ABSTRACT
Dio attributed the onset of the third-century crisis to Commodus, whose inept rule turned the Roman empire 'from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust'. Nigel Pollard is surely correct in his assertion that the sources lead to the perception that the Roman empire was being bled dry to pay the army. Maintaining the army was in fact the largest expenditure in the imperial budget. By the mid-Severan period, the cost of the army equated to around 70 per cent of state spending. Given that the military itself engaged in production and construction, routine non-salary costs need not have amounted to more than a small fraction of salary costs. Factor to be considered in the imperial budget is the long-established custom of imperial hand-outs to civilians and higher-ranking soldiers, congiaria, inaugurated by Augustus, and mentioned in the Res Gestae and donativa.
