Ec365 Fall 2016 Assignment 2: Money in the Roman Empire Part A: The

Ec365 Fall 2016

Assignment 2: Money in the Roman empire

Part A: the Roman monetary system

This system is, like all monetary systems, based on the physical properties of gold, silver and other metals. In the Roman time, the price ratio between gold and silver was 12.5. The reference coin was the Aureus (meaning ”made of gold”), a coin of 8 grams of nearly pure gold. Its traded value is the same as the value of its gold content.

One aureus = 25 denarius (plural denarii): the denarius is a nearly pure silver coin.

One denarius = 4 sesterces: the sesterce is a coin made out of bronze.

One sesterce = 4 asses (singular “as”).

1. What is the maximum weight of a Denarius? Could this weight be less than the maximum? In the rest of the assignment, it is assumed that the denarius is indiﬀerently traded by weight and by tale. What is the weight in this case?

2. Given the information about metals that was given in class and assuming a sesterce is a coin of pure bronze, weighing no more than 30 grammes, dwere the sesterces traded by weight or by tale?

Part B: the pay of a Roman legionnaire in the ﬁrst two centuries

There is strong evidence that the unit of payment for the legionnaire was the aureus. The legionnaire did not see the aurei, which were of a high value, but the prestige of that coin of pure gold was such that it was used in setting the payments. We can therefore assume that annual payments are in units of aureus.

1. Tacitus, perhaps the most famous Roman historian (end of the ﬁrst century), wrote that legionaries complained in AD 14 about their pay of 10 asses per day. From this information, what is a good guess about the annual pay (of a legionnaire), in aurei and in denarii?

2. How many times a year was a legionnaire paid (more than once), and how much each time, measured in denarii? 3. Suetonius, another famous Roman historian, contemporary of Tacitus, in his life of Domitian, writes that Domitian increased the annual pay by a fourth “stipendium”. Given the previous information and assuming that the pay increase was the smallest possible, what was the amount of the annual pay increase (in denarii)? Does this amount ﬁt with your answer in the previous question?

4. The next pay increase was granted by Septimius Severus in 197. The source does not say by how much and we have to ﬁnd out. Additional information from the documents–this is not made up for the exercise–is that the pay was augmented by 50 % in the year 212, and doubled in the year 234. Assuming again that all yearly amounts must be in units of aurei, and using your answers in the previous questions, what is the amount (in aurei or denarii) of the increase by Septimius Severus. (If there is more than one possible answer, you will choose the smallest one).

5. Using your previous answer, represent the annual pay (in denarii) of a legionnaire from the year 0 to 300. (Years on the horizontal axis, denarii on the vertical axis).

6. From your previous answers, what can be said about the inﬂation rate in the second and the third century of the Roman empire?