Editing Servius Tullius (section)

===Economy===
Some Roman historians believed Servius Tullius responsible for Rome's earliest true, minted [[coin]]age, replacing an earlier and less convenient currency of raw bullion. This is unlikely, though he may have introduced the official stamping of raw currency.<ref>Servius is credited as inventor of minted bronze coinage by [[Pliny the Elder]], on the authority of Timaeus (''circa'' 360 BC): [[Varro]] credits Servius with the first issues of minted silver coinage. See discussion in Crawford, Michael H., "The Early Roman Economy, 753–280 BC", ''Publications de l'École française de Rome'', 1976,  Volume 27  Numéro 1  pp. 197–207:[http://www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0000-0000_1976_ant_27_1_1984]</ref> Money played a minimal role in the Roman economy, which was almost entirely agrarian at this time. Debt and [[Nexum|debt bondage]], however, were probably rife. The form of such debts would have had little resemblance to those of cash-debtors, compelled to pay interest to money-lenders on an advance of capital. Rather, wealthy landowners would make an "advance loan" of seed, foodstuffs or other essentials to tenants, clients and smallholders, in return for a promise of labour services or a substantial share of the crop. The terms of such "loans" compelled defaulters to sell themselves, or their dependants, to their creditor; or, if smallholders, to surrender their farm. Wealthy aristocratic landholders thus acquired additional farms and service for very little outlay.<ref>See discussion in Cornell, pp. 281–283</ref> Dionysius claims that Servius paid such debts "from his own purse", and forbade voluntary and compulsory debt bondage.<ref>[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], ''Roman Antiquities'' 4.9</ref> In reality, these practices persisted well into the Republican era. Livy describes the distribution of land grants to poor and landless citizens by Servius and others as the political pursuit of popular support from citizens of little merit or worth.<ref>Livy, 2.46, 3.39.9. See also [[Cicero]]'s assertion that Rome should be governed not by the general populace but by the"best men" (''[[optimates]]''): see Cicero, ''Pro Sestio'', 96.</ref>