Empress Livia Drusilla

Empress Livia Drusilla was Roman empress from 27 BC to 14 AD as the wife of Emperor Augustus. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14. "Livia: a blight upon the nation as a mother, a blight upon the house of Caesar as a stepmother". That was Tacitus's assessment of Livia Drusilla.

The historian elaborated that Livia put her husband, Emperor Augustus, under her control, and banished or had killed every potential heir to the throne in order to promote her own son, the bizzare Tiberius, as his successor. Augustus had no sons, only a daughter, Julia, the child of his first wife. His nephew Marcellus and his beloved grandsons Gaius and Lucius pre-deceased him, all under mysterious circumstances.

In 42 AD Livia was deified by Claudius.

After Augustus died in 14 AD, Tiberius became emperor. Livia continued to exert outsized political influence as the mother of the emperor. She was the great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula, grandmother of the emperor Claudius, and the great-great-grandmother of the emperor Nero. Livia is depicted as having great influence, to the extent where she "had the aged Augustus firmly under control." She died in 29 AD.

Draconian

Draconian is an adjective that means laws, rules, or punishments that are extremely severe, harsh, or cruel. The word comes from Draco, an ancient Athenian lawmaker from the 7th century BC who created a strict legal code. Even minor offenses carried the death penalty. Active from about 625 to 600 BC, Draco replaced the system of oral law and blood feud by the Draconian constitution, a written code to be enforced only by a court. Tradition held that all of his laws were repealed by Solon, except for those on homicide. An inscription from 409/8 BC contains part of the current law and refers to it as "the law of Draco about homicide". Nothing is known about the specifics of any other laws established by Draco. According to some scholars, Draco may have been a fictional figure, entirely or in part. Biographical information about him is almost entirely lacking.

Folklore about Draco's death are improbable: he went to Aegina to establish laws and was suffocated in the theater when his supporters honored him by throwing hats, shirts and cloaks on him. Some scholars suppose that Draco wasn't a person; drakon means 'serpent' in Greek, and a sacred serpent on the acropolis was worshipped in the Athenian religion. Therefore, the "laws of Draco" may have been laws issued in the name of the sacred serpent by its priests.

Although the full Draconian constitution no longer exists, severe punishments were reportedly meted out to those convicted of offenses as minor as stealing an apple. There may have been only one penalty, execution, for all convicted violators of the Draconian constitution, and the laws were said to be written in blood instead of ink. Since the 18th century, the term draconian was used to refer to unforgiving rules or laws.

Hermes

To the Greeks he was Hermes. To the Etruscans, he was Turms. To the Romans he was Mercurius. He played many roles in the myths of ancient people, but as a god of profit and commerce, he was often represented on money. Possibly the earliest coin to depict Hermes is a silver stater of Kaunos dated to c. 490 BCE.

Populonia, an important center of iron production, issued silver coinage in the fourth century BCE. A didrachm – one of 3 known – depicts Turms.

The facing head of Hermes, dated to c. 402-399 BCE. Perhaps the finest image of Hermes on any ancient coin appears on the reverse of a silver stater of Pheneos, c. 360-350 BCE

C. Mamilius Limetanus denarius serratus c. 82 BC. Bust of Mercury

One of the last appearances of Mercury on Roman coinage came during the reign of Trajan Decius. (249-251)

Pheneos produced silver obols c. 370-340 BCE

Hermes was often depicted as a young man, wearing traveling clothes, a flat hat known as 'petasus' and winged sandals on his feet. Often, he was depicted having wings attached to his shoulders and hat. He usually held a caduceus, a winged staff with snakes wrapped around it so he could gain access everywhere. This staff helped Hermes to charm the gods. The staff is often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine.

The Instructions of Shuruppak - 2600 BC

The Instructions of Shuruppak is a fragmentary tablet, written in Sumerian. The earliest copies of this text represent some of the oldest literature known - from about 2600 BCE. The inscription reads in part: Do not buy an ass which brays too much. Do not commit rape upon a man's daughter; the courtyard will learn of it. Do not answer back against your father.

Even at the dawn of the written word, people looked to the past for wisdom. Shuruppak's instructions begin by recalling "those far remote days" and "those far remote years" as the source of the wisdom it imparts. Linguists estimate that the Proto-Indo-European language was spoken around 5,500 years ago. But they have dated another ancient language, Proto-Afroasiatic — the grandparent of languages like Ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, and Arabic — to 10,000 to 20,000 years old.

Pentelic white marble

Pentelic marble is a fine-grained, calcitic stone quarried from Mount Pentelicus in Greece. It was the premier material used for major classical Athenian monuments like the Parthenon.

Its brilliant white but features a faint yellow tint. In the sunlight, this trace hue causes the marble to shine with a distinctive golden glow, making it a legendary material for classical architecture and sculpture.

Also known as Dionissos White Marble, it is a prestigious and renowned stone. It's crystalline structure gives it a translucent quality, allowing light to penetrate and reflect off its surface, creating a luminous ambiance. What sets Pentelikon white marble apart is its exceptional clarity and lack of impurities, resulting in a consistent and uniform appearance. Pentelikon white marble is often adorned with gray or light beige veining. The delicate veins add character and depth to the marble, enhancing its visual appeal. Before the rise of marble, early Roman builders relied on tuff, an abundant porous volcanic rock. Tuff was strong, making it ideal for Rome's earliest infrastructure projects. For sculpture, early Romans used terracotta. Rome’s desire for Pentelic white marble began as it became a global power.

In 146 BCE, Rome saw the construction of its first marble temple: the Temple of Jupiter Stator, designed by the Greek architect Hermodorus of Salamis. From that point forward, fine marble became the defining material in Roman architecture. Three types of marble dominated the Roman world: Carrara, Parian, and Pentelic. Carrara marble was quarried in northern Italy and became the empire’s go to material for large scale projects. It was used for the Forum of Augustus and Trajan’s Column. Parian marble was sourced from the Greek island of Paros. It was prized for its fine grain and luminous quality. Some of the most famous works of classical art, including the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace, were sculpted from Parian marble. Pentelic marble appeared in Roman masterpieces such as the Arch of Titus.

A common misconception about marble statues is that they were white. Greek and Roman sculptures were painted in vibrant colors.

Father Crespi and his artifacts

Crespi won the hearts of the people and they began to bring him artifacts. The items came from all corners of the country.

Father Carlos Crespi Croci was a Salesian monk who was born in Italy in 1891. He studied anthropology at the University of Milan before becoming a priest. In 1923, he was assigned to the small Andean city of Cuenca in Ecuador to work among the indigenous people. He devoted the rest of his life to charitable work until his death in 1982. Over time, Father Crespi acquired more than 50,000 objects.

Thousands of Crespi’s artifacts are unremarkable but there was a small subset of items that sparked intense controversy. Some of the artifacts are Babylonian in style, others appear to have been carved in gold with strange motifs and symbols that don't resemble objects from any South American culture. Some of the gold plates appeared to show a type of ancient writing.

In 1973, Eric von Däniken launched his book ‘ Gold of the Gods ’, claiming the artifacts had been created by a lost civilization with extraterrestrials. Father Crespi and the story of his artifacts shot to fame. According to Däniken, the so-called Metallic Library consisted of thousands of books made with metallic pages. An investigation proved them to be crude fakes.

Father Crespi’s collection was purchased by the Central Bank of Ecuador and is stored in their vaults, with most being authentic and valuable artifacts. Nowhere to be found however are the artifacts that were photographed and filmed in the 1970s consisting of gold carvings, hieroglyphs, and Sumerian figures.

No one at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Church of Maria Auxiliadora or the Central Bank Museum can say what became of the items.

Monsters on ancient coins

CRETE, Knossos. Stater (11.93g). about 425 – 360 BCE. Product of a union between Queen Pasiphaë and a white bull, the Minotaur was a ferocious man-eating beast, imprisoned in the Labyrinth of Daedalus. Theseus slew the Minotaur. This is a rare coin with less than 20 known.

Crete, Phaistos AR Stater. Mid-Late 4th century BCE. Herakles (Latin name is Hercules) was the champion monster-slayer. In a fit of madness, Herakles killed his family; to atone for this grave crime he undertook a series of heroic quests. The Lernaean Hydra was one. Sever one of the Hydra’s heads and two grew back, making the monster hard to kill. Herakles slew the Hydra, helped by his companion Iolaus, who cauterized the neck with a torch as each head was cut off.

SIKYONIA, Sikyon. Circa 335-330 BCE. Bellerophon, riding Pegasus, killed the fire-breathing Chimaera (or Chimaira) with a block of lead impaled on a spear he lodged in the beast’s throat. The fire melted the lead, choking the beast. The Greek city of Sicyon, near Corinth adopted the chimaera as a symbol on coins, which are relatively common, from c. 430 to about 280 BCE

Cerberus (or Kerberos) is a giant, ferocious three-headed dog who guards the gateway to the land of the dead. He is often depicted as the companion of Hades (or Pluto) god of the underworld. As his 12th labor, Herakles wrestles Cerberus into submission and drags him back to the land of the living. Cerberus appears on a magnificent electrum stater of Cyzicus (c. 500-450 BCE).

Medusa often appeared on ancient coinage. One of three sisters known as Gorgons, the image of Medusa was thought to have protective qualities and appeared throughout antiquity.

2,600-year-old perfume bottles

Lekythoi are ancient Greek vessels made by a method known as “red-figure pottery.” These were used to store extremely valuable oil and perfume. They were used by women of the upper social strata and were often buried with them. Very few red-figure lekythoi survive. “Precious scents are very rare, and the work of an artist who lived in ancient times is priceless." The Izmir Archaeological Museum showcased the containers.

Santorini - Thera

The Greek Island of Santorini was in the headlines in early 2025 because of a swarm of severe earthquakes. The earthquake swarm prompted an exodus from the island. Santorini, classically Thera, is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast of Greece's mainland. It is the remnant of a volcanic caldera.

The eruption of Thera was a catastrophic eruption which is thought to have occurred some 3,400 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. It was the largest volcanic event on Earth in recorded history. The eruption devastated the island of Thera, and may have led to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on Crete.

Kolumbo is a submerged active volcano. Its most recent eruption in 1650 CE, generated a tsunami causing destruction in the islands of Santorini, Ios, and Sikinos, while the poisonous gas emitted from the eruption killed 70 in Santorini.

Kolumbo’s edifice was created by at least five eruptive cycles, the earliest dating back more than 1M years.

New research into ancient tree rings from half a world away helped settle lingering questions about when Thera erupted. Scientists believe the volcano erupted in the 16th century B.C., about 3,400 years ago, blowing some 24 cubic miles of rock and ash into the atmosphere. The eruption had long lasting and wide ranging effects world wide. Researchers were able to determine colder years in the tree rings of Irish oaks and bristlecone pines in California. Scientists believed that the eruption happened between 1600 and 1525 B.C.

Evidence of a catastrophic tsunami that followed the eruption of Thera was found at Çesme-Bağlararası on Turkey’s Aegean coast, more than 100 miles north-northeast of Santorini.

Researchers found an articulated skeleton of a man (and his dog) believed to have been killed by the tidal wave following the eruption that devastated the Aegean island. Calibrated radiocarbon ages found within the tsunami deposit say the remains date no earlier than 1612 BCE. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep.

The myth of Atlantis, described by Plato, may be based upon the Santorini eruption. Excavations in 1967 at Akrotiri made Thera the best-known Minoan site outside Crete.

Only the southern tip of a large town was uncovered, yet it revealed complexes of multi-level buildings, streets, and squares with remains of walls standing as high as eight metres, all entombed in the solidified ash. Pipes with running water and water closets found at Akrotiri are the oldest ever discovered.

The advanced architecture, and the layout of Akrotiri resemble Plato's description of the legendary lost city of Atlantis.

Dense patches of crocus flowers on the fresco ‘The Saffron Gatherers’ from Santorini suggest cultivation. Saffron crocuses are effectively clones dating back to saffron’s emergence in ancient times.

In 2015 archaeologists discovered 39 ingots scattered across the sea floor near a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sicily. The ingots were made from orichalcum, a cast metal which ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote was from the legendary city of Atlantis. X-ray fluorescence analysis indicate the ingots were made from a mixture of zinc (15-20 per cent), charcoal and copper (75-80 per cent) with traces of nickel, lead and iron. Orichalcum is a brass-like alloy, which was made in antiquity through the process of cementation, which was achieved through the reaction of zinc ore, charcoal and copper metal in a crucible.

In Plato's Critias, orichalcum was described as a lustrous metal second only to gold in value. It was used to cover the walls of the inner sanctuary in the Temple of Poseidon in Atlantis.

Dupondius of Faustina the Younger.

Roman coins were made of orichalcum. Orichalcum was officially valued higher than bronze, but sat just below silver and gold. The Romans standardized their use of orichalcum during Augustus's monetary reforms in 23 BCE. The alloy was typically reserved for higher end base metal coins, the prestigious sestertius and slightly smaller dupondius. Coins were brightly gold coloured when newly struck but tarnished over time to a darker or greenish patina.