Pompeii reveals garum.

Rare Greek-Illyrian helmet discovered

A very rare bronze Greek-Illyrian helmet, used in Greece during the time of the Greco-Persian Wars, was discovered in a rock-cut tomb in Dalmatia, Croatia in 2020.

The form of the iconic open-faced helmet originated in the Peloponnese during the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The find was made during the exploration of the cave tomb in Zakotarac, located on the Pelješac peninsula, in southern Dalmatia, Croatia. The tomb was for a warrior buried in the 4th century BC. Part of the warrior’s skull appears to be visible from the openings of the helmet. The helmet is one of only about forty such helmets that have ever been found. Archaeologists also discovered a trove of ancient weapons, including spears and knives. Two other people were buried along with the warrior, including a woman, who was found wearing a bronze bracelet.

Golden Man of Saka

The Golden Man is a Kazak warrior costume that dates to about 300 or 400 BC. It's believed to have been worn by a high status teen-aged Scythian Prince who was killed during a battle.

It was found in 1969 in a Scythian tomb about 60km east of Almaty, near Yesik. It is made out of more than 4,000 gold pieces, many of them finely worked with animal motifs.

Gold ring of Scipio Barbatus

This gold and carnelian signet ring was found on the skeletal finger of Scipio Barbatus (337 BC – 270 BC) inside his sarcophagus, when the Tomb of the Scipios was discovered in 1780. It is the only Roman ring that can be matched to a known Roman owner.

Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus was the father of Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina and great-grandfather of Scipio Africanus.

Health God Asclepius

A 2.2m marble statue group depicting the health god Asclepius together with his son and assistant Telesphoros has been unearthed during excavation work at the Aspendos Ancient City.Dated to the last quarter of the 2nd century AD, the statue group was discovered among the ruins of the northern wing of the Monumental Gate located in the Eastern Square on Theater Street. Asclepius was the ancient Greek god of medicine and healing. He learned healing from the centaur Chiron and grew so skilled he could raise the dead, prompting Zeus to kill him with a lightning bolt. He was later made a god.

Aspendosan is in Antalya, Turkey, 40 km east of Antalya. It's famous for the world's best-preserved Roman theater, built in 155 AD by the architect Zeno, which seats up to 10,000. It features advanced acoustics.

Baiae - Las Vegas of ancient Rome

Baiae was a mineral springs and coastal resort on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples in ancient Italy. The city was named after Baius, Ulysses’ helmsman. It was fashionable for centuries during antiquity for the super-rich. The ancient Roman 'Sin City' was famed for its natural volcanic hot springs. It housed some of the empire's most luxurious baths and private saunas. (laconica) Baiae was built on the Cumaean Peninsula in the Phlegraean Fields, an active volcanic area. Baiae was notorious for its hedonism, corruption and scandal. Roman poet Sextus Propertius once described Baiae as a “vortex of luxury” and a “harbor of vice.”

The bathhouses of Baiae were filled with warm mineral water directed to its pools from underground sulfur springs. Roman engineers constructed a complex system of chambers that channeled underground heat into facilities that acted as saunas. Baiae later formed part of Port Julius, the base of the western fleet of the Imperial Roman Navy. Portus Julius was built in 37 B.C. by Agrippa as Rome's first purpose-built naval base in the Campi Flegrei. Ruins were submerged by volcanic activity by the time of the Renaissance.

A volcanic phenomenon known as bradysism saw large portions of Baiae’s coastline—including opulent villas and bathing complexes, sink about 3 meters beneath the Gulf of Naples.

A series of dives involving historians and scientists from across the world revealed vast villas, priceless statues and breathtaking mosaics, as well as heated spas, cobbled streets and even a nymphaeum – a grotto of pleasure. The chambers of volcanic molten rock that lay beneath Baiae, providing the hot water that served the spas, were eventually its undoing. The chambers emptied as the lava found a way to escape, causing the resort to sink beneath the waves.

One of its most notorious events was in CE 39, when Emperor Caligula ordered a floating bridge of nearly five kilometers across the gulf to be built and rode across it on horseback. Suetonius recorded that Thrasyllus, an astrologer, had said to the previous Emperor Tiberius, “as for Gaius [Caligula], he has no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse dry-shod across the Gulf of Baiae.”

Caligula donned purple silk robes adorned with precious stones and gold, a sword, a shield, and a crown of oak leaves. He wore what he claimed was the breastplate of Alexander the Great, that he had stolen from the conqueror’s tomb when in Alexandria.

A palace was built in Baiae by Emperor Nero, and Hadrian died among its baths in CE 138. Cicero had a villa in Baiae.