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Money and Exchange in the Roman World1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford
Affiliation:
Christ's College, Cambridge
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Extract

A wide variety of objects may function as money in the different uses which this possesses—for payment, for storing wealth, for measuring value and as a means of exchange. In the Roman world coined money was clearly dominant over other forms of money in the first three uses, and I want here to explore the extent to which it served as a means of exchange, partly because this is the most distinctive function of money and one for which coined money or a token substitute is essential to achieve any great versatility, partly because the problems involved seem particularly complex. It is not sufficient simply to discuss how coined money was used as a means of exchange. Attitudes to the process are equally relevant. Nor should the absence of ancient discussions of monetary theory mislead us into minimizing the practical importance of coined money in the ancient world.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , November 1970 , pp. 40 - 48
Copyright
Copyright ©Michael Crawford 1970. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

2 See Polanyi, K., ‘The semantics of money-uses’, Primitive, archaic and modern economies (New York, 1968), 175–203Google Scholar; Postan, M. M., Econ. Hist. Rev. 1944–1945, 123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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6 JRS 1964, 29.

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9 Note the replacement of the quadrans as the charge for the men's bath (Horace, Sat. i, 3, 137; Seneca, Ep. 86, 9; Juvenal 6, 447) by the semis in FIRA I, 106 (Lex metalli Vipascensis, mid-second century A.D.), 22–3.

10 The reasons for the adoption (under the Republic) of the sestertius as a unit of account are still mysterious (see article cited above, n. 7). If Buttrey is right in associating it with the (downward) re-tariffing of the as, a deliberate attempt to obscure the change may be involved. The practice never caught on at all in the Greek East and even in the West tended not to be used in recording small payments (see, for instance, R. Duncan-Jones, PBSR 1965, 305, on sportulae calculated in denarii).

11 Pliny, , NH XVNIII, 89Google Scholar, with Moritz, L. A., Grain mills and Flour in Classical Antiquity (Oxford, 1958), 145–215.Google Scholar

12 CIL IV, 4811 (triticum); compare 1858 + p. 213 + p. 464, 12 asses for a modius of grain (frumentum); Tacitus, Ann. XV, 39. 2, the same price, in this case artificially low. The prices recorded by Jones, A. H. M., Econ. Hist. Rev. 1952–1953, 295Google Scholar, are perhaps on the low side.

13 Columella III, 3, 8; Martial XII, 76, where also an extraordinarily low price of four asses for a modius of grain is mentioned. Pliny's amphora of good wine (NH XIV, 56) has an exceptionally high price.

14 CIL IV, 1679 with p. 463.

15 Some flexibility in pricing could be achieved by varying the quantity for a given price (Keil, J., Forschungen in Ephesos III, 102Google Scholar, no. 10).

16 Plutarch, Per. 16.

17 Petronius, Satyricon 38.

18 See, for instance, Kroll, W., Die Kultur der Ciceronischen Zeit (Leipzig, 1933 = Darmstadt, 1963), 98–9.Google Scholar

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20 OGIS 484 = Smallwood, E. M., Documents illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian (Cambridge, 1966), no. 451.Google Scholar

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23 Antichità II, 1950, 3, 3.

24 Unpublished; in the Museo Nazionale di Roma.

25 Altertümer von Pergamon 1, 355 and 329 = Blätter für Münzfreunde 1914, 56 and 67. For a select bibliography of coin finds from excavations, see Grierson, P., Bibliographic numismatique (Brussels, 1966), 39–40.Google Scholar

26 Buttrey, T. V., Erim, K., Ross Holloway, R., Morgantina. The Coins (Princeton, 1970)Google Scholar, forthcoming.

27 For the hoard see M. H. Crawford, o.c. (note 22), no. 313. This and the stray finds are in the American Academy in Rome.

28 Cicero, in Verr. 11, 3, 181.

29 OGIS 484 (cited in n. 20).

30 Cibyra—IGRR IV, 915; Ephesus, —The collection of ancient Greek inscriptions in the British Museum III, 481Google Scholar; Pergamum—OGIS 484; Syros, —JG XII, 5Google Scholar, 659 and 663–5.

31 West, L. C. and Johnson, A. C., Currency in Roman and Byzantine Egypt (Princeton, 1944), 7–12.Google Scholar

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33 M. H. Crawford, o.c. (n. 22), no. 565.

34 AJA 1968, 281.

35 For a preliminary report on the excavations at Francolise see PBSR 1965, 55. I am very grateful to Mrs. M. A. Cotton for showing me the coins. For the excavations of a villa which produced only one coin see Mansuelli, G. A., La villa romana di Russi (Faenza, 1962), 30.Google Scholar

36 Cato, de agri cultura 2, 7; cf. Columella, de re rustica IV, 30, 1.

37 Cicero, , in Verr. II, 3, 192–200.Google Scholar Note the absence of money-changers from small towns and villages in Palestine, Lambert, E., Revue des études juives LI, 1906, 220.Google Scholar See also the important article of Bingen, J., CE 1951, 378Google Scholar, showing that some third-century A.D. accounts from the Fayum, which give at first sight the impression of a flourishing money economy, record in fact only notional translations and that actual money almost never changed hands.

38 AJA 1967, 184.

39 Since the halving of Augustan asses occurred at the same time as the halving of older asses, it was probably in fact an attempt at fraud. Kraay, C. M. argues (Die Münzfunde von Vindonissa (Basel, 1962), 8Google Scholar, followed by Chantraine, H., Novaesium III (Berlin, 1968)Google Scholar, II) on wholly insufficient grounds that the halving of (Augustan) asses ended when a rise in prices removed the need for semisses.

40 For some rare unofficial semisses, see Schweizer Münzblätter 1965, 90.

41 See M. H. Crawford, o.c. (n. 22), no. 133 (Rochetta a Volturno), no. 148 (Veroli), no. 183 (Strongoli) and the hoards cited in n. 22.

42 M. Thirion, Les Trésors monétaires 184–5. See M. I. Rostovtzeff, SEHRE 2 633, n. 38, for the absence of Roman cities from the territory of presentday Belgium.

43 Compare the diminishing stock of small Gallic bronze on the Rhine, reported by H. Chantraine, Novaesium III, II, with the continuing supply at Dura-Europos discussed by Bellinger, A. R., Dura-Europos VI (New Haven, 1949), 203Google Scholar and 205. The article ‘Quadrans’ in RE adds nothing to our knowledge.

44 Cicero, de rep. III, 9, 16 (on which see now Badian, E., Roman imperialism (Blackwell, 1968), 20–1Google Scholar) implies that wine from Transalpine Gaul was cheaper than Italian wine. See Polybius II, 15, 1, for low prices in Cisalpine Gaul, not yet Romanized; also XXXIV, 8, 7, for low Spanish prices. Apuleius, , Met. XI, 28Google Scholar (‘erogationes urbicae pristinis illis provincialibus antistabant plurimum’) perhaps indicates a higher price-level in Rome than in the provinces.

45 Brunt, P. A., PBSR 1950, 60–1.Google Scholar

46 Vegetius 2, 20; compare the wishful thinking of SHA, Aurelian 7, 6, ‘(miles) stipendium in balteo, non in popina habeat’.

47 Cicero, pro Quinct. 17.

48 See, for instance, Cicero, , ad Att. V, 13Google Scholar, 2; XV, 15, 4; ad Fam. III, 5, 4.

49 Cicero, in Pis. 48.

50 RE XVII, 1441.

51 Num. Chron. 1968, 55.

52 Pompeii—ILLRP 1055; Capua—ILLRP 993, 996, 1004, 1013; Terracina—ILLRP 991, 1003; Tusculum—F. Ritschl, Opuscula Philologica IV, 572–656, no. 64a; Tarquinii—ILLRP 994; Faesulae—ILLRP 1008, 1040; Mutina—F. Ritschl, no. 35; Parma (Tannetum)—ILLRP 1042; Virunum (Magdalensburg)—ILLRP 988, 992; Arelate—ILLRP 1023 (cf. Cicero, pro Font. II); Tolosa—CIL XII, 5695, 2.

Note also nummularii at Antium (ILS 7262), in the ager Pomptinus (ILS 7463) and at Cereatae (CIL X, 5689).

53 Cicero, in Verr. II, 3, 181.

54 ILLRP 106a.

55 Suetonius, Ner. 44, 2; compare Martial IV, 28, 5—pieces novae monetae.

56 For instance, a bronze coin of Ptolemy VI Philometor, of the same size and weight as an as, in the Rocchetta a Volturno hoard of asses and fractions (M. H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coin Hoards, no. 133). Lead tesserae seem also to have been absorbed into circulation in the cities as small change, M. Rostovtzeff, SEHRE 2 182, with n. 48.

57 Statius, , Silvae III, 3, 85–105Google Scholar; Sutherland, C. H. V., Coinage in Roman Imperial policy (London, 1951), 173Google Scholar; the notion recurs in Proceedings of the International Numismatic Convention, Jerusalem, 27–31 December 1963 (Tel-Aviv, 1967), 104–5.

58 West, L. C., The American Numismatic Society Museum Notes 1954, 2.Google Scholar Economic and financial reasons must be kept distinct.

59 Kraay, C. M., JHS 1964, 76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; not refuted by Barron's, J. P. careless argument in NC 1966, 338Google Scholar—‘This transference (of coin) could only take place through trade’ (my italics).

60 Crawford, M. H., The Roman Republican coinage (Cambridge, forthcoming)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Introduction and Ch. 7.

61 For the dominating position of military expenses in the Imperial budget see Dio LII, 6, 1; 28–9; LXXVII, 9–10; Herodian VII, 3, 1; Tacitus, , Hist. II, 95Google Scholar; SHA, Prob. 20–3; Anonymus, de rebus bellicis 5, 1. The rhetorical remark of Macrinus, Dio LXXVIII, 17, 3, cannot be taken as evidence that military expenses were not the largest single item in the Imperial budget (contra Pékary, Th., Historia 1959. 472Google Scholar).

62 Num. Chron. 1969, 84.

63 FIRA I, no. 19, XXII—‘pecuniam … signatam forma p(ublica) p(opulei) R(omanei)’; cf. OGIS 629, III, 153 = Smallwood (o.c, n. 20) no. 458, 181.

64 For die profit motive behind city coinages see OGIS 339 (Sestos, second century B.C.).

65 Tacitus, Ann. VI, 16; Suetonius, Tib. 48, 1; Dio LVIII, 21, 5; compare the action by Augustus, Dio LV, 12, 3a; Suetonius, Aug. 41, 1. For the phrases difficultas nummaria, difficultas rei nummariae referring to purely personal shortage see Cicero, in Verr. II, 2, 69; 4, 11.

66 For 63, see the story about Q. Considius' refusal to call in his loans (Val. Max. IV, 8, 3; cf. Cicero, ad Att. I, 12, 1) with P. A. Brunt, ‘The equites in the late Republic’, Second Int. Conf. of Econ. Hist. (Aix-en-Provence, 1962), 126, n. 7, together with Dio XXXVII, 25, 4; Cicero, in Cat. 11, 18; de off. II, 84; ad Q. Fr. I, 1, 6; ad Fam. v, 6, 2 (to P. Sestius); in 49, note Cicero's worries over a viaticum (Cicero, ad Att. VIII, 7, 3; XI, 2, 4) and his problems over the money left in Asia (2,200,000 sesterces, initially made inaccessible by Pompey's declaration of war, ad Fam. V, 20, 9 (to Caelius); available in Jan. 48 to Cicero to protect his fides in Italy, ad Att. XI, 1, 2; half loaned to Pompey, ad Att. XI, 2, 3 and 3, 3; perhaps all eventually used by Pompey, ad Att. XI, 13, 4); there are also mentions in 49 of nummorum caritas (ad Att. IX, 9, 4) and the financial troubles of Q. Cicero and others (ad Att. VII, 18, 4; X, 11, 2); for 44, note propter metum armorum (ad Att. XVI, 7, 6). For debt in the late Republic see Frederiksen, M. W., JRS 1966, 128–141.Google Scholar

67 Dio XLI, 38; Suetonius, Tib. 49, 2. An attractive conjecture by D. R. Shackleton Bailey at Cicero, , ad Att. XV, 15Google Scholar, 1, has the effect of removing such evidence as there is for the possibility of individuals having bullion coined by the mint. For apud † me item † puto depositum he proposes (Cicero's letters to Atticus VI (Cambridge, 1967), 262) apud Monetam puto depositum. It follows that the viaticum a Moneta of ad Att. VIII, 7, 3, may simply be a previous deposit of Cicero. See CTh IX, 21, 7–8, for the practice of the fourth century a.d. and (on the whole problem) T. V. Buttrey's important and destructive review of Bolin, S., State and Currency in the Roman Empire to 300 A.D. (Stockholm, 1958)Google Scholar in AJA 1961, 84; see, for an earlier period, E. Will, Korinthiaka 497.

68 P. Grierson, Essays in Roman Coinage presented to Harold Mattingly 255.

69 CTh IX, 21, 10.

70 Pseudo-Asconius 189.

71 Suetonius, Tib. 58; Philostratus, Apoll. Tyan. 1, 15.

72 Arrian, Epictet. IV, 5, 17; for the intrinsic values of the coins see Mattingly, H., Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum II (London, 1923), liv–lviiGoogle Scholar; III (London, 1936), xiv–xvi; xxi–xxii. Mabbott's, T. O. view (CP 1941, 398)Google Scholar that there was a local suppression of Nero's coinage at Nicopolis in Epirus is implausible.

73 See nn. 19–20 and compare Forma Idiologi 106,

74 Varro, de vita populi Romani (cited by Nonius, P. 853 L).

75 Pliny, , NH XXXIII, 45.Google Scholar

76 M. H. Crawford, o.c. (n. 22), Tables iii and X.

77 C. M. Kraay, ‘The behaviour of early Imperial countermarks’, Essays in Roman coinage presented to Harold Mattingly 113. The notion of Roman Imperial countermarks systematically validating the coins to which they were applied seems misplaced.

78 See Tacitus, , Ann. I, 17, 6Google Scholar, for soldiers reckoning their pay in asses; Robertson, Anne S., Num. Chron. 1968, 61Google Scholar, for delivery of asses in bulk to Roman troops in Britain.

79 It is worth noting that the coinage of Augustus in orichalcum and copper from the mint of Rome probably did not begin till well after 19 B.C., Kraft, K., Mainzer Zeitschrift 1951–1952, 28Google Scholar (not refuted by Callu, J.-P. and Panvini Rosati, F., MEFR 1964, 65)Google Scholar, M. H. Crawford, o.c. (n. 22), Table XVIII. There is still no satisfactory arrangement of the moneyers' issues of Augustus.

80 Meiggs, R., Lewis, D., Greek historical inscriptions (Oxford, 1969), nos. 53, 54, 59, 72, 77Google Scholar, etc.

81 Livy, Epit. LX, and Schol. Bob., p. 135 St.; [Cicero], ad Her. 1, 12, 21.

82 See n. 57.

83 Losada's, L. A. belief, Phoenix 1965, 129CrossRefGoogle Scholar, that ‘the Romans were not oblivious to the value of economic and monetary policies in power politics’is based on mistranslation of the texts he discusses and is wholly unsupported by the evidence which he adduces.

84 Compare the judgment of Jones, A. H. M., Econ. Hist. Rev. 1952–1953, 317Google Scholar, on the monetary policy of the Empire during the fourth and fifth centuries. For a general interpretation of monetary history in terms of public finance see Hicks, J., A Theory of Economic History (Oxford, 1969), 92Google Scholar, n. 2.

85 The problems touched on in nn. 66–7 are also to be discussed by Professor Nicolet and myself at the Economic History Congress in Leningrad, August 1970.