How long could a Roman survive in Caesar’s time on a single Aureus?

Even today the VAST majority of military member are not engaged in combat. I don’t believe that combat action has anything to do with military dole.

my good friend is a 1Lt in the Air Force and makes almost my entire yearly salary in housing allowance alone, and the closest combat experience he ever had was the Hawaii missile scare.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

That was kinda my point. It was said that an Aureus is worth 40 days of a legionary risking their life and i was just pointing out that oftentimes legionaries were not in life threatening danger so a more accurate statement would be “40 days of military service”.

 

I think that, in general, the historical (and to a certain extent, modern) perception of “military service” is the risk of ones own life.

On the whole, no one person would find themselves at mortal risk for any extended length of time; I think that looking at 5000 years of history we seem to compress “10 years of civil war” into “10 years of nonstop fights to the death.”

I mean, I was in the AF reserve and didn’t do anything more dangerous than driving a car; I suspect most legionnaires were in the same boat.

not everyday you find yourself in a WWI or II total war.

we seem to have a perception that life as a whole was more violent and militaristic 3000 years ago. Maybe so, but is that any different than the past 100 years with WWI, II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, etc?

historian in 3000 years will likely think about Americans as a war-loving people constantly fighting. But even at our height, the number of people
Actually risking lives was very very low.

pretty long winded but, my point is, military =/= risk to life, but I guess that’s what you already said

——it’s too late and I had too many beers tonight :/

 

Yeah I think the buying power has stayed the same.

I saw a price list from Rome in the 2nd Century AD and it offers 2 cows or 6 skinny piglets for an Aureus and I’m guessing that in modern times a cow is about $1,000 and a piglet a couple hundred.

 

I was an Army medic back in 2008-2012 so I know that combat isn’t a non stop thing.

However I do think the fighting in those days was more brutal and the living far less comfortable

I mean imagine making a camp in a blizzard with nothing but a fire and blanket to warm you.

Whereas modern soldiers have winter uniforms; heated barracks, etc.,

Plus these days soldier’s have a far better chance of survival from wounds that would’ve killed a Roman soldier. They didn’t have antibiotics or effective pain killers or modern day surgery or anything like that.

 

Good points. I’m sure there’s some good studies done on living conditions. Not to try to contest your point, but living conditions for the average Roman was also pretty poor compare to today

how does one compare life in America in 2020 to life in Rome in 420?

interesfinf to think about for sure

 

Check out the Price Edict of Diocletian. Sets max prices, not to be exceeded under punishment of death. It didn’t work out, but provides a glimpse at least into costs in the 4th c

 

From my own reading and education I was taught that the Edict of Diocletian was rarely followed even with the harsh punishment. I read that people just couldn’t survive selling things at such low prices. Especially since by the 4th century coins were insanely debased. At one point 1 Gold aureus was worth 25,000 Denarii! Because the Denarius went from being 90%+ pure silver to a copper coin with a thin silver wash similar to a counterfeit in modern times.