Another tablet, the earliest legal document and the earliest carrying a date from Roman Britain, was written on 8 January AD57, when Tibullus wrote promising to repay Gratus – both men described as freed slaves – 105 denarii, half a year's pay for a Roman legionary, for goods delivered.
The test objects for this study were two silver denarii (Coins A and B) portraying Empress Favstina I, wife of Antoninus Pius, believed to be posthumous deification issues of 141 AD.
Then there's a nice numeral, very good, a hundred and five 'I owe him a hundred and five denarii.' " Tomlin's task requires a cast-iron knowledge of Latin, a firm grasp of Roman history and culture, and a crossword solver's ability to hold several possible solutions in mind simultaneously.
The Emperor Nero was short of a few denarii to pay his soldiers so he created some more by debasing the currency.
Pertinax therefore raised money as best he could from the statues, the arms, the horses, the furniture, and the favourites of Commodus, and gave to the Pretorians all that he had promised and to the populace a hundred denarii per man.
Several Roman finds including gold coins of Augustus, Nero, and Drusus, two silver denarii of Vespasian and a Roman carnelian ring were found at the site during quarrying.
Augustus (27 bc ad 14) based the coinage on the aureus of 1/42 of a pound of gold, equivalent to 25 denarii, each of 1/84 of a pound of silver, the metals being struck almost pure.
In Judea, a pair of silver denarii were found in the eye sockets of a skull; the burial dated to the 2nd century A.D. occurs within a Jewish community, but the religious affiliation of the deceased is unclear.
Some of the 36 denarii were discovered by Eric Soane using a metal detector during a clean up of discarded tent pegs after last year's Belladrum.
