I'll put in a small comment regarding late Roman/Byzantine. it seems the idea of inflation as we see it today was not fully realized then. They had some idea but did not have as effective means of controlling it (though, I'd note our ability to control inflation is not so secure as some might think).

They did understand debasement (changing the gold/silver content of their hard coins) and how it had an effect on prices, so they weren't completly clueless. There were several laws passed that set the base weights for metals in certain coins. I know there was at least one program made to collect the older, less valuable coins and replace them with one's that had higher gold/silver content in an attempt to help stablize prices.

Ultimatley, in Byzantium, this system eventually failed. Coinage become less and less common. Taxes were taken in-kind, as in, farmers would give so many chikens, bushels of grain, etc based on how tax collectors assessed their estates. It eventually turned into a system that mirrors the feudal states that existed in Western Europe.

Sources: Byzantium: The Decline and Fall: John Julius Norwich