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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gam3rBlake, post: 7323206, member: 115909&quot;]Thanks for the information!</p><p><br /></p><p>If I recall correctly it wasn&#039;t just the legionaries who received donatives.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Praetorian Guard also regularly received LARGE donatives (called &quot;donativum&quot;) when a new Emperor came to power as a way to sort of buy their loyalty since the Praetorian Guard had a tendency to betray &amp; assassinate unpopular Emperors.</p><p><br /></p><p>For example: &quot;In 41 AD, after the assassination of Caligula, the Guard supported Claudius, and the Senate briefly learned that the Guard had installed him on the throne. Claudius gave each member of the Praetorian Guard 150 gold pieces, or some 3,750 denarii to which the senator&#039;s 100 sesterces were added annually. The inevitable result of the custom of &quot;donativum&quot; was the Guard&#039;s auctioning of the empire to Didius Julianus in 193.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>So let&#039;s say I am a legionary under Augustus. As you say he paid 3,000 Denarii upon discharge from the legions. Well 3,000/25 is 120 Aureii.</p><p><br /></p><p>Doesn&#039;t it seem like it would be easier to safeguard and travel with 120 aureii in a bag than it would to carry around huge bags containing 3,000 denarii?</p><p><br /></p><p>The Aureus was about 7.5 grams x 120 = 900 grams of gold or less than a kilogram (1.9 lbs to be precise).</p><p><br /></p><p>The Denarius was about 3.5 grams x 3,000 = 10,500 grams of silver or 10.5 kilograms (23 lbs to be precise)&nbsp; which would be a lot harder to lug around.</p><p><br /></p><p>But again that&#039;s just my theory and I might be totally wrong. Unfortunately my book &quot;Coinage in the Roman Economy&quot; doesn&#039;t give answers to this question. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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