Long before the scandalous pages of Lady Chatterley’s Lover stirred the imagination or the Marquis de Sade wrote his shocking tales, a Roman historian named Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus—known to generations of snickering schoolboys simply as ‘Suetonius’—was crafting a work that would forever change how we see the past. His Lives of the Twelve Caesars, a vivid and unflinching chronicle of Rome’s earliest emperors, has now been reborn in a brilliant new translation by the excellent historian Tom Holland. A revered figure among enthusiasts of the ancient world, Holland has done justice to Suetonius’ original vision, preserving every salacious detail and colourful anecdote without sparing a single blush! The result is a text as raw, riveting, and unapologetic as Suetonius intended it to be.

Sorting the treasure from the trash has never been trickier—especially with ancient coins. After all, the original minting process was as simple as heating some silver and giving it a good whack with a hammer! A quick browse through online auction sites will reveal that many so-called "metal detector finds" and "rare discoveries" are, in reality, mass-produced fakes.

Today I picked up a token from a coin fair, a memento of the “Gigantic Wheel” from the Earl’s Court Exhibition of 1895. The inscription on the reverse boasts its grandeur: 284 feet in diameter, with 40 carriages, each cradling up to 30 souls. It must have been one heck of a sight—equal parts breathtaking and terrifying, a towering marvel against the summer sky.

Uncovering the Mysteries of Buried Ancient Coins

Both Roman and Medieval coins were hammered, and yet the difference in quality, design and artistic merit is like chalk and cheese….so why?

Five interesting facts about the romans you might now know!

Uncovering the Hidden Truths of the Romans: A Killer Fact Revealed

Almost by accident, I stumbled across the UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London's West End, right next to the British Museum. If you have an interest in Egyptology, this museum is a must.  It has over 80,000 objects, jammed together in a tiny, cluttered space but amongst the pots, ushabtis and general ancient egyptian wonders are some absolute gems.  One of these includes the Tarkhan Dress, a V-neck linen shirt that has been confirmed as the world's oldest woven garment with radiocarbon testing dating to the late fourth-millennium BC!  

In today's fast-paced world, the concept of "money" is an integral part of our daily lives, influencing everything from how we work and play to how we plan for the future. But have you ever stopped to ponder the origins of this ubiquitous term? Join us on a linguistic journey through history as we delve into the fascinating origins of the word "money."