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The Byrrus Britannicus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

John Peter Wild
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Extract

In an attempt to halt the serious inflation in the later Roman Empire, Diocletian (n. 1) in A.D. 301 issued, in the form of an edict, a tariff-list of maximum permitted prices for consumer goods and of minimum wages for certain classes of labourer. He addressed it to the provincials of the whole empire (n. 2) (orbi universo) and appealed for their wholehearted co-operation in carrying it out. For us, it is a mine of vital information about the economic and social conditions of the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. Among the woollen textiles listed in chapter XIX appears the byrrus Britannicus (n. 3) which is of some local interest for Roman Britain. It is with this that we shall concern ourselves in the following discussion.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 37 , Issue 147 , September 1963 , pp. 193 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1963

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References

(1) Th. Mommsen-H. Blümner, Der Maximaltarif des Diokletian, Berlin, 1893; ‘The Edict of Diocletian’, ed. et trans. E. R. Graser, in T. Frank, Economic Survey of the Roman Empire, v, 1940, 305 ff. Recently discovered fragments:—R. G. Goodchild and G. Caputo; ‘Diocletian’s Price Edict at Ptolemais (Cyrenaica), Journal of Roman Studies (J.R.S.), XLV, 1955, 106 ff.; J. Bingen, ‘Notes sur l’Édit du Maximum’, Bulletin de correspondance Hellénique (B.C.H.), LXXVII, 1954, 349.

(2) Preamble to Edict.

(3) Graser, op. cit., and Mommsen-Bliimner, cap. XIX, 36.

(4) H. C. Youtie and J. G. Winter, ‘Papyri and Ostraca from Karanis’, Michigan Papyri, VIII, 1951, no. 467, 18 ff.

(5) Claudian, Carmina Min. x, ed. Platnaver (Loeb).

(6) Griechische Papyri im Museum des oberhessischen Geschichtsverein zu Giessen. Bd. I Heft 1-3. Ed. Kornemann und Eger (P. Giessen), 76, 4; Aegyptische Urkunden aus den königlichen Museen zu Berlin. Griechische Urkunden, III, 1903 (BGU), no. 845, 10; Papyri Iandae, ed. E. Schaeffer, Leipzig, 1912 (P.Jandae), 9, 31; Murri, Aegyptus, XXIII, 1943, 115.

(7) BGU, no. 814, 3rd century A.D.

(8) The Excavations at Dura-Europos; Preliminary Report of Fourth Season of Work, Oct., 1930-March, 1931 (1933). Ed. P. V. C. Baur, M. I. Rostovtzeff, A. R. Bellinger, 153, no. 300, 15 (Household list), (before A.D. 256).

(9) Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, 11, 3.

(10) Scriptores Historiae Augustae, (SHA), Cari-nus 20; Graser, op. cit., XIX, 26.

(11) Sulpicius Severus, Dial., 1, 21, 4.

(12) Claudian, Carmina Min., x. According to the Codex Theodosianus (VII, 6, 4, A.D. 396) a good soldier’s chlamys could be expected to cost one solidus. Comparing the price of a first quality soldier’s chlamys in the Edict (cap. XIX la, 4000 denarii) with this, the most expensive woollen byrrus. would have cost perhaps four solidi in Claudian’s days.

(13) Schol. ad juv., VIII, 145.

(14) Codex Theodosianus, XIV, 10, 1.

(15) Gloss., III, 488, 29; ibid., V, 271, 52.

(16) L. M. Wilson, The Clothing of the Ancient Romans, 1938, 87 ff.

(17) Pliny, Naturalis Historia (NH), XXIV, 88.

(18) C. Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Trajanssäule, 1896. Taf. XXV, Taf. LXII.

(19) SHA, Alexander Severus, 27 (A.D. 221-235).

(20) Martial, Epig., XIV, 130.

(21) SHA, Alex. Sev., 27.

(22) Juvenal, III, 171.

(23) SHA, Carinus, 20.

(24) Graser, op. cit., cap XIX, 26-27, 32-42.

(25) Ibid., 51-52.

(26) F. Gerke, Die christlichen Sarkophagen der vorkonstantinischen Zeit, Taf. 5, 2, 38; 1, 41, 2.

(27) Quintilian, Instit., XI, 138; SHA, Caracalla, 9,8.

(28) Augustine, Civ. Dei, XXII, 8.

(29) Isidore, Origines, XIX, 24, 17.

(30) A. Souter, Glossary of later Latin to 600 A.D., 1949, s.v. Casubula.

(31) Augustine, Sermones, 356, 13.

(32) Graser, op. cit., cap. XIX, 42.

(33) Polybius, XII, 3, 3-4.

(34) Graser, op. cit., cap. XIX, 39.

(35) Ruricius, Epist., II, 21, 406, 3.

(36) Conveniently in Grabar-Skira, Byzantine Painting, 1953, 62 and 72, and Atlas of the Early Christian World, London, 1958, pl. 455.

(37) J. Beckwith, The Andrews Diptych, 1958. Photograph kindly supplied by the Victoria and Albert Museum.

(38) Atlas of the Early Christian World, 1958, pl. 575. Reproduced by courtesy of Nelson and Sons.

(39) As noted by A. J. B. Wace, A Cretan statuette in the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1927, 29.

(40) A. Walde, Lateinisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (3rd ed. revised, 1938, s.v. fappos). H. Frisk, Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, (1960, s.v.).

(41) Strabo, IV, 4, 3, cap. 197.

(42) Martial, Epig., XIV, 128.

(43) Graser, op. cit., cap. XIX, 43-46; cf. Mommsen-Blümner ad loc.

(44) Graser, op. cit., cap. XIX, 32, reading of frag. Carystus I.

(45) Ibid., 27.

(46) Ibid., 32 with frag. Ptolemais M (cf. n. 1).

(47) Pliny, N.H., VIII, 191; Martial, Epig., IX, 22, 9.

(48) Article in Pauly-Wissowa, VII, i, 878.

(49) Persius, VI, 46.

(50) Conveniently in H. Schoppa, Die Kunst der Römerzeit in Gallien, Germanien und Britannien, 1957, Taf. 13.

(51) Pauly-Wissowa, VII, i, 878, line 53.

(52) R. Pfister, ‘Les débuts du vêtement copte’. Mélanges Lenossier, Paris, 1933.

(53) Graser, op. cit., cap. XIX, 38; cf. Mommsen- Bliimner ad loc. A cape with clavi in a similar position is worn by a recently published Genius Cucullatus from Corbridge (Archaeologia Aeliana (fourth series), XI, 1962, 280, pl. XXVIII).

(54) Graser, op. cit., cap. VII, 42.

(55) Notitia Dignitatum, Occidentis, XI, 60, Venta.

(56) C. E. Stevens, Arch, J., XCVII, 1940, 125 ff.

(57) Cod. Th., IIII, 6, 3. 21 July, A.D. 336, from Carthage.

(58) F. Haverfield, Victoria County History (VCH), Hampshire, 1, 292.

(59) Notitia Dignitatum, Occidentis, XI, 46, 59.

(60) A. W. Persson, Staat und Manufaktur im römischen Reiche, 1923, 76.

(61) C. F. C. Hawkes, Arch. J., CIV, 1947, 27 ff., 71. R. G. Collingwood and J. N. L. Myres, Roman Britain and the English Settlements (2nd ed.), 1937, 225, 239, n. 1.

(62) Persson, op. cit., 68.

(63) Strabo, III, 2, 6, cap. 144.

(64) C. Müllier, Geographi Minores, 1882, 11, 526. Descriptio Tot. Orb. A. 59.

(65) Cod. Th., x, 21, 3. A.D. 424.

(66) Ibid., v, 17; x, 20, 8.

(67) M. I. Rostovtzeff, Studien zur Geschichte des römischen Kolonates, Beiheft zum Archiv fur Papyrusforschung, I, 1910, 339.

(68) H. Dragendorff-E. Krüger, Das Grabmal von Igel, 1924, Abb. 43-48.

(69) Cod. Th., VII, 6, 2.

(70) Ibid., X, 21, 3.