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 notorious for its hedonism, corruption and scandal.

Roman poet Sextus Propertius once described Baiae as a “vortex of luxury” and a “harbor of vice.” 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.

Baiae was built on the Cumaean Peninsula in the Phlegraean Fields, an active volcanic area.

Ruins were submerged by volcanic activity by the time of the Renaissance.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rome - cruel and unusual punishment

Ancient Rome is famous for its extreme and bizarre penal system, where punishments were used for deterrence and social control. The penalty depended heavily on the offender’s social class. Romans (citizens of Rome) were exempt from cruel punishments such as crucifixion. Only non-Romans could be crucified. However, a Roman could be found by a judge guilty of crimes against the people and stripped of his citizenship. He is then considered an outlaw and may be killed or tortured by anyone for any reason, or no reason.

In ancient Rome, punishments for theft (furtum) varied drastically. If caught red-handed (manifestum) and a slave or non-citizen, the punishment could be hard labour or execution. Citizens typically paid fines ranging from double to quadruple the stolen item's value.

When Tarpeia let the enemy Sabines into Rome, she was thrown from a precipice above the Roman forum. It then became established practice to throw traitors from the Tarpeian Rock. Such tales served as a warning for future citizens. Roman society was patriarchal. The family’s oldest living male had, in theory, the power to kill anyone within his household with impunity. This included not only those living under his roof, but the wider family as well.

Parricides were punished by being 'condemned to the beasts', which was popular in the Roman world.

Anyone who killed his father, mother, or another relative (parricide) was subjected to the “punishment of the sack” (poena cullei). This allegedly involved the criminal being sewn into a leather sack together with four animals – a snake, a monkey, a rooster, and a dog – then being thrown into a river. The emperor Constantine’s penalty for parricide only specified that snakes should be used.

Vestal Virgins who broke their vows of chastity were buried alive in an underground chamber with bread, water, and a lamp.

Common crimes, such as brawling, would likely result in beatings with sticks, or lashings with a whip. Prisons existed only for temporary stays before trial. Criminals found guilty were assigned for gladitorial combat or the mines. Taking part in the Roman census was compulsory as the state needed a complete record of citizens’ property for taxation. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the sixth king of Rome Servius Tullius decreed that anyone who did not participate in the census would lose their property and be sold into slavery.

Roman law was not uniform. Colony rule was often corrupt and Rome favored some colonies more than others.

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. Water was used to collapse large sections of a mountain to extract the gold and silver it contained. 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 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 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 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.

Emperor Postumus aureus brings $189k

Topping the sale at a recent Nomos 471-lot public auction May 31 in Zürich was a gold aureus of Romano-Gallic Emperor Postumus, A.D. 260 to 269 that remains virtually as struck. It brought a hammer price of 150,000 Swiss francs. ($189,924 U.S.) Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus founded the Gallic Empire (260–274 CE), a breakaway state comprising Gaul, Britain, and Hispania. Proclaimed emperor by his Rhine legions, Postumus assumed the title and powers of Emperor. He ruled for the better part of a decade, defending the frontier from Germanic tribes. He was killed by his own troops in 269 CE after refusing to let them sack Mainz.

The year 268 saw the issuing of the 'Labours of Hercules' series of coins in honour of Postumus's favourite god. A sudden large debasement of his coinage later that year shows that Postumus was facing increasing financial pressure, probably due to a sharp decline of silver and gold production from Spanish mines. The need to buy off an increasingly discontented army compounded those problems.

Sword of Damocles

The 'Sword of Damocles' is a famous ancient metaphor used to describe the always present danger that accompanies power.

Damocles is a character who appears in a anecdote referred to as "the Sword of Damocles." This refers to the imminent peril faced by those in positions of power. Damocles was a courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a 4th-century BC ruler. Damocles was pandering to Dionysius, and exclaimed to him that Dionysius was truly fortunate as a great man of power and authority. In response, Dionysius offered to switch places with Damocles for one day. Damocles eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Dionysius, who had many enemies, had a huge sword above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Dionysius did this to evoke the sense of what it's like to be king: though having fortune, always having to watch in fear and anxiety against dangers that might try to take it away.

Damocles finally begged the king that he be allowed to depart because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate, realizing that with great fortune and power also comes great danger.

Leadership lessons from Julius Caesar

After a 5 day war with Pharnacles II of Pontus, Caesar wrote a report to Rome detailing his conquest. The commander didn't go into much detail, writing: "I came, I saw, I conquered." The sound bite proved so catchy that we still remember it to this day.

Crossing the Rubicon River with an army was a declaration of war. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC, he risked all. Suetonius writes that Caesar quoted an Athenian playwright as he crossed the river, declaring "the die is cast."

Caesar wrote that "in war, events of importance are the result of trivial causes."In his chronicle of the Gallic Wars, Caesar concludes that: "in most cases men willingly believe what they wish" describing a tactical mistake of his Gallic enemies.

Caesar writes: "The immortal gods are wont to allow those persons whom they wish to punish for their guilt sometimes a greater prosperity and longer impunity, in order that they may suffer the more severely from a reverse of circumstances." As a young man, Julius Caesar was abducted by pirates. When the pirates demanded a ransom of twenty talents, Caesar burst out laughing. They did not know, he said, who it was that they had captured, and he volunteered to pay fifty.

Caesar went on to promise the pirates that he'd personally kill them once he was free. After he was ransomed, he raised a fleet, hunted them down, and did exactly what he had promised.

Legio XIII Gemina

Legio XIII Gemina was one of the most celebrated military units of the Roman Army.

It was famous for its pivotal role in Julius Caesar’s rise to power. Formed in 57 BC to fight in the Gallic Wars, this is the legion that marched across the Rubicon River with Caesar in 49 BC, an act of defiance that sparked the Roman Civil War. The 13th remained loyal to Caesar.

Legio XIII was active throughout the entire war, fighting at Dyrrhachium (48 BC) and Pharsalus (48 BC). After the decisive victory over Pompey at Pharsalus, the legion was to be disbanded, and the legionaries "pensioned off" with land grants. The legion was recalled for the Battle of Thapsus (46 BC) and the final Battle of Munda (45 BC). After Munda, Caesar disbanded the legion, retired his veterans, and gave them farmland in their native Italy.

Augustus reconstituted the legion once again in 41 BC to deal with the rebellion of Sextus Pompeius (son of Pompey) in Sicily. Legio XIII acquired the cognomen Gemina ("twin") after being reinforced with veteran legionaries from other legions following the war against Mark Antony and the Battle of Actium. After the disaster of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, the legion was sent as reinforcements. In the year of the four emperors 69 AD, XIII Gemina supported first Otho and then Vespasian against Vitellius, fighting in the two Battles of Bedriacum. Under Trajan the legion took part in both Dacian wars (101–102, 105–106), and it was transferred by Trajan in 106 to the newly conquered province of Dacia.

Last reports come from the 5th century, where a legio tertiadecima gemina was stationed in Babylon. An archaeological excavation of an elementary school in Vienna in 2024 uncovered bricks bearing the stamp of the 13th Legion Gemina. From the 2nd century, They were likely the broken remnants of pilae stacks, the pillars of brick used to raise the floor for a hypocaust heating system.

Elagabalus

Elagabalus was related to the Severan dynasty. He was Roman emperor from 218 to 222. He came from a prominent Arab family in Emesa (Homs), Syria.

Elagabalus is considered among the worst Roman emperors, although he wasn't as bloody as the rest. In his youth he served as priest of the sun god Elagabal. After the death of his cousin Caracalla in 218, Elagabalus was raised to the principate at age 14 in an army revolt instigated by his grandmother Julia Maesa against Caracalla's short-lived successor, Macrinus. Elagabalus was assassinated and replaced by his cousin Severus Alexander in March 222.

Elagabalus quickly gained a reputation for eccentricity, moral decadence, zealotry and sexual proclivity and perversion.

His assassination was again plotted by Julia Maesa and carried out by the Praetorian Guard. Elagabalus 218-222 CE gold aureus. On the reverse is a stunning scene with a quadriga moving left to right bearing the stone of Emesa with an eagle cresting the stone. The legend reads “SANCT DEO SOLI ELAGABAL” ('To the Holy Sun God El-Gabel'). This example is one of two of this type known to exist.

Ancients regarded stones that fell from the sky as manifestations of the divine. The Syrian town of Emesa (now Homs) had a temple enshrining a conical black stone that was likely a meteorite. Elagabalus' first official act was to transfer the sacred rock to Rome’s main temple, the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. Elagabalus disregarded Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. He replaced the head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with the deity Elagabal. His behavior outraged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, and the common people.

Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – March 235), also known as Alexander Severus, was Roman emperor from 222 until 235. The last emperor from the Severan dynasty, he succeeded Elagabalus in 222, at the age of 13. Alexander was also assassinated. His death at age 26 marked the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century, which included nearly fifty years of civil war, foreign invasion, and the further collapse of the monetary economy.

Antoninus Pius

Antoninus Pius, also known as Antoninus, was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.

138-161 AD. Aureus, 7.30g. Rome, 140-4 CE

Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held various offices during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. He is remembered by history as a kind, just, and wise emperor. Antoninus Pius was an “Adopted Emperor”, where succession was a conscious decision, not a birthright. After the death of Hadrian’s first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, on February 25, 138 CE, Antoninus was formally adopted by Hadrian. It was agreed that he would be made emperor with the provision that he would, in turn, adopt Marcus Aurelius.

About A.D. 141 Antoninus Pius ordered the Roman frontier to be pushed northward. A gold aureus alludes to his victory in Britain. The coin was struck circa 143 to 144 A.D., at the Rome Mint. The campaign was successful, establishing the 39-mile-long Antonine Wall some 99 miles north of Hadrian’s wall. The Senate acclaimed Antoninus as Imperator in A.D. 143 for the second time. This coin marks that event, with its depiction of winged Victory holding a trophy symbolizing military success. The aureus made $7,000.

His humanitarian efforts were significant, and he was loved by the Roman people. Antoninus Pius died in his sleep at the age of 74. His successor Marcus Aurelius spoke very highly of Antoninus: “Remember his qualities, so that when your last hour comes your conscience may be as clear as his.” His last spoken word was “aequanimitas”, meaning equanimity – mental calmness and composure.