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

PONDEBtl A. PONDERA. 935
was called the gold talent, or the Sicilian talent grains. Hence the pound will be 288 x 17i1
from its being much used by the Greeks of Italy 5040 grains, as before. The next aurei coined
and Sicily. This talent is perhaps connected with were, according to Pliny, 40 to the pound, and
the small talent which is the only one that occurs therefore, if the above calculation be right, = ] 26
in Homer. - The Italian Greeks divided it into grains; and we do find many of this weight. But,
24 numnni, and afterwards into 12 (Pollux, ix. 6; well as these results hang together, there is great
Festus, s. v. Talentune).; [Compare NusMtus, p. doubt of their truth. For, besides the uncertainty
814.] which always attends the process of calculating a
This small talent explains the use of the term larger quantity from a smaller on account of the
great talent (magnum talentum), which we find in multiplication of a small error, we have every
Latin authors, for the silver Attic talent was great reason to believe that the existing coins do not
in comparison with this. But the use of the term come up to their nominal weight, for there was an
by the Romans is altogether very inexact; and in early tendency in the Roman mint to make money
some cases, where they follow old Greek writers, below weight (Plin.1. L. xxxiii. 13. s. 46; compare
they use it to signify the old Attic or Euboic As, AURUs, DENARIUS), and we have no proof
Talent. that any extant coins belonged to the ver-y earliest
There are other talents barely mentioned by an- coinage, and therefore no security that they may
cient writers. Hesychius (s. v.) mentions one of not have been depreciated. In fact, there are many
100 pounds (Xirpasv), Vitruvius (x. 21) one of specimens of the denarius extant, which weigh more
120; Suidas (s. v.), Hesychius, and Epiphanius than the above average of 60 grains. It is there(de Ahfens. et Pond.) of 125; Dionysius of Halicar- fore probable that the weight of 5040 grains, ob,
nassus (ix. 27) one of 125 asses, and Hesychius tained from this source, is too little. Hence,
three of 165, 400, and 1125 pounds respectively. Wuerm and Bbickh, who also follow the coins, give
Where talents are mentioned in the classical it a somewhat higher value, the former making it
writers without any specification of the standard, 5053'635 grains, and the latter 5053-28. (Hussey,
we must generally understand the Attic. c. 9; Wurm, c. 2; Bdckh, c. 11).
10. Conparison of Grecian VWeights wuithl our own. (2) Another mode of determining the pound is
-In calculating the value of Greek weights inl from the relation between the Roman weights and
terms of our own, the only safe course is to follow mneasares. The chief measures which aid us ill
the existing coins; and among these (for the reasons this inquiry are the amphora or quadrantal, and
stated under NurvIus, p. 811, b.), it is only the the congius. The solid content of the amphora
best Attic coins that can be relied on with any c r- was equal to that of a cube, of which the side was
tainty, although there are many other coins which one Roman foot, and the weight of water it conaflord valuable confirmatory evidence, after the tained was 80 pounds. [QUADRANTAL.] Hence,
standards to which they belong have been fixed. if we can ascertain the length of the Roman foot
Mr. Hussey's computation of the Attic drachma, independently, it will give us the solid content of
from the coins, is perhaps a little too low, but it is the amphora, from which we can deduce the weight
so very near the truth that we may safely follow of the Roman pound.. Taking the Roman foot at
it, for the sakle of the advantage of using his 11 65 inches, its cube is 1581'167 cubic inches -
numbers without alteration. He makes the 5-7025 imperial gallons -- 57-025 pounds avoirdudrac/rsna 66'5 grains. [DRACHMeA,: comp. NUm- pois, the 80th part of which is'7128 of a pound,
MUrus, p. 811, b.: for the other weights see the or 4989 grains. But there are many disturbing
Tables.] elements in this calculation, of which the chief is
11. -Roman Weights. —The outline of the Roman our ignorance of the precise density of the fluid,
and Italian system of weights, which was the same 80 pounds of which filled the amphora.
as the ancient system of copper money, has been It might, at first thought, appear that the result
already given under As. The system is extremely might be obtained at once fiom the congius of
simple, but its conversion into our own standard Vespasian, which professes to hold 10 Roman
is a question of very considerable difficulty. The pounds [CONxelus], and the content of which has
following are the different methods of computing been twice examined. In 1630, Auzout found it
it:- to contain 51463-2 grains of distilled water, which
(1) Thze Roman coins furnish a mode of calcu- would give 5146-32 grains for the Roman pound.
lating the weight of the litra, which has been more In 1721, Dr. Hase found it to contain 52037'69
relied on than any other by most modern writers. grains, giving.5203'77 grains for the Roman pound.
The As will scarcely help us in this calculation, Poth these results are probably too high, on acbecause its weight, though originally a pound, was count of the enlargement which the vessel has
very early diminished, and the existing specimens undergone by the corrosion of its inner surface;
differ from each other very greatly [As], but speci- and this view is confirmed by the fact, that the
mens, which we may suppose to be asses librales, earlier of the two experiments gave it the smaller
niay of course be used as confirmatory evidence. content. (See Wurm, p. 78; Bbckh, pp. 166,
WVe must therefore look chiefly to the silver and 167.) Again, the nature of the fluid employed in
gold coins. Now the average feight of the extant the experiment, its temperature, anld the height of
specimens of the denarius is about 60 grains, and the barometer, would all influence the result, and
in the early ages of the coinage 84 denarii went to the error from these sources must occur twice,
the pound. [DENARIUS.] The pound then, by namely, at the original making of the congins and
this calculation, would contain 5040 grains. Again, at the recent weighing of its contents. We can,
the ausrei of the early gold coinage were equal in therefore, by no means agree with Mr. Hussey in
weight to a scrupulum, and its multiples. [Auauem.] taking the weight of 5204 grains, as obtained fiom
Now the scrupulum was the 288th part of the this experiment, to be the nearest approximation
pound [UNCIA], and the average of the scrupular to the weight of the Roman pound. On the conaurei has been found by Letronne tc be about 174 trary, if this method were followed at all, We
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