THE

MEASURES, WEIGHTS, AND MONEYS

OF THE

GREEKS AND ROMAN S.

rately it may have been determined, can now be of little use, inasmuch as the present standard foot is greater than that employed by him, by an excess not easily ascertained, though it has been estimated by Raper at which, applied as a correction, would give the Statilian foot .970056 ft. Auzout, according to Raper, found it .96996 ft., and Revillas .96979 ft. The mean value of the Statilian foot deduced from these observations is then 11.639224 inch.-2. The Cossutian foot was found on the tombstone of Cn. Cossutius (probably the same with a celebrated arch!tect mentioned by Vitruvius), and dug up about the same time with the Statilian, in the gardens of Angelo Colozzi, from whom it has taken the name of Colotian; the divisions are scarcely perceptible; Greaves found it .967 ft., which, corrected, is .965066 ft.-3. The Ebutian foot was discovered on the monument of M.

quently makes cadus synonymous with it, and by the | found it .972 feet, which measurement, however accuGreeks it was called κεράμιον, ἀμφορεύς, and μετρητής 'Iraλikós. The greatest liquid measure was the Culeus or Culleus=20 amphora. The divisions of the amphoræ are easily inferred from the plebiscitum just mentioned, and from the following passage of Volusius Mæcianus: "Quadrantal, quod, nunc plerique amphoram vocant, habet urnas 2, modios 3, semimodios 6, congios 8, sextarios 48, heminas 96, quartarios 192, cyathos 576." The Urna was so called, according to Varro, "ab urinando, quod in aquá hauriendá, urinat, hoc est mergitur, ut urinator." Congius was the cube of half a pes; one of Vespasian's is still extant, marked with the letters P. X., which denote pondo decem, ten being the number of pounds it contained by law. Congii of wine or oil were given to the people by the emperors and chief magistrates on holydays, which gifts were hence called congiarii, and persons frequently derived surnames from the number of congii of wine they were in the habit of drinking at a draught; hence Cicero's son was called Bicongius, and Novellus Torquatus, a Milanese, Tricongius. (Plin., 14, 22.)

butius, in the Villa Mattai; it is but rudely divided into palmi, and its mean length is 11.6483 inch.-4. The Capponian foot was found on a marble without inscription in the Via Aurelia, and presented by the Marquis Capponi to the Capitoline Museum, where it is preserved with the three others. Revillas found it 11.625 inch. The value of the pes, if considered as the mean of these four feet, is 11.623326 inch.

Sextarius was of the congius 2 hemina 4 quartarii=12 cyathi; hence the sextarius, from the fact of its containing 12 cyathi, was regarded as the as or unit of liquid measures, and its uncia or cyathi were denominated, according to their numbers, sextans, (b) From the foot-rules we might expect to derive a quadrans, &c. It may be remarked that the ancients, result more worthy of reliance, since they were conat their entertainments, were in the habit of drinking structed for the direct purpose of measurement, those as many cyathi as there were letters in the names of on the marble being probably intended to explain the their mistresses. (Martial, Epig., 9, 93; 1, 72.) profession of the individuals to whose memory they There were two kinds of sextarii, the castrensis and were erected. The foot-rules were bars of iron or urbicus, the former being double of the latter, or com- brass, of the length of a pes. Those most celebrated mon sextarius. Acetabulum was half the quartarius, are the three discovered by Patus, equal in length, of and was so called, in imitation of the Greeks (to whose which a model, cut in marble, was placed by him in ¿úbapov it corresponded), from acetum, since it was the Capitol, whence the foot has been styled the Capfirst used for holding sauce for meat. Ligula or lin-itoline, and has been generally considered as the true gula at first simply signified a spoon, but was afterward regarded by the Latin physicians as a fourth of the cyathus; Pliny and Columella make cochlear or cochleare synonymous with it.

2. For things dry. The unit of this measure was the modius, which contained two semimodii, and was of the amphora, as is apparent from the passage of Volusius Mæcianus above quoted. The remaining measures, sextarius, hemina, &c., bear the same relation to the amphora in the dry as in the liquid

measure.

4. DETERMINATION OF THE ROMAN MEASURES. The measures of Length, Extent, and Capacity are so intimately connected that the determination of their values will easily be deduced from that of the pes. Various measurements have been made, and various modes of investigation been pursued, for the purpose of assigning the value of the Roman foot, which, from the imperfection of instruments, the want of accuracy of observation, and of attention paid to the degree of injury which the specimens examined may have suffered, differ considerably in their results. We shall give a brief account of most of these observations, and, as far as possible, assign to each its proper degree of credence. All that has served as a means of calculating the value of the Roman foot may be arranged under the following classes: (a) Specimens of the pes found on tombstones. (b) Foot-rules. (c) Milestones. (d) Distances of places. (e) Congii. (ƒ) Dimensions of ancient buildings at Rome.

Roman foot. From the numerous measurements it has undergone, it has sensibly increased, so that its value must be assumed 128.695 Par. lin., its origi nal determination by Patus, reduced to the French standard by Wurm. Now the Paris line being (ac cording to the mean value of the toises of Canivet and Lenoir, as given by Mr. Hassler) equal to .007401829 English feet, the Capitoline foot equalled .95258 feet. Besides the Patian, other foot-rules remain, not, however, celebrated; their values are mostly between .967

and .97 ft.

(c) The distances between the milestones might furnish a correct determination of the Roman foot, were it not that none are now standing within 30 miles of Rome, and, therefore, none to be much relied on as having been originally measured off with accuracy. Bianchinus, however, a celebrated Italian philosopher and mathematician of the 17th century, from the distances of the milestones on the Appian road, deduced the Roman foot-130.6 Par. lin. 11.60015 inch.

(d) The measures of the public roads recorded in the Itinerary of Antoninus and in the Peutinger Table, can be of little assistance in our inquiry, since those records not only omit fractions, which must have existed, but are frequently at variance with each other. Besides, it is not known whether the distances are reckoned from the market-places or from the gates; and an error of half a mile in sixty, being equivalent to an error of the tenth part of an inch in a foot, no exact value of the Roman foot could be hence derived, even though the mensurations of Cassini, Riccioli, and others were totally unexceptionable.

(a) There remain four celebrated specimens of the Roman foot represented on tombstones, which have (e) In the description of the measures of capacity, been respectively named the Statilian, Cossutian, Ebu- it was stated that the congius, in accordance with a tian, and Capponian feet. 1. The Statilian foot was plebiscitum (the Silian law), contained ten Roman discovered in the 16th century in the Vatican Gar-pounds of wine or water. By the determination of dens at Rome, on the tombstone of a certain Statilius: the libra, which is given in section v., the congius though in a state of good preservation, it is of clumsy weighed 50495.3064 grs.; now as a cubic inch of workmanship, and carelessly subdivided. Greaves distilled water, at maximum density, weighs 252.632

we are informed by Corn. Celsus, as the of an uncia. But it gradually diminished in weight under the Cæsars (see Table XII.); and having subsequently regained its original weight, though with a considerable abasement of its purity, it continued to be the current silver money of the empire till Constantine substituted the miliarensis in its stead. Letronne having carefully weighed 1350 consular denarii, deduced the weight of the denarius=73 Par. grs. 59.84 mint-pound grs. Now its purity being .97, its value is easily calculated 8d. 2.17 far. 15 cts., 4.7 mills. (See Tables X. and XI.)

The golden coins of Aurei were issued A.U.C. 546, weighing 1 or more scrupula, the scrupulum of gold passing for 20 sestertii. Some few remain with the numerals XX. and XXXX., which indicate their values to be respectively 20 and 40 sesterces. They have the head of Mars and the numerals denoting their value on one side, and on the reverse an eagle standing on a thunderbolt. Afterward it was thought proper to coin 40 aurei out of the pound, each valued at 25 denarii; their mean weight is 125.62 grs. The aureus gradually diminished in weight during the time of the emperors (see Tab. XII.), till in Pliny's time 45 were struck out of the pound. The Emperor Severus coined semisses and tremisses of gold, whence the aureus, being considered the integer, was denominated Solidus. Soon after, the coinage, becoming irregular, was entirely remodelled by Constantine, who coined 72 solidi out of the pound, each weighing then 4 scrupula or 70.13 grs., and made the pound of gold equal to 1000 miliarenses; so that the solidus equalled 137 miliarenses, though it passed for 14.

assaymasters. The entire mint was under the general drachm, prescribed by it; it was then considered, as superintendence of three men, appointed by the people at the Comitia Tributa, denominated Triumviri Monetales. The Romans counted by asses, sestertii, denarii, and aurei. The as (originally assis, from aes), or assipondium, was at first libralis, and bore the impression of Janus geminus, or bifrons, on one side; on the reverse, the rostrum of a ship, and was at first, as we have noticed, libralis; but in the first Punic war, in consequence of the scarcity of money, the republic ordered asses to be struck weighing 2 unciæ, by which, as Pliny informs us, it gained and discharged its debt; it was subsequently reduced, when Hannibal invaded Italy, to the weight of an uncia, and lastly by the Papirian law to that of a semiuncia; and though this rapid diminution of its weight was required by the necessities of the commonwealth, it would eventually have been accomplished by the increasing abundance of silver and gold. The as thus reduced was, in reference to its original weight, denominated libella, and the older coins are distinguished from it by later writers when they speak of as grave. Besides the as, its subdivisions, viz., semisses, trientes, quadrantes, sextantes, stipes unciales, semiunciœ, and sextula (the smallest of the Roman coins according to Varro), and its multiples, dupondii, quatrusses, and decusses, were coined; specimens of which remain at the present day, and are to be found in the most valuable collections of ancient coins. But those pieces less than the as which were most frequently coined, were the semissis and quadrans, bearing the impress of a boat instead of the rostrum of a ship; the former was also named sembella (quasi semilibella), the latter teruncius. The sestertius, quinarius, and denarius were silver coins, and called bigati or quadrigati, from the impression of a chariot drawn by two or four horses, which they bore on one side, that on the reverse being the head of Roma with a helmet. The sestertius (or semistertius) was so called by a figure borrowed from the Greeks, and equalled 2 asses; its symbol is H. S., abbreviated from L. L. S., the initials of libra, libra, semis. The sestertium, or 1000 sestertii, was expressed by the symbol HS; it was not a coin, but was employed by the Romans, together with the sestertius, in computing large sums of money. Their method of notation was effected by The unit of linear measure adopted by the Greeks combining the symbols with their numeral characters; was the foot (IIous), of which the dúkrvnog, or finger's thus HS. MC. indicates 1100 sestertii; but if the breadth, was, and the Talaiorý, or palm, 4. The numerals have a line over them, centena millia or latter was also understood by doxun, from dérouai, “to 100,000 is understood; thus HS. MC. means 110 receive," by the compound term dakrvλodoxun, and by When the numerals are separ- of the latter term to this measure is commonly exdopov, which properly signifies a gift; the application ated by points into two or three orders, the 1st on the right hand denotes units, the 2d, thousands, the plained by the fact, that the palm of the hand is natu3d, hundred thousands; thus, III. XII. DC. HS. de- rally extended in receiving a gift. Erilaμn, or span, notes 300,000+12,000+600-312600 sestertii. The equals 12 dúkruλot, and is defined by Hesychius to following illustration may be also added. Pliny says, that of the little finger, when the hand is opened with be the distance from the extremity of the thumb to that seven years before the first Punic war there were in the Roman Treasury "auri pondo XVI. DCCCX.; a view of grasping or measuring any object. The diargenti pondo XXII. LXX.; et in numerato LXII visions of the Tous, more rarely employed, are kovovLXXV. CCCC." (33, 3); that is, 16.810 pounds 20s, dixúc, ixús, and optódwpov; the first being 2 of gold, 22,070 pounds of silver, and 6,275,400 sesdúkтvhoι, and the second Tous, hence entitled by tertii of ready money. The quinarius was equal to 5 Theophrastus huódiov. The xúc was 10 dákTvasses, and marked V; by the Clodian law it was im-201, and the optódwpov, being the length of the hand pressed with the figure of Victory, and hence called Victoriatus. The denarius, at its first institution, equalled 10 asses, and was stamped with the numeral X or

millions of sestertii.

But when the Romans were pressed by Hannibal, A.U.C. 537, the as having been made uncialis, the denarius passed for 16 asses, the quinarius for 8, and the sestertius for 4; and when the as was made semiuncialis the same proportion was retained, except in the payment of the soldiers, with whom the denarius preserved its original value. The denarius was not used as a weight until the Greek physicians came to Rome, who, finding it nearly equal to their

The ratio of gold to silver during the republic and the twelve Cæsars is given in Tab. XII.

The Grecian measures, weights, and coins, being well known to the Romans, were mostly determined by them to have some definite relation to their own; so that they will oppose less difficulties in assigning their values.

7. GRECIAN MEASURES OF LENGTH.

from the wrist to the extremity of the middle finger, equalled 11 dákтuho. Pollux (lib. 2), from whom the previous definitions have been derived, informs us that πυγμή=18 δάκτυλοι, was the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the metacarpal bone of the middle finger, while that reckoned to the extremity of its first phalanx was Tuyúv=20 dáктvλ01, and that x=24 dákтvλo, was the cubit, or the distance from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger. The s then contained 13 πόδες. The βῆμα Was 23 πόδες, and thus corresponded to the pes sestertius of the Romans. It was employed by the people at large as the unit of distance, whence ẞnuariotaí mean measurers of

The

roads. Opyvia, or fathom, from opéyw, “to extend," of horn; and aμpopɛús, from auoipopeus, receiving its is the distance from the hands, when the arms are name from the two handles by which it was carried. raised and extended, measured along the breast, and Another synonyme was σταμνίον (“ κεράμιον τοῦ οἴνου equals 6 Todes; hence it has received from Herodo-údaros σтauviov," Hesychius.) From the verses of Rhemnius Fannius, tus the epithets τετράπηχυς and ἑξαπόδης. measure from which the Romans probably borrowed "Attica præterea dicenda est amphora nobis their decempeda was ἄκαινα or κάλαμος=10 πόδες; Seu cadus; hunc facies, si nostræ addideris urnam,' six of these constituted the "Apua, which, together with the Théopov 100 ródes, and the xúhauoc, was it appears that the μεтpητns=1 amphora 8 galls., 2 used principally in the measurement of lands. The qts., 0.46 pts. It contained 12 xovs, 72 §éoral, and 144 most ancient itinerary measure of the Greeks was the Korúhai; and, by comparing the Roman and Greek caOтúdiov, which appears to have had a very rude ori-pacious measures, we will perceive that the youç corregin. It is said to have been the invention of Hercu- sponded in value to the congius, éorns to sextarius, and Certain festivals at Athens were les, whose athletic exertion it exhibited, since it com- KOTúλn to hemina. prehended the distance which he was able to run with- called xóɛç, because, according to Suidas, every man had out taking breath. Isidorus informs us that it took a your of wine given him, and, as Athenæus declares, its name from tornu, "to stand," and assigns as a because Demophoön, king of Athens, offered a sweetreason, "quod in fine respirasset simulque stetisset." cake, and Dionysius the tyrant a crown of gold, as a prize It was established as the measure of the length of the to the first person who drank a xous of wine. KOTÚλn avλóc, or foot-course, at the Olympic games; and from derived its name from its cavity, and Galen mentions, the respect in which these exercises were held, it be- that the Korúλŋ and hemina were applied by the ancient came an itinerary measure. This distance, the hero physicians to the same use with the modern graduated who instituted it measured by the length of his foot, glasses of our apothecaries, being vessels of horn, of which he found equal to one six hundredth part of the rectangular or cylindrical shape, divided on the outcourse. Censorinus and M. Gossellin have endeav- side, by means of lines, into 12 parts, which they oured to show that there were different stadia em- called ounces of measure (ovyyiaι μɛтρikai), and corployed among the Greeks, but their remarks have responded to a certain number of ounces by weight been completely refuted by Wurm. 'ITTIKOV, or the (ovyyiaι oтabμikai). Now the hemina, being of distance a horse could run, "sub uno spiritu," equals 4 the amphora, weighed, when filled with wine, 10 unorádia, and Aóλxoç has been variously assumed as 6, cia, so that the account of Galen is involved in doubt, 7, 8, and even 24 orádia, but more correctly as 12. inasmuch as the ounce by measure was hence of Those linear measures which were known to the that by weight. Τέταρτον, ὀξύβαφον, and κύαθος were Greeks by their intercourse with other nations, were respectively equal to the quartarius, acetabulum, and Miλtov, or the Roman mile 8 orádia; Пapaoáy- cyathus of the Romans. The remaining measures are γης=30 στάδια, according to Herodotus (2, 6) and κόγχη, μύστρον, χήμη, and κοχλιάριον, concerning Xenophon (Anab., 5, 7), though Strabo makes it, in which authors are slightly at variance. Cleopatra different places, 40 and 60 orádia; and Exoivos, an makes a greater and less koyxn, the greater being the Egyptian measure, whose value is differently assigned same with the oğúbapov, the less † kúałoç; while Pliny (12, 25) makes the κóyxn a determinate measure. Μύστρον οι μύστλον was borrowed, as its name imports, from the shell of the sea-mouse, and was of two kinds: the less and more common being kúados, the greater of the Korúhŋ. Xhμn, derived also from some shellfish, was divided into the greater or rustic, KOTÚλn; and the less, or that used by physi

to be 60, 40, and 32 orádia.

8. DETERMINATION OF THE GREEK FOOT. There are two methods of investigating the value of the Tous proposed to us: the first consists in its determination by its ratio to the Roman foot; the second, by means of the public edifices of the Greeks which are yet standing. 1. All authors agree that the ratio subsisting be-ians, 30 korún. Koxhiúpiov was equal to tween the Roman and Greek foot is 24: 25, as might 2. For things dry.-The largest measure employed also be inferred from the value the Greeks assigned in the measurement of grain was Médiuvos=ɓ modu. to μίλιον, which we have mentioned was 8 στάδια Its divisions were τρίτος, ἕκτος, and ἡμίεκτον ; and 4800 módec-5000 pedes. Now the Roman foot hav-it contained 48 xoivikes; so that the xoivis equalled ing been determined .97075 ft., the value of the 4 κοτύλαι. The remaining measures were the same

Greek foot hence deduced is 1.0111812 ft.

χήμη.

11. GRECIAN WEIGHTS.

2. Mr. Stuart, who examined the temples remain-with the liquid measures. (See Tab. XVI. and XVII.) ing at Athens, found the average ratio of the Greek to the Roman foot to be 25.04: 24. (Quarterly Review, No. 10, p. 280.) The Greek foot would hence

=1.0128168 ft.

The mean of these two values is 1.011999 ft. We prefer, however, adopting Wurm's determination, who has examined Mr. Stuart's measurements with great accuracy, and has equalled the Greek foot to 136.65 Par. lin. 1.01146 ft. (See Tab. XIII. and XIV.)

The unit of weight was Spaxun or drachm-6 660hot. 'Obohós equalled, according to Pollux, 8 xaλkoi, and the χαλκός, on the authority of Suidas =7 λέπτα ; though Pliny makes the 660λós=10, and Suidas =6 xaλkoi. The Romans translated xaλkóç areolus, and Enrov minuta or minutia. Though Rhemnius Fannius asserts that the Greeks used no weights less than the bbohós, the physicians employed some smaller, viz., KEрúτiov, equal to the siliqua of the Romans, The unit of extent was 'Apovpa, being a square uncia, and ourάptov, or grain, siliqua. whose side is 50 módes; it was divided into sixths and twelfths, respectively called KTOι and hμieкTOL. The πλέθρον contained 4 άρουραι, and is the measure most frequently mentioned in the superficial measurements of lands. The values and relations of the oth-Romans, they divided into 12 ovyyíaι; the ráhavтoV

9. GRECIAN MEASURES OF EXTENT.

ers are exhibited in Table XV.

10. GRECIAN MEASURES OF CAPACITY.

1. For Liquids.-The greatest liquid measure was Μετρητής, which was also called κάδος, from χαδεῖν, "to contain ;" Kepáμιov, probably from its being made

The multiples of the ponderal unit, or the weights greater than the dpaxun, were the μvā or mina=100, and Táλavrov 6000 dpaxuaí. From libra, the later Greeks derived their Airpa, which, in imitation of the

being, according to Livy (38, 38), 80 libræ, the libra 75 Spaxual, and the dpaxun libra=67.327 grs.; which result differs very little from that assigned by Wurm. Considering that a more correct value of the δραχμή might be obtained from the coins extant, he has followed the determinations of Letronne, and