Legal Definitions - aes

Aes

In ancient Roman law and language, aes refers to:

• Copper: The metal itself.
• Money or Currency: A broader term for any form of monetary value or payment, regardless of the specific metal (copper, bronze, silver, or gold) used for the coins.

Here are some examples to illustrate the meaning of aes:

• Imagine a Roman artisan in the forum, meticulously shaping a decorative vase from a reddish-brown metal. This raw material, copper, would have been called aes. This demonstrates the term's direct meaning as the specific metal itself.

• A Roman farmer sells a portion of his harvest to a city merchant. The payment he receives, whether it consists of bronze coins, silver denarii, or even gold pieces, would collectively be referred to as aes. Here, the term signifies the general concept of money or currency used in a transaction, irrespective of the metal composition of the individual coins.

• In a legal proceeding concerning a debt, if a Roman court ordered one party to pay a specific sum to another, that monetary obligation or the payment itself would be described as aes. This usage highlights its role in denoting financial value, a monetary settlement, or funds in a legal or economic context.