Pompeii: the fugitive crushed by a boulder was carrying coins

Remember the lame skeleton found in Pompeii a few days ago (if the answer is no, we refer you to the news story)? Under it was found a leather bag containing coins. Evidently, the man was hoping to take some money with him in case he managed to escape the glowing lava, but, as we know, things did not turn out that way.All details, archaeological park director Massimo Osanna points out toANSA, “that lead one to think of a member of the middle class, perhaps a merchant, who precisely because of his bad leg had decided in spite of everything to stay at home and was convinced to flee only at the last moment, when it was too late.”The coins are now under examination by numismatists to define their denomination and value: at the moment there is talk of twenty silver denarii and two bronze axes with a face value, at least on the surface, of 80 and a half sesterces.

“Basically about 500 euros today,” says Hosanna, "a sum with which in ancient Rome an average family of three could live more or less for two weeks." In the hoard are imperial coins such as a legionary denarius of Octavian Augustus and two denarii of Vespasian, along with also a legionary denarius of Mark Antony, common in Pompeii, with the indication of the XX legio.
The park director recounts, “Archaeologists became aware of his presence after recognizing organic material under his chest ribs, broken by the 300-pound boulder that had fallen on him.”

Also noteworthy is the presence, again inside the purse that the man was wearing hanging around his neck (at least according to Hosanna), of the remains of an iron object, “in all probability a key, perhaps just the key to the house, to be kept safe along with the money.”
This new find, the director notes, “is of great interest: these are the objects that help us reconstruct the context, that tell us the stories of the people, the real daily life of Pompeii 1900 years ago.”

Source ANSA

Pompeii: the fugitive crushed by a boulder was carrying coins

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