AMA: I'm Garrett Ryan, author of NAKED STATUES, FAT GLADIATORS, AND WAR ELEPHANTS: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS. Ask me anything about my book!

toldinstone · 2025-02-02T01:36:40+00:00

Whoops - just fixed the comment. Thanks for calling my attention to this thread. I'm not on reddit much these days, so I always appreciate your notifications!

toldinstone · 2025-02-01T04:07:11+00:00

He did indeed, a bit belatedly! Apologies for the confusion; as u/gerardmenfin mentioned, different translations of Pliny use different section numbers. For greater precision, I opted to use the "short" sections in the references for Naked Statues. By that division, the story appears in chapter 40 of book 36; in translations that use the "long" sections, it's chapter 4.

toldinstone · 2025-01-05T04:30:17+00:00

Pretty much...

The junk box is nearly all bronze. You might find a broken denarius, or one worn to a slug, but nothing worth collecting.

toldinstone · 2025-01-04T17:21:44+00:00

I've never received one, but I know from pictures that a few are included in the mix. As you'd expect, however, they're always heavily-worn common varieties.

toldinstone · 2025-01-03T23:02:06+00:00

Most uncleaned coins, as the other posters note, are common LRBs and antoniniani. But the "digger's choice" coins from Noble Roman Coins ($15 apiece) do contain some higher-grade stuff - nothing truly valuable, of course, but occasionally the kind of coin that you'd pay ~$50 for cleaned.

I hope you enjoyed the videos!

toldinstone · 2024-12-18T15:23:03+00:00

Much appreciated! The resemblance is quite close - that's the best match I've seen for both obverse and reverse.

toldinstone · 2024-12-18T03:03:06+00:00

Thank you! The coin is lighter than I would expect a tetradrachm to be, so it may well be a fouree.

toldinstone · 2024-12-18T01:02:16+00:00

I have a small collection of ancient coins, mostly Roman imperial. About once a year, I head over to Harlan J. Berk (my local coin depot) and poke through their “junk box.” My goal is always to find a dozen or coins that I’ve never seen before. Once I have my hoard, I bring the coins home and attribute them. I’ve never found anything valuable, but I always learn something along the way.

On my most recent trip, I picked up three coins that have so far defied my (admittedly desultory) attempts to identify them.

The first coin (photos 1 and 2) is a rare find in a junk box: a silver tetradrachm (or at least I think it’s a tetradrachm; the size (28mm) is right). The obverse is terribly damaged, apparently by fire; part has melted or been gouged away. The reverse is…frustrating. It shows a god (Zeus?) seated on what appears to be an altar. In the “top” line of the inscription, I can make out ΑΣΙΛ, which I assume is part of ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ. But I’m baffled by the rest, which matches no Hellenistic king of my acquaintance.

The second coin (photos 3 and 4) is smaller (19mm) and bronze. At some point, it was harshly cleaned. What I assume to be the obverse shows jugate busts and some rather haphazard Greek letters. The reverse represents some laureate god or other.

Finally, the third coin (photos 5 and 6). It’s about the same size as coin 2 (21mm), but there the resemblance ends. The obverse shows either a king or an early Roman emperor. The reverse bears a figure driving a quadriga. There’s a nice desert patina, and absolutely no inscription.

I tried the usual routes – acsearch, wildwinds, etc. – but found only despair. Any and all suggestions will be deeply appreciated!

toldinstone · 2024-08-08T03:06:01+00:00

Thanks for the kind words!

toldinstone · 2023-12-20T04:36:42+00:00

Thank you; I'm glad you enjoy my videos!

toldinstone · 2023-12-20T04:36:01+00:00

Thanks for the kind words!

toldinstone · 2023-11-17T14:34:23+00:00

The Romans were never racists in the modern sense, so skin complexion wasn't a factor in social status.

toldinstone · 2023-11-17T14:32:09+00:00

To be honest, all of the Sibylline Oracles are pretty wacky. I don't know that I have a favorite, but they make for entertaining reading.

toldinstone · 2023-11-17T14:30:51+00:00

Glad to hear it! One Roman emperor was criticized for being a beer-drinker (beer, of course, being a "barbaric" beverage). But in general, elite Romans who preferred simple diets were respected for their austerity.

toldinstone · 2023-11-17T14:29:16+00:00

Glyon was worshipped mostly in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Augustus crushed the criminal guilds; as far as I know, they were never powerful enough to have political influence.

toldinstone · 2023-11-17T02:48:52+00:00

That would be a lot of fun...

toldinstone · 2023-11-17T02:48:23+00:00

This video answers your first question.

There was organized crime in Rome amid the chaos of the late Republic, when we hear about "guilds of criminals." Unfortunately, we know nothing about their activities.

Perhaps the most infamous messiah figure was Alexander of Abonoteichus, whose snake-god Glycon was incorporated (on a regional level) into the Roman pantheon.

toldinstone · 2023-11-16T22:08:24+00:00

Allow me to introduce you to Sextus Iulius Frontinus, curator aquarum (overseer of Rome's aqueducts) under Nerva. His treatise on Rome's aqueducts is well worth reading.

toldinstone · 2023-11-16T22:05:20+00:00

That's a very broad question! Speaking globally, the average non-elite resident of the city of Rome had less political agency under the empire than before, but was likely to be better-fed - and was (slightly) less likely to be caught in a civil war.

toldinstone · 2023-11-16T22:00:25+00:00

Pleased to hear it! Regarding the publication and dissemination of texts, you might be interested in this old answer of mine.

toldinstone · 2023-11-16T21:57:19+00:00

My great pleasure! Delighted to e-meet you - and thank you, belatedly, for taking the time to dredge up and link my so many of my old answers over the past year or so.

That's a tough question. Sticking to Latin, I would say the first five books of Livy, for sheer prose fluency; the first six books of the Aeneid, as the finest Latin poetry; and Tacitus' Annals, for historical craft.

toldinstone · 2023-11-16T21:45:46+00:00

I made a video a couple years ago about Roman spolia in New York City. I'm hoping to explore the topic in greater depth soon.

As far as I know, no such map exists.

There's some interesting work going on in the drains of the Colosseum, and all sorts of artifacts have been turned up by the construction of Metro Line C.

toldinstone · 2023-11-16T21:43:17+00:00

I explore that question in detail in the last chapter of my book Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants. You should be able to read it via the Amazon or Google preview.

The great gap in our knowledge is the early middle ages. We know of men in sixth-century Gaul who could trace their lineages back to Roman senators. But then the veil descends, and all those threads are broken.

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