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Notes on Roman Money.

Delmiro Gouveia The top unit of value in the coinage of the late Republic in Rome was the aureus, which prior to Nero was approximately 1/42 of a pound of gold.  In 2010 dollars, where a pound of gold is worth about $14,000, the aureus takes on a value of approximately $330.

can you order Latuda online The denarius, a silver coin, had a value of 1/25 an aureus, putting its value around $13.30.  Caesar doubled the legionary’s pay to 225 denarii a year (ca. $3,000).  Promotion involved a substantial raise: centurions received 3,750 denarii a year (ca. $50,000).

The sestertius was the basic unit of monetary measure.  It was ¼ of a denarius, or about $3.30.  It was abbreviated IIS = 2.5 (S being Semi), or ¼ of a denarius (X); this is also written HS.  Suetonius reports that Caesar purchased for his mistress Servilia, mother of Brutus, a pearl for six million sesterces, nearly $20 million; the ring Kobe Bryant got for his wife (“the Kobe special”) while he was on trial for sexual assault – when adjusted for gold prices – cost about $11 million.

The as, a bronze coin, was ¼ of a sestertius, or about $0.80.  Catullus tells his lover (prob. Clodia, vide infra) that the opinions of all those who condemn their affair are worth an as.  In the time of the early Republic – before the unmercantile Romans had any gold or silver coinage at all – the as was a pound of bronze and was the standard unit of measure.  Hence in the English translation you will find Livy talking about Romans having such and such a number of asses – a term I initially found first confusing (“Did they measure wealth in donkeys?”), then amusing.

A quadrans was ¼ of an as, about $0.20.  We deduce from Horace and Cicero that a quadrans was the typical price of going to the baths in the late Republic.  It became emblematic of a small sum.  Marcus Caelius Rufus called his ex-wife, the infamous Clodia, a quadrantaria, i.e. a twenty-cent whore.

“Sitting opposite the collection box, he saw how the crowd cast their money into the box; and many rich people put in much.  And a poor widow came up, and put in two mites [minuta, dimes, essentially], which make one quadrans [Greek kodrantes].  And calling his disciples he said to them, ‘Amen I say to you, This poor widow has given more than any of the people who gave; they gave out of their excess, but she gave out of her poverty, all she had, all her living.’”

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