The word 'salary' actually comes from the word salt. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder stated as an aside in his Natural History's discussion of sea water, that "[I]n Rome. . .the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word salary derives from it. . ."
9 cool cats commented:
There would be no Santa without salt for he soon would grow skinny and wan due to not liking his food. So this is entirely yes, a seasonal card! :)
Wow, how interesting! I learn so much coming here! :D
This is a late Thanksgiving card! We can all be grateful that we don't:
a. Work in salt mines
b. Get paid in salt
Very interesting factoid about salt and salary. I'll take my pay in dollars, or euros, or pounds please. Maybe that is where the old saying "back to the old salt mines" for going back to work comes from. Please research and report for the class Mme. Reed:)
Did you notice how well dressed most of the men were for working in a mine.
Is this a comment on your salary?
YIKES look how they are dressed... I am sure safety was not on their minds back then... just the SALTY PAY!!!!
before i moved to rome i used to live in the province of ascoli piceno on the adriatic (eastern) half of italy...the quickest way of crossing the country from ascoli to rome to this very day is the old roman salt road - "la salaria"!
Must be where the expressions "see you in the salt mines" came from as well as "I've earned my salt in pay" - two old expressions that your post brought to mind.
Salt was a valuable commodity back then. They didn't have a way to preserve food other than curing it with salt.
Wow--I'm so glad we have refrigerators and the like. (Grin) Where I grew up, most farms still had cold rooms, which were little caves they dug into the sides of hills. They would install a tightly sealed door, then put ice in when winter came. The ice stayed quite awhile.
Amazing.
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