5 ms·
History is a fascinating topic. It's a bit hard to make sense of this without seeing it converted into current units ($/lb or something).
by sam_in_nyc 18y ago
History is a fascinating topic.
It's a bit hard to make sense of this without seeing it converted into current units ($/lb or something).
- pg 18y agoThe best you can do is probably go by wages, which are also included.
- tptacek 18y agoIsn't it a bit hard to do that without a detailed, possibly subjective study of what the scarcities were in Rome? The dollar isn't anchored to the value of ten asses anymore, and salt is basically free.
- ardit33 18y agoHere are the very basic: Pork 1 Italian pound 12 Assuming a person eats 1/2 of meat a day, plus bread and other stuff, you could deduct that it would take about 8-10 Denarii per day for a person to feed themseleves. The lowes wage, is for unskilled famer: Farm laborer, with maintenance (daily) 25 So about 33% of the income is spend on food, nevermind basic necessities. But when you compare to today's countries in development, it fares pretty well. http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11693372&fsrc=RSS http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm... Now if you are a wall painter, things get better: Wall painter, as above (daily) 75 You are spending only a small fraction of your income in basic food. from that limited data, it seems that life wasn't bad at all during those times.
- jacquesm 18y agoI think the 'with maintenance' means 'room & board'.