Talk to anyone today, and you will probably have something to say about how face your life has become. While the inflation rate has slowed down, the prices of many goods and services remain much higher than before the pandemic.
Life cost crises are not new. They have occurred at several times and places throughout the millennia.
If we observe the costs of the cost of living in the ancient Greek and Roman times and how the people of that time faced them, we can learn something about how to face our own problems.
“The price of the land has risen”
The cost of living was a topic of conversation in antiquity, especially the price of land and food.
The Roman writer Plinio the Younger (Circa 61-113 DC) in one of his letters told his friend about the increase in the cost of real estate:
Have you heard that the price of land has risen, especially in the vicinity of Rome? The reason for the sudden increase in the price has resulted in great discussion.
The Greek scholar Athenaeum, who lived in Naukratis, in Egypt, around 200 AD, wrote a long book called the Banqueteros scholars, which describes a dinner.
The characters of this dinner often complain about the price of food and goods. For example, a character complains about the price of fish:
I think I’ve ever seen more expensive fish. Poseidon, if you obtained 10% of what is spent on them every day, you would be far the richest God that exists!
People used to say that fish was exorbitantly expensive and thought that fish sellers were trying to cheat it.
In fact, the poet Antiphanes (Circa 408-330 BC) complained that “there is no more abominable group” than fish vendors and lenders.
How to reduce costs?
The peoples of antiquity were very aware that a crisis of the cost of life can cause political disturbances.
As the Lucano Roman poet wrote (39-65 AD):
The causes of hate and the springs of political popularity are determined by the price of food.
So how were the leaders of antiquity with this type of problem?
One solution was for the ruler to cover the cost of inflation.
For example, the Athenian statesman Demóstenes (384-322 AC) mentions a problem with the price of grain that was resolved by promoting imports:
When the grain rose in price and reached sixteen drachmas by medimnus, we import more than ten thousand wheat medimni and measure it at the normal price of five drachmas by Medimnus.
Another solution was to put extreme regulations on the market.
For example, Roman emperor Alejandro Severo (who ruled between 222 and 235 AD) once faced a group of angry citizens.
They demanded a reduction in the price of beef and pork, which had become disabled.
Alejandro Severo “did not proclaim a general price reduction,” says the anonymous biographer that recounts this anecdote. Instead, the emperor
He ordered that no one kill a sow or a lethal letters, a cow or a calf. In two years, or even in just over a year, there was such an abundance of pork and cow meat that, while before one pound cost eight minutili, the price of these two meats was reduced to two and even one per pound.
The city is very expensive
The Greek writer Plutarco de Queronea (46-119 DC) records a story about the famous philosopher Socrates (Circa 470-399 AC), who lived in Athens.
One day, according to Plutarch, a friend of Socrates complained about “how face the city was”:
Chian’s wine costs a mine, a purple tunic three mines, half a honey paint!
In response, Socrates took his friend from his hand and told him to look for cheaper bargains or articles, saying:
A sleeveless vest for ten drachmas! The city is cheap!
The point of Socrates was that even in expensive times it is still possible to find bargains to save money. You just have to look for them more and lower your standard of living. It may be difficult to do it, but it is necessary.
Socrates also gave employment advice for the people who were fighting.
According to Socrates’s friend, historian Jenofon de Athens (430-350 BC), when a poor veteran went to Socrates complaining about the lack of money and asking him how to deal with expenses, Socrates said:
He immediately undertakes some kind of work that ensures you to make a living when you age.
Socrates thought that you have to make sure that there is still money when you get older is more important than fully enjoying your current work. You are likely to have to endure things you don’t like to achieve security.
From the old to the modern
The majority of antiquity people would probably have said that during a crisis of the cost of living it is better to be patient, live with simplicity and wait for better times to arrive.
As Plinio the young man (Circa 61-113 dc) once wrote in one of his letters: “My income is small or precarious, but their deficiencies can be compensated with a simple life.”
If politicians cannot solve the problems, then it depends on us to face the best we can.
*Konstantine Panegyres is a professor of classical and ancient history at the University of Western Australia.
This article was originally published in The Conversation/Reuters
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