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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 4492655, member: 93416&quot;]I recently came across an excerpt from ‘De Rebus Bellicis’ which made the suggestion that Constantine got the gold for his big solidus launch on the back of his religious conversion – so - a bit like Henry VIII – he got access to gold by taking possession of the icons and trappings of houses of a prior religious order.</p><p><br /></p><p>Do other ancient texts make the same point? Am wondering how seriously to take the suggestion? (not least because it did not work out well for H. VIII)</p><p><br /></p><p>Taking the matter further – I notice Harl (p.159) – makes a different but parallel point that Constantine got a good income from fixing a lower weight standard that his “pagan” predecessors. It certainly looks to me like he was taking a seigniorage. So - Harl also has him “getting gold from pagans”, but in a completely different way.</p><p><br /></p><p>Or perhaps there was just one way – and the anonymous author of De Rebus Bellicis was confused? (A pity there is no translation).</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks</p><p><br /></p><p>Rob T[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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