The
Edict on Maximum Prices (also known as the
Edict on Prices or the
Edict of Diocletian; in
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium) was issued in 301 by
Roman EmperorThe Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator , augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it...
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
.
During the
Crisis of the Third CenturyThe Crisis of the Third Century was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression...
, Roman coinage had been greatly debased by the numerous emperors and usurpers who minted their own coins of decreasing true metallic value to pay soldiers and public officials.
The
Edict on Maximum Prices (also known as the
Edict on Prices or the
Edict of Diocletian; in
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium) was issued in 301 by
Roman EmperorThe Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator , augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it...
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
.
During the
Crisis of the Third CenturyThe Crisis of the Third Century was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression...
, Roman coinage had been greatly debased by the numerous emperors and usurpers who minted their own coins of decreasing true metallic value to pay soldiers and public officials. Earlier in his reign, as well as in 301 around the same time as the Edict on Prices, Diocletian issued Currency Decrees, which attempted to reform the system of taxation and to stabilize the coinage. It is difficult to know exactly how the coinage was changed, as the values and even the names of coins are often unknown.
All coins in the Decrees and the Edict were valued according to the
denariusIn the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus.-History:...
, which Diocletian hoped to replace with a new system based on the silver
argenteusThe argenteus was a silver coin produced by the Roman Empire from the time of Diocletian's coinage reform in 294 AD to ca. 310 AD. It was of similar weight and fineness as the denarius of the time of Nero...
and its fractions. The
argenteus seems to have been set at 100
denarii, the silver-washed
nummusThe coinage reform of 294 AD saw the introduction of several new coins. Most important was the one known to collectors as the Follis or Nummus. At about 10g and 30mm diameter these silver washed coins were quite impressive compared to the issues they replaced. The problem is that history has not...
at 25
denarii, and the bronze radiate at 4 or 5 denarii. The copper laureate was raised from 1
denarius to 2
denarii. The gold
aureusThe aureus was a gold coin of ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarii. The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the solidus...
, which by this time had risen to 833
denarii, was replaced with a
solidusThe solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.- Roman and Byzantine coinage :...
, worth 1000
denarii (this was different from the
solidus introduced by Constantine a few years later). These coins held their value during Diocletian's reign, but aside from the bronze and copper coins, which were mass produced, they were minted only very rarely and had little effect on the economy.
These new coins actually added to
inflationIn economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real...
, and in an attempt to combat this he issued his Edict on Maximum Prices in 301. The first two-thirds of the Edict doubled the value of the copper and bronze coins, and set the death penalty for
profiteersProfiteering may relate to:* Profiteering * War profiteering* Propheteering, a neologism combining 'prophet' with 'profiteering'...
and
speculatorsIn finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
, who were blamed for the inflation and who were compared to the
barbarianBarbarian is a term for an uncivilized person, often used pejoratively, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
tribes attacking the empire. Merchants were forbidden to take their goods elsewhere and charge a higher price, and transport costs could not be used as an excuse to raise prices.
The last third of the Edict, divided into 32 sections, imposed a
price ceilingA price ceiling is a government-imposed limit on how high a price can be charged on a product. Price ceilings are often intended to protect consumers from certain conditions that could make necessities unattainable. But they can also cause problems if they are used for a prolonged period of time...
- a
maxima - for over a thousand products. These products included various food items (beef, grain, wine, beer, sausages, etc), clothing (shoes, cloaks, etc), freight charges for sea travel, and weekly wages. The highest limit was on one pound of purple-dyed
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
, which was set at 150 000
denarii (the price of a
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
was set at the same price).
However, the Edict did not solve the problem, as Diocletian's mass minting of coins of low metallic value continued to increase inflation, and the maximum prices in the Edict were apparently too low. Merchants either stopped producing goods, sold their goods illegally, or used barter. The Edict tended to disrupt trade and commerce, especially among merchants. Sometimes entire towns could no longer afford to produce trade goods. Because the Edict also set limits on wages, those who had fixed salaries (especially soldiers) found that their money was increasingly worthless as the artificial prices did not reflect actual costs.
The Edict was probably issued from
AntiochAntioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River...
or
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
and was set up in inscriptions in
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
and
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
. It now exists only in fragments found mainly in the eastern part of the empire, where Diocletian ruled. It is still the longest surviving piece of legislation from the period of the
TetrarchyThe term Tetrarchy describes any system of government where power is divided among four individuals, but usually refers to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293, marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire...
. The Edict was criticized by
LactantiusLucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author .-Biography:Lactantius, a Latin-speaking native of North Africa, was a pupil of Arnobius and taught rhetoric in various cities of the Eastern Roman Empire, ending in Constantinople...
, a
rhetoricRhetoric is one of the arts of using language as a means to persuade. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient Greece to the late 19th Century, it was a central part of Western education, filling the need to train public...
ian from
NicomediaNicomedia was founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia at the head of the Gulf of Astacus which opens to the Propontis. The city was founded in 712/11 BC as a Megarian colony and, in early Antiquity, was called Astacus...
, who blamed the emperors for the inflation and told of fighting and bloodshed that erupted from price tampering. By the end of Diocletian's reign in 305, the Edict was virtually ignored, and the economy was not stabilized until Constantine's coinage reform.
Diocletian Values
(301 - 305 A.D.)
| | Solidus (coin)The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.- Roman and Byzantine coinage :...
| Argenteus The argenteus was a silver coin produced by the Roman Empire from the time of Diocletian's coinage reform in 294 AD to ca. 310 AD. It was of similar weight and fineness as the denarius of the time of Nero...
| Nummus The coinage reform of 294 AD saw the introduction of several new coins. Most important was the one known to collectors as the Follis or Nummus. At about 10g and 30mm diameter these silver washed coins were quite impressive compared to the issues they replaced. The problem is that history has not...
| Radiate (coin) The radiate or Post-reform radiate , was introduced by Diocletian during his reforms. It looked very similar to an Antoninianus even with a radiated crown, except it misses the XXI that numismatists believe was to represent 20 parts bronze to 1 part silver...
| Laureate (coin) | Denarius |
|---|
| Solidus |
1 |
10 |
40 |
200 |
500 |
1000 |
| Argentus |
1/10 |
1 |
4 |
20 |
50 |
100 |
| Nummus |
1/40 |
1/4 |
1 |
5 |
12 1/2 |
25 |
| Radiate |
1/200 |
1/20 |
1/5 |
1 |
2 1/2 |
5 |
| Laureate |
1/500 |
1/50 |
2/25 |
2/5 |
1 |
2 |
| Denarius |
1/1000 |
1/100 |
1/25 |
1/5 |
1/2 |
1 |