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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;rrdenarius, post: 2243518, member: 75525&quot;]In Republican Rome, soldiers were not paid until the last campaign against Veii in 406 BC. Farmers left their homes for a few weeks during fighting season and then returned to the farm. At that time, Rome did not mint coins, but did exchange bronze by weight. Pay could have been with coins issued by Greek colonies, or more likely with Aes Rude, see pics below. By the first Carthaginian war, 264 BC, Rome was casting bronze &quot;coins&quot;, see 4th pic below and issuing some silver coins. Soldiers were paid 3 Asses per day. You can imagine the cart hauling 300 gram Asses was BIG. Rome had little silver other than plunder, and until the end of the first Carthaginian war most pay was bronze. During the second Carthaginian war, Rome introduced the Denarius = 10 Asses. A shortage of bronze dropped the weight of the As to 50 grams. Until the time of Marius, about 100 BC, only wealthy citizens and allies could fight in the army. Citizens and others who could not afford to buy armor, horses, etc. could not fight with the army. Pay stayed at this level until the time of Julius Caesar when he doubled pay to 225 denarii. The cost of food and arms was deducted from pay. Looting was usually the best pay for officers and foot soldiers.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]442800[/ATTACH]&nbsp; aes rude, see the part of a bronze knife = wt of sextans = 2/12th of an As[ATTACH=full]442802[/ATTACH]&nbsp; aes rude and some pieces of cast bars, the largest weighs 746 gr or 2.5 Asses[ATTACH=full]442804[/ATTACH]&nbsp; not my collection, but one day I&#039;d like to have an ax like the one shown[ATTACH=full]442806[/ATTACH] obverse of cast coins[ATTACH=full]442810[/ATTACH]&nbsp; reverse of cast coins</p><p>I started collecting Roman Republican denarii, and have added cast bronze to my collection. </p><p>My Roman history is mostly BC. Republican Rome by H L Havell is my favorite book on history of the period. Coinage in the Roman Economy 300 BC to 700 AD by Kenneth Harl gives lots of facts and figures.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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