Both know too well the dangers of soaring inflation and a collapse in investor confidence. Modern-day Venezuela and the Roman Empire have more in common than you might think. People, it appears, will always find a way.Two currency crises two thousand years apart. But perhaps by then the Romans had learned how to navigate a virtually money-less economy. So many of these so-called centenionalis coins were minted that even now, more than 1600 years later, one can be purchased online for about $30).Īfter the Sack of Rome by the Goths (410 CE), the coinage deteriorated into 8 mm specimens (see coin 8 from the reign of Valentinian III, 425-455 CE) that were light years from the works of art of the early Imperial period. 306-337 CE) inflation, which had never ceased, became hyperinflation once again, and the bronze coinage all but worthless (see coin 7 from the reign of Julian II, 361-363 CE, called the apostate for his renunciation of Christianity. But the damage done to the Western Empire was never really repaired.Ī reform in the currency was inaugurated in the early part of the 4th century CE, but during and after Constantine I (r. The Empire was thus always able to pay its soldiers, and eventually re-absorbed the Gallic Empire and defeated the forces of Queen Zenobia. One of the reasons things held together at all was that the gold coins, those beautiful but frightfully expensive aurei, and their later replacements, those solidi that I will never possess, held their value relatively well. The old Empire did strike back, and was knitted together again in the 270s CE by a group of capable, no-nonsense generals led by Emperor Aurelian (r. (They apparently were economically astute barbarians). 284-305 CE about 600,000), or to pay off the barbarians, who would not accept any other metal but gold. Small landholders could not obtain mortgages unless they were paid for in gold, which did not inflate in value nearly as fast as the antoninianus.But most of the available imperial gold was used to pay the troops, which had expanded greatly in number from the time of Augustus (about 200,000) to that of Diocletian (r. Thus, the Romans were forced to abandon the silver coinage, and with it, any control of prices, which proceeded to rise 1000% in many parts of the Empire.īut what of the people of the Empire who lived under these dreadful economic conditions? How did they fare? The answer seems to be very poorly, similar to the people of any society experiencing hyperinflation (the example of Germany in 1923 CE comes to mind, though in Germany it was of much shorter duration than in the Empire). ![]() The Spanish mines were exhausted, and there was no one left to plunder. But the emperors had run out of silver bullion. ![]() In ancient times, as now, this fooled no one. ![]() ![]() By that time, which my collection demonstrates in an instant, the silver denarius was long gone, replaced by the now bronze antoninianus (coin 6), which often contained a mere silver wash covering its surface. After him, the fineness declined precipitously in the early 250s CE (to about. 244-249 CE), the fineness of the antoninianus was down to about. By the reign of Emperor Philip the Arab (r.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |