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<p>[QUOTE="ancient coin hunter, post: 4115126, member: 87200"]Excellent write-up - thank you. I've been fascinated with the machinations of the Roman economy in the third century as the emperors tried to pay their erstwhile masters (the soldiery), going back to Septimius Severus' famous quote on his deathbed at York. "Enrich the soldiers, ignore all others."</p><p><br /></p><p>What Gibbon ascribed to the "licentiousness of the soldiers" became <i>de riguer</i>. The average Roman in the street had to put up with the declining quality of the coins in his purse while inflationary pressures spiraled and the bad money drove out the good. Ostensibly a couple of loaves of bread and lentils, which might have cost an As in more favorable times required a handful of nearly worthless radiates. As the city fathers of the Eastern Mediterranean were squeezed by civic fiduciary obligations that they no longer could afford, the provincial currency disappeared. </p><p><br /></p><p>Diocletian's Edict of Maximum prices attempted to curb inflation on pain of death, but apparently these restrictions could not be enforced. One of the drivers of the process may have been the decline in the availability of silver from mines in Spain and Dacia, as well as reductions in the spoils of war by the end of the second century. Also, the economy - built as it was upon slavery and agrarianism lacked dynamism and the ability to expand.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="ancient coin hunter, post: 4115126, member: 87200"]Excellent write-up - thank you. I've been fascinated with the machinations of the Roman economy in the third century as the emperors tried to pay their erstwhile masters (the soldiery), going back to Septimius Severus' famous quote on his deathbed at York. "Enrich the soldiers, ignore all others." What Gibbon ascribed to the "licentiousness of the soldiers" became [I]de riguer[/I]. The average Roman in the street had to put up with the declining quality of the coins in his purse while inflationary pressures spiraled and the bad money drove out the good. Ostensibly a couple of loaves of bread and lentils, which might have cost an As in more favorable times required a handful of nearly worthless radiates. As the city fathers of the Eastern Mediterranean were squeezed by civic fiduciary obligations that they no longer could afford, the provincial currency disappeared. Diocletian's Edict of Maximum prices attempted to curb inflation on pain of death, but apparently these restrictions could not be enforced. One of the drivers of the process may have been the decline in the availability of silver from mines in Spain and Dacia, as well as reductions in the spoils of war by the end of the second century. Also, the economy - built as it was upon slavery and agrarianism lacked dynamism and the ability to expand.[/QUOTE]
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