Oplontis lies between Pompeii and Herculaneum, close to the modern town of Torre Annunziata. Although Oplontis was much smaller than Pompeii, it would have had a significant residential presence. Two notable villas have been found here—one is thought to have belonged to Nero’s wife, Poppaea Sabina. A second villa was home to a small business that produced olive oil and wine, and tentatively has been identified as the residence of Lucius Crassius Tertius, based on an inscription on a ring that was found in the villa.

Pumice rained down on Oplontis as the eruption unfolded, accumulating steadily from the beginning of the eruption around lunchtime on August 24th. Roofs of some surrounding structures must have collapsed, perhaps driving more people from the countryside into this villa.  In all, seventy-four people sheltered there as they waited for the eruption to end. Finally, at about one o’clock in the morning on August 25th, a surge rolled down the side of the volcano, overtaking Oplontis in a wave of superheated gas that killed everything in its path.

The villa of Lucius Crassius Tertius, which dates to the second century B.C., was, above all, a place of business. Many of the house’s walls were undecorated, and at least 400 large amphorae, used for the storage and transport of wine and oil, were found there. A huge, elaborate strongbox was found here, along with significant amounts of money. The coins found in this villa comprise the largest sum of money yet found in the excavations of the Vesuvian region, and are estimated to be worth $50,000 dollars in today’s currency.



One individual stands out. He carried two hundred and twelve silver coins, called denarii, and one hundred and one gold coins, called aurei. While the gold coins were all minted in the 30 years before the eruption, most of the silver coins were not. The oldest coin was minted 237 years before the eruption, in 157 BC, before the time of the Empire when Rome was still a Republic. In fact, over half of the silver coins are also from the Republican period of Rome’s history and have interesting designs on their obverses, or “heads”, and reverses, or “tails”. Several others were minted during the period of Rome’s civil war, in the years leading up to the establishment of the Empire in 27 BC.

It is tempting to think of these coins as a personal collection, carefully acquired by the coin collector, who selected them for their unique qualities and set them aside as he plucked them from the cash that must have flowed through his business on a routine basis.