LIVORNO, ITALY—Live Science reports that a hoard of 175 silver Roman denarii in a small terracotta pot was discovered in 2021 on a hill in a forest near Tuscany’s western coastline, about one-half mile from a site where traces of a Roman-era farm have been found. Archaeologist Lorella Alderighi said that the oldest coins date from 157 or 156 B.C., while the most recent date to 83 or 82 B.C. “The coins have definitely been hidden—they constituted a ‘treasure’ or piggy bank,” Alderighi said. She thinks the coins may have been buried to keep them safe during a period of civil war led by the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who became dictator of the Roman state from 82 to 79 B.C. “Sulla’s soldiers conquered territories as they advanced from south to north. But central Italy and Tuscany had not yet been conquered,” she explained. She thinks that whoever buried the coins may not have survived the conflict. To read about the period when Pompeii was under Sulla’s control, go to “Digging Deeper into Pompeii’s Past.”
