A delightful story of ancient banking -- much like today, actually. Are
there any mines in Sardinia?
<<<<
Refutatio omnium haeresium, a work attributed to Hippolytus and found in a
convent on Mount Athos in 1844, reports the bankruptcy of Callistus's in
detail. Like the recurring crises which plagued Greece, the bankruptcy of
Callistus occurred after a pronounced inflationary boom followed by a
serious confidence crisis, a drop in the value of money and the failure of
multiple financial and commercial firms. These events took place between
185 and 190AD under the rule of the Emperoro Commodus.
Hippolytus relates how Callistus, at the time a slave to his fellow
Christian Carpophorus, starting a banking business in his name and took in
deposits mainly from widows and Christians (a group that was already
increasing in influence and membership. Nevertheless, Callistus deceitfully
appropriated the money and, as he was unable to return it on demand, tried
to escape by sea and even attempted suicide. After a series of adventures,
he was flogged and sentence to hard labour in the mines of Sardinia.
Finally he was miraculously released when Marcia, concubine of the Emperor
Commodus and a Christian herself, used her influence. Thirty years later, a
freedman, he was chosen as the seventeenth Pope in the year 217AD and
eventually died a martyr when thrown into a well by pagns during a public
riot on October 14, 222AD.
>>>>
From: Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles by Jesus Huerta de Soto
(Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009)
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
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