The imperial edict of Diocletian is composed of more than twenty-four articles.  It is quite distinct from that delivered the preceding year for taxing the price of corn in the eastern provinces, and it contained no law upon the value of corn.  It fixed for all the articles which it enumerated a maximum, which was the price in times of scarcity.  For all the established prices it makes use of the Roman Denarii; and it applies them to the sextarius for liquids, and to the Roman pound for the things sold by weight.

Before the Augustan age, the denarius was equal to eighteen sous of our money; but it diminished gradually in value, and under Diocletian its value was not above nine sous of French money, and 45 centimes.  The Roman pound was equivalent to 12 ounces, and the sextarius which was the sixth part of a conge, came near to the old Paris chopin, or half a litre.

Proceeding on these data, M. Moreau de Jonnes has formed a table, showing, 1. the maximum in Roman measures, the same as the established imperial edict; and 2. the mean price of objects formed from half the maximum, and reduced into French measures.

The following is the table drawn up by M. Moreau de Jonnes.  The slightest inspection of it will enable us to appreciate the importance of this archaeological discovery, for no monument of antiquity has furnished so long a series of numerical terms, of statistical data, and positive testimony of the civil life and domestic economy of the Greeks and Romans:—­

I.—­PRICE OF LABOUR.

Maximum       Mean Price
in Roman      in English
Money.         Money.

L. s. d. 
To a day labourer                             25 Den.     0  4  8
Do. for interior works                        50          0  9  4
To a mason                                    50          0  9  4
To a maker of mortar                          50          0  9  4
To a marble-cutler, or maker of mosaic work   60          0 11  4
To a tailor for making clothes                50          0  9  4
Do. for sewing only                            6          0  1  1-1/2
For making shoes for the patricians          150          1  8  1
Do. shoes for workmen                        120          1  2  8
for the military                             100          0 18  8
for the senators                             100          0 18  8
for the women                                 60          0 11  4
Military sandals                              75          0 14  0-1/2
To a barber for each man                       2          0  0  4-1/2
To a veterinary surgeon for shearing the
animals and trimming their feet              6          0  1  1-1/2
Do. for currycombing and  cleaning them       20          0  9  9
For one month’s lessons in architecture      100          0 18  8
To an advocate for a petition
to the tribunal                            250          2  6  9
For the hearing a cause                     1000          9  7  6

II.—­PRICE OF WINES.