How Rome Inflated Its Empire to Death: The Coin Evidence

Описание: What if coins could tell us exactly how an empire destroyed itself?

In this video, we trace 250 years of Roman currency debasement through the physical evidence—actual coins that show silver content dropping from 90% to under 5%. This isn't speculation. It's metallurgy meeting history.

We'll examine how emperors from Nero to Diocletian systematically debased the denarius to fund military expansion and buy political loyalty, creating what historians now recognize as the ancient world's first recorded hyperinflation. When Diocletian tried to fix it with price controls in 301 CE, he left us stone inscriptions across the empire documenting just how desperate things had become.

The parallels to modern monetary policy aren't coincidental—they're structural.

📚 Sources & Further Reading:
• Kenneth Harl, Coinage in the Roman Economy (Johns Hopkins, 1996)
• Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices (301 CE)
• Cassius Dio & Herodian (contemporary accounts)
• Numismatic metallurgical analysis spanning 300 years

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#RomanEmpire #AncientRome #EconomicHistory #Inflation #RomanHistory #HistoryDocumentary