BANKIERZY PUBLICZNI W STAROŻYTNYM RZYMIE
THE PUBLIC BANKERS IN ANCIENT ROME

Summary/Abstract: Meanwhile, in the various terminologies used to refer to people engaged in banking activities only two terms refer to public bankers, i.e. mensarii and nummularii. The term mensarius derived from mensa and meant a person who engaged in banking activi-ties behind a table (counter). Therefore, it means a banker or rather an official managing the state treasury. References to the mensarii came from Livius. According to his records, pursuant to the act called de quinqueviris mensariis creandis, a quinqueviri mensarii committee was appointed which acted for and on behalf of the state. It was a kind of a public bank (mensa publica). Livius also described a 216 BC plebiscite called lex Minucia de triumviris mensariis under which the triumviri mensarii committee was established. Therefore, the mensarii operated in committees or colleges and their main task was to counterbalance the effects of the financial crisis in Rome. Therefore, they were a kind of banking officials operating for and on behalf of the state. The nummularii, another category of bankers who could be called public, appeared during the republican times in Rome, thus constituting serious competition to the argentarii. At first, their duties included mainly testing the preciousness of a metal from which coins were made and deter-mining the value of minted gold and silver coins. Later they started accepting deposits and granting loans. Information about the nummularii can be found in juristic sources ranging from legal writ-ings included by compilation makers in Digests to non-legal sources, mainly the writing of Mar-cialis, Svetonius or Apuleius. Inscriptions on tombstones also provide information about the num-mularii and their operations.

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