I am copying a previous comment of mine[-2] below. But first let me estimate the cost of food for one day in Diocletian's empire. I do not feel like solving a linear programming problem with ancient food so I substituted Roman ingredients from 301 A.D. for similar Polish ingredients from 2016 A.D.
400 g of rye bread = 400 g of rye flour = 0.95 liters[-1] = 7 d.c.
100 g of wheat flour = 0.2 liters[-1] = 2.5 d.c.
250 g of beans = 0.33 liters[-1] = 4 d.c
100 g of beef = 0.3 librae = 2.5 d.c
100 g of dessert grapes = 0.5 d.c
80 g of olive oil (second quality) = 0.09 liters[-1] = 4 d.c
1/2 litre of Egyptian beer = 4 d.c
Total: 24.5 denarii communes for raw ingredients. Add 20% for condiments and cooking, and get roughly 30 denarii communes for 1 trofa.
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Here goes the previous comment[-2]:
A Polish numismatist, Zbigniew Żabiński, came up with trofa (from Greek trophe 'alimentation'), a universal measure of the value of money. One trofa is defined as an average person's daily ration of food typical for the given place and time. Altogether, it has 3000 kcal: 1800 kcal in 450 g of carbohydrates, 900 kcal in 100 g of fat, and 300 kcal in 75 g of protein.
For instance, in late 1970s' Poland, one trofa consisted of 400 g of rye bread, 100 g of wheat flour, 250 g of potatoes, 100 g of beef, 100 g of sugar, 80 g of butter, and 1/2 litre of milk. Assuming that its content has not changed, you take the cost of the food (8.70 PLN in 2016), add 20% for condiments and preparation, and get 10.50 PLN as the 2016 price of a trofa in Poland.[0]
In Octavian's times, one denarius could buy you 2 trofas (with content appropriate for ancient Mediterranean lands),[0] Judas's 30 pieces of silver were worth 60 trofas,[1] etc.
Unfortunately, Żabiński published in Polish behind the Iron Curtain so the trofa is virtually unknown outside Poland. The Big Mac index is its pale reflection.
And here is an emoji from 1913 [0], accompanied with a footnote: "The author felt the need to enrich the Polish spelling with a new symbol, which he dares name wink. This symbol, whose absence was till now sorely felt, particularly in lyric poetry, should soon become as indispensable as the colon, dash, exclamation mark, etc."
Given the words of the poem, the similarity of the emoji to a female sexual organ is not accidental IMHO.
One quasi-actionable lesson of history the governments can try to remember is: do not sacrifice your strategic goals for a short-term gain, or "avoid hotfixes in production".
Example 1: Septimius Severus raised the legionary's yearly pay from 300 to 400 denarii while decreasing the amount of silver in a denarius by a half. The upset Roman economy would never fully recover.
Example 2: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Ukraine on 9 February 1918. Ukraine obliged to deliver grain to Austria-Hungary to relieve the food shortage. In exchange, Ukraine was given lands that Polish people considered their own. When the news went public, the Poles, hitherto the most loyal nation to the Habsburgs, changed the orientation to anti-Austrian. In due time, their Regency Council declared independence. (And Ukraine never delivered the grain; Austria-Hungary had to be sent 500 truckloads of grain and flour from Germany.)
Oh, and another example from Ukraine, this time in 2020: threatened by the International Monetary Fund with being denied loans in the midst of the pandemic, the Ukrainian parliament allowed the sale of the largest asset they are left with, the agricultural land, to foreign entities [0]. Who thinks this will end well for Ukraine, raise your hand.
Everyone and their dog have a pet theory on the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Let me copy a previous comment of mine.[0]
My dream is a book/blog explaining historic processes with Ishikawa cause-and-effect fishbone diagrams.[1] For history, the main branches of the fishbone could be: Military, Economy, Society, Politics, and Nature. So a tentative diagram explaining the fall of the Western Roman Empire would have:
* Military: weakened army (increasing dependence on mercenaries), fights with the Germanic tribes (in turn, caused by the expansion of the Huns).
* Economy: inflation (debasement of currency), decline in the influx of slaves (end of expansion), lost taxation from some provinces (Germanic invasions), decline in maritime trade (Vandalic pirates), decline of agriculture (excessive taxes), drain of money (trade deficit with the Eastern Empire).
* Society: decline of civic virtue (expansion of Christianity), loss of ties with Rome in the provinces.
* Politics: political instability, overly powerful Praetorian Guard.
* Nature: population decline (Antonine Plague, Plague of Cyprian), soil erosion (deforestation, excessive grazing, soil salinization).
Improving the diagram and making similar diagrams explaining other events and processes is left as an exercise to the reader.
I don't know if this scratches the itch, but there is an attempt to scientifically explain [1] (and maybe predict?) history from fundamental, quantifiable factors like population, economics, etc. This is the field of study known as Cliodynamics. Why these folks even have their own journal [2]!
With an on-topic book review[1] "Complexities of Collapse - A Review of Understanding Collapse: Ancient History and Modern Myths, by Guy D. Middleton (2017)".
> explaining other events and processes is left as an exercise to the reader
Does anyone know of any attempts at a "systems engineering" approach to teaching history?
So instead of a learning objective like "able to discuss the economic and political forces at work in the late Roman Empire", perhaps more like "has a feel for caloric restriction, starvation and famine in human history"? More human history as root causes analysis, than history as Trial Pursuit. And thus freed from the interminable obfuscating worry over just which particular measured mix of pervasive patterns of cause occurred in some trivially particular wherewhen. Fine for historians, but a distraction from introducing humanity as a system. More patterns of migration, than say Syrian migration in end Bronze Age collapse, or Mongols, or early 20th C, or early 21st, or etc. A more veterinary school approach to teaching history, focused on crosscutting patterns, because you've too many diverse critters to do old-style medical school's rote memorization of one critters's trivia. Any thoughts?
In 2000, Claude Monet's Beach in Pourville was stolen from the National Museum in Poznań, Poland. The police suspected a steal-to-order gang.
Six years later, an unemployed bricklayer was fingerprinted for not paying alimony to his ex-wife. His fingerprints matched those left in the museum, and the police found the painting behind a wardrobe in his apartment. He told the court that he fell in love with the painting when visiting the museum and wanted to have it all to himself[0].
Ludomir Benedyktowicz (1844–1926) got his both hands chopped off at the age of 18 while fighting in a Polish uprising against Russia. This did not deter him from becoming a painter. You can see his low-tech prosthesis and a few of his paintings on Wikipedia[0].
Yeah, I got to know Benedyktowicz at the end of a long and winding experience that led me to read on the beginnings of the Krakow Chess Club (he was a founder). Depending on your outlook, it happened either by chance or by destiny.
400 g of rye bread = 400 g of rye flour = 0.95 liters[-1] = 7 d.c.
100 g of wheat flour = 0.2 liters[-1] = 2.5 d.c.
250 g of beans = 0.33 liters[-1] = 4 d.c
100 g of beef = 0.3 librae = 2.5 d.c
100 g of dessert grapes = 0.5 d.c
80 g of olive oil (second quality) = 0.09 liters[-1] = 4 d.c
1/2 litre of Egyptian beer = 4 d.c
Total: 24.5 denarii communes for raw ingredients. Add 20% for condiments and cooking, and get roughly 30 denarii communes for 1 trofa.
-----------------------------------
Here goes the previous comment[-2]:
A Polish numismatist, Zbigniew Żabiński, came up with trofa (from Greek trophe 'alimentation'), a universal measure of the value of money. One trofa is defined as an average person's daily ration of food typical for the given place and time. Altogether, it has 3000 kcal: 1800 kcal in 450 g of carbohydrates, 900 kcal in 100 g of fat, and 300 kcal in 75 g of protein.
For instance, in late 1970s' Poland, one trofa consisted of 400 g of rye bread, 100 g of wheat flour, 250 g of potatoes, 100 g of beef, 100 g of sugar, 80 g of butter, and 1/2 litre of milk. Assuming that its content has not changed, you take the cost of the food (8.70 PLN in 2016), add 20% for condiments and preparation, and get 10.50 PLN as the 2016 price of a trofa in Poland.[0]
In Octavian's times, one denarius could buy you 2 trofas (with content appropriate for ancient Mediterranean lands),[0] Judas's 30 pieces of silver were worth 60 trofas,[1] etc.
Unfortunately, Żabiński published in Polish behind the Iron Curtain so the trofa is virtually unknown outside Poland. The Big Mac index is its pale reflection.
More information in Polish:
[-2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22777042
[-1] https://coolconversion.com/
[0] A table of trofa's price from Octavian's Rome to contemporary Poland: http://blognumizmatyczny.pl/2016/03/14/trofa-miernik-wartosc...
[1] Thirty pieces of silver: https://bazhum.muzhp.pl/media//files/Collectanea_Theologica/...
[2] The purchasing power in medieval Balkans: https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/bitstream/10593/8080/1/11_Zb...
[3] Google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=Żabiński+trofa