A rare collection of early-medieval coins found by archaeologists in Rome has provided a window into a time when English travellers and expats had special rights in the papal city and thrived in their own vibrant Anglo-Saxon quarter.
Historical records show that the English had their own area within the city, known as the Schola Saxonum. The newly uncovered hoard of coins, along with the remains of craft items such as leather, bone and metal, is the first material proof that the Anglo-Saxon quarter truly existed.
It also suggests that the English, unlike other foreign nationals, had the right to use their own currency in parts of Rome.
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“The English quarter in Rome really was an interesting and vibrant place,” says at the University of Cambridge. “It might be compared with districts in modern major cities that house a specific community, like the Chinatown areas of London, Melbourne, San Francisco and other cities.”
Since 2020, researchers have been excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere near the Vatican, where they discovered the ruins of Emperor Nero’s theatre in 2023.
The site has yielded a total of 30 coins, 23 of which were minted in the 10th century, including 20 Anglo-Saxon pennies and one half-penny of the early to mid-10th century, minted in the names of Edward the Elder (899–924), Æthelstan (924–39) and Eadred (946–55).
Along with the English currency, the archaeologists also found two Italian coins from the same era, along with six Roman or late antique bronze coins, as well as one unidentifiable bronze coin that may also be Roman.
Many of the coins have been fused together and are difficult to identify. Those that can still be read include specimens from several different parts of England: East Anglia, Kent, London and the West Midlands. Naismith and his colleagues have published their findings in a book, Rome and the Others (300-1000): Foreigners in the city between conflicts and integration.
at the University of the Basque Country, another member of the team, says the “shape, size and thickness” of the fused, unidentifiable coins are consistent with the clearly English ones. The non-English coins were found intermingled with the Anglo-Saxon currency, says Tinti.
“This seems to have been quite a busy, active area of the city, as the craft remains indicate,” she says.
Naismith says it is exceptional that most of these coins are English. Although many other English coins from the 10th century have been found in Rome, they have usually been regarded as religious donations, not as part of the regular currency of the city.
It was previously thought that the papacy banned the use of foreign currencies in Rome, but the new finds suggest that in this part of the city, English coins were used as a major part of the local currency, alongside local Italian coins.
“This is highly unusual for the 10th century – the norm was to use the local coin of whatever jurisdiction you were in,” Naismith says.
An account by the Welsh scholar Asser in 893 notes that Pope Marinus I had granted the English special rights in the 9th century in recognition of their demonstrations of piety.
Until now there has been no real archaeological evidence for what the Schola looked like, how it operated, or what privileges this community enjoyed, says Naismith.
He and Tinti had dreamed of finding piles of English coins and artefacts at the site in Rome, but never expected that their imagined finds would be more or less right, Naismith says.
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