199, 208, 215 (half oz. of 432 grs.?), 241, 289, 301, 303 (¾ oz.
of 405 grs.?), 345, 396 (oz.?), 487, 509 (1¼ oz.?), 547 (1⅓ of
oz.), 606 (1½ oz. of 405 grs.?), 630 (1⅓ oz. of 420 grs.?), 740,
753 (1¾ oz.), 1093 (2½ oz.?), 1190, 1210 (3 oz. of 405 grs.),
1267 (3 oz. of 422 grs.?), 1322, 1641 (4 oz. of 410 grs.), 1730
(4 oz. of 432 grs.?), 1836, 1836 (4½ oz. of 410 grs.?), 1940 (5
oz. of 388 grs.? or 4¾ oz. of 410 grs.?), 1980 (5 oz. of 396 grs.
or 4¾ oz. of 410 grs.?), 2201, 6144 (15 oz. of 410 grs.?), 13557
(33 oz. of 410 grs.?).
_Fibulae_: 56 (4 crosachs), 179, 180 (⅖ oz. of 400 grs.?), 415
(oz.), 600 (1½ oz. of 400 grs.?), 1231 (3 oz. of 410 grs.), 1345
(3½ oz. of 432 grs.), 1596 (4 oz. of 399 grs.?), 2301 (5¼ oz. of
400 grs.), 2536 (6 oz. of 422 grs.), 17200 (43 oz. of 400 grs.?),
8092 (20 oz. of 404 grs.), 19440 (48 oz. of 405 grs.).
Not in Wilde: 61, 106 (¼ oz.), 170, 170 (⅖ oz. of 425 gr.), 191,
196 (½ oz.?), 207, 209 (½ oz.), 248, 275 (⅔ oz. of 411 grs.), 315
(¾ oz.?), 379 (oz.), 542 (1⅓ oz.?), 557 (1⅓ oz.?), 586 (1½ oz.?),
649 (1½ oz. of 432 grs.?), 1187 (3 oz. of 396 grs.?).
_Gorgets_: 1160 (3 oz. of 387 grs.?), 2020 (5 oz. of 404 grs.?),
3091 (8 oz. of 386 grs.?), 3444 (8 oz. of 430 grs.?).
The result of an examination of the foregoing weights is to show that
in all probability the vast majority of them were made on a standard
much lighter than the Roman ounce of 432 grs., which was in full use in
mediaeval Ireland. We saw that the Roman ounce had been only 420 grs.
down to the Second Punic war, and I suggested that originally it was of
the same weight as the Sicilian talent 390-405 grs. Can we observe a
similar increase in the Irish ounce? The ounce of 400-410 seems to point
to a time when Kelt and Scandinavian had a common higher unit of similar
weight corresponding to the value of a slave[464], just as the Sicilian
and Macedonian talent of three ox units represented the same slave unit.
I shall now give the weights of the various ornaments of gold found in
England, Wales and Scotland which are preserved in the British Museum.
For these I am indebted to the great kindness of Mr F. L. Griffith of the
Anthropological department.
_Torques with rings._
Boxton, Suffolk, torque band twisted. 1·038 (2½ oz. of 415 grs.)
with double ring. Weight 24·8 grs.
(A ring of 8 parallel sections, bronze plated with gold,
injured, weighs 111 grs.; the locality is not known, but it
seems connected with this class. Probably Irish, one in Wilde’s
catalogue of 7 sections.)
Another double ring, Devonshire, weighs 563 grs. (1⅓ oz. of 420
grs.).
Lincolnshire torques; 1454 grs. (3½ oz. of 415 grs.), coiled band
119½. Quadruple ring, 93½ (¼ oz.?), another similar 93.
Cambridgeshire torques (not in B. M.) 1944 (5 oz. of 387? or 4¾
oz. of 410), rest in B. M. viz.:—bracelet 613 (1½ oz. of 412
grs.), two treble rings linked together, combined weight 358,
double ring, weight 132 (⅓ oz.), another 131½, two others similar
but smaller are each 68 (⅙ oz.).
Wales. Two plain bracelets, near Beaumaris, Anglesea, 1028
(2½ oz. of 410 grs.); 420 (1 oz.), crescent-shaped gorget,
Caernarvon, 2861 (7 oz. of 410 grs.).
Scotland. Noard, near Elgin, torques formed of a plain twisted
band, 207 (½ oz.): 215 (½ oz.): 192 (½ oz.): 119 grains.
The evidence points to an ounce of 420 grs. It is worth noting that this
is just 5 times the weight of the latest British coins, 84-82 grs.
Whence then did the Britons obtain this pre-Roman standard? Was it of
native development or borrowed from some other people? By Britons we must
be careful to express not all the natives of Britain. They fall most
certainly into at least two groups. I. The Kelts in the East and South
East. II. The barbarous inhabitants of the interior, who subsisted by
hunting and fishing, and who were probably of that Iberic race, which
spread over all Western Europe before the advance of the Aryans. It is
only with the first group that we are immediately concerned. They almost
exclusively possessed the art of coining, as is shown by the area over
which British coins are found. Furthermore Caesar tells us of the close
relationship of the first group to the Gauls, as is shown by their tribal
names, language and customs. In addition their coinage is similar. Now
there can be no doubt as regards the source from whence the Gauls derived
their coinage. As they got the art of writing from the Phocaeans of
Massilia (founded circ. 600 B.C.), so likewise did they gain the art
of money-stamping from the same famous town, as has been completely
demonstrated long since. People are inclined at once to assume that the
Gauls and Britons got their weight standards also from Marseilles. There
is certainly some evidence to support this belief. Thus the gold torque
lately found in Jersey weighs 11500 grs., which is exactly the mina of
the Phocaic system at a time when 57½ grs. went to the drachm. Again
we have seen that there were a considerable number of gold ornaments
in Ireland and Britain which weigh 224-216 grs. This is the Phocaic
(or Phoenician) stater. But the question is not so simple as it might
appear at first sight in relation to the weight system, as will appear
most readily by a short survey of the history of the monetary system of
Massilia.
I. The earliest coinage consists of silver, small divisions of the
Phocaic drachm (58-54 grains Troy). These have various symbols on the
obverse, but have uniformly the incuse square on the reverse. These may
be placed after 500 B.C. “Notwithstanding their archaic appearance, it
does not seem that these little coins are much earlier than the middle of
the 5th century.”
II. Next comes a series, chiefly obols for the most part with head
of Apollo on obverse, and a wheel on reverse, the latter probably a
development of the earlier incuse square. They are mostly obols of 13-8
grains.
III. About the middle of the 4th century the drachm first appears with
the head of Artemis on obverse and a lion on the reverse, weighing 58-55
grains.
Now over all Gaul, and far into Northern Italy, and the valleys of the
Alps, as far as the Tyrol, the coinage of Massilia made its way and was
abundantly imitated. In fact these imitations formed the entire medium
of those regions until the Roman conquest. The imitations of the little
coins with Apollo and the wheel as reverse are found right into the north
of France, and in England.
Did the Kelts borrow their 13½ grain unit from the 13 grain obol of
Massilia, or is it of far earlier growth? The Etruscans used a unit of
13½ grs. in the 4th century B.C., and we find the Massaliotes having
almost the same. Is the true answer this? All over Western Europe the
ox unit of 135 grs. of gold was subdivided into 10 parts each of 13½
grs. These 10 parts corresponded to 10 sheep, the regular value of
a cow. There was also a higher unit from Greece to Gaul and Britain
corresponding to the slave. There were fluctuations in their worth in
various times and places, but on the whole there was a tendency to raise
the weight of the higher unit (ounce). But it is natural that the Kelts
may have taken over into their system certain units from the Phocaic
system which they used as multiples of their own smaller units, just as
the Teutonic peoples took the Roman pound into their own system, and the
natives of West Africa made the Spanish dollar the multiple of their own
native weights, based on seeds. Some idea of the relative ages of Keltic
gold ornaments may perhaps be got from applying the criterion of weight
standard to them.
FOOTNOTES
[1] _Metrologische Untersuchungen über Gewichte, Münzfüsse und Masse des
Alterthums in ihrem Zusammenhange._ Berlin, 1838.
[2] χρύσεα χαλκείων, ἑκατόμβοι’ ἐννεαβοίων.
[3] _Iliad_, XXIII. 750.
[4] Victor A. L. Morier, _Murray’s Magazine_, August, 1889, p. 181.
[5] _Trans-Caucasia_, p. 410 (Engl. trans. 1854).
[6] Pollux, IX. 73, τὸ παλαιὸν δὲ τοῦτ’ ἦν Ἀθηναίοις νόμισμα καὶ ἐκαλεῖτο
βοῦς, ὅτι βοῦν εἶχεν ἐντετυπωμένον. εἰδέναι δ’ αὐτὸ καὶ Ὅμηρον νομίζουσιν
εἰπόντα ἑκατόμβοι’ ὲννεαβοίων.
[7] Cf. Aesch. _Agam._ 36; Theognis 815. Cp. τὰν ἀρετὰν καὶ τὰν σοφίαν
νικᾶντι χελῶναι, a proverb (given by Pollux IX. 74) alluding to the
_Tortoise_ coins of Aegina; and Menander (_Al._ 1), παχὺς γὰρ ὗς ἔκειτ’
ἐπὶ στόμα.
[8] ἡ γλαῦξ ἐπὶ χαράγματος ἢ τετραδράχμου, ὡς Φιλόχορος· ἐκλήθη δὲ τὸ
νόμισμα τὸ τετράδραχμον τότε [ἡ] γλαῦξ· ἦν γὰρ ἡ γλαῦξ ἐπίσημον καὶ
πρόσωπον Ἀθηνᾶς, τῶν προτέρων διδράχμων ὄντων, ἐπίσημον δὲ βοῦν ἐχόντων.
[9] Plutarch, _Solon_, c. 15.
[10] Hultsch, _Reliquiae Scriptorum Metrologicorum_, I. 301, τὸ δὲ γαρ’
Ὁμήρῳ τάλαντον ἴσον ἐδύνατο τῷ μετὰ ταῦτα Δαρεικῷ. ἄγει δ’ οὖν τὸ χρυσοῦν
τάλαντον Ἀττικὰς δραχμὰς β’, γράμματα ζ’, τετάρτας δηλαδὴ τεσσάρας.
[11] _Iliad_, XVIII. 507, 8,
κεῖτο δ’ ἄρ’ ἐν μέσσοισι δύω χρυσοῖο τάλαντα,
τῷ δόμεν, ὃς μετὰ τοῖσι δίκην ἰθύντατα εἴπῃ.
See Appendix A for a linguistic proof that the two talents were for the
Judge.
[12] _Ancient Law_, p. 375.
[13]
ἀνδρὶ δὲ νικηθέντι γυναῖκ’ ἐς μέσσον ἔθηκεν,
πολλὰ δ’ ἐπίστατο ἔργα, τίον δέ ἑ τεσσαράβοιον.
[14] _Od._ I. 430.
[15] _Iliad_, IX. 12 _seqq._
[16] _Il._ XXIII. 262 _seqq._
[17] Of course amongst the lowest races of savages such as the aborigines
of Australia, even barter is almost unknown. Each man makes his own stone
implements from the greenstone which is everywhere in abundance, his own
clubs and boomerangs, whilst Nature supplies all his other wants.
[18] Whymper’s _Alaska_, p. 225.
[19] Morier, _Murray’s Magazine_, August, 1889, p. 181.
[20] Jevons, _Money_, p. 24.
[21] _Tribes of California_, p. 21.
[22] _Op. cit._, p. 335.
[23] Clavigero, _Hist. of Mexico_, Vol. I. 386.
They counted the Cacao nuts by 8000 and to save the trouble of counting
them they reckoned them by sacks, every sack being reckoned to contain
24,000. Cf. Prescott, _Conquest of Mexico_, Vol. I. p. 44.
[24] G. M. Dawson, ‘Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878,’ p. 135
B (_Geological Survey of Canada_), Montreal, 1880.
[25] F. Magnússon, _Nordiske Tidskrift for Oldkyndighed_, II. 112.
[26] _Wanderings in a Wild Country, or Three Years among the Cannibals of
New Britain_ (London, 1883), p. 55.
[27] For shell money in the Caroline Islands cf. Kubary’s
_Ethnographische Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Karolinen Archipels_ (Leipzig,
1889); in the Pelew Islands cf. Karl Semper, _Die Pelau Inseln_
(Leipzig, 1873), p. 60; and for shell money in general cf. R. Stearn’s
_Ethno-conchology_ (Washington, 1889).
[28] Jevons, _Money_, 25.
[29] Terrien de la Couperie, _Coins and Medals_, p. 193.
[30] Terrien de la Couperie, _Coins and Medals_, p. 199.
[31] Yule’s Translation, Vol. II. p. 70.
[32] Gill, _River of Golden Sand_, II. p. 77.
[33] Yule’s Translation, Vol. II. p. 45.
[34] So the Irish _sed_, the most general name for _chattel_, originally
meant simply an _ox_.
[35] _Cochin-Chine Française. Excursions et Reconnaissances_, XIII.
(1877), p. 296-8.
[36] _Excursions et Reconnaissances_, XIII. No. 30 (1887), p. 296-304.
[37] M. Aymonier, _Cochin-Chine. Excursions et Reconnaissances_, Vol. X.
No. 24 (1885), pp. 233 _seqq._
[38] _Ibid._ p. 317.
[39] _Rig-Veda_, _Mandala_, VII. 90. 6, VIII. 67. 1-2, VI. 47, 23-4.
[40] _Vendidâd_, _Fasgard_, VII. 41 (Darmesteter’s translation in Sacred
Books of the East).
[41] _Vendidâd_, _Fasgard_, IX. 37.
[42] _Ibid._ IV. 2.
[43] Hakluyt Society, 1857, p. 35.
[44] For _larins_ cf. Prof. Rhys Davids, “On the Ancient Coins and
Measures of Ceylon” (_Numismata Orientalia_, Vol. I. 68-73). Mr Rhys
Davids makes no mention of the bronze fish-hooks, but there are a number
of them in the British Museum.
[45] I am indebted to the kindness of Mr A. Galetly of the Edinburgh
Museum of Science and Art for the drawing from which the figure here
shown is reproduced, as also for the drawing of the Calabar wire money
and West African axe money figured lower down. My friend Mr J. G. Frazer
(one out of countless kindnesses) called my attention to all three
objects.
[46] Haxthausen, _Transkaukasia_ II. p. 30 (Engl. Trans. p. 409).
[47] _Il._ XXIII. 485.
[48] _Oecon._ II. 21.
[49] II. 18.
[50] _Annals of the Four Masters_, Anno 106 A.D. (O’Donovan’s ed.).
[51] _Ancient Laws of Wales_, p. 795.
[52] O’Donovan’s Supplement to O’Reilly, s.v. _Lacht_: _Senchus Mor_, I.
287.
[53] Thorpe, _Laws of the Anglo-Saxons_, I. 357. Cunningham, _History of
English Commerce_, I. 117.
[54] Illud notandum est quales debent solidi esse Saxonum: id est, bovem
annoticum utriusque sexus, autumnali tempore, sicut in stabulum mittitur,
pro uno solido: similiter et vernum tempus, quando de stabulo exiit; et
deinceps, quantum aetatem auxerit, tantum in pretio crescat. De annona
vero bortrinis pro solido uno scapilos quadraginta donant et de sigule
viginti. Septemtrionales autem pro solidum scapilos triginta de avena
et sigule quindecim. Mel vero pro solido bortrensi, sigla una et medio
donant. Septemtrionales autem duos siclos de melle pro uno solido donent.
Item ordeum mundum sicut et sigule pro uno solido donent. In argento
duodecim denarios solidum faciant. Et in aliis speciebus ad istum pretium
omnem aestimationem compositionis sunt. _Capitulare Saxonicum_, II.
Migne, XCVII. 202.
[55] Schive and Holmboe, _Norges Mynter_ (Christiania, 1865), pp. I.-III.
[56] G. Hoffmann, _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, Vol. II. (1887) p. 48.
[57] Schliemann, _Mycenae_, and _Tiryns_, p. 354.
[58] _Il._ XVIII. 401 πόρπας τε, γναμπτάς θ’ ἕλικας, κάλυκάς τε, καὶ
ὅρμους.
[59] _Homer. Epos_, 279-281 (2nd ed.).
[60] Hesychius s.v. ἕλικες explains them as _earrings_ (ἐνώτια), or
_armlets_, _anklets_ (ψέλλια), or _rings_ (δακτύλιοι). Eustathius on
_Iliad_ XVIII. 400 explains them as ἐνώτια ἢ ψέλλια παρὰ τὸ εἰς κύκλον
ἑλίσσεσθαι, “earrings or armlets (anklets), so called from being rolled
up” (_helissesthai_). Cp. Ebeling, _Lexicon Homericum_, s.v. ἕλιξ.
[61] Keary, _Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Coins_, I. p. vii. From _beag_ Mr
Max Müller derives _buy_ in spite of a phonetic difficulty.
[62] Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are in the collection of my friend Mr R. Day,
F.S.A., of Cork. The others are in my own possession.
[63] _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, Vol. X. Here is the description and
weight of the rings (which I have been enabled to figure by the kindness
of Mr John Murray):
+--------+-------------+-----------------------+
| | | WEIGHT |
| METAL | DESCRIPTION +---------+-------------+
| | GRAMMES | GRAINS TROY |
+--------+-------------+---------+-------------+
| Silver | Plain ring | 8·8 | 137 |
| Gold | Spiral | 8·5 | 132 |
| ” | ” | 9·9 | 153 |
| ” | ” | 10·8 | 167 |
| ” | Plain ring | 15·9 | 248 |
| ” | ” | 16·5 | 257 |
| ” | ” | 19·0 | 297 |
| ” | ” | 19·4 | 303 |
| ” | Spiral | 20·5 | 320 |
| ” | ” | 21·5 | 335 |
| ” | Plain ring | 22·0 | 340 |
| ” | Spiral | 29·3 | 452 |
| ” | ” | 39·0 | 612 |
| ” | ” | 39·5 | 617 |
| ” | ” | 41·5 | 643 |
| ” | ” | 42·2 | 654 |
| ” | ” | 42·3 | 655 |
| ” | ” | 42·8 | 662 |
+--------+-------------+---------+-------------+
[64] Cf. Keary’s _Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum_, p. 6.
[65] Strabo iii. p. 155. ἀντὶ δὲ νομίσματος οἱ λίαν ἐν βάθει φορτίων
ἀμοιβῇ χρώνται ἢ τοῦ ἀργύρου ἐλάγματος ἀποτέμνοντες διδόασιν.
[66] Gordon Lang, _Travels in Western Africa_ (1825), Prefatory Note.
[67] The specimen figured was brought home about 30 years ago and is now
in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art.
[68] The specimens here figured are in the splendid collection of my
friend Mr R. Day, of Cork.
[69] This information I owe to Lieut. Troup.
[70] I am indebted to Messrs James Booth and Co. for this information.
[71] Dapper _Description de l’Afrique_ (Amsterdam, 1686) p. 367. “Le bois
rouge de Majumba et la _pao_ de Hiengo de Benguela tiennent aussi le lieu
de monnaie: on en coupe des morceaux d’un pied de long; on leur met une
certaine taxe selon laquelle le prix des vivres se règle.”
[72] Peter Kolben, _Present state of the Cape of Good Hope_, p. 262.
[73] R. W. Felkin, “Notes on the Madi or Moru Tribe of Central Africa,”
_Transactions of Royal Society of Edinburgh_, Vol. XII. p. 303 _seqq._
[74] _Voyage au Darfour_, Mohammed Ibn Omar el Tounsy (translated by
Perron), Paris, 1845, pp. 218, 315.
[75] _Voyage au Darfour_, p. 316.
[76] _Ibid._ p. 319.
[77] _Voyage au Darfour_, p. 321.
[78] _Voyage au Ouadai_, Mohammed Ibn Omar el Tounsy (French translation
by Perron), p. 559.
[79] Elliot’s _Alaska_, p. 8. This is an interesting parallel to the
ancient tradition that the Carthaginians employed leather money. (_Vide_
Smith’s _Dict. of Geogr._ I. 545.)
[80] _Il._ XXIII. 826.
[81] _Il._ XXIV. 230-2.
[82] Timaeus 12.
[83] _B. G._ v. 12.
[84] 199.
[85] Schrader. _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_, p. 260.
[86] _Odyssey_, XXIII. 198.
[87] Cunningham, _Hist. of English Commerce_, I. p. 117.
[88] _Il._ XXI. 41.
[89] _Od._ XV. 460.
[90] Prescott, _Mexico_, p. 234.
[91] Schrader, p. 255.
[92] Schrader, _op. cit._ p. 255.
[93] Polybius II. 19.
[94] W. Deecke, _Etrusk. Forschungen_, p. 5.
[95] Herod. IV. 49.
[96] _Ausland_, 1873, No. 39.
[97] Arist. Θαυμ. 833 b. 14, φασὶ δὲ ἐν τοῖς Βάκτροις τὸν Ὦξον ποταμὸν
καταφέρειν βωλία χρυσίου πλήθει πολλά.
[98] Herod. IV. 18.
[99] Herod. III. 116, λέγεται δὲ ὑπὲκ τῶν γρυπῶν ἁρπάζειν Ἀριμάστους
ἄνδρας μουνοφθάλμους.
For the gold-fields of India, cf. Dr Valentine Ball’s excellent chapter
(IV.) in his _Geology of India_.
[100] Herod. IV. 25.
[101] Herod. IV. 71, ἀργύρῳ δὲ οὐδὲν οὐδὲ χαλκῷ χρέωνται.
[102] Strabo, XI. p. 499, παρὰ τούτοις δὲ λέγεται καὶ χρυσὸν καταφέρειν
τοὺς χειμάρρους, ὑποδέχεσθαι δ’ αὐτὸν τοὺς βαρβάρους φάνταις
κατατετρημέναις καὶ μαλλωταῖς δοραῖς· ἀφ’ οὖ δὴ μεμυθεῦσθαι καὶ τὸ
χρυσόμαλλον δέρος.
[103] Strabo, XIV. p. 680.
[104] Herod. I. 93, πάρεξ τοῦ ἐκ τοῦ Τμώλου καταφερομένου ψήγματος.
[105] XIII. 625 _sq._
[106] Herod. VI. 46 _sq._
[107] Strabo, 331.
[108] Herod. IX. 75.
[109] Strabo, 618. 29. Didot.
[110] Cf. Isaiah xlv. 14.
[111] The Debae of Agatharchides and Artemidorus are held by almost all
scholars to be the people of Ptolemy’s Θῆβαι πόλις, i.e. Dhahabân, from
_Dhahab_, gold, with term.-ân.
[112] Strabo, 661. 45. Didot.
[113] Diodorus Sic. II. 50. 1 _sq._
[114] This story about their connection with Boeotia doubtless arose from
the confusion between Δέβαι and Θῆβαι.
[115] Diod. Sic. III. 45. 4.
[116] His description of the size of the largest nuggets of gold varies
slightly; in his second reference he compares them to “royal nuts” (κάρυα
βασιλικά), which are generally admitted to be walnuts, though walnuts are
sometimes also called “Persian nuts” (κάρυα Περσικά), the latter name
reminding us of the derivation of _walnut_ itself; in the first passage
he likens them in size to chestnuts (κάρυα κασταναικά) or κασταναῖα, the
name being said to be derived from Castanaea, a city of Pontus. It would
seem from this then that Diodorus got his accounts from two slightly
different sources. Strabo has been so cautious as not to give us any
specific epithet for the large nut, which we may accordingly regard as we
please either as a chestnut or a walnut. There can be no doubt about the
fruit to which Strabo compares the medium-sized nuggets. The _mespilon_,
Latin _merpilum_ (from which comes the French _nèfle_), is undoubtedly
the medlar, whilst perhaps the most likely meaning for the smallest of
the three fruits is _olive-stone_.
[117] Diodorus, III. 12-14.
[118] Mansfield Parkyns, _Life in Abyssinia_, Vol. I. p. 405 (London,
1853).
[119] For similar ways of trading in Africa in modern times see
Rawlinson’s note _ad locum_.
[120] Herod. IV. 49.
[121] Strabo, 173. 34-49, Didot.
[122] Ibid. 178 Didot.
[123] Th. Mommsen (_Nordetruskische Alfabete_, p. 250, _seqq._) gives an
admirable summary of the metallurgical history of this region.
[124] Strabo, 218.
[125] Pliny, XXXIII. 4. § 78, extat lex censoria Victumularum
aurifodinae, qua in Vercellenai agro cavebatur, ne plus quinque M hominum
in opere publicani haberent.
[126] Strabo, 205.
[127] Th. Mommsen, _Die nordetruskischen Alfabete_, p. 223; Pauli,
_Altitalische Forschungen_, p. 6.
[128] Strabo, 191.
[129] Hucher, _L’Art Gaulois_, 19.
[130] We must then in all probability place the first striking of the
Gaulish imitations of the Philippas about 150 B.C., rather than as is
usually stated about 250 B.C.
[131] Strabo, 187.
[132] Strabo, 146.
[133] Diodorus, v. 27.
[134] Strabo, 190.
[135] Both are from coins in my own possession; A found near Mildenhall
(Suffolk) in 1884, cf. Dr Evans, _Ancient British Coins_, Pl. XXIII. 4; B
at Potton in Bedfordshire, 1888; cf. _op. cit._ Pl. B. 8.
[136] Strabo, 191.
[137] Caesar, _B. G._ V. 12, pecorum magnus numerus. Utuntur aut aere aut
nummis aureis aut taleis ferreis ad certum pondus examinatis pro nummo.
Nascitur ibi plumbum album in mediterraneis regionibus, maritimis ferrum,
sed eius exigua est copia, aere utuntur importato.
[138] Caesar, _B. G._ II. 4.
[139] W. Ridgeway, “The Greek Trade Routes to Britain” (_Folklore_, March
1880, p. 23).
[140] Strabo, 199, leaves out tin here although he mentions it when
quoting from Posidonius. The reason is that after the tin-mines
of Northern Spain had been developed by Publius Crassus, Caesar’s
lieutenant, the British tin trade ceased.
[141] Strabo, page 201.
[142] IV. 151.
[143] Herodotus, I. 163-4.
[144] Strabo, 147.
[145] Strabo, 146.
[146] Strabo, 146 _sq._
[147] Diodorus, v. 35.
[148] Marsden’s _History of Sumatra_, p. 172.
[149] Pliny, _H. N._ XXXIII. 4, 21 aurum arrugia quaesitum non coquitur
sed statim suum est; inueniuntur ita massae; necnon in puteis denas
excedentes libras; palacras Hispani, alii palacranas, iidem quod minutum
est balucem uocant.
May the French _paille_ (in the phrase _pailles d’or_), Ital. _paluola_,
Span. _palazuola_, all used technically of gold, be derived from _pala_,
the old technical term, rather than from _palea_, chaff?
[150] Herod. IV. 11.
[151] How trade was carried on in early days may be well illustrated from
Torres Straits of to-day. (Haddon, “The Western Tribe of Torres Straits,”
_Journal of Anthrop. Inst._ XIX. p. 347.)
Dance masks made of turtle shell (340) occasionally used as money.
If a Muralug man wanted a canoe he would communicate with a friend at
Moa, who would speak to a friend of his at Badu; possibly the Muralug
man might himself go to Badu, or treat with a friend there. The Badu man
would cross to Mabuiag to make arrangements, and a Mabuiag man would
proceed to Saibai.
If there was no canoe available at the latter place word would be sent
on, along the coast, that a canoe was to be cut out and sent down.
The canoe would then retrace the course of the verbal order and
ultimately find its way to Muralug. The annual payment for a canoe was
say three _dibi dibi_ or goods of about equal value. There were three
annual instalments.
There is no money in the Straits; but certain articles have acquired a
generally recognized exchange value, a value which is intrinsic, and
not irrespective of the rarity of the material or the workmanship put
into it. These objects cannot be regarded as money; they are the round
shell ornaments (_dibi dibi_, shell armlet, _wai wai_, dugong, harpoon,
_wap_, and canoe). A good _wai wai_ is the most valuable possession; the
exchange of a _wai wai_ was a canoe, or harpoon. Ten or twelve _dibi
dibi_ was considered of equal value to any of the above. A wife was the
highest unit of exchange, being valued at a canoe, or a _wap_ or _wai
wai_. “The intermediaries (in the purchase of a canoe) are paid for their
services ‘by charging on,’ the amount depending on individual cupidity,
or they may be recompensed for their trouble by presents from the
purchaser” (p. 841).
[152] [Aristotle,] _De Miris Auscult._ 104-5 (839ᵃ 34 _seqq._).
[153] Pind. _Isth._ V. 22 _sq._ μυρίαι δ’ ἔργων καλῶν τέτμηνθ’
ἑκατόμπεδοι ἐν σχερῷ κέλευθοι | καὶ πέραν Νείλοιο παγᾶν καὶ δι’
Ὑπερβορέους.
[154] _Ol._ III. 31 _sq._
[155] _Ol._ III. 13 _sqq._
[156] Pind. _Pyth._ X. 29 _sqq._
[157] Herod. IV. 32.
[158] Herod. IV. 13.
[159] Herod. IV. 33.
[160] Boeckh, _Corp. Inscr. Graec._ Vol. I. p. 807.
[161] Cf. Sallust, _Jug._ 18.
[162] They derived it from λύγξ and οὖρον. The difference in colour
between the Baltic and Ligurian amber found an easy explanation, the
latter was regarded as the solidified urine of the female lynx, the
former of the male animal. Pliny, _H. N._ XXXVII. 2, § 34.
[163] Cf. Boyd Dawkins, _Early Man in Britain_, 466. Von Sadowski, _Die
Handelstrassen der Griechen und Römer_, p. 15.
[164] _Il._ V. 720 _seqq._
[165] _Il._ XXIII. 826 _seqq._
[166] _Il._ XII. 433-7,
ἀλλ’ ἔχον, ὤς τε τάλαντα γυνὴ χερνῆτις ἀληθής,
ἤ τε σταθμὸν ἔχουσα καὶ εἴριον ἀμφὶς ἀνέλκει
ἰσάζουσ’ ἴνα παισὶν ἀεικέα μισθὸν ἄρηται.
ὦς μὲν τῶν ἐπὶ ἶσα μάχη τέταται πτόλεμός τε κ.τ.λ.
Dr Leaf, in his introduction to Book XII., when calling attention to
various marks of lateness in this book, says: “It has further been
remarked with some truth that the numerous similes, though beautiful
in themselves, are often disproportionately elaborated and lead up to
points which are almost in the nature of an anti-climax.” But the use of
the word ἀληθής in an entirely un-Homeric sense seems to make it almost
certain that these lines are of late date.
[167] Cf. Plautus, _Merc._ II. 3. 63. Virg. _Georg._ I. 390, carpentes
pensa puellae.
[168] Mr J. G. Frazer gives me the following interesting note:
As to the cutting off a child’s hair and weighing it against gold or
silver, the facts are these.
(1) Among the Harari in Eastern Africa when a child is a few months old,
its hair is cut off and weighed against silver or gold money; the money
is then divided among the female relations of the mother.
Paulitschke, _Beiträge zur Ethnographie und Anthropologie der
Somâl, Galla und Hararî_ (Leipzig, 1886), p. 70.
(2) Mohammed’s daughter Fâtima gave in alms the weight of her child’s
hair in silver.
W. Robertson Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia_, p.
153.
(3) Among the Mohammedans of the Punjaub a boy’s hair is shaved off on
the 7th or 3rd day after birth, or sometimes immediately after birth.
Rich people give alms of silver coins equal in weight to the hair.
_Punjab Notes and Queries_, I., No. 66.
(4) When the Hindus of Bombay dedicate a child to any god or purpose,
they shave its head and weigh the hair against gold or silver.
_Id._ II. No. 11.
(5) In the inland districts of Padang (Sumatra) three days after birth
the child’s hair is cut off and weighed. Double the weight of hair in
money is given to the priest.
Pistorios. _Studien over de inlandsche Huisponding in de
Padangsche Bovenlanden_, p. 56; Van Hasselt, _Volksbeschrijving
van Midden-Sumatra_, p. 268.
(6) There is the Egyptian custom, for which we have the evidence of
Herodotus, II. 65, and Diodorus, I. 8.
[169] F. L. Griffith, “Metrology of the Medical Papyrus Ebers,” _Proceed.
of Soc. Bibl. Arch._ June 1891.
[170] Hultsch, _Metrol. Scrip._ 299, τὸ Μακεδονικὸν τάλαντον τρεῖς ἦσαν
χρύσινοι.
[171] _Catalogue of Greek Kings of Bactria_, p. lxix.
[172] _Catalogue of Greek Kings of Bactria_, p. lxvii.
[173] Lepsius, _Denkmäler_, 331.
[174] Brugsch, _Op. cit._ I. 386.
[175] _Münz- Mass- und Gewichtswesen in Vorderasien_, p. 80 seqq.
[176] Lenormant, _La Monnaie dans l’Antiquité_, I. 103 seqq.
[177] _Metrol._², p. 375.
[178] Horapollo, I. 11, Πάρ’ Αἰγυπτίοις μονάς ἐστιν αἱ δύο δραχμαί.
[179] Deecke, _Etrusk. Forsch._ II. p. 1. Head, _Op. cit._ p. 12.
[180] Head, _Op. cit._ p. 747.
[181] Τὸ μέντοι Σικελικὸν τάλαντον ἐλάχιστον ἴσχυεν, τὸ μὲν ἀρχαῖον,
ὡς Ἀριστοτέλης λέγει τέτταρας καὶ εἴσκοσι τοὺς νούμμους τὸ δὲ ὕστερον
δυοκαίδεκα, δύνασθαι δὲ τὸν νοῦμμον τρία ἡμιωβόλια. (Hultsch, _Reliq.
Metrol. Scrip._ 300.)
[182] Cf. Hucher, _L’Art Gaulois_, p. 19 and Pl. I.
[183] _Histoire de la Monnaie Romaine_, I. 236.
[184] _Étude des Monnaies de l’Italie antique._
[185] _De Rep._ II. 35, 60.
[186] X. 50.
[187] Aulus Gellius, XI. 1. 2. 3; Plutarch, _Poplic._ 11, says a cow =
100 ὀβολοί, a sheep 10 ὀβολοί.
[188] Pollux, IX. 80, εὐθὺς πρίω μοι δέκα νόμων μόσχον καλάν.
[189] Theocr. IX. 3, μόσχως βουσὶν ὑφέντες.
[190] Mr Head (_Coinage of Syracuse_), _Numismat. Chronicle_, New Series,
Vol. XIV., thinks that under Dionysius the Elder (406-367 B.C.) and his
successors gold was to silver as 15:1 at Syracuse, whilst in the time
of Agathocles (317-289 B.C.) it was as 12:1. We can however hardly take
the evidence of the coin weights as sufficient, when we consider the
extraordinary devices to which Dionysius resorted to raise money, causing
coins of tin to pass as silver, making the silver coins bear a double
value etc. as is related by Aristotle, _Oeconomica_, II. 21.
[191] _Op. cit._ 26.
[192] Livy XXXIV. 1. Valer. Max. 9. 1. 3.
[193] Head, _Op. cit._ 160.
[194] Mommsen (Blacas), _Histoire de la Monnaie romaine_, III. 275.
[195] Pertz, _Monumenta Historica Germaniae_, Vol. III. Lex Alamannorum,
_lib. sec._ LXXX. _summus bovis 5 tremisses valet cett_.
[196] Pertz, _Op. cit._ _Leges Burgundiorum_, p. 534: pro bove solidos 2
cett.
[197] Schive and Holmboe, _Norges Mynter_ (Christiania, 1865), pp. i-iv.
[198] Herod. VI. 57. See evidence of this collected by Stengel, Die
griechische Sakralaltertümer, pp. 29 _sq._ 81 _sq._ (Iwan Müller’s
Handbach, Vol. V. pt. iii.)
[199] _Hist. Animal._ X. 50, τά γε μὴν ἱερεῖα ἑκάστης ἀγέλης αὐτόματα
φοιτᾷ καὶ τῷ βωμῷ παρέστηκεν, ἄγει δὲ ἄρα αὐτὰ πρώτη μὲν ἡ θεός, εἶτα ἡ
δύναμίς τε καὶ ἡ τοῦ θύοντος βούλησις. εἰ γοῦν ἐθέλοις θῦσαι οἶν, ἰδού
σοι τῷ βωμῷ παρέστηκεν οἶς, καὶ δεῖ χέρνιβα κατάρξασθαι· εἰ δὲ εἴης τῶν
ἁδροτέρων καὶ ἐθέλοις θῦσαι βοῦν θήλειαν ἢ καὶ ἔτι πλείους, εἶτα ὑπὲρ τῆς
τιμῆς οὔτε σὲ ὁ νομεὺς ἐπιτιμῶν ζημιώσει οὔτε σὺ λυπήσεις ἐκεῖνον· τὸ
γὰρ δίκαιον τῆς πράσεως ἡ θεὸς ἐφορᾷ. καὶ εὖ καταθεὶς ἵλεων ἕξεις αὐτήν·
εἰ δὲ ἐθέλοις τοῦ δέοντος πρίασθαι εὐτελέστερον, σὺ μὲν κατέθηκας τὸ
ἀργύριον ἄλλως, τὸ δὲ ζῷον ἀπέρχεται, καὶ θῦσαι οὐκ ἔχεις.
[200] _Egypt under the Pharaohs_ (2nd edit. Engl, transl.), Vol. II. p.
199.
[201] Sir Rutherford Alcock, _The Capital of the Tycoon_, I. 281.
[202] Marco Polo, Yule’s Transl. II. pp. 62 and 70.
[203] _Aegypten und ägyptisches Leben in Alterthum_, p. 611.
[204] 1 Kings x. 21.
[205] 2 Chron. i. 15.
[206] 2 Chron. i. 17.
[207] _Sacred Books of the East_, Vols. V., XVIII., and XXIV.
[208] _Report of the Royal Commission appointed to enquire into the
recent changes in the relative values of the precious metals._ 1st
Report, p. 60 (1866).
[209] This is almost exactly the weight of the _örtug_, into 3 of which
the _ora_ (ounce) of 410 grs. was divided. The _örtug_ of gold being
136·7 grs., and the value of a cow being 128 grs. of gold, it is hard not
to believe that there was a connection between them. (See App. C.)
[210] See above, p. 24.
[211] J. Silvestre, “Notes pour servir à la recherche et au classement
des monnaies et des médailles de Annam et de la Cochin-Chine Française.”
_Excursions et Reconnaissances_, No. 15 (1883), p. 395.
[212] H. C. Millies, _Recherches sur les monnaies des Indigènes de
l’Archipel Indien et de la péninsule Malaie_ (La Haye, 1871).
[213] Sir Thomas Wade’s _Colloquial Chinese Course_, I. p. 213 (2nd ed.).
[214] J. Silvestre, _Op. cit._ p. 308 seqq.
[215] J. Mours, _Le Royaume du Cambodge_, I. p. 323 (Paris, 1883).
[216] This coin bears on one side the sacred bird Hangsa, on the other a
picture of an ancient palace of the kings.
[217] E. Aymonier, _Notes sur le Laos_. Saigon, 1885.
[218] For an account of the various kinds of Siamese coins of the bullet
shape cf. Msg. Pallegoix, _Description du royaume Thai ou Siam_, I. 256
(Paris, 1854).
[219] E. Aymonier, _Cochin-Chine Française. Excursions et
Reconnaissances_, Vol. X. No. 24 (1885), p. 317.
[220] Aymonier, _ibid._
[221] This mode of estimating the age of the buffalo by the length of its
horns may throw some light on the young ox _suis cornibus intructus_ of
the Marseilles inscription (p. 143).
[222] XXIII. 850 _sq._
[223] OD. XXI. 76.
[224] E. Aymonier, _Notes sur le Laos_, p. 33.
[225] _History of the Indian Archipelago_ by John Crawfurd, F.R.S. Vol.
I., p. 271.
[226] P. 275.
[227] _History of Sumatra_ by William Marsden, F.R.S. (London, 1811), p.
171.
[228] R. W. Felkin, ‘Notes on the Madi or Moon tribe of Central Africa.’
_Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh_, Vol. XII. pp. 303, _seqq._
[229] H. T. Colebrooke, _On Indian Weights and Measures_ (Miscellaneous
Essays edited by Prof. E. B. Cowell, 1873), Vol. I. 528-543.
[230] _Numismatic Chronicle_, IV. 131 (N. S.).
[231] Thomas, _Initial Coinage of Bengal_, II. p. 6 (_Royal Asiatic
Journal_, Vol. VI.).
[232] Algebra with Arithmetic and Mensuration translated from the
Sanskrit of Brahmegupta and Bhascara by H. T. Colebrooke (London, 1817).
[233] Down almost to the present day a system of currency, similar
to that shown in the _Līlāvati_ prevailed in Assam. “Gold continues
to pass current in small uncoined round balls, usually weighing one
_Tola_,” there was a silver coinage also, and cowries passed as money. W.
Robinson, _Descriptive Account of Assam_, pp. 249 and 267 (London, 1841).
[234] Martini, _Metrologia_, p. 770. Formerly the _nashod_ = 3 _habbi_ of
·063 gram which is just the weight of the barley grain, whereas ·047 the
weight assigned to the _gendum_ is that of a grain of wheat.
[235] Queipo, _Essai sur les Systèmes Métriques et Monétaires des anciens
peuples_ I. 360 (Paris, 1859).
[236] _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, Vol. IV. 335, (Book of Aicill),
O’Donovan’s Supplement, s.v. _pingiun_.
[237] Ruding, _Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain_, II. 58.
[238] Ruding, _op. cit._ I. 369.
[239] Marquardt, _Röm. Staatsverwaltung_, II. p. 30.
[240] _Fragm._ ap. Hultsch, _Metrol. Script._ I. 248, ἡ δὲ δραχμὴ κέρατα
ιη͵. ἄλλοι δὲ λέγουσιν· ἔχει γραμμὰς τρεῖς ... τὸ γράμμα ὀβολοὺς β͵. ὁ δὲ
ὀβολὸς κέρατα γ͵. τὸ δὲ κερὰτιον ἔχει σιτάρια δ͵.
[241] Hultsch, _Op. cit._ II. 128.
[242] _Recueil de travaux relatifs à la Philologie et l’Archéologie
Egyptienne et Assyrienne_, Vol. X. fasc. 4, p. 157.
[243] Bosman, _Guinea, Letter VI._ (_Pinkerton’s Voyages_, Vol. XVI. p.
374).
[244] Although I have made many enquiries and Dr Thiselton Dyer of Kew
has taken much trouble in the matter, I am unable to give the reader the
botanical names of the Taku and Damba. Dr Dyer thinks the Damba is our
old friend the _Abrus precatorius_, the Indian _ratti_, confirming the
opinion I had previously formed from its weight. These seeds are commonly
known as crabs’ eyes.
[245] _Op. cit._ 373. “The fetiches they cast in moulds made of a black
and heavy earth into what form they please.” (p. 367.)
[246] Ellis, _History of Madagascar_, I. p. 335.
[247] _Op. cit._ I. p. 6.
[248] Prescott, _Conquest of Mexico_, p. 44.
[249] Prescott, _Peru_, p. 56.
[250] Nissen, “Griechische und römische Metrologie” (Iwan Müller’s
_Handbuch der classischen Alterthumswissenschaft_ I. 663 _seq._ or
separately, Nordlingen, 1886).
[251] “_Das älteste Gewicht_,” 1889, pp. 1-9, 34-43.
[252] The whole series of these ancient weights was some years ago
subject to a careful process of weighing in a balance of precision by an
officer of the Standard Department and the result was published by Mr W.
H. Chisholme in the _Ninth Annual Report of the Warden of the Standards_
1874-5, where a complete list of all of them may be found.
All the more important pieces had however been weighed many years before,
and it need only be stated that the results of the process of re-weighing
under more favourable conditions are in the main identical with those
formerly arrived at by Queipo and the late Dr Brandis.
[253] _Metrologie_², p. 393.
[254] _Étalons pondéraux primitifs et lingots monétaires_ (Bucharest,
1884), p. 49.
[255] Soph. _Antig._ 1038 _seqq._
κερδαίνετ’, ἐμπολᾶτε τόν πρὸς Σάρδεων
ἤλεκτρον, εἰ βούλεσθε, καὶ τὸν Ἰνδικὸν
χρυσόν.
[256] I. 94.
[257] Pollux, IX. 83.
[258] _Histoire de la Monnaie Romaine_, I. 15.
[259] Herod. I. 14.
[260] Hultsch, _Metrol._² 579.
[261] Head, _op. cit._ XXXVI.
[262] Head, _op. cit._ XXXVI.
[263] Thuc. II. 13.
[264] _Ol._ I. 75: _Nem._ IV. 46.
[265] VIII. 375, ὠνομάζετο δ’ Οἰνώνη πάλαι, ἐπῴκησαν δὲ αὐτὴν Ἀργεῖοι καὶ
Κρῆτες καὶ Ἐπιδαύριοι καὶ Δωριεῖς.
[266] VI. 22. 2, Ὀλυμπιάδι μὲν τῇ ὀγδοῃ τὸν Ἀργεῖον ἐπήγαγον Φείδωνα
τυράννων τῶν ἐν Ἔλλησι μάλιστα ὑβρίσαντα κ.τ.λ.
[267] Φείδωνος δὲ τοῦ τὰ μέτρα ποιήσαντος τοῖς Πελοποννησίοισι καὶ
ὑβρίσαντος κ.τ.λ.
[268] Ἔφορος δ’ ἐν Αἰγίνῃ ἄργυρον πρῶτον κοπῆναί φησι ὑπὸ Φείδωνος,
ἐμπόριον γὰρ γενέσθαι, διὰ τὴν λυπρότητα τῆς χώρας τῶν ἀνθρώπων
θαλαττουργούντων ἐμπορικῶς, ἀφ’ οὖ τὸν ῥῶπον Αἰγιναίαν ἐμπολὴν λέγεσθαι.
[269] Strabo VIII. 358, Φείδωνα δὲ τὸν Ἀργεῖον, δέκατον μὲν ὄντα ἀπὸ
Τημένου, δυνάμει δὲ ὑπερβεβλημένον τοὺς κατ’ αὐτόν, ἀφ’ ἧς τήν τε λῆξιν
ὅλην ἀνέλαβε τὴν Τημένου διεσπασμένην εἰς πλείω μέρη, καὶ μέτρα ἐξεῦρε τὰ
Φειδώνια καλούμενα καὶ σταθμοὺς κὰι νόμισμα κεχαραγμένον τό τε ἄλλο καὶ
τὸ ἀργυρον.
[270] Pollux _Onom._ X. 179, εἴη δ’ ἂν καὶ Φείδων τι ἀγγεῖον ἐλαιηρόν,
ἀπὸ τῶν Φειδωνίων μέτρων ὠνομασμέον, ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐν Ἀργείων πολιτείᾳ
Ἀριστοτέλης λέγει.
[271] This enables us to understand why it was that in the truce at Pylus
it was stipulated (probably by the Spartans) that they should be allowed
to send in 2 _Attic_ (not Peloponnesian) _choenikes_ of barley meal for
each of their men daily. By this arrangement the beleaguered men got a
larger ration.
[272] πάντων δὲ πρῶτος Φείδων Ἀργεῖος νόμισμα ἕκοψεν ἐν Αἰγίνῃ· καὶ δοὺς
τὸ νόμισμα καὶ ἀναλαβὼν τοὺς ὀβελίσκους, ἀνέθηκε τῇ ἐν Ἄργει Ἥρα, ἐπειδὴ
δὲ τότε οἰ ὀβελίσκοι τὴν χεῖρα ἐπλήρουν, τουτέστι, τὴν δράκα, ἡμεῖς,
καίπερ μὴ πληροῦντες τὴν δράκα τοῖς ἓξ ὀβόλους δραχμὴν αὐτὴν λέγομεν παρὰ
τὸ δράξασθαι.
[273] Φείδων ὁ Ἀργεῖος ἐδήμευσε τὰ μέτρα ... καὶ ἀνεσκεύασε καὶ νόμισμα
ἀργυροῦν ἐν Αἰγίνῃ ἐποίησεν (l. 30).
[274] Head _op. cit._ XXXVIII.
[275] _Op. cit._ 153.
[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 Epos_², 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_.
[373] Cp. p. 214.
[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,
Αὐτὰρ ὁ τοχευτῇσι τίθει ἰόεντα σίδηρον,
κὰδ δ’ ἐτίθει δέκα μὲν πελέκεας, δέκα δ’ ἡμιπέλεκκα.
[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,
ἀν δ’ ἄρα Μηριόνης πελέκεας δέκα πάντας ἄειρεν,
Τεῦκρος δ’ ἡμιπέλεκκα φέρεν κοίλας ἐπὶ νῆας.
[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.
[395] Lysias, _de Sacra oliva_, 6.
[396] Strabo, XVII. 836.
[397] Diodorus Siculus V. 26. 2 διδόντες γὰρ τοῦ οἴνου κεράμιον
ἀντιλαμβάνουσι παῖδα κτλ.
[398] Baumeister, _Denkmäler_, s.v. Silphium. Studicyna, _Kyrene_, p.
22. Birch, _Ancient Pottery_ (frontispiece). The vase is in the Paris
Bibliothèque.
[399] The only evidence to show that Demeter was worshipped at Metapontum
is that a female head on certain of her coins is accompanied by the
legend Σωτηρία. It has been inferred that this is an epithet of Demeter,
but this is most unlikely, for in that case we should expect Σὼτειρα, as
on the coins of Hipponium, Syracuse, Agrigentum, Corcyra, Cyzicus, and
Apamea, not Σωτηρία, as the adjective. Thus we always find Ζεὺς Σωτήρ,
not Σωτήριος: cf. Σώτειρα Εὐνομία, Pind. _Ol._ IX. 16, Σώτειρα Τύχα,
_Ol._ XII. 2, Σώτειρα Θέμις, _Ol._ VIII. 21. Σωτηρία is rather _Safety_
(Lat. _Salus_), who, as my friend Mr J. G. Frazer points out to me,
was worshipped at Patrae and Aegeum, two of the chief towns of Achaea
(Pausan. VII. 21. 7; VII. 24. 3). We also find such names of divinities
as Ὑγιεία, Ὁμόνοια and Νίκα on the coins of Metapontum. As Metapontum was
an Achaean colony, it is likely that _Salus_ was worshipped there also.
Besides it was to Apollo, and not to Demeter, that they dedicated their
golden ear as a harvest thank-offering. Θέρος is the ear cut from the
stalk after the ancient way of reaping, cf. θέρη σταχύων, Plut.
[400] Athenaeus XIII. p. 589 ab; Schol. on Aristophanes, _Plutus_, 179;
Suidas, _s.v._ χελώνη.
[401] _Voyage of the Sunbeam_, p. 276 (London, 1880). [L.M.R.]
[402] We learn from Strabo, 773, that the Greeks were familiar with the
employment of tortoise shells, for a tribe called Tortoise-eaters on the
north coast of Africa used the shells of these animals, which were of
large size, for roofing purposes. Pausanias (VIII. 23. 9) tells us that
there were large tortoises well suited for making lyres in Arcadia, but
the people would not touch them as they were under the protection of Pan.
As Pan was lord of the forest and mountain, the tortoise being especially
large would naturally be regarded as his special property.
[403] Mansfield Parkyn, _Abyssinia_, Vol. I. p. 407.
[404] Pausan. IX. 34.
[405] Pausan. I. 25.
[406] _Iliad_ XVII. 381.
[407] _Iliad_ XXII. 158.
[408] Strabo 192, ὅθεν οἱ ἄρισται ταριχεῖαι τῶν ὑείων κρεῶν εἰς τὴν Ῥώμην
κατακομίζονται. Hucher, _Art Gaulois_, Pl. 78. The swine is also found on
coins of Bellovaci, Pictones and Armorican Gauls.
[409] On the plastron of the sea-tortoise eight triangular patches are
made very conspicuous by pigmentation.
[410] Photius _Lex._ _s.v._ Λάμβδα. Eustathius on Homer p. 293. 39 seqq.
Xenophon _Hell._ IV. 4. 10 (which shows that the letter was on the front,
cf. Pausan. IV. 28. 5).
[411] Pollux, V. 66.
[412] Xenoph. _De Vectigalibus_, iv. 10, εἰ δὲ τις φήσειε καὶ χρυσίον
μηδὲν ἧττον χρήσιμον εἶναι ἢ ἀργύριον, τοῦτο μὲν οὐκ ἀντιλέγω, ἐκεῖνο
μέντοι οἶδα ὅτι καὶ χρυσίον ὅταν πολὺ παραφανῇ, αὐτὸ μὲν ἀτιμότερον
γίγνεται, τὸ δὲ ἀργύριον τιμιώτερον ποιεῖ.
[413] Strabo, IV. 208, συνεργασαμένων δὲ σὺν βαρβάροις τῶν Ἱταλιωτῶν ἐν
διμήνῳ, παραχρῆμα τὸ χρυσίον εὐωνότερον γενέσθαι τῷ τρίτῳ μέρει καθ’ ὅλην
τὴν Ἰταλίαν.
[414] Pindar, _Olymp._ VII. 58 _sq._
[415] _Numismatic Chron._ VII. 185. That the Cyzicene staters were at
some time and at some places (Cyzicus itself?) less in value than a
Daric is made possible from the new-found Mimiambi of Herondas (VII. 96
_seqq._); where 4 Darics seem worth more than 5 staters:
ταύτηι δὲ δώσεισ κε[ῖ]νο τὸ ἕτερον ζεῦγοσ
κόσου; πάλιν πρήμηνον ἀξίαν φωνὴν
σεω<υ>τοῦ.
Κ. στατήρασ πέντε ναὶ μὰ θεοὺσ φο[ι]τᾶι
ἡ ψάλτρι’ <Εὐ>έτηρισ ἡμέρην πᾶσαν
λαβεῖν ἀνώγουσ’· ἀλλ’ ἐγώ μιν [ἐχθα]ίρω
κἢν τέσσαράσ μοι δαρεικοὺσ ὑπόσχηται
ὁτεύνεκέν μευ τὴν γυναῖκα τωθάζει
κακοῖσι δέ[ν]νοισ. ει ... χρείη.
[416] Xen. _Anab._ V. 6. 23; VII. 3. 10. Dem. _Phorm._ p. 914.
[417] _Op. cit._ p. 449.
[418] _Corp. Inscr. Graec._ 125, ἀγέτω ἡ μνᾶ ἡ ἐμπορικὴ Στεφανηφόρου
δραχμὰς ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα καὶ ὀκτὼ πρὸς τὰ σταθμία τὰ ἐν τῷ ἀργυροκοπείῳ.
[419] Cf. Wharton, _Etyma Latina_, s.v. _litra_.
[420] Pollux, IX. 80.
[421] Cf. Shakespeare, _I. Henry IV._ II. 4, 590, in Falstaff’s tavern
bill: “Item, Anchovies and sack, 6_d._ Item, bread, Ob. O monstrous! But
one halfpenny worth of bread to such an intolerable deal of sack!”
[422] Head, _op. cit._ p. 105.
[423] The forms _scripulum_, _scrupulum_, _scrupulus_ are all due to its
simply being regarded in later times as a _weight_, and thus falsely
identified with _scrupulus_, a small pebble.
[424] Book of Aicill, p. 335.
[425] Caesar, _B. G._ III. 13.
[426] _Blacas_, Mommsen, I. p. 177.
[427] It is worth noticing that Plutarch (_Poplicola_ 11) translates the
_libral asses_ of early Rome by the Greek _obolos_; ἦν δὲ τιμὴ προβάτου
μὲν ὀβολοὶ δέκα, βοὸς δὲ ἑκατόν· οὔπω νομίσματι χρωμένων πολλῷ τότε τῶν
Ῥωμαίων, ἀλλὰ προβατείαις καὶ κτηνοτροφίαις εὐθηνούντων. It is quite
possible that Plutarch embodies a genuine tradition that the original
_as_ and _obol_ were the same. Otherwise like Dionysius of Halicarnassus
he would have represented the asses by the value in Greek money of his
own time. For he can hardly have supposed that at any time an ox was
worth only 100 of the obols of his own time.
[428] So the word _mark_ means not only a weight but is also used as a
linear measure = 48 _alen_, and also as a measure of _area_, as in the
term _arable mark_ etc. See Appendix.
[429] Many of the Roman unciae in the British Museum are under 410 grs.
[430] ὁ δὲ νοῦμμος δοκεῖ μὲν εἶναι Ῥωμαίων τοὔνομα τοῦ νομίσματος, ἔστι
δὲ Ἑλληνικὸν καὶ τῶν ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ καὶ ἐν Σικελίᾳ Δωριέων.
[431] Pollux IX. 84.
[432] Evans, _Horsemen of Tarentum_, pp. 9-11.
[433] _Tabulae Heracleenses_ (Boeckh _Corp. Inscrip. Graec._ 5774-5;
Cauer, _Delectus_ 40, 41) I, 122. αἱ δέ κα μὴ πεφυτεύκωντι κατὰ
γεγραμμένα, κατεδικέσθεν πὰρ μὲν τὰν ἐλαίαν δέκα νόμως ἀργυρίω πὰρ τὸ
φυτὸν ἕκαστον, πὰρ δὲ τὰς ἀμπέλως δύο μνᾶς ἀργυρίω πὰρ τὰν σχοῖνον
ἑκάσταν.
[434] Boeckh, _Metrol. Unters._ 160, takes the _Sicilicus_ as originally
the Silician _quadrans_ in the Roman silver reckoning. Cf. Mommsen,
_Blacas_, I, 243. Hultsch, _Metrol._ p. 145.
[435] _Étude des monnaies de l’Italie antique._ Première partie, pp. 8
and 16.
[436] _Ibid._ p. 29.
[437] _Ibid._ p. 30.
[438] Soutzo, _ibid._ p. 31.
[439] If we take the καινὸν κόμμα of Aristophanes (_Ranae_ 720) to refer,
as the scholiast _ad loc._ asserts on the authority of Hellanicus and
Philochorus, to a gold issue in B.C. 407, which was much alloyed. As
Mr Head says it is quite possible that Aristophanes alludes to the new
bronze coinage issued the year before the Frogs was acted (_Hist. Num._
314). No such base gold coins of Athens are known, and as her gold coins
are of excellent quality, it is better to refer them with Head to 394
B.C., the period of her restored prosperity, when Conon and Pharnabazus
brought aid from the great king.
[440] Varro ap. Non. p. 356 nam lateres argentei atque aurei primum
conflati atque in aerarium conditi. _Lateres_ is used in this sense by
Tacitus, _Annals_, XVI. 1.
[441] Gaius I. 122. This passage is unhappily corrupt. The Verona
MS. runs asses librales erant et dupondii——unde etiam dupondius. As
_dupondius_ is really a masculine adjective used as a noun, a masculine
noun must be understood, this can only be _as_. Dupondius then is simply
a two-pound bar.
[442] XXXIII. 3. 13.
[443] Before striking silver at Rome the Romans had struck silver coins
with type of quadriga and ROMA in Campania. Hence it is that Pliny
regarded these the _quadrigati_ and _bigati_ as the oldest issue instead
of the coins with the Dioscuri (Fig. 54). The _biga_ came next, after it
the genuine Roman _quadriga_.
[444] Varro, _R. R._ II. 1, 9.
[445] Varro ap. Non. p. 189 _aut bovem aut ovem aut vervecem habet
signum_. Probably _uerrem_, not _ueruecem_, is the true reading, since
Plutarch says that the coins were marked with an ox, a sheep or a _swine_
(βοῦν ἐπεχάραττον ἢ πρόβατον ἢ ὗν). _Popl._ 11.
[446] Festus fragm. p. 347 Müller _s.v._ _Sextantari asses_.
[447] V. 173 Müller.
[448] Deux. Partie p. 41. “Le poids normal de l’as oncial est de 27 gr.
25, mais il alla en s’affaiblissant progressivement du commencement à la
fin de la periode.”
[449] _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, Vol. I. p. 61. O’Curry, _Manners and
Customs of the Ancient Irish_, Vol. I. pp. 100 seq.
[450] _Survey of the Coinage of Ireland_, p. 3.
[451] _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, p. 213 seqq.
[452] Folio 24 c.
[453] The bracketed words are interlined in a recent hand; but the final
word shows that they were a portion of the text.
[454] Near Croghan Hill, in the north of King’s Co.
[455] See note on Irish text.
[456] O’Donovan has omitted _caerach_ of the MS.
[457] _Norges Mynter_, IV-V.
[458] I am indebted to Mr E. Magnússon for the translation of Holmboe.
[459] Polybius XXXIV. 8.
[460] _Solon_ 23, see p. 324 _supra_.
[461] Wasserschleben, _Die Bussordnungen d. Abendländisch. Kirchen_ (De
disputatione Hibernensis Sinodi et Gregori Nasaseni sermo), p. 137.
[462] Beside the difficulty about _numo aureo_ there is a further variant
between _anulis ferreis_ and _taleis ferreis_ (bars of iron). Can Caesar
have in reality written both? May the original reading have been: utuntur
aut aere aut numo aureo, aut aureis anulis, aut taleis ferreis etc.?
Caesar speaks of the Britons having iron of their own, and it is highly
probable that they employed ingots or bars of it as money, as the wild
tribes of Annam and Africa do at present. They probably used their gold
or bronze rings and armlets as money also.
[463] These are taken from Sir W. Wilde’s Catalogue, but for the weights
of articles acquired since 1862 I am indebted to the kindness of the
Curator, Major Macenery.
[464] My friend Mr F. Seebohm has shown me that as a _weight_ the Swedish
_Jungfrau_ is equal to the Irish _Cumhal_.
INDEX.
Abdera, 340
Abraham, 112, 113, 197
Abrus, 172
Absalom’s hair, 120, 275
Abyssinian gold in beads, 82
Actus, 365
Aegina, 211, 328
Aeginetan measures, 306
⸺ obol, 366
⸺ standard, 9, 21, 311
⸺ ⸺ its origin, 217
⸺ ⸺ used for copper, 345
⸺ system, 307
Aelian, 144
Aes, 86
Aes grave, 378
Aes rude, 355, 376
Agariste, 212
Agathocles, 138
Agerept, 150
Agonistic types, 337
Agrigentum, 347, 350
Aicill, Book of, 353
Airgid, 63
Alalia, 130
Alamanni, 140
Alaska, 47
Alexander, 29, 198, 342
Alexandrine talent, 244
Alfred’s penny, 180
Al-li-ko-chik, 15
Alphabet, the, 227
Alps, gold of, 88
Altun (= gold), 70
Alyattes, 71
Amber, 227
⸺ beads, 46
⸺ golden, 110; red, 110
Anaxilas, 336
Angala, 354
Annals of Four Masters, 31
Annam, 23
⸺ barter system of, 164
Ant coins, 22
Ants, gold-digging, 66
Apis, worship of, 50
Apollo, 107
Apulia, 370
Aquileia, 87
Arab weights, 179, 182
Arabia, gold of, 75
Archimedes, 36, 100
Argippaei, 68
Argos, 215, 335
Arimaspians, 66, 68
Aristaeus, 314
Aristeas, 108
Aristotle, 96, 106, 131, 138, 213, 318, 323, 336
⸺ Polity of Athenians, 305
Armlets, 42
Arpi, 367
Arrows, 24, 43
Arrugia, 101
Artabri, 97
Arverni, 90
As, 350
⸺ derivation of, 353
⸺ divisions, 351
⸺ land measure, 351
⸺ linear measure, 351
⸺ of empire, 362
⸺ reduction of, 380
⸺ sextantal, 362
⸺ symbol of, 369
⸺ used only of bronze, 351
As libralis, 135
Assam coinage, 177
Asser, 354
Asses, sacrifice of, 107
Assis, 354
Assurbanipal, 201
Assyrian weights, 183, 199, 249
Astronomy, 199
Asturia, 101
Astyra, 71
Aternian law, 134
Athene, statue of, 211, 220
Athenian coinage, 124, 306, 372
Athens, Polity of, 214, 305
Attic choenix, 214
⸺ didrachm, 5
Aulus Gellius, 135
Aura (old Norse), 63
Aurès, 183, 254
Aurum, 87
Ausum (aurum), 61
Axe, 318
Axes, Tenedos, 50
⸺ West African, 40
Aymonier, 23, 161
Aztec money, 192
⸺ numerals, 192
Aztecs, 17, 59
Babylonian metric system, 251
⸺ standard, 78, 163, 206, 261, 387
⸺ system, 197
Bactria, coins of, 126
Baetis, 97
Bag of rice, 162
Bahnars, 23
Ball, V., 68
Balux, 101
Bamboo-joint, 163, 171
Bar, 39, 158
⸺ (Assyrian), 185, 285
⸺ of silver, 25
Barley, 178
Barleycorn, 177, 179
⸺ = Troy grain, 181
Barrel, 115, 175
Bars, 371
Barter, age of, 11, 114, 196
Bassak, 161
Baug-brotha, 37
Baugr, 37
Beaver, 314
⸺ skin, 12, 153, 323
Beag, 37
Bear skins, 16
Bee, 320
Bekah, 277
Belgic tribes, 94
Bells, 43
Bereniceum, 297
Bermion, 71
Bes, 351
Betzer, 36
Bhascara, 177
Bigae, 377
Bigati, 377
Bimetallism, 338
Bisaltae, 340
Blanket currency, 17
Bo, 33
Boar, 332
Boeckh, 1, 238, 365
Boeotia, 77
Boeotian shield, 331
Bonny River, 40
Boroimhe, 32
Bortolotti, 241
Bosman, 185
βοῦς ἐπὶ γλώσσῃ, 8
Boyd Dawkins, 110
Bracelets, 35
Brahmegupta, 177
Brandis, 129, 195, 294
Brandy, 323
Brass rods, 41
Brassey, Lady, 330
Britain, gold coins, 93
‘Britons’’ money-system, 179
Bronze in Italy, 368
⸺ in Northern Europe, 86
Brugsch, 122, 195, 196
Buffalo, 24, 164
⸺ value of, 154
⸺ worth a stick of gold, 168
Buffaloes, 25
Bull, 322
⸺ on coins, 321
Bull’s-head weight, 282
Burgundians, 141
Bushel, 115
⸺ how fixed, 191
Cacao seeds, 17, 193
Cadmus, 71, 227
Caesar, 179
Calculus, 192
Caldron, 25
Caldrons, Irish, 32
Caldwell, W. H., 152
Calf, 374
Calves’ heads, 322
Camarina, 347
Cambodia, 25, 160
Cambridge, 182
Camirus, 339
Campania, 216
Candarin, 158
Cappadocae, 78
Carchemish, 202
Carmania, gold in, 74
Carob, 181
Carthage, 288
Carthaginian coinage, 131, 289
⸺ gold unit, 130
⸺ trade in gold with West Coast of Africa, 83
Cartload, 175
Cash, 157
Cat’s eyes, 21, 27
Cattle at Rome, 31
⸺ chief wealth of Britons, Gauls, Italians, etc., 51
⸺ in Avesta, 27
Catty, origin of, 162, 174
Cauer, 365
Cayley, Prof., 231
Centupondium, 136, 360
Centussis, 370
Ceramus, 82
Chabas, M., 239
Chabinus, 76
Chalci, 346
Chalcis, 227, 361
Χαλκός, 86
Chariot of Hera, 116
Chariots in Veda, 26
Charlemagne, 34