Heesch, Johan van - Some Aspects of Wage Payments and Coinage in Ancient Rome, First to Third...

8/14/2019 Heesch, Johan van - Some Aspects of Wage Payments and Coinage in Ancient Rome, First to Third century AD (in

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Some Aspects of Wage Payments and Coinage inAncient Rome, First to Third Centuries

Johan van Heesch

The Roman Empire stretched over more than thirty modern states, fromGreat Britain in the west to Jordan in the east and from the Netherlandsin the north to Egypt and Morocco in the south. Although the empire wasruled by a single emperor and by a fairly centralized government, there wereimportant social and economic differences across such a wide territory. In thatpre-industrial society, mass production and very large factories were excep-tional, and few really large towns existed, among them Rome, Alexandria,and Antioch, cities that were essentially parasites on the countryside, whichwas where at least eighty per cent of people lived, working in small villagesor on farms. Coinage use and coinage circulation patterns varied from one

area to another and it is certain that barter and other forms of payment wereused side by side in more isolated areas of the empire.During the first three centuries of the Roman Empire the Roman impe-

rial government minted nine different denominations of coins in three met-als (gold, silver, and bronze),which in itself is sufficient reason to believe thatthe Roman monetary economy was fairly well developed and that coins atleast in major towns were probably used in almost the same way as today.

I would like to express my gratitude to Helen Wang for her comments on this chapterand for her language editing.

In gold: aureus and quinar ius; in silver: denarius and quinar ius; in brass: sestertius,

dupondius and semis; in copper: as and quadrans. aureus = gold quinarii = denarii = silver quinarii = sestertii = dupondii = asses = semis-ses = , quadrantes. In numismatic studies the word bronze is generally used todenote any alloy containing copper. Most bronze coins from the High Empire areactually made of pure copper (as and quadrans) or brass (sestertius, dupondius, andsemis). Brass was much more expensive than copper. For a general introduction toRoman coinage see Burnett, Coinage in the Roman World, and Harl, Coinage in theRoman Economy. For further details, see Wolters, Nummi signati. For special purposes(gifts) gold, silver, and bronze multiples were also coined. Gold and silver multiplesare extremely rare before as most were melted down (some are known forAugustus, Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian). See Gnecchi, I medaglioni romani.


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Map..LocationoftheAugustanlegions,mintsandmainminingarea(designJohanvanHeesch)KeytoMints:Ephesus;

Pergamum;Samos;Caetra-mint;Corduba;

Caesaraugusta;Emerita;Lugd

unum;Roma;Nemausus


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome Wage Labour in Ancient Rome

Although wage labour in Ancient Rome never reached the level it has inindustrial societies, it existed, and can be thought of as omnipresent in bothlarger and smaller towns throughout Italy and abroad, as well as in villagesand the countryside. The most important group of wage earners were peopleemployed in imperial public service. Agrippa said in his speech to Octavianin : In monarchies one set of people usually engages in agriculture,manufacturing, commerce and politics, and these are the classes from whichthe states receipts are chiefly derived, and a different set is under arms anddraws pay.In some , men (almost one per cent of the entirepopulation) were under arms and received a stipendium.That meant annual

expenditure of some ,,, sestertii,and it was normal during theHigh Empire (from to ) for such sums to be expressed in ses-tertii, the money of account. But the actual sestertius, a brass coin, was onlyrarely used for making the payments. Men were paid only three times a year,probably in January, May, and September.Even if costs for food, clothing, andarmour were deducted from their wages, a considerable amount of moneystill had to be paid in cash.

Several military pay records are known, found in Egypt and written onpapyrus. They show that soldiers had to deposit a considerable part of their

pay into the camps savings banks, a fact well known from other sources.Vegetius in his Epitome of Military Science(II.) clearly states that It was adivinely inspired institution of the ancients to deposit with the standards halfof the donative which the soldiers received, and to save it for each soldier,so it could not be spent by the troops on extravagance or the acquisition ofvain things.The most interesting document is the text known as Geneva

Dio Cassius, Roman History, .., transl. Earnest Cary [Loeb Classical Library],(Cambridge, MA, -).

The population of the Roman Empire was about mill ion in , but by this number would have decreased as the Empire suffered from several plague

epidemics between and . For demographic estimates see Frier, Demog-raphy, pp. -. For the impact of the plague see Duncan-Jones, The Impact ofthe Antonine Plague, pp. -, esp. p. , note , where a figure of betweentwenty-five and thirty-three per cent for mortality in places affected by the plague isconsidered to be realistic.

Duncan-Jones, Money and Government, pp. and . The Empires annual budget isestimated at , million sestertii. See also Wierschowski, Heer und Wirtschaft, andmore recently Erdkamp, The Roman Army and the Economy.

Watson, The Roman Soldier, pp. and , and Fink, Roman Military Records, pp. -, document .

Vegetius, Epitome of Military Science, transl. N.P. Milner (Liverpool, ), p. .


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johan van heeschpapyrus (PGen Lat. recto) and dated or . It mentions two legion-ary soldiers and the pay they received, as well as the deductions for shoes, hay,

food, and clothing. As each of them received drachmae three times ayear and since the Alexandrian tetradrachm (a coin worth four drachmae)was the equivalent of one Roman denarius, the drachmae (. x )represented and / denarii, i.e. .% of the normal rate of pay at thattime ( denarii). As no withdrawals for pocket money are mentioned inthe accounts, it is supposed that only part of the pay was deposited and thatthe rest of their money was paid in cash. The soldiers mentioned in thisdocument then received approximately denarii in cash, which was .%of their pay. This amount was probably used for their private expenses andto support their families too, who lived in or near military camps, depend-

ing on the rank of the soldier.If that was general practice it means that thepurchasing power of the ordinary soldier and his direct impact on local mar-kets was quite limited, and that a substantial part of the supplies for militaryregions (e.g. food) was bought in bulk by the authorities. These transactionswere very probably paid for in high-value coins struck from gold and silver(aurei and denarii). The presence of large gold hoards in the fertile rural areasof northwestern Gaul could be explained by such purchases.

Salaries of ordinary legionary soldiers are fairly well known and the fig-ures, expressed in sestertii, the unit of account and abbreviated HS (the

Roman symbol for sestertius, originally IIS or two and a half asses), canbe seen in Table .. A significant number of civil servants received regularcash payments, and their numbers increased considerably from the Flaviansonward (- ), but exact figures are unknown.Duncan-Jones estimatesthe budget for civilian employees at million sestertii in the early part of thethird century; a figure only one-sixteenth of the military budget.Beside theimperial government service, the municipalities too employed salaried men.

Watson, TheRoman Soldier, pp. -, and Alston, Roman Military Pay, pp. -.

Before the reign of Septimius Severus soldiers were not entitled to legal ly marry whenin service, and they often lived with their families. Higher officers were allowed tolive with their wives, chi ldren, and slaves in camp. See Watson, TheRoman Soldier, pp.-, and Bowman, Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier, pp. -.

Van Heesch, De muntcirculatie, pp. -. For detai ls on the Roman budget see Duncan-Jones, Money and Government, p. .

For civil servants see Eck, The Growth of Administrative Posts, pp. -. Foran excellent survey on wage payments see Corbier, Salaires et salariat, pp. -.Also very useful are Garnsey, Non-slave Labour in the Greco-Roman World, and Mrozek,Lohnarbeit im Klassischen Altertum.

Duncan-Jones, Money and Government, p. .


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome For instance, a secretary of the colony of Urso in Spain received an annualpay of , sestertii,and it is likely that some public works in Rome were

undertaken by free labourers who received a salary. That work had an impor-tant social function, as Suetonius (Life of Vespasian, ) states when talkingabout the emperor Vespasian: To a mechanical engineer, who promised totransport some heavy columns to the Capitol at small expense, he gave nomean reward for his invention, but refused to make use of it, saying: you mustlet me feed my poor commons.

Table .. Annual legionary pay in the Roman Empire (in Sestertii)

Period () Legionary pay

Before 89 900 HS (or 225 denarii)89-202 1,200 HS (or 300 denarii)

202-212 1,600 HS (or 400 denarii)

212- 2,400 HS (or 600 denarii)

To most historians that last sentence has been understood as I must alwaysensure that the working classes earn enough money to buy themselvesfood.However, we do not know if these labourers were actually employedby the Roman government, for it is possible that contractors responsible for

public works themselves hired the labour force. Of course slavery, as well as

Crawford, Roman Statutes, pp. and , document no. (Lex coloniae Genetivae,LXII.). The document is of the Flavian period (last quarter of the f irst century ).

Duncan-Jones, Money and Government, p. . For the date of the pay rise under Domi-tian see Campbell, The Emperor and the Roman Army, p. . The famous coin ofDomitian with, on its reverse, the legend stip(endium) imp(eratoris) avg(usti) Domitian(i),dated by Kraay (Two New Sestertii of Domitian) and also mentioned inGrif fin, Nero to Hadrian, p. , appears to have been wrongly read. Giard proposesTitus (imp) avg Domitian, Giard, Monnaies de lempire romain, III, no. . This coin then

cannot be used as evidence for the pay rise. See also note of this chapter. Havingexamined the coin in Paris, I can confirm that its reading is problematical, thoughKraays interpretation cannot entirely be ruled out. The letters are very vague andsmaller than on most of the coins of this period. It could have been tooled in recenttimes to match the literary tradition. For army pay see also Zehnacker, La solde delarme romaine, pp. -.

Brunt, Free Labour and Public Works, pp. -, and Mrozek, Lohnarbeit, p. (this interpretation is not universally accepted). The first Suetonius translation is byJ.C. Rolfe [Loeb Classical Library] (Cambridge, MA, ); for the second translationsee Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, transl. R. Graves and M. Grant (Harmondsworth,). See also Duncan-Jones, Structure and Scale, pp. -.


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johan van heeschcorve labour, existed, but there is no doubt that free labour played an impor-tant role in the Roman economy.

It was very common to find wage labourers in most major Roman towns,where shopkeepers, traders, and craftsmen employed freeborn people, freed-men, and slaves. Itinerant workers, free wage labourers, and day-wagelabourers are also attested in rural areas and mining districts in every part ofthe empire.We could quote an example from the gospel of Matthew, whichsays that a day labourer earned a daily salary of one denarius. Some peoplein Pompeii were paid one denarius a day, but others there received five asses( asses = denarius).

It is very difficult to carry out detailed research on wage levels and theirimportance under the Roman Empire. Most sources are anecdotal, and there

are not enough data on the extent of non-slave labour. Egypt is the onlyregion for which a substantial amount of material is available, for thousandsof papyri are known from the Roman province, but the interpretation ofeven these data remains difficult as they do not always come from the samearea or even period. Just as in modern society, wages varied according toregion and occupation and to a great extent depended on demand.

In his book on prices and wages in Egypt, Drexhage lists some dailywages covering the first three centuries of the Roman Empire.Day labour-ers working on farms earned less than one drachma a day in the first cen-

tury . On average they received three and a half obols a day ( obols = drachma; drachmae = silver denarius). Wages were higher in the secondcentury , rising gradually from about six to nine obols, and even as highas fourteen towards end of the century. After it is not rare to find daywages of four drachmae (twenty-four obols) or more. We do not always knowif those wages were actually paid daily or only after some longer period ofwork. It is perhaps worth remarking that during the first two centuries themost common coin denominations were the billon tetradrachm (= drach-mae = denarius) and the bronze drachma. From the time of Commodus(- ) onward drachmae became very rare and the tetradrachms dom-

inated coin circulation.

See the recent bibliography on slave labour in H.W. Pleket, Wirtschaft, in Vitting-hoff, Europische Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte in der rmischen Kaiserzeit, pp. -.

Corbier, Sala ires et salariat, and Treggiari, Urban Labour in Rome, pp. -. Garnsey, Non-slave Labour, pp. -, and Mrozek, Lohnarbeit. Mrozek, Lohnarbeit, pp. -. For the Egyptian data see Drexhage, Preise, Mieten/Pachten. Ibid., pp. -. See also Johnson,An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome,pp. -. Milne, Catalogue of Alexandrian Coins.


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome There are two key questions. Did the denominational structure of coinage

reflect changes in wage levels? And can the pattern of coin finds throw any

light on the presence of wage earners and the coins with which they werepaid? Before addressing these questions it is important to describe brieflyhow Roman coinage was organized.

General Characteristics of Roman Coinage

The organization of Roman coinage during the High Empire differed inmany ways from that of medieval times. Coins were minted not only by theRoman government but also by a number of local authorities and by a few

hundred mostly eastern cities. The Roman Empires mint masters mintedin gold, silver, and bronze, whereas most of the provincial mints issued onlybronze coins. From the reign of Tiberius (- ), the coinage for thewhole empire from Gaul to Syria was minted first in Lyons and Rome, butfrom onward only in Rome. But these western coinages rarely reachedeastern parts of the empire. In the east, local bronze coinages were used andsome important provincial mints like Caesarea in Cappadocia and Antiochin Syria minted silver coins to cover imperial expenditure in the region. Inthe third century, especially after about , the number of Roman mints

increased again and local coinages everywhere were gradually replaced byRoman denominations.Egypt, one of the richest provinces of the empire,had its own monetary system until the reign of Diocletian (- ).An imperial mint in Alexandria struck mainly tetradrachms and drachmaefor circulation in Egypt alone. Although gold Roman coins are occasionallyfound in Egypt, it seems that until the reign of Diocletian most foreigncoins were not allowed to circulate there.

Old coins were obviously re-used, but if payments in new coins weremade away from minting centres, then it is clear that an organized transportsystem must have existed, however difficult or costly it might have been.

Although gold, silver, brass, and copper coins were issued, not all thosemetals were always minted continuously, especially in the first century .The mint at Lyons, for example, did not coin any gold or silver between and but worked in bronze. On the other hand, the Roman govern-ment minted no bronze coins between and . We remain uncertainwhy minting was sometimes so irregular, but plausible explanations includelack of precious metals or the limited use of small denominations in certain

Van Heesch, Mints and the Roman Army, pp. -.


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johan van heeschtypes of payment. The absence of an official bronze coinage from - suggests that for twenty-two years it was mainly gold aurei and silver denarii

that were used to cover state expenditure and salary payments.The monetary system of the Roman emperors was reasonably stable. Most

of the denominations struck by Augustus at the end of the first century still existed in the middle of the third century . The relationships amongthose coins remained unchanged for at least years and coins were rarelydemonetized. The only apparent changes were modifications to preciousmetal content or weight.As the metal content of gold and silver coins of thefirst two centuries was quite stable, and as those coins were probably slightlyovervalued, they could justifiably circulate for a very long time. For exam-ple, denarii from the second century have been found in hoards from

the Flavian period (- ), so it should not surprise us if old coins wereused alongside new ones for both private and public expenditure. In short,the only official coinage in circulation in the western part of the empire andfrom the time of Claudius onward was that struck in Lyons and Rome forthe Roman emperors. Coinage was a matter for the government and privateminting was highly exceptional.

Since the Roman government had sole charge of minting coins in thewest, it is very important to determine how they were placed in circulation.Issue of coins was effected through government payments and, in exceptional

circumstances, through exchanges when the old coinage was demonetized.

The following expenses weighed heavily on the Roman budget:

- army pay (stipendia) at regular intervals (three times a year);- wages of civilian employees;- handouts to civilians (congiaria) and soldiers (donativa);- discharge costs (praemia) after twenty-five years army service;- expenditure on public buildings.

As coins were minted in so few places it is highly improbable that private

individuals had the opportunity to offer gold and silver objects or bullion to Walker, Metrology. An exception should be made for coin forgeries and emergency issues of small change

especial ly abundant between ce and and between c. AD and . See Boon,Counterfeit Coins in Roman Britain, pp. -.

For example, under Trajan in and possibly in the second half of the third cen-tury .

Howgego, Why did Ancient States Strike Coins, pp. -; Duncan-Jones, Structureand Scale, pp. -, and von Kaenel, Zur Prgepolitik des Kaisers Claudius, pp.- (on the link between coinage and building activities).


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome the mint in exchange for freshly minted coins. Some historians have supposedthat money changers or bankers (nummularii) organized transport of coins and

exchanged gold and silver coins for small bronze coins. But the role of bank-ers in these processes is not at all clear.It is difficult to see how a profit couldbe made from organizing the costly and dangerous transport of coins from themint at Lyons or Rome to the most remote corners of the Empire.

If merchants or tradesmen needed coins for wage payments, these coinsmust have come from those already in circulation or from transactions withthe government. If there was a preference for a particular denomination, trad-ers could go to bankers, but it is important to bear in mind that there wasonly one official mint during the first and second centuries. It is unlikely thatthe Roman mint masters would have been able to satisfy short-term fluctua-

tions in the demands of the market.

Monetary Policy and Wage Payments

By studying the pay of soldiers it is possible to trace a link between monetarychanges and wage payments. Between the reign of Augustus ( )and the Roman monetary system did not undergo regular or spec-tacular modifications. However, there were two major types of change: there

were several reductions in the silver content of the denarius, the basic silvercoin (this was sometimes accompanied by a weight reduction of the goldcoin as well), and there was the introduction in of the antoninianus (adouble denarius), which gradually became the new standard silver coin.

Reductions in the weight and fineness of the coinage can be explained intwo ways. In a bimetallic currency system with a fixed relationship betweensilver and gold coins, the government could modify the content of the coinswhen there was an imbalance between the market value of the two met-

Andreau, La vie financire dans le monde romain , and also Andreau, Banking and Busi-

ness in the Roman World. This concerns the western part of the empire only. In theeast hundreds of towns struck bronze coins until the middle of the third century.The function of these coinages is not completely clear, but I suppose they were alsoput into circulation in the same way the imperial coinage was. In the eastern cities,the role of bankers might have been more important; they were probably involvedin the exchange of the different city coinages and the exchange of Roman gold andsilver against local bronze coins. Some private minting of emergency issues of smal lchange might have existed in the west during the first half of the first century and at the end of the third century. Individuals seem to be responsible for the largequantities of imitative bronze coins that circulated freely. It is possible that these coinsentered circulation through local money changers or by wage payments.


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als.In Roman times, a shortage of precious metals was a frequent reason fordebasing the coinage. A shortage might be caused by the exhaustion of minesor by diminished income from taxes; by a too zealous hoarding of coins or a

rise in government expenditure. In certain cases a reduction in the finenessof the coinage was related to an increase in army pay.Between the reigns of Augustus ( ) and Caracalla (

), army salaries changed at least four times (see Table .). On historicalgrounds it is assumed that the pay rise during Domitians time took placeduring the revolt of Saturninus or just after (- ).If we look at thehypothetical output figures of the Roman mint, based on coin hoards anddie counts, we see a spectacular rise in the output of denarii from - onward (Figure .).This increase in the production of silver coin could be

Lo Cascio, State and Coinage, pp. -. Hasler, Studien zu Wesen und Wert desGeldes, and Pankiewicz, Fluctuations de valeur des mtaux montaires.

Campbell, The Emperor and the Roman Army, p. , and note of this chapter. Dio.. (Zonaras) and Suetonius, Domitianus, .. Dio (Zonaras) thinks that the pay risewas related to the German victory of , though he is not certain. For the date ofthe revolt of Saturninus see Halfmann, Itinera principum, p. .

Carradice, Coinage and Finances, pp. -. Domitian raised the fineness of the silvercoins between and ; in he returned to the pre- standards. See Duncan-Jones, Money and Government, p. (table based on the work of Walker, Metrology).

Figure .. Output of denarii (in millions) under Domitian (- CE)

Source: Carradice, Coinage and Finances, p. .


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome linked to the pay rise.However, we should need to explain why the payincrease of .% corresponds to a rise in coin output of %, and even

%. That suggests the pay rise was probably not the only reason for theobserved increase and that other state costs (including bonuses,praemia, pay-ment of civilian employees) rose in the same period. Perhaps we should con-sider the possibility that the government might have switched from paymentsin gold or bronze to payments in silver, something that is in any case difficultto verify since production estimates for those metals are really only approxi-mations.Moreover, figures for - could well be too low as they werethe years when heavy gold coins and better silver denarii were minted. Thesegold and silver coins of good standard disappeared from circulation prettyswiftly and that might have caused a distortion in our data.

If the first of our four pay rises took place in and not in , thenthe extra .% the soldiers received is remarkably close to the % increasein coin output from - , as calculated by Carradice (Figure .).

The next pay rises took place under the emperor Septimius Severus. Theycan be dated to and . Severuss great debasement (silver from.% to %) dates to / and so preceded by some years the first ofthese pay rises.We may assume that the debasement led to a rise in pricesand eventually to the pay rise. A second debasement, dated or , canbe linked more easily to the first pay increase, although we should not for-

get that large bonuses (donativa) were distributed to the army during thoseyears.No change in the coinage can be detected in and even theoutput of silver (and gold) does not seem to have been influenced by the payrise of that year.

The ludi saecularesof also resulted in significant expenditure. Wars were foughtby Domitian before and after , so this cannot be the only reason for the observedincrease in output.

Carradice, Coinage and Finances, pp. and . Ibid., p. . In , a total of ,, denar ii were minted, and in the total

was ,,, an increase of ,, denari i. All these figures are, of course, very

rough estimates. : Herodian .. and Historia Augusta, Severus, .; : Historia Augusta,Severus, .. See Campbell, The Emperor and the Roman Army, pp. -, who datesthe pay rise to (after the fa ll of Clodius Albinus), and Callu, Politique montaire,p. .

Gitler and Ponting, The Silver Coinage of Septimius Severus; Walker, Metrology, III, p..

For reductions in the silver content in or see Duncan-Jones, Money andGovernment, p. (table based on Walkers data), and Callu, Politique montaire, pp.- and .

Duncan-Jones, Money and Government,p. (table).


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johan van heeschThe fourth pay rise, that of Caracalla, can probably be dated to ,

shortly after the murder of his brother Geta.The rise was important: the

ordinary legionary soldier now received denarii per year instead of the he had received before (and before ). The effects on thecoinage of that r ise are much clearer to see than in the previous cases. Cara-calla debased the coinage by % in the same year and an output peak can beseen in (Table .).Undoubtedly, Caracallas military extravaganceand the pay rise of at least % were the main causes of the introduction, in , of a new and larger coin denomination, conventionally called theantoninianus.

Table .. Silver coins in the Reka Devnia hoard struck under Caracalla

Period () Denarii Antoniniani211-212 251 -213 928 -214 276 -215 369 102216 171 39217 (Jan.-Apr.) 59 25

Source: Duncan-Jones,Money and Government,p. .

The introduction of the antoninianus meant a real gain for the government,which had tried to cover its growing expenditure by cheating both soldiersand civilians. Although the antoninianus had a value of two denarii, it con-tained only one and a half times the amount of silver (Table .). The profitfor the emperor is clear: the pay rise of about % was actually covered by thedebasement of % and the introduction of the antoninianus (Table .).

The pay rise for the praetorians is dated . See Herodian ... See also Dio

[], .. From .% to .% silver. See Walker, Metrology, III, pp. -, and for outputfigures see Duncan-Jones, Money and Government, pp. and . These figureson the precious metal content of the coins are certainly too high and thus wrong.Though Walkers metal analysis provides us with percentages that are systematicallytoo high, I believe that his general conclusion regarding the evolution of the metalcontent is valid and should sti ll be accepted. On the work of Walker and the marginof error see, for example, Gitler and Ponting, The Silver Coinage. Nineteenth-centuryanalysis of the metal content of antoniniani issued by Caracal la (wet method) gave thefollowing figures: %, %, and %. See Hammer, Feingehalt der griechischenund rmischen Mnzen, pp. -.


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome Table .. Weight of Caracallas denarii and antoniniani in CE

Denomination Weight % silver Weight of silver

Denarii 3.17 g 50.5 1.60 g

Antoniniani 5.13 g 50 2.55 g

Source: Walker, Metrology,III, pp. -.

However, the introduction of this larger denomination was not a successand was soon ended (under Elagabalus, - ). It was only from onward (during the reigns of Pupienus, Balbinus, and Gordian III) that theantoninianus effectively replaced the denarius in the soldiers pay.

Table .. Caracallas pay rise and the effects of the monetary reforms

- Pay rise (212 ) c. 33%

- Monetary reforms by way of reductions in costs of production:

Debasement (212 ) Profit of 8%

Introduction of antoninianus (215 ) Profit of 25%

Total 33%

Source: see text.

Coin Circulation and Wage Payments

Coins were put into circulation through government spending and remainedin use for a very long time. They travelled, became intermingled, and wereused in all sorts of subsequent commercial transactions. It is not easy to linkthe different coin denominations in circulation to a specific type of govern-ment spending or to wage payments. However, in some instances we candemonstrate that the circulation pattern in one area was determined by the

presence of wage earners. In such cases, coin finds throw light on the coinsactually used to pay salaries.

Our first example comes from northwestern Gaul and concerns the smallnon-Roman bronze coins, traditionally called Celtic bronzes. Several seriesof small bronze coins (the so-called rameau bronzes) were issued in the ter-ritory of the Nervians in northern Gaul, probably during the reign of Augus-tus ( ). It was the first time that small change became available in


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johan van heesch

that region.These coins were found mainly in Roman village settlements(vici). As their types and occasional inscriptions prove, they were local Gallicproductions, intended for use in the limited area of the civitasNerviorum. Asthe typical Roman military coinages of the same period (discussed below)were almost entirely absent from the region, it is clear that Roman militarypayments did not influence the circulation pattern of this region. I believethat these series of coins can be linked to local expenditure, in particular to

wage payments made by the leading classes of the civitas. Leaving aside thepossibility of having to pay a local militia, it is still easy to suppose that alarge number of workmen were required to construct the road from Bavayto Cologne, to build the civitascapital in Bavay (note the visit of Tiberius in , mentioned in an inscription found in Bavay), and to build the importantreligious centre at Blicquy.

The second example concerns the Rhine limes, or frontier. Although JuliusCaesar conquered Gaul between and , permanent army camps alongthe Rhine and in Germania were built during only the last few decades of the reign of Augustus. In these military centres lived thousands of soldiers

all needing to be paid assuming all went well three times a year. Undoubt-edly, in the camps and their immediate surroundings coins were used almostexactly as they were in the Mediterranean urban economy. Although theGauls of the north had a long monetary tradition, with gold and even potincoins minted in the second century (gold even earlier), the monetariza-

Van Heesch, De muntcirculatie, pp. - and -. See Thollard et al., Bavay antique, Demarez et al., Le sanctuaire gallo-romain de Blicquy,

and Tacitus,Agricola , ., for the importance of building activities and early Roman-ization.

Figure . Sestertius (brass) of the emperor Nero (-CE). On the reverse the representation of

Neros second congiarium or coin distribution. On the ground an attendant holding a rectangular

counting device and a citizen of Rome holding out fold of toga to receive the coins (Brussels,

Coin Cabinet, du Chastel collection no. )


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome tion at the time of Caesars intervention was rather limited.Local Celticcoinages circulated in some religious and political centres (the Titelberg in

modern Luxembourg for instance), but only from the reign of Augustus ( ) did the use of coins increase to unprecedented levels. The findsfrom these Roman camps are highly instructive and it is reasonable to sup-pose that the coins found there originally entered circulation through mili-tary pay in the form of salaries and bonuses (donativa). Two of the manyGerman sites are of particular interest because they reflect coin loss over avery short period of time: the camp at Oberaden (occupied between and/ ) and the famous Varus battlefield at Kalkriese near Osnabrck, dated , where three Roman legions were lost (Table .).

Table .. The coins from Oberaden and Kalkriese

Denomination Oberaden Kalkriese

Aureus - 19

Aureus quinarius - -

Denarius 31 384

Denarius quinarius 3 8

Sestertius 2 1

Dupondius - 2

As 317 484Semis - 1

Quadrans - -

Celtic silver 2 -

Celtic bronze 9 2

Sources: Ilisch, Die Mnzen aus den Ausgrabungen im Rmerlager Oberaden, and Berger,

Kalkriese .

Heinrichs, berlegungen zur Versorgung; N. Roymans, The Lower Rhine Tri-quetrum Coinages; Wigg, Die Rolle des Militrs bei der Mnzversorgung.

Ilisch, Die Mnzen aus den Ausgrabungen im Rmerlager Oberaden, and Berger,Kalkriese .

The denomination of the bronze coins struck at Nmes (found in large numbers atOberaden) is disputed. Some numismatists describe these as dupondii, but given thevery limited role of dupondii in this early period we defend the traditional view thatthese coins are asses. Halved coins were included in the numbers. Hoards and strayfinds for Kalkriese are in the same column (these finds can be considered as one largehoard).


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome

was abandoned in , which explains why Trajanic coins for the years- were found, compared with only one from the years - .

Normally, the ratio of coins from - to coins from - is :,probably reflecting the original output of the mint in Rome. But sites nearVindonissa have a much higher percentage of coins from - than thosein other areas (Figure .), which demonstrates that the presence of a largeconcentration of soldiers influenced the circulation pattern of bronze coins ina wide area and that the departure of the soldiers from Vindonissa deprived theentire area of an important source of freshly minted coins.

Table .. Silver and bronze coins from Trajan (-CE) to Gordian III (-

CE

) found at Augst (Switzerland) and Ordona (South Italy)Emperors Augst Ordona

Silver Bronze Silver Bronze

Trajan (98-117) 23 277 1 19

Hadrian (117-138) 24 317 2 17

Antoninus Pius (138-161) 22 268 4 39

Marcus Aurelius (161-180) 18 200 2 12

Commodus (180-192) 11 105 - 8

Septimius Severus (193-211) 62 22 - 2

Caracalla-Geta (211-217) 9 10 - 4

Elagabalus (218-222) 27 2 2 2

Severus Alexander (222-235) 53 13 2 9

Maximinus Thrax (235-238) 6 1 1 2

Gordian III (238-244) 20 7 1 11

Sources: Peter, Untersuchungen zu den Fundmnzen aus Augst,pp. -, and Scheers,La circulation montaire Ordona, p. .

Figure .. Denarius (silver) of the emperor Hadrian (-CE). Hadrian and Gallia on the

reverse (Brussels, Coin Cabinet, du Chastel collection no. (enlarged))

Source: Walker, Metrology, III,pp. -.


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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Sl Ca Al Vi Au W Da Fr

101-103

98-100

johan van heesch

Our last example concerns the first half of the third century. From SeptimiusSeverus onward (- ), bronze coins tended to become extremely rarefinds on the Rhine and Danube frontiers, as well as in Britain and Gaul.

They were clearly outnumbered by the now debased denarii. However, inItaly, Spain, and North Africa, third-century bronze coins were much more

Figure .. Sestertius (brass) of Commodus Caesar (-CE). On the reverse a coin

distribution scene with a Roman citizen mounting the steps to receive the coins falling out of the

rectangular counting device (abacus) in the hands of Liberalitas..

Figure .. Trajanic bronze coins from - CE and from -CE. Vindonissa (Vi)

(Switzerland) compared with other regions: Slovenia, Carnuntum, Swiss Alps, Augst, South

Wrtemberg, Darmstadt, and Frankfurt am Main

Source: Peter, Untersuchungen zu den Fundmnzen aus Augst.


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3 some aspects of wage payments and coinage in rome common.That is illustrated in Table ., which shows the coin finds fromtwo civilian sites, Augst in Switzerland and Ordona in Italy.

That bronze was still needed in the northwest in the third century is clearlydemonstrated by the presence of cast forgeries of copper coins.However,it seems that official bronze was no longer reaching this area. This can beexplained by accepting that Roman government payments (civilian and armypay) in those regions were made almost exclusively with silver coins. Whybronze continued to be struck for the less militarized zones is more difficultto explain.

Conclusions

We know little about how coins were actually paid out. Some bas-reliefsfound in the land of the Treveri have been explained as scenes of paymentto labourers in the wool industry, but that interpretation is not acceptedby everyone.Depictions on bas-reliefs and especially on coins more oftenattempt to indicate the generosity of the various Roman emperors.Thoughnot actual wage payments, they do represent the distribution of coins toRoman citizens, in which an attendant close by the emperor distributes coinsusing an account board, probably made of wood and containing a certain

number of holes, each one filled by a coin. It was a simple device for veryquickly counting a fixed number of coins (Figures ., . and .).In this chapter, I have focused on certain aspects of wage payments and

coinage and discussed some links between monetary changes and pay rises.For clarity I have presented arguments very simply; the Roman economy wasvery much more complex. Changes of coinage and alterations to the mon-etary system were not, of course, linked exclusively to payments to govern-ment servants, whether military or civilian. Large cash holdings were neededto cover many other expenses, such as those related to construction work,warfare, payments to foreign kings, purchases of luxury products, and offi-

Bost, Lpave Cabrera III, pp. -, and Duncan-Jones, Money and Government, p..

Peter, Untersuchungen zu den Fundmnzen aus Augst, pp. -, and Scheers, La circu-lation montaire Ordona, pp. -, .

Lallemand, Les moules montaires de Saint-Mard, and Boon, Counterfeit Coinsin Roman Britain.

Drinkwater, Die Sekundinier von Igel. See Campbell, The Emperor and the Roman Army, pp. -, for a payment scene

to soldiers on Trajans column (doubtful), and, for example, Mattingly, Coins of theRoman Empire, plate no. and plate no .


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johan van heesch

cial largesse.With the exception of the doles to the citizens of Rome, mostof these aspects are not well known because contemporary sources are veryrare. Since the value of coins depended to a great extent on their metal con-tent, the government could if enough bullion were available strike allthe money it required. Yet scarcity of precious metals, exhaustion of mines,and sometimes their loss to invaders are just some of the reasons why theRoman government could not always mint as much gold and silver coins asit wanted.

No relation between private wage payments and the minting policy of theRoman emperors during the High Empire has been detected. That shouldnot come as a surprise, for currency was the concern of the emperor andhis government. The position and power of the autocratic ruler dependedheavily upon his financial independence and capacity. Money was crucial toguarantee the loyalty of his army and to demonstrate his generosity towardsthe people.

For a detailed description of a pay day in the Roman army see Fl. Josephus, Iud , ff.

Figure ..Bas-relief on the triumphal arch of Constantine the Great in Rome with the

representation of a coin distribution scene or congiarium. The coins falling out of the wooden (?)

counting device can be seen in the fold of the toga of the recipient (extreme left). In the middle

a box containing the money and on the right an administrator checking the name of the citizen.

(Photo Collection Brussels, Coin Cabinet)

Heesch, Johan van - Some Aspects of Wage Payments and Coinage in Ancient Rome, First to Third...

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