Just ONE WEEK until the UK release of Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins, in which the rise and fall of the Roman world plays out anew in gleaming gold, silver, and bronze.

Available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook from all the usual retailers. ⚔️

A wonderful winged phallus carved at the entrance to the Mithraeum in Tiddis, Algeria (Roman Castellum Tidditanorum) c.2nd century AD.

Jerry Seinfeld can't live without it...

(Credit: GQ)

1) The extraordinary Capitoline bust of the Roman emperor Commodus, presenting himself in the guise of Hercules. Sculpted towards the end of his egomaniacal reign, c.192, the audacious marble portrait shows the eccentric ruler with numerous attributes of the Greek action hero...

Just ONE WEEK until the UK release of Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins, in which the rise and fall of the Roman world plays out anew in gleaming gold, silver, and bronze.

Available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook from all the usual retailers. ⚔️

A wonderful winged phallus carved at the entrance to the Mithraeum in Tiddis, Algeria (Roman Castellum Tidditanorum) c.2nd century AD.

Jerry Seinfeld can't live without it...

(Credit: GQ)

10) 'The famed valour and conduct of Brasidas brought many an Athenian ally over to the Spartan side. He was always the first into battle, and showed himself so good a man at every point, he left behind him the conviction that all other Spartans must be like him.' (4.81)

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9) Today, the tomb of Brasidas can be visited in the basement of Amphipolis Archaeological Museum, while his silver casket and gold crown can be seen inside the museum. To round off the thread, a final word from Thucydides on his old foe, Brasidas:

1) During construction work on Amphipolis Archaeological Museum in 1976, workers uncovered a cist tomb cut into the bedrock, still sealed and unlooted. Curiously, the burial was located inside the city walls near the marketplace of Amphipolis. Lifting the blocks, they found...

Crowned by the setting sun, the massive Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania rising high on the Algerian coast near Cherchell (ancient Caesarea). Built in the late 1st century BC, the circular tomb is thought to have once held the remains of the Roman-friendly king Juba II and his…