Trade and Money @museum.de

Now let's dive into the fascinating topic of money, weights, measures, and trade in ancient Rome. Ready? Here we go!

Imagine you live in ancient Rome. In your wallet, you find not just one coin, but a whole range of them: in gold, silver, bronze, and copper. The aureus, the gold coin, was the ultimate luxury item – it was worth twentyfive silver denarii. The denarius, on the other hand, was the common currency used for everyday payments. But beware: the value of the coins depended on their metal content and not solely on their face value. And the metal value decreased over time – similar to today, when money loses purchasing power.

And what if you wanted to buy something? Well, that's where the ponderarium came in – the ancient weights and measures office. Here, weights and measures were checked to prevent fraud. And yes, even back then there were special scales for goldsmiths and doctors!

And now it gets really exciting: did you know that counterfeit money also existed in ancient Rome? Yes, that's right! To remedy the coin shortage, coins were minted in some places that looked like silver but were actually made of cheap bronze. Was this fraudulent or simply a stopgap solution? That remains a mystery of history.

But how much did life actually cost in ancient Sumelocenna? A sextarius of wine cost one to two asses, a small bronze unit. A donkey, on the other hand, cost a whopping twothousend and eighty asses. And a worker earned between 5 and 16 asses a day – not exactly a lot, right? An officer, on the other hand, earned onehundredandsixtyfive asses per day. So you see: the wage gap already existed back then!

And how did all these goods get to the people in the first place? Well, trade was the backbone of the Roman Empire. Oxen pulled carts along the roads, and ships transported large quantities of goods on the rivers. Liquid foods such as olive oil, wine, and the popular fish sauce were transported in amphorae—those typical large clay jars. Foodstuffs such as fish, dates, figs, raisins, oysters, and spices were traded, as were metal, glass, and terra sigillata tableware. Other traded goods included textiles such as linen and flax, fragrances such as incense and myrrh, and precious stones from Somalia. Here in Sumelocenna, people didn't want to miss out on all these delicious and beautiful things either.