Cache of Silver Roman Coins Unearthed in Turkey

News February 9, 2021

(Pamukkale University)
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Turkey Coin Cache
(Pamukkale University)

DENIZLI, TURKEY—According to a Live Science report, 651 silver Roman coins were discovered in western Turkey’s ancient city of Aizanoi by a team of researchers led by Elif Özer of Pamukkale University. All of the coins were minted between 75 and 4 B.C. More than 400 are silver denarii, and some 200 are silver cistophori minted in Pergamum, a Greek city located in northwestern Turkey. Some of the images on the coins depict the face of the emperor Augustus (r. 27 B.C.A.D. 14); Julius Caesar, who was assassinated in 44 B.C.; and Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins. Others depict Anchises being carried by his son, the Trojan hero Aeneas and ancestor of Remus and Romulus, the legendary founders of Rome. Özer suggested the coins might have been carried to Aizanoi by a high-ranking Roman soldier. They will be displayed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. For more on the Augustan age, go to “A Spin through Augustan Rome.”

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