In 2022 researchers in Hungary discovered a rare gold Roman coin of Roman emperor Volusianus.
A binio (or double aureus) of the Roman Emperor Volusianus (251–253 AD) is an extremely rare gold coin from the mid-3rd century. These coins are heavy, high-value gold pieces (5.4–5.6 grams) minted during the short reign of Volusianus and his father, Trebonianus Gallus. The denomination of the coin is not an ordinary aureus, but a rare binio, i.e. a double aureus.
The large sum was lost at the Roman site in the Roman province of Pannonia Superior. The coin was minted during his rule, between A.D. 251 and 253. One side of the coin features a portrait of the emperor, while the other side depicts Libertas, freedom.
The third-century coin depicts Emperor Volusianus, who co-ruled the Roman Empire for about two years with his father, until he was assassinated at age 22 by his own soldiers. Volusianus and his father were killed in August 253 by their own soldiers, who were terrified of the forces of the usurper Aemilian which were marching towards Rome. Estimate: 15 000 CHF. Price realized: 17 000 CHF
Charon's obol is a term for the coin placed in the mouth of the dead before burial.
Literary sources specify the coin as an obol, and explain it as a payment for Charon, the ferryman who conveyed souls across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Examples of these coins have been called "the most famous grave goods from antiquity."
Charon and Psyche (1883) An obol was originally a small silver coin, valued at one-sixth of a drachma. After the Greeks were absorbed into the Roman empire, obol was used to describe any low-value bronze coin.
The custom is primarily associated with the ancient Greeks and Romans, though it is also found in the ancient Near East. In Western Europe, a similar usage of coins in burials occurs in regions inhabited by Celts of the Gallo-Roman, Hispano-Roman and Romano-British cultures, and among the Germanic peoples. In Latin, Charon’s obol is sometimes called a viaticum, which in everyday usage means "provision for a journey"
Greek and Roman literary sources from the 5th century BC through the 2nd century AD are consistent in attributing four characteristics to Charon’s obol: it is a single, low-denomination coin; it is placed in the mouth; the placement occurs at the time of death; and it represents a boat fare.
Charon is the ferryman of Hades in Greek mythology, tasked with transporting the souls of the deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron to the Underworld. The offspring of the primordial deities Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night), Charon's role is the passage from the world of the living to the realm of the dead, the inevitable journey that every soul must undertake.
Those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were unburied, wandered the shores for one hundred years.
Charon is often depicted in the art of ancient Greece. He holds his ferryman's pole in his right hand and uses his left hand to receive the dead.
A skull found in the cemetery of the ancient city of Lato is one of the most spectacular exhibits at the Agios Nikolaos museum in Crete. The skull of a crowned athlete with a gold wreath in the shape of a laurel branch still attached to it is perhaps one of the most impressive exhibits in Greece. The flesh disintegrated after 2,500 years, but the wreath stuck and remained on the skull. Inside the mouth, a silver coin was found. It is a payment to Charon, who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of Hades who carried the souls of the newly deceased to the underworld.
The bad sequel of 'Gladiator' in 2024 featured Caracalla, Geta, and Macrinus. Little of the film reflects history.
Caracalla and Geta were Roman brothers who became joint emperors upon the death of their father Septimius Severus in 211 AD.
A caracallus was a hooded cloak worn by the Celts of Gaul where Septimius Bassianus was born on April 4, 186 CE. Young Caracalla grew up among them and adapted some of their customs. (such as wearing a caracallus) His father, the future emperor Septimius Severus, served as the Imperial governor. Younger brother Geta was born May 27, 189, at Mediolanum (now Milan). The two boys hated one another. In 193, Septimius Severus was the victor in a complex civil war. On the reverse of a rare gold aureus issued about the year 200, the two boys face one another, with the inscription “Eternity of the Empire.”
In December 195, after his father defeated the usurper Pescennius Niger, Caracalla, aged nine, was given the rank of Caesar, designating him an imperial successor. Publius Septimius Geta was given the rank of Caesar at the age of nine. At the age of 10, Caracalla was raised to the rank of Augustus. (effectively co-emperor) Geta was not promoted to Augustus until 209. Severus died February 4, 211. The palace was soon divided into two hostile armed camps. In December 211, Caracalla invited Geta to a meeting on neutral ground – their mother’s palace apartment. Caracalla’s guards stabbed Geta to death.
Caracalla issued a damnatio memoriae and erased Geta’s name and image from Imperial inscriptions and works. His followers were slaughtered.
Geta appears on a superb aureus struck in 201.
Romans were great fans of chariot races held in the Circus Maximus. A hugely desirable brass sestertius of Caracalla dated to 213 depicts the Circus Maximus in rich detail.
Strapped for cash, Caracalla turned to the easiest route to replentishing the treasury, debasing currency. His antoninianus was officially valued at two denarii but initially contained silver worth only about one-and-a-half. By collecting taxes in denarii and making payments in antoniniani, the Imperial treasury realized a profit. Ruinous inflation raged for the rest of the century. The antonianus was eventually reduced to trace amounts of silver.
Coins of Caracalla’s last years show an increasingly thick neck and heavy beard. Inscriptions hail his victories over Britons and Germans.
Born about 164 of Berber ancestry in North Africa, Macrinus rose to the high rank of Praetorian Prefect under Caracalla. Macrinus seized the throne after arranging the murder of Caracalla. He died April 8, 217 AD aged 29. Macrinus was captured and executed after a reign of about 14 months.
Despite this brief reign, his coin output was prolific. Born about 208, Marcus Opellius Diadumenianus was the son of Macrinus from an uncertain mother.
Caracalla’s aunt, Julia Maesa, bribed the eastern legions to proclaim her 14-year-old grandson Elagabalus as emperor, using the rumor that the boy was actually Caracalla’s son. After Macrinus was killed, Diadumenian fled but was intercepted and beheaded. He was 10 years old. Diadumenian’s head was sent as a trophy to Elagabalus.
In late Greek mythology ichthyocentaurs were a race of centaurine sea-gods with the upper body of a human, the lower front of a horse, the tail of a fish, and lobster-claw horns on their heads. The sea-centaurs were probably derived from the divine fish of Syrian mythology.
Ichthyocentaurs upper bodies took the form of a human torso down to the hips, and the lower that of a fish, with two horse legs protruding from this intersection. They were sometimes depicted with lobster claw horns. The two named ichthyocentaurs were Aphros 'Sea Foam' and Bythos. 'Sea Depths'
They were half-brothers of Chiron and the sons of the Titan Cronus and Nymph Philyra.
Bythos and Aphros
Some ichthyocentaurs wore crowns while others were depicted with horns. The best-known members of this race were Aphros and Bythos. These two sea-gods, though little remembered, were set in the sky as the astronomical constellation Pisces.
In 2016 an Israeli woman hiking in the Galilee discovered an impossibly rare gold coin - only the second such coin known. The coin, dating to the year 107 CE, bears the image of Augustus on the obverse – 'Augustus Deified'. Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 AD until his death in 117 AD.
In 107 A.D., Trajan withdrew older coins and melted them down, issuing the so-called “restoration” coins as a way to preserve the types that were melted and to link his reign to earlier rulers.
On the reverse are symbols of the Roman legions next to the name of Trajan. The aureus is part of a series of coins minted by Trajan in tribute to the emperors that preceded him. The only other example known is in the British Museum.
Trajan's Column in Rome.
Roman soldiers were paid a high salary of three gold coins, equivalent to 75 silver coins, each month. Due to their high value, soldiers were unable to buy goods in the market as merchants couldn't provide change.
Trajan lead the empire to attain its maximum territorial extent by the time of his death.
Bronze and silver coins of Trajan are common, but his gold coins are extremely rare. Declared by the Senate optimus princeps (the best ruler), Trajan was a successful soldier-emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history.
Trajan's uniformed army, frieze on Trajan's Column.
This aureus of Trajan minted from 112-113 AD, depicts his famous forum on the reverse. The legend, "FORVM TRAIAN".
Coins served as both the messenger and message in ancient Rome.
The Armenia Capta gold aureus of Lucius Verus, issued in A.D. 163 in Rome made 14,000 Swiss francs ($13,963 U.S.) in 2019 against an estimate of 7,500 francs. In 163, the Roman general Marcus Statius Priscus invaded Armenia and captured the capital Artaxata. The second coin was issued in Rome, sometime in early 218. It features a bust of Macrinus on the obverse, and the reverse shows Victory seated. The reverse proclaims a victory over the Parthians, which is ironic, since Macrinus agreed to a humiliating peace treaty. 20,000 Swiss francs ($19,946 U.S.) against an estimate of 5,000 francs.
A gold coin bearing the image of King Edward VIII before his abdication sold for 1m pounds (US$1.3m) in 2020, setting a new record for a British coin. The coin shows Edward, the uncle of Queen Elizabeth II, before he relinquished the throne in 1936 to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
The 22-carat gold coins were never released to the public. The Edward VIII sovereign is thought to be one of just two examples in private ownership, with the remaining four examples in museums.
Trajan's uniformed army, frieze on Trajan's Column.
