Roman Army Pay

[ambrosius]

A friend of mine who's a Roman coin dealer mentioned to me just the other day that he's obtained a few examples of 'official counterfeit' denarii- struck on site in Britannia by the invasion forces to pay their soldiers

As far as I know (from the curator of Roman coins at the British
Museum) one of the reasons for coming to Britain in the first place
was the 1st c. AD shortage of silver (for coinage etc) because Britain
had some of the best silver mines in Europe. And such was the
shortage of silver for minting denarii (the standard denomination
used for paying the army) that the Claudian invasion in 43 AD was
actually still being paid largely in Republican denarii, which were
100, 200, even 300 years old at the time! Many of these early denarii
are found on Roman military sites in Britain, and do not - of course -
mean that Claudius arrived here in the 3rd c. BC 8) :lol:

Ambrosius/Mike

[Guy Stiebel]

For two Roman military pay records (one from Egypt - AD81 - and one from Israel - AD73/4), you might like to consult:

Cotton H.M. and Geiger J., The Latin and Greek Documents, Masada II, The Yigael Yadin Excavations 1963-1965 Final Reports, Jerusalem, 1989, No. 722 (with relevant bibliography).

[L C Cinna]

On a sidenote:

Well we know Tacitus and stuff about soldiers being unhappy with their payment at some time or another (who isn't ) but I once took the different salaries mentioned during Augustus, Domitianus and Severus and the prices found in some inscriptions and other things (check the book issued by the Limes Museum Aalen, or Goldsworthy and others for those numbers), took the average prices and average payments and compared the results with modern products (I never took the lowest level. so for modern wine prices I used quite good and expensive wine for example) and I have to say, the payment was not bad at all, and that without extras from looting or the emperor's birthday and stuff. An ordinary legionary would earn much more than a soldier or worker today. the guys with double or so payment (which weren't too few) are really upper middle class nowadays. As a centurio you are relatively rich by modern standards. Anything higher is just insane. If you are a roman farmer boy and your older brother will get the land of your father you are much better off by joining a cavalry auxilia or something like that.

I mean this was just an average calculation but the payment really isn't bad. No wonder you have so many people wanting to join during the principate and even have quite some roman citizens in the auxilia