Séminaire AUSONIUS du jeudi 17 octobre 2019 : Rome’s earliest bankers

Par Philip KAY, Supernumerary Fellow, Wolfson College - University of Oxford (Angleterre)

Salle Pierre Paris (ACH037) - Maison de l'archéologie - Université Bordeaux Montaigne

Rome’s earliest bankers
Various ancient authors point to the presence of bankers (argentarii) in Rome in 310 BC and during the third century BC. But is it correct that banks were operating there this early? This is not just an antiquarian question. The presence or absence of professional deposit bankers in Rome would have had considerable relevance to the development of the Roman economy. The very recent discovery of a new inscription both clarifies and complicates the issue