I Just Love Stories Like This One,

there you are out having a walk combining it with with your favorite hobby metal detecting, when through then head phones you get a signal, then the excitement as you dig through the dirt with your hands to find probably the second largest haul of Roman coins ever found in the UK, the find was made in the field near Frome in Somerset that is what happened to hospital chef Dave Crisp as he searched fields near his home with a metal detector, he found 52,000 coins many bearing the image of the rebel Roman Carausius - the 'lost' British Emperor who defied Rome to rule much of the British Isles and northern Gaul as a breakaway empire for 13 years, today they could be worth anything between £250,000 and several million pounds, realising he had found something important, Mr Crisp covered over the hoard and notified Somerset County Council's Portable Antiquities Scheme, UK history lesson coming up, who was emperor Carausius? as hundreds of the coins discovered bear the image of Marcus Aurelius Carausius (pictured below) who seized power in Britain and northern France in the late third century and proclaimed himself emperor, the Roman naval officer seized power in 286 and ruled until he was assassinated by his finance minister in 293, He came to prominence after distinguishing himself in a war against rebels in France, with his naval background he was put in charge of a fleet whose aim was to destroy the pirates raiding the coasts of northern France and Belgian, it was after he was accused of keeping some of the seized treasure for himself that he declared himself emperor, Roger Bland, of the British Museum, said: 'The late third century A.D. was a time when Britain suffered barbarian invasions, economic crises and civil wars, Roman rule was finally stabilized when the Emperor Diocletian formed a coalition with the Emperor Maximian, which lasted 20 years, this defeated the separatist regime which had been established in Britain by Carausius, this find presents us with an opportunity to put Carausius on the map, school children across the country have been studying Roman Britain for decades, but are never taught about Carausius our lost British emperor. what a lucky, lucky chap Dave Crisp is.