Legionary pay in modern money

[Praefectusclassis]

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.

[ambrosius]

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."

One thing I've always wondered about is what denomination the early
Empire legionaries were paid in. As we can see from the above, they
seem to be actually paid in aurei, which are then given an equivalent
value in denarii. However, if one aureus is equivalent to 25 denarii
then you'd be walking around with a month's pay in your hand. Which
would be rather impractical for going to the taverna for a pint of milk.
And it would piss you off even more if you dropped it down a drain. :x

Much better to be carrying a few denarii around for spending money.
Perhaps that's why we found so many Republican denarii on 1st c.
military sites in Britain. The new museum in Cirencester has a nice
collection of Republican denarii, found at the site of the 1st c. fort.
But why Republican denarii? Because there was a shortage of Silver
in the 1st c. which was one of the reasons for coming to Britain - to
mine our Silver. And in the meantime, Republican denarii from the
1st, 2nd - even 3rd - c. B.C. were still in circulation as pay for the
army, due to their relatively pure silver content - compared to later
coinage. In fact, Dr. Richard Abdy, curator of Romano-British coins at
the British Museum, told me that Republican denarii were still one of
the principal form of payment for the legions through the 1st c. A.D.
and weren't finally removed from circulation until the reign of Hadrian :!:

All of which seriously screws up the lives of archaeologists trying to
date Roman military sites in Britain. The poor dears keep trying to
backdate the Claudian landing to 250 B.C. :lol:

Mike

[Praefectusclassis]

Yes, you're right, of course. It's more the theory. However, you also have to consider the legionary 'banking' system. The sparse 'payslips' that remain (maybe half a dozen out of millions ) show that a lot of their pay didn't even get paid out, but was simply written over into the communal burial fund, their credit and of course money was subtracted for equipment and suchlike.
The amount of money that went into the legionary bank must have been considerable. Even after the revolt of Saturninus, when Domitian (again, Suetonius, Dom. VII) limited the amount a soldier could save to 1000 HS (250 dn).

[Kate Gilliver]

One of the key things to bear in mind about Roman military pay is that, whatever the basic pay, whatever the deductions, a soldier got paid regularly (most of the time!), and got paid whatever he did. If an artisan took a day off he didn't get paid, if he was sick he didn't get paid, if he couldn't find work he didn't get paid. A soldier did, so even if the basic daily military pay wasn't significantly different from that of an artisan, he was massively better off than his civilian counter-part because he got that daily pay 365 days a year.
And the job security... excellent!