I initially saw that number on a Facebook post and when I checked the source [1] it also mentioned the 15 billion figure so I went with it. Looking at it closely, the author did some “creative” math to get that number
His total take home amounted to five times the earnings of the highest paid provincial governors over a similar period—enough to provide grain for the entire city of Rome for one year, or to pay all the ordinary soldiers of the Roman Army at the height of its imperial reach for a fifth of a year. By today’s standards that last figure, assuming the apt comparison is what it takes to pay the wages of the American armed forces for the same period, would cash out to about $15 billion
Good catch, I should read the sources better and don’t trust the Facebook (especially the Facebook)
You have to do some extraordinary mental gymnastics to expect paying for all soldiers in the roman empire is comparable to paying for all soldiers in the US.
I initially saw that number on a Facebook post and when I checked the source [1] it also mentioned the 15 billion figure so I went with it. Looking at it closely, the author did some “creative” math to get that number
Good catch, I should read the sources better and don’t trust the Facebook (especially the Facebook)
You have to do some extraordinary mental gymnastics to expect paying for all soldiers in the roman empire is comparable to paying for all soldiers in the US.
Yeah that is an absolutely ridiculous bridge of assumptions and comparisons to walk across