Bellum Monetariorum (The War of the Moneyers)
The Roman Empire of the third century Anno Domini was in crisis, known as the Crisis of the Third Century. Emperors were assassinated and armies declared their own commander to be emperor and fought in civil wars. The people were impoverished by taxes and regulations. The currency was debased. The empire split into 3 parts. In the end, the Emperor Aurelian reunited the empire and attempted to revive the economy and the currency. Connected to these events, Aurelian went to war with the mint workers of Rome in either 271 or 274 A.D., whom he accused of debasing the currency more than they were instructed. Consequently, 7,000 Roman legionaries and auxiliaries were killed fighting in the Bellum Monetariorum.
The Crisis of the Third Century nearly saw the Empire permanently split apart, as it would two centuries later.
According to Joshua J. Mark, writing for worldhistory.org,[1]
“The Crisis of the Third Century (also known as the Imperial Crisis, 235-284 CE) was the period in the history of the Roman Empire during which it splintered into three separate political entities: the Gallic Empire, the Roman Empire, and the Palmyrene Empire. These breakaway empires, as well as the social turmoil and chaos which characterized the period, resulted from a number of factors: a shift in the paradigm of leadership following the assassination of the emperor Alexander Severus (222-235 CE) in 235 CE by his own troops, increased participation by the military in politics, lack of adherence to a clear policy of succession for emperors, inflation and economic depression caused by a devaluation of currency under the Severan Dynasty, increased pressure on the emperor to defend the provinces from invading tribes, the plague which heightened fears and destabilized communities, and larger armies which required more men and decreased the agricultural labor force.”
The Crisis had been created by previous rulers increasing taxes to pay for their own self aggrandizement. The people were impoverished by taxes and regulations. The currency was debased.
Professor Joseph Peden's of Baruch College of the City University of New York gave a 50-minute lecture on "Inflation and the Fall of the Roman Empire," at the Seminar on Money and Government in Houston, Texas, on October 27, 1984 for the Ludwig von Mises Insitute. In it, he said.[2]
“To look at the mentality of the Roman emperors, we can look just at the advice that the Emperor Septimius Severus gave to his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. This is supposed to be his final words to his heirs. He said, ‘live in harmony; enrich the troops; ignore everyone else.’ Now, there is a monetary policy to be marveled at!
Caracalla did not adhere to the first part of that advice; in fact, one of his first acts was to murder his brother. But as for enriching the troops, he took that so seriously to heart that his mother remonstrated with him and urged him to be more moderate and to restrain his increasing military expenditures and burdensome new taxes. He responded by saying there was no longer any revenue, just or unjust, to be found. But not to worry, ‘for as long as we have this,’ he insisted, pointing to his sword, ‘we shall not run short of money.’
His sense of priorities was made more explicit when he remarked, ‘nobody should have any money but I, so that I may bestow it upon the soldiers.’ And he was as good as his word. He raised the pay of the soldiers by 50 percent, and to achieve this he doubled the inheritance taxes paid by Roman citizens. When this was not sufficient to meet his needs, he admitted almost every inhabitant of the empire to Roman citizenship. What had formerly been a privilege now became simply a means of expanding the tax base.
He then went further by proceeding to debase the coinage. The basic coinage of the Roman Empire to this time — we're speaking now about 211 AD — was the silver denarius introduced by Augustus at about 95 percent silver at the end of the 1st century BC. The denarius continued for the better part of two centuries as the basic medium of exchange in the empire.
By the time of Trajan in 117 AD, the denarius was only about 85 percent silver, down from Augustus's 95 percent. By the age of Marcus Aurelius, in 180, it was down to about 75 percent silver. In Septimius's time it had dropped to 60 percent, and Caracalla evened it off at 50/50.”
By the time of the reign of the emperor Aurelian (270-275), the silver denarius was at best 5% silver. Aurelian accused mint workers throughout the empire of replacing the silver in the coins with less valuable metals (copper or bronze) and pocketing the silver that was supposed to be in the coins.[3]
Monetary debasement is not new.
Whether the mint workers were being scape-goated for following the orders of previous emperors to debase the coins or whether they were illegally pocketing silver, led by Felicissimus, the mint workers of Rome rose up in rebellion. In either 271 or 274 A.D., the rebellion was put down with a reported 7,000 Roman soldiers killed.[4-7]
In the Historia Augusta, writings of the history of the Roman emperors from 117AD to 284AD, a letter from Aurelian to his adopted father captures the emperor’s thoughts. He wrote,[8]
"From Aurelian Augustus to Ulpius his father. Just as though it were ordained for me by Fate that all the wars that I wage and all commotions only become more difficult, so also a revolt within the city has stirred up for me a most grievous struggle. For under the leadership of Felicissimus, the lowest of all my slaves, to whom I had committed the care of the privy-purse, the mint-workers have shown the spirit of rebellion. They have indeed been crushed, but with the loss of seven thousand men, boatmen, bank-troops, camp-troops and Dacians. Hence it is clear that the immortal gods have granted me no victory without some hardship."
Under Aurelian, after 50 years of civil war, one emperor commanded all Romans once again. He defeated and expelled several barbarian invasions. Because of this, he was known as Restitutor Orbis (restorer of the world) just as Octavian was known as Augustus.[9]
Unfortunately for Aurelian, one of his high ranking servants was afraid that he would get caught laundering money, so he convinced two generals that Aurelian was going to execute them. They killed the emperor and then found out that they had been tricked, killing the servant.[10]
The Roman Empire of the third century Anno Domini was in crisis, known as the Crisis of the Third Century. Emperors were assassinated and armies declared their own commander to be emperor and fought in civil wars. The people were impoverished by taxes and regulations. The currency was debased. The empire split into 3 parts. In the end, the Emperor Aurelian reunited the empire and attempted to revive the economy and the currency. Connected to these events, Aurelian went to war with the mint workers of Rome, whom he accused of debasing the currency more than they were instructed. Consequently, 7,000 Roman legionaries and auxiliaries were killed fighting in the Bellum Monetariorum.
[1]https://www.worldhistory.org/Crisis_of_the_Third_Century/
[2]https://mises.org/library/inflation-and-fall-roman-empire
[3]https://finds.org.uk/counties/blog/coin-relief-issue-eighteen/ Aurelian’s attempts to suppress the poor-quality coinage issued by the Rome mint resulted in uprising by the mint workers led by the rationalis (the finance minister in control of the mint) Felicissimus. The revolt – the bellum monetariorum (‘the war of the moneyers’) – was repressed by Aurelian in a pitched and bloody battle on the Caelian Hill in Rome, with some sources suggesting as many as 7,000 deaths (e.g. Historia Augusta Aurelian 38.2; Eutropius IX.14)! The immediate impact in Rome was the forced closure of the mint in AD 271 for the next two years, with mint workers relocated to other mints around the empire. By AD 274, following the reunification of the empire, Aurelian was in a position to more fully reform the coinage. The return of the Gallic provinces to the fold meant the closure of the mints in Cologne and Trier and a resultant reduction in output of debased radiates. Rome had re-opened again in AD 273 and in the spring of AD 274 Aurelian introduced his reforms. The debased radiate was replaced with a reformed radiate with silvered surface, the aurelianus, that now contained 5% silver and was rolled out to all mints producing coinage within the empire. Significantly, these reformed radiates are marked with
the numerals XXI in Latin or KA in Greek, guaranteeing their fineness at 5% silver. Coins from the Ticinum mint are typically marked just with XX, while at Siscia they often carry punctuation: XX•I. This indicates the XXI or KA means “20 to 1” rather than 21, either one part silver to twenty bronze or 20 aureliani to one pure silver argenteus, thus 5%.
[4]https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Aurelian/3*.html#note142 142 This revolt is described also in Aur. Victor, Caes. 35.6; Epit. 35.2, and Eutropius, IX.14. According to these authors, the mint-workers, who, with the connivance of Felicissimus, had adulterated the metal appropriated for the coinage, fearing punishment, broke out into open war. It would appear that they had been keeping a part of the silver that was to have been used for the billon (i.e., adulterated) coins. Though the number of soldiers said to have fallen is, of course, greatly exaggerated, a battle seems to have been fought on the Caelian Hill, near the mint, which was on the Via Labicana. The date is uncertain; it may have been on the occasion of the German invasion of 270‑271 (see c. xxi.5) or in 274, just prior to the reform of the currency (see note to c. xxxv.3).
[5]http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/victor.caes.html#35.6 Neque secus intra urbem monetae opifices deleti, qui, cum auctore Felicissimo rationali nummariam notam corrosissent, poenae metu bellum fecerant usque eo grave, uti per Coelium montem congressi septem fere bellatorum milia confecerint.
[6]http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/victor.caes2.html#35.4 Hoc tempore in urbe Roma monetarii rebellarunt, quos Aurelianus victos ultima crudelitate compescuit.
[7]http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/eutropius/eutropius9.shtml#14 Hoc imperante etiam in urbe 8onetarii rebellaverunt vitiatis pecuniis et Felicissimo rationali interfecto. Quos Aurelianus victos ultima crudelitate conpescuit. Plurimos nobiles capite damnavit. Saevus et sanguinarius ac necessarius magis in quibusdam quam in ullo amabilis imperator. Trux omni tempore, etiam filii sororis interfector, disciplinae tamen militaris et morum dissolutorum magna ex parte corrector.
[8]https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Aurelian/3*.html 38.2-3 There was also during the rule of Aurelian a revolt among the mint-workers, under the leadership of p271 Felicissimus, the supervisor of the privy-purse.142 This revolt he crushed with the utmost vigour and harshness, but still seven thousand of his soldiers were slain, as is shown by a letter addressed to Ulpius Crinitus,143 thrice consul, by whom he had formerly been adopted:
3 "From Aurelian Augustus to Ulpius his father. Just as though it were ordained for me by Fate that all the wars that I wage and all commotions only become more difficult, so also a revolt within the city has stirred up for me a most grievous struggle. For under the leadership of Felicissimus, the lowest of all my slaves, to whom I had committed the care of the privy-purse, the mint-workers have shown the spirit of rebellion. 4 They have indeed been crushed, but with the loss of seven thousand men, boatmen,144 bank-troops, camp-troops145 and Dacians. Hence it is clear that the immortal gods have granted me no victory without some hardship."
