6. Bactrian Camel, 25,000 Denarii [sing. Denarius] Communis (DC) 7. Camel with two humps, 60,000 DC 8. Female Camel with two humps, 30,000 DC 9. Best Arabian Camel, 12,000 DC 10. Best Dromedary, 20,000 DC 11. Riding Donkey, 15,000 DC 12. Pack Donkey, 7,000 DC…18. Best Sheep, 400 DC…
-Edict of Diocletian, XXXII, 301 CE
A cap on animal prices would never have worked at the Cairo camel market where traders like Hajj Bashir risked many a dinar, an Arabic word from the Roman Denarius coin, assembling Daboukas in Kordofan and sending them up the Way of the Forty to Egypt. Price controls be damned. He sold at the far end of what the market could bear and was then driven home to his flat near Midān al-Opera sitting in his Mercedes-Benz feeling far wealthier than the Emperor Diocletian.