Travel to the time of the hoard's concealment, amid a succession of disasters striking a faltering empire, in my upcoming book Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins ⚔️linktr.ee/garethharneyco…

6) The hoard appears to have been added to over the decades, with a final group of aurei deposited in 197 AD as the usurper Clodius Albinus besieged the city. At this point, the administrator of the hoard seems to have taken the knowledge of its existence with him to the grave…

A human touch to this epitaph that no one has yet mentioned: the hired engraver failed to include Simplex's profession in the formal inscription. This evidently would not do, so underneath another hand – I surmise Simplex himself – has chiselled in 'Centurion of Legio VI V'

Fragment of a marble portrait of a young Nero, most likely smashed and discarded following the emperor's downfall in 68 AD. Found buried near the forum of ancient Syracuse in 1887.
1st century AD, Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum, Syracuse.