Head of Winter - Bignor Roman Villa
The only surviving head from a pavement that depicted the Four Seasons. The figure wears the British hooded cloak mentioned in the Emperor Diocletian's Edict of Prices in A.D. 301.
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The Edict on Maximum Prices (Latin: Ēdictum Dē Pretiīs Rērum Vēnālium, "Edict Concerning the Sale Price of Goods"; also known as the Edict on Prices or the Edict of Diocletian) was issued in 301 by Roman Emperor Diocletian.
The Edict was probably issued from Antioch or Alexandria and was set up in inscriptions in Greek and Latin. It now exists only in fragments found mainly in the eastern part of the empire, where Diocletian ruled. However, the reconstructed fragments have been sufficient to estimate many prices for goods and services for historical economists (although, it should be stressed, the Edict attempts to fix maximum prices, not fixed ones).
The Edict on Maximum Prices is still the longest surviving piece of legislation from the period of the Tetrarchy. The Edict was criticized by Lactantius, a rhetorician from Nicomedia, 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 for all practical purposes ignored. The Roman economy as a whole was not substantively stabilized until Constantine's coinage reforms in the 310s.
During the Crisis of the Third Century, Roman coinage had been greatly debased by the numerous emperors and usurpers who minted their own coins, using base metals to reduce the underlying metallic value of coins used 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 or have been lost in the historical record. The Roman Empire was awash with other coins from outside of the Empire – especially in the Mediterranean. The implied coinage changeover time was at least a decade.
Although the decree was nominally successful for a short time after it was imposed, market forces led to more and more of the decree being disregarded and reinterpreted over time.
The full mechanics of the decree have been lost. No full decree has been found, as it exists only in fragments. However, enough of the decree's text is known for the following to be understood to be true.
All coins in the Decrees and the Edict were valued according to the denarius, which Diocletian hoped to replace with a new system based on the silver argenteus and its fractions (although some modern writers call this the "denarius communist", this phrase is a modern invention, and is not found in any ancient text). The argenteus seems to have been set at 100 denarii, the silver-washed nummus 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 aureus, was revalued at at least 1,200 denarii (although one document calls it a "solidus" it was still heavier than the solidus introduced by Constantine a few years later).
During the previous decades the decreasing amount of silver in the billon coins had fuelled inflation. This inflation is understood to be the reason the decree was issued. Issues of economic system feedback were not well understood at the time.
The first two-thirds of the Edict doubled the value of the copper and billon coins, and set the death penalty for profiteers and speculators, who were blamed for the inflation and who were compared to the barbarian 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 ceiling – a list of maxima – for well 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 silk, which was set at 150,000 denarii (the price of a lion was set at the same price).
Outcome
The Edict did not solve all of the problems in the economy. 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. It is safe to assume that a gray market economy evolved out of the edict at least between 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 (Wikipedia).
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Bignor Roman Villa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Location Bignor, England
grid reference SU988147
Country United Kingdom
Coordinates 50.92325°N 0.59475°WCoordinates: 50.92325°N 0.59475°W
Construction started c. 200 AD
Demolished c. 400 AD
Medusa mosaic
Bignor Roman Villa is a large Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display on the Bignor estate in the English county of West Sussex. It is well known for its high quality mosaic floors, which are some of the most complete and intricate in the country.
Location
The villa is situated just north of the South Downs close to Stane Street, about 9 miles north-east of Chichester (the Roman city of Noviomagus Reginorum) and the nearby and much larger Fishbourne Roman Palace. It is on the south-facing slope of a ridge of greensand which provided better conditions for agriculture than the nearby chalk; this fact and its proximity to Roman Chichester meant that the owners were able to become wealthy from farming.
History and structure
The existence of a Romano-British farmstead on the site by the end of the 1st century is indicated by finds, but the earliest structural remains are of a simple timber farm structure dating to around 200. A four-roomed stone building was built in the middle of the 3rd century, and this was extended before 400 by the addition of a few new rooms, a hypocaust, and a portico that faced east towards Stane Street.
This building became the western wing when north and south wings and later an east wing were added. In its final form, the villa consisted of some sixty-five rooms surrounding a courtyard, with a number of outlying farm buildings. The latest phase of building involved additions to the north wing, and it is here that most of the fine mosaics are located.
The later history of the villa is not well known, but it appears to have gradually declined in status, rather than suffering a catastrophic fate, such as the fire that destroyed most of Fishbourne Palace.
Discovery and excavations
George Tupper, a farmer, discovered the villa in 1811 when his plough hit a large stone. It was almost entirely excavated by John Hawkins who lived at nearby Bignor Park, and the antiquary, Samuel Lysons. Opened to the public in 1814, it rapidly became a tourist attraction, with nearly a thousand entries in the visitors' book in the first nine months.
By 1815 the remains of a substantial villa had been uncovered and protective buildings had been erected over several of the mosaics. In 1818 Samuel Lysons read his third and final paper on the villa to the Society of Antiquaries. He had already published a series of engravings of the villa with the help of Richard Smirke and Charles Stothard. These engravings together with his three papers and his and his brother's correspondence with Hawkins form the only record of the original excavations. Excavations ceased in 1819 after Samuel Lysons' death.
No further work was undertaken on the site until 1925 when S. E. Winbolt did some minor work. Between 1956 and 1962 Sheppard Frere re-excavated parts of the villa in the first attempt to determine its chronology. Since then Thomas Tupper, the direct descendent of the discoverer, whose family still owns the site, has undertaken further excavations: with Margaret Rule in the 1970s, and David Rudling in the 1980s.
Mosaics
The rooms on display today are mostly located at the west end of the north wing, including a summer and winter (underfloor heated) dining room. The bathhouse is to the south-east. The rooms contain some of the best Roman mosaics to be found in Great Britain, both in terms of preservation, artistic merit and detailing. The Greek-key-patterned northern corridor extends for some 79 ft (24m) making it the longest in Britain (Wikipedia).
Head of Winter - Bignor Roman Villa
The only surviving head from a pavement that depicted the Four Seasons. The figure wears the British hooded cloak mentioned in the Emperor Diocletian's Edict of Prices in A.D. 301.
---
The Edict on Maximum Prices (Latin: Ēdictum Dē Pretiīs Rērum Vēnālium, "Edict Concerning the Sale Price of Goods"; also known as the Edict on Prices or the Edict of Diocletian) was issued in 301 by Roman Emperor Diocletian.
The Edict was probably issued from Antioch or Alexandria and was set up in inscriptions in Greek and Latin. It now exists only in fragments found mainly in the eastern part of the empire, where Diocletian ruled. However, the reconstructed fragments have been sufficient to estimate many prices for goods and services for historical economists (although, it should be stressed, the Edict attempts to fix maximum prices, not fixed ones).
The Edict on Maximum Prices is still the longest surviving piece of legislation from the period of the Tetrarchy. The Edict was criticized by Lactantius, a rhetorician from Nicomedia, 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 for all practical purposes ignored. The Roman economy as a whole was not substantively stabilized until Constantine's coinage reforms in the 310s.
During the Crisis of the Third Century, Roman coinage had been greatly debased by the numerous emperors and usurpers who minted their own coins, using base metals to reduce the underlying metallic value of coins used 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 or have been lost in the historical record. The Roman Empire was awash with other coins from outside of the Empire – especially in the Mediterranean. The implied coinage changeover time was at least a decade.
Although the decree was nominally successful for a short time after it was imposed, market forces led to more and more of the decree being disregarded and reinterpreted over time.
The full mechanics of the decree have been lost. No full decree has been found, as it exists only in fragments. However, enough of the decree's text is known for the following to be understood to be true.
All coins in the Decrees and the Edict were valued according to the denarius, which Diocletian hoped to replace with a new system based on the silver argenteus and its fractions (although some modern writers call this the "denarius communist", this phrase is a modern invention, and is not found in any ancient text). The argenteus seems to have been set at 100 denarii, the silver-washed nummus 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 aureus, was revalued at at least 1,200 denarii (although one document calls it a "solidus" it was still heavier than the solidus introduced by Constantine a few years later).
During the previous decades the decreasing amount of silver in the billon coins had fuelled inflation. This inflation is understood to be the reason the decree was issued. Issues of economic system feedback were not well understood at the time.
The first two-thirds of the Edict doubled the value of the copper and billon coins, and set the death penalty for profiteers and speculators, who were blamed for the inflation and who were compared to the barbarian 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 ceiling – a list of maxima – for well 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 silk, which was set at 150,000 denarii (the price of a lion was set at the same price).
Outcome
The Edict did not solve all of the problems in the economy. 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. It is safe to assume that a gray market economy evolved out of the edict at least between 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 (Wikipedia).
---
Bignor Roman Villa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Location Bignor, England
grid reference SU988147
Country United Kingdom
Coordinates 50.92325°N 0.59475°WCoordinates: 50.92325°N 0.59475°W
Construction started c. 200 AD
Demolished c. 400 AD
Medusa mosaic
Bignor Roman Villa is a large Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display on the Bignor estate in the English county of West Sussex. It is well known for its high quality mosaic floors, which are some of the most complete and intricate in the country.
Location
The villa is situated just north of the South Downs close to Stane Street, about 9 miles north-east of Chichester (the Roman city of Noviomagus Reginorum) and the nearby and much larger Fishbourne Roman Palace. It is on the south-facing slope of a ridge of greensand which provided better conditions for agriculture than the nearby chalk; this fact and its proximity to Roman Chichester meant that the owners were able to become wealthy from farming.
History and structure
The existence of a Romano-British farmstead on the site by the end of the 1st century is indicated by finds, but the earliest structural remains are of a simple timber farm structure dating to around 200. A four-roomed stone building was built in the middle of the 3rd century, and this was extended before 400 by the addition of a few new rooms, a hypocaust, and a portico that faced east towards Stane Street.
This building became the western wing when north and south wings and later an east wing were added. In its final form, the villa consisted of some sixty-five rooms surrounding a courtyard, with a number of outlying farm buildings. The latest phase of building involved additions to the north wing, and it is here that most of the fine mosaics are located.
The later history of the villa is not well known, but it appears to have gradually declined in status, rather than suffering a catastrophic fate, such as the fire that destroyed most of Fishbourne Palace.
Discovery and excavations
George Tupper, a farmer, discovered the villa in 1811 when his plough hit a large stone. It was almost entirely excavated by John Hawkins who lived at nearby Bignor Park, and the antiquary, Samuel Lysons. Opened to the public in 1814, it rapidly became a tourist attraction, with nearly a thousand entries in the visitors' book in the first nine months.
By 1815 the remains of a substantial villa had been uncovered and protective buildings had been erected over several of the mosaics. In 1818 Samuel Lysons read his third and final paper on the villa to the Society of Antiquaries. He had already published a series of engravings of the villa with the help of Richard Smirke and Charles Stothard. These engravings together with his three papers and his and his brother's correspondence with Hawkins form the only record of the original excavations. Excavations ceased in 1819 after Samuel Lysons' death.
No further work was undertaken on the site until 1925 when S. E. Winbolt did some minor work. Between 1956 and 1962 Sheppard Frere re-excavated parts of the villa in the first attempt to determine its chronology. Since then Thomas Tupper, the direct descendent of the discoverer, whose family still owns the site, has undertaken further excavations: with Margaret Rule in the 1970s, and David Rudling in the 1980s.
Mosaics
The rooms on display today are mostly located at the west end of the north wing, including a summer and winter (underfloor heated) dining room. The bathhouse is to the south-east. The rooms contain some of the best Roman mosaics to be found in Great Britain, both in terms of preservation, artistic merit and detailing. The Greek-key-patterned northern corridor extends for some 79 ft (24m) making it the longest in Britain (Wikipedia).