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Polyaenus’ stratagems for financing war

In around AD 165, the Greek-​​born author Poly­aenus wrote a col­lection of works detailing the stratagems or ruses used in famous his­torical wars. The works were ded­icated to the co-​​Emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius, and were intended to provide inspir­ation for their mil­itary policies.

As well as mil­itary and dip­lo­matic tactics, the Stratagems of War included various methods for fin­ancing mil­itary oper­a­tions, which Poly­aenus said had been used in the past. They included an excep­tional tax, public bor­rowing, the private fin­ancing (more or less vol­untary) of ships, the seizure of booty, the sale of reli­gious property, and mon­etary manip­u­lation (minting of coins using a lower grade of metal, and oblig­ation of mer­chants and/​or sol­diers to use these new coins instead of the older ones).