COMPUTATION OF MONEY.

437

sc. centena millia assium, Liv. xxiv. 11. For when we say deni æris, centum æris, &c. asses is always to be supplied.*

When the sums are marked by letters, if the letters have a line over them, centena millia is understood, as in the case of the numeral adverbs; thus, H. S. M. C. signifies the same with millies centies, i. e. 110,000,000 sestertii or nummi, £888,020: 16: 8, whereas H. S. M. C. without the cross line, denotes only 1100 sestertii, £8 : 17: 73.

When the numbers are distinguished by two points in two or three orders, the first towards the right hand signifies units, the second thousands, and the third hundred thousands; thus, III. XII. DC. HS. denotes 300,000, 12,000, and 600 H. S., in all making 312,600 sestertii, £5047:3:9.

Pliny says, xxxiii. 3., that seven years before the first Punic war, there was in the Roman treasury auri pondo XVI. DCCCX., argenti pondo XXII. LXX., et in numerato, LXII. LXXV. CCCC., that is, 16,810 pounds of gold, 22,070 pounds of silver, and in ready money, 6,275,400 sestertii, £50,741: 10: 23. But these sums are otherwise marked thus, auri pondo XVI. M. DCCCX., argenti XXII. M. LXX., et in numerato LXII. LXXV. M. CCCC.+

When sestertium neut. is used, pondo is understood, that is, two pounds and a half of silver, or a thousand sestertii, Liv. xxii. 23.

When H. S. or sestertium is put after decem millia or the like, it is in the genitive plural for sestertiorum, and stands for so many sestertii, which may be otherwise expressed by decem sestertia, &c. But sestertium, when joined with decies or the like, is in the nominative cr accusative singular, and is a compendious way of expressing decies centies sestertium, i. e. decies centum vel decies centena millia sestertiûm v. sestertiorum. ["Hor. Sat. i. 3. 15., decies centena dedisses Huic parco ii. 3. 237. Sume tibi decies." —T.]

The Romans sometimes expressed sums by talents; thus, decem millia talentum, and sestertium bis millies et quadringenties are equivalent, Cic. Rabir. Post. 8. So 100 talents and 600,000 denarii, Liv. xxxiv. 50. — or by pounds, LIBRÆ pondo, i. e. pondere in the ablative, for these words are often joined, as we say pounds in weight, and when PONDO is put by itself as an indeclinable noun, for a pound or pounds, it is supposed even then, by the best critics, to be in the ablative, and to have libra or libra understood. (See Gronovius de Pec. vet.) Plaut. Pseud. iii. 2. 27. Rud. iv. 2. 9. Men. iii. 3. 3. 18. Macrob. Sat. iii. 15. Columel. xii. 20, 28. Liv. iii. 29. iv. 20. xxii. 23. xxvi. 47. Gell. ii. 24. xx. 1. Cic. Cluent. 61. Invent. ii. 40. Parad. iii. 1.

The Roman libra contained twelve ounces of silver, and was worth about £3 sterling; the talent, [equal to twenty-four sestertia,] nearly £193.

But the common computation was by sestertii or nummi.

"These three combinations were distinguished in writing; HS. X. was decem sestertii; HS. X. decem sestertia; HS. X. decies sestertium. But the distinction was not always observed, if our present MSS. of the classics are correct. Vid. Ascon. Ped. Cic. Verr. 1. extr.” — Zumpt's Lat. Gr.

In the inscription on the Duilian column, is the explains why D, the half of that figure, should denote 500. p. 150.

mark for 1000; which - See Burton's Antiq. i.

438

INSTANCES OF ROMAN WEALTH.

A SESTERTIUS is reckoned to have been worth of our money one penny 3 farthings: a QUINARIUS or victoriatus 3d. 31q.; a DENARIUS, 7d. 3q.; the AUREUS, or gold coin, 16s. 13d.; a SESTERTIUM, or a thousand sestertii, £8: 1: 5,

- ten sestertii, 1s. 7d. 19. a hundred sestertii, 16s. 1d. 3q. ten sestertia, or 10,000 sestertii, £80: 14: 7,- a hundred sestertia, vel decies sestertium, vel decies centena millia nummûm, v. sestertiûm, or 100,000 sestertii, £8,072: 8: 4,- Centies, vel Centies H. S. £80,729: 3:4,Millies H. S. £807,291: 13: 4,- Millies Centies H. S. £888,020: 16: 8, &c. Hence we may form some notion of certain instances on record of Roman wealth and luxury.

Crassus is said to have possessed in lands bis millies, i. e. £1,614,583: 6: 8, besides money, slaves, and household furniture, Plin. xxxiii. 10. s. 47., which may be estimated at as much more (alterum tantum). In the opinion of Crassus, no one deserved to be called rich who could not maintain an army, Cic. Off. i. 8. or a legion, Plin. xxxiii. 10.Seneca, ter millies, £2,421,875, Tacit. Ann. xiii. 42. — Pallas, the freedman of Claudius, an equal sum, Id. xii. 53. - Lentulus the augur, quater millies, £3,229,166: 13: 4, Senec. de Benef. ii. 27.- C. Cæcilius Claudius Isidorus, although he had lost a great part of his fortune in the civil war, left by his will 4,116 slaves, 3,600 yoke of oxen, 257,000 of other cattle; in ready money, H. S. sexcenties, £484,375, Plin. ib.

Augustus received by the testaments of his friends quater decies millies, £32,291,666: 13: 4, Suet. Aug. ult. * He left in legacies to the Roman people, i. e. to the public, quadringenties, and to the tribes or poor citizens (tribubus vel plebi) TRICIES quinquies, Suet. ibid. Tacit. Ann. i. 8.

Tiberius left at his death vigesies ac septies millies, £21,796,875, which Caligula lavished away in less than one year, Suet. Cal. 37.

Vespasian, at his accession to the empire, said, that to support the commonwealth, there was need of quadrigenties millies, £322,916,666: 13: 4, an immense sum! more than the national debt of Britain!† Suet. Vesp. 16.

The debt of Milo is said to have amounted to H. S. septingenties, £565,104 3: 4, Plin. xxxvi. 15. s. 24.

Cæsar, before he enjoyed any office, owed 1300 talents, £251,875, Plutarch. When, after his prætorship, he set out for Spain, he is reported to have said, Bis millies et quingenties sibi deesse, ut nihil haberet, i. e. that he was £2,018,229: 3: 4, worse than nothing. A sum hardly credible! Appian. de Bell. Civ. ii. 432. When he first entered Rome in the beginning of the civil war, he took out of the treasury £1,095,979, Plin. xxxiii. 3., and brought into it, at the end of the civil war, above £4,843,750 (amplius sexies millies), Vell. ii. 56. He is said to have purchased the friendship of Curio, at the beginning of the civil war, by a bribe of sexcenties sestertium, £484,373, Dio. xl. 60. Val. Max. ix. 1. 6. Vel. Pat. ii. 48., and that of the consul, L. Paulus, the colleague of Marcellus, A. 704, by 1500 talents, about £279,500, Appian, B. C. ii. 443. Plutarch. in Cæs. & Pomp. et Suet. Cæs. 29. Of Cicero, Phil. ii. 16., states, that he had received in legacies ducenties HS.: 161,458. 6s. 8d.

In the year 1791, when this book was first published.

INSTANCES OF ROMAN LUXURY.

Curio, Lucan says, Hic vendidit urbem, iv. ult. Venali Curio linguâ, i. 269., and Virgil, as it is thought, Vendidit hic auro patriam, Æn. vi. 621. But this Curio afterwards met with the fate which as a traitor to his country he deserved, being slain by Juba in Africa, Dio. xli. 42. Libycas en nobile corpus Pascit aves! nullo contectus CURIO busto, Lucan. iv. 809.

Antony, on the Ides of March, when Cæsar was killed, owed quadringenties, £322,916: 13:4, which he paid before the kalends of April, Cic. Phil. ii. 37., and squandered of the public money sestertium septies millies, £5,651,041: 13: 4, Cic. Phil. v. 4. xii. 5.

Cicero at first charged Verres with having plundered the Sicilians of sestertium millies, in Cæcil. 5., but afterwards exacted only quadringenties, Actio in Verr. 18.

Apicius wasted on luxurious living sexcenties sestertium, £484,375; Seneca says, sestertium millies in culinam consumpsit, and being at last obliged to examine the state of his affairs, found that he had remaining only sestertium centies, £80,729: 3:4; a sum which he thought too small to live upon, and therefore ended his days with poison, Senec. Consol. ad Helv. 10. Martial. iii. 22. Dio. lvii. 19.

Pliny says, that in his time Lollia Paulina wore, in full dress, jewels to the value of quadragies sestertium, £32,201: 13: 4, or as others read the passage, quadringenties sestertium, £322,916: 13:4, Plin. x. 35. s. 57.

Julius Cæsar présented Servilia, the mother of M. Brutus, with a pearl worth sexagies sestertia, £48,417: 10, Suet. Cæs. 50. Cleopatra, at a feast with Antony, swallowed a pearl dissolved in vinegar worth centies H. S., £80,729: 3: 4, Plin. ibid. Macrob. Sat. ii. 13. Clodius, the son of Esopus, the tragedian, swallowed one worth decies, £8,072: 13:4, Val. Max. ix. 1, 2. Horat. Sat. ii. 3. 239. So Caligula, Suet. 34.

A single dish of Æsop's is said to have cost a hundred sestertia, Plin. x. 51. s. 72. xxxv. 12.

Caligula laid out on a supper, centies H. S., £80,729 : 3: 4, Senec. Helv. 9., and Heliogabalus, tricies H. S., £24,218: 15, Lamprid. 27. The ordinary expense of Lucullus for a supper in the hall of Apollo was 50,000 drachmæ, £1,614: 11: 8, Plutarch. in Lucull.

Even persons of a more sober character were sometimes very expensive. Cicero had a citron-table which cost him H. S. decies; and bought the house of Crassus with borrowed money, for H. S. xxxv. i. e. tricies quinquies, £28,740: 13: 4, Plin. vii. 38. xiii. 15. Cic. Fam.v. 6.

This house had first belonged to the tribune M. Livius Drusus, who, when the architect promised to build it for him in such a manner that none of his neighbours should overlook him, answered, "If you have any skill, contrive it rather so, that all the world may see what I am doing," Vell. Pat. ii. 14.

Messala bought the house of Autronius for H. S. ccccxxxvii. £3,527: 17: 34, Cic. Att. i. 13.

Domitius estimated his house at sexagies sestertia, i. e. £48,437 : 10, Val. Max. ix. 1. 5. The house of Clodius cost centies et quadragies octies, £119,479, Plin. xxxvi. 15. s. 24.

The fish-pond of C. Herius was sold for quadragies H. S., £32,291: 13: 4, Plin. ix. 55., and the fish of Lucullus for the same

The house-rent of middling people in the time of Julius Cæsar is supposed to have been bina millia nummûm, £16: 2: 11, from Suet. Cas. 38. That of Coelius was xxx millia nummûm, £242: 3:9, and thought high, Cic. Cal. 7.

The value of houses in Rome rose greatly in a few years. The house of Marius, which was bought by Cornelia for 7 myriads of drachmæ, £2,421 17: 6, was, not long after, purchased by Lucullus for 50 myriads, and 200 drachmæ, £16,152: 5: 10, Plutarch. in Mario.

The house of Lepidus, which in the time of his consulship [A. U. 676] was reckoned one of the finest in Rome, in the space of 35 years was not in the hundredth rank (centesimum locum non obtinuit), Plin. xxxvi. 15. s. 21.

The villa of M. Scaurus being burnt by the malice of his slaves, he lost H. S. millies, £807,291: 13: 4, Ibid.

The golden house (aurea domus) of Nero must have cost an immense sum, since Otho laid out in finishing a part of it quingenties H. S., £403,645: 16: 8, Plin. ibid.

THE INTEREST OF MONEY.

THE interest of money was called FŒENUS, vel fenus; or USURA, fructus, merces, vel impendium; the capital, CAPUT, or sors; also FENUS, which is put for the principal as well as the interest, Tacit. Ann. vi. 17. Cic. Att. i. 12. v. 21. vi. 1, 2. *

of a hundred, it was hundred months the This we call 12 per

When one AS was paid monthly for the use called USURA CENTESIMA, because in a interest equalled the capital; or ASSES USURÆ. cent. per annum, as Pliny duodenis assibus debere vel mutuari, Ep. x. 62. v. 55., centesimas computare, Id. ix. 28., which was usually the legal interest at Rome†, at least towards the end of the Republic, and under the first Emperors. Sometimes the double of this was exacted, binæ centesima, 24 per cent., and even 48 per cent., quaternæ centesimæ, Cic. Verr. iii. 70. Att. vi. 2. Horace mentions one who demanded 60 per cent.; Quinas hic capiti mercedes exsecat; i. e. quintuplices usuras exigit, vel quinis centesimis fœnerat, Sat. i. 2. 14. ‡

When the interest at the end of the year was added to the capital, and likewise yielded interest, it was called [versura or] Centesima renovatæ, Cic. ibid., or ANATOCISMUS anniversarius, compound interest, Id. v. 21.; if not, centesima perpetuæ: or foenus perpetuum, Ibid.

Pignus, security, mortgage: Juv. ix. 140., "viginti millia fœnus, Pignoribus positis:" 20,000 sesterces, i. e. about 80%. annually, on good security.

+ Or rather 10 per cent., the year of 10 months being in use for the payment of loans. See Nieb. i. p. 514.

"He deducts from the principal five common interests: in this case the usurer charged five per cent. monthly, or 60 per cent. per annum; and not content even with this exorbitant usury, actually deducted the interest before the money is lent. For instance, he lends 100%, and at the end of the month the borrower is to pay him 105l., principal and interest. But he gives only 95., deducting his interest when he lends the money, and thus in 20 months he doubles the principal.”Anthon.

INTEREST ALLOWED BY THE TWELVE TABLES, ETC.

441

USURA semisses, six per cent.; trientes, four per cent.; quadrantes, three per cent.; besses, eight per cent. &c., Cic. Att. iv. 15. Pers. v. 149.; usuræ legitimæ vel licita, legal interest; illicitæ vel illegitimæ, illegal, Digest. et Suet. Aug. 39.

USURA is commonly used in the plural, and FŒNUS in the singular. The interest permitted by the Twelve Tables was only one per cent., FŒENUS UNCIARIUM Vel UNCIE USURE, Tacit. Ann. vi. 16., (see Lex DUILIA MANIA,) which some make the same with usura centesima; reduced, A. Ú. 408, to one-half, FŒNUS SEMUNCIARIUM, Id. et Liv. vii. 27.; but these, and other regulations, were eluded by the art of the usurers (Fœneratores), Cic. Att. vi. 1. Off. ii. 24, 25. Sall. After the death of Antony and Cat. 33. Liv. viii. 28. xxxv. 7. 41. * Cleopatra, A. U. 725, the interest of money at Rome fell from 12 to 4 per cent., Dio. li. 21. +

Professed bankers or money-lenders were also called MENSARII vel Trapezita, ARGENTARII, NUMMULARII, vel Collybistæ, Liv. vii. 21. Suet. Aug. 2, 3, 4. Cic. Flacc. 19., sometimes appointed by the public, Liv. xxiii. 21.

A person who laid out money at interest was said Pecuniam alicui v. apud aliquem occupare, Cic. Flacc 21. Verr. i. 36., ponere, collocare, &c.; when he called it in, relegere, Horat. Epod. 2. ult.

The Romans commonly paid money by the intervention of a banker, Cic. Cacin. 6. (in foro, et de mensæ scripturá, magis quàm ex arcâ domoque, vel cistá pecunia numerabatur, Donat. in Ter. Adelph. ii. 4. 13.) whose account-books of debtor and creditor (Tabulæ vel codices accepti et expensi; mensæ rationes) were kept with great care, Ibid.; hence Acceptum referre, Cic., and among later writers, acceptum ferre, to mark on the debtor's side, as received; ACCEPTILATIO, a form of freeing one from an obligation without payment: Expensum ferre, to mark down on the creditor side, as paid or given away; Expensi latio, the act of doing so: Ratio accepti atque expensi inter nos convenit, our accounts agree, Plaut. Most. i. 3. 146. In rationem inducere vel in tabulis rationem scribere, to state an account, Cic. Verr. i. 42. because this was done by writing down the sum and subscribing the

ONE LUITO.

And

* "From the passage referred to in Tacitus, (ne quis unciario fænere amplius exerceret,) and from Cato de Re rustica, who states that the Decemviral laws, in order to show that an usurer was worse than a thief, posuerunt furem duplo condemnari, fœneratorem quadruplo, Gothofredus has thus restored the law in his Fragmenta xii. Tab. SI QUIS UNCIARIO FENORE AMPLIUS FENERASIT, QUADRUPLIThis law was renewed, A. U. 397, in order to prevent any outbreak of sedition on the part of the people (Liv. vii. 16.); and reduced to one The people being elated with their success, half in 408, as mentioned in the text. passed another law at the motion of a tribune, L. Genucius (A. U. 412), ne fanerare liceret, (Liv. vii. 42.) that no one should lend out money at interest, or if so, he should incur a penalty, (App. Bell. Civ. i. p. 382.) The Prætor Asellio was killed by the fœneratores, because he was desirous to revive this law, A. U. 665. (App. ut suprà.)”—BROTIER, ad Tacit. Ann. vi. 16.

"The enormous return exacted for the use of money was found so oppressive, that, in the time of Augustus, the government, in order to check the evil, converted the confiscated property of criminals into a fund, from which sums were lent, for stipulated periods, free of interest, to those who could give security for double the amount; and a similar measure was adopted by several succeeding emperors. (Suet. Aug. et Tib. Tac. Ann. vi. 17.)”—Sketches of the Institutions, &c. of the