M. Moreau de Jonnes on the Domestic Economy^ ^c. 267 



books, &c. strenuously condemn the practice of going into the 

 stove, from motives of mere curiosity. 



A 



Rome, 2^th December 1826. 



Art. XI. — On the Domestic E.conomi/ of the Romans in 

 the Fourth Century. * By M. Moreau de Jo;n>jes, Mem- 

 ber of the Institute. 



As the historians of antiquity have chiefly transmitted to us 

 the mihtary history of the Romans, the greatest erudition 

 will scarcely enable us to collect any certain information re- 

 specting the civil life and the domestic economy of that cele- 

 brated people, to whom we owe the origin of our institutions, 

 of our laws, and of our social order. A recent discovery has 

 added to our information the most extensive series of statistic 

 cal data, which make known from an official act, and by nu- 

 merical figures, the state of the Roman empire 1500 years 

 ago ; the price of agricultural and ordinary labour ; the rela^ 

 tive value of money ; the abundance or scarcity of certain 

 natural productions ; the use, more or less common, of parti- 

 cular sorts of food ; the multiplication of cattle and of flocks ; 

 the progress of horticulture ; the abundance of vineyards of 

 various qualities ; the common use of singular meats, dishes, 

 which we think betrays a corruption of taste ; in short the 

 relation of the value existing between the productions of agri- 

 culture and those of industry, from whence we obtain a proof 

 of the degree of prosperity which both had reached at this re- 

 mote period. 



This precious archaeological monument is an edict of Dio- 

 cletian, published in the year 303 of our era, and fixing the 

 price of labour and of food in the Roman empire. The first 

 part of this edict was found by Mr William Banks, written 

 upon a table of stone, which he discovered at Stratonice, now 



• The very interesting Memoir, of which this notice is an abstract, was 

 read to the Academy of Sciences on the 2d April 1827. It is entitled, 

 Aperqus Slatistiques sur la vie civile et Veconomie Doviestique des Ro* 

 mains dans le 4w<? siecle. — See Lf* Globe, Avril 7, 1827. 



