Thank you for visiting Bank of the Furii, the Premier Bank in Rome.

If you would like to discuss Roman banking and the economy, visit The Banker's Table. To leave general comments in the guest book, visit our reception room The Fauces in the vicus Iugarius.

For the time being, historical notes supporting the Bank of the Furii site are posted below.

The Furii banks at AW are conceived as a network of banks for wealthy Romans and travelers in the Roman world, backed by a family of high equestrian rank. The Furii banks are argentarii and offer services discretely to their patrician and wealthy plebeian customers. In this, they are distinguished from another type of Roman bank, the mensarii, which were publicly established banks that mainly operated to relieve debt during periods of financial difficulty and to lend excess state funds. The Bank of the Furii also differs from money-lenders, usurers, and pawnbrokers with their less exclusive clientele and bad reputations.

Although owned by wealthy patricians or plebeians, the actual day-to-day operations of Roman banks might be handled by freedmen or even slaves.

The Furii bank properties are designed to convey a modern commercial and advertising flair in the context of AW, but the actual services offered are historically based. The following discussion of services provides an overview of historical Roman banking and makes note of any anachronisms in the AW property.

Bank Services

Permutatio:

Roman banks did regular business in what would now be considered international exchange services. Permutatio covers both simple currency exchange and bills of exchange. Both required the bank to be aware of prevailing financial conditions and terms of exchange throughout the Mediterranean world. The Furii banks at AW handle both these transactions.

A bill of exchange is a financial transaction in which a customer – probably a merchant or a wealthy traveler -- deposits funds with a bank (in Rome, for example) and receives from the bank a document promising to pay the equivalent funds from another bank (in Athens, for example). Thus, the customer may travel without carrying large sums of money, with the ability to have the funds available at his destination. This type of transaction has counterparts in the modern traveler’s check for individuals and the letter of credit for commercial transactions. Trusted associate bankers in other cities would handle the transaction on the other end.

A bill of exchange may also be written for the customer to borrow the sum at one place, and repay it in another city on a certain date at a fixed rate of interest. A merchant might do this to finance a purchase of goods and take them to a distant market, anticipating a profit much greater than the amount paid in interest to the bank.

The medieval Medici and other Italian banking families made fortunes by lending money through exchange and avoiding laws against usury. An excellent overview of medieval banking practice can be found in Medici Money, Tim Parks, New York: Norton Books (2005). The banking practices of the Florentine Exchangers’ Guild were closely patterned on Roman practices in the classical period, despite the intervening collapse of the western Empire.

Depositum and Creditum:

Roman banks kept two types of deposit accounts for customers: non-interest bearing and interest bearing. The first, depositum, was a non-interest deposit (vacua pecunia) account on which the banker made personal payments on behalf of the customer. Payments on bills or debt made through a banker were “per mensam” and could be authorized by the customer in person at the bank or by written check, perscriptio. Thus, the Furii banks offer bill-paying for clients as modern banks offer checking accounts and online bill-paying.

An interest bearing deposit, creditum, was left with the bank at a determined rate of interest for a fixed term. The banker could use this money to make loans to other customers, just as modern banks do. The difference between the rate a bank pays on deposits and the interest it earns on loans is, in fact, the biggest source of profit for most banks.

Investment opportunities in the Roman world were limited by the structure of private partnerships and corporations recognized in law. Both clearly existed, but had greater individual liability for owners than the modern joint-stock corporate entity. Legal agreements forming partnerships also dissolved at the death of a partner, though family heirs could renew an agreement. It is possible that a Roman bank would broker investment deals between clients and third parties, but the evidence is thin on how often this would be done. It is known that medieval bankers, closely following Roman practices, did finance and support this type of financial activity.

Auctions:

Auctus, to increase, gives us the term “auction,” a process in which a sales price is increased by progressive bidding. The sale of property -- goods or land -- at auction was common in ancient Rome from Republican times into the Principate. The emperor Marcus Aurelius, for example, held a series of auctions of personal property to pay off debts.

Bankers in the Roman world often acted as organizers and financial backers of auctions. The bank would register the items for sale at an auction, handle the financial payment between buyer and seller, and keep the records of all transactions. They might also represent either the buyer or seller as agent at an auction.

Roman legions regularly divided the spoils of their military campaigns and sold the plunder at auction. Private merchants did buy these spoils. To highlight this key financial aspect of Roman conquests, the Furii bank at AW is depicted as an agent in these sales, probably through a representative assigned to follow the consular armies.

Loans:

The category of law governing relations between debtors and creditors in Rome was known as Nexum. Loans and debt were a common factor in everyday life for Romans of all walks of life.

Interest rates at Rome were customarily 10 percent under the law established by the Twelve Tables and subsequent reiterations. Persistent indebtedness often brought pressure on political leaders to relieve the conditions of debtors or use state funds to make loans in competition with the private bankers. Cattle and land were made legally accepted assets to pay off debt, although this led to these assets passing into the hands of the argentarii and their associates. Enforced personal slavery for indebtedness was, however, permanently abolished.

By the last century BC, the legal rate of interest was 12 percent. Debt was due at the first of the month, the Kalends, giving rise to the phrase of “checking the calendar” (from calendarium, a debt-book or statement). Just like a modern bank, Bank of the Furii provides monthly account statements for its customers.

When a debtor could not repay principal and interest at the end of the year, it was common to borrow new money from another creditor to pay off the previous debt. This process was called versura and is reflected in the Bank of the Furii offer of the modern term “debt refinance.”

Unfortunately, for many Romans, this common practice became a continuing cycle of debt eating away assets. Even members of great patrician families became heavily indebted to fund the pursuit of office, pay for games and celebrations, or make donations to great public works (see Brunt, p. 22).* Unless rescued by their family or friends, debtors saw their estates and property gradually pass into the hands of their creditors, leading to the impoverishment or disappearance of branches of formerly distinguished patrician and great plebeian families.

Loans made to fund ships or goods for transport were not covered by normal interest rate limits. Fenus nauticum (nautical interest), known as bottomry, was at the risk of the lender in event of loss at sea. A banker could, for this reason, charge any rate desired to cover the risk on vessels and shipments while at sea. However, in harbor, the rate was limited to the usual 12 percent. The Roman practice of bottomry is the beginning of modern marine insurance. The importance of maritime trade to the Roman economy cannot be underestimated, since it was the least expensive form of transportation in bulk for the ancient world. The cost of transportation even for short distances by land could be prohibitively expensive. (see Brunt, p. 24).*

We may imagine that Roman banks would be at the intersection of many financial transactions, and an equestrian family might have other lines of business importing luxuries or disposing of the products of their own estates. In this case, I have added the “special offer” of access to qualified contractors or savings on goods or products from other Furii-affiliated businesses. Whether this was typical of banks in the Roman era is not clear, though it is logical to assume it occurred when bankers had other business interests. In the later rise of banking in the medieval period, bankers like the Medici combined their banking operations with other family-owned commercial activities. (See Medici Money referenced above). Modern banks offer similar referrals and discounts to their loan customers.

Miscellaneous:

Either argentarii or mensarii bankers might be called upon as authorities to guarantee the soundness of currency or to determine forgery (particularly of foreign coins). However, over time, the argentarii seem to have become the authoritative experts, and this role was confirmed in law in the late Republican period.

Record-keeping:

Roman banks kept meticulous records in books variously called codices, tabulae, or rationes, which carefully noted all amounts paid or received and the date of transaction. Auction transactions were recorded with the same careful method. Thus, the books of the argentarii were regarded as authoritative records of personal financial transactions and could be called upon as evidence in Roman courts. Argentarii could not refuse their records to parties in civil cases; bankers who refused were assessed penalties by the state.

A Biographical Note:

Probably the best known of ancient Rome’s bankers is Titus Pomponius Atticus, whose life gives some insight into the world of the Roman businessman. Born in Rome in either 110 or 109 BC, Pomponius was educated as a youth in a school along with Cicero. He acquired his nickname, by which he is commonly known, after studying philosophy in Athens, where he gained a deep lifelong interest in Greek culture.

Atticus increased his inherited personal wealth by major dealings in real estate, particularly in the Greek territory of Epirus. A follower of Epicurean philosophy, Atticus shunned the public life of Roman office-seeking. Instead, he concentrated on his businesses and overseeing the publishing of works of literature and philosophy, including those of his friend Cicero, using his own trained staff of copyists.

As a friend and fellow member of the Roman equestrian class, Atticus supported Cicero’s public career. When Cicero was briefly exiled from Rome in 49 BC, Atticus gave him 250,000 sesterces from his own funds. Atticus’ role as banker and financial counselor may be inferred from a number of letters between the two. Many passages mention Atticus settling debts, making loans, and acting as agent in property transactions for Cicero and other Roman citizens.

Atticus died by suicide in Rome in 32 BC to hasten an incurable illness.