A bronze coin from one of the Roman Empire’s most tranquil periods was found on the seafloor by archaeologists diving off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. The Roman goddess of the moon, Luna (Greek: Selene), is shown on one side of the coin, underneath which is a crab, the astrological symbol for cancer. The team discovered the approximately 1,850-year-old bronze coin while searching in Haifa, Israel.
About the Coin
According to Britannica, Emperor Hadrian attempted to exterminate the Jews and Romanize the populace in the province of Judaea during his reign. Antoninus Pius succeeded him. For instance, according to Britannica, Hadrian renamed Judea’s territory Syria Palaestina and prohibited the teaching of the Torah. According to The Jerusalem Post, it only took Antoninus Pius approximately a year to annul the edicts that were targeting the Jews, therefore conditions for the Jewish people improved under his rule.
Generally speaking, Antoninus Pius is regarded as one of the final emperors to rule during the Pax Romana, the period of comparatively calm in Rome from 27 B.C. and A.D. 180. According to the assertion, Antoninus Pius was known to delegate provincial conflicts through local governors as opposed to deploying military force to resolve problems.
A Coin With a Crab?
A group of 13 coins featuring astrological signs includes the coin with the crab on it. According to Lior Sandberg, a coin expert at the IAA, the first twelve depict each astrological sign, while the thirteenth shows the full zodiac.
Because bronze is formed of tin and copper, which produces an oxide coating when exposed to oxygen and water, the coin has gradually taken on a green hue over time. With time, this layer thickens to the point where the copper underneath is no longer exposed to the air and is, therefore, unable to respond to it.
These discoveries, which were lost at sea and vanished from view for countless centuries, have been astonishingly well preserved. Some of them are incredibly uncommon, and when they are discovered, pieces of the country’s history puzzle are finally put together.