About

Salve! My name is Hadley Sharman. Welcome to TopRomanFacts.com — a repository of my social media posts, research, and numismatic tools.

My research aims to contextualise the coinage from Roman Colchester to better understand the economy of the city, and to glean an insight into the identity of the people who lived there.

Beyond Roman Colchester, I have a broad interest in archaeology and history generally, but I do tend to focus on the Roman Empire, Roman Britain, and the coins of those places.

About a decade ago when I was studying for my undergraduate degree in ancient history, I began posting little factoids on Instagram, each post revealing a little bit about ancient Rome. It was a fantastic revision tool — the best way to learn something is actually to teach it. You could quite accurately tell what I was reading from what I posted about. From there, I started making narrated clips, discussing aspects of ancient Rome over images and video. Eventually, I was brave enough to point the camera at me.

Hadley Sharman, in a hard hat and hi-vis jacket, lying on the ground of an excavation and cleaning a coin with a brush — Hadley Sharman excavating a Roman coin on the outskirts of a Roman small town.

There is a huge appetite for educational content about ancient Rome — my videos have received over 50 million views in total. You can explore my videos on the platform of your choice: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. You can even watch them embedded on this website on the Videos tab.

Getting in touch

I try to reply to most comments on social media, but some slip through the cracks. The best way to get in touch with me about my research, videos, or archaeology in general is via email, info@topromanfacts.com.