[276] Op. cit. XXXVIII.
[277] Of course it is quite possible that the Persians issued coins in Egypt after their conquest, but these coins cannot be regarded as really Egyptian.
[278] Herod. I. 62.
[279] Head, op. cit. p. XL. Professor Percy Gardner (Types of Greek Coins, p. 2), regards the Euboic standard as 130, which he thinks was raised to 135 grs. by Solon when the latter introduced (as he supposes) the Euboic system at Athens.
[280] Head, Coinage of Syracuse, p. 71.
[281] Arist. Oeconomica, II. 21.
[282] Head, op. cit. p. 26.
[283] Chautard, Imitations des monnaies au type esterling (Nancy, 1871).
[284] Mr D. B. Monro, Historical Review, January, 1886.
[285] Il. II. 867.
[286] Od. XV. 460.
[287] Od. XV. 470.
[288] It is more probable however that Chalkos copper got its name from the place (Chalcis) where it was first found in Greece. The name Chalcis may itself be connected with χαλκίς, an owl.
[289] Tylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. I. p. 219.
[290] Schliemann, Tiryns, pl. II. Helbig, Das homerisches Epos², p. 79.
[291] Report of the British Association, 1883, p. 21.
[292] Νάφε καὶ μέμνασ’ ἀπιστεῖν, ἄρθρα ταῦτα τῶν φρενῶν, Epicharmus.
[293] Boeckh, Metrol. Untersuch. p. 32.
[294] Head, op. cit. XXVIII.
[295] “Griech. und röm. Metrologie” (in Iwan Müller’s Handbuch der klass. Altertumswissenschaft, Vol. I. p. 684).
[296] Head, op. cit. XXIX. Madden’s Jewish Coinage, p. 277.
[297] Horapollo I. 11, παρ’ Αἰγυπτίοις μονάς ἐστιν αἱ δύο δραχμαί. μονὰς δὲ παντὸς ἀριθμοῦ γένεσις. εὐλογῶς οὖν τὰς δύο δραχμὰς βουλόμενοι δηλῶσαι γύπα γράφουσι, ἐπεὶ μήτηρ δοκεῖ καὶ γένεσις εἶναι, καθάπερ καὶ ἡ μονὰς.
[298] W. M. Flinders Petrie, Naukratis, p. 75. It is with extreme reluctance that I must refuse to follow Mr Petrie, who for careful accuracy and scientific method stands at the head not only of metrologists but of archaeologists in general. But it seems to me that in his method of arriving at his weight-units from the weighing of weight-pieces he has overlooked one very important factor. False weights and balances have prevailed in all ages and countries, and we can hardly wrong the ancient Egyptians if we suppose that a certain number of their nation were not as honest as they might have been in their dealings. The variations in the weights of his specimens given by Mr Petrie may very well be due to false weights. And it must be carefully noted that frauds were not only perpetrated by means of light but also by means of too heavy weights. Whether the Jews learned to cheat when they sojourned in the land of Goshen or not, we cannot say, but that they used too heavy as well as too light weights is plain from the denunciations of the prophets: thus Amos (viii. 5), “When will the new moon be gone that we may sell corn? and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?” See also Ezekiel xlv. 10. But the practice of cheating with too heavy as well as with too light weights is best seen in Deuteronomy xxv. 13; “Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small; thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have.” It seems hardly likely that of the 516 weights found by Mr Petrie at Naukratis all were “perfect and just” weights. It is thus quite possible that the variations from what there is evidence to suppose is the normal standard, whether they be those of excess or deficiency, may be accounted for, at least in part, by this consideration. Mr Petrie’s method, if applied to natural products such as certain kinds of seeds, will of course give the truest possible result, but when the factor of human knavery enters, his method is at once open to serious drawbacks.
[299] Erman, Aegypten und Aegypt. Leben, p. 611.
[300] We also find mention of a weight called the pek, which weighed ·71 grammes (11 grains), and was the ⅟₁₂₈ part of the uten. Hultsch, Metrol.² p. 37, regards it as a provincial Ethiopian weight. Its awkward relation to the kat and uten seem to show that it did not form part of the genuine Egyptian system.
[301] The large copper coins of the Ptolemies of 1450-1350 grs. Troy (the flans of which were turned in a lathe) were almost certainly struck on the native uten.
[302] This weight (in my own possession) said to have come from India, and almost perfect, weighed 4·29 grammes.
[303] III. 89, τοῖσι μὲν αὐτῶν ἀργύριον ἀπαγινέουσι εἴρητο Βαβυλώνιον σταθμὸν τάλαντον ἀπαγινέειν, τοῖσι δὲ χρυσίον ἀπαγινέουσι Εὐβοϊκόν· τὸ δὲ Βαβυλώνιον τάλαντον δύναται Εὐβοΐδας ἑβδομήκοντα μνέας.
[304] If, as is held by some of the best critics, this is a late passage, there is an a fortiori argument against the early use of the mina.
[305] Is it possible that the so-called Ducks are only degraded forms of bull-head weights? The ears and horns were dropped as being inconvenient (see bull-head weight, p. 283), and at a later time when the tradition of their origin had been lost, the shapeless lump was adorned with a bird’s head to serve as a handle. All the large weights from Nineveh are without any head; and it is but very rarely even on the small haematite weights that the duck’s head is found fully formed.
[306] As no better selection of these weights could be made than that of Mr Head, I have followed his description. Cf. R. S. Poole, in Madden’s Jewish Coinage, p. 261 seqq., and the Report of the Warden of the Standards, 1874-5, for a full account of these weights.
[307] The Manah is of course the Meneh so familiar from Belshazzar’s vision, mene, mene tekel upharsin (Daniel v. 25), which the best scholars follow M. Clermont-Ganneau (Journal Asiatique, 1886) in interpreting as a mina, a mina, a shekel, and the parts of a shekel.
[308] Prof. Sayce (Academy, Dec. 19th, 1891) publishes a weight from Babylonia inscribed “One maneh standard weight, the property of Merodach-sar-ilani, a duplicate of the weight which Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, the son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, made in exact accordance with the weight [prescribed] by the deified Dungi, a former king.” This confirms my contention that the mina is prior in date to the talent.
[309] Cf. Plautus, Persa.
[310] Brandis, 20-38.
[311] Head, XXIX.
[312] Berosus. Synkellos 30, 6 (Eusebii chronic, ed. Alfr. Schoene vol. I. col. 8): ἀλλ’ ὁ μὲν Βηρωσσὸς διὰ σάρων καὶ νήρων καὶ σώσσων ἀνεγράψατο· ὦν ὁ μὲν σάρος τρισχιλίων καὶ ἑξακοσίων ἐτῶν χρόνον σημαίνει, ὁ δὲ νῆρος ἐτῶν ἑξακοσίων, ὁ δὲ σῶσσος ἑξήκοντα. Fragm. Script. Hist. Graec.
[313] Hultsch, op. cit. p. 407.
[314] Recueil des travaux relatifs à la Philologie et l’Archéologie Egyptiennes et Assyriennes, Vol. x. fasc. 4, p. 157.
[315] Kaeji in Fleckeisen’s Jahrbücher, 1880, first calls attention to this word.
[316] Hultsch, Metrol.², p. 131.
[317] Rig Veda, Mandala, VI. 47, 23-4.
[318] Herod. III. 96.
[319] For 20 pieces of gold (εἴκοσι χρυσῶν) LXX.
[320] Gen. xx. 16.
[321] Judges xvi. 5.
[322] Judges ix. 4.
[323] Judges xvii. 2-4.
[324] Joshua vii. 21.
[325] Cf. Buxtorf and Gesenius sub voce.
[326] A is from Beirut, in the Greville Chester Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, of white and yellow crystalline stone; wt. 32·160 gram. (a very slight chip from the base); on the base is engraved a rude ibex and another figure. B is from Persia, slightly chipped on side of head, yellowish white stone, veined with red, like jasper; wt. 22·450 gram.; on the base are two ibexes. I am indebted for this information to Mr A. J. Evans, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, by whose kindness I am likewise enabled to give representations of the weights.
[327] Madden’s Jewish Coinage, p. 7.
[328] Exod. xxx. 13. Levit. v. 15, etc.
[329] The question of the date at which certain documents were written or took their final shape is of course important. But it does not at all follow that a document written at a later period cannot contain traditions of real historical value. Thus here we find Chronicles, placed quite late by the critics, gives the weight in shekels, whilst Kings, supposed to be far earlier, gives it in minas.
[330] The mere question as to whether the 200 shekels is far more than the average crop of hair can weigh, does not concern us. If the writer wished to exaggerate the amount of Absalom’s hair he would naturally make the shekel as heavy as possible, and say that the weight was in the heavy or royal shekels, employed for merchandize.
[331] Exod. XXX. 23-4.
[332] Antiq. III. 8, 10.
[333] Pollux, IX. 59, observes that when χρυσοῦς stands alone, στατήρ is always to be understood.
[334] Exod. XXX. 13.
[335] Hist. V. 3.
[336] Hultsch, Metr. Scrip. s.v. Lupinus.
[337] In Gesenius’ Lexicon, II. 88; II. 144, it is suggested that the gerah is the lupin.
[338] Antiq. III. 6, § 7, λυχνία ἐκ χρυσοῦ ... σταθμὸν ἔχουσα μνᾶς ἑκατὸν, ἂς Ἑβραῖοι μὲν καλοῦσι κίγχαρες, εἰς δὲ τὴν Ἑλληνικὴν μεταβαλλόμενον γλῶσσαν σημναίνει τάλαντον.
[339] Even granting that the parts of Exodus (the priestly Code) took their present form in post-Exile times it is perfectly possible that the metrological data contained therein are based on a genuine old tradition, just as Homer, although in its present shape differing much in linguistic forms from what must have been its original, gives us an archaic talent quite different from those in use when it took its final shape.
[340] 2 Kings v. 5.
[341] LXX. τρίτον τοῦ διδράχμου.
[342] We are unfortunately unable to gain any definite knowledge from Ezekiel xlv., as v. 12, which gives the weight system, is confused, and there is a great discrepancy between the Hebrew and Greek texts. Though it is a prophetic passage, there is no reason for supposing that the prophet did not clearly understand the standard weight system of his time (600 B.C.), for his account of the metric system is singularly clear. It is best to give the whole passage as it appears in the Revised Version: “Thus saith the Lord God: Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice; take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord God. Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels shall be your maneh.” (vv. 9-12.) One thing is clear at least, and that is that the passage is a protest against over-exaction, and we may infer that the weight system here mentioned is for precious metals, seeing that there is no mention made of the talent. The shekel is to be 20 gerahs, that is, the shekel of the Sanctuary. If the princes had sought to exact payment in royal shekels instead of the old shekel, and also to make the maneh of silver contain 60 shekels instead of 50, we can see every reason for the cry of the oppressed being loud.
The confusion in the Hebrew text may be due to the fact that there were two manehs in use, that of 50 shekels for gold and silver, and that of 60 shekels for other commodities. The Septuagint version is perfectly capable of explanation on the principles which I have indicated. The LXX. runs thus: καὶ τὰ στάθμια εἴκοσι ὀβολοί, πέντε σίκλοι, πέντε καὶ σίκλοι, δέκα καὶ πεντήκοντα σίκλοι ἡ μνᾶ ἔσται ὑμῖν. So Tischendorf.
There is a MS. (Cod. Al.) reading οἱ πέντε σίκλοι, καὶ πέντε καὶ οἱ δέκα σίκλοι. Tischendorf’s text can hardly be right, πέντε καὶ σίκλοι, δέκα καὶ πεντήκοντα contain two most unnatural collocations. δέκα καὶ πεντήκοντα is absolutely absurd as a way of expressing 60. εἶς καὶ πεντήκοντα up to ἐννεα καὶ πεντήκοντα to express 51 to 59 are reasonable and found universally, but to add on 10 to one of the main multiples of 10 in the decimal system is a method unknown, and is just as absurd in Greek as it would be if in English we were to say 10 and 50, meaning thereby 60. Again in the previous clause, the words πέντε καὶ point to some other numeral such as 10, or 20, as necessarily following. This is obtained by taking the MS. reading πέντε καὶ δέκα σίκλοι, καὶ πεντήκοντα, κ.τ.λ. Now the LXX. gives the plural στάθμια for “shekel”: στάθμια means the actual weights employed in weighing the amounts of gold or silver so weighed. Ezekiel is describing the various weight-units to be employed: “And the weights are 20 gerahs (lupins), the five shekel weight, the fifteen shekel weight, and fifty shekels shall be your maneh.” The article οἱ is very rightly used before πέντε, for it refers to the well known multiple of the shekel, of which we spoke above when dealing with the Bull’s-head weight. The same explanation may probably be given of the fifteen shekel weight. The maneh of 50 shekels of 20 gerahs each is the old maneh of the Sanctuary (Period II.), not the royal maneh which contained 100 light shekels.
Now turning to the Hebrew version we find “twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels and fifteen shekels,”the sum of which makes a maneh of 60 shekels, or the royal Assyrian and Hebrew commercial maneh. It is also to be observed that the position of fifteen is unnatural; it ought to come in the series before “twenty” and “five and twenty.” Fifty stands in the corresponding place in LXX. Has the Hebrew text altered 50 into 15 so as to obtain a total of 60? But there is another question; Why do we find “five” and “fifteen” stand first in LXX., and “twenty” and “twenty five” in Hebrew? On the theory, that of the Septuagint translators, that the prophet is describing a series of weight-pieces, it is quite simple. Combine the numbers of both versions, and place them in order thus: 1 shekel, 5 shekels, 15 shekels, 20 shekels, 25 shekels (½ maneh), 50 shekels (maneh). This gives a rational explanation of how the discrepancy arose. The LXX. translated from a text which probably ran thus, 5 shekels, 10 shekels, 15 shekels, and went no further with the series. For it is not at all improbable that the reading οἱ δέκα is due to the fact that after οἱ πέντε σίκλοι stood οἱ δέκα, which was followed by οἱ πεντεκάιδεκα σίκλοι. The Jews of a later date, knowing only of the commercial mina of 60 shekels, left out some of the numerals, and altered 50 into 15 to make up 60 shekels.
[343] Herod. III. 89, seqq.
[344] Metrol.², p. 420.
[345] Metrol.², p. 153.
[346] Head, op. cit. p. 789.
[347] The amount of gold in electrum varies greatly. Pliny, H. N. XXXIII. 4. 23, ubicumque quinta argenti portio est, et electrum uocatur. The Carthaginian electrum probably came from Spain (cp. p. 94).
[348] Head, op. cit. p. 2.
[349] Pliny, H. N. XXXIV.
[350] Herod. I. 94, πρῶτοι δὲ ἀνθρώπων, τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν, νόμισμα χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου κοψάμενοι ἐχρήσαντο.
[351] Julius Pollux, IX. 83.
[352] Head, op. cit. p. 544.
[353] H. N. XXXIII. 4. 23, ubicumque quinta argenti portio est, et electrum uocatur.
[354] River of Golden Sand, II. p. 78.
[355] Head, op. cit. p. 545.
[356] Ibid. p. 503.
[357] Pollux, III. 87, εὐδόκιμος δὲ καὶ ὁ Γυγάδας χρυσὸς καὶ οἱ Κροίσειοι στατήρες: ix. 84 sq., ἴσως δὲ ὀνομάτων καταλόγῳ προσήκουσιν οἱ Κροίσειοι στατῆρες καὶ Φιλίππειοι, καὶ Δαρεικοὶ, καὶ τὸ Βερενικεῖον νόμισμα καὶ Ἀλεξανδρεῖον, καὶ Πτολεμαικὸν καὶ Δημαρετεῖον, κ.τ.λ.
[358] Annuaire de Numismatique, 1884, p. 119.
[359] Zeitschr. für Assyriologie. Vol. II. 48 (1887).
[360] Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1883-4, p. 87.
[361] IV. 166, Δαρεῖος μὲν γὰρ χρυσίον καθαρώτατον ἀπεψήσας ἐς τὸ δυνατώτατον νόμισμα ἐκόψατο.
[362] Or. XII. 70 τρία τάλαντα ἀργυρίου καὶ τετρακοσίους κυζικηνοὺς καὶ ἑκατὸν δαρεικοὺς καὶ φιάλας ἀργυρίου τέσσαρας.
[363] Thuc. VIII. 28; Xen. An. I. 1. 9; I. 3. 21; I. 7. 18; V. 6. 18; VII. 6. 1; Cyrop. V. 27; Dem. XXIV. 129; Aristoph. Eccl. 602; Arrian Anab. IV. 18. 7; Diod. XVII. 66, etc.
[364] Plutarch, Cimon, X. 11, φιάλας δύο, τὴν μὲν ἀργυρείων ἐμπλησάμενον Δαρεικῶν, τὴν δὲ χρυσῶν.
[365] Thes. XXV., ἔκοψε δε νόμισμα βοῦν ἐγχαράξας.
[366] p. 27 (ch. 10) (Kenyon’s ed.), ἐν μὲν οὖν τοῖς νόμοις ταῦτα δοκεῖ θεῖναι δημοτικά, πρὸ δὲ τῆς νομοθεσίας ποιησάσθαι τὴν χριῶν ἀποκοπήν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα τήν τε τῶν μέτρων καὶ τῶν σταθμῶν καὶ τὴν τοῦ νομίσματος αὔξησιν. ἐπ’ ἐκείνου γὰρ ἐγένετο καὶ τὰ μέτρα μείζω τῶν Φειδωνείων, καὶ ἡ μνᾶ πρότερον ἔχουσα παραπλήσιον ἐβδομήκοντα δραχμὰς ἀνεπληρώθη ταῖς ἑκατόν. ἦν δ’ ὁ ἀρχαῖος χαρακτὴρ δίδραχμον. ἐποίησε δὲ καὶ σταθμὸν πρὸς τὸ νόμισμα τρεῖς καὶ ἑξήκοντα μνᾶς τὸ τάλαντον ἀγούσας, καὶ ἐπιδιενεμήθησαν αἱ μναῖ τῷ στατῆρι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις σταθμοῖς.
[367] I have translated the παρὰ [μικρὸν] of Kaibel and Wilamowitz instead of Kenyon’s παραπλήσιον. According to Plutarch (Solon. 15) the old (silver) mina contained 73 drachms. The apparent discrepancy is easily explained. In the prae-Solonian mina there were 70 drachms of 92 grs. each. Plutarch writing at a later time took the number of drachms of 92 grs. in the post-Solonian mina of 6750, which is just 73. The information supplied by the Polity is evidently older and better.
[368] The. Reinsch needlessly regards ἦν δὲ ὁ ἀρχαῖος κ.τ.λ. as an interpolation.
[369] Kaibel and Wilamowitz read σταθμὰ instead of σταθμὸν.
[370] Pollux IX. 59.
[371] Pollux IX. 58 ἔχων στατῆρας χρυσίου τρισχιλίους.
[372] Thuc. (I. 27) speaks of Corinthian drachms not staters; and (V. 47) of Aeginetic drachms.
[374] P. Gardner, Types of Greek Coins, passim.
[375] Comparetti, Leggi antiche della città di Gortyna in Creta, 1885; Museo Italiano II. 195, no. 39: ibid, II. 222. Roberts, Greek Epigraphy, p. 53.
[376] Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 1888, p. 405 seqq. (where he gives an engraving of a stater so countermarked). Mr B. V. Head (Numism. Chron. 3rd ser. IX. 242) in a notice of this paper lends his great authority to the support of Svoronos’ view.
[377] Head, op. cit. 450, who quotes Marquardt’s Cyzicus, p. 45.
[378] Fishermen offered to Poseidon the first tunny they caught (Athen. p. 346), but this was simply an offering of first fruits and not because the tunny was sacred.
[379] Zeitschrift f. Numismatik, X. 144 seqq.
[380] The tunny is a very large fish, usually four feet long, and is hardly likely to have been sold by the basketful.
[381] Apud Stephanum Byzant. s.v. Τένεδος.
[382] X. 14. 1.
[383] Iliad, XXIII. 850-1,
[384] No doubt the axe was often used as a religious emblem; double-headed axes borne in procession are seen on Hittite sculptures (Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de l’Art dans l’antiquité, IV. p. 637). It was also the symbol of Dionysus at Pagasae. So amongst the Polynesians we find processional axes as well as real ones like our sword of state as contrasted with real swords.
[385] Ib. 882-3,
[386] Although Mr Frazer (Golden Bough, I. 8) has given abundant evidence to show that kings were in some places worshipped as gods, no one can maintain that the Persians, who were Zoroastrians, would have treated their king as a god.
[387] The electrum coins with the lion’s head with open jaws formerly ascribed to Miletus are now assigned to the Lydian king Alyattes by M. J. P. Six, Num. Chron. N. S. Vol. x. 185 seqq. (1890).
[388] Head, Op. cit. 6. 88.
[389] Lindsay, Survey of the Coinage of Ireland, p. 6 seqq.
[390] Il. VII. 468 seqq.
[391] A. Dobbs, Account of Hudson’s Bay (1744).
[392] Politics II. 1257 B ὁ γὰρ χαρακτὴρ ἐτέθη τοῦ πὸσου σημεῖον.
[393] Plutarch, Solon 18.
[394] Ibid. 23 Εἰς μὲν γε τὰ τιμήματα τῶν θυσιῶν λογίζεται πρόβατον καὶ δραχμὴν ἀντὶ μεδίμνου· τῷ δ’ Ἴσθμια νικήσαντι δραχμὰς ἔταξεν ἑκατὸν δίδοσθαι, τῷ δ’ Ὀλύμπια πεντακοσίας· λύκον δὲ τῷ κομίσαντι πέντε δραχμὰς ἔδωκε, λυκιδέα δὲ μίαν, ὧν φησιν ὁ Φαληρεὺς Δημήτριος τὸ μὲν βοὸς εἶναι, τὸ δὲ προβάτου τιμήν.