I was in a waiting room today and read a very short piece in August 2014 National Geographic about the discovery of a 'contract' document in which an athlete agreed to throw a match in return for 38,000 drachmas. It dated to the time of Gallienus and was from Egypt. That was interesting but most interesting was a comment by the author of the piece claiming that this was a small amount of money - about the cost of a donkey. I have trouble with that. This would be the equivalent of 9500 tetradrachms of Alexandria of the type many of us here collect. To me, that would be one expensive donkey. Has anyone seen anything on the buying power of Alexandrian drachms?
From Wikipedia: It is difficult to estimate comparative exchange rates with modern currency because the range of products produced by economies of centuries gone by were different from today, which makes purchasing power parity (PPP)calculations very difficult; however, some historians and economists have estimated that in the 5th century BC a drachma had a rough value of 25 U.S. dollars (in the year 1990 – equivalent to 41 USD in 2009[7]), whereas classical historians regularly say that in the heyday of ancient Greece (the fifth and fourth centuries) the daily wage for a skilled worker or a hoplite[8] was one drachma, and for a heliast (juror) half a drachma since 425 BC.[9] Modern commentators derived from Xenophon[10] that half a drachma per day (360 days per year) would provide "a comfortable subsistence" for "the poor citizens" (for the head of a household in 355 BC). Earlier in 422 BC, we also see in Aristophanes (Wasps, line 300-302) that the daily half-drachma of a juror is just enough for the daily subsistence of a family of three. A modern person might think of one drachma as the rough equivalent of a skilled worker's daily pay in the place where they live, which could be as low as $1 USD, or as high as $100 USD, depending on the country.
I think a better reference would be of diocletian's price edict, since late tets of alexandrIa I believe we're equivalent to diocletian's follis. Anyone have that link? I am with you Doug, I am betting that archeologist was using late 4th century data instead of the proper period. Archeologists hate coins anyway, and coin collectors.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/NumisWiki/view.asp?key=Edict of Diocletian Edict on Prices The edict is expressed in denarii communes, but I don't think there is agreement on how many dc were equivalent to 1 follis. I remember reading anywhere from 1 follis to 10, or 12.5, or even 25 denarii communes. But given the economic upheavals and rampant inflation going on during the mid to late 3rd century, and specifically the period that made Diocletian's edict neccessary, I'm not sure that even that can be used as a reference point. Anyway, it's probably safe to say that the OP bribe should be worth more than 1 donkey.
I would write the author of the article and ask him/her where they got the information that 38,000 drachmas was the cost of a donkey. What source did this person use to make the calculation? I would be very interested in knowing if ancient documents exist, that give us a clue about the buying power of tets.
