The extraordinary story of ancient Rome, history’s greatest superpower, as told through humankind’s most universal object: the coin. When Gareth Harney was first handed a Roman coin by his father as a child, he became entranced by its beauty, its permanence, and its unique power to connect us with the distant past. He soon learned that the Romans saw coins as far more than just money – these were metal canvases on which they immortalised their sacred gods, mighty emperors, towering monuments, and brutal battles of conquest. Revealed in those intricate designs struck in gold, silver, and bronze was the epic history of the Roman world. ‘Moneta’ traces ancient Rome’s unstoppable rise, from a few huts on an Italian hilltop to an all-conquering empire spanning three continents, through the fascinating lives of twelve remarkable coins.