Egyptian silver drachma accounting — Ptolemaic and Roman traditions

The story

Egypt’s integration into denarius accounting can be represented as a qualified local absorption beginning in 296, with older expressions continuing into the fourth century. It is not the origin of Roman currency. Local integration in Egypt; the date range combines reform and later accounting attestation, not a dated one-off conversion. The old scale continued; no claim that all Greek currencies generated Rome’s currency. ^[1]

A 197 AD papyrus equates a denarius fine to Egyptian drachmas, with an additional agio; this attests local accounting, not the creation of either unit. ^[2]

P.Oxy.12.1431, assigned to early 351, explicitly equates 225 myriads of denarii with 1, 500 talents in a rug expenditure. ^[3]