This master’s thesis looks at how Rome paid its soldiers and the impact of this payment on the Roman economy. The research will make a significant contribution to the classics field in its focused exploration of how Roman soldiers were paid, the payment sources and how these payments contributed to the Roman Empire's vast military operations. This thesis will further analyze how the payment of soldiers impacted Rome’s inflation during the Republic and Augustan and Flavian periods of the early Empire. The author uses numismatic evidence to support his arguments. In chapter 1, the author uses research by Duncan-Jones and Michael Crawford’s hoard evidence to support the line of inquiry on how much it cost to pay the Roman army. In chapter 2, the author argues for and provides support on using Dutch excavation findings to illustrate the types of coins used and when they were used to pay the Roman military. Previously, scholars relied on excavations in German forts along the main part of the Rhine for such evidence. The author’s use of numismatic evidence in this unique way provides further support that the use of the denarius was the government's standard currency. He includes pictures of similar coins from the McMaster Museum of Art’s Bruce Brace Coin Collection to help the reader visualize the currency. Finally, in chapter 3, the author looks at the economic impact of such massive payments to pay Rome’s ever-expanding army. There, he uses numismatic evidence to look at issues of debasement, inflation and the bi-metallic standard. Again, he returns to the Dutch fort excavations for additional evidence on debasement. In each chapter, the author looks at the socioeconomic impacts of these issues on the soldiers, especially the foot soldiers, and asks the question of how Rome valued its army. From this thesis, readers will gain insight into how paying the military negatively impacted Rome’s economy. The inflation that resulted had a significant impact on Roman culture, and this thesis focuses on the specific impact on Roman soldiers. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This master’s thesis looks at how Rome paid its soldiers and the impact of this payment on its economy. The research will help our field to explore how soldiers were paid, where the money came from and how these payments to its vast military operations impacted Rome’s inflation during the Republic and Augustan and Flavian periods of the early Empire. The author uses numismatic evidence in a unique way to support his arguments on issues including the costs of paying the army, the use of the denarius as the government's standard currency and the impact on the economy of such massive payments, including its association with debasement, inflation and the bi-metallic standard. In each chapter, the author looks at the socioeconomic impacts of these issues on the soldiers, especially the foot soldiers, and asks the question of how Rome valued its army.

Every investigation technique has its specific advantages: this is the reason why, in modern research, it is common to combine many investigation techniques – especially the non-destructive ones - to achieve deeper structural information about a sample. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and fluorescence (XRF) techniques are useful non-destructive analytical techniques, with applications not only in industrial field and mining but also in environmental control and cultural heritage monitoring and conservation. In the present research, the advantages of a combined approach with XRF and XRD techniques are considered, due to their complementarity, and a new method of combining data is presented, executing the simultaneous computation of the refinement both for XRF and XRD. In this case, instead of the common approach with an iterative refinement, passing from XRF to XRD and vice versa, both XRF and XRD data are processed simultaneously with a combined Rietveld refinement. This innovative approach has been implemented in the program MAUD, combining original XRD algorithm with the XRF module implementation from the GimPy and JGIXA programs, creating comprehensive radiation–matter interaction model, which takes care of both elastic scattering and photoelectric absorption/fluorescence. Moreover, through a plugin-based application container, Eagle-X, specifically developed for this research project, some easy external wizards have been developed using JAVA language for preliminary XRF analysis and model set-up, which will be in the next future integrated into the MAUD current interface. This new approach has been applied to two case studies. The first study was in the cultural heritage field with the analysis of ancient Venetian coins, called sesini, which were never investigated before. These coins were widely used in the Venetian Republic over a time span ranging from the second half of the 16th until the early years of the 17th century. The rationale of the study was to establish a multilayer model that once validated could be used for fully non-destructive characterization of similar items. The approach, applied to 20 samples from different time periods, has given interesting results. First, the actual composition of the copper-based alloy used for these specific types of Venetian coin has been measured for the first time, using a three-layer model, with also direct measurements on the coin cross-section for validating the data obtained. Second, the detailed characterization of the coins provided essential background knowledge for fully non-destructive characterization of the same kind of coins. Third, the data obtained were very interesting from a historical point of view, because the silver depletion, which this research has investigated over the coin series, reflects a political and economic situation in strong evolution for the Venetian Republic in the second half of 16th century. Political and economic competitors and a continuous effort in military confrontations obliged Venice to revise its coin system and values not only for sesini but also for the other silver-based coins, with larger value, in a process called debasement. The second application of the combined approach regarded an industrial application concerning a sintered titanium alloy, Ti6AlV4, that has the widest use (about 45% of the total production), because of good machinability and excellent mechanical properties. This is an alloy which contains the two allotropic forms of Ti, the Ti-alpha, which has compact hexagonal cell, stable at room temperature, and Ti-beta phase, which has a body-centred cubic lattice, stable over 882°C. The presence of the two phases is related to the presence of atomic elements which are alpha- and beta-stabilizers. In this case study six samples, produced with Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology, with different production parameters, has been considered, and a model based on a surface layer of compact oxide and a bulk with the alloy only has been adopted. The model has evidenced the presence of the TiO2 oxide on the surface, as attended from existing literature, and confirmed the quality of the alloy because for all the samples, the investigated areas report Al e V content inside the ranges required by ASTM and ISO specifications. The analysis has allowed also to investigate the presence of contaminants like copper due to the cutting process by Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM), and to find a correlation between the content of Ti-beta phase inside the samples and the combined presence of iron and silicon, which increases as soon as increase also the two elements. Moreover, the increase of Ti-beta phase is boosted by the contemporary increase in energy density during SLM production process. This is consistent with the fact that higher energy allows a higher localized temperature in SLM process and the equilibrium fraction of beta phase rises at high temperatures. This then leads to a higher fraction of alpha+beta phases at room temperature and, because the cooling rate was the same for all samples, this means a higher fraction of  phase at room temperature. The application of the technique to the two case studies is very productive from the informational point of view, but a critical aspect for a successful application of the technique is the sample. No preparation is virtually needed for analysis but, of course, this is immediately true for industrial components as soon as they are produced, but it is not so true for archaeological artefacts, where the condition of production, history and store conditions are unknown. Corrosion patinas can alter the read of the data, and some care must be taken for analysis, not only because the patinas may not be homogenous, but also because the depth of penetration for XRF and XRD are not the same, respect to the same substrate. The cleaning of the artefacts is not always possible or desired by the owners, so this can at first stage complicate the approach to combined analysis, regarding the model to be adopted in material simulation for data interpretation. In any case, the combined analysis remains a valid approach provided that the user is conscious of the limits in terms of depth of analysis, linked to the analysis tool (X-ray beam, detector, etc...) and to the surface conditions of the sample.

Les penseurs de l’herméneutique du XXe siècle ont redéfini essentiellement l’humain comme un être en quête de sens, interprétant sans cesse le ‘monde’ à travers ‘son propre monde’, cette compréhension transformante contribuant à son devenir. Serait-il pertinent dans une recherche de sens qui caractérise une démarche de foi, d’utiliser des outils herméneutiques ouvrant les Écritures sur d’autres possibles que ce que la Tradition chrétienne propose aujourd’hui ? Le présent mémoire veut répondre par l’affirmative à ce défi, en appliquant une approche processuelle sur le chapitre 16 du livre d’Ézéchiel, un prophète avec lequel la tradition juive a gardé une certaine prudence et un texte particulièrement osé que la pastorale chrétienne a ignoré. Après une mise en situation qui trace les paramètres fondamentaux de la démarche entreprise dans ce mémoire (chapitre 1), une traduction littérale du texte hébreu est proposée, faisant ressortir les nuances que suggèrent les formes verbales et les éléments particuliers que révèle une analyse macro-syntaxique (chapitre 2); la méthode d’analyse processuelle choisie pour interpréter le texte est inédite dans le monde francophone, tout comme la perspective processuelle de l’étude telle qu’elle se déploie dans les chapitres 3 et 4 du mémoire. L’analyse débouche sur des propositions théologiques originales, redéfinissant notamment la Toute-Puissance divine comme un entêtement qui cherche à convaincre, et inscrivant le pardon divin au creux de la liberté et de la responsabilité humaines. / Hermeneutic thinkers of the twentieth century have essentially redefined man as a being who is in search of meaning, constantly interpreting the 'world' through 'his own world', with this transformative understanding contributing to his future. Is it therefore relevant, in the search for meaning that characterizes a journey of faith, to read the Scriptures in ways that open new possibilities other than those currently offered by the Christian tradition? This essay proposes an affirmative answer to this challenge by applying a Process Approach to the text of Chapter 16 of the Book of Ezekiel, a prophet whom Jewish tradition has historically treated with suspicion and a particularly bold text that the Christians disregarded. After setting the parameters of the study (Chapter 1), a literal translation of the Hebrew text is presented, highlighting the nuances suggested by language choice as well as particular elements revealed by macro-syntax analysis (Chapter 2). The process analysis method chosen to interpret the text is unprecedented in the Francophone world, as is the process context of the study outlined in Chapters 3 and 4. The conclusions identify original theological concepts, most notably redefining God as a stubborn will that seeks to convince, and inscribing his forgiveness deeply in human liberty and responsibility.

O estudo da moeda contribui para a compreensão da dinâmica do Antigo Sistema Colonial. Entre Portugal e Brasil, no seiscentos, ocorria uma evasão monetária em virtude, sobretudo, das vantagens comerciais fundadas no exclusivo metropolitano. Esta evasão foi agravada pela lei de 4 de agosto de 1688, que determinava um aumento de 20% no valor extrínseco das moedas portuguesas e que as patacas espanholas deveriam correr a peso pela razão de 100 réis a oitava. O objetivo da lei era combater o cerceio e evitar a evasão monetária na metrópole. Entretanto, no Brasil, cujo meio circulante era composto predominantemente por patacas cerceadas, houve resistências, insatisfações e até motins contra a implementação da lei, que diminuiria o valor extrínseco do dinheiro dos moradores na colônia. O governador-geral Câmara Coutinho publicou e fez cumprir a lei, o que intensificou ainda mais o escoamento de moedas do Brasil para Portugal, acentuando ainda mais as dificuldades dos senhores de engenho e lavradores, num momento crítico da produção açucareira. Quando a escassez de dinheiro comprometeu a arrecadação, ordenou-se a fundação da Casa da Moeda na Bahia para produção de moedas provinciais. / The study of currency contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of the Old Colonial System. Between Portugal and Brazil in the seventeenth century, there was a evasion of coins due mainly to commercial advantages based on metropolitan exclusive. This evasion was intensified by the law of August 4th, 1688, which determined an increase of 20% in the extrinsic value of the Portuguese coins, and that the Spanish patacas should run by the weight ratio of 100 reis by one eighth. The purpose of the law was to combat the curtailment and prevent the evasion of coins in the metropolis. However, in Brazil, whose currency was composed predominantly by curtailed patacas, there were resistances, dissatisfaction and even riots against the implementation of the law, which would decrease the extrinsic value of the money of the residents in the colony. The general governor Câmara Coutinho published and did comply with the law, which further intensified the flow of coins from Brazil to Portugal, further accentuating the difficulties of the senhores de engenho and lavradores, at a critical moment in sugar production. When the money shortage undertook the tax collection, it was ordered the founding of the Mint in Bahia for the production of provincial coins.

O estudo da moeda contribui para a compreensão da dinâmica do Antigo Sistema Colonial. Entre Portugal e Brasil, no seiscentos, ocorria uma evasão monetária em virtude, sobretudo, das vantagens comerciais fundadas no exclusivo metropolitano. Esta evasão foi agravada pela lei de 4 de agosto de 1688, que determinava um aumento de 20% no valor extrínseco das moedas portuguesas e que as patacas espanholas deveriam correr a peso pela razão de 100 réis a oitava. O objetivo da lei era combater o cerceio e evitar a evasão monetária na metrópole. Entretanto, no Brasil, cujo meio circulante era composto predominantemente por patacas cerceadas, houve resistências, insatisfações e até motins contra a implementação da lei, que diminuiria o valor extrínseco do dinheiro dos moradores na colônia. O governador-geral Câmara Coutinho publicou e fez cumprir a lei, o que intensificou ainda mais o escoamento de moedas do Brasil para Portugal, acentuando ainda mais as dificuldades dos senhores de engenho e lavradores, num momento crítico da produção açucareira. Quando a escassez de dinheiro comprometeu a arrecadação, ordenou-se a fundação da Casa da Moeda na Bahia para produção de moedas provinciais. / The study of currency contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of the Old Colonial System. Between Portugal and Brazil in the seventeenth century, there was a evasion of coins due mainly to commercial advantages based on metropolitan exclusive. This evasion was intensified by the law of August 4th, 1688, which determined an increase of 20% in the extrinsic value of the Portuguese coins, and that the Spanish patacas should run by the weight ratio of 100 reis by one eighth. The purpose of the law was to combat the curtailment and prevent the evasion of coins in the metropolis. However, in Brazil, whose currency was composed predominantly by curtailed patacas, there were resistances, dissatisfaction and even riots against the implementation of the law, which would decrease the extrinsic value of the money of the residents in the colony. The general governor Câmara Coutinho published and did comply with the law, which further intensified the flow of coins from Brazil to Portugal, further accentuating the difficulties of the senhores de engenho and lavradores, at a critical moment in sugar production. When the money shortage undertook the tax collection, it was ordered the founding of the Mint in Bahia for the production of provincial coins.