Recently there has been news of an exciting new find in northern Italy. In the small town of Como, workers working on the abandoned theatre there discovered a small amphora dating roughly from the 5th century AD. What is more interesting is that the amphora was filled with roughly 300 gold coins in relatively good condition. It was the presence of these coins which allowed archaeologists to determine the rough date when the amphora was deposited. News of the find was issued by the Italian Ministry of Culture.
The official statement, along with many of the issued photo’s can be found here. All in the original Italian.
The Roman Empire during this period was facing a series of crises, a lot more dire than those which happened two centuries earlier. By this point the empire had split into two. With the thriving Eastern half of the empire being centred on Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), and historians often referring to it as the Byzantine empire. The Western half instead was collapsing and centred on Rome, and would face several invasions by Germanic tribes in the 5th century. Rome would be sacked by the Goths in 410AD, and again in 455AD by the Vandals. The Western half of the empire officially came to an end in 476AD when the then emperor, Romulus Augustulus, abdicated.
Justinian I, of the Byzantine empire, attempted to reclaim some of the lands in Italy during the 6th century, but his successors were unable to keep a hold onto them, as raids and invasions by the Lombards (another Germanic tribe) increased significantly after Justinian’s death in 565AD. The Lombards eventually gradually asserted their own control over Italy until 774AD when Charlemagne conquered the area and integrated Italy into the Frankish empire.
Numismatic Exploits 