Skilled and specialized work, as in building the temple at Epi-
daurus in the fourth century b.c.e., might attract higher pay.
Credit, banking, and insurance were rudimentary. A
fi nancially sound borrower, when times were not diffi cult,
might hope to borrow at 1 percent per month simple interest.
Profi teering or scarcity of money might drive interest rates up
two to four times as high. Bankers would accept deposits and
pay interest to depositors, but checks were unknown. Insur-
ance was likewise unknown, except that under Athenian law
a loan to fi nance a trading voyage need not be repaid if the
ship was lost at sea: Th e interest rate, when a trading venture
succeeded, was correspondingly high, recognizing the share
of the risk that the lender had accepted.
Gold coins were uncommon in Greece until the time
of Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 b.c.e.). When Alexander
captured the treasury of the Persian Empire at Persepolis in
330 b.c.e., however, he and his men claimed 120,000 talents
when, according to the ancient Greek historian Diodorus
Siculus, “the gold was estimated in terms of silver.” Most of
the Persian treasure was in gold, which the Greeks assumed
to be worth 12 times as much, weight for weight, as silver.
Th ey thought silver was 120 times as valuable as bronze.
When this gold came to the Mediterranean area, the price
of gold fell. Alexander’s treasurer, Harpalus (ca. 355–323
b.c.e.), worsened the shock by absconding with 5,000 talents
of Alexander’s money and traveling back to Greece, where he
spent freely.
In the Hellenistic Period (323–31 b.c.e.) the rulers of the
empires that took over Alexander’s conquests minted coins
picturing themselves; previously it had been almost unprec-
edented for a human being to be pictured (though gods and
goddesses might be shown). In these centuries Greek coins
were minted and used far into Asia. Indeed, the Greek king-
doms of Bactria and India, for which there is scant surviving
literature, are almost best known from the coins they minted.
Soon aft er the time of Alexander in the western Mediterra-
nean, Greek moneyers began to mint Romano-Campanian
coins—essentially Greek coins produced for Rome.
ROME
BY LUCAS G. RUBIN
Th e Romans adopted coinage fairly late, around 300 b.c.e.
Th e earliest Roman currency was based upon the use of lumps
of bronze called aes rude. Th ese bronze pieces were diffi cult
to use because they had to be weighed in order to determine
their value. Th ese ineffi cient tokens were later replaced by cast
bars known as aes signatum, which were in turn replaced by
bronze pieces of various denominations, one of which was
known as an as (two or more were asses). Th e Romans also
experimented with early types of silver coins based upon the
Greek drachma, but they failed to obtain widespread use.
During the Second Punic War, the Romans introduced a sil-
ver coin, the denarius, which was to form the basic unit of Ro-
man currency for the next four centuries. Th e fi rst denarius
was valued at 10 asses and went through periods of reassess-
ment and revaluing. Gold was not regularly coined until the
later Republic (which spanned 509–27 b.c.e.).
By the time of the emperor Augustus (r. 27 b.c.e.–14 c.e.),
the Roman system of coinage was fi rmly established around
the denarius, which became the dominant currency of the
Mediterranean basin and the lands controlled by Rome.
Along with the denarius, a gold coin (aureus) was produced,
worth 25 denarii, and also a range of fractional bronze de-
nominations of various amounts. Th is system remained more
or less static until the introduction of an important new de-
nomination, the antonianus, in the reign of Caracalla (r. 211–
217 c.e.). Th e antonianus was minted as a “double denarius,”
though its silver content was actually less than two denarii.
Th is was, in fact, one step in a steady progression of reduc-
ing the silver content (called debasement) of coins that were
about 94 percent pure in the fi rst century c.e. to less than 1
percent by 270 c.e. Signifi cant reforms were undertaken by
the emperor Aurelian in 274 c.e. to correct this trend, but
the problem of debasement and infl ationary currency was not
fully addressed until the reforms of Diocletian.
Diocletian (r. 284–305 c.e.) radically overhauled the
economy, establishing a new coinage system shaped around a
silver argenteus and instituting an edict on maximum prices
in 301 c.e., both radical attempts to control the vagaries of
pricing fl uctuation. Th is eventually failed as well, and diff er-
ent systems of bronze and gold coinage became the norm over
the course of the next few centuries until the fi nal collapse of
the Roman Empire in the west.
Facilities for the production of coinage were established
in Rome with the institution of the fi rst Roman coined money.
During the Republic, the primary mint was believed to be lo-
cated in or near the Temple of Juno Moneta on the Capito-
line Hill. By the Imperial Period (14–180 c.e.) there were also
several provincial mints, including a major facility at Lugdu-
num (modern-day Lyon, France). By the fi rst century c.e. the
mint in Rome had been relocated, and it is possible that its
remains are partially preserved within the church known as
the Basilica San Clemente. By the end of the third century
c.e., in response to the increased disunity, discord, and dis-
tress within the empire, there were several major centers of
imperial production scattered throughout the empire.
In the Republic the administrative board most commonly
associated with the minting of coins was the IIIviri aere ar-
gento auro fl ando feriundo (tresviri monetales for short). Th is
was a college of lower magistrates who oversaw the striking
of bronze, silver, and gold coinage and whose establishment
probably coincided with the institution of the denarius. Dur-
ing the empire the offi cials and personnel involved in minting
activities became suffi ciently more complex, with a range of
diff erent workshops, skilled laborers, and technical support
staff reporting to a senior administration responsible for the
production of coinage.
Ancient coins were minted by striking heat-soft ened
blanks, usually cast or cut from a specially prepared bar. Th e760 money and coinage: Rome