If you'd met a fourth century Roman and asked them what they thought of their emperor, Constantine, you might have expected them to talk about Christianity or Constantinople, but instead, they would probably have shown you a gold coin called the 'Solidus' which was to become the dollar of both the ancient and medieval worlds.

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Find my latest book, Justinian's Empire, on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. For German listeners, find the German translation of the first book in my series on the 'Fall of the Roman Empire', Die römische Revolution, on Amazon.de. Finally check out my new YouTube videos on the fall of the Roman Empire.