Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

438 DRACHMA. DRACHIMA.
the husband must return the like sum or the like as one of the subdivisions of the talent, of which
quantity. If the things, whether movable or im- it was the 6000th part. [TALENTUM.] The
movable, were valued when they were given to the original meaning of the word is a handful. The
husband (dos aestizmata), this was a species of sale, two chief standards in the currencies of the Greek
and at the end of the marriage the husband must states were the Attic and Aeginetan. We shall
restore the things or their value. If the things therefore first speak of the Attic drachma, and
weere not valued, he must restore the specific things, afterwards of the Aeginetan.
anld he must make good all loss or deterioration The average weight of the Attic drachma from
which had happened to them except by accident. the time of Solon to that of Alexander was 66'5
But the husband was intitled to be reimbursed for grains. It contained about — ath of the weight
all necessary expences (in,:esnsae szecessariae); as, alloy; and hence there remain 65-4 grains to be
for instance, necessary repairs of houses incurred valued. Each of our shillings contains 80'7 grains
by hinm in respect of Ihis wife's property, and also of pure silver. The drachma is therefore worth
tfr all outlays by which he had improved the pro- 654 72 pence, which may be
P,I (icopeesee utils). - of a shilling, or 9 72 pence, which may be
perty (inmpensae utiles).80 7 o
The husband's heirs, if he were dead, were called 9"d. (Hussey, Ancient TyeMglds and Money,
bould to restore the dos. The wife's father, or the pp. 47, 48.) After Alexand r's time, there was a
surviving wife, might demand it by an actio ex slight decrease in the weight of the drachma; till
stiuvllatu de dote roddendan,'iblAb was an actioin course of time it only weighed 63 grains. The
j;trictl juris, if there was any agreement on the drachma contained six obols (oeor); and the,ssisjct; and by an oct1o ree uxoriae or dotis, Athenians had separate silver coins, from four
which was ais aA thir doae fidei, when there was drachmae to a quarter of an obol. Among those
ilo agreement. A third person who had given the now preserved, the tetradachi is commonly
dos must always demand it ex stipulatu, when he f p e w
had bargained for its restoration. Just*ia* found; but we possess no specimens of the trihad bargained for its restoration. Justini an d only a fee of the didrachm. Specienacted, that the action should always be ex ens of the tetrobolus, triobolus, diobolus, threestipulstu, even when there was no contract, and qu rter-obol, half-obol, and quarter-obol, are still
should be an actio bonae fidei. found. For the respective values of these coils,
The wife had no security for hex dos, except see the Tables.
in the case of the fundus dotalis, urtless she had The tetradrachm in later times was called stater
bly contraet a special security; but she had some (Phot. s. v. ZTaTIp. Hesych..s.. rFauOseS Aauprivileges as compared with the husband's cre- pwirLca-i Matth. xxvii. 27); but it has been
ditors. Jlustinilan enacted that oln the dissol~u- doubted whetheor it bore that name in the flourishtion of the marriage, the -wife's ownership should ing times of the republic. (Husscy, Ibid. p. 49.)
resive, with all the legal remedies for recover- We know that states in writers of that age
inl such parts of the dos as still existed; that us-tally signifies a gold coin;, elqal in value to
all the:husband's property should be considered twenty drachmae [STATiR] butt there appear
legally pledged (tacita yljpootheca) as a security
legally pledged (toa/ta dyotleca) its a security strong reasons for believing that the tetradrachm,
for the dos; and that lthe wife, but she alone, even in the age of Thucydides and Xenophon, was
should hlave a priority of claim on such property sometimes called by this lame. (Thuc d. iii. 70,
over all other creditors to whom the same might with Ariold-s iote Xe ell.. 2 ~ 22.) The
be pledged. obolos, in later times, wras of b onze (Lucian,
The dos was a matter of great importance in Contesnpl. 11. vol. i. p. 504, ed. Reiz) but ill the
Romani law, both because it was an ingredient in best times of Athens we only redl of silver obols.
almost every marTiage, aan d was sometimes of a The xaxicous was a copper coinl and the eighth
large amount. The ifrequency of divorces also partofanobol. [CIatcus..
gave rise to many legal questions as to dos. A
woman whose dos was large,(dolata uxor) had
some influence over her husband,-inasmuch as she
had the power of divorcing herslf, and thus of
depriving him of the enjoyment of her property.
The allusions to the dos and its restitution are
numerous in the Roman writers. (Cic. ad Att.
xiv. 13.)
It is a disputed point whether there could be
dos, properly so called, in the case of a marriage
with conventio in manum. [MATRIMONIUM.] ATHENIAN DRLACHMA. BRITISH MlUSEUMl,
(Hasse, Rhein. Mus. ii. 75.) ACTUUAL SIZE.
The name by which the Greek writers designate
the Roman dos is qEpEiV (Plutarch, Caesar, c. 1, The Aeginetan standard appears to have been
Mlarius, c. 38, Cicero, c. 8). used in Greece in very early times. According to
(Ulp. Frag. vi.; Dig. 23. tit. 3; Cod. 5. tit. 12; most ancient writers, money was first coined at
Thibaut, System, &c,, ~ 728 &c., 9th ed,, ~ 747, Aegina by order of Pheidon of Argos; and the
&c.; Mackeldey, Lehl4rbch, &c., ~ 517, &c., 12th Aeginetan standard was used in almost all the
ed.) [G. L.] states of the Peloponnesur, in Boeotia and in some
DOULOS (aoiXos). [SEarJvt.] other parts of northern Greece, though the Attic
DRACHMA (apaXji4), the principal silver standard prevailed most in the maritime and comcoin among the Greeks. Like all other denomi- mercial states.
nations of money, the word 8paxIz? (sometimes The average weight of the Aeginetan drachlma,
written.pay/{) no doubt signified originally a calculated by Mr. Hussey (pp. 59, 60) from the
weight; and it continued to be used in this sense, coins of Aegina and Boeotia, was 96 grains. It