#798: The Roman Playbook for Destroying a Currency with Jeremy Ryan Slate

The Roman denarius was once 95% pure silver. By the 270s AD, it had lost 90% of its silver content. On a chart tracking the currency's value, the line drops off a cliff and then goes flat. The question Jeremy Ryan Slate and his host explore is why that happens—and what it means for a world where central banks are "tripping over themselves to devalue their currency."

The conversation is a calm, historically grounded walk through Roman monetary debasement, its causes, its social effects, and the reforms that briefly fixed it. It is not a screed. It is a diagnosis, built on specific emperors, specific coins, and specific mechanisms that echo into the present.

Why the Denarius Collapsed

Coinage in Rome existed primarily to pay the military. A coin was not just money; it was a propaganda tool. A weak emperor put strong symbols on the coin to make himself look tough, hoping the soldiers would trust it. The key period of debasement begins in 193 AD, the "year of the five emperors." After Emperor Commodus was strangled by a gladiator (following several botched assassination attempts, including one involving poisoned wine), the Praetorian Guard killed his successor, Pertinax, after just 80 days. They then put the empire up for auction. Didius Julianus won by bidding 25,000 sesterces per guard.