This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1836 Excerpt: ...money, to the settlement of the weights by the measure of the congius in the reign of Vespasian. Doubtless, if we could ascertain correctly the standards within these limits, they would hold good in great part for some time both before and after. But the present inquiry is directed only to those times which constitute ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1836 Excerpt: ...money, to the settlement of the weights by the measure of the congius in the reign of Vespasian. Doubtless, if we could ascertain correctly the standards within these limits, they would hold good in great part for some time both before and after. But the present inquiry is directed only to those times which constitute the best part of the Roman history; and all the materials for computation are taken from within the period specified: so that the conclusions are to be understood as properly concerned neither with the obscure notices of an earlier age, nor the depreciation and alteration in the system of weights and money brought in afterwards. The methods of calculating the weights may be summed up in the following four. 1. The comparison with the Greek weights. 2. Ancient weights still preserved. 3. Coins. 4. The weight of the water contained in the congins of Vespasian. Of which the last two alone give satisfactory results. 2. The first, the comparison with the Greek weights, if we confine it within the limits of time fixed above, consists merely in a few statements of the weight of some talents in Roman measure. For the equations in money, as that of the drachma to the denarius, belong to another part of the subject, and will be treated of elsewhere. Eighty Roman poundsa are said by Varro to have equalled the Egyptian talent, by Polybius to have equalled the Euboic, and by Livy the Attic b. But of these, the Attic talent is the only one whose weight is known by an independent calculation. That weight was 399,000 grains troy: whence it would follow, that the Roman pound equalled 4987-5 grs., which is too little. Other calculations of the weight of the pound would make eighty exceed the Attic talent by about 2 lbs. avoirdupois. If so, in the payment made by...
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All Editions of An Essay on the Ancient Weights and Money, and the Roman and Greek Liquid Measures: With an Appendix on the Roman and Greek Foot (1836)
