Elagabalus

Elagabalus was a close relative to the Severan dynasty. He came from a prominent Arab family in Emesa (Homs), Syria. Elagabalus is considered among the worst emperors even though he was far less bloody than the rest.

In his early youth he served as head 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 extreme eccentricity, moral decadence, zealotry and sexual proclivity and perversion.

The assassination was again devised by Julia Maesa and carried out by the Praetorian Guard. Elagabalus 218-222 CE gold aureus. The obverse features a laureate bust of the Roman emperor Elagabalus facing left. 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 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.

Viking gold hoard in Denmark

In 2017 three metal detectorists found the largest Viking gold hoard ever discovered in Denmark. At 900 grams, the hoard consists of seven worked bracelets, six of gold and one of silver. The silver piece weighs about 90 grams. Gold is extremely rare in the Viking record. The group found the pieces in a field in Vejen, which is in Jutland. There’s no doubt the treasure belonged to Viking elite, and the bracelets may have been used by a chief as alliance gifts, or as rewards or oath rings for his men.

A gold chain of 67 grams was found in the area in 1911. The latest find is almost certainly connected to the chain.

Viking Gold arm ring

Battle of Teutoburg Forest

In 2018 eight gold coins were discovered in Germany that could confirm the site of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. Such a find is extremely rare. The recent discovery at Kalkriese doubles the number of gold coins from the site. The coins feature Emperor Augustus, with the imperial princes Gaius and Lucius Caesar, and date between 2BCE and 5CE. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest took place between 8 and 11 September 9 AD, near modern Kalkriese, when an alliance of Germanic tribes ambushed and destroyed three legions of the Roman commander Publius Quintilius Varus.

In the autumn of AD 9, the 25-year-old Arminius brought Varus a false report of rebellion in northern Germany. He persuaded Varus to divert the three legions under his command. (17th, 18th, and 19th legions, plus three cavalry detachments and six cohorts of auxiliaries) Ignoring a warning from Segestes not to trust Arminius, Varus marched deep into the Teutoburg Forest. All three legions were wiped out to the last man. Varus committed suicide.

As part of obligations to appease Rome, Segimer, the powerful Cherusci chief, surrendered his sons Arminius and Flavus to the Roman emperor Augustus. The young boys left the village and tribal lands of their birth in central Germania Magna to be taken to Rome and treated as nobility. Varus received his appointment as governor in 7 AD, about a year before Arminius’ arrival. Varus held overall command of five legions and auxiliaries. Arminius had come to hate everything Roman. Arminius was not alone. He met with tribal chiefs to forge plans on how to rid themselves of the Romans. Arminius led an army of between 10,000 and 17,000 warriors back to Varus, with several times as many on the way. Word of the impending attack on the Romans spread. Not just among the Cherusci did warriors gather but also from their allies the Marsi and the Bructeri and from the Angrivarii, Chauci, Chatti, and Sugambri. Roman patrols and work parties along the route to Anreppen and in the countryside were caught off guard and slaughtered.

As a result of the battle Germania remained independent from Roman rule. Roughly 25,000 men were killed during the slaughter in Teutoburg Forest. Teutoburg Forest is considered one of the most important defeats in Roman history, bringing the expansion under Augustus to an abrupt end.

It dissuaded the Romans from pursuing the conquest of Germania.

An aureus from the reign of Augustus would have been enough to feed and house an entire family in Rome for a month. Archaeologists speculate they once belonged to a high-ranking Roman officer.

In 1990 a misshapen and corroded cavalry mask was found. Thought to have been worn during exhibitions by cavalry it is one of the most exceptional finds at the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. It is one the oldest facial helmets known from the Roman army, dating from the first part of the 1st century CE.

'Underworld' at the Getty Villa

“Underworld: Imagining the Afterlife,” was an exhibit at the Getty Villa in 2018. One of the masterpieces is a krater from Altamura, Italy, dated about 350 B.C. It is almost 6 feet tall and would have been made only for a high status individual. The exhibit provided a lens into Rome's underworld during that period.

Grave relief fragment with Danaids, Persephone and Hades, Hermes and Herakles, late 4th century B.C. Gold burial offerings were intended to help the deceased navigate the afterlife.

Storage Jar with Sisyphus and the Uninitiated, about 525 BC

Orpheus emerges as a central figure. Orpheus traveled to the underworld to retrieve his wife, Eurydice. The quest did not turn out well for Orpheus, but he returned from the Underworld, a feat that made him a hero.

Weeping Siren, about 350 - 325 B.C.

Cyrene - Silphium

Cyrene, sometimes anglicized as Kyrene, was an ancient Greek colony and Roman city near present-day Shahhat in northeastern Libya in North Africa. It was part of the Pentapolis, a group of five cities in the region and gave the area its name Cyrenaica.

Founded in the 7th century B.C., Cyrene was one of the principal cities in the Hellenic world.

UNESCO added the site to its World Heritage List in 1992. “A thousand years of history is written into its ruins,” it said. Cyrene lies between the Egyptian border and Benghazi.

The city was attributed to Apollo and the legendary etymon Cyrene by the Greeks but it was probably colonized by settlers from Thera (modern Santorini) in the late seventh century BC. It was initially ruled by a dynasty of monarchs called the Battiads, who grew rich from the export of horses and silphium, a medicinal plant.

The ruins of Cyrene survived Libya’s 2011 revolution and a decade of lawlessness but now face looters.

Silphium is a lost plant that was used in classical antiquity as a seasoning, perfume, aphrodisiac, and medicine. It was claimed to have become extinct in Roman times. Silphium had an extremely small growing range, about 125 by 35 miles (201 by 56 km), in the southern steppe of Cyrenaica. Extremely valuable, overharvesting has long been cited as the primary factor that led to its extinction. It could not be cultivated from seed but instead only asexually through their roots. The plant may have been a Roman hybrid.

Priam's Treasure

Priam's Treasure is a spectacular collection of gold and other artifacts discovered by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann at Hissarlik in modern Turkey. Schliemann illegally smuggled Priam's Treasure out of Anatolia. The majority of the stolen artifacts are in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Schliemann claimed the site to be that of ancient Troy, and assigned the artifacts to the Homeric king Priam. He was wrong, the treasure is a thousand years older than Homer's King Priam of Troy, who died about 1200 B.C. The collection, consisting of 259 items, has been at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts since 1945. Russia claims their looted art is compensation for the destruction of Russian cities and looting of Russian museums by Nazi Germany in World War II.

Sophia Schliemann wearing the "Jewels of Helen" stolen by her husband in Hisarlik.

The “Mask of Agamemnon” is one of the most famous gold artifacts from the Bronze Age. The Mask was discovered in 1876 by Schliemann during excavations at Mycenae. The gold leaf funeral mask was found over the face of a body in a burial shaft in the Mycenaean Citadel.

Badge of Cyzicus

Cyzicus in Mysia was one of the great trade cities of the ancient world.

Coin features two dolphins encircling a Cyzicus tuna. The dolphins symbolize Poseidon, the god of the sea.

It was located on the Sea of Marmara and ruled by the Persian Empire until its capture by Alexander the Great in 334 BCE. Tuna fishing was the cornerstone of the economy of Cyzicus, becoming the defining feature of the coinage from the city.

The myth of Perseus & Medusa. Electrum stater struck around 400 BC from Cyzicus.

In the first half of the sixth century BCE, the electrum staters of Cyzicus became one of the most widely recognized coins of their time. For decades, the entire trade in grain in the Black Sea Region was transacted with Cyzicus coins. Gold staters of Cyzicus were a staple currency in the ancient world until they were overtaken by those of Philip of Macedon.

Rare Sphinx of Cyzicus. Six are known.