in the late republican period that he estimated the average laborer working in the city of Rome earned 6 1/2 ''denarii'' a day which was 5 times what a provincial worker would make. By middle of the 1st century AD this number was higher because of inflation but however the high cost of living in the city of Rome kept the value of real wages down.

Some plebeians would sell themselves into slavery or their children in order to have access to wealthy households and to them hopefully advance socially along