Denarii

Denarii (singular: Denarius) are silver coins and the basic currency of the Roman Republic, as well as the Roman Empire. They act as the money of the game, and (without certain talents) every building, authority action, and squad costs denarii to build, enact, and recruit. Most squads also cost denarii to maintain.

Making Denarii
Trade and taxation are the easiest ways to make denarii. If their are gold deposits on the map, the player can also make large amounts of denarii from their exploitation. The research option Coinage will also give a one-time bonus of 1000 denarii.

Religion is also a large contributor to denarii making. Having a certain amount of houses within the radii of temples of Saturn or Mars generate denarii automatically, while alms are given to temples of Vesta, and must be collected through a special action known as "Proscription". This costs Popularity, however.

Military conquest of barbarians can also generate some denarii.

In most campaign missions, the mission giver will give the player a sum of 1000 denarii at certain points of time. Some will stop giving the player denarii after a certain amount of time has passed.

Trading
Making denarii through trading can be very profitable for the player. However, first one must have trade routes available, which can be gained through captured milestones or finding sea routes with ports. Certain family talents always allow certain trade to be available. Once land trade routes are available, the player must construct Trade Post, which are staffed by Plebs. If the player has sufficient resources, such as Goods or Slaves, they can trade a number of those away to other cities for denarii. Ports work in a similar way, except that they need docks to be built. Ports can have ships sent out to find new sea trade routes for 200 denarii. The Lighthouse allows more sea routes to be discovered.

Taxing
At the Forum, the player can use a special action to enact a tax, which generates an instant bonus of denarii based on the population and happiness of the city. More denarii is earned as more upper-class residents (Equites and Patricians) reside in the city. However, Popularity is reduced by 20% with this action. With the Reign of Augustus DLC, the Tax Office is introduced as a new building. The Tax Office will generate denarii based on the population and happiness (Food, Religious, and Entertainment satisfaction) of the city. Equites and Patricians can staff the Tax Office, although Patricians will generate more denarii.

Religion
The temples to Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter automatically generate denarii, based on the amount of houses (Insulae for Saturn, Equites and Patricians for Mars). The Temple to Jupiter is fixed at 50 denarii per minute. The Temple to Vesta collects denarii as alms, and a special action must be used at a single temple to collect its alms, at the cost of Popularity.

If the player can build the Pantheon, and have religious satisfaction for the city at 80% or above, the Pantheon will generate huge profits of 500 denarii per minute.

Conquest
If barbarian villages are present on the map, the player can attack and subjugate the villages for possible incomes of denarii as some of their resources. However, one can simply raze the villages for a one-time bonus of denarii and slaves.

Talents
Certain family talents of certain families can generate (possibly huge amounts of) denarii for the player, based on excesses of certain resources, research points, or even interest on the denarii one already has.

Trivia

 * The word denarius derives from the Latin word for ten, deni, because the denarius was worth ten asses (bronze coins and the smallest currency in ancient Rome).
 * Historically, the silver content of the denarii varied widely, from 90% just after Nero in the first century AD to 5% under Gallienus at the end of the second century AD.
 * The denarius became the root word for "money" in most Romance languages, including Italian (denaro), Spanish (dinero), Portuguese (dinheiro), as well as Slovene (denar).
 * Currently, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Macedonia, and Serbia have the dinar or denar, both derived from the Arabic translation of denarius, as their official currency.