Roman trade with India

The Roman Empire funded up to half its empire from tax on trade with India. At the height of Rome’s power, the richest city in the western world ran a huge, unbalanced trade account with a land its armies never reached.

Pliny the Elder, who had governed provinces, put the annual outflow at 50 million sesterces in bullion. The emperor Tiberius complained Roman wealth was passing to foreigners. Domitian built dedicated warehouses for pepper in the heart of the city attempting to control prices. A single shipload, recorded in a surviving papyrus, was valued at close to 9 million sesterces, a massive sum. Based on those numbers, customs duties on Indian cargoes produced close to half of the revenue needed to finance the empire. Two legions in Egypt held the customs house that made the scheme work.

India sent pepper, ivory, gems, perfumes and medicines.

Romans prized Indian black pepper, precious gemstones like beryl, pearls, sapphires, and fine cotton and silk textiles along with ivory. Rome paid in bullion. Taxes on imports and exports produced the revenue. The Red Sea corridor required a trip by ship of 4,500 km, (2800 mi) followed by a caravan route of 380 km (236 mi) across the Egyptian Desert, and then another 760 km (472 mi) by ship on the Nile, for a total distance of 5,640 km (3500 mi). The Persian Gulf corridor required a trip by ship of 2,350 km (1460 mi) from India and then by caravan across the Syrian desert for 1,400 km (870 mi), for a total of 3,750 km (2330 mi). To get to India, Chinese silk had traveled another 5,000 km (3100 mi) across the mountainous terrain of Central China.

Great braziers of incense were burned at the Colosseum in Rome to cover the stench of the blood and gore left in the hot sun. During mass spectacles like gladiatorial games and wild beast hunts (venationes), the volume of organic waste created a severe odor problem. Romans honored their dead by burning prodigious quantities of incense at their funerals. The wealthier the dead, the more elaborate the ceremony. Pliny reported that at the funeral of a guilty Nero’s consort Poppaea, a full year’s supply of Rome’s incense was consumed. Facing severe financial problems, Vespasian tried in vain to restrict the import of Indian luxury goods to Rome. Vespasian even taxed the collection and trade of urine around AD 70. Romans traded human urine as a valuable industrial commodity because stale urine breaks down into ammonia, a powerful natural cleaning and bleaching agent.

Poppaea

Cool ancient - Alyattes of Lydia

Alyattes is the name inscribed in the Lydian language on early electrum coins. That is King Alyattes (reigned c. 619–560 BC). He was the father of Croesus, who succeeded him around 560 BC. This is among the first coins ever minted for general circulation.

LYDIAN KINGDOM. Alyattes or Walwet (ca. 630-mid-6th century BC). EL 1/24 stater or myshemihecte (6mm, 0.57 gm). NGC AU★ 5/5 - 4/5. Lydo-Milesian standard. Sardes mint. Head of boar right / Incuse square punch with geometric design. Spier p. 332, 6. Rosen 282 (A5/P5). Weidauer Series XIII (unlisted denomination). Kurth G13 (same rev. punch). cf. SNG Kayhan 1011 (hemihecte). Possibly the finest certified of its type. Radiating, honey dies.

The coin is bid to $4,600 USD with 8 days to go. Here

Vercingetorix

On August 3, 52 BC the battle of Alesia ended with the utter defeat of the Gauls. The Roman victory established Roman hegemony over Gaul which continued for more than 500 years. On September 21, 46 BC Julius Caesar celebrated a triumphal procession in Rome over Gaul, with leader of the Gauls Vercingetorix paraded in chains.

Vercingetorix (c. 82 BC – 46 BC) was a king and chieftain of the Arverni tribe; he united the Gauls in a revolt against Roman forces during the last phase of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. Vercingetorix came to power in 52 BC. He established an alliance with other Gallic tribes, took command of combined forces, and led them in the Celts' revolt against the Romans. He won the Battle of Gergovia against Julius Caesar in which several thousand Romans and allies died and Caesar's Roman legions withdrew.

Vercingetorix is considered the first national hero of France and was greatly admired in his time, even by his enemies.

Vercingetorix waged the world's first guerilla war. Vercingetorix made swift strikes on the Romans and their supply lines, and then disappeared into the surrounding landscape. There could be no victory for the Romans because there was no enemy for them to engage. The Gauls struck and vanished.

All hope was lost behind the walls in Alesia. Vercingetorix surrendered himself, taking the Romans by surprise. Caesar had him taken away in chains and sent to Rome. The defenders of Alesia were massacred, sold as slaves, or given as slaves to soldiers as spoils. Vercingetorix was exhibited in Caesar's triumph; then he was executed.

Two coins are a fitting set of the two most important generals of the Gallic Wars. They are both Roman Republican silver denarii minted in the 40s BC. Julius Caesar bears his portrait and the title Dictator for Life. The coin was struck February-March 44 BC, the last before his famous demise. The coin depicting Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix was struck by Caesar’s political ally L. Hostilius Saserna in 48 BC, while the Roman general was still vying for control of the Republic with Pompey Magnus.

The secutor

The secutor was a heavily armoured Roman gladiator. The name means chaser or persuer. The character emerged from a murmillo around 50 AD.

Most often his opponent was the lightly armed retiarius: no helmet, little armour. Just a net, a trident and a dagger. The helmet was built against all three. Small round eye holes, too narrow for a trident's prongs to enter. A smooth, rounded shell, nothing for a net to snag. He was dressed as a fish and his opponent was the fisherman.

Found at Pompeii, the helmet survived in a theatre courtyard turned into gladiators' barracks.

Flamma, a Syrian, was a famous Roman secutor. He died at the age of 30, after having fought 34 times. He won 21 times, drew 9, and needed missio (to be spared) 4 times. Flamma's gravestone was discovered in Rome. It was erected by a fellow gladiator named Secundus. The inscription translates to: "Flamma, secutor, lived 30 years, fought 34 times, won 21 times, drew 9 times, reprieved 4 times, a Syrian by nationality. Secundus made this for his well-deserving comrade-in-arms."

Pyrrhic Victory

Taras or Tarentum, in Calabria, is modern Taranto in southern Italy. When the Romans broke a treaty with Taras in 282 B.C. to subdue an adjacent Greek city, Taras expelled the Roman garrison from the captured township. The Romans sought revenge.

Bust of Pyrrhos

Taras appealed for help to King Pyrrhos of Epirus in northwestern Greece. Pyrrhos embarked upon the Pyrrhic War of 280-275 B.C.E. A skilled commander, with a strong army fortified by war elephants, Pyrrhus had initial success against the Roman legions, but suffered heavy losses even in victory. 3 battles represent the origin of the phrase “Pyrrhic victory” The battle of Heraclea was a decisive victory for Pyrrhus, who employed a tight phalanx formation with elephant charges. Though the win was complete, it caused high casualties of Pyrrhus’ best troops.

The next battle of Asculum was a similar result; the Romans attempted to repulse the elephants with war wagons but failed. The Romans withdrew to higher ground. The Romans were worse off, but Pyrrhus lost thousands of men and his best officers. The battle of Beneventum was either inconclusive, a Roman victory or a victory for Pyrrhus. The Romans repulsed the elephants and send them rampaging through Pyrrhus’ lines. The result drove him from Italy and in 278 B.C.E. Pyrrhos abandoned Taras to its fate.

He returned in 275 B.C.E., but was soundly defeated and returned to Epirus. Three years later Taras was besieged and the city finally fell to the Romans.

A superbly struck example of a rare gold stater from the ancient Greek city state of Taras (Tarentum) in southern Italy, a.k.a. Calabria. The 8.55 g coin dates from 276-272 BC. The obverse shows the head of Zeus. On the reverse an eagle with wings displayed perches on a thunderbolt. $ 18,000 in VF.

EPIRUS. Pyrrhus (297–272 BC). Silver tetradrachm (16.56 gm). $60K in 2012.

After the particularly bloody Battle of Asculum in 279 BCE, Pyrrhus famously remarked: “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.” This would live forever in the phrase “Pyrrhic victory”. The silver tetradrachms were a high-value coin and were struck with dies engraved by the most skilled artisans.

Pyrrhos, King of Epiros, (297-272 BC.), AV Stater, 8.55g, Struck in Syracuse, 278 BC. $180k.

To pay mercenaries needed to fight the Carthaginians, Pyrrhus produced a huge issue of gold staters and half staters at Syracuse. The finest engravers were hired to produce stunning designs.

Hadrian - Hercules Gaditanus

An aureus of Hadrian depicting Hercules Gaditanus, the principal deity of Gades (modern Cádiz), on the reverse. Issued early in Hadrian’s reign, in AD 119, the coin celebrates Hadrian’s connection to his mother’s native city and associates him with the city’s cult of Hercules. Hercules stands with his club and the apples of the Hesperides, beside a prow and the personification of Gades, with the legend HERC GADIT (Hercules Gaditanus).

The mines of Ancient Greece

In 480 BCE, the Persian army defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae and invaded parts of Greece. When all seemed lost, Themistocles proposed an unusual plan: the Greeks should not face the superior Persian soldiers on the battlefield, but instead invest in a fleet. In the naval battle of Salamis, the newly-built ships destroyed the Persian fleet.

Without a navy to support their army, the Persians were forced to retreat. The battle of Salamis was a critical turning point. The ships that won the battle of Salamis were paid for with silver from the mines of Laurion. 20,000 slaves worked to provide the silver for the fleet. Without it victory would have been impossible.

Discovery of major veins of ore meant that at the beginning of the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480–479 BC, the Athenian state had at its disposal a hundred talents of silver. (about 2.6 tonnes)

After the defeat of Persia, Sparta and Athens waged a long and taxing war. As the silver mines became exhausted, a backwater territory, Macedonia, thrived and became the new power. The gold mines of Macedonia played a critical role. The largest gold mines in antiquity were operating in Macedonia and Thrace and they supported the rise of Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great.

Evolution of gold coins

Gold has been used as a medium of exchange and a store of wealth for millennia due to its rarity, desirability, and high value. Ancient gold coins were first introduced for commerce in the kingdom of Lydia (modern Turkey) during the reign of King Croesus in the 6th century BC. The earliest coins were made from electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. Electrum wasn't always desirable. When coinage gained popularity a way to standardize the purity of gold and silver was needed.

The first technique of gold parting was invented by Croesus: salt cementation. King Cyrus and the Persians defeated the Lydians in 546 B.C., and the region became part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Through trade and conquest the Persians spread the use of gold coinage throughout the Mediterranean. The most popular gold coin of the empire was the Persian daric, introduced by Darius the Great sometime around 500 B.C. Production of darics continued for nearly two hundred years, until the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great.

Alexander and his armies looted some 700,000 troy ounces of gold coins from the Persians. These ‘spoils of war’ were subsequently melted and used to mint coins in his name. In Britain and elsewhere, a number of Celtic tribes issues coins in gold. The early Roman Republic issued few coins in gold, their main coinage being in silver, with bronze or copper for smaller denominations. From the death of Julius Caesar, gold coinage became an important part of the Roman financial system.

See ----->Gold of Croesus

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. 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 25% of a Roman labourer’s daily wage.

Premium, well-aged vintages were very expensive. Pliny the Elder wrote that Falernian is the only wine that takes light when a flame is applied to it. To catch fire a liquid needs be at least 40% alcohol. Wine produced by fermentation tops out around 15 or 16%. It's suspected Romans were accidentally distilling it, concentrating the alcohol through a process they didn't fully understand. The grapes were harvested late, dried, fermented to maximum strength, then aged for fifteen to twenty years in clay amphorae. The wine trade drew merchants to do business with tribes native to Gaul and Germania, bringing Roman influences to these regions long 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.

Ancient sites without the tourists

Ruins are often the centerpieces of a trip overseas. Unfortunately everybody thinks the same: Stonehenge, Chichen Itza, the Great Pyramids, Pompeii. Take a less beaten path and the ruins can be both spectacular and without crowds. The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento is an archaeological site in Agrigento (ancient Greek Akragas), Sicily. It is one of the most outstanding examples of ancient art and architecture in the world.

La Ciudad Perdida. Magdalena, Colombia. Reached only after a grueling five-day trek through the Colombian jungle, it’s almost 1,000 years older than Machu Piccu. It was abandoned after the Spanish conquest and only rediscovered in the 1970s.

Acrocorinth. Corinth, Greece. Acrocorinth, or Upper Corinth has sheep roaming among the ruins, not tourists. Acrocorinth was continuously occupied from archaic times to the early 19th century.

Ruins of Jerash. Jerash, Jordan. The most intact Roman city outside of Italy, Jerash was a crossroads of many cultures. The city flourished until the mid-eighth century CE, when the 749 Galilee earthquake destroyed most of it. The ancient city has been gradually revealed through a series of excavations.

Search for Cleopatra's tomb

The location of Cleopatra and Mark Antony's tomb is one of archaeology's unsolved mysteries. Taposiris Magna, an ancient temple complex 30 miles west of Alexandria, has been studied.Researchers discovered a 4,300-foot underground tunnel, a large sunken ancient port off the coast, and hundreds of coins bearing Cleopatra's image.

The most widely accepted theory places the tomb of the pair somewhere in Alexandria, likely submerged due to a massive earthquake and tsunami in 365 AD.

The remains of a temple of Osiris, Taposiris Magna, has been in the spotlight as the site of the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

Cleopatra VII was born in 70 or 69 B.C. and ruled Egypt as co-regent for almost 30 years. After the forces of Cleopatra and Anthony were defeated by Octavian, she committed suicide in 30 B.C.

Cleopatra VII was the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt. She was part of a dynasty of Macedonian rulers founded by Ptolemy, who served as general under Alexander the Great during his conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C. In 2010 archaeologists discovered a huge headless granite statue of a Ptolemaic king, and the original gate to a temple dedicated to the god Osiris. It could represent Ptolemy IV.