CHAP. VI. RISE OF PRICES IN ROME. 165 



were somewhat higher than in the time of Au- 

 gustus, namely, three pounds three shillings and 

 sixpence the quarter. 



The price of bread in Rome when Pliny lived 

 seems to have been nearly the same or a little 

 lower than it usually is in our day in London. 

 The Romans made bread of very different qua- 

 lities and prices. Pliny enumerates four de- 

 scriptions of them, viz. Ostrearii, or loaves baked 

 with oysters ; Artolagani, which correspond 

 with our cakes, or rather rolls ; Speustici, from 

 the quick mode of the preparation ; and Arto- 

 pticii, or those baked in ovens, so called from 

 the kind of furnace in which they were prepared. 

 This last must have been of nearly the same qua- 

 lity as our middle sort of wheaten bread, and 

 was sold, according to the calculation of Arbuth- 

 not, at the rate of three shillings and two-pence 

 the peck loaf. 



The prices of cattle kept pace in their increase 

 with those of corn. At an early period of the 

 history of Rome, in the time of Epicharmis, about 

 four hundred years before our era, the price of a 

 calf was one shilling and seven-pence, of a sheep 

 seven-pence three farthings, and of an ox as 

 much as ten sheep. This is inferred from the 

 fines inflicted for offences, which were originally 

 paid in cattle ; having been commuted for money 

 at the value which cattle bore when the penal- 

 ties were enacted. The prices at a later period 



