Inflation of Weimar proportions ensued. A measure of Egyptian wheat that had sold for half a denarius in the empire’s heyday cost 10,000 denarii by A.D. 338. At the beginning of the fourth century, it took 4,000 silver coins to buy one gold solidus; by the end of the century, it took 180 million.25 Citizens worn down by inflation and unfair taxation began defecting to the Goths.26
