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Gareth Harney
@OptimoPrincipi
Historian and author celebrating the endless wonders of the classical world. My book 'Moneta: A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins' is OUT NOW.
Swindon, Wiltshire
linktr.ee/garethharneyco…
Joined August 2010
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Jun 5, 2025
    Moneta is out today in paperback! "Riveting ... An utterly original history of Rome that compels from start to finish. A wonderful read." ― Mail on Sunday "An excellent 1,000 year history of Rome told in an engaging new way ... well worth a few denarii." ― The Times
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Jan 23, 2025
    An ancient marble head of a classical goddess, defaced and carved with a Christian cross around the year 500 AD, Archaeological Museum of Samos.
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Jul 10, 2020
    1) A stranger than fiction Roman ring mystery thread: this enigmatic Roman gold ring was found in a ploughed field near Silchester in 1785. The square bezel has a portrait of the pagan goddess Venus, inscribed backwards SUNEV for use as a signet ring by the owner. Curiously...
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Dec 9, 2022
    After she was publicly flogged and her daughters raped by Roman soldiers, Boudica destroyed three entire cities. Camulodunum burned with such ferocity that a blackened scorch-layer still runs under modern Colchester, named by archaeologists the 'Boudican Destruction Horizon'.
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Mar 7, 2023
    The sound that once sent a shiver down the Roman legionary's spine! The bellow of a reconstructed carnyx - a war trumpet used by Iron Age Celts, Gauls, and Germans to incite troops to battle and instil terror in the enemy.
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Nov 26, 2022
    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...
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Jan 21, 2022
    This Roman blue glass bowl has been unearthed perfectly intact (!) at an archaeological dig in Nijmegen. destentor.nl/nijmegen/arche…
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Mar 20, 2022
    A 16th century German 'oath skull' (a human skull on which defendants swore their oath in Vehmic courts) - engraved with the 'magical' Roman 'Sator square', mysterious palindromic word-squares found across the Roman world, comprising the words SATOR, AREPO, TENET, OPERA, ROTAS.
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Apr 27, 2020
    A dizzying drone flight around a deserted Roma
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    Roma Medieval / Pablo Díaz
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    Roma Medieval / Pablo Díaz
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Oct 12, 2023
    A tidal wave of new primary sources from the ancient world could very soon be on its way - enough to keep scholars busy for decades! The first words have being read from digitally ‘unrolled’ carbonised scrolls from a Roman library in Herculaneum! (Image: Nat Friedman)
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Jan 28, 2022
    Roman rock crystal gaming die, marked one to six just like modern dice. 1st-2nd century AD
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Aug 29, 2020
    Don't look into her eyes! Spectacular opus-sectile mosaic of the Gorgon Medusa covering the entire orchestra of Kibyra Roman theatre in south-west Turkey - unearthed in 2009, the mosaic is still in-situ, 11m across and 95% intact. #Roman #Archaeology #Art #Turkey
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Feb 8, 2021
    Well done to whoever designed this brilliant phone case based on a miraculously surviving Roman shield (scutum) from the 3rd century.
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    Gareth Harney
    @OptimoPrincipi
    Jul 31, 2024
    'Spartan law demanded that the young men stand naked in public for inspection every ten days. They were commended if their bodies were solid, strong, and well honed by exercise. But if any were soft or had gained fat through sluggishness, they were beaten.' - Aelian, History, 14
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