Posted on 06/19/2026 8:35:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Some of the highest-paying jobs in the Roman world mirrored modern careers: doctor, lawyer, famous actor. Others - like charioteer and exhibition gladiator - were a bit less familiar.
The Best-Paying Jobs in Ancient Rome | 6:41
toldinstone | 633K subscribers | 286,466 views | January 21, 2022
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:36 Laborers
1:05 Craftsmen
1:31 Soldiers
2:13 Lawyers
2:49 Doctors
3:33 Teachers
3:59 Actors
4:26 Gladiators
4:48 Charioteers
5:12 Landed Aristocrats
6:07 Conclusion
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
Some of the highest-paying jobs in the Roman world mirrored modern careers: doctor, lawyer, famous actor. Others - like charioteer and exhibition gladiator - were a bit less familiar.The Best-Paying Jobs in Ancient Rome | 6:41
toldinstone | 633K subscribers | 286,466 views | January 21, 2022
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:36 Laborers
1:05 Craftsmen
1:31 Soldiers
2:13 Lawyers
2:49 Doctors
3:33 Teachers
3:59 Actors
4:26 Gladiators
4:48 Charioteers
5:12 Landed Aristocrats
6:07 Conclusion
Transcript
Introduction
This is a big brass coin with a quarter of a silver denarius and the unit of account in which Roman prices and wages are usually calculated. In Pompeii, just before the eruption, one denarius could buy two loaves of bread, 2 liters of cheap wine, or half a liter of good wine. The wage of a Pompeian laborer ranged from 1 to 4 sestertii a day, and most men likely earned between 500 and 1,000 sestertii over the course of a year, but a few Romans, as we’ll see, earned much more.
Laborers
At the bottom of the income hierarchy were unskilled day laborers in the countryside. These men were usually hired to provide help with the harvest. In cities, and especially in Rome itself, they were most visible in large construction projects. Nowhere were they well paid. Laborers’ wages in the Roman world seem to have been close to subsistence level. As mentioned, men in Pompeii only earned a few sestertii for a full day of hard work. Craftsmen earned substantially more than laborers. Our best sense of how much more comes from Diocletian’s edict on maximum prices, which attempted to control inflation by stipulating the amounts that could be charged for common goods and services. To judge from the edict, a baker made about twice as much as a farm worker, a wall painter made three times as much, and a portrait artist made six times as much.
Soldiers
From the late 1st to late 2nd centuries, Roman legionaries were poorly paid, 1,200 sestertii each year. They actually received less than this since a portion of their pay was deducted for food and equipment. Especially when combined with his massive discharge bonus, however, an ordinary legionary earned enough to put him on the income level of a skilled craftsman. Officers were paid much better; a regular centurion earned 18,000 sestertii a year. The chief centurion of a legion made 72,000, and the commanding general was given an eyebrow-raising 200,000 sestertii, as much as 167 legionaries.
Lawyers
Lawyers, like those of their modern brethren, ranged from the pitiful to the obscene. Roman lawyers were forbidden to charge for their services until the Imperial era, and even when the ban was lifted, their fees were capped at 10,000 sestertii. That is about 8 times the legionary’s annual wage. It seems to have been customary, however, to reward lawyers with expensive gifts. Cicero, for example, received a so-called loan of 2 million sestertii from one of his clients, which he never felt moved to repay.
Doctors
Although many Roman doctors were low-status freedmen, a few became extremely wealthy. The personal physicians of the Emperors Caligula and Claudius received an annual salary of 500,000 sestertii, as much as 416 legionaries. Even this, as he liked to remind his employers, was less than he could have earned in private practice. He was telling the truth. Another Roman celebrity doctor, famous for his advocacy of ice-cold baths, charged a single patient 200,000 sestertii for a cure.
Teachers
Most teachers, then as now, were wretchedly paid. As in law and medicine, however, the few who catered to the rich and famous made enormous amounts of money. One Roman professor of rhetoric reportedly earned 400,000 sestertii a year, as much as 333 legionaries. In Rome, Athens, and other large cities, a few of the most distinguished teachers filled endowed chairs of rhetoric and philosophy, the ancient equivalent of a 10-year professorship, and so received additional salaries of up to 100,000 sestertii.
Actors
A few entertainers became as rich as any celebrity doctor or professor. One famous mime made 200,000 sestertii a year, and the great comic actor Roscius made even more. Although Roman playwrights seldom became rich from their scripts, the Emperor Augustus bestowed a million sestertii on the lucky author of a well-received tragedy. Another emperor gave 200,000 sestertii each to a pair of gladiators.
Gladiators
Although gladiators were usually slaves, they received a fee for every fight. These fees could be substantial for a top-ranked fighter since gladiators were normally given about a quarter of the money paid to their trainers by the sponsors of games. Famous retired gladiators might be paid 100,000 sestertii or more for a single exhibition performance.
Charioteers
The wealthiest of all Roman entertainers, however, were the charioteers of the Circus Maximus. Over the course of a long and very busy career, one driver managed to win 1,462 races and almost 36 million sestertii. This man’s prize money, enough to pay the annual salaries of nearly 30,000 legionaries, made him the equivalent of a modern billionaire.
Aristocrats
The wealthiest Romans, as I discussed in my video on how the Roman elite made their fortunes, were self-employed, drawing income from their estates and from a wide range of investments, slave-worked enterprises, and income-generating loans. In the Imperial era, senators were required to have estates of at least 1 million sestertii, equal to the annual salaries of 833 legionaries, and most were considerably wealthier. Cicero, with properties worth about 13 million sestertii, was probably in the middle range of senatorial wealth. The fabulously wealthy Crassus was worth more than 200 million. In the following century, we know of two Romans worth 400 million, enough, that is, to pay the annual salaries of 330,000 legionaries. The best-paid job of all, of course, was emperor, but the job security wasn’t great.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this video. If you would like to learn more about ancient prices and wages, I humbly suggest you check out chapter 11 of my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants. Thanks for watching.
MARCIO SEMPER EBRIA...........I’m always drunk.
We drink and live indiscretely.
Poets aren’t listed. In Latin I, you are led to believe that the entire male population consisted of agricolae, poetae, milites, and nautae.
Ovid seemed to be the followup act for Virgil, who was always the headliner.
That, and Caesar’s war commentaries..
Probably just not being a slave meant you had above average wages.
#math
“The best paying job, of course was that of Emperor. But the job security wasn’t great.”
🤣🤣🤣
CC
Noe for the world’s oldest profession?
pugno...fighters
>> Most teachers, then as now, were wretchedly paid.
ROFL! Teachers are enormously OVERPAID “now”
That one BS statement calls into question all the data and conclusions in the entire study.
Nothing about prostitutes?
Must have paid well since an emperor and empress or several dabbled in it.
And, more seriously, not mentioned are merchants...the middle class: traders, shop keepers, restaurateurs, etc.
I was reading about a house owned by 2 brothers. It was considered the wealthiest house in Pompeii I believe. They ran a brothel inside. Many rich houses rented shop spaces in front and the yards were gardens where food products and grapes for wine making were sold. Always on a hustle.
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