Temple of Moneta

Temple of Juno Moneta is considered to be another "pagan temple" but it was simply a place where coins were minted by the government. Most of these temples provided government services in one form or another.

Temple of Juno Moneta

The Temple of Juno Moneta (Latin: Templum Iunonis Monetæ) was an ancient Roman temple that stood on the Arx, the Citadel, on the Capitoline Hill overlooking the Roman government Forum.

The word Money is from a Middle English word from Old French moneie, from Latin moneta ‘mint, money’.

It was an original title of the goddess Juno, in whose temple the money of Rome was minted. In addition, it was the place where the books recording the legal opinions of the magistrates and judges, who were the gods of Roman Courts were deposited.

According to Livy, during the Republic, the mint was on the Capitoline Hill, either in, or very near, the temple of Juno Moneta. Like most of the temples of Rome it provided government services.

The authority to mint

Minting coins was under the dominion of the Senate but the one who was in charge was called the "Moneyers" who produced coins with generic images commemorating Roman achievements.

Under the Empire, the emperors had direct control of coinage.

The Temple of Juno Moneta is where we get the term Money, which is from a Middle English word from the Old French moneie, and from the Latin moneta or ‘mint, or money’.

It was a part of an original title of the goddess Juno, in whose temple the official money of the Rome was minted.

In addition, it was the place where the books recording the legal opinions of the magistrates and judges, who were the gods of Roman Courts were deposited.

Counterfieting

"Money is the just medium and measure of all commutable things, for, by the medium of money, a convenient and just estimation of all things is made."

Trade was often by barter with commodity money like grain, oil, or baked bread which contained both. Every commodity from beer to bricks allowed for purchase with "present value". Later, gold, silver, and copper began to be used as Egyptian Currency, mostly with the trade outside Egypt. A copper coin called a deben was .5 ounce copper. Clay accounting tokens from Mesopotamia and what became known as "dirty money" appeared by 1200 BC when coins became scarce. Scarabs of stone and clay were used as money. State-controlled temples produced scarabs with denominated value. Ancient counterfeiting was revealed by archaeologist Tzilla Eshel that found debased coins. Even bullion was debased by a variety of methods and techniques.

See Temple of Diana at Ephesus. Temple of Moneta

Tribute

Concerning the question to Pay tribute: The coin Jesus held up was likely the Antiochan tetradrachm bearing the head of Tiberius, with Augustus Caesar on the reverse or the denarius featuring Tiberius with the inscription "Ti [berivs] Caesar Divi Aug[usti] F[ilius] Augustus", ("Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus") with Pontif Maxim (Pontifex Maximus or High Priest) on the reverse. Of course for Christians Jesus was High priest and king and whatever was given to His Church, which had been 'appointed a kingdom', was considered paid in full.

On the tribute coin required by the Roman Empire through its patron states was the graven image of the "son of the Divine Augustus" run through the temples of Rome.

• "And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s."

Octavian was called "Augustus Caesar, the savior of the whole world” by all the people who saw his exercising authority as a solution to the world's problems. He was also called the Father of Rome and the Son of God.

He was also called the Savior of the world of Rome in the minds of many people who believed that his power as Emperor was able to establish “Peace on earth,” with the exercising authority of their form of "Pax Romana".

Evidently, the Pharisees had the coin in their possession. This was a violation of their own laws "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" nor have "any other gods before the God" of heaven.

Augustus Caesar with the title Octavius was not only the Divine Augustus, Son of God, and Patronus of Rome.

These government titles of Emperator or commander-in-chief, Principas Civitas or President, and of course the Apotheos or appointer of the gods of the courts of Rome were all a part of the centalization of power.

As one of the head "father on the earth" he could demand tribute from his people as a patrimonial right of Caesar.

The superscription or epigraphe was of Caesar, who had loaned money into circulation through the temples of Janice and Moneta.

Imperial taxes were often required to be paid in kind. There were lots of benefits and free bread offered by Caesar's system of welfare but those civil tables were a snare and a trap.

Jesus preached a differen Kingdom of God and was also call the Son of God. He said His followers were not be like the governments of the other nations. He said these system of covetous practices "made the word of God to none effects".

Tragan

Trajan (r. 98–117) seemed to have an additional mint based on some dedicatory inscriptions indicates there may have been the office of "Moneta Caesaris" on the Caelian Hill which survived into the third century and the remaining mint was closed by 476 AD.

The "Rationibus" held an Imperial office to determine the total output of coins. Under him was the "Procurator Monetae". The "Optio et Exactor auri argenti et aeris" was actually in charge of the operation of minting and overseeing quality control.

These gods decided what was good and what was evil and the other Weightier matters of society.

Alimenta

The alimenta was a social safety net programs in the form of social welfare for the people including the tutor of the youth.

It provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education.

There were many Roman welfare programs that existed from around 98 AD to 272 AD. The idea of governments providing for the welfare of the people date's back to the first city-states of Cain, Nimrod, and Pharaoh, or Babylon, Sumer, and Egypt.

The program was supported out of the spoils or "booty" of the Dacian Wars and by a combination of estate taxes and some left over philanthropy, used sometimes to bribe the votes of the people.

According to most modern historians, including Nerva biographers Nathan Elkins and John Grainger, it was initiated by emperor Nerva and expanded by Trajan.

The Alimenta was next to the Temple of Juno Moneta the mint, on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The Temple of Saturn, in the Forum Romanum, served as the treasury and registry of birth records.

See Temples.

Warnings and welfare

This welfare system had moved the Roman people away from charity into a state run system of legal charity. The free bread of such systems degenerate the character of the people according to Polybius and Plutarch.

John the Baptist and Jesus warned the people of the same ancient precepts of human nature with their condemnation of the Corban of the Pharisees and the covetous practices which make the people merchandise returning them to the bondage of Egypt.

Paul would also warned the people that the table of the state was a snare and a trap, quoting David who knew if you had an appetite for the wages of unrighteousness you should put a knife to your own throat.

The alimenta was subsidized by means of interest payments on loans made by mostly large landowners.

The idea of turning land title into a legal title like in the bondage of Egypt was limited to large tracts, assumed to be more reliable debtors but benefited a very low percentage of potential welfare recipients.

Only one child out of ten was an actual beneficiary and required birth registration.

There was an additional imperial benevolence provided by the Imperial Cult of Rome.

The mortgage scheme was simply a way of making local notables participate. It is possible that the scheme was, to some extent, a forced loan, something that tied unwilling landowners to the imperial treasure in order to make them supply some funds to civic expenses.

The notion of exploiting private landed estate as a means to obtain public revenue was a schemes that was used from time to time in history.

The New Deal of FDR was able to accomplish this at levels Caesar could only dream of.

The senator Pliny had endowed his city of Comum a perpetual right to an annual charge (vectigal) of thirty thousand sestertii on one of his estates in perpetuity even after his death (Pliny's heirs or any subsequent purchaser of the estate being liable), with the rent thus obtained contributing to the maintenance of Pliny's semi-private charitable foundation.

This may have influenced his jealous hatred of Christians.

With such a scheme, Pliny hoped to ensure Italian landowners' acceptance of the burden of borrowing from the alimenta fund attempting to apply some pseudo "moral" pressure which contradicted Christian morals.