Money
"Count in the smallest coin, always. Mixed money hides mistakes."
So Andreas tells a money-changer's clerk on his first morning in Syracuse, and it is good advice anywhere in 599. The Empire's money had three metals and three worlds: gold for the state, the Church and great men; silver for accounts; bronze for bread.
No spoilers beyond the opening chapters of Volume I.
The coins
| Coin | Metal | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| solidus (Greek nomisma) | gold | About 4.5 grams of nearly pure gold, 72 to the Roman pound. The coin the Empire paid its soldiers and took its taxes in, and the one its neighbours trusted most. |
| tremissis | gold | A third of a solidus. |
| siliqua | silver | One twenty-fourth of a solidus. Maurice's silver coins are small and light, and a good deal of silver still changes hands by weight. |
| follis | bronze | The big copper coin of the market, marked M for forty nummi. How many make a solidus depends on the day, the town and the money-changer. |
What things cost in The Smallest Coin
Prices in the book follow what the sources allow, with a novelist's judgement where they are silent.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Passage from Syracuse to Thessalonica for two men and a bag, on a Rhodian merchantman | 3 solidi, half in advance |
| A year's rent of a two-storey house with a courtyard, a fig tree and a cistern, in the upper town of Thessalonica | 12 solidi, in advance, and he may keep a cat |
| A veteran soldier's wage as a porter and guard | 8 siliquae a month |
| A cut blue stone, sold to a goldsmith | 15 solidi |
| Customs at Thessalonica on goods valued at 40 solidi | 5 solidi: an eighth |
| The state's cut on a sale of silver | a twenty-fourth |
Twelve solidi is two hundred and eighty-eight siliquae. Somebody in the book will tell you so.
Weights
Gold and silver were weighed as often as they were counted. The Roman pound (libra) was about 327 grams, divided into twelve ounces. Every money-changer, goldsmith and church steward kept a balance, and used it in front of you.