Roman dice - tesserae

Roman dice (tesserae) were commonly six-sided, roughly cubic, and crafted from bone, antler, or bronze. While often visually asymmetrical or lopsided, they typically followed the same numbering convention as modern dice (opposite sides add to seven).

Romans also used tali, or knucklebones with four usable sides, often for gambling. Romans played a gambling game called Tali using the natural ankle bones (astragali) of sheep or goats. Tali was a common game in Ancient Rome. It originated in Greece and Egypt and was played with four tali.

Largely lost to time, what is known was that all combinations were split into three categories and one sub group. The highest value cast was 'Venus: 6,4,3,1'. Then 'Senio: 6,#,#,#' (Six and any combination of numbers.) then 'Vultures: 6,6,6,6 / 4,4,4,4 / 3,3,3,3'. Lowest roll was 'Canis: 1,1,1,1 (Lowest value Vulture.) Anyone who cast Canis (Dogs) or Senio put 4 coins in the pot, the first player to roll a Venus would take the pot. Despite strict laws, gambling was a popular pastime in ancient Rome, enjoyed by everyone from slaves to emperors. Romans were hard core gamblers on dice, board games, and sporting events like chariot races and gladiator contests.

Gorgons

In Greek mythology, a Gorgon is a female creature. The name derives from the ancient Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful". The term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes. They turned those who beheld them to stone. While two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not, and she was slain by Perseus. The concept of the Gorgon is at least as old in classical Greek mythology as Perseus and Zeus. Gorgons were a popular image in Greek mythology, images of the Gorgons were put on objects and buildings for protection.

Representations of full-bodied Gorgons and the Gorgon face, called a gorgoneion, were popular subjects in Ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman iconography. While ancient Gorgons were depicted as hideously ugly, over time they came to be portrayed as beautiful young women.

One of the earliest representations on coins is on an electrum stater from Parium.

Going further back, there is a similar image from the Knossos palace, dating to the fifteenth century BC.

One of two Gorgon Heads from the cuirass (breastplate) of Macedonian King Philip II

Greek Apollonia Pontica Silver Drachm struck 4th century B.C.

Perseus and the gorgon.

Typhon

Typhon was a monstrous giant and the most deadly creature in Greek mythology. Typhon was the last son of Gaia, and was fathered by Tartarus.

According to Hesiod, Typhon was "terrible, outrageous and lawless", and on his shoulders were one hundred snake heads, that emitted fire and every kind of noise.

Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters. Hera, angry at Zeus for having given birth to Athena by himself, prayed to Gaia to give her a son as strong as Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise. Typhon become a bane to all mortals.

"Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared." Typhon "was joined in love" to Echidna, a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon "fierce offspring"

Typhon challenged Zeus for rule of the cosmos. Angered, Zeus used his thunderbolt to overcome Typhon, who was cast down into Tartarus. Most accounts have the defeated Typhon being the cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

Typhon mythology is part of the Greek succession myth, explaining how Zeus came to rule the gods.

Gaius (Caligula), with Divus Augustus

Caligula (AD 37–41) struck a famous series of coins pairing his own portrait with that of his deified great-grandfather, Divus Augustus. These issues, minted at Lugdunum (modern Lyon), were deliberately struck to legitimize his rule by visually linking himself to the founder of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. NGC MS★ 5/5 - 5/5, this coin is the finest Caligula aureus known in private hands. It made $500k on 13 January 2025.

Born Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus in AD 12, he was dressed as a soldier by his parents, including miniature army boots. (caligae) When the hated Tiberius died in AD 37, Caligula, 25, was welcomed with relief. That didn't last long.

Gaius (Caligula), with Divus Augustus. AD 37-41. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.63 g, 2h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. 1st emission, AD 37. $4,200. After 3 years of misrule Caligula was assassinated in a plot by some senators and the Praetorian guard led by Cassius Chaerea on 24 January AD 41.

Roman wine

The Roman belief that wine was a daily necessity made it ubiquitous. It was readily available to slaves, peasants and aristocrats, men and women alike. Ancient Roman wine was a daily staple, not a luxury.

It was cloudy, highly acidic, and stored in large clay jars called dolia. With no modern preservation methods, Romans heavily diluted it with water, spices, or honey. Romans fermented and aged wine in large, partially buried earthenware clay vessels. The porous clay and egg-like shapes allowed for micro-oxygenation, which gave the wine grassy, nutty, and dried fruit flavors.

Conditum Paradoxum was a popular sweet, spiced wine made by boiling wine with honey, black pepper, laurel, saffron, and mastic. Posca was a drink for soldiers and the lower classes made by mixing water with soured wine or vinegar. Premium wines were highly prized and expensive. Falernian was a sweet, strong white wine that was the most expensive drink in the empire. Produced on the slopes of Mount Falernus (modern-day Monte Massico) in the Campania/Lazio region of Italy, it was a symbol of luxury for the Roman elite.

Falernian wine was a luxury product. A standard half-litre amphora cost about 1 sestertius. (25% of a Roman labourer’s daily wage) Premium, well-aged vintages were very expensive. The wine trade drew merchants to do business with tribes native to Gaul and Germania, bringing Roman influences to these regions before the arrival of the Roman military. Evidence of the trade and the significant ancient wine economy is found through amphorae – the ceramic jars used to store and transport wine and other goods. One of the most important wine centres in the Roman world was Pompeii, located on the Campanian coast. An expanse of farms and vineyards covered the slopes of Vesuvius, exploiting fertile soil to produce fine wines.

Grand Manan - Captain Kidd's Money Cove

Grand Manan Island is the largest of the Fundy Islands in the Bay of Fundy. It is the primary island in the Grand Manan Archipelago, sitting at the boundary between the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine on the Atlantic coast.

As early as 1875 searches were made on the west side of the island for treasure buried by Captain William Kidd.

For nearly 200 years, the remote area of the island has been called the Money Cove.

The tale goes a widow had a dream. A headless Negro said, "In a certain spot on Grand Manan there lies, in a hogshead, the buried treasure of Captain Kidd. I was killed by Captain Kidd's pirates that I might guard the buried treasure. I am weary of my task. I wish to tell you where this treasure is, and then rest in peace. I will show you the place."

Captain William Kidd (c. 22 January 1645 – 23 May 1701) was a Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. He was hanged on 23 May 1701, at 'Execution Dock', Wapping, in London. During the execution, the hangman's rope broke and Kidd was hanged on the second attempt. His body was gibbeted over the River Thames at Tilbury Point as a warning to would-be pirates for 3 years. The belief that Kidd had left buried treasure contributed to the growth of his legend.

Just before his death on the gallows, Captain Kidd said, "After my death, you may find treasure I have buried in a place where two tides meet."

Some point to the Bay of Fundy, where two tides meet as the place where Captain Kidd hid his treasure. Indian Beach

In 2007 a wreck of a treasure ship captured by William Kidd was found in the Caribbean. Lying in just 10ft of water, the Quedah Merchant is on the seabed off the island of Hispaniola, which is split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Marine archaeologists were amazed that the wreck, which was scuttled in 1699, had lain undiscovered for so long. The Quedah Merchant was perhaps Kidd's greatest prize. A 400-ton Moorish trader from Armenia, it was loaded with gold, silver and fine silks.

Herring "elevator" to lift fish up from the weirs

Emperor Nero

Nero is among the most famous of all Roman emperors – but not for good reasons. During his reign, from 54 to 68 CE, Nero had few accomplishments and many failures. Nero's mother, Agrippina the Younger, (Caligula's sister) dominated Nero's early life until he cast her off. Five years into his reign, he had her murdered. Nero's rule is thought that of a tyrant and most Romans thought him corrupt.

Silver denarius of 55/56

Nero was suspected of starting the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD in order to clear space for his new palace complex, the Domus Aurea. It caused widespread devastation and countless mansions, homes and temples were destroyed. The fire is reported to have burned for over a week. Nero seized Christians as scapegoats for the fire and burned them alive.

Nero is among the few Roman emperors who ages through their coin issues.

Nero is famous for brutally devaluing Roman currency for the first time in the Empire's history. He reduced the weight of the denarius from 3.85 grams to 3.35 grams. He also reduced the silver purity from 99.5% to 93.5%. Nero also reduced the weight of the aureus from 8 grams to 7.2 grams.

The Great Revolt between the Romans and the Jews in 63 CE began under Nero when Roman governor Gessius Florus looted the Second Temple. In 65 a conspiracy against Nero failed after being discovered. In March 68, Gaius Julius Vindex, the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, rebelled against Nero's oppressive tax policies.

The discontent of the legions of Germany and the continued opposition of the popular Galba in Spain, despite his being officially declared a public enemy, were Nero's undoing. The prefect of the Praetorian Guard abandoned his allegiance to the Emperor. When the Senate declared Nero a public enemy it was the end. Nero could not bring himself to take his own life but instead forced his private secretary to perform the task. He died on 9 June 68. In 69 CE, Galba, the governor of Hispania (Spain), rebelled and Rome saw the 'year of 4 emperors'.

In 2017 excavations at Mount Zion in Jerusalem discovered a gold coin bearing the likeness of Roman Emperor Nero. The coin had been struck in either 56 and 57 AD. The aureus bears a bare-headed portrait of the young Nero as Caesar. The coin would have been minted before the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Researchers hypothesized that the gold coin was part of a Jewish store of wealth, amassed before their mansions were razed – along with the rest of the city – by Titus and the Roman legions. The coin was likely hidden prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and overlooked by looting Roman soldiers.

The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War. The destruction of both the first and second temples is still mourned annually as the Jewish fast Tisha B'Av. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome.