The denarius was divided into 2 victoriati, not only as a piece of money but as a weight. The denarius was also divided into 6 sextantes, in imitation of the 6 oboli of a drachm; according to which division a sextans would contain, in English Troy weight, about 6⅓ grains. Celsus mentions the quadrans denarii and the triens denarii.

The value of the Roman pound is determined, as in the tables, from the value of the denarius, viz. 5245⁵⁄₇ Troy grains; according to the common reckoning it is 5256; this small difference proceeds from assuming the avoirdupois ounce to the Troy ounce precisely as 51 to 56.

Greek Weights. The talent was the greatest weight as well as the greatest sum of money among the Greeks. And this ponderal talent was divided, as the nummary talent, into 60 minæ, and every mina into 100 drachmæ.

A drachma was ⅛ of the ounce and ¹⁄₁₀₀ part of a mina. The Greeks used the expression τρίτον ἡμιδράχμον to signify 2½ drachms. The old division of drachma was into 6 oboli.

An obolus contained 6 χαλκὸι, or, as the Latins call them, æreoli.

An ἡμιώβολον, or semiobolus, contains 1 siliqua and a half, and 4 æreoli, according to Cleopatra, but 3 only according to Diodorus (Ap. Suidam.)

Χαλκὸς, or æreolus contained the 6th part of an obolus, and 7 λεπτὰ, according to Suidas.

The Λεπτὸν was the 7th part of an æreolus, and was called by the Latins minuta, and sometimes minutia, and is not divided into any lesser weight.

The Greeks used the ὀυγγία, and divided it as the Romans did. They used the κεράτιον, in Latin, siliqua, which was the ¹⁄₁₈ of a drachma.

The medical weights were the mina, of 16 Roman ounces, as appears from Dioscorides and Galen, and Cleopatra (in Cosmeticis) who tells you that mina, as a weight, contains 16 ounces, 128 drachms, 384 scriptula, 768 oboli, 1052 lupini, 2304 siliquæ, 6144 æreoli. But when Celsus and Scribonius Largus make use of a denarius of about 62²²⁄₄₉ grains, the drachma being supposed equal to that; 100 such drachmæ must have made a mina of 6222²²⁄₄₉ grains, whereas, a mina of 16 ounces is about 7000 Troy grains, or our avoirdupois pound.

The physicians likewise made use of the litra of 96 drachms. The ὀυγγία, or uncia, being divided as usually. The κεράτιον, or siliqua, as mentioned before, was likewise a common weight among the physicians; and the σιτάριον, or grain, ¼ of the siliqua.

The Romans dividing their ounce into 7 denarii, and likewise into 8 drachms; the Greeks of later ages dividing likewise their ounce into 8 drachms, and the Roman denarius being supposed equal to the Greek drachma, have occasioned great confusion in the expressions of authors about the weights of both nations. It is evident there was an Attic mina of 16 Roman ounces, namely, the more ancient one, and another of 12½ ounces. By ounces is here meant Roman ounces, which is our avoirdupois ounce. So that the most ancient mina Attica was exactly our avoirdupois pound. Cleopatra speaks of the two different minæ, the first of 16 and the other of 12½ ounces. Dioscorides mentions only that of 16 ounces; and though it is mentioned by the physicians, it is not what they prescribed by, but perhaps like our avoirdupois weight, what their gross drugs were at first bought and sold by.

Of Arabian Weights. The Arabian weights used by their physicians, Serapion, Rhases, and Avicenna, are a mixture of the Greek and Roman weights, and derived from them. Their manes is a corruption of the Hebrew maneh, or the Greek mina: there were two of them, one of 20 ounces, and another of 16.

The ancient Arabian weights reduced to Troy weights.

Greek Measures of Capacity. In reducing the Greek solid measures to the English, I shall make use of the χοῦς, which made in weight 720 drachms, according to all authors; suppose of rain-water, the ancients making no difference betwixt the weight of that and of wine. Taking the heaviest Attic drachm, which is the 100th part of the old Attic mina, or our avoirdupois pound, and neglecting the small difference in the tables, I shall state it at 70 grains Troy. According to this drachm, the weight of the Attic χοῦς must be 50,400 grains. There are in a solid foot 1728 solid inches, weighing 76 pounds of rain water: by this experiment 760 grains make 3 solid inches; therefore, 50,400 make 198·94737 solid inches, the number of the solid inches in the χοῦς; which is 6 pints, 25,698 solid inches, somewhat less than the Roman congius, though the Greek χοῦς and Roman congius are used indifferently as the same measure by ancient authors; as likewise are the 6th part of them, the ξέστης and sextarius, and the 12th the κοτύλη and the hemina. There is great probability that the Greeks measured the capacity of their vessels by the weight of oil, the product of their country. For the physicians, speaking of these measures, always mention their weight in oil; and Galen, speaking of the cotyla, saith that Heras understood the cotyla to be of 60 drachms reducing the weight to oil. I find likewise that it is a general supposition among the ancients that the weight of oil was to that of wine, as 9 to 10; so 72 pounds of oil is made equal in bulk to 80 pounds of wine, 9 pounds of oil to 10 of wine, and so everywhere. According to our experiments, the weight of oil is to that of wine or fresh-water, as 476 to 527, which is very near, as 9 to 9·96. So small a difference may be accounted for by the oil weighing less in a warm country than in ours.

The largest Greek measure for things liquid was the Attic μετρητής, which contained 12 choes. It is also called ἀμφορεὺς, κάδος, κεράμιον.

The χοῦς, or χοεὺς contained 12 cotylæ. It is also called λάγυνος, or λάγυνον, λάγηνον, or lagena. The Greek physicians sometimes use χοῦς for the Roman congius, the difference being but small. The Grecians in later times borrow the ξέστης from the Roman sextarius. It was the 6th part of the χοῦς.

The Attic κοτύλη was one half of the ξέστης. It is also called τρύβλιον.

The ὀξύβαφον was a measure answering to the Roman acetabulum. Pliny saith it was the 4th part of the hemina. (H. N. xv, c. ult.) Hesychius saith it was called ἄις, ἄλις, βάφιον, and γάβενον.

Κύαθος was the 12th part of the ξέστης.

Κόγχη was so called from a shell. There were a greater and a less. The greater was equal to the oxybaphum, and the lesser to one half of the cyathus.

Μύστρον, or μύστλον, so called from μῦς. Of this measure there were two kinds, the greater of which was the 16th part of the cotyla, and the lesser the 4th part of the cyathus. The mystrum is called βάρβος by Hesychius.

Χήμη was so named from a shell-fish. There was a greater or rustic cheme, the 20th part of the cotyla; but the lesser, which the physicians used, was the 30th part of the cotyla.

The κοχλιάριον, in Latin, cochlear, was the smallest measure for liquids: it is equal to one half of the cheme. See the Table.

Greek Measures of things Dry. Μέδιμνος, or μέδιμνον, was a measure for dry things, such as wheat, barley, flour, &c., and contained 48 chœnices.

Χοῖνιξ is a dry measure containing 3 cotylæ, and so was 1½ of the ξέστης: κοτύλη, ὀξύβαφον, κύαθος, and κοχλιάριον were also used as measures for things dry. Their capacity and proportion to one another is the same as when they are measures for liquids, which have been shown already.

The Roman Measures of Capacity. The amphora, which contained 8 congii, was the cube of a pes, or foot. The congius itself, the cube of ½ foot. The pes being settled, as equal to 11·604 inches, its cube 1562·5112, gives the contents of the amphora in solid inches; and divided by 8, gives 195·3139 inches for that of the congius.

The greatest measure among the Romans of liquid things, was the culeus, or culleus, containing 20 amphoræ. A culeus also contains 40 urns, the urn being half the amphora.

The amphora is otherwise called quadrantal, ceramium, cadus, and μετρητὴς Ιταλικὸς. The urna is the 40th part of the culeus, and the half of the amphora.

The congius was the 8th part of the amphora, and the 4th of the urna: it contained 6 sextarii. The congius in English measure contains 207·0676 solid inches, that is, 7 pints 4·942 solid inches.

The sextarius urbicus was the 6th part of the congius. This sextarius is divided into two heminæ, or cotylæ. It is also divided into four quartarii which are the half of a hemina. A sextarius is also divided into 8 acetabula. The parts of the sextarius were like those of the as, uncia, sextans, quadrans, triens, quincunx, semis, septunx, bes, dodrans, dextans, deunx, by which words a certain number of cyathi is meant, a cyathus being the 12th part of the sextarius. The sextarius castrensis was double of the urbicus.

Hemina, the half of the sextarius, contains 2 quartarii, 4 acetabula, 6 cyathi, 24 ligulæ.

Quartarius, as we have said, was the fourth part of the sextarius.

The acetabulum was the half of the quartarius.

Cyathus was the 12th part of the sextarius.

The ligula, or lingua, contained one 48th of the sextarius.

Cochlear, cochleare, and cochlearium, often denote a spoon, and sometimes a measure equal to the ligula.

There was also among the Romans a libra mensuralis, which the Greeks called λίτρα μετρικὴ, and distinguished from the λίτρα σταθμικὴ, or libra ponderalis. This consisted of 12 ounces, and was divided as the as. It was made commonly of horn, and divided by 12 lines, marking the ounces. This libra mensuralis weighed 10 ounces of oil, and of wine, 11 oz. 2 scr., 1 obolus, and 1 siliqua, according to the ponderal libra. The ancients all along supposed the weight of oil to be, to that of wine, as 9 to 10. This proportion of the specific gravity of these two liquors holds in this computation; for 11 oz., 2 scr. 1 ob. 1 sil., make 1600 siliquæ; and 10 ounces make 1440 siliquæ; and dividing both by 160, makes it as 9 to 10. According to this weight of wine assigned by Galen, the libra mensuralis contained 19·085 solid inches, somewhat less than ¾ of our pint, wine measure. But the Roman measures varying, in all appearance this originally was designed to contain 12 ponderal ounces of water, according to which weight it would be equal to 20·612 solid inches, the difference between the two being only 1·527 solid inches.

Roman Measures of Capacity for things dry. The modius was the third part of the amphora, or quadrantal, which was one half of the medimnus. The semimodius contained 8 sextarii. Sextarius and hemina are also measures of dry things, as so also quartarius, acetabulum, cyathus and concha.

Table of the Roman Measures of capacity for things Dry.

Of the Arabian Measures. The knowledge of the Arabian measures is necessary for those who read the Arabian physicians, such as Avicenna, Rhases, Serapion, Mesue, and Haly Abbas.

Dorach, equal to the Roman amphora.

Aldorach, equal to 2 xestæ.

Johem, equal to the congius of the Romans.

Kist, equal to a Roman sextarius.

Korboni, equal to the hemina.

Kiliathi, equal to one half of the cotyla.

Kestuf, equal to the acetabulum.

Cuathum, equal to the cyathus.

Falgerin, equal to the cochleare parvum.

Briala, a measure of uncertain capacity.

Mustarum, the greater equal to ⅓ hemina, the lesser equal to ½ cyathus. A corruption of the Greek μύστρον.

Decimal Tables.

Roman Measures for things Dry.

Attic Measures for things Dry.

Roman Measures for things Liquid.

Attic Measures for things Liquid.

A Table of the more usual Characters of Weights and Measures used by the Greek and Roman Authors. From Paucton, ‘Métralogie,’ p. 95.

Notes pondérales des Romains.

Notes pondérales des Grecs.

Notes mensurales des Romains.

Notes mensurales des Grecs.

The end of the Commentary on Paulus Ægineta.