The many changes in currency during the third century C.E. fueled rampant inflation. People wanted to use up the coins they had before they lost their value. The emperor Diocletian (ruled 285—305) published an edict in 301 C.E. that initiated reforms that would eventually stabilize the currency, but prices continued to soar in the meantime. To combat skyrocketing inflation, Diocletian soon published a Price Edict, copies of which have survived. It lists strict price controls for a variety of items and stiff punishments for selling anything for prices in excess of those given. In the end, the Edict itself failed, for sellers preferred not to sell items rather than sell them at the prices demanded by the Edict, and eventually the order was simply ignored. Still, it provides a fascinating glimpse of the relative prices of different...