We are aware that Roman soldiers were paid. We believe that the wages were deducted for food and supplies. In order to figure out exactly how much a Roman soldier was able to actually save or have, we need to know how much things cost. So where can we find this information? It also should be referenced as to the date, since prices and wages changed, so dates are important. I am looking for more sources. I have a couple of lists of prices but I need more, (MORE! MORE!). If you have suggestions or references, please list them!
ie. A cavalry mount cost 125 Denarii during the 3rd century AD.
Dura Europa papyrus record.
in Augustus time 1 Modus of Wheat cost 16 AS
and a Tunic cost 15 Sestertii
and so on......
Go to the Vindolanda Tablets Online's search page:
[url:gev5lv6g]http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/4DLink2/4DACTION/WebRequestQuery[/url]
Type price into the General Text Search box. There are 9 entries concerning the cost of things. Try different keywords (denarii, cost, etc), you may get more results.
I am currently using that site's alphabet design for writing rosters on papyrus. I really think this is one of the best Vindolanda related sites.
a roman soldier may not have saved much at all, remember, in many cases these were virile young men, they would have needed to spend some on :-*
vindolanda is good only for that era, currency inflated during the time period, much more than we think about, in the late empire from year to year the amount something would buy was usually unrecognisable by about 360 A.D.
Oh, I know there's a lot of literature on that question. Inflation and devaluation is a hot topic and used to be one of the explanations for the misbehavior of the armies in the third century. That theory is now very much under discussion again. If I remember, I'll see if I can dig some references up for ya.
Hi,
yes, inflation is problem. I have one more for you - local conditions. In various provinces the prices were different...
Greetings
Alexandr
Here's a link that lists prices for various goods. Unfortunately, there aren't any dates listed I'm sure you could email the webmaster and perhaps get some more info.
[url:2cpdq60y]http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/currency/currency3.htm[/url]
Another link. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Fortunately, this one has dates.
[url:2cpdq60y]http://talismanunlimited.tripod.com/currency.htm[/url]
At [url:2cpdq60y]http://www.tomorrowlands.org/misc/salt.html[/url] it mentions:
"According to the Stoke-on-Trent Pottery Museum, Diocletian set a price cap in 301 CE of 100 denarii per modius of salt."
From [url:2cpdq60y]http://bvio.ngic.re.kr/Bvio/index.php?title=Roman_coins[/url]
"It is known that during the first century AD an as could only purchase half a pound of bread flour or a liter of cheap wine (or according to Pompeiian graphitti, a cheap prostitute)."
Check this site out called Forvm Ancient Coins. Here's a couple links for discussions like this one I found.
[url:2cpdq60y]http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=18806.0[/url]
[url:2cpdq60y]http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=7066.0[/url]
There is a source collection that might be useful in this context: W. Szaivert / R Wolters: Löhne Preise Werte. Quellen zur römischen Geldwirtschaft, WBG Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3534167740
Unfortunately, it doesn't address the issue of military pay specifically, and it concentrates on literary sources almost to the exclusion of papyri and graffitiu. It's still rather useful.
Avete, frater Fabius et al!
Unfortunately, Diocletian's price edict of AD 302 or thereabouts, which is the basis for many assessments of prices in the Roman world, is practically useless for the first and second centuries AD, as it came only after the economic collapse of the mid-third century and a period of hyperinflation and currency revaluation. The "denarius" used in this edict is not the silver denarius of ca. 210 BC-AD 235, but the tiny copper "denarius communis" that came into use after Diocletian's currency reform of AD 293-296.
Some of the other websites listed, particularly the Forum Ancient Coins one, do contain some valuable information on prices for the first and second centuries. Likewise "Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier" provides text from the Vindolanda tablets, which frequently have lists of foodstuffs, articles of clothing and other commodoties with prices next to them, usually in denari, presumably their values. Some examples:
Cloaks, number 6 — 11.5 denarii each, total 69 denarii
Tunic — 3 denarii
Headbands, number 5 — .75 denarii each, total 3.75 denarii
Hair, 9 pounds in weight— 5.75 denarii per pound, total 51.75 denarii
Saddle — 12 denarii
Skillets (a number of these are listed, perhaps of different sizes, under different prices ranging from 2 and 7/8 denarii to 5 denarii 1 as each)
Wool (38 pounds) — 12.5 denarii 1 as
45 pounds of bacon and 15.5 pounds of bacon-lard for Falco the Centurion— 8 denarii 2 asses (this guy really liked his bacon!)
This would have been written shortly after Domitian raised legionary salaries from 225 to 300 denarii per year; the Batavian infantry auxiliaries who manned Vondolanda would have gotten about half that; the cavalry somewhat more.
Interesting that a tunic costs 3 denarii, but a cloak 11.5. There is also a listing for "cloaks made of bark," which seem to come in at a unit price of about 15 denarii apiece (although the listing seems a little garbled). A saddle, which I would imagine is a rather labor-intensive thing to make, is only 12 denarii, only a little more than a cloak. Seems to indicate wool and fabric in general was overall quite a bit more valuable than leather.
There are more prices, but this is what I could pull from a quick gleaning of various tablets. Keep in mind, these are prices for things on the northern frontier of Roman Briton, so they don't necessarily reflect the state of things elsewhere.
Charles,
do you have access to
Fink, R.O., 1971: Roman Military Records on Papyrus, Cleveland. ?
Frater Crispe,
Regarding the Batavii getting paid about half as much as the legionaries, have you read the two articles on Roman army pay which appeared in the Journal of Roman studies in 1992 and 1994, one by Michael Spiedel and the other by C.R.(?) Alcock. One of them, I think it is Spiedel, puts auxiliary pay at five sixths of legionary pay. The other (Alcock?) makes a good case for auxiliary pay being on a par with legionary pay. Check out JRS 82 and JRS 84.
Crispvs
Aren't you thinking of Richard Alston? He did write such an article.
The Speidel references are:
(1) Speidel, M.A., (1992), "Roman Army Pay Scales", Journal of Roman Studies, 82, 87-104
(2) Speidel, M.A., (1973), “The Pay of the Auxiliaâ€
hey guys,
I just want to say thanks. There’s always something for somebody in these threads.
I have a lot of old roman coins that I’ve collected because they’re a link back to old Rome, but now I have to go back and see what they’d be worth, 4 ox, a few years of wheat etc.
It just makes them worth that much more.
For clarification, the JRS 1973 Speidel is M.P whilst the 1992 one is M.A.
And Richard Alston's contribution is: “Roman military pay from Caesar to Diocletianâ€