This coin depicts Aeneas, a prince of Troy and legendary ancestor of Caesar. At the end of the Trojan War, Aeneas escaped Troy, carrying his elderly father and holding tight to his young son’s hand, settling on the coast of Italy, where his descendants would go...
According to Roman tradition, Lucius Junius Brutus became one of the first Consuls of Rome in 509 BCE after overthrowing its last king, Tarquinius Superbus. Centuries later, his descendant Marcus Junius Brutus (of “Et tu, Brute” fame) invoked this legendary act of...
Minted quickly by Cato to pay his soldiers as they battled Caesar’s forces in modern-day Tunisia, this small coin depicts the goddess Victory and the god Liber, powerful symbols of Roman hope and liberty. Despite this appeal to the gods, Cato and his forces could not...
Coinage offered an effective means of circulating political messages to a broad population. This silver tetradrachm was minted in Egypt under Ptolemy I Soter. The obverse shows a portrait of Alexander the Great with an elephant-scalp cap, horns of Ammon, and aegis;...
This gold stater is a popular type that was produced during the reign of Philip II of Macedon (359–336 BCE), father of Alexander the Great, to celebrate his victories in the Olympic Games. The obverse of the coin features the god Apollo wearing a laurel wreath crown,...
Octavian, grandnephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, was hailed as the bringer of peace and prosperity to the Roman world after a long period of civil and military strife. In 27 BCE, the Roman Senate conferred on him the honorary title of Augustus. Soon after, a...
Polydeukion was one of the favorite pupils of the well-known Athenian sophist and philanthropist Herodes Atticus, who lived in Greece in the 2nd century CE. In the year 147 or 148, the young man met an untimely death, and Herodes commissioned many portraits in his...
This silver tetradrachm is a popular typology that was produced under the reign of Philip III Arrhidaeus, Alexander the Great’s half-brother. After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, Philip III was chosen to be king, along with Alexander’s infant son named...
