The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Sesterce

(also sestertius), a coin circulated in ancient Rome. Beginning in 269 B.C., the sesterce was minted from silver; from the late first century B.C.. it was minted from an alloy of base metals. Initially worth 2½ asses, in 217 B.C.. it became equal to 4 asses. The sesterce was the basic Roman medium of exchange and unit of value.

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71 6 89 12 98 6 101 7 sans visuel 18 6 monnaie percee 26 3 monnaie reduite en semis ; contremarque illisible (avers) 42 5 (1) A = as; D = DENIER; DP = DUPONDIUS; Q = QUINAIRE; QD = QUADRANS; S = SESTERCE. FIG.

CIRCULATION MONETAIRE DU SITE ARCHEOLOGIQUE DE DESSOBRIGA (OSORNO, PALENCIA/MELGAR, BURGOS). APPROCHE NUMISMATIQUE D'UNE MANSIO ROMAINE MILITARISEE

He played dice with four hundred thousand sesterces the point.

Madness, power and histrionism

Caesar reports that Scaeva's valiant service saved the fort; the grateful general rewarded his faithful soldier with 200,000 sesterces and promoted him from eighth rank to first centurionate (Civil War 3.53).

Labienus and Sceva: two classical supporting characters and their early modern dramatic life in Fletcher and Massinger's The False One

THE HIGHEST PAID SPORTSMAN OF ALL TIME THE illiterate Romano-Hispanic Gaius Appuleius Diocles won 1,462 chariot races and is said to have retired at the age of 42 with winnings totalling 35,863,120 Roman sesterces - enough money to buy grain for the entire city of Rome for a year.

When in Rome... do as you'd do at home; Debauched dinner parties and beauty secrets of the Romans are revealed in a new book that shakes the dust off the ancient world. Marion McMullen takes a peek at some surprising facts from the past NOSTALGIA

The Spanish ace pocketed 35,863,120 sesterces - around [euro]12billion in modern money - by the age of 42.

Old Romans make Rory look cheap

Four hundred sesterces Gracchus gives as dowry to a horn-player (or perhaps he played a 'straight instrument').

'Scilicet horrores putares' opposition to same-sex marriage in the early Empire

As Pliny wrote in the first century: "Not a year passed in which India did not take 50 million sesterces away from Rome." That trade imbalance implied a continuous drain on gold and silver coin, causing shortages of these metals in Rome.

The dollar's long tail

For the most irresponsible act of treasure-eating bravado we must look not to India, but to Egypt and the night when Cleopatra took a pearl worth ten million sesterces (about $C 35 million today) and dropped it into a bowl of wine vinegar.

Gilded confection: the land that brought us Bollywood also devised a dessert that dazzles with opulence

Livia had written a legacy of 50 000 000 sesterces to Galba in the form

Cactus: Roman nvmerals