What things cost in Ancient Rome (2007)

I forget where I read this, but haircut cost can be used as a reasonable reference point for translating old prices into today&#x27;s dollars. Modern basic haircutting is quite similar to what it always has been, and takes about the same amount of time. So saying a haircut costs $50 in a big city now, and it was 2 denarii communes in Ancient Rome: 1 d.c. == $25.<p>Here is general labor data in today&#x27;s dollars<p><pre><code> | labor | $USD | d.c. | |:-----------------------------------------------------------------------|:-----|:-----| | brick maker, for every 4 fired bricks and preparation of the clay | 50 | 2 | | brick maker, for every 8 sun dried bricks, and preparation of the clay | 50 | 2 | | clerk (based on specified bath attendant wage) | 625 | 25 | | farm laborer, with maintenance | 625 | 25 | | lime burner, with maintenance | 1250 | 50 | | mule driver, camel driver, with maintenance | 625 | 25 | | sewer cleaner, working a full day, with maintenance | 625 | 25 | | shepherd, with maintenance | 625 | 25 | | water carrier, working a full day, with maintenance | 625 | 25 | | all other general labor | 625 | 25 | I put the whole set in a file here: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;matthewbilyeu.com&#x2F;what-things-cost-ancient-rome.txt</code></pre>

As a slav I find it amusing how free grain from gov was called by &quot;dole&quot; by Romans where we have concept of &quot;dola&quot; which used to be your patron spirit quietly influencing your life but in modern times its basically something you&#x27;ve got that you&#x27;ve deserved (according to higher force or destiny), be it thing, health, wealth or life experience.

Many prices of goods are not dissimilar numbers to the numbers on Australian or American prices now. Print of beer 4, or a bottle of wine 8 to 20. This reminds me of The Economist Big Mac index (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;big-mac-index" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;big-mac-index</a>). The income is of course lower, however.

&gt; All data based on Diocletian’s “Edict of Maximum Prices” issued in 301 AD<p>&gt; Not satisfied to execute just the seller, Diocletian decreed that the buyer was to be executed as well.

For context, the Edict on Maximum Prices was such a dismal failure that Diocletian ended up retiring shortly after issuing it... so take the restrictiveness and exact prices with a grain of salt (0.0001).

This is super cool. I found the price of beef surprisingly low given the “minimum wage” of 25 per day, meaning a common laborer could’ve afforded two modern pounds of beef with some money left over. Of course people probably had many dependents per laborer and these were fixed prices so who knows what kind of shortages there were… In theory though, a min wage laborer with no dependents could have very comfortably had 1lb of beef per day if they wanted.

I’m surprised by how expensive chicken was. 8 for beef, 60 for chicken?

I love history like this. I want to read a history book that does normalized comparisons across time and place. For example, given how many calories you need, how much did a calorie cost in a given historical setting? This would help you understand how much surplus was available to most people.

Can someone explain the purple silk price and penalty?

In the last table for converting d.c. for gold, one gold aureus is about 8 grams of gold, which is about 512 usd in today’s dollars.<p>I feel gold might be a stable indicator to assess prices over time.

It would be interesting to see see it translated into modern money via gold prices.

What&#x27;s the reasoning behind the odd payment structure for solders?

I am copying a previous comment of mine[-2] below. But first let me estimate the cost of food for one day in Diocletian&#x27;s empire. I do not feel like solving a linear programming problem with ancient food so I substituted Roman ingredients from 301 A.D. for similar Polish ingredients from 2016 A.D.<p>400 g of rye bread = 400 g of rye flour = 0.95 liters[-1] = 7 d.c.<p>100 g of wheat flour = 0.2 liters[-1] = 2.5 d.c.<p>250 g of beans = 0.33 liters[-1] = 4 d.c<p>100 g of beef = 0.3 librae = 2.5 d.c<p>100 g of dessert grapes = 0.5 d.c<p>80 g of olive oil (second quality) = 0.09 liters[-1] = 4 d.c<p>1&#x2F;2 litre of Egyptian beer = 4 d.c<p>Total: 24.5 denarii communes for raw ingredients. Add 20% for condiments and cooking, and get roughly 30 denarii communes for 1 trofa.<p>-----------------------------------<p>Here goes the previous comment[-2]:<p>A Polish numismatist, Zbigniew Żabiński, came up with trofa (from Greek trophe &#x27;alimentation&#x27;), a universal measure of the value of money. One trofa is defined as an average person&#x27;s daily ration of food typical for the given place and time. Altogether, it has 3000 kcal: 1800 kcal in 450 g of carbohydrates, 900 kcal in 100 g of fat, and 300 kcal in 75 g of protein.<p>For instance, in late 1970s&#x27; Poland, one trofa consisted of 400 g of rye bread, 100 g of wheat flour, 250 g of potatoes, 100 g of beef, 100 g of sugar, 80 g of butter, and 1&#x2F;2 litre of milk. Assuming that its content has not changed, you take the cost of the food (8.70 PLN in 2016), add 20% for condiments and preparation, and get 10.50 PLN as the 2016 price of a trofa in Poland.[0]<p>In Octavian&#x27;s times, one denarius could buy you 2 trofas (with content appropriate for ancient Mediterranean lands),[0] Judas&#x27;s 30 pieces of silver were worth 60 trofas,[1] etc.<p>Unfortunately, Żabiński published in Polish behind the Iron Curtain so the trofa is virtually unknown outside Poland. The Big Mac index is its pale reflection.<p>More information in Polish:<p>[-2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=22777042" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=22777042</a><p>[-1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;coolconversion.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;coolconversion.com&#x2F;</a><p>[0] A table of trofa&#x27;s price from Octavian&#x27;s Rome to contemporary Poland: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blognumizmatyczny.pl&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;14&#x2F;trofa-miernik-wartosci-pieniadza&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blognumizmatyczny.pl&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;14&#x2F;trofa-miernik-wartosc...</a><p>[1] Thirty pieces of silver: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bazhum.muzhp.pl&#x2F;media&#x2F;&#x2F;files&#x2F;Collectanea_Theologica&#x2F;Collectanea_Theologica-r1973-t43-n2&#x2F;Collectanea_Theologica-r1973-t43-n2-s65-75&#x2F;Collectanea_Theologica-r1973-t43-n2-s65-75.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bazhum.muzhp.pl&#x2F;media&#x2F;&#x2F;files&#x2F;Collectanea_Theologica&#x2F;...</a><p>[2] The purchasing power in medieval Balkans: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;repozytorium.amu.edu.pl&#x2F;bitstream&#x2F;10593&#x2F;8080&#x2F;1&#x2F;11_Zbigniew_Zabinski_Sila_nabywcza_pieniadza_na_Balkanach_227-232.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;repozytorium.amu.edu.pl&#x2F;bitstream&#x2F;10593&#x2F;8080&#x2F;1&#x2F;11_Zb...</a><p>[3] Google search: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=Żabiński+trofa" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=Żabiński+trofa</a>

&gt; The cost of baking bread was very high to a poor Roman, so if no access to a communal, public oven could be had, the grain would be crushed and made into a porridge known as ‘puls’ that was likely similar in taste and texture to modern polenta<p>According to Wikipedia, &quot;the variety of cereal used [in the dish Polenta] is usually yellow maize&quot;, which is a New World cereal, so not available to the Romans.