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The Conversation
The Conversation
Peter Edwell, Associate Professor in Ancient History, Macquarie University

Skyrocketing prices are an age-old problem. Here’s how Roman emperors battled runaway inflation

Inflation Diocletian Constantine silver the Roman Empire
Tsvetelina Dyankova/Shutterstock

Therefore, who would not know that effrontery hijacks the public interest? […] It ratchets up the prices of things for sale, not fourfold or eightfold but so much that the human tongue’s reckoning cannot untangle what to call the accounting and the deed!

The language is different but this edict on maximum prices, issued in 301 CE by Roman emperor Diocletian, reflects a feeling familiar to many: why is everything so expensive lately?

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