Roman Currency Debasement: Silver-Washed Denarii to Diocletian's Price Caps

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Rome began striking silver coins in 269 BC near the temple of Juno Moneta, the source of the words mint and money. Before that, Romans paid with aes signatum, leaded bronze ingots about 16 by 9 centimeters and up to 1.6 kilograms, weighed on scales and broken into pieces for small purchases. The Second Punic War pushed Rome to adopt standardized coinage modeled on Greek Naples, and coin hoard data shows the denarius spreading along Roman roads and settlement hubs. In 44 BC Julius Caesar broke a taboo by putting his living face on coins and pairing it with Venus and Aeneas.

Emperors used coins as propaganda: Commodus posed as Hercules in 192 AD, Philip the Arab proclaimed peace with Persia in 244 while paying tribute, and the usurper Quietus issued 13 coin types from three mints. Nero cut the denarius to 3.8 grams after the fire of 64 AD, mints hid added copper with silver washing, and Caracalla's Antoninianus was declared a double denarius while holding about 1.6 times the silver. By the late third century silver content had fallen from about 50 percent to 2 percent. Diocletian introduced the argenteus and follis, generic tetrarchy portraits, and the 301 AD Edict on Maximum Prices, which priced goods in a denarius no longer minted.

• The British pound, Spanish dinero and Middle Eastern dinar descend from the Roman libra and denarius.
• Epictetus wrote that he would accept a coin of Trajan but throw away a coin of Nero.
• After Caligula's assassination the Senate demonetized his coinage and had it melted down.
• Mark Antony's debased galley denarii stayed in circulation for over 200 years because no one bothered to melt them.
• Legionary pay rose from 900 sesterces under Augustus to 2,000 under Septimius Severus while grain prices more than tripled.