Was the Sestertius the basic monetary unit in Rome?

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by johnmilton, Apr 16, 2023.

  1. johnmilton

    johnmilton Well-Known Member

    I recently finish a book by Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth, Nero, Matricide, Music and Murder in Imperial Rome. The authors mentions values and payments a number of times. Each time it was in Sestertii, not denarii.

    I also remember something about the winning bid that Didius Julianus (ruled March to June 193) made when the praetorian guild put "the purple" up for auction. It too was in sestertii.

    Was the Sestertii the most common used denomination for giving value to goods and services? It seems like the denarius would have been more appropriate.
     
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  3. dltsrq

    dltsrq Grumpy Old Man

    The sestertius was a standard unit of account. Standards typically make sense when they become "standard" but the sense can be lost over time. Early on, the sestertius had been a silver coin weighing exactly one scruple (scripulum). 100 sestertii equaled one gold aureus.

    As a modern example of how standards "stick", it was only 22 years ago (April 2001) that the American stock and commodities exchanges switched to decimal reckoning from the old Spanish standard of eighths ("bits")!
     
  4. GinoLR

    GinoLR Well-Known Member

    Good question. We should check the ancient texts to see which denomination the authors mention.
     
  5. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    Seems legit. Although the quarter or cent is a common unit, the dollar is the unit of account, for example.
     
  6. savitale

    savitale Well-Known Member

    Sesterces were the basic unit. See, for example, a commemorative inscription set up in the public baths at Como, Pliny The Younger’s hometown:

    " ... left by will public baths at a cost of… and an additional 300,000 sesterces for furnishing them, with interest on 200,000 for their upkeep. He also left to his city capital of 1,866,666 2/3 sesterces to support a hundred of his freedmen, and subsequently to provide an annual dinner for the people of the city. Likewise in his lifetime he gave 500,000 sesterces for the maintenance of boys and girls of the city, and also 100,000 for the upkeep of the library."

    Of course that doesn't mean these were actually paid using the bronze coins we call sestertii. Presumably aurei, denarii, or other things valued at this number of sesterces were given as payment.
     
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