The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

the times | Saturday April 9 2022 17

News

When the statesman Cicero made a
throwaway complaint about the
Roman economy more than two
thousand years ago, he gave currency
to rumours that the Republic had
suffered a financial crisis that would
otherwise have been lost to history.
“The coinage was being tossed
around, so that no one was able to know
what he had,” grumbled the writer in
44BC in De Officiis, a philosophical
treatise composed of letters to his son.
The senator’s words were taken by
historians to imply that there had been
a crippling recession in 86BC, yet the
theory remained unconfirmed.
Now an analysis of a denarius — the
silver coin used in ancient Rome — has
proved that a bruising war between
91BC and 87BC with Rome’s Italian
allies led to a spiralling debt crisis in the
Republic. It also suggested that officials
had to step in and dilute the silver coin-
age with copper.
Analysis of the currency by research-
ers has revealed that by 86BC, coins
that had been pure silver in 90BC had

Copper-bottomed proof of Roman currency crisis

Peter Chappell been adulterated with up to 10 per cent
copper, a significant reduction in value
over only five years. Romans had been
used to an extremely fine silver coinage
beforethis happened.
In the years after 91BC, the Roman
state was fighting the Social War with
their Italian neighbours and was in
danger of becoming bankrupt. The Ital-
ian allies wanted Roman citizenship —
for both the status and the influence
that came with it — and the right to
vote in Roman elections and on laws.
However, the Romans opposed their
demands and refused to grant them
citizenship, leading to a devastating war
and a four-year revolt against Roman
rule. By the conclusion of the conflict in
89BC there was already a serious debt
crisis.
The results of the analysis suggest
that these financial difficulties had led
to a relaxation of standards at the mint
in 90BC — the result being that by
87BC the coinage was deliberately
being alloyed with between 5 per cent
and 10 per cent copper.
In order to settle the debate once and
for all, the European Research Council

launched a £2 million, five-year

research project to enhance their

knowledge of the economic

state of ancient Rome. They

analysed the chemical

composition of 1,800 an-

cient coins and cross-

referenced their find-

ings with historical

records from the time.

About 100 Roman

coins, taken from

various museums

around the world,

were sampled to help to

corroborate the account.

Professor Kevin Butcher, of

the University of Warwick,

who co-authored the

study, said: “The dis-

covery of this signif-

icant decrease in

the value of the

denarius has

shed new light

on Cicero’s hints

of a currency

crisis in 86BC.

Historians have

long debated

what Cicero meant when he wrote that

and we believe we have now solved this

puzzle.”

Dr Matthew Ponting, of the Univers-

ity of Liverpool, said: “They may well

have lost confidence in the denarius

when it ceased to be pure.

“The precise level of debasement

might have been less important to con-

temporaries than the mere realisation

that the coin was adulterated and no

longer made of true ‘silver’.”

Butcher added: “This could be the

meaning of Cicero’s words: that the

value of the coinage was ‘tossed about’

because nobody could be certain whe-

ther the denarii they had were pure.”

The head of Bacchus

on one of the coins

tested by analysts

patrick kidd

TMS

[email protected] | @timesdiary

Nasa protects

precious cargo

The New York office of Bonhams

invokes the Cold War next week

with an auction of objects from

the space race, such as a fragment

of Sputnik 1 and a map of the

moon signed by 15 astronauts. The

highlight, though, is a set of five

aluminium tubes containing moon

dust collected by Neil Armstrong

in 1969. It is the only lunar

specimen that can be legally sold

after Nasa lost a court battle. The

agency was very protective of its

samples. The catalogue for the

auction quotes Mike Mallory, a

member of the Apollo 11 Navy

frogman recovery team, who was

given strict orders about his

priority after splashdown. “Save

the moon rocks first,” he was told.

“We only have one bag of rocks.

We have lots of astronauts.”

With the Sunaks, Downing Street’s

Dick and Non-Dom, wriggling over

their tax affairs, Jeremy White sent

me Ken Dodd’s defence when his

accountancy was queried: “I told the

Inland Revenue I didn’t owe them a

penny as I live near the sea.”

liaisons dangereuses

François Mitterrand, who once

said Margaret Thatcher had “the

eyes of Caligula and the mouth of

Marilyn Monroe”, also compared

the PM to a British sexpot, below,

especially when she spoke French.

In a newspaper interview, the

president’s former foreign

minister, Roland Dumas, recalls

that his boss found Thatcher’s

accent très séduisant. “Close

your eyes, it’s like listening to

Jane Birkin,” Mitterrand told

him, perhaps hoping to be

Serge Gainsbourg. Dumas

shared his enthusiasm for

the national sport of

getting one’s end away.

“Though he did warn

me against women who

were too young,” he

says. The paper notes that the

99-year-old Dumas is now living

with a 40-year-old Russian blonde.

cover-up at cabinet office

One effect of Jacob Rees-Mogg

being put in charge of the Brexit

opportunities government office

(BOGOF) is the opportunities it

has created for tailors. A senior

civil servant tells me there has

been a noticeable improvement in

sartorial standards in the Cabinet

Office since Rees-Mogg moved

there. Ambitious officials now

wear expensive ties rather than

flaunting their Adam’s apple as

was the case. Jacob assures me he

has not directed this but is

delighted. “Bowler hats and furled

umbrellas next,” he adds.

Lots of niche-interest museums

have come in. I can feel the pull of

the Towing and Recovery Museum

in Chattanooga, nominated by

Patrick Hogan, but today’s winner,

from Peter Lowthian, is the Barbed

Wire Museum in La Crosse, Kansas.

It contains 2,400 varieties of “Devil’s

rope”, the invention that did more

than the six-shooter to tame the

Wild West. As one reviewer wrote

of the collection: “You’ll be hooked.”

comic avoids royal pickle

Bill Bailey has got grand since his

victory on Strictly. The comedian

was teased by Josh Widdicombe

on his Parenting Hell podcast for

the demands he made for his

dressing-room at the Royal Variety

Performance. While Widdicombe

got “a pie in a box”, he noticed that

Bailey had a detailed rider. “It was

just a bit of cheese and ham,”

Bailey said. “Not swan.” Then

Widdicombe produced a photo.

It wasn’t the two bottles of fizz

that irked him but the huge

jar of pickled onions. “I love a

pickled onion,” Bailey

said, before admitting it

was a mistake. “You

don’t want to be

breathing all over

royals after that.”