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400 g of rye bread = 400 g of rye flour = 0.95 liters[-1] = 7 d.c.

100 g of wheat flour = 0.2 liters[-1] = 2.5 d.c.

250 g of beans = 0.33 liters[-1] = 4 d.c

100 g of beef = 0.3 librae = 2.5 d.c

100 g of dessert grapes = 0.5 d.c

80 g of olive oil (second quality) = 0.09 liters[-1] = 4 d.c

1/2 litre of Egyptian beer = 4 d.c

Total: 24.5 denarii communes for raw ingredients. Add 20% for condiments and cooking, and get roughly 30 denarii communes for 1 trofa.

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Here goes the previous comment[-2]:

A Polish numismatist, Zbigniew Żabiński, came up with trofa (from Greek trophe 'alimentation'), a universal measure of the value of money. One trofa is defined as an average person's daily ration of food typical for the given place and time. Altogether, it has 3000 kcal: 1800 kcal in 450 g of carbohydrates, 900 kcal in 100 g of fat, and 300 kcal in 75 g of protein.

For instance, in late 1970s' Poland, one trofa consisted of 400 g of rye bread, 100 g of wheat flour, 250 g of potatoes, 100 g of beef, 100 g of sugar, 80 g of butter, and 1/2 litre of milk. Assuming that its content has not changed, you take the cost of the food (8.70 PLN in 2016), add 20% for condiments and preparation, and get 10.50 PLN as the 2016 price of a trofa in Poland.[0]

In Octavian's times, one denarius could buy you 2 trofas (with content appropriate for ancient Mediterranean lands),[0] Judas's 30 pieces of silver were worth 60 trofas,[1] etc.

Unfortunately, Żabiński published in Polish behind the Iron Curtain so the trofa is virtually unknown outside Poland. The Big Mac index is its pale reflection.

More information in Polish:

Given the words of the poem, the similarity of the emoji to a female sexual organ is not accidental IMHO.

One quasi-actionable lesson of history the governments can try to remember is: do not sacrifice your strategic goals for a short-term gain, or "avoid hotfixes in production".

Example 1: Septimius Severus raised the legionary's yearly pay from 300 to 400 denarii while decreasing the amount of silver in a denarius by a half. The upset Roman economy would never fully recover.

Example 2: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Ukraine on 9 February 1918. Ukraine obliged to deliver grain to Austria-Hungary to relieve the food shortage. In exchange, Ukraine was given lands that Polish people considered their own. When the news went public, the Poles, hitherto the most loyal nation to the Habsburgs, changed the orientation to anti-Austrian. In due time, their Regency Council declared independence. (And Ukraine never delivered the grain; Austria-Hungary had to be sent 500 truckloads of grain and flour from Germany.)

  Dariusz Jakubowski x'; DROP TABLE users; SELECT '1

My dream is a book/blog explaining historic processes with Ishikawa cause-and-effect fishbone diagrams.[1] For history, the main branches of the fishbone could be: Military, Economy, Society, Politics, and Nature. So a tentative diagram explaining the fall of the Western Roman Empire would have:

* Military: weakened army (increasing dependence on mercenaries), fights with the Germanic tribes (in turn, caused by the expansion of the Huns).

* Economy: inflation (debasement of currency), decline in the influx of slaves (end of expansion), lost taxation from some provinces (Germanic invasions), decline in maritime trade (Vandalic pirates), decline of agriculture (excessive taxes), drain of money (trade deficit with the Eastern Empire).

* Society: decline of civic virtue (expansion of Christianity), loss of ties with Rome in the provinces.

* Politics: political instability, overly powerful Praetorian Guard.

* Nature: population decline (Antonine Plague, Plague of Cyprian), soil erosion (deforestation, excessive grazing, soil salinization).

Improving the diagram and making similar diagrams explaining other events and processes is left as an exercise to the reader.

"Disappeared" is a Newspeak euphemism for "was stolen"[0].

Six years later, an unemployed bricklayer was fingerprinted for not paying alimony to his ex-wife. His fingerprints matched those left in the museum, and the police found the painting behind a wardrobe in his apartment. He told the court that he fell in love with the painting when visiting the museum and wanted to have it all to himself[0].