07-24-2006, 08:32 PM
Quote:Incidentally, I think that the 300 denarii per year from Domitian to Severus is an assumption.But a logical one:
This is the data we have to work with:
- Military pay was paid out in aurei, which have a value of 25 dn.
- Military pay in the Augustan era was 225dn (Tac, Ann. I.17): "Body and soul are reckoned at two and a half sesterces per day" (at 360 days/year: 360*2.5 = HS 900 = 225 DN)
- Domitian raised pay to 300 dn (Suetonius, Dom.VII.3): "Domitian added a fourth payday (stipendium) for the soldiers, three aurei every time."
- Herodian III.8 adds: (about Septimius Severus' grants to the soldiers) "...such as an increase in pay [siteresion = stipendium] (which Severus was the first to give)." and IV.4.7: "...and he[Caracalla] increased their normal pay by half."
It's easy to see where the trouble starts in Herodian and of course there's the question of the pay of auxiliaries and naval personnel. That is what is most heavily discussed.
