3rd century AD

Inflation crisis in Rome

The State of Rome had sig­ni­ficant fin­ancial oblig­a­tions: free dis­tri­bution of grain to the pop­u­lation, payment of legion­aries, etc. However, only conquered pop­u­la­tions were subject to tax. In the 1st and 2nd cen­turies AD, the State was able to keep its fin­ances bal­anced thanks to the spoils of war. But from the 3rd century onwards, the sources of fresh money began to dry up (end of the expansion of the Empire and the wars of secession in His­pania, Gaul and the Middle East).

Rather than making unpopular budget cuts, the emperors decided to reduce the amount of silver in the denarus (by the start of the 3rd century AD, the silver purity of the coins had been cut to 50% from over 90% a hundred years earlier). This devalu­ation of the coinage accel­erated after the issuance of the ant­oninianus by Cara­calla in AD 215; the coin was worth two denari but only weighed one and a half, and its silver purity con­tinued to decline rapidly, first to 48% in AD 238 and then to just 4% in AD 276. This devalu­ation caused prices to soar: the price of grain, for example, was mul­ti­plied by 16 between AD 218 and AD 293.