Money in Imperial Roman Law

The chapter explores the Roman law of money and the treatment of money-related issues by Roman jurists in the Imperial period. Roman lawyers dealt with different means of payment, but they regarded only coins as money in the proper sense. The minting of coins was the emperor’s exclusive domain. Forgery was severely punished. Coined money was of great importance to the Roman system of private law. Both the taxonomy of contracts and the system of enforcement of claims under the formulary procedure were premised on a well-ordered monetary system. The Roman jurists discussed a wide array of legal issues in connection with monetary debts. The issues of debasement and interest taking, which would later be of paramount importance in the Middle Ages, seem to have been regarded as of minor importance.