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Denari
Money
Cash in the early Roman empire was surprisingly rational, at least compared to other times in Roman history.
Of course, when talking about ancient money one can talk either about the different demoniations at the time, or about how much money was actually worth. I'll try to do both, but first, denominations.
Note that I've bolded the coins that were on common use. Cutting an as in half for change was pretty common as well. Also, the absolute values are only really true at the time of Augustus, but we aren't going to worry about inflation in this game.
| Name | Metal | Relative Value | Absolute Value |
| aureus | gold | 400 asses | a months rent on an apartment in Gaul |
| denarius | silver | 1/25 aureus | |
| sestertius | brass | 4 denari | |
| dupondis | brass | 2 sesterti | a meal's worth of food at an inn |
| as | bronze | 4 sesterti | |
| semis (half-as) | brass | 1/2 as | |
| quadrans (quarter-as) | bronze | 1/4 as | a cheap pint of wine |
Note that the sestertius was the standard unit of measurement for cost, but it wasn't used very often in actual transactions before 100CE or so.
| Relative Value | Absolute Value |
| free! | admision to a gladitorial game |
| 1/4 as | a cheap pint of wine |
| 1/4 as | admision to the baths |
| 2 as | a good pint of wine |
| 2 sesterti | an hour with a girl of low virtue |
| 500 sesterti | yearly rent on a poor apartment in the provinces |
| 2000 sesterti | yearly rent on a poor apartment in Rome |
| 4000 sesterti | a common slave |
| 7000 sesterti | two slave children and their slave nurse |
| 10,000 sesterti | yearly rent on a middle class apartment in Rome |
| 16,000 sesteti | a skilled musician slave |
| 20,000 sesterti | yearly income of a lower middle class family in Rome |
| 25,000 sesterti | a pretty boy or girl slave |
| 25,000 sesterti* | funding the baths for a year |
| 50,000 sesterti | full funding for a day of gladitorial games |
| 100,000 sesterti | education for a senator's son in Athens for a year |
| 400,000 sesterti | minimum net worth of an Equestrian |
| 500,000 sesterti* | building an amphetheater |
| 3,500,000 sesterti | a very fine town house in Rome |
| 20,000,000 sesterti | minimum net worth of a "rich" Roman, according to Martial |
| 350,000,000 sesterti | construction costs for the Claudian aqueduct serving Rome |
Most entries here are backed up by a historical source, but these sources range from the time of Augustus to the time of Trajan, almost 150 years. Entries marked with a * have no historical basis. If you divide amounts given for things in Rome by four you should get their cost outside of Rome.