{"podcast":{"title":"The Pax Romana Podcast","slug":"the-pax-romana-podcast-6582386","podcast_index_feed_id":6582386,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/e76256a0/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://paxromanapodcast.com","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/38719816/38719816-1729179050701-aec544dacce82.jpg","author":"Professor Colin Elliott","episode_count":115,"summary":"The assassination of Julius Caesar 2,000 years ago unleashed a wild era of Roman emperors, dark conspiracies, intense battles, economic booms and busts and profound religious shifts. Was this truly the Roman Empire's golden age? On the weekly Pax Romana Podcast, Historian Colin Elliott brings gripping stories from Roman history to life. Dive into history starting in episode 1 , or pick your poison from our catalogue: the birth of the empire in the Age of Augustus, Nero's Great Fire, the rise of Christianity, the wisdom and wars of Marcus Aurelius or the military chaos of the third century AD.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-pax-romana-podcast-6582386"},"episode":{"title":"Did the Emperor Aurelian Break or Fix the Monetary System of the Roman Empire? - The Pax Romana Podcast 96","slug":"did-the-emperor-aurelian-break-or-fix-the-monetary-system-of-the-roman-empire-the-pax-romana-podcast-96","published_at":"2026-01-14T05:56:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-pax-romana-podcast-6582386/did-the-emperor-aurelian-break-or-fix-the-monetary-system-of-the-roman-empire-the-pax-romana-podcast-96","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-pax-romana-podcast-6582386","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/paxromanapodcast/episodes/Did-the-Emperor-Aurelian-Break-or-Fix-the-Monetary-System-of-the-Roman-Empire----The-Pax-Romana-Podcast-96-e3dk0dl","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/e76256a0/podcast/play/113950581/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-0-13%2Fbd8c34c3-7ac2-dba2-256f-c47829d68ae5.mp3","summary":"Did the emperor Aurelian's big coin reform in the 270s AD shatter public trust in the money system? Did it shift value from faith in the government to just the metal in the coins? I wrote most of an article addressing these issues, but never got around to publishing it. So I use this podcast episode to make an argument that the system was already crumbling decades before Aurelian. And Aurelian's changes were in fact a clever fix. The price inflation that followed was disruptive, but it also proved the reform worked, clearing up confusion and stabilizing markets. Read Haklai (2011), ' Aurelian’s Monetary Reform: Between Debasement and Public Trust' . Donate: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFC⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube Channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Buy Professor Elliott's book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ .","meta_description":"Did the emperor Aurelian's big coin reform in the 270s AD shatter public trust in the money system? Did it shift value from faith in the government to jus…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2408,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-pax-romana-podcast-6582386/episodes/did-the-emperor-aurelian-break-or-fix-the-monetary-system-of-the-roman-empire-the-pax-romana-podcast-96/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-pax-romana-podcast-6582386/did-the-emperor-aurelian-break-or-fix-the-monetary-system-of-the-roman-empire-the-pax-romana-podcast-96.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}