I have been reading the book on the Vindolanda Tablets, for those who don't know, tablets were found containing letters and accounts, written by soldiers, ordinary people, slaves etc. The most famous being an invitation to a lady's birthday party. I was interested in the accounts that list the costs for various items. The time frame is 90 - 130 AD. Some of the totals of the accounts are expressed in fractions. For example Denario 2 1/4, or Denario 3 1/2 or my favourite Denario 11 7/8. I wonder whether the Romans expressed their bills in eighths or other fractions, it was up to the customer to use whatever coinage they had to make up the amount. Has anyone seen anything like this from another source?
That sounds like a very interesting book. What is the title? I don't know how Romans spoke of such things, whether "That will be 11 denarii and 7 dupondii, Lady Pish" or if they just expressed the fraction. The latter seems more likely.
The title is a bit of a mouthful: Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier Vindolanda and it's People. Author Alan K Bowman British Museum Press ISBN (Presumably the UK version) ISBN 978-0-7141-2246 The book seems to refer out to other Vindolanda publications, perhaps different volumes, I haven't researched that. website http://www.vindolanda.com/
No, I have not been there yet. Next time we are on holiday in the Lake District I intend to find out whether it is within travelling distance. PaulB from CCF actually dug the site some years ago, said it was the best time ever!
Interesting. Can use find the exact tablet? You could use this resource. (Check the footnotes for the exact tablet): http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/ http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/reference/currency.shtml guy
Guy thanks for the second link, very interesting. I have been on the site earlier, either I am not using it correctly or some of the links don't work. The book has some images of the tablets, but there is no way I could interpret them. Scholars have been working on them for some time.
Looking at one of the tablets referenced in my second link (see tablet 182), there are mentions of asses (1/16 of a denarius) and not fractions as translated. This could potentially be translated in terms of 16ths. So, the figures you cite potentially are simplified translations of increments of a denarius. http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/4DL...chField=TVII&thisListPosition=1&thisPageNum=0 It is similar to trying to translate the British Monetary system before decimalization. http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/moneyold.htm An interesting quote from the link: The Vindolanda tablets refer to several of these coins, including denarii , dupondii, asses and victoriati (a silver coin worth half a denarius, bearing an image of Victory), as well as small change, aes minutum. The terms semis and quadrans also appear in the texts of the tablets, but these should not be confused with the actual coins. Instead semis, quadrans as well as octans refer to fractions of the denarius, respectively a half, quarter and eighth of a denarius. In fact these words do not themselves appear in the original tablets; rather they are the terms which the editors supply to resolve recurring symbols in the accounts. These Latin terms have no claim to be grammatically exact; rather they indicate what these symbols are thought to represent. guy
Way past my bedtime, I will have another look at the book tomorrow. Interesting to note the text on the second link that you gave is the mention of "victoriati (323) (a silver coin worth half a denarius, bearing an image of Victory), as well as small change, aes minutum (327)." Not spotted mention of these coins in the book, not spotted them in real life either!
Lady Pish, I also find all of this fascinating... the decimal expressions and how the 'Romans' around Hadrians Wall and Vindolanda conducted their daily commerce. So much has been discovered there, as you mention, and I always look forward to the TV 'specials' covering those trash dump discoveries...
Thank you for the additional information Guy, I haven't had time to look into it further. I am still puzzled by the mention of a victoriati, I will have to read through the texts to see if mine mention them. The book has 50 texts and I imagine they used some sort of shorthand to save space. There is absolutely no way that I could read any of them. Some of the words don't appear in my Latin dictionary. I think it will be worthwhile paying for the tour when I go.
