Roman Money

Coins

The principal Roman coins were the as, made of copper; the sestertius, the quinarius and the denarius, of silver; and the golden aureus.

Titus Bronze Sestertius, 80 AD
Euro, 5 cents, 2003
1. The as, the unit of the Roman currency, contained originally a pound of copper, but it was diminished from time to time till at last it contained only 1/24 of a pound.
Note.--An as, whatever its weight, was divided into twelve unciae.

2. The sestertius contained originally 2 1/2 asses, the quinarius 5, and the denarius 10; but as the as depreciated in value, the number of asses in these coins was increased.

3. The as is also used as a general unit of measure. Thus--

a) In Weight, the as is a pound, and the uncia an ounce.
b) In Measure, the as is a foot or a jugerum, and the uncia is l/12 of a foot or of a jugerum.
c) In Interest, the as is the unit of interest -- i.e., 1 percent a month or 12 percent a year; the uncia is l/12 percent a month, or 1 percent a year; and the semis is 6/12 percent a month, or 6 percent a year, etc.
d) In Inheritance, the as is the whole estate, and the uncia 1/12 of it. Hence heres ex asse, heir of the whole estate; heres ex dodrante, heir of 9/12.


As - 37 BC

Computation of Money

1. In all sums of money the common unit of computation was the sestertius, also called nummus; but four special points deserve notice:

a) In all sums of money, the units, tens, and hundreds are denoted by sestertii with the proper cardinals. Thus --
quinque sestertii = 5 sesterces;
viginti sestertii = 20 sesterces;
ducenti sestertii = 200 sestertes.
b) One thousand sesterces are denoted by mille sestertii, or mille sestertium.
c) In sums less than 1,000,000 sesterces, the thousands are denoted either (1) by milia sestertium (gen. plur.), or (2) by sestertia:
duo milia sestertium, or duo sestertia = 2,000 sesterces;
quinque milia sestertium, or quinque sestertia = 5,000 sesterces.
Note.--With sestertia the distributives are generally used, as -- bina sestertia.
d) In sums containing one or more millions of sesterces, sestertium with the value of 100,000 sesterces is used with the proper numeral adverb, decies, vicies, etc. Thus--
decies sestertium = 1,000,000 (10 x 100,000) sesterces;
vicies sestertium, 2,000,000 (20 x 100,000) sesterces.

In the examples under d), sestertium is treated as a neuter noun in the singular, though originally it was probably the genitive plural of sestertius, and the full expression for 1,000,000 sesterces was decies centena milia sestertium. The words centena milia were afterward generally omitted, and finally sestertium lost its force as a genitive plural, and became a neuter noun in the singular, capable of declension.

Republican Sestertius
2. Sometimes sestertium is omitted, leaving only the numeral adverb: as, decies = 1,000,000 sesterces.

3. The sign HS is often used for sestertii, and sometimes for sestertia, or sestertium:

decem HS = 10 sestercies (HS = sestertii).

dena HS = l0,000 sesterces (HS = sestertia).

decies HS = 1,000,000 sesterces (HS = sestertium).

The following weights and measures deserve mention:

1. The Libra, also called As or Pondo, equal to about 11 1/2 ounces, is the basis for Roman weights.
a) The libra, like the as in money, is divided into 12 parts.

2. The Modius, equal to about a peck, is the basis for dry measure.

3. The Amphora, containing a Roman cubic foot, equivalent to about seven gallons, is a convenient basis for liquid measure.

4. The Roman Pes or Foot, equivalent to about 11.6 inches, is the basis for length measure.

Quinarius - about 230 AD

Note.-- Cubitus is equivalent to 1 1/2 Roman feet, passus to 5, and stadium to 625.

5. The Jugerum, containing 28,800 Roman square feet, equivalent to about six tenths of an acre, is the basis for square measure.

(source: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/silver/frame.cgi?manager,money)

Weights and measures
(from http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010121cato/010121intro.html)
Latin terms used by Cato (italic)

The following text is taken, with a few changes, from a site of Abram Ring:--> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/9601/page1.html. There you can also download his Latin font for a correct visualization

The sestertius (Eng. sesterce> sehs-tursh) was the main coin used for setting prices and values. The word is formed from semis-tertius = 2 1/2. Also, as aureus, denarius, and other coin names, the name was originally an adjective modifying nummus, the Roman word for "coin". Before the Second Punic War the sestertius was worth 2 1/2 asses because this was a convenient value since 10 asses = 1 denarius. Early in the war due to hard times the as was devalued to 4 asses = 1 sestertius, which made 16 asses = 1 denarius.
Due to the greatly different nature of today's economics, any effort to equate sesterces to modern currency is probably wasted. However, we can look at what was the money situation of different Romans. Consider the facts below:

A man in the times of Augustus was considered to be part of the equites (knights, rich class) if he possessed 400,000 sesterces (100,000 denarii) worth of property.

Under Augustus, a senator had to own property equal to 1,000,000 sesterces (250,000 denarii).

Denarius - 130 BC
A common soldier under Augustus and Tiberius (ca. 15 A.D.) made about 10 asses per day (less than one denarius) or about 900 sesterces per year, and under the emperor Domitian (ca. 85 A.D.) this had only raised to about 1,200 sesterces (300 denarii) per year.

Praetorian legionaries (an elite force) under Augustus received 2 denarii per day or about 730 per year. Officers of course could expect more- centurions (perhaps equivalents of modern sergeants) received 3750 denarii per year under Augustus and 5000 under Domitian.

A lawyer under Claudius (ca. 50 A.D.) could expect his clients to pay up to 10,000 sesterces for his services in a case.

Juvenal (ca. 100 A.D.) complained of charioteers who made 100 times what a lawyer did- 15,000 to 60,000 sesterces for one victory, and Martial, who wrote in the latter half of the first century A.D., talked of a charioteer named Scorpus winning 15 bags of gold in one hour. Another charioteer living under Hadrian and Antoninus Pius (ca. 140 A.D.) was supposed to have made 35,863,120 sesterces in his life.

Martial also wrote of a slave who cost 100,000 sesterces, and he made fun of patrons who could offer no more than 100 quadrantes (6 1/4 sesterces) to their sicophants as a day's gift. In another place, he basically says he would have sold his loyalty to a man named Paetus for 6,000 sesterces, except that Paetus paid him too late.

In the first century A.D., olive oil cost about 2 or 3 sesterces per quart, and wine between 1 and 4 ass*es per pint. A trip to the public baths cost about 1 quadrans for a man and 2 quadrant*es for a woman, children got in free- of course, you had to bring your own servant, oil, and strigil (instrument used for scraping away grime).

A lonely man in Pompey reported paying a denarius for a good night with a woman.

A town house in Rome might cost between 500,000 (125,000 den.) and 2,500,000 sesterces (625,000 den.), and a iugerum (slightly more than 3/5 acre) of land might cost between 1,000 (250 den.) and 12,000 sesterces (3,000 den.).

When used to describe large amounts of money the sestertius was often counted in milia(1000s), so they used the genitive plural of sestertius, but since sesterti*orum is so long they shortened it to sesterti*um. That is one explanation. Another says that sestertium is just the adjective form modifying mille-- in which case you would expect milia sestertia, and this does appear sometimes. So if we are confused about this, it seems the Romans were too.

Aureus - about 240 AD

EXEMPLI GRATIA
II milia sesterti*um = 2 thousand of sesterces;or (in better English) 2 thousand sesterces
XI milia sestertia = 11 thousand sesterces

Soon sesterti*um (the genitive plural form) came to understand mille (1000) or milia and sometimes (but rarer) to understand centum milia (100,000). Using sesterti*um this way, the Romans added a distributive adjective like decie(n)s (x10) or millie(n)s (x1000).

EXEMPLI GRATIA
sexie(n)s sesterti*um = 6,000 sesterces; or (rarely) 600,000 sesterces
decie(n)s sesterti*um = 10,000 sesterces; or (rarely) 1,000,000 sesterces
vicie(n)s seterti*um = 20,000 sesterces; or (rarely) 2,000,000 sesterces

Now that I've showed the thoroughly confusing Roman longhand for monetary amounts, I will describe their shorthand notation. HS stands for sestertius. The H was originally II, and the S stands for semis (n.b. II (2) + semis (1/2)). To indicate 1000 sesterces they wrote HS with a line over it. To indicate 100,000 sesterces they wrote HS with a line on top and on each side. They used this same technique with other quantities. So HS followed by XV with a line above the XV indicated 15,000 sesterces, and HS followed by XCI with a line above and at each side of XCI indicated 9,100,000 sesterces.

Although not particularly related to money, I will mention a few other things about numerical notation here. Roman numerals are often taught with the notation IV for 4, IX for 9, XC for 90, etc., but IIII, VIIII, LXXXX, etc. were more common. Also the Romans had a variant notation form for D, M, and some larger numerals.

D = I@
M = CI@
decem milia = CCI@@
centum milia = CCCI@@@
millies mille = CCCCI@@@@