Note 027 The sons of Alypius [Olympius in Bekker's ed.], of Symmachus, and of Maximus, spent, during their respective praetorships, twelve, or twenty, or forty, centenaries(or hundredweight of gold). See Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197 [p. 63, ed. Bekker]. This popular estimation allows some latitude; but it is difficult to explain a law in the Theodosian Code (1. vi. tit. iv. leg. 5) which fixes the expense of the first praetor at 25,000, of the second at 20,000, and of the third at 15,000 fol1es. The name of follis (see Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 727) was equally applied to a purse of 125 pieces of silver, and to a small copper coin of the value of 1/2625 part of that purse. In the former sense, the 25,000 folles would be equal to 150,000 l. in the latter to five or six pounds sterling. The one appears extravagant, the other is ridiculous. There must have existed some third and middle value, which is here understood; but ambiguity is an inexcusable fault in the language of laws.

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire— Chapter 31