Pecunia non olet

Pecunia non olet ("money does not stink") is a Latin saying. The phrase is ascribed to the Roman emperor Vespasian (ruled 69-79 CE).

History

Vespasian imposed a Urine Tax (Latin: vectigal urinae) on the distribution of urine from public urinals in Rome's Cloaca Maxima (great sewer) system. (The Roman lower classes urinated into pots which were emptied into cesspools.) The urine collected from public urinals was sold as an ingredient for several chemical processes. It was used in tanning, and also by launderers as a source of ammonia to clean and whiten woollen togas. The buyers of the urine paid the tax.

The Roman historians Suetonius and Dio Cassius report that when Vespasian's son Titus complained to him about the disgusting nature of the tax, his father held up a gold coin and told him, "Non olet! ("It doesn't stink!"). ^[1] This phrase is still used today to say that the value of money is not tainted by its origins. Vespasian's name still attaches to public urinals in France (vespasiennes), Italy (vespasiani), and Romania (vespasiene).

In literature

"Vespasian's axiom" is referred to in passing in the Balzac short story "Sarrasine," in connection with the mysterious origins of the wealth of a Parisian family. The proverb receives some attention in Roland Barthes' detailed analysis of the Balzac story in his critical study S/Z. ^[2]. It is possible that F. Scott Fitzgerald alludes to Vespasian's jest in The Great Gatsby with the phrase "non-olfactory money." ^[3]

In That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis, the Warden of Bracton College is given the nickname "Non-Olet" for having written "a monumental report on National Sanitation. The subject had, if anything, rather recommended him to the Progressive Element. They regarded it as a slap in the face for the dilettanti and Die-hards, who replied by christening their new Warden Non-Olet."^[4]

References

1. ^ Dio Cassius, Roman History, Book 65, chapter 14.
2. ^ Barthes, Roland (trans. Richard Miller) (1974) S/Z New York: Hill and Wang - Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, pages 39–40; see lexia number 26
3. ^ Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1925) The Great Gatsby Scribner, New York. p. 73
4. ^ That Hideous Strength, p. 32

Sources

• Lissner, Ivar. Power and Folly: the story of the Caesars
• Suetonius. De Vita Caesarum--Divus Vespasianus
• Laporte, Dominique. History of Shit

External links

• Translation of De Vita Caesarum--Divus Vespasianus
• Translation of History by Dio Cassius