In the current days we hear everywhere converstations about price increases, salary cuts… So in this post we are going to see what economic policies they carried out in the Ancient Rome. Thanks to the Edict of Maximum Prices or the Edict of Diocletian, let’s see what wages received in professions and  what prices consumers faced.

Diocletian was born into a poor family and climbed positions in the military hierarchy to become the commander of the cavalry of the emperor Caro. After the death of Caro and his son, Diocletian was acclaimed emperor by the army and ruled from 20th November 284 to 1st May 305.

During the second half of the third century the Roman Empire suffered a serious crisis, powered by civil wars, struggles for power, the pressure of the barbarians, plagues and a deep economic depression aggravated by monetary whims (coining more currency) of the greedy emperors. In 301, to bring some order, Diocletian decided to enact the Edict of Maximum Price to stabilize the currency and temper the severe economic crisis. The edict was of mandatory compliance throughout the Empire and also a higher pricing was punishable with death. These are some of the prices and wages, in dinars, which were fixed in the edict:

Wages

• Agricultural worker – 25/day
• Carpenter or building worker – 50/day
• Painter (walls, buildings…) – 75/day
• Painter (artworks) – 150/day
• Wool weaver – 175/cloak
• Baker – 50/day
• Shipbuilding, river and sea – 50/day and 60/day respectively
• Mule-skinner – 25/day
• Barber or hairdresser – 2/person
• Sewer Cleaner – 25/day
• Scribe – (to improve writing) 25/100 lines – (document drafting) 10/100 lines
• Teacher – 50/month for each pupil (children) – 250/month for each pupil (rhetoric lessons)
• Average legionary – 15,400/year (incluiding wheat)
• Praetorian guard – 19,000/year (incluiding wheat)

Prices

• Wheat – 100/1 modius (8,75 kg)
• Barley and rye – 60/1 modius
• Lentils – 100/1 modius
• Salt – 100/1 modius
• Beans – 100/1 modius
• Rice – 200/1 modius
• Wine – 30/1 sextarius (1/2 l)
• Homemade wine – between 8 and 16/1 sextarius
• Gallic beer – 4/1 sextarius
• Egyptian beer – 2/1 sextarius
• Honey – 40/1 sextarius
• Olive oil – 40/1 sextarius
• Pork or venison – 12/1 pound (326 gr)
• Beef – 8/1 pound
• A Chicken – 60
• A pheasant – 250
• Sea fish – between 16 and 24/1 pound
• River fish – between 8 and 12/1 pound
• Salted fish – 6/1 pound
• Butter – 16/1 pound

It is very difficult to make a comparison of these prices with existing prices but this can be used to get an idea of what every Roman citizen could buy with their wages and the differences between the various professions. In addition, we must also take into account the percentage of the wage we spend on food has nothing to do with the percentage used in ancient Rome. A curiosity: the reward for a victory of a gladiator could equal the annual salary of a teacher.