DATABASE (pdf)
This page contains
information about the contents of the database; the structure of the tabulation;
the historical value of the data; source coverage; and complementary databases.
Contents
Foodstuffs and meals
Grain, flour and bread
Vegetables and fruit
Wine and oil
Animals
Meals
Raw materials
Minerals
Organic raw materials
Slaves and domestic
animals
Slaves
Domestic animals
Real estate
Rural landed property
Urban property
Miscellaneous building costs
Finished products
Garments
Furniture
Books and documents
Tableware
Works of art
Jewellery
Construction elements
Miscellaneous
Treasury and deposits
Treasury
Public and semi-public deposits
Miscellaneous funds
Private fortunes
Census
Private fortunes
Private deposits
Inheritances and legacies
Dowries
Private rents
Gains
Public revenues
Private income from public domain
Private income from private property and actvities
Loans, debts and sureties
Value in dispute
Fines
Ransom
Stakes and losses
Public expenditure
Appropriation totals
Payments to foreign powers
Professions
Public military salaries and compensations
Public civilian salaries and compensations
Crafts
Private services
Non-professional services
Rewards
Bribes
Public and semi-public
gifts
Gifts to military population
Gifts to civilian population
Gifts of the civilian population
Gifts to foreigners
Private gifts
Dedications
Allowances
Individual gifts
Key
Column 1 contains code
numbers for each entry. Codes such as 1a and 1b refer to variants of the same
piece of information. Entries in parentheses contain information that it is not
explicitly recorded in the stated source but may be inferred with certainty.
Column 2 states the
source reference and the (exact or approximate) date of the recorded event.
Column 3 provides a very
concise description of each item.
Column 4 reports the
monetary amount(s) for each item. The following terms and abbreviations have
been used: AG = Aes Grave; Q = Quadrans; As = As; Vict = Victoriatus; HS =
Sestertius; Dp = Dupondius; D = Denarius; AV = Aureus; Ob = Obolos; Dr =
Drachma; 4Dr = Tetradrachma; Cist = Cistophorus; AVPh = Gold ‘Philippeius’; Min
= Mina; Tal = Talent. AV (gold), AR (silver) and AE (aes) in combination with
‘lb’ (Roman pound) denote the weight of uncoined precious metal. All
denominations are those recorded in the respective sources, with the following
qualifications: ‘HS 4’ means that the source explicitly refers to 4 sesterces;
‘(HS) 4’ means that the denomination is not recorded but may safely be inferred
from the context; ‘n(HS) 4’ means that a reference to ‘nummi’ can be
interpreted as a reference to sesterces; and ‘(HS 4)’ indicates an amount that
can be inferred from the context (e.g., ‘twice as much as HS 2’).
Historical
value
Owing to authorial
ignorance and pervasive number stylization, many of these sources are of little
or no use to the economic historian. Their main value lies in their capacity to
shed light on ancient practices of symbolic quantification, and on the
instrumentalization of numbers for rhetorical purposes. A comprehensive
analysis of ancient literary attitudes to monetary valuations and other types
of numbers remains a desideratum. For preliminary studies of monetary number
stylization in Roman authors, see Richard Duncan-Jones, The Economy of the
Roman Empire (2nd ed. 1982), 238-256, and ‘Numerical distortion in Roman
writers’, in Prix et formation des prix dans les economies antiques
(1997), 147-159; Walter Scheidel, ‘Finances, figures and fiction’, Classical
Quarterly 46 (1996), 222-238.
Sources
The tables are based on
the following sources:
Latin authors and works down to c. 235 CE
L. Ampelius
Apuleius of Madaura
Q. Asconius Pedianus
Bellum Africanum
Bellum Alexandrinum
Bellum Hispaniense
C. Iulius Caesar
Calpurnius Flacchus
M. Porcius Cato
M. Porcius Cato Uticensis
C. Valerius Catullus
M. Tullius Cicero
L. Iunius Moderatus
Columella
A. Cornelius Celsus
Q. Ennius
S. Pompeius Festus
(P. Annius?) Florus
S. Iulius Frontinus
M. Cornelius Fronto
A. Gellius
Q. Horatius Flacchus
C. Iulius Hyginus
Granius Licinianus
D. Iunius Iuvenalis
T. Livius
M. Annaeus Lucanus
C. Lucilius
T. Lucretius Carus
M. Manilius
M. Valerius Martialis
Cn. Naevius
Cornelius Nepos
P. Ovidius Naso
A. Persius Flacchus
B. Petronius Arbiter
Phaedrus
C. Plinius Secundus
C. Caecilius Plinius
Secundus
Pomponius Mela
Sex. Propertius
Publilius Syrus
M. Fabius Quintilianus
Res Gestae Divi Augusti
C. Sallustius Crispus
Scribonius Largus
L. Annaeus Seneca (the
Elder)
L. Annaeus Seneca (the
Younger)
Tib. Catius Asconius
Silius Italicus
P. Papinius Statius
C. Suetonius Tranquillus
(P.?) Cornelius Tacitus
Q. Septimius Florens
Tertullianus
Albius Tibullus
C. Valerius Flacchus
Setinus Balbus
Valerius Maximus
M. Terentius Varro
C. Velleius Paterculus
P. Vergilius Maro
Vitruvius (Pollio?)
L. Volusius Maecianus
C. Thulin (ed.), Corpus
Agrimensorum Romanorum, I (1913)
H. Peter (ed.), Historicorum
Romanorum Reliquiae, I-II (1906/1914)
H. Malcovati (ed.), Oratorum
Romanorum Fragmenta Liberae Rei Publicae (1966)
E. Baehrens & F.
Vollmer (eds.), Poetae Latini Minores, I-V (1879-1883)
O. Ribbeck (ed.), Scaenicae
Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta, I-II (1897-1898)
F. Speranza (ed.), Scriptorum
Romanorum De Re Rustica Reliquiae, I (1974)
Latin authors and works after c. 235 CE that refer to the period up to c. 235 CE
Sex. Aurelius Victor
Chronographus anni
CCCLIII
Epitome de Caesaribus
Eutropius
(Rufius?) Festus
Historia Augusta
Ambrosius Theodosius
Macrobius
Origo Gentis Romanae
Paulus Orosius
C. Iulius Solinus
De Viris Illustribus
Greek authors and works
Achilles Tatius
Claudius Aelianus
Appianus of Alexandria
Aelius Aristides
Artemidorus of Daldis
Athenaeus of Naucratis
Valerius Babrius
Chariton of Aphrodisias
Diodorus Siculus
Dio Chrysostomus
Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Epictetus
Eunapius of Sardes, Bioi
Sophiston
Eusebius of Caesarea
Heliodorus of Emesa
Herodianus
Flavius Josephus
Longus
Lucianus of Samosata (and
‘Lucius of Patras’)
Oracula Sibyllina
Pausanias
Philo of Alexandria
Philostratus (the Elder)
Philostratus (the
Younger)
Plutarch (and
pseudo-Plutarchean works)
Polybius
Strabo
Xenophon of Ephesus
F. Jacoby (ed.), Die
Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, II A (1926), nos. 87-103; II B
(1929), nos. 156-211, 232-237, 257-260
Related
databases
http://nomisma.geschichte.uni-bremen.de
http://kriegskosten.uni-mannheim.de/datenbank/datenbank.htm