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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 high and strong, and...

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 increa...

As for their sidearm, the Roman soldier was never far from his trusty short sword, the gladius (500360). The gladius was normally worn on a baldric (200368) and slung over the shoulder to hang across the body on the opposite hip. History shows us most were worn on the right hip for a pull draw as opposed to a cross draw as this type of draw was impeded by the scutum. There were several patterns of gladius and it was not unusual for mixed types to...