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She found herself surrounded by a knee-high mound of treasure—Roman denarii, silver drachmas, ancient gold jewelry, glittering diamonds and topaz and rubies—enough to fill several lawn bags.

Zeno was a merchant who lost all of his goods in a shipwreck and arrived in Athens with a few drachmas in his pockets.

But Mark Antony’s stirring rhetoric, and his promise of a Caesar dividend, “75 drachmas”, immediately turn their allegiance.

Women - who often spoke no Greek - would cover their mouths with their headscarves to muffle their speech, but Mr Fokas's mother was arrested and fined 250 drachmas, a big sum back then.

Still, Greece craved Europe’s political and financial stability, having struggled with its erratic drachma currency and with political instability.