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Croesus' Wealth Lost By A Helmet In 547 BC, Cyrus, the Great King of Persia was at war with Croesus, the fabulously rich king of Lydia. Cyrus’s cavalry forces had beaten the Lydians in the field, but Croesus retreated and rallied his troops in a strong defense of Sardis within its stout walls, but at the same time had bottled himself and most of his army up in the capital.Cyrus sat down to besiege it, but its walls were very...

All legionary soldiers also received a sizeable sum of money on the completion of their term of service: 3000 denarii from the time of Augustus and/or a plot of good farmland (good land was in much demand). Later, under Caracalla, the praemia increased to 5000 denarii.So this is the army that conquered the “world”- a large force of disciplined men in tight ranks acting as one. Almost nothing of the day could w...

From about 100 BC onwards, Legionaries received the sum of 225 denarii a year for their service. (The denarius was a silver coin with a weight of approx. 4.5 grams. Its initial value was put at 10 asses, yep asses, giving the denarius its name which translates to "containing ten".) This basic rate remained unchanged for many years until Domitian increased it to 300 denarii. There was no further rise until the time of Septimius Severus, who incre...