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Message:: [QUOTE="Magnus Maximus, post: 2210100, member: 73473"]I just did some quick math.At the time of Septimius Severus there were around 500,000 men , including Praetorian, Marine, and Auxillaries.Praetorians received doubled what a Legionary did; so 2 x 1800= 3600. At the time of Severus there were around 15,000 of them, and it is unlikely that it had changed substantially by Gordian's time.So 3600 x 15,000 =54,000,000 Denarii or 27,000,000 Antoninanii a year.The Auxiliares and Marines usually made much less than an average Legionary so I am not gong to count them for sake of convenience.The Legio- Arround 182,000 strong by Severus's day. I would guess that they were somewhere around this figure, perhaps a little lower or higher.So 1800 x 182,000 = 327,600,000 Denarii or 163,800,000 Antoninanii a year for the entire Legion's salaries. Now many of the coins used to pay the Legions were probably minted by Gordian's predecessors but still, this would help to explain his massive output of Silver coins under his reign. Again I did not count the Auxillaries or Marines or the additional bonuses that the Legions constantly received at this time.[/QUOTE]