THE ORIGIN OF
METALLIC CURRENCY AND
WEIGHT STANDARDS.
ILontoon : C. J. CLAY AND SONS,
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
AVE MARIA LANE.
Sambrtogt: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO.
leip>ig: F. A. BROCKHAUS.
MACMILLAN AND CO.
THE ORIGIN OF
METALLIC CURRENCY AND
WEIGHT STANDARDS
BY
WILLIAM RIDGEWAY, M.A.,
PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CORK,
LATE FELLOW OF GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
AN0poonoc H <BOYC H> fc AN em
CAMBRIDGE :
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1892
[All Rights reserved.}
(Eatnbnlige:
PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
PREFACE.
THE following pages are an attempt to arrive at a know-
ledge of the origin of Metallic Currency and Weight
Standards by the Comparative Method. As both these insti-
tutions played a not inconsiderable part in the development
of civilization, it seemed worth while to approach the subject
from a different point of view from that from which it had been
previously studied. Hitherto Numismatists when studying
the Origines of Coinage had confined themselves to the mate-
rials presented to them in the earliest money of Lydia, Greece
and Italy, and on the other hand the Metrologists had almost
completely limited their range of observation to the systems
of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome. As the Comparative
Method has yielded such excellent results in the study of other
human institutions, I have endeavoured by its aid to get some
new principles which may throw some fresh light on the first
beginnings of monetary and weight systems.
The leading principle which I have here endeavoured to
establish by the Inductive Method. I had already put forward in
a short paper, but there are various other doctrines now pub-
lished for the first time, such as the origin of the earliest Greek
coin types, the origin of the earliest Greek silver coins, of the
Greek Obolos, the Sicilian Litra, and Roman As, of the Mina,
and its sixty-fold the Talent.
B. b
VI PREFACE.
In treating of the Distribution of gold and the priority of
its discovery to that of the other metals, I have been led to
criticise the principles of the science of Linguistic Palaeonto-
logy, which have gained such currency in this country from
Schroder's Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryans, and from Dr
Isaac Taylor's popular little book, The Origin of the Aryans.
I have been led to conclude that Comparative Philology taken
alone is a misleading guide in the study of Anthropology.
From the nature of this work, a certain amount of polemic
was inevitable ; but I trust that not a line will be found which
contains anything which could be offensive to the living, or is
disrespectful to great scholars now no more. I owe so much to
the works of distinguished men, from whose principles I am
obliged to dissent, that I feel myself almost an ingrate who
assails his benefactors with the very means provided for him
by their labours.
It now only remains for me to thank many friends, who
have aided me and taken an interest in this work.
To Mr J. G. Frazer, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
I am under obligations which I cannot adequately express in
words. He has read through the proofs of the whole of this
work, and there is scarcely a page which has not benefited from
his most careful and acute criticism. Besides this his vast
knowledge of the manners and customs of barbarous peoples
has furnished me with many most valuable references, and his
tin' Ethnological Library has been ungrudgingly placed at my
disposal. Professor W. Robertson Smith has read the proofs of
those pages which deal with Semitic systems, and Prof. J. H.
Mi<l<lleton those treating of the Greek.
By their kind sacrifice of time and labour which have been
robbed from important works of their own, the many short-
comings of this book have been rendered far less numerous than
they otherwise would be, but of course I alone am responsible
for the manifold ones which remain.
PREFACE. Vll
I must also express my gratitude to Mr Head, Mr Wroth
and Mr Grueber of the Coin Department of the British Museum
for their kindness and courtesy in affording me every facility
for studying the coins under their charge.
I have to thank the Syndics of the Cambridge University
Press for having undertaken the publication of this work.
QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CORK,
Christmas Eve, 1891.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Ox and the Talent in Homer 1
CHAPTER II.
Primitive Systems of Currency 10
CHAPTER III.
The distribution of the Ox and the distribution of Gold ... 47
CHAPTER IV.
Primaeval Trade Routes 105
CHAPTER V.
The Art of Weighing was first employed for Gold . . . .112
CHAPTER VI.
The Gold Unit every where the value of a Cow 124
CHAPTER VII.
The Weight Systems of China and Further Asia . . . .155
CHAPTER VIII.
How were Primitive Weight Units fixed ? 169
CHAPTER IX.
Statement and Criticism of the Old Doctrines . 195
X CONTENTS.
PART II.
CHAPTER X.
PAGE
Tin- Sy.st ems of Egypt, Babylon, and Palestine . . . . '234
CHAPTER XI.
The Lydian and Persian Systems ....... 293
CHAPTER XII.
The Greek, Sicilian, Italian and Roman Systems. Conclusion . . 304
ApittiidixA ........... 389
Appendix B ..... ...... 391
C ........... 394
Index ..... .... . . 407
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
1. Cowrie Shell 13
2. Wampum . . . . . . . . . .14
3. Al-li-ko-chik . " 15
4. Burmese silver shell money 22
5. Chinese hoe money 23
6. Fish-hook money . . , .28
7. Siamese silver bullet money 29
8. Silvered brass bars ......... 30
9. Rings found in the tombs of Mycenae . . . . .37
10. Gold rings found in Ireland 38
11. West African axe money 40
12. Old Calabar copper-wire formerly used as money ... 41
13. Irish bronze fibulae and West African manillas ... 42
1 4. Ancient British Coins '93
15. Barbarous imitation of Drachm of Massalia . . . .111
16. Gold Stater of Philip of Macedon . . ' . . . 125
17. Persian Daric . . . 126
18. Gold Stater of Diodotus of Bactria 126
19. Egyptian wall painting showing the weighing of gold rings . 128
20. Regenbogenschiissel 140
21. Chinese knife money 157
22. Egyptian Five-Kat weight 240
23. Lion weight .......... 245
24. Assyrian Duck weight 245
25. Weights in the form of Sheep 271
26. Coin of Salamis in Cyprus 272
27. Bull's-head Five-shekel Weight ....... 283
28. Lydian Electrum Coin . 295
29. Coin of Croesus . . . . 298
30. Coin of Eretria 306
31. Coin of Cyrene with Silphium plant . . . . . .313
32. Coin of Cyzicus with tunny fish . . . . . . .316
33. Coins of Olbia in the form of tunny fish ..... 317
Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIO. PAGE
34. Coin of Tenedos with double-headed axe 318
35. Coin of Phanes, earliest known inscribed coin .... 320
36. Archaic Coin of Samoa 321
37. Coin of Cnidus 321
38. Coin of Thiirii 322
39. Coin of Rhoda in Spain 322
40. Tetradrachm of Athens 325
41. Vase from Cyrene, showing the weighing of the Silphium . . 326
42. Coin of Metapontum 327
43. CoinofCroton 328
44. Tortoise of Aegina 328
46. Coin of Boeotia with Shield 331
46. Coin of Lycia 332
17. Coin of Messana 336
48. Acs Rude 355
49. Bronze Decussis, with figure of Cow 356
60. As (Aes grave] 361
61. As (semi-uncial) 362
52. As, 3rd Cent. A.D. (Third Brass] 362
53. Didrachm of Corinth 362
54. Sesterce of First Roman Silver coinage 363
65. Didrachm of Tarentum 364
56. Romano-Campanian coin 377
57. Victoriatus 377
58. Sextans (aes grave) . . . 379
59. Gold Solidus of Julian the Apostate 384
60. Tremissis of Leo I. . 385
CHAPTER I.
THE Ox AND THE TALENT IN HOMER.
A 1 ofr' AP TTOO HOOC, ITI A' AMC^AYKH
THE object of this essay is to enquire into the origin of
Metallic Currency and Weight Standards. Since August Boeckh
in his metrological enquiries 1 put forth the idea that the weight
standards of antiquity had been obtained scientifically, all
subsequent writers with scarcely an exception have followed
in the same path. This theory was undoubtedly suggested by
the fact that the French Republic had established a new
scientific metric system. Yet reflection might have shown
scholars that even the French system was not a wholly inde-
pendent outcome of science, for beyond doubt the metre and
litre and hectare were only varieties of older measures of length,
capacity and surface, then for the first time scientifically
adjusted. The discovery of certain weights of bronze and
stone in the ruins of Nineveh, Khorsabad and Babylon lent force
to the theory of Boeckh ; the imaginations of scholars were
excited by the marvellous remains of Chaldaean and Assyrian
civilization which had just been brought to light by Sir A. H.
Layard, and they hastened to conclude that in the mathe-
matical science of Mesopotamia the source of all weight-
standards was to be found. Egypt however put in her claim
to priority, and standards based on the measurements of the
Great Pyramid, or on the weight of a given quantity of Nile-
water, have entered the lists against the astrologers of Chaldaea.
This battle still rages hotly, Assyriologists and Egyptologists
1 Metroloffische Untersuchungen iiber Geivichte, Mihtzfiiste und Masse ties
Altcrfhums in ihrem Zusammerihange. Berlin, 1838.
E. 1
THE OX AND THE TALENT IN HOMER.
at each other statements drawn from tablets and
, as regards the translation of which no two of these
nits are agreed. In spite of this all modern works on
metrology start with the systems of Babylon and Egypt and
horn these they derive the systems of Greece and Italy. It
would at least be more scientific to move backwards from the
known to the unknown, but beguiled by the glamour of a
"scientific" metrological system, scholars have turned their backs
upon scientific method. Whilst our knowledge of the Assyrian
and K^yptian weight systems is most imperfect, being derived
Iron) literary monuments, or from inscriptions on weights not
half understood, the systems of Greece and Rome are known to
us not simply from the vast literatures written in languages
thoroughly intelligible, but likewise from the evidence of
immense numbers of coins struck in gold and silver, by the
weights of which we are enabled to check off and substantiate
the literary sources.
As Greece coined money several centuries before Italy, and
as its literature reaches much further back than that of Rome,
it is plain that any sound enquiry into the origin of weight
standards must commence with Greece. We shall therefore
without further preface proceed to investigate the evidence
atVonled to us by the oldest Greek records.
The Homeric Talent.
In the Homeric Poems, which cannot be dated later than
i lie eighth century B.C., there is as yet no trace of coined money.
We find nevertheless in those Poems two units of value; the
one is the cow (or ox), or the value of a cow, the other is
tin- Tali-tit (rdXavrov). The former is the one which has
ailed, and does still prevail, in barbaric communities, such
as the Zulus of South Africa, where the sole or principal wealth
<"iisUts in herds and flocks. For several reasons we may
assign to it priority in age as compared with the Talent.
In the first place it represents the most primitive form of
. the barter of one article of value for another, before
the employment !' tin- |>reci<us metals as a medium of cur-
THE OX AND THE TALENT IN HOMER. 3
rency; consequently the estimation of values by the cow is older
than that by means of a Talent or "weight" of gold, or silver
or copper. Again, in Homer, all values are expressed in so
many oxen, as "golden arms for brazen, those worth one
hundred beeves, for those worth nine beeves 1 " (II. vi. 236).
The Talent on the other hand is only mentioned in Homer
in relation to gold (for we never find any mention of a Talent
of silver) and we never find the value of any other article ex-
pressed in Talents. But the names of monetary units hold their
ground long after they themselves have ceased to be in actual
use as we observe in such common expressions as "bet a guinea,"
or worth a "groat," although these coins themselves are no longer
in circulation, and so the French sou has survived for a century
in popular parlance, and the Thaler has lived into the new
German monetary system. Accordingly we may infer that the
method of expressing the value of commodities in kine, which
we find side by side with the Talent, is the elder of the twain.
Was there any immediate connection between the two sys-
tems or were they as Hultsch (Metrologie 2 , p. 165) maintains
entirely independent? It is difficult to conceive any people,
however primitive, employing two standards at the same time
which are completely independent of each other. For instance
when we find in the Iliad 2 that in a list of three prizes appointed
for the foot-race, the second is a cow, the third is a half-talent of
gold, it is impossible to believe that Achilles or rather the poet
had not some clear idea concerning the relative value of an ox
and a talent. Now it is noteworthy that, as already remarked,
nowhere in the Poems is the value of any commodity expressed
in Talents; yet who can doubt that Talents of gold passed
freely as media of exchange? A simple solution of this
difficulty would be that the Talent of gold represented the
older ox-unit. This would account for the fact that all values
are expressed in oxen, and not in Talents, the older name pre-
vailing in a fashion resembling the usage of pecunia in Latin.
A complete parallel for such a practice can be still found
at the present moment among some of the Samoyede tribes
aX/ceiW, f/caro^/Soi' evveafioiwv.
2 Iliad, xxiii. 750.
12
4 THE OX AND THE TALENT IN HOMER.
of Siberia. Thus we read in the account of a recent traveller :
" He finally came to the conclusion that for the consideration
of five hundred reindeer, he would undertake the contract.
This I regarded as a very facetious sally on his part. The
reindeer however I found was the recognised unit of value,
as amongst some tribes of the Ostiaks the Siberian squirrel.
For this purpose the reindeer is generally considered to be
worth five roubles 1 ." Again forty years ago Haxthausen 2 tolls
us that the Ossetes, a Caucasian tribe dwelling not very fur
from Tiflis, although long .accustomed to stamped money,
especially on the border of Georgia, kept their accounts in cows,
five roubles being reckoned to the cow. Here then in Siberia
and in the Caucasus, in spite of a long experience not merely
of a metallic unit, but of actual coined money, we still find
values estimated in reindeer, and in cows, the older units, just
as in Homer they are stated in oxen.
We shall likewise find that when the ancient Irish borrowed
a ivady made silver unit (the undo) from the Romans, they
had to equate this unit to their old barter-unit the cow, just as
in modern times the wild tribes of Annam when borrowing the
bar of silver from their more civilized neighbours have had to
equate it to their native standard, the buffalo ; facts in close
accord with the well known derivation of Latin pecunia, money
from pecw, English fee from feoh, which still meant cattle, as
does the German Vieh, and rupee (according to some) from
Sanskrit mpn, also meaning cattle.
Let us now see if we have any data to support this hy-
pothesis. That most trustworthy writer, Julius Pollux, says
in his Onomasticon (ix. 60): "Now in old times the Athenians
had this (i.e. the didrachm) as a coin and it was called an
had an ox stamped on it, but they think that
HniiH-r also was acquainted with it when he spoke of (arms)
worth an hundred kine for those worth nine 3 .' Moreover in
1 Victor A. L. Morier, Murray's Maijnzinf, August, 1889, p. 181.
1 Traiu-Cunr.itin, p. 410 (Engl. trans. 1854).
1 I'ulliix. ix. 7:t, rb ira\aif)v 8t TOUT* yv '\0ijvalois vf>fj.ifffj.a Kal tKaXetro /9oi/s,
Sri ftovv (Ixtv ivTtrwirufjutvov. dStvai 5' avrb Kal "Ofiypov vofjil^oixnv eiirbvra exa-
THE OX AND THE TALENT IN HOMER.
the laws of Draco there is the expression, to pay back the
price of twenty kine : and at the time when the Delians
hold their sacred festival, they say that the herald makes
proclamation whenever a gift is given by any one, that so
many oxen will be given by him, and that for each ox two
Attic drachms are offered: whence some are of opinion that
the ox is a coin peculiar to the Delians, but not to the
Athenians; and that from this likewise has been started the
proverb, an ox stands on his tongue, in case any man holds
his tongue for money 1 ."
According to Pollux then the Attic didrachm, or at least
a coin employed by the Athenians (perhaps certain coins of
Euboea), was called an 'ox.' Plutarch (Theseus, c. 25) goes
further and asserts that Theseus struck money stamped with
the figure of an ox (e/eo^re Se vopto-fjua fiovv t7%4jtt*a?)> and
the Scholiast on the Birds of Aristophanes (1106) quotes
from Philochorus, an Athenian antiquary of the third century
B.C. 2 , the same account of the Attic didrachms being marked
with an ox.
On the other hand the highest authorities on numismatics
assert that the Athenians never struck any such coins. Yet
after making due allowance for the additions made by Plu-
tarch to the more crude statement of Pollux and Philochorus,
it is hard to conceive that such a belief could have arisen with-
out some foundation, and a probable solution may be found in
the fact that certain uninscribed coins, bearing the type of an
ox-head, which in recent years have been assigned to Euboea,
are for the most part found in Attica. We know that Eretria,
and Chalcis, the great cities of Euboea, were amongst the
earliest places in Greece to strike money, and it is quite pos-
sible, nay probable, that these Euboic coins formed (along with
the Aeginetan didrachms) the currency in use at Athens before
i Cf. Aesch. Agam. 36 ; Theognis 815. Cp. rav dperav ical rav <ro<piav
XeXwrat, a proverb (given by Pollux ix. 74) alluding to the Tortoise coins of
Aegina; and Menander (Al. 1), iraxbs yap 5s &car' eirl ffrd^a.
8 77 7\au| eni xo.payfJ-a.ros 7} rerpadpaxfJ-ov, cos 3>i\6xopos- K\rj0f] de TO t>6(ufffJ,a
TO TeTpddpaxfJiov rare [rj] y\av rjv 7<*P 77 7 Xa e*l<rwov Kdl irpbawirov '
TUV irpoTcpuv didpax^f OVTUV, ejriff'rjfMov de fiovv
6 THE OX AND THE TALENT IN HOMER.
tin- time of Solon (B.c. 59U). Why the name ox was especially
lee ted in after years as that of the earliest currency, we
can readily understand; the name derived from the old unit
of barter would at once attach itself to the coin which bore
the image of the ox, and in the course of time two traditions,
our that the ancient unit was the ox, the other that the first
coins current at Athens bore the symbol of an ox, would
^ into one, and finally patriotic feeling would ascribe the
tir-t coinage to Theseus, who was regarded as the father of
so many Athenian institutions.
That, at all events, the name might be applied to a certain
sum, or coin, is rendered highly probable by the fact that
Draco, with true legal conservatism, retained in his code the
primitive method of expressing values in oxen. Now it is
evident that the term, 'price of twenty oxen' (ei/coadftoiov),
must have been capable of being translated into the ordinary
metallic currency, whether that consisted of bullion in ingots
or coined money. The "cow" therefore must have had a
recognized traditional and conventional value as a monetary
unit, and this is completely demonstrated by the practice at
Delos. Religious ritual is even more conservative than legal
formula, so we need not be surprised to find the ancient
unit, the ox, still retained in that great centre of Hellenic
\\orship. The value likewise is expressed in the more modern
euiTcncy. But we are not yet certain whether the two Attic
drachms, which are the equivalent of the ox, are silver or gold.
Now Herodotus (vi. 97) tells us that Datis, the Persian gem Mai
490), offered at Delos three hundred talents of frankin-
6, Hultsch (MetroL p. 129) has made it clear that the
talent here indicated must be the gold Daric, that is the light
Babylonian shekel. For if they were either Babylonian or
Attic talents, the amount would be incredible. Frankincense
<f enormous value in antiquity; wherefore Hultsch is
).ml);il>ly right in assuming that in the opinion of the Persian
who made the offering, the three hundred "weights" of
frankincense, each of which weighed a Daric, were equal in
value likewise to 300 Darics. We shall sec in a moment that
there was a distinct tradition that the Daric was a Talent, and
THE OX AND THE TALENT IN HOMER. 7
that the Homeric one. Now the gold Daric = two Attic gold
drachms ; but as the cow at Delos also = two Attic drachms,
and the offering of frankincense at Delos is made in Talent,
each of which is equivalent to two gold Attic drachms, there
is a strong presumption that this Talent is the equivalent of
the ox, and that the Attic drachms mentioned by Pollux
are gold. Besides, it is absurd to suppose that at any time
two silver drachms could have represented the value of an
ox. Even at Athens, in a time of extreme scarcity of coin,
Solon, when commuting penalties in cattle for money in
reference to certain ancient ordinances, put the value of the
ox at five silver drachms 1 . Moreover it is not at all likely
that the substitution of silver coin for gold of equal weight
would have been permitted by the temple authorities. But
we get some more positive evidence of great interest from
the fragment of an anonymous Alexandrine writer on Metro-
logy, who says 2 , "the talent in Homer was equal in amount
to the later Daric. Accordingly the gold talent weighs two
Attic drachms." Here we can have no doubt that Attic
drachms mean gold drachms. Are we wrong then in supposing
that at Delos still survived the same dual system which we
found in Homer, the Ox and the Talent ? But that at Delos
both were of equal value we can have little doubt. For the
ox = 2 Attic drachms = 1 Daric = 1 Talent = (130 grains
Troy). Who can doubt that at Delos was preserved an un-
broken tradition from the earliest days of Hellenic settlements
in the Aegean ? Modern discovery comes likewise to our
support, and we shall find that it is probable that the gold rings
found by Dr Schliemann in the tombs at Mycenae were made
on a standard of about 135 grs.
This identification of the ox and the Homeric Talent is of
importance : for it gives a simple and natural origin for the
earliest Greek metallic unit of which we read. It likewise
incidentally explains the proverb, ftovs eVl y\(ao-arrj which dates
1 Plutarch, Solon, c. 15.
- Hultsch, Reliquiae Scriptorum Metroloyicorum, i. 301, TO 5e Trap' 'Oyw^v
rd\a.vTov laov edvvaro ry /uera TO.VTO. Aapet/cc^. dyei 5' ovv rb ^pvffovv raXavrov
ij Te<r<rdpas.
8 THE OX AND THE TALENT IN HOMER.
from a time long before money was yet coined, or even the
precious nu-tals were in any form whatever employed for
currency; it possibly explains why the ox was such a favourite
type on coins, without having to call to our aid recondite
mythological allusions; and it clears up once for all some
interesting points in Homer. In the passage of the Iliad
(xxill. 750 sq.) already referred to the ox is second prize, whilst
an half-talent of gold is the third. The relation between them
is now plain ; the ox = 1 talent, and the half-talent = a half-ox.
The vexed question of the Trial Scene 1 can now be put
beyond doubt. In the Journal of Philology (Vol. x. p. 30) the
present writer argued that the two talents represented a sum
too small to form the blood-price (iroivrj) of a murdered man,
and consequently must represent the sacr amentum (or payment
made to the Court for its time and trouble, as in the Roman
Legis actio sacramenti described by Gains, Bk. iv. 16), as pro-
posed by that most distinguished scholar and jurist, the late
Sir H. S. Maine 2 . We know that the two talents are equal
to two oxen, but in the Iliad, xxm. 705, the second prize for
the wrestlers was a slave woman " whom they valued at four
oxen 3 ." Now if an ordinary female slave was worth four oxen
(= four talents) it is impossible that two talents (= two oxen)
could have formed the bloodgelt or eric of a freeman. Pro-
bably four oxen was not far from the price of an ordinary
female slave. Of course women of superior personal charms
would fetch more, for instance, Euryclea,
"\Ylnnii once on a time Laertes had bought with his possessions,
\Vhon she was still in youthful prime, and he gave the price of
twenty kine 4 ."
The poet evidently refers to this as an exceptional piece
of extravagance on the part of Laertes. We can likewise now
1 Iliad, xviii. 507, 8,
KCITO 5' dp' Iv fdffffoiffi Svu xP vff< H rdXavra,
Ttf 56/xej', fls /tccrA roiai 5iKtji> Wvvro.ro. CITTTJ.
See Appendix A for a linguistic proof that the two talents were for the Judge.
- ,ln< ,, nt I., nr, p. 375.
difdpl te viKrjOtvTi yvvaiic' es ^taaov tOyKev,
iroXXa 6' tirlffTaro tpya, rtov dt t Te<r<ra/>a/3otoi/.
4 Od. i. 430.
THE OX AND THE TALENT IN HOMER. 9
get a common measure for the ten talents of gold and the
seven slave women who formed part of the requital gifts prof-
fered by Agamemnon to Achilles 1 , and can form some notion
of the comparative value of the prizes for the chariot race and
other contests 2 .
The wider question of Weight-standards in general.
But results far more important than merely the determi-
nation of the value of Homeric commodities may be obtained
as regards the weight-standards of Europe and their congeners
in Asia. For by taking as our primitive unit the cow or ox,
we may be able to give a much more simple account of the
genesis of those standards than that which hitherto has been
the received one.
We have found the Homeric ox and talent identical
with the didrachm or stater of the Euboic- Attic standard.
All the silver coinage of Greece proper was struck either
on this standard or the Aeginetic, and what is still more
important for us it was on the Euboic-Attic standard alone
that gold was estimated in every part of Greece. Practically
the stater of this system was of the same weight as the famous
Persian daric which in historical times formed the chief coin-
unit of all Asia from India to the Aegean shores.
1 Iliad, ix. 12 seqq.
J II. xxin. 262 seqq.
CHAPTER II.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
'Er ANAfKHC H TOY MOMICMATOC ETTOplCBH )(pHCIC.
AKISTOTLE.
LET us here propound the doctrine which seeks to obtain
an explanation of the origin for weight-standards more in
accordance with the facts of history and the process of deve-
lopment as exemplified both in ancient and modern times.
In early communities 1 all commodities alike are exchanged
by bartering the one against the other. The man who pos-
- ^heep exchanges them for oxen with the man who
possesses oxen, the owner of corn exchanges his commodity
-ome implement or ornament of metal with the owner of
the latter. The metals are only regarded as merchandise, not
yet being in any degree set apart to serve as a medium of
r.\-haiige in the terms of which all other commodities are
valued. This is the practice which prevails in so civilized a
country as China down to our own days. The only coinage
which the Chinese possess is copper cash. According to M.
le Comte Rochechouart (Journal des ficonomistes, Vol. xv. p.
103) both gold and silver are treated simply as merchandise,
and thin is not even a recognized stamp or government
guarantee of the fineness of the metal. The traveller must
carry these metals with him, as a sufficient quantity of strings
1 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.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 11
of cash would require a waggon for their conveyance. Yet in
exchanging silver or gold he is sure to suffer loss both from
the falsity of balances and of weights and the uncertain fine-
ness of the metal.
P When in a certain community one particular kind of com-
Unodity is of general use and generally available, this comes to
iform the unit in terms of which all values are expressed. The
,'nature of this barter-unit will depend upon the nature of the
j climate and geographical position, and likewise upon the stage
; of culture to which the people have attained. In the hunting-
stage, all the property of each individual consists in his wea-
pons and implements of war and the chase, and the skins of wild
beasts which form his clothing, and sometimes the cover of his
hut or wigwam. At a later stage, when he has succeeded in
taming the ox, the sheep, or the goat, or the horse, he is
the owner of property in domestic animals, whose flesh and
milk sustain him and his family, and whose skins and wool
provide his clothing.
By this time too he has found out that it is better to
make the captive whom he has taken in war into a hewer
of wood and drawer of water than merely to obtain some
transient pleasure from eating him after putting him to death
by torture, or by wearing his skull or scalp as personal deco-
rations.
This is now the pastoral or nomad stage.
Next comes the more settledTform of life, when the culti-
vation of land and the production of the various kinds of
cereals renders a permanent dwelling-place more or less neces-
sary.
Property now consists not merely in slaves arid domestic
animals, but likewise in houses of improved construction, and
large stores of grain. Man now possesses certain of the metals,
gold and copper being the first to be known. How does
he appraise these metals when he exchanges them with his
neighbour ? We shall find that he estimates them in terms
of cattle, and that he at first barters them all by measures
based on the parts of the human body, a method which con-
tinues to be employed for copper and iron long after the art of
12 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
has been invented; next he estimates his gold by
natural units of capacity such as a goosequill, and
finally tixi-s the amount of gold which is equivalent to a cow,
J by setting it in a rude balance against a certain number of
natural seeds of plants. Such is the process which history
tells us has taken place in the temperate regions of Asia
ami Europe, Africa and America. Just as it is impossible
to learn the history of the growth of the earth's crust by con-
fining our observations to one locality, and as the geologist
only succeeds in gaining a true insight into the relations
In t ween the various strata by a study of the phenomena of
many regions, so we shall only be able to comprehend properly
the various stages in the growth of metallic currency and the
origin of weight-standards by observing the facts revealed to
us in various countries. Whilst in some places we shall meet
with but one or two steps, in others we shall find traces of
many, though often, broken strata. Like advance, however,
ins impossible under the extremes of heat and cold. Hence
in the latter regions the conditions of life remain almost un-
altered. In the extreme north the rigour of an arctic winter
forbids the keeping and rearing of domestic animals, or the
cultivation of corn and vegetables. Hence the hunter form
of existence remains almost unaltered. The sole or chief
wealth of the people consists of the skins of the fur-bearing
animals such as the seal, the beaver, the marten, or the fox,
or stores of dried fish, which they exchange with traders for
a few scant luxuries, or which form their own sustenance and
protection against the pitiless frosts and snows.
In these regions therefore we find the skins of certain
animals serving as units of account, in spite of the difference in
value between those of different quality and rarity. In the
Territory of the Hudson's Bay Company, even after the use
.f cniiu.'d money had been introduced among the Indians, the
skin was still in common use as the money of account. A
gun nominally worth forty shillings brought twenty 'skins.'
ThU i< mi is the old one used by the Company. One skin
(I., aver) is supposed to be worth two shillings, and it represents
two martens and so on. " You heard a great deal about skins
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 13
at Fort Yukon, as the workmen were also charged for clothing,
etc., in this way 1 ." Similarly in the extreme north of Asia we
find some Ostiak tribes using the skin of the Siberian squirrel
as their unit of account.
The name of a small coin equal to a quarter kopeck indi-
cates that originally the Slavs had a like form of currency. It
is called polooshka. Ooshka (properly little ears) means a
hare-skin, and polooshka means half a hare-skin*.
When we turn to the torrid zone, where clothes are only
an incumbrance and Nature lavishly supplies plenteous stores
of fruits and vegetables, the chief objects of desire will not
be food and clothing but ornaments, implements and weapons.
(Hence we find amongst the inhabitants of such regions in
jespecial strength that passion for personal adornment, which
is one of the most powerful and primitive instincts of the
human race. Shells have from very remote times formed
one of the most simple forms of adornment in all parts of
the world. Shells which once perhaps formed the necklace
I of some beauty of the neolithic age are found with the
remains of the cave men of Auvergne. Strings of cowries
I under their various names of clmngos, zimbis, bonges or porcelain
FIG. 1. Cowrie Shell (Cypraea moneta).
shells are both durable, universally esteemed, and portable,
and therefore suited to form a medium of exchange, and as
such they are employed in the East Indies, Siam, and on
the East and West Coasts of Africa; on the tropical coasts
they serve the purposes of small change, being collected on
the shores of the Maldive and Laccadive islands and exported
for that object. The relative value varies slightly according
to their abundance or scarcity. In India the usual ratio
was about 5000 to the rupee. Marco Polo found the cowry
1 Whymper's Alaska, p. 225.
2 Morier, Murray's Magazine, August, 1889, p. 181.
14 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
in use in the province of Yunnam. He says (n. p. 62, Yule's
Transl.) : " In Carajan gold is so abundant that they give one
Saggio of gold for six of the same weight of silver. And
for small change they use the porcelain shell. These are
not found in tlu> country but are brought from India." How
ancient is their use in Asia is shown by the fact that Layard
found cowries in the ruins of Nineveh.
Beyond all doubt the wampum belts of the North American
Indians served the purpose of currency. They consisted of
l>l.-u-k ami white shells rubbed down, -polished and made into
beads, and then strung into belts or necklaces, which were
Fio. 2. Wampum (made from the Venus mercrnaria).
valued according to their length, colour and lustre, the black
beads being the most valuable. Thus one foot of black peag
worth two feet of white pcag. It was so well estab-
lish, -i I ;is ;i uirrcncy among the natives that in 1649 the Court
of Massachusetts ordered that it should be received as legal
ti-ndiT ainoML,' the settlers in the payment of debts up to forty
shilln,
Mnin-t/. p. 24.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
15
Nor has this employment of strings of shells as money
even yet disappeared from North America. Thus Powers
writes 1 of the Karoks and other tribes of California: "For
money they make use of the red scalps of woodpeckers, which
rate at $2.50 to $5.0 a piece, and of the dentalium shell, of
which they grind off the tip, and string it on strings, the
shortest pieces are worth 25 cents, and the longest about two
dollars, the value rising rapidly with the length. The strings
are usually about as long as a man's arm. It is called al-li-ko-
chik (in Yarok this signifies literally Indian money) not
Fio. 3. Al-li-ko-chik.
only on the Klamath but from Crescent city to Eel river,
though the tribes using it speak several different languages.
When the Americans first arrived in the country an Indian
would give 40 or 50 dollars gold for a string, but now the
abundance of the supply has depreciated its value and it is
principally the old Indians who esteem it." Again he writes,
1 Tribes of California, p. 21.
16 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
" Some of the young bloods array their Dulcineas for the dance
\\itli lavish adornments, hanging on their dress 30, 40 or 50
dollars worth of dimes, quarter dollars and half dollars arranged
in strings." This shows that the new currency of silver is
treated by them in exactly the same way as the old shell
strings, both of them deriving their value as media of exchange
from the fact that they are the objects most universally prized
as ornaments for the person.
Elsewhere the same writer observes : " Immense quantities
of it (shell money) were formerly in circulation among the
Californian Indians, and the manufacture of it was large and
constant to replace the continual wastage caused by the sacrifice
of so much on the death of wealthy men, and by the propitiatory
sacrifices performed by many tribes, especially those of the
coast range. From my own observations, which have not been
limited, and from the statements of pioneers and of the Indians
themselves, I hesitate little to express the belief that every
Indian in the state in early days possessed an average of at
least 100 dollars worth of shell money. This would represent
the value of almost two women (though the Nishinam never
actually bought their wives), or two grizzly bear skins, or 25
cinnamon bear skins or about three average ponies. The young
English-speaking Indians hardly use it at all except in a few
dealings with their elders or for gambling. One sometimes
lays away a few strings of it for he knows he cannot squander
it at the stores. It is singular how old Indians cling to this
currency when they know it will purchase nothing for them
at the stores ; but then their wants are few, and mostly supplied.
from the sources of nature, and besides that the money has a,
in religious value in their eyes, as being alone worthy to
be oft' ! I up on the funeral pile of departed friends or famous
cfaiefc ..(their tribes 1 ."
1IT we we ln\v amongst the Indian tribes there was n
fully developed system of inter-relations between the various
oliji-cts which formed their wealth.
Tin- liorsr \v;is l,ut ;i n<>w comor into America, but he had
his placr soon allotted in the scale of values, being little less
1 Op. rit., p. :wri.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 17
valuable than a squaw. We cannot doubt that if the Indian
had succeeded in domesticating the buffalo before the advent
of the white man, it would have formed the most general
unit in use, as we shall find its congeners being employed in
all parts of the old world. But before the coming of the
Spaniards at least one race of North America had advanced a
stage beyond shell money. The Aztecs 1 of Mexico were em-
ploying a currency of gold and cacao seeds. The former in the
shape of dust was placed in goose quills, which formed a natural
unit of capacity, for weights were as yet unknown to the Aztecs ;
whilst the cacao seeds were placed in bags, each containing
a specified number.
In Queen Charlotte Islands the dentalium shell was recog-
nized as a medium of exchange by most of the coast tribes, but
not so much as a medium of exchange for themselves as for
barter with the Indians of the interior. With the Haidas it is
still sometimes worn as an ornament though it has disappeared
as a medium of exchange. The blanket of the trader has now
however supplanted the skin as the principal unit. Not only
among the Haidas but all along the coast it takes the place of
the beaver-skin currency of the interior of British Columbia and
of the North West Territory. The blankets used in trade are
distinguished by the points or marks on the edge, woven into
their texture, the best being four-point, the smallest and
poorest one-point. The acknowledged unit of trade is a single^
two and a half-point blanket, now worth a little over $1.50
Everything is referred to this unit, even a large four-point
blanket is said to be worth so many blankets. There is also
the "Copper," u an article of purely conventional value and
serving as money. This is a piece of native metal beaten out
into a flat sheet and made to take a peculiar shape. These
are not made by the Haidas nor indeed is the native metal
known to exist in the islands, but are imported as articles of
great worth from the Chilcat country north of Sitka. Much
1 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.
R. 2
18 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
attention is paid to the size and make of the copper, which
should be of uniform but not too great thickness, and should
give forth a good sound when struck with the hand. At the
present time spurious coppers have come into circulation, and
although these are easily detected by an expert, the value of
the copper is somewhat reduced and is often more nominal
than real. Formerly ten slaves were paid for a good copper as
a usual price, now they are valued at from forty to eighty
blankets". 1 It is obvious that such costly imported articles,
though now used as occasional higher units of account much
as we employ fifty-pound notes must have had some definite
use, owing to which they were so highly prized. The
attention paid to their tone would lead us to conjecture that
they were employed as a kind of gong, and further on we shall
find certain peoples of Further Asia paying a large price in
buffaloes for gongs.
Before we quit finally the northern latitudes, it is worth
our while to observe the method of currency employed by the
Icelanders. As metals and other products of the land were
scarce in their bleak home, the stockfish (dried cod) formed
naturally their chief commodity, and hence it appears on the
arms of Denmark as the emblem of Iceland. There is still
extant a proclamation for the regulation of English trade with
Iceland issued sometime between 1413 and 1426. As, mutatis
mutandis, it affords admirable insight into the methods by which
trade was carried on between men of different nations in the
emporia of the Mediterranean, and in fact everywhere else, it is
worth giving it in extenso 2 .
" I, N. M. do proclaim here to-day a general market between
the English and the Icelandic men, who have come here with
pi-arc and fair dealing, and between the Icelandic men and the
men of the islands who wish to carry on their trade here.
"First I proclaim this market on conditions of peace and
lawful security between one and the other, so that each can
entirely dispose of his own if he buy or if he sell. Price list in
1 O. M. Dawson, 'Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878,' p. 135 B
(Geological Surrey of Canada), Montreal, 1880.
2 F. Magnnsson, Mm//*/,v Tidskriftfor Olilh/uflniln-d, IT. 112.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 19
stockfish: of fish 2, 2J, or If Ibs., 801bs. must be the equivalent
of a hundred (of cloth, i.e. 129 alens of vadme, a cloth formerly
used as a medium of exchange), provided the persons concerned
cannot agree as to the price.
Price of (foreign) goods. Stockfish.
48 alen of good and full width trade cloth . . 120
48 alen linen cloth double width . . . . 120
6 tender (tuns) malt . . . . . . 120
4 do. trade flour 120
3 do. wheat 120
4 do. beer 120
1 tonde clean and clear butter . . . . 120
1 do. wine . . .... 100
1 do. pitch 80
1 do. raw tar ...... 60
1 cask of iron, containing 400 pieces . . . 120
J- tonde honey . . . . . . . 15
J do. blubber . . . . . . 15
J Ib. of coppers (i.e. copper cauldrons) by weight 2^
1 pair black (leather) shoes .... 4
1 pair of women's shoes ..... 3
1 trade rug 30 .
1 "alen" timber, in planks or spars ... 5
i tonde salt 5
i Ib. wax ... .... 5
Horse shoes of iron for 5 horses . . . 20
Caps, knives, and other small mercer's wares, according
to mutual agreement.
" I charge all, not only the people from the country, but also
the inhabitants of these islands, that ye do in no way compass
any disorder or disturbance to the strangers, from the moment
the guard flag is hoisted, unless they themselves allow it.
"They, who here are annoyed by word or deed, have a right
to demand double idemnity therefor.
"Also I charge, and the merchants in no way the least, that
they use aright the "alen" and other lawful measure for every-
thing, as the law demands, especially as regards butter, wine
and beer, flour or malt, honey or tar, so that no one deals false
or with deceit with another.
22
20 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
"He who does so intentionally shall have sinned as greatly
against the state as if he had stolen goods of like value, whereas
the bargain becomes void, and damages moreover must be
given to him who was deceived.
"Let us now, Ye good men, eschew all malice and trickery,
riot or disturbance, quarrels and careless words: but let every
man be the other's friend, without deceit.
"Prizing unity
"And old custom,
"And abiding in God's peace."
Some such proclamations were probably often made in the
marts of the Aegean, such as Aegina, when Greek, Phoenician
and Etruscan met for traffic under the control of some local
potentate, and the protection of the god of some neighbouring
shrine.
Passing to the islands of the Pacific we shall find shell
money playing an important part among the primitive peoples,
such as those who inhabit New Ireland, New Britain, the
Pelew and the Caroline groups. It will suffice for our purpose
to describe the form in which it is employed in New Britain.
Mr Powell 1 tells us that the native money in New Britain
consists of small cowrie shells strung on strips of cane, in Duke
of York Island it is called Dewarra. It is measured in lengths,
the first length being from hand to hand across the chest with
arms extended, second length from the centre of the breast to
the hand of one arm extended, the third from the shoulder to
the tip of the fingers along the arm, fourth from the elbow
to the tip of the fingers, fifth from the wrist to the tip of the
fingers, sixth finger lengths. Fish are generally bought by the
length in Dewarra unless they are too small. A large pig will
cost from 30 to 40 lengths of the first measure (fathom) and a
small one ten. The Dewarra is made up for convenience in
coils of 100 fathoms or first lengths ; sometimes as many as
600 fathoms are coiled together, but not often, as it would be
too bulky to remove quickly in case of invasion or war, when
the women carry it away to hide. These coils are very neatly
1 11'tindfrinu* in a Wild Country, or Three Years among the Cannibals of
New Britain (London, 1883), p. 65.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 21
covered with wickerwork like the bottom of our cane chairs....
At Moko and Utuan they use another kind of money as well
as this, the other being a little bivalve shell, through which
they bore a hole and string it on pieces of native made twine 1 .
It is also chipped all round until it is a quarter of an inch in
diameter and then smoothed down into even discs with sand
and pumice. Here we find strings of shells, which undoubtedly
in the first instance were used for personal adornment, con-
verted into a true currency. The simple savages whose pos-
sessions were exceedingly few and scanty, equated their fish to
strings of shells which formed their only ornament, and when
they got a more valuable possession in the pig, they quickly
learned to appraise that animal in shell worth, just as the
North American Indians learned to estimate the horse in
Wampum. Instead of shells the natives of Fiji are said to have
employed whales' teeth as currency, red teeth (which are still
highly prized) standing to white ones somewhat in the ratio of
sovereigns to shillings with us 2 . Passing on to the mainland of
Asia we shall find that the Chinese, who in the course of ages
have developed a bronze coinage of their own apart from the
influences of the Mediterranean people, had in early times an
elaborate system of shell money. Cowries appear in the Ya-King,
the oldest Chinese book, 100,000 dead shell fishes being an
equivalent for riches. Tortoise shell currency is also mentioned
in the same book. The tortoise of various kinds and sizes was
used for the greater values which would have required too many
cowries. Tortoise shell is still elegantly used to express coin.
Several kinds of Cypraea were used, including the purple shell,
two or three inches long ; all the shells except the small ones were
employed in pairs. A writer of the second century B.C. 3 speaks
of the purple shell as ranking next after the sea tortoise shells,
measuring one foot six inches, which could only be procured
in Cochin China and Annam, where they were used to make
1 For shell money in the Caroline Islands cf. Kubary's Ethnographische
Beitrage 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. E. Steam's Ethno-conchology (Washington, 1889).
2 Jevons, Money, 25.
3 Terrien de la Couperie, Coins and Medals, p. 193.
22 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
pots, basins and other valuable objects. So attached were the
Chinese to these primitive coins that the usurper Wangmang
restored a shell currency of five kinds, tortoise shell being the
highest. From this time we hear no more of cowries in
China Proper, but they left traces of themselves in the small
copper coins shaped like a small Cypraea, called Dragon's eye
or Ant coins 1 . It is doubtless to a similar survival that we
owe those curious silver coins made in the shape of shells
which come from the north of Burmah and of which there are
FIG. 4. Burmese silver shell money.
several specimens in the British Museum. They are about the
size of a cowrie, and doubtless served as a higher unit in a
currency, of which the lower units were formed by real shells.
In 685 B.C. in parts of China pearls and gems, gold, knives
and cloth were the money, and under the Shou dynasty
(1100 B.C.) we understand from ancient Commentaries that
the gold circulated in little cubes of a square inch, and the
copper in round, tongue-like plates by the tchin tchu, while
the silk cloth 2 feet 2 inches wide in rolls of 40 feet formed
a piece.
In the Shu King, when in 947 B.C. commutation for punish-
in- nt was enacted, the culprit according to the offence was to
pay 100, 200, 500 or 1000 hwars, or rings of copper weighing
6 ounces. The Chinese likewise used hoes as money, just as
we shall find the wild people of Annam doing at the present
hour. But in the course of time the hoe became a true
currency and little hoes, such as that here figured, were em-
ployed as coins in some parts of China (tsin, agricultural
implements). The copper knives which played so important
a part in the development of Chinese coinage will be dealt
1 Terrien de la Couperie, Coins and Medals, p. 199.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 23
with more particularly in a later chapter. In Marco Polo's
time cowries were in full use, as in the province of Yunnan 1 .
FIG. 5. Chinese hoe money.
On the borders of China and Tibet we may still find a
state of things not far removed from that existing in the
China of 2000 years ago 2 . The Tibetans, who in recent years
employ Indian rupees, for purposes of small change cut up
these coins into little pieces, which are weighed by the careful
Chinese, but the Tibetans do not seem to use the scale, and
roughly judge of the value of a piece of silver. Tea, more-
over, and beads of turquoise are largely used as a means of
payment instead of metal.
Speaking of this same region (called by him Kandu), Polo
says 3 : " The money-matters of the people are conducted in this
way : they have gold in rods which they weigh, and they
reckon its value by its weight in saggi, but they have no
coined money. Their small change again is made in this
way: they have salt which they boil and set in a mould, and
every piece from the mould weighs half-a-pound. Now eighty
moulds of this salt are worth one saggio of fine gbld." Tea
seems to have taken the place of salt in modern times.
Turning next to the southern frontier of China, we shall
find among the tribes of Annam a system of currency which
strongly reminds us of that found in the Homeric Poems.
Among the Bahnars of Annam who border on Laos, "every-
thing," says that excellent observer M. Aymonier, "is by barter,
hence all objects of general use have a known relationship: if
we know the unit, all the rest is easy. Here is the key: a
1 Yule's Translation, Vol. n. p. 70.
2 Gill, River of Golden Sand, n. p. 77.
3 Yule's Translation, Vol. n. p. 45.
24 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
', that is to say, a male slave is worth six or seven
buffaloes, or the same number of pots (marmites : so in Homer,
//. xxxiil. 885, an ox is estimated at a kettle); the buffalo and
the pot have the same value, which naturally varies with the
size and age of the animal and the size and quality of the pot.
" A full-grown buffalo or a large pot is worth seven earthen-
ware jars of a grey glaze, after the Chinese shape, and with
a capacity of fifteen litres. One jar = 4 muk. (The muk 1 is
an unit of account, but originally meant some special article.)
1 muk = 10 mats, that is to say ten of these hoes, which are
manufactured by the Cedans, and which are employed by all
the savages of this region as their agricultural implement.
The hoe is the smallest amount used by the Bahnars. It is
worth 10 centimes in European goods, and is made of iron 2 ."
Thus the buffalo is worth 280 hoes, or a little more than an
English sovereign, since each hoe is worth a penny (10 centimes).
The Bahnars have sheet tin \ millim. thick cut into pieces 11
centim. square, to be used to ornament sword-belts or to make
earrings (iv. p. 390). A stick of virgin wax the size of an
ordinary candle = 1 hoe, a pretty little cane hat = 2 hoes ; a
large bamboo hat = 2 hoes ; a Bahnar knife = 2 hoes ; a fine
sword and sheath = 1 jar, 1 muk, 3 hoes ; a crossbow and
string = 3 hoes ; ordinary arrows are sold at 30 for 1 hoe ;
arrows with movable heads, 20 for 1 hoe, and poisoned arrows
5 for 1 hoe ; a lance-head = 3 hoes ; a lance with palm handle
= 4 hoes ; a horse = 3 or 4 pots or buffaloes ; a large elephant
= 10 to 15 heads (slaves).
The same method of using the buffalo as the chief unit
is employed by the Mo'is, among whom a slave is reckoned
at 10 buffaloes. Again, among tribes such as the Tjams,
with whom the string of copper cash (or sapecs) borrowed
from the Chinese, is employed as their lowest unit, a full-
grown buffalo = 100 strings; 3 the Mexican piastre or dollar
1 So the Irish sed, the most general name for chattel, originally meant
simply an ox.
2 Cochin-Chine Franchise. Excursions et Reconnaissances, xin. (1877), p.
296-8.
8 Excursions et Reconnaissances, xin. No. 30 (1887), p. 296304.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 25
circulates freely as in China, a small pig costs 10 strings,
pork by retail costs two strings per Ib. (livre), ducks cost
1 to 2 strings. A large caldron costs 3 buffaloes ; a hand-
some gong = 2 buffaloes ; a small gong = 1 buffalo ; 6 copper
platters = 1 buffalo ; two swords = 1 buffalo ; 2 lances = 1
buffalo ; a rhinoceros' horn = 8 buffaloes ; a pair of large ele-
phants' tusks = 6 buffaloes ; a small pair = 3 buffaloes. When
the wild people have dealings with the more civilized peoples
of the plain, who employ the Chinese cash and silver dollars,
a large buffalo = 100 strings of cash, a small one = 50 strings ;
a fine horse = 100 strings ; a she goat = a piece of cloth. The
Orang Glai have often to buy elephants' tusks, at the rate of
8 buffaloes for a pair, or 8 bars of silver (640 francs). The
Szins of Kharang have often to pay a tax of a buffalo per
hut, or for the whole village 10 buffaloes, the horns of which
must be at least as long as their ears 1 . In Cambodia iron
ingots 2 form a special kind of money. These ingots are not
weighed, but they are as long as from the base of the thumb to
the tip of the forefinger ; they are in breadth two fingers, and
one finger in thickness in the middle, tapering off to either end.
Cowries and other shells seem to have gone out of use alto-
gether among these tribes, but we may recognize in the practice
of reckoning the cash by the string a distinct survival of the
olden time when shells were so employed. It is of great im-
portance to note that where silver has come into use, its unit,
the bar, is equated to the buffalo, the unit of barter, just as we
find the Homeric gold Talent equal to the ox.
Next let us turn to India, and to the Aryans of the Rig
Veda, who dwelt in the north-west of the Punjaub at the time
when we first meet them. From their prayers and invocations
it is easy to learn in what the wealth of this simple folk con-
sisted. One or two examples will serve for our purpose : " The
potent ones who bestow on us good fortune by means of cows,
horses, goods, gold, O Indra and Vaya, may they, blessed with
fortune, ever be successful by means of horses and heroes in
1 M. Aymonier, Cochin-Chine. Excursions et Reconnaissances, Vol. x. No. 24
(1885), pp. 233 seqq.
2 Ibid. p. 317.
26 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
battle 1 ." Again, " Indra bring us rice cake, a thousand soma
drinks, and an hundred cows, O hero. Bring us apparel, cows,
horses and jewels, along with a niana of gold." Yet once more :
" Ten horses, ten caskets, ten garments, ten gold nuggets
(liimnya pindas} I received from Divodasa. Ten chariots
equipped with side horses, and an hundred cows gave the
Acjvatha to the Atharvans and to the Payu." Even without
further evidence than that which we have already drawn from
the wild people of Annam, we might well assume that there
were definitely fixed relations in value between the cows,
horses, gold, rice, and cloth of the Vedic people. But absolute
proof is at hand, for their close kinsmen, the ancient Persians,
have left us in the Zend A vesta ample means of observing
their monetary system. Thus we read in the ordinances which
fix the payment of the physician that " he shall heal the priest
for the holy blessing ; he shall heal the master of an house for
the value of an ox of low value ; he shall heal the lord of a
borough for the value of an ox of average value ; he shall heal
the lord of a town for the value of an ox of high value ; he
shall heal the lord of a province for the value of a chariot and
four; he shall heal the wife of the master of a house for the
value of a she ass ; he shall heal the wife of the master of a
borough for the value of a cow ; he shall heal the wife of the
lord of a town for the value of a mare ; he shall heal the wife
of the lord of a province for the value of a she camel ; he shall
heal the son of the lord of a borough for the value of an ox of
high value : he shall heal an ox of high value for the value of
an ox of average value ; he shall heal an ox of average value
fir (he value of an ox of low value; he shall heal an ox of low
value for the value of a sheep ; and he shall heal a sheep for
the value of a meal of meat 2 ." So too in the fees of the Cleanser
we read : " Thou shalt cleanse a priest for a blessing ; the lord
of a province for the value of a camel of high value ; the lord
of a town for the value of a stallion ; the lord of a borough for
the value of a bull ; the master of an house for the value of a
1 Rig-Veda, Mandate, vn. 90. 6, vm. 67. 12, vi. 47, 234.
3 Vendidud, Fatgard, vn. 41 (Darmesteter's translation in Sacred Books of
the East).
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 27
cow three years old ; the wife of the master of an house for the
value of a ploughing cow ; a menial for the value of a draught
cow ; a young child for the value of a lamb 1 ." Again in the
chapter on Contracts : " The third is the contract to the amount
of a sheep, the fourth is the contract to the amount of an ox,
the fifth is the contract to the amount of a man (human being),
the sixth is the contract to the amount of a field, a field in
good land, a fruitful one in good bearing 2 ."
From these extracts it is plain that the ancient Persians
had a system of clearly defined relations in value between all
their worldly gear, whether the object was a slave or an ox, or
a lamb or a field, precisely like that existing at the present
moment among the hill tribes of Annam. But not simply was
it between one kind of animal and another, but they had
evidently strict notions as regards the inter-relations in value
of different animals of the same kind ; thus the ox of high
value, the ox of low value, the cow of three years old, or the
bull all stood to one another in a fixed relationship. We may
without hesitation conclude that the same system of conven-
tional values prevailed among the ancient Hindus. Nor can
we doubt that articles of every kind, suclj as arrows, spears,
axes, and articles of personal use and adornment all had their
regularly recognized prices, and that the less valuable of them
were used as small change. Gold, no doubt, occupied an im-
portant place in relation to the other forms of property in
portions of fixed size or weight, as in the days of Marco Polo.
In mediaeval times in parts of India money consisted of pieces
of iron worked into the form of large needles, and in some parts
stones which we call cat's eyes, and in others pieces of gold
worked to a certain weight were used for moneys, as we are told
by Nicolo Conti, who travelled in India in the 15th century 3 .
If iron was so employed at this late date we may well infer
that bronze and afterwards iron were probably so used by the
ancient Indo-Iranian people.
Among the fishermen who dwelt along the shores of the
Indian Ocean, from the Persian Gulf to the southern shores of
1 Vendiddd, Fasgard, ix. 37. 2 Ibid. iv. 2.
3 Hakluyt Society, 1857, p. 35.
28
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
Hindustan, Ceylon and the Maldive islands, it would appear
that the fish-hook, to them the most important of all imple-
ments, passed as currency. In the course of time it became a
true money, just as did the hoe in China. It still for a time
retained its ancient form, but gradually became degraded into
a simple piece of double wire, as seen in Nos. 3 and 4 of our
i.
3. 4.
FIG. 6. Fish-hook money (Larina).
illustration. In its conventional form it is known as a larin
or lari, a name doubtless derived from Lari on the Persian Gulf.
These larins made both of silver and bronze were in use until
the beginning of the last century, and bear legends in Arabic
character. Had the process of degradation gone on without
check, in course of time the double wire would probably have
shrunk up into a bullet-shaped mass of metal, just as the
Siamese silver coins are the outcome of a process of degrada-
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 29
tion from a piece of silver wire twisted into the form of a
ring and doubled up, which probably originally formed some kind
of ornament. The bullet shaped tical is now struck as a coin of
European form. Just as perhaps the silver shells of Burmah be-
Fia. 7. Siamese silver bullet money : A. B. Early form as simple piece of wire.
C. Last stage of degradation.
came the multiple unit of a large number of real cowries, so the
fish-hook made of silver came into use as a multiple unit, when
the bronze fish-hook had already become conventionalized into
a true coin. The silver larins of Ceylon weigh about 170 grs.
troy, and those of Southern India are said by Professor Wilson
to weigh the same, although some of them weigh only 76 grs.
or less than half. As the rupee weighs about 180 grs. the
silver fish-hook may represent the usual unit employed for
silver, strong national conservatism requiring that the silver
currency should take the same form as the ancient fish-hook
currency of bronze 1 . There are still in circulation in Nejd in
Arabia small bars of silvered brass, which bear on the back
Arabic inscriptions. It is hardly possible to doubt that in these
little pieces of metal we have the last surviving descendants of
1 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.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
the old fish-hook. In the Maldive Isles a silver larin was
worth 12,000 cowries.
FIG. 8. Silvered brass bars used as money in Nejd 1 .
Advancing westward we find the Ossetes of the Caucasus
at the present moment employ the cow as their unit of
value, the prices of all commodities being stated as one, two,
three or four cows, or even at one-tenth or one-hundredth of
the value of a cow. The ox is worth two cows, and the cow is
worth ten sheep. This people regulate compensation for wounds
thus: they measure the length of the wound in barley corns,
and for every barley corn which it measures a cow has to be
paid 2 . We can have little doubt that over all Hither Asia the
same method of employing the cow as the principal unit of
value obtained. It is that which we found among the Greeks
of the Homeric Poems, who were in full contact with Northern
Asia Minor, and was almost certainly that of the Semites who
dwelt in the South. Just as we find the buffalo, and the pots,
bronze platters, arrows, lances and hoes standing side by side
in well defined mutual relation among the Bahnars of Cochin
China, so we find in Homer that whilst the cow is the principal
unit, the slave is employed as an occasional higher unit, and
the kettle (lebes), the pot (trippiis), the axe and the half axe,
1 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.
2 Haxthausen, Tnnixlmnkaria n. p. 30 (Engl. Trans, p. 409).
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 31
hides, raw copper and pig iron stand beside the cow as multiples
or sub-multiples. When Ajax and Idomeneus make a bet on
the issue of the chariot race, the proposed wager is a pot or
a kettle 1 , whilst from another passage we learn that the usual
prizes given at the funeral games of a chieftain were female
slaves and pots (Tripods).
Passing from Greece into Italy we have no difficulty
in proving that the cow was the regular unit of value in
that peninsula and the adjacent island of Sicily. Down to
451 B.C. all fines at Rome were paid in cows and sheep. By
the Tarpeian Law these were commuted for payments in
copper, each cow being set at 100 asses, each sheep at 10 asses.
As I shall deal with the whole question of the Roman As at con-
siderable length later on I shall here simply note that the Italian
tribes had evidently the same system of adjusting the relations
between their cattle and sheep and their metals which we found
among the Persians and modern Ossetes. In Sicily it is clear
that the cow had played the same part as elsewhere, for we
learn from Aristotle 2 that when the tyrant Dionysius burdened
the Syracusans by excessive taxation, they ceased in a great
degree to keep cattle, inasmuch as the unit of assessment was
the cow. If then in the 4th century B.C. at Syracuse, the most
advanced community in Sicily, the cow still continued to be
the unit of assessment, a fortiori, at an earlier period that
animal must have been the monetary unit of the whole island.
From the Italians we pass on to their close kinsmen the
Kelts. We are told by Polybius 3 that when the Gauls entered
Italy, their wealth consisted of their cattle and gold ornaments,
but although an argument will be offered below to show that
the cow was the monetary unit of both Gauls and Germans,
we have no definite evidence respecting the barter system.
But fortunately the Ancient Laws of Wales and Ireland
afford us ample insight into the Keltic system. Irish tradition
goes back far beyond the date at which the Brehon Laws were
compiled, and from it we get a glimpse of a system almost
Homeric: thus we read in the Annals of the Four Masters
1 II. xxm. 485. 2 Oecon. n. 21.
3 n. 18.
32 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
under the year 106 A.D. that the tribute (Boroimhe, literally
cow-tax) paid by the King of Leinster consisted in 150 cows,
150 swine, 150 couples of men and women in servitude, 150
girls and the king's daughter in like servitude, 150 caldrons,
with two passing large ones of the breadth and depth of five
fists 1 . As this tradition makes no mention of payment in
metals, but only of slaves, cattle and caldrons, which doubtless
stood to one another in well defined relations, we need have no
hesitation in assuming that the cow formed the chief unit of
the earlier, as it did of the later Kelts.
The Welsh naturally adopted the monetary system which
sprang up after the reign of Constantine the Great in the Later
Empire. Accordingly we find in certain of their Ancient Laws' 2
tables giving in denarii, solidi or librae the values of various
kinds of property. From these we can learn with accuracy the re-
lations in value which existed between various kinds of property.
Thus the calf from March (when the cows calved) to November
was worth 6 denarii, to the following February 8 den., till May
10 den., till August of the second year 12, till November 14
den., till February 15 den., till February of the third year 28 den.
The heifer is then in calf, her milk is worth 16 den. Thus the
milch cow is worth 46 den., and up to August she is worth
48 den., up to November 50 den., and up to May of the fourth
year is worth 60 den. A month's milk is worth 4 den. ; a bull
calf 6 den., the young ox when put to the plough is worth 28
den., when he can plough, 48 den., that is the same as the
young milch cow of the same age ; a gelding is worth 80 den.,
a farmer's mare 60 den., a trained horse is worth half a libra;
a bow with twelve arrows is worth 7 denarii and an obolus ; a
queen bee (modred af) is worth 24 den., the first swarm 16 den.,
the second 12, the third 8; a foal is worth 18 den. to 24 den.,
a two year old 48 den., a three year old 96 den. A young male
slave (iuvenis captivus) is worth 1 libra, a slave both young and
of large stature (captivus iuvenis et magnus) is worth 1 J libra.
It would appear that the Welsh, when taking over the Roman
system, had adjusted their own highest barter-unit, the slave
1 Annals oj the Four Masters, Anno 106 A.D. (O'Donovan's ed.).
2 Ani-ifiit I. a irs <>f Wtilex, p. 795.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 33
(probably female as well as male), to the libra or pound, the
highest unit in the Roman system. Of course slaves of ex-
ceptional strength or beauty would always command a higher
price. But the regulations for the value of cattle are especially
of interest, as shewing the extraordinary minuteness with which
pastoral peoples discriminate the values of animals of different
ages, and estimate the milk of a cow in proportion to her actual
value. The full-grown cow is worth exactly ten times the new-
born calf, an estimate which holds good just as much in 1890
as it did 1000 years ago, for it is not a mere convention but is
based upon a natural law. At the present moment a calf is
worth from 30 to 35 shillings, a cow from 15 to 17. 10,9.
The yearling calf was worth one-sixth of the full-grown cow,
a relation which still holds good.
The Irish Kelts borrowed their silver system from Rome
at a period probably before Constantine, as they seem never to
have employed the libra and solidus, but simply the uncia
(imga) and scripulus (screapall), adding thereto a subdivision
called the pinginn or penny, borrowed doubtless from the
Saxon invader at a later period. Thus 1 unga= 24 screapalls;
1 screapall = 3 pinginns. They equated the principal silver
unit, the uncia, to the old chief barter-unit, the cow (bo). As
elsewhere, however, the slave formed occasionally the highest
unit, and was reckoned nominally at three cows. The slave
woman (cumhal, ancilla in Latin writers) was in course of time
used as a mere unit of account.
Slave woman (cumhal, ancilla) 3 ounces (unga)
Full-grown cow (bo mor) - 1 ounce = 24 screapalls
Heifer now in third year (samhaisc) = |- ounce = 12 screapalls
Heifer of second year (colpack) = 6 screapalls
Yearling (dairt) = 4 screapalls
A cow's milk for summer and harvest = 6 screapalls
A sheep = 3 screapalls
A goat's milk for summer and harvest = If pinginn
A sheep's fleece = li pinginn
A sheep's milk = i pinginn
A kid (meinnan) * = f pinginn.
1 O'Donovan's Supplement to O'Eeilly, s.v. Lacht : Senchus Mor, i. 287.
R. 3
.'U PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
Here again the yearling is worth one-sixth of the cow.
Gold was abundant among the ancient Irish, (almost certainly
obtained in large quantities from the Wicklow mountains,) and
l>i^ed from hand to hand in the form of rings, which were
weighed on a system different from and probably far older
than that employed for silver (see Appendix A).
Passing to the Teutonic peoples we find traces of the same
ancient practice. For according to one system a mancus of
silver (a mere unit of account) corresponded with the value of
an ox. Similarly the pound (libra) was generally regarded as
the silver equivalent of the worth of a man 1 . But the strongest
proof is that Charlemagne in his dealings with the Saxons
found it necessary to define the value of his solidus of 12 pence
(denarii) by equating it to the value of an ox of a year old of
either sex in the autumn season, just as it is sent to the stall.
In the same law we find a list of regulation prices for other
commodities, such as oats, honey, rye, similar to those already
quoted from the Welsh laws 2 . The English word fee, which
originally meant an ox, as is shown not only by the German
Vieh, which still retains its original meaning, and by such
expressions in Anglo-Saxon as gangende feoli, is in itself a proof
that cattle served as the most generally recognized form of
money. It might be expected that much the same state of
things existed among the Scandinavian peoples. Their chief
media of exchange were cows, and woollen cloths, slaves, and
gold ornaments. By the laws of Hakon the Good penalties
could be paid in cows, provided that they were not too old,
1 Thorpe, Law* of the Anglo-Saxons, i. 357. Cunningham, History of
F.iujHxh Commerce, i. 117.
8 Illud notandum eat quales debent solid! ease 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 ouadraginta donant et de sigule viginti. Septem-
trionales 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, n. Migne, xcvu. 202.
PKIM1TIVE SY STUMS OF CURRENCY. 35
in slaves, provided they were not under fifteen years of age,
in cloths, and in weapons 1 .
Gold and silver were employed by the northern peoples in
the form of rings.
This has led people to talk much about ring money as if
it was a true currency, circulating like the stamped money
of later times. The truer view seems to be that these rings,
whether employed by the ancient Egyptians or the prehistoric
inhabitants of Mycenae, the Kelts or Teutons, were nothing
more than ornaments and passed in the ordinary way of barter,
having a recognized distinct relation to other forms of property,
such as cattle and slaves. It has been the custom in all coun-
tries for the person who desires to have an article of jewellery
made to give to the goldsmith a certain weight of gold or
silver, out of which the latter manufactures the desired orna-
ment. Such is the practice at the present day in India ; you
give the goldsmith so many gold mohurs or sovereigns, or
rupees, as the case may be; he squats down in your verandah,
and with a few primitive tools quickly turns out the article you
desire, which of course will weigh as many mohurs or sovereigns
as you have given him (provided that you have stood by all the
time, keeping a sharp look-out to prevent his abstracting any
of the metal). That in like fashion gold ornaments for ordinary
wearing purposes were regularly of known weights in ancient
times is shown clearly by the account of the presents given to
Rebekah by Abraham's servant, ' a gold earring of half a shekel
weight and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight '
(Genesis xxiv. 22). The same word appears in Job xlii. 11:
' Then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters
and all that had been of his acquaintance before... every man
also gave him a piece of money and every one an earring of
gold.' Consequently Rebekah's golden ring (whether it was
to adorn her nose or ear) of half a shekel weighed 65 grains,
being half the light shekel or ox-unit. We are not told the
weight of the earrings contributed by his sympathetic kinsfolk
for the afflicted patriarch, but it is evident that they were of a
uniform standard. No doubt such rings had from time im-
1 Schive and Holmboe, Nor yes Mynter (Christiania, 1865), pp. i in.
32
36 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
memorial passed in the ordinary course of barter from hand to
hand. This is strongly supported by a piece of evidence
produced independently of the previous suggestion by Dr
Hoffmann of Kiel, who has showed 1 that better OS), the word
used for gold in Job xxii. 24 25 (ft&e&r) and in Job xxxvi. 19
(b'tzar), from a comparison of its cognates in Hebrew and
Arabic means simply a ring, which through the extended
meaning ring-gold came finally to be used as a name for
the metal simply. To take another example from a very dif-
ferent region, the golden ornaments of the ancient Irish (of
which numerous specimens exist in the Museum of the Royal
Irish Academy) were made according to specified weight.
Thus queen Medbh is represented as saying : ' My spear-brooch
of gold, which weighs thirty ungas, and thirty half ungas, and
thirty crosachs and thirty quarter [crosachs].' O'Curry, Man-
ners and Customs of Ancient Irish, iii. 112. But we need not
go beyond Greek soil itself for such illustrations. The well-
known story of Archimedes and the weight of the golden crown,
which led to the discovery of specific gravity, is sufficient to
show that the practice in Greece was such as I describe.
The rings seen on Egyptian monuments (of which we give a
representation in a later chapter) are of round wire; those
found by Schliemann in the tombs of Mycenae 2 (Fig. 9) consist
both of round wire rings like the Egyptian, and likewise of
spirals of quadrangular wire. As finger rings (Sa/cruXtot) are
not mentioned in Homer, it has been assumed that the Homeric
Greeks did not employ rings at all. Hence in a famous passage
where the ornaments made by Hephaestus for the goddesses
are described, we find mention of brooches, bent spirals (eXt/ce?)
ear-drops 3 , and chains. Helbig 4 explains the helikes as a
kind of brooch made of four spirals, such as are worn in parts
of Central Europe, but it is difficult to believe that people who
were using brooches with pins and necklaces would not have
known and employed the far simpler ring. Again, why should
1 G. Hoffmann, Zeitschriftfiir Assyriologie, Vol. n. (1887) p. 48.
2 Schliemann, Mycenae, and Tiryns, p. 354.
* II. xnil. 401 7r6/>iras re, yvafj-Trrdy 0' ?AiKa5, KtiXwds rf, Kal
4 Homer. Epo*, 279281 (2nd ed.).
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 3
we find two distinct words for brooches coming thus together?
Is it not far more likely that in the spirals of Mycenae we have
FIG. 9. Rings found in the tombs of Mycenae.
the real bent helikes of Homer ? These spirals would serve not
only for finger rings, but might be vised in the hair, or more
probably still were used as a means of fastening on the dress,
being passed through eyelet holes or loops, on the principle of
the modern key ring 1 . On comparing them with the Scandi-
navian spiral (Fig. 1) the reader will see that this primitive
form of employing gold was widely diffused over Europe. The
Scandinavians used such ornaments of bent wire (O.N. baugr,
A.S. beag from root BUG, to bend) very commonly, beside oxen
and other property, as media of exchange. Thus both beag in
Anglo-Saxon, and baugr in Old Norse became used as general
names for treasure. Thus baugbrota (cf. hring brota), literally
1 Hesychius s.v. 2At/ces explains them as earrings (e^ama), or armlets, anklets
(i^AAia), or rings (SaccrtfAiot). Eustathius on Iliad xvni. 400 explains them as
evutna ?? \f/eX\ia trapa rb ei's KIJK\OV eAiWeo-tfcu, " earrings or armlets (anklets),
so called from being rolled up" (helissesthai). Cp. Ebeling, Lexicon Homericum,
s.v.
:|s PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
ring-breaker, was used as an epithet of princes, meaning dis-
tributor of treasure 1 .
The same spirals of quadrangular wire were probably em-
ployed by the Kelts, as that shown in Fig. 10, No. 3 was found
FIG. 10. Nos. 1, 2, found in Tipperary ; 3, Scandinavian ; 4, 5, found in
Co. Mayo ; 6, 7, 8, ordinary Irish type.
in Ireland ; Nos. 4 and 5 are of quadrangular wire but are
simple hoops, whilst in Nos. 6, 7, 8, we get the regular Irish
type of a round wire not completely closed 2 . The latter
probably represent a more advanced state of art, as their
innkcrs must have had considerable metallurgic skill, No. 8
being made of gold plated over a copper core.
As we shall see further on, the Egyptian rings are made on
;i -t;mdard almost identical with the Homeric talent, and I
h;i\e shown elsewhere that the rings from Mycenae were made
on almost the same standard 3 . I shall endeavour to show in
an Appendix that the Irish rings also show evidence of being
1 Keary, Cdttilo'/m' <>f Anglo-Saxon Co/nx, i. p. vii. From bcag Mr Max
Mailer derives buy in spite of a phonetic difficulty.
3 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.
:J Jniirnnl ni lli-lli'iiic Kin, lies, Vol. x. Here is the description and weight
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
39
made on a definite standard, whilst it has been long well known
that the Scandinavian rings and armlets have likewise a
standard of their own.
When occasion arose they cut off a piece of this bent wire
(for it was really nothing more), and gave it by weight.
Such a piece was called a scillinya, and is the direct ancestor
of our own shilling 1 . It is not unlikely also that the ancient
inhabitants of Portugal employed similar pieces of wire, as
Strabo tells us that the Lusitanians have no money, but that
they employ silver wire, from which they cut off a portion
when necessary 2 .
We now pass on to Africa, where we shall find most varied
systems of currency. Thus on the West Coast of Africa the
bar is the unit. In fact all merchandise is reckoned by the
bar 3 , which now at Sierra Leone means 2s. 3dL worth of any kind
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
M
19-0
297
tf
19-4
303
Spiral
20-5
320
M
21-5
335
Plain ring
22-0
340
Spiral
29-3
452
j j
39-0
612
39-5
617
M
41-5
643
15
42-2
654
j )
42-3
655
'
42-8
662
1 Cf. Keary's Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum, p. 6.
2 Strabo iii. p. 155. avrl 5e po/xiV/uctTOS oi \iav tv j3ddei. 0o/m'w;> afj-oLprj
77 TOV dpyijpov e\ct7/u,aros dirore^vovre'i didoaaiv.
a Gordon Lang, Travels in Western Africa (1825), Prefatory Note.
40
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
of commodity, although originally it meant simply an iron bar
of fixed dimensions, which formed the chief article of exchange
FIG. 11. Axe Money (West Africa).
between the natives and the earliest European traders. In
other parts of the same region axes serve as currency; these
are too small to be really employed as an implement, but are
doubtless the survival of a period not long past when real
axes served as money. Thus we get a complete analogy to
the hoe money of the Chinese and the fish-hook currency of
Ceylon and the Maldive Islands. In Calabar they formerly
employed bunches of quadrangular copper-wire as currency.
Each wire was about 12 inches long, and they were of course
meant to be made into necklets and armlets 1 .
In other parts of the West Coast, as in the Bonny River
territory, iron rings very closely resembling in shape the bronze
1 The specimen figured was brought home about 30 years ago and is now in
the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 41
fibulae found in Ireland, which probably were armlets, are em-
ployed as money. Those which I have seen seem too small to
FIG. 12. Old Calabar copper-wire formerly used as money.
be used as bracelets, and are now probably a true money, re-
taining the old conventional shape (see Fig. 12) 1 .
In the region of the Upper Congo brass rods are employed
as currency for articles of small value. This wire, made at
Birmingham, about the thickness of ordinary stair-rod, is sent
out in coils of 60 Ibs., and is then cut into pieces of a foot
1 The specimens here figured are in the splendid collection of my friend
Mr B. Day, of Cork.
'2 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
long 1 . Short brass rods and armlets are also largely exported
from Birmingham for the African trade.
FIG. 13.
1. Bronze Irish Fibula found in Co. Cork.
2. Bronze Irish Fibula found in King's Co.
3. Iron Manilla from W. Africa.
4. Iron Manilla used as money in Bonny River Territory.
There is no absolute standard length and thus while
36 inches is the one most commonly used, the length varies
from 32 to 36 inches.
They go out in boxes containing 100, in straight lengths,
and soft to admit of their being wound into armlets, &c.
The diameter of the rod varies from T 3 ^ in. to about | in.
but a rod weighing about 24 oz. to 3 ft., and in. thick, is the
one most often made.
Arm rings are made from solid brass rod about ^ in. thick
and are usually 2 in. to 3J in. in diameter they are also made
in large quantities from brass tubes of in. to | in. diameter,
more frequently from ^ in., the rings being from 2 in. to 3.] in.
in diameter, and weighing from 2 to 4 oz. each 2 .
Slaves and ivory tusks form the chief units in the same
region. The slave usually is worth a tusk. In other parts
1 Thin information I owe to Lieut. Troup.
' I am indebted to Messrs James Booth and Co. for this information.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 43
pieces of precious wood of a red colour, each piece being a
foot long, were employed as currency 1 .
When we come to regions where the ox can live we at once
find that animal occupying a foremost place. Thus when the
Cape of Good Hope was first colonized, the Hottentots em-
ployed cattle and bars of iron of a given size as currency 2 , and
at the present moment the cow is the regular unit among the
Zulus, ten cows being the ordinary price paid for a wife,
although as in Homeric Greece fancy prices are paid by the
chiefs for ladies of uncommon attractions. But our chief in-
terest must centre in the peoples north of the Equator, who
from time immemorial have been in contact with the ancient
civilization of the Mediterranean.
Thus among the Madis of Central Africa, a pure negro
tribe, cattle form the chief wealth ; a rich man may have as
many as 200 head, a very poor one only 3 or 4. The average
number possessed by one man is from 30 to 40. They keep the
milk in gourds.
"A regular system of exchange is carried on in arrows, beads,
bead necklaces, teeth necklaces, brass rings for the neck and
arms, and bundles of small pieces of iron in flat, round, or oval
discs. All these different articles are given in exchange for
cattle, corn, salt, arrows, etc. The nearest approach to money
is seen in the flat, round pieces of iron which are of different
sizes, from three-quarters to two feet in diameter and half an
inch thick. They are much employed in exchange. This is
the form in which they are kept and used as money, but they
are intended to be divided into two, heated and made into
hoes. They are also fashioned into other implements, such as
knives, arrow-heads, etc. and into little bells hung round the
waist for ornament or round wandering cows' necks. Ready-
made hoes are not often used in barter. Iron as above-men-
tioned is preferred and is taken to the blacksmith to be
1 Dapper Description de I'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 regie."
2 Peter Kolben, Present state of the Cape of Good Hope, p. 262.
44 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
fashioned according to the owner's requirements. Any tools
may be obtained ready made from a smith, and can be used in
barter when new.
"Compensation for killing a woman or any serious crime
must be paid for in cattle. No cowries are used as coins in
this district, no measure of weight, quantity or length is used.
The payment for a wife must be made in cows of a year old, or
in bulls of two or three years 1 ."
But it is in Darfour and Wadai that we find the primitive
system in its fullest form. Wives are bought with cows, 20
of which with a male and female slave are the usual price of
a wife, hence the Darfouris prefer daughters to sons. Hence
the proverb that girls fill the stable, but boys empty it, which
recalls the cow-winning maidens of Homer (TrapQkvoi aXfaai-
ftoiat,). There is absolutely no metal of any kind in Darfour,
except that which is imported. Having no money, they accept
certain articles as having a certain monetary value.
Facher was the first place in Darfour which had anything
like a currency ; it consisted of rings made of tin, which were
employed in the purchase of every-day necessaries of life.
These rings are called tarneih in Darfouris. There are two
kinds, the heavy ring and the light ring ; the light serves for
buying the most trivial articles. For purchasing articles of
value they have the toukkiyeh, a piece of cotton cloth six
cubits long by one broad. There are two kinds of this
stuff, chykeh and katkdt. Four pieces of the former and 4J
pieces of the latter are worth a Spanish dollar. Buying and
selling -is also carried on by means of slaves: thus one says,
" this horse is worth 2 or 3 seddcy (a name given to a negro
slave, who measures six spans from his ankle to the lower part
of his ear) 2 ." A sedaciyeh is a female negro slave of the same
height. A seddcy is worth 30 toukkiyeh, or six blue chanter,
or 8 white chanter or six oxen, or 10 Spanish pillar dollars, the
only coined money known in Darfour, where it is called abou
1 R. W. Felkin, "Notes on the Madi or Moru Tribe of Central Africa,"
Trantnrtion* of Royal Society of Kdinlmrufi, Vol. xn. p. 303 seqq.
3 Voyage au Darfour, Mohammed Ibn Omar el Tounsy (translated by
Perron), Paris, 1845, pp. 218, 315.
PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY. 45
medfa, i.e. cannon piece, the pillars being taken for cannons.
The inhabitants of Kobeih employ beads for money, which
are called harich. They are green and blue and circulate in
strings of 100 each. This bead takes the place of the tin ring
(tarneih) used at Facher in the purchase of cheap commodities.
The harich as money is employed in numbers of from 5 to
100 beads (the string), from one string to ten and indefinitely
further 1 .
The toukkiyeh is worth in the markets mentioned 8 strings
of harich. Thus a seddcy is worth 240 strings. At Guerly
and its environments the falgo or stick of salt almost as big
as one's finger is employed. This salt is obtained artificially,
and when liquid is poured into little moulds of baked clay.
This salt is sold by the falgo, not by weight, and one buys
by 1, 2 or 3 falgo according to the value of the article.
At Conca tobacco is used as money. At Kergo, Ryl, and
Chaigriyeh articles of moderate value are bought with hanks
of cotton thread. These threads are ten ells long, and there
are only 20 threads in each hank. For common articles raw
cotton with the pods attached is given ; it is not weighed but
simply estimated by guess. At Noumleh onions are employed
as money for common articles, and the rubat or hank of thread,
and toukhiyeh for the more valuable, whilst the chauter and
dollar are unknown.
At Ras-el-Fyk 2 the hoe (hachdchah) serves as currency. It
is simply a plate of iron fitted with a socket. A handle is
fitted into this socket, and one has an implement suited for
chopping the weeds in the corn fields. Purchases of small value
are made with the hoe from 1 to 20 : above that amount the
toukkiyeh is employed and likewise the chauter.
At Temourkeh they use as moneys cylindrical pieces of
copper (called damleg) for articles of some value, whilst a kind
of glass bead called chaddour is used for small articles. Near
Ganz, the eastern part of Darfour, the principal article of
exchange is the doukha for articles of moderate value. They
give it by the handful, or by the double handful up to the
1 Voyage au Darfour, p. 316.
2 Ibid. p. 319.
46 PRIMITIVE SYSTEMS OF CURRENCY.
amount of half a moda; whilst as elsewhere articles of value
are bought by the toukkiyeh or dollar. In a very great number
of places merchandise is exchanged against oxen; thus the
horse is worth 10 to 20 oxen.
Accordingly while each district of Darfour has some peculiar
form of currency for small change the higher currency is the
same everywhere, the piece of cloth, the ox, the slave 1 .
In the region of Wadai the same shrewd Arab tells us that
cattle are kept by even the most barbarous tribes*. Thus the
Fertyt tribe, who go in a state of almost complete nudity, and
thus have no need of cloth, possess large herds of cattle, which
are not branded, but each owner distinguishes his cattle by
giving a peculiar shape to their horns as soon as they begin to
grow. In the less barbarous communities of Wadai slaves and
beads are employed as currency as well as cattle. The bead
used is called the mansous. It is of yellow amber and of
different sizes. Number 1 is so called because one string (con-
tjiiuing 100 beads) weighs one roil (pound) of 12 ounces;
Number 2 because two strings weigh a roil ; Number 3
because 3 strings make a roll and so on. The first is the most
costly of all beads. Often a single bead of this sort (soumyt) is
worth two slaves ; if it is abundant each bead is worth a slave.
1 Voyage au Darfour, p. 321.
2 Voyage au Ouadai, Mohammed Ibn Omar el Tounsy (French translation by
Perron), p. 559.
CHAPTER III.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD.
And round about him lay on every side
Great heapes of gold that never could be spent,
Of which some were rude owre not purified
Of Mulciber's devouring element.
Some others were new driven and distent
Into great Ingowes and to wedges square,
Some in round plates with outen ornament,
But most were stampt and in their metal bare
The antique Shapes of Kings and Kesars straunge and rare.
SPENSEK, Faerie Queen, n. vii.
LET us now take a general survey of the results of our
observations. First of all it is apparent that the doctrine of
a primal convention with regard to the use of any one par-
ticular article as a medium of exchange is just as false as the
old belief in an original convention at the first beginning of
Language or Law. Every medium of exchange either has an
actual marketable value, or represents something which either
has or formerly had such a value, just as a five-pound note
represents five sovereigns, and the piece of stamped walrus
skin formerly employed by Russians in Alaska in paying the
native trappers represented roubles or blankets 1 .
To employ once more the language of geology, we have
found evidence pointing to certain general laws of stratification.
In Further Asia we have found a section which presents us
with an almost complete series of strata, whilst in other places
where we have been only able to observe two or three layers,
1 Elliot's Alaska, p. 8. This is an interesting parallel to the ancient
tradition that the Carthaginians employed leather money. (Vide Smith's Diet,
of Geogr. i. 545.)
48 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
we have nevertheless found that certain strata are invariably
found superimposed upon others, just as regularly as the coal
seams are found lying over the carboniferous limestone. As
soon as the primitive savage has conceived the idea of obtaining
some article which he desires but does not possess by giving in
exchange to its owner something which the latter desires, the
principle of money has been conceived. Shells or necklaces of
shells are found everywhere to be employed in the earliest
stages. When some men began to make weapons of superior
material, as for instance axes of jade instead of common stone,
such weapons naturally soon became media of exchange ; when
the ox and the sheep, the swine and the goat are tamed,
large additions are made to the circulating media of the more
advanced communities ; then come the metals ; the older orna-
ments of shells and implements of stone are replaced by those
of gold (and much later by silver) and by weapons of bronze as
in Asia and Europe, and by those of iron in Africa. Copper
and iron circulate either in the form of implements and weapons,
such as the axes of West Africa, the hoes of the early Chinese
and modern Bahnars, and the ancient Chinese knives, all of
which remind us of the axes and half-axes in Homer ; or in the
form of rings and bracelets, like the manillas of West Africa and
the ancient Irish fibulae ; or else in the form of plates or bars of
metal, ready to be employed for the manufacture of such articles,
as we saw in the case of the iron bars of Laos, the iron discs of
the Madis, and the brass rods of the Congo. Again we are re-
minded of the mass of pig-iron, which Achilles offered as a prize 1 .
It is of the highest importance to observe that such pieces
of copper and iron are not weighed, but are appraised by
measurement. We shall find that it is only at a period long
subsequent to the weighing of gold that the inferior metals
are estimated by weight. The custom of capturing wives
which prevails among the lowest savages is succeeded by the
custom of purchasing wives. The woman is only a chattel
on the same footing as the cow or the sheep, and she is
accordingly appraised in terms of the ordinary media of ex-
change employed in her community, whether it be in cows,
1 II. xxiii. 826.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. I!)
horses, beads, skins or blankets. Presently male capt i
found useful both to tend flocks and, as in the East and in th.
modern Soudan, to guard the harem. With the discovery of
gold, ornaments made at first out of the rough nuggets supers.-.!,.
other ornaments, and presently either such ornaments or por-
tions of gold in plates or lumps are added to the list of media,
and the same follows with the discovery of silver. Such orna-
ments or pieces of gold and silver are estimated in terms of
cattle, and the standard unit of the bars or ingots naturally is
adjusted to the unit by which it is appraised. Thus we found
the Homeric talent, the silver bar of Annam, the Irish unga
all equated to the cow, and the Welsh libra, Anglo-Saxon libra,
similarly equated to the slave. With the discovery of the art
of weaving, cloths of a definite size everywhere become a
medium, as the silk cloth of ancient China, the woollen cloths
of the old Norsemen, the toukkiyeh of the Soudan, and the
blanket of North America. This fact once more recalls Homer
and makes us believe that the robes and blankets and coverlets
which Priam brought along with the talents of gold to be the
ransom of Hector's body all had a definite place in the Homeric
monetary system 1 .
We have seen the Siamese piece of twisted silver wire
passing into a coin of European style, and we shall find that the
Chinese bronze knife has finally ended by becoming a cash, just
as we have already found the Homeric talent of gold appearing,
in weight at least, as the gold stater of historical times. Thus
in every point the analogy between what we find in the
Homeric Poems and in modern barbarous communities seems
complete. We may therefore with some confidence assume that
we are at liberty to fill up the gaps in the strata of Greek
monetary history which lie between Homer and the beginning
of coined money on the analogy of the corresponding strata
in other regions. This assumption, resting on a broad basis of
induction and confirmed, as we shall see, by a good deal of
evidence special to Greece and Italy, will be found^to explain
the origin, not only of weight standards in those countries, but
1 II. xxiv. 2302.
R. 4
50 THK PlsTUir.rTION OF THE OX
of the Greek obol and Roman LIS, as well as of the types on
the oldest coins, such as the cow's head of Samos, the tunny fish
of Olbia ami i > virus, the axe of Tenedos, the tortoise of Aegina,
the shield of Boeotia, and the silphium of Gyrene.
Let us now turn to the races who both in modern and in
an.M.-nt times have dwelt around the basin of the Mediterranean
and Black Sea, whether in Asia Minor, Central Asia, Europe or
Africa. In what did their wealth consist? When we first
meet in history the various branches of the Aryan, Semitic, and
s they are all alike possessed of flocks and herds.
To deal first with the Aryans; we have already had ample
evidence that such was the case with the early Greeks. The
ox plays a foremost part, and they likewise possessed sheep,
goats and swino, whilst slaves formed also an important com-
moditv. Furth.T east again, in the Zend-Avesta the cow is
t*.iin<i playing the principal part in every phase of the primitive
lit'.- th.-n- unfolded, both as the chief article of value and in
voce to their religious ceremonies. Still further to the east
we finl from the Rig- Veda that among the ancient Hindus the
same important r6le was assigned to the cow. Turning now to
Mesopotamia we find that in the time of Abraham the keeping
of herds and flocks was the chief pursuit of the Semites. Passing
on to Egypt, tliv hoary mother of civilization, we find evidence
that although " every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyp-
tians/' yet the worship of their great divinity Apis (Hapi) under
tin- torn) of a bull and the worship of the sacred ram indicate
that at a period preceding the invasion of the Hyksos the
Egyptians regarded the ox and the sheep with love and vene-
11. \Vh.-thn tin; Egyptians came from Asia into the valley
of the Nile, or whether they came from some region of Africa
more to the south, one thing at least is certain, and that is that
in i-itlnT cast- they came from a country eminently fitted for the
rearing ami keeping of cattle. The functions of the ox became
limited umlrr altered conditions, and their ancient esteem for
cow as one of their chief means of subsistence survived only
us observances. So too in modern India the reverence
v amount a people who regard as an abomi-
beef i- a snrvi\:il from the time when in n
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 51
more northern clime cattle formed the principal wealth of their
forefathers.
In the Soudan, as we have seen to this day, slaves and oxen
are the chief kinds of property. Crossing back to Europe we
find the Italian tribes represented in the earliest records as a
cattle-keeping people. The story of their invasion of Italy took
the form of their driving before them a steer and following
obediently to whatever new home it might lead them 1 .
The same holds of the more northern peoples. When the
Gauls entered the plains of Northern Italy they drove before
them vast herds of cattle. Caesar found the Britons keeping
large numbers of cattle, and especially those in the interior of
the island subsisting almost entirely on their produce 2 . Strabo
writing about A.D. 1, mentions hides as among the articles
exported from Britain to the Continent 3 .
The linguistic argument fully supports the literary evidence.
All the Aryan or Indo-European peoples possess a common
name for the cow. The Sanskrit gaus, Greek /3oO?, Lat. bos,
Irish bo, German kuh, Eng. cow, taken together indicate that
before the dispersion of the various stocks (whether the original
home of the Aryans was in Northern Europe, as Latham
first suggested, or in the Hindu Kush, as Prof. Max Muller
maintains) they all possessed the cow. This is further sup-
ported by the name for the bull which is found amongst
various stocks, the Greek -ravpos, Lat. taurus, Irish tarb, and
the name of the ox, which corresponds to the Sanskrit uksha,
and finally the name of steer*. Here then we have undoubted
evidence of the universal possession of cattle by the Aryans at
a very early period.
Archaeology lends its support likewise. We have already
found in the case of the Greeks the cow used as a unit of
currency side by side with gold. This leads us to the question
of the precious metals, which in course of time have come to be
almost the sole medium of exchange. In the case of the Greeks
we saw reason to believe that the barter-unit was older than
1 Timaeus 12.
2 B. G. v. 12. 3 199.
4 Scbrader. Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, p. 260.
42
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
the metallic. Is this the case universally? The evidence, I
think, which I shall adduce will lead us to this belief.
rtain that man must have been acquainted
uith tin- ox Ion- In tore he ever gathered a grain of gold from
the lr.M,k. When primeval man first stood on the plains of
IM- and Asia vast herds of wild cattle met his eye on
I'lic process of domestication was long and slow,
but "yet in all the ancient refuse heaps of Scandinavia and
Germany, whilst the remains of the ox are found in plenty
'. !, is \vt II" traer nf L, r ol(l.
At this point it will be well to remind the reader that the
area occupied by the cattle-keeping races whom we have
.numerated was continuous. There was no insuperable barrier
.-en Indian and Persian, Persian and Mede, Mede and the
dweller in Mesopotamia, or again, between Persian and Arme-
nian. Armenian and the Scythian who lived in his ox-waggon
on the plains of what is now Southern Russia: the Scythian was
in contact with the tribes of the Balkan Peninsula, who in turn
were in contact with the Greeks and the dwellers along the
valley of the Danube, who in their turn joined hands with the
peoples of Italy, Helvetia and Gaul. Hence the value of cattle
would be more or less constant from one end of this entire
region to the other. The purchasing power of the cow might
be greater in some parts than in others, just as with ourselves
a sovereign has the same value from Land's End to John
o'Groats, although the purchasing power of the sovereign as
regards the necessaries of life may differ widely in different
places within the limits of Great Britain.
It is only when some impassable natural barrier intervenes
that there will be a difference in the value of the unit of barter.
Thus, in the case of Britain we cannot suppose that the
jo of oxen was necessarily the same there as it was on
the Continent. If it was it would be merely a coincidence.
Tbe difficulty of transporting live cattle in such ships as the
Gauls or Britons possessed would have been too great to permit
of such a free circulation of the unit as would have kept its
value exactly even on both sides of the Straits. In fact it was
nly with tin- in\. ntiou of steam that facilities for transmarine
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 53
cattle-trading came in which could tend to level the value on
both sides of an arm of the sea. In the earlier half of this
century cattle were extraordinarily cheap in Ireland in propor-
tion to the prices which they fetched in England, but yet the
difficulty and expense entailed in sending them across in
sailing ships effectually prevented the export. When the first
steamers began to convey cattle from Ireland to England the
profits were enormous, although the freight of a single cow cost,
I believe, several pounds. Steam-power has done much to
equalize prices, but still there is a considerable difference in
the value of cattle on both sides of the Irish Sea. But where
no impassable barrier of sea or forest intervened, we may fairly
assume the ox carried much the same value from Northern
India to the Atlantic Ocean.
We have already proved in the case of most of the peoples
with which we have to deal that the ox was the unit of value.
We have likewise found that these primitive peoples, whilst
employing a cow or ox of a certain age as their standard of
value, had adjusted accurately to this unit their other pos-
sessions: for instance, the heifer of the second year bore a
distinct value relatively to the cow of the third year, so like-
wise the calf of the first year and the milk of a cow " for
a certain period. These thus acted as submultiples of the
standard unit, and as they were the same in kind and
only differed in degree, the various sub-units of the cow re-
mained in constant proportion to the chief unit and to one
another. On the other hand, when there was a distinction in
kind between animals, as between oxen and sheep, the relative
value would probably differ according to the scarcity or abun-
dance of either kind of animal, w r hich difference would probably
arise from a difference in the nature of the pastures and
climate. Thus we have found in some places ten sheep
regarded as the equivalent of an ox, in others again eight.
The same holds good of goats. In the case of these smaller
animals we have seen the same fixed scale of values according
to age, and the same method of rating the value of the
milk of an ewe or the goat as we find in the case of
the cow. Amongst people who possessed horses, camels and
54 THI. Di-rRir.iTioN OF THE ox
SJBSS, the same principle holds good, horses and camels on
account ,.f i heir great value being treated as higher units for
occasional use, just a* tin elephant is regarded at present in
parts of Fun her India. The slave, as we have before remarked,
played an important part as a higher unit or multiple of the ox,
the average slave having a fixed value, whilst of course in the
case of female captives of unusual beauty a fancy price would
be paid. As climate and pasture would not affect the keeping
of slaves, and as human beings were fairly universally spread
the area of the ox, the probabilities are that it was almost
as easy proportionally to get slaves as oxen, and to keep the
one as to keep the other from being stolen. Thus there would
be more or less of a constant ratio between slaves and oxen.
Then- would be a tendency likewise to regulate the number of
slaves by the amount of work to be done, and as this work in
tin- pastoral stage is almost entirely that of the neatherd, the
shepherd, the swineherd and the goatherd, the number of
male slaves at least would be to a certain extent conditioned by
extent of the flocks and herds. Such we may infer from
the picture of the household of Ulysses in the Odyssey was the
practice in early Greece. The faithful swineherd Eumaeus,
and his fellow .the good neatherd, with the rascally goatherd
Helanthius, and their underlings, seem, with the addition
perhaps of a few house slaves who would assist in tilling the
u's demesne (temenos), to have comprised all the men-
servants. Thr master of the house worked hard himself in his
field and at various handicrafts, as we find Ulysses boasting of
hi* exjH-rtness both as a ploughman and mower; he was
also a skilled carpenter, having with his own hands built
< -number of Penelope and constructed a cunningly wrought
bedstead 1 . Hence the amount of help to be required from
male slaves, exclusive of their duties as herdsmen, would be
but insignificant. When we come to deal with the question
'-mule slaves, the conditions of their number seem at first
sight entirely different. The question of polygamy here comes
in, and we must bear in mind that they were acquired not
merely as servants to perform menial duties, but likewise to be
1 Odytsey, xxm. 11)8.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 55
wives and concubines. It is evident then that the number of
such attendants will depend on the inclination and wealth of
the house-master. But here again the problem is simplified,
for inasmuch as his wealth consisted in cattle, a man's
power to purchase handmaidens depended on the amount of
his kine. Thus at the present day the number of women
owned by a Zulu depends entirely on the number of cattle he
possesses. Hence there was likely to be a fairly universal ratio
in value between female slaves and oxen, over such a region as we
have sketched above. The facility too in transporting human
chattels from one place to another would be an important ele-
ment in keeping the price almost the same over all parts of the
area. It is a very ancient principle with the slave captor and slave
dealer to sell their captives far away from their original home.
Among our Anglo-Saxon forefathers the slave from beyond the
sea was always worth more than a captive from close at hand 1 .
The explanation of this fact was suggested by Dr Cunningham,
and the proof of it was found by Mr Frazer in Further India ;
for there the slave brought from a great distance is always
more valuable than one who comes only a short way from his
native land, as the possibility of the former's running away and
succeeding in escaping is so much less than that of the latter.
This too seems to be the true explanation of the fact that in
Homer we regularly find persons sold into slavery beyond the sea.
Achilles sold the son of Priam to Euneos the son of Jason of
Lesbos a , the nurse Eurycleia had been brought from the main-
land, Eumaeus the swineherd had been sold to Laertes by the
Phoenicians who had captured him with his nurse in his distant
home 3 . This constant tendency to sell in one country the captives
taken from another would do much to equalize prices every-
where, and the price being paid in oxen the ratio in value
between oxen and female as well as male slaves would tend to
be constant.
We have now reviewed the ordinary kinds of wealth amongst
primitive pastoral people, but we have touched but lightly as
yet on the subject of the metals.
1 Cunningham, Hist, of English Commerce, i. p. 117.
* II. xxi. 41. * Od. xv. 460.
;,^ TilK IMSTKIIHTION OF THE OX
We saw above that the two earliest kinds of currency
consisted either of some article of absolute necessity, such as
Mima!- in the colder climates, or of some form of
personal ornament, which being both universally esteemed as
well as durable and portable will be readily accepted by all
members of the community. It is of pre-eminent importance
that it be universally esteemed. Travellers who have ignored
this principle have found out its truth to their cost in Central
i in modern times. As the chief currency consists of glass
and porcelain beads, which the traveller must carry with him
or starve, the Kuropean is too apt to assume that provided the
beads are bright and gaudy in colour all sorts will be taken
uith like readiness by the natives. Sir Richard Burton in a
valuable appendix to his Lake Regions of Central Africa warns
travellers against this dangerous 'error. The African has his
own firmly rooted canons of aesthetics, and will take as pay-
ment only those sorts of beads which he considers suitable and
becoming. Again, some explorers brought supplies of cheap
liirmin^ham trinkets, thinking that they would captivate the
\ e, but they proved a complete commercial failure, for
natives much prefer trinkets and jewellery of their own
manufacture, and which are more in keeping with their standard
of good taste. Again, the Arabs of the Soudan will not take
gold as payment, in consequence of which our army in the late
lit i<.n had to take with them large and inconvenient
-> 1 1 .plies of silver dollars, coined for the purpose. The Maria
-si dollar is the recognised currency in that region, not
because of any notions as regards currency properly speaking,
but because the Arab's taste lies in silver ornaments for him-
self, his weapons and his horse. He values then the silver
because of its utility as an ornament, whilst gold he cannot
in ploy to the same advantage.
I have thus digressed in order that it may be clearly seen
that mankind were not seized with the sacra fames auri from
the very first moment when the eye of some wild hunter or
nomad first lighted on a gold nugget as it glistened under the
sunlight in nn.
A considerable period may have elapsed after mankind
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 57
became acquainted with gold or silver before man cast away
his necklets or bracelets of shells such as have been found
along with the most ancient remains of the human race yet
discovered in Europe, and put on his person in their stead
similar ornaments beaten out of the gold from the brook. It
is perfectly reasonable to assume that the primitive Aryan or
primitive Semite, who wore ornaments of shells, used these as
instruments of barter, or even currency, in the same way as
we have found the peoples of Asia and Africa using their strings
of cowries, the aborigines of North America their wampum
belts, and the Fijians their whales' teeth.
In what particular region mankind first employed the
precious metals to adorn his person, it is of course impossible
for us to say. But beyond all doubt already in Egypt at the
very dawn of history gold was playing an important part. The
question of the relative dates at which the metals were first
employed by man is one of great interest and importance in
studying the history of human development. Of the four chief
metals, gold, silver, copper and iron, we have no difficulty in
deciding that iron is most certainly the latest to come into use.
It is only within historical time that implements and weapons
of iron have superseded those of copper and bronze, at least
within the area occupied by the great civilized races. The
reason for this is obvious : iron is not found native, but must
be obtained by a difficult process of smelting, and even when
obtained requires great skill to make it available for use. The
Greeks of the Homeric Poems were still in the later bronze age,
although iron was known and employed for weapons and imple-
ments. But as we have no immediate need to discuss the date
of the introduction of iron, we may pass on to the three remain-
ing metals.
It is obvious that if a metal is found naturally in such a
condition that it can be immediately wrought into various
forms for ornament or utility, such a metal is likely to have
been employed at a much earlier period than one which is
rarely if ever found in a native condition. Now silver is a
metal which is rarely found pure, and considerable metallurgical
skill is needed to render it fit for use. On the other hand gold
58 TIM: msTKIBUTlON OF THE OX
and co|i|K?r arc both found in a pure state. We may then on
this Around alone infer that mankind was acquainted with gold
and copper before they as yet had learned the art of working
.il\,-r T< . It next comes to be a question of the priority of
gold or copper. The probabilities will undoubtedly be in favour
of that metal which is most universally found native, and which
is t he most likely by its hue to attract the eye, and which is the
easily worked. On all these counts gold can claim priority
Still copper is found native in various countries,
Hungary. Saxony, Sweden, Norway, Spain and Cornwall.
It is of course quite possible that in a region where gold is
not native and copper is, the latter may have been the first
il known to the aboriginal inhabitants. This can be well
illustrated from the case of iron and copper in Central Africa.
The negroes never had a copper or bronze age, but passed
diivetly into the iron age, for the very sufficient reason that no
native copper was found in their country, and consequently
they had no metal suited for implements until they had learned
to siuelt iron. Gold of course on the other hand was known to
them from the most remote period. Finally, from a famous
modern occurrence we may come to the general conclusion that
wherever gold is a natural product of the soil there it has been
the first metal to come under the observation of man. The
great gold-field of California was first discovered on a memor-
able Sunday morning, when the eye of a lounger who was
iiiL( his pipe by the side of Captain Sutter's millrace
happened to light on some glittering body in the sandy bottom
of the stream. This was the first scrap of gold found in Cali-
fornia, and whilst that fertile land has produced many natural
besides gold within the scarcely more than forty years
which have since elapsed, its gold it will be observed was the
earliest of its metals, both from the nature of its deposit and
from the brilliancy of its colour, to attract the attention of man.
In "i tain parts of Southern Europe, notably parts of Southern
I Southern Greece, where copper is found but not gold,
copper perhaps may have been known before gold, and certainly
before silver. It will be important to bear this in mind with
a stage in our future arguments.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 59
That silver came under men's notice at a later time than
either gold or copper can be put beyond doubt by historical
evidence. In the Rig Veda, where gold (her any a) is already
well known and likewise copper (for there can be no doubt
that the ayas of the Veda, Lat. aes, means copper), silver is
entirely unknown ; the word rayatam, which in later Sanskrit
means silver, does indeed occur, but only as an adjective
applied to a horse and meaning bright. Again, we know as
a matter of fact that it was only at a comparatively late
period that the famous silver mines of Laurium in Attica
were developed. At least Plutarch (Solon, ch. 16) tells us
that, owing to the scarcity of silver coin, Solon reduced the
amount of the fines levied and also of the rewards for killing
a wolf or wolf-cub, the former to five drachms, the latter to
one drachm, the rewards representing the value of a cow
and a sheep respectively. If they had already learned to work
that " well of silver, the treasure-house of their land," in the
time of Solon (596 B.C.), there certainly could have been no
such dearth of silver. Finally let us take a comparatively
modern case, that of the Aztecs of Mexico. When the Spanish
conquerors reckoned up their great tale of treasures found in
the royal palace, whilst the gold amounted to the large sum
of pesos de oro 162000 Ibs., the silver and silver vessels only
weighed the small sum of 500 marks 1 . Yet this was in the
country that is now known as the richest silver-producing
region that the world has ever seen.
We thus find a people in a highly advanced state of civi-
lization, who had invented a calendar, had devised a system of
picture-writing, who had actually a currency in gold-dust, as
we have found, and who were skilled and artistic craftsmen in
gold, and yet who were scarcely able to make the slightest use
of the silver, with which almost every crevice in their native
hills was charged.
We may thus with safety rest in the conclusion that silver
only comes into use at a stage always and probably much
later than gold.
We have been thus led to the conclusion that gold is
1 Prescott, Mexico, p. 234.
,;<) TIIK DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
U..UM t in.in at a far earlier stage than silver; furthermore
that copper IN also prior in discovery and use to silver owing
ttui : form of deposit* ttnd that, although in a region
. in, Id does not exist, copper may have been the first of
the metals to come under human notice, yet wherever gold-
bearing strata an> found, there is a great probability that gold
was the first metal known. Schrader (op. cit. p. 174) has dis-
cussed the evidence from the Linguistic Palaeontological point
,.f H0W, and whilst much of what he says is interesting, there
. ;,; ts iii his coTOlnskmfl which shake one's faith in
tin- infallibility of the Linguistic method for determining dis-
puted points in archaeology. Gold he considers was known to
the Egyptians fn.ni the remotest times, and so also to the
Semites of Asia. As gold is found in abundance in the tombs
of Mycenae (circ. B.C. 1400) he considers that just about that
time the Greeks had acquired a knowledge of gold from the
Phoenicians. The Greek Chrysos (xpvo-os), gold, is derived,
according to many scholars, from the Phoenician equivalent for
I'linrutz, the Hebrew name for the same metal.
There is plainly no relationship between the Egyptian
name Nub and the Semitic appellation. The question, how-
may arise as to whether, even granting that chrysos is
derived iron i clnlrAz,\\> follows that the Greeks had no know-
ledge of gold prior to their contact with the Phoenicians. It
is the skilful manufacture of a metal into beautiful and useful
< les which gives it its real value. Hence arises the high
esteem in which the cunning workman is held in early times.
In Homer he is ranked along with the prophet, a sufficient
proof in itself of the great importance attached to his func-
n. Again, in the Homeric Poems all articles of gold and
silver of especially fine workmanship, if they are not the
w..ik ..f the divine smith Hephaestus himself, are the pro-
duet ions of the Sidonian craftsmen. The priest Maron gave
' ' !i.n^st ( >:her presents, seven i.al en ts of well-wrought
gold. Whether this took the form simply of rings we cannot
tell, but plainly the value of the gift is enhanced by the
<>m these considerations it seems not unreason-
able t> >up|Mu that the Greeks, although possessing a name
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 61
of their own for gold, may have adopted a Phoenician name,
because they obtained the fine-wrought ornaments of that
metal which they prized so highly from the Semite traders.
If any one thinks that this is a mere suggestion unsup-
ported by analogy, my answer is not far to seek. The Albanian
word for gold is <f>\jopi l , so called because the first coined gold
moneys of the middle ages with which they became acquainted
were those of Florence. Now I think Dr Schrader will hardly
maintain that the Albanians were unacquainted with gold as
a metal until sometime in the mediaeval period they first
obtained it from the Florentines. What took place in the
case of the Albanians may have taken place again and again
at earlier periods. A rude nation already acquainted with a
certain metal receives by trade from a more advanced people
the same metal wrought into various shapes and forms for
personal decoration or use, and along with the superior articles
it takes over the name by which the makers of those objects of
metal described them.
These considerations well serve to show how unsafe is the
basis afforded by Linguistic Palaeontology alone on which to
build any theory of ethnical development. Let us now take
another case where Schrader and his followers dogmatize with-
out the slightest suspicion that the facts of recorded history
may step in and rudely upset their conclusions. Schrader 2
holds that the Kelts were not acquainted with gold until
their invasion of Italy in the beginning of the 4th cent. B.C.
His argument is that the Celtic word for gold (Irish or, Cymric
awr) is a loan-word from the Latin aurum. As the Sabine
form of the latter is ausum, and the change of s to r did not
take place in Latin until the fifth century B.C., and as the
change of primitive s into r does not take place in the Keltic
languages, he infers that it was only after the change in the
form of the word had taken place in Latin that the Gauls
became acquainted with the metal. Yet who will, on reflec-
tion, maintain that the Gauls had not already learned the use
of gold from the Etruscans with whom they had been in cori-
Schrader, p. 255.
Schrader, op. cit. p. 255.
62 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
tact long before they ever reached the Allia or sacked Rome ?
Italian dialects were still employing the form of the word
with j. Why should the Gauls have taken the form of the
word with which they must have come least in contact in
their invasion of Italj in preference to that used amongst
the other Italians? Finally comes the irresistible evidence of
Polybius that when the Gauls invaded Italy their only posses-
ed of their cattle and an abundance of gold orna-
ments, both of which could be easily transported from place to
pla<
Again, we can argue forcibly that it is contrary to all ex-
perience fr primitive peoples to suddenly exhibit so strong a
fn.-dileetinn for metals, or objects of which they have not had
previous knowledge, as the Gauls showed in their rapacious
<! 1 1 uinds that the ransom of Rome should be in gold. The
legend that Brennus threw his sword into the scales, and
ordered them to make up its weight in addition to the stipu-
lated sum, shows, if it is true, that the Gauls were well ac-
quainted with the art of weighing, which would be only gained
from a long knowledge of the precious metals. The solution of
the difficulty involved in the Keltic or can be readily found.
The Iberians in Spain had long been skilled in the working
and use of the precious metals. Tradition told how Colaeus of
s, the tirst of the Greeks who ever sailed to Spain, brought
back a fabulous amount of precious metal, and that the Phoe-
nicians when they first traded in that region found silver so
plentiful that in their greed for gain, when the ship could hold
ii" more, they replaced their anchors by others made of that
metal. The Phocaeans had traded with Iberia and Gaul from
nd of the 7th century, Massalia had been founded by this
In.ld jM-opl,. about GOO B.C. Are we to suppose that in all
th.-e eenturies when the Kelts are in constant contact with
tin- Iberians, and wlu-n already all Keltike, Helvetia, Northern
Italy and .-von perhaps 'the remote Britanni/ were in con-
t touch with the traders of Massalia, the Kelts waited to
learn the UH<- .,f -,,ld and silver until B.C. 400? The Basque
name f,,r ^..Id j s ,,,-,,. It is quite possible that the Keltic
' I'clvl.ins II. 19.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 63
name was obtained from the Iberians, whom they found already
in possession of Western Europe. But there is another alter-
native which is probably to be preferred. As we found the
Albanians calling gold by a name derived from the gold coins
of Florence, so the Kelts may have adopted the Latin names
for gold used by their Roman conquerors. This is made almost
certain by the fact that aura, in old Norse, derived from Latin
aurum, became the regular word for treasure, although no one
will deny that the Teutonic peoples had already gold and its
cognates as terms of their own for the metal. Everyone is
familiar with the influence exercised by the Roman coinage
even in the countries of the East, where Rome met with a
civilization hoary in age before Romulus founded Rome, and
from which Rome herself had ultimately derived the art of
coining. Yet by the time of Christ the Roman denarius, the
penny of our Authorized Version, had already asserted itself in
the Greek-speaking provinces of the East, and became in later
days, when the rule of Rome and Constantinople fell before the
Arab conquerors, under the form of dinar, the standard coin of
the great Mahomedan Empires. Did then in like fashion the
Roman form of the name for gold, which in all probability
varied but little from the cognate Gaulish word, supplant at a
comparatively early period that native form ?
The same argument may be urged in reference to the silver.
The Irish form is airgid, according to some a loan-word, being
simply the Latin argentum. We have already seen that it is
not possible that the Kelts, in constant contact with the Iberians
who were so rich in silver, could have remained in ignorance
of that metal. The Gaulish form of the name for silver was
plainly in Roman times almost the same as the Latin, as is
shown by Argentoratum, the ancient name of Strasburg. It is
plain then that before the Roman Conquest the Gauls had a
town called by the name for silver, whilst the Irish form has
no nasal, the Gaulish coincides completely with the Latin. Is
it not possible, that in this case too a native Keltic name, a
close cognate of Latin argentum, whose lineal descendant is seen
in the Irish form, may have been assimilated to the Latin form ?
But there is plenty of evidence from other quarters to show that
IIJ. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
t!i. mere existence of a foreign name for a particular object in
any language is no proof that the object in question came into
use for the first time along with the borrowing of the name.
When the Franks conquered that portion of the Roman empire
to which they gave their name, they must have had Teutonic
words of their own for silver and gold, closely related to our
own f..n.is of the words. Yet whilst many Teutonic words
ivd and Wame absorbed into what became in process of
timr tin- French language, their names for the metals disap-
peared and the Latin derivatives remained in possession.
Again, we get another instance of such borrowing in the
case of our own penny, old English pendinga, penning, German
The philologists seem agreed in recognizing this as a
1 Man-word from the Latin pecunia. Yet money was familiar to
tli- northern peoples long before they ever came into contact
with even the advanced posts of the Empire. The use of rings
and spirals of gold as a form of currency in Scandinavia is well
known; our word shilling seems to mean no more than portions
of such a coil of gold or silver wire cut off, to be used as small
change. But as the first coined money with which they became
familiar was the currency of Rome, they seem to have taken
tin- generic Roman name for money as their own expression for
tin- KOI nan silver coins with which they became familiar, just
as the Latin imrum under the form of aura (eyrir) became in
old Norse the general term for coined money or treasure in
moii'
We may ask why did the Kelts especially choose the
1 1 -.111:11 1 t<nn of the name for gold, if they were then for the
time getting a name for the substance then (according to
Schrader) first known to them? Before they ever reached
Latium they had been in contact with peoples in Northern
Italy who undoubtedly were well acquainted with gold. The
Etruscans were a wealthy people, who coined gold pieces before
K"ine had struck coins of any kind 1 . The Umbrians on the
east >i<l< tin- ancient Italic race who had in the days before
thr Kt ruscan Conquest held all Northern Italy up to the Alps,
which was hence known to the earliest Greek geographers by
1 \V. Dcccke, Etrn*k. I'owlniiigen, p. 5.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 65
the name of Ombrike' 1 , were, beyond all doubt, acquainted
with the use of gold, and had a name for it probably the
same as the Sabine ausum. Why then did the Gauls re-
main entirely ignorant of gold and of a name for it when they
had been in constant contact with those peoples who had most
undoubtedly abundance of the metal and names of their
own for it? Until some sufficient answer is given to the
objections here raised, we must on every logical and scientific
ground refuse our assent to an argument, the sole basis of which
is philological. It may not be inappropriate also here to remark
that it is most desirable in all historical enquiries to rely as
little as possible on Etymology. From the days when the
Stoics laid such importance on arguments based on the origi-
tmtio verborum down to the present time reasonings based on
such foundations have been as a rule founded on the sand.
Comparative Grammar as yet can hardly be described as a
science. New principles and laws are brought to light each
year, and, although of course the solid residuum of what may
now be regarded as more or less positive knowledge is slowly
.growing in bulk, those laws which were the shibboleth of
Philologists a decade ago, are now rudely hurled from their
preeminence. The only sound scientific method in historical
research is to employ linguistic science as merely ancillary to
our enquiries.
We have now seen the importance of the ox over the whole
area of Europe, Asia and Northern Africa, in which those
ancient peoples dwelt of whom history has preserved for us some
knowledge. We have likewise found that over the same area
gold was known and played an important part from a very
remote antiquity. This proof has depended of course almost
entirely on the literary remains and archaeological evidence.
Political Economists, when discoursing on the oft-vexed ques-
tion of monetary standards, lay down as one of the reasons why
gold has been found so convenient, that it is universally found.
Whether that fact is of much importance in modern times,
when the facilities of communication are so great, may perhaps
be doubted (especially when we see some of the largest stocks of
1 Herod, iv. 49.
R. 5
66 THE niMKir.rnoN OF THE ox
gold existing in countries like England and France, where there
has been no production of gold for many years), but most certainly
irlv tinu'S it was of great importance, as we shall see, that
the supplies of gold were not all concentrated in one or two
places, but that at many points in all the different countries
which came within the area of the ancient world, nature had
had her treasure-houses.
hogin in the East, we shall first find that in all Central
Asia thor- aiv rich auriferous deposits in many places. The
stories told of the gold-digging ants and of the Griffins and
Arimaspiaus are familiar to all readers of Herodotus. That
historian (in. 102 5) gives an explanation of how the Indians
are so rich in gold. To the north of India lies a region desert
and waste by reason of sand. Close to this desert dwells an
Indian tribe, who border on the city of Kaspaturos, and the
land of Paktuike*, dwelling to the north of the other Indians,
who live in the same manner as the Bactrians, and are the most
valiant of the Indians. These men go on expeditions in search
of gold. In this desert and in the sand are ants, which are in
size smaller than dogs, but larger than foxes. As these ants
make their habitations under ground they carry up the sand
:is the ants in Greece do, and they are very like the latter
in form. But the sand which is carried up is of gold. The
Indians then make expeditions in quest of this sand, each man
having yoked three camels. He then relates how the Indians
time thi-ir a nival at the ant region so as to reach the ant-
diggings at the hottest time of the day, which in that region is
the early morning. The ants are then not to be seen for they
have returned into their burrows to avoid the heat of the sun.
The Indians hastily fill the sacks they have brought with the
precious sand, and depart with all speed, as the ants from their
keen sense of smell quickly detect their presence, and at once
give chase. Their speed is such that though the camels are as
swift as horses, the Indians would never manage to return in
safety, unless they succeed in getting a good start whilst the
ants are still assembling from their various habitations.
- story has been very ingeniously explained in modern
(AU I ml. Leben) and others. Lassen pointed
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 67
out that a kind of gold brought from a people of Northern
India was called pipilika 'ant' (Mahabhdrata 2, 1860) and that
it was probable that the story referred to a kind of marmot
which to this very day lives in large communities on the sandy
plateaus of Thibet. On the other hand more recent explorations
in Thibet show us that there are still communities of gold-
diggers, who in the rigour of the Himalayan winter clothe
themselves in skins and furs, which are drawn up right over
their ears in such a fashion that they present at first sight the
appearance of large shaggy dogs 1 . Whichever explanation may
be right, it may be inferred that from a very early time the
region north of the Panjab afforded vast supplies of gold. The
remark of Herodotus (in. 105) that it was from this source that
the Indians obtained their wealth, and that there was not much
gold mined in their own land, is probably correct. It is beyond
all doubt that the gold of Thibet at all times found its way
largely into what is now the Panjab. We need have little
hesitation in believing that from a very remote epoch the rude
tribes of the Himalaya must have been acquainted with the
gold-dust, which lay in rich deposits in the various mountain
streams.
To come towards the west, the great wealth of the Persian
kings seems to have been derived from the basin of the Oxus,
which was famous in antiquity for its golden sands. Thus in
the Book of Marvels (a work ascribed to Aristotle and largely
composed of extracts from his writings) it is stated that the
river Oxus in Bactria carries down nuggets of gold many in
number 2 . But the region from which Herodotus thought that
in his time came the greatest supply of gold was the Oural-
Altai region of Central Asia. The Greek Colonies on the
northern coast of the Black Sea, the most important of which
was Olbia at the mouth of the river Borysthenes, had a large
and lucrative trade with the Scythians, who inhabited the
wide plains of that bleak region. The Scythians were rich
in gold which they obtained from the still remoter country
1 Ausland, 1873, No. 39.
2 Arist. Qavfj.. 833 b. 14, 0curl 5e v TO?? RdxTpois rbv ^Q^ov troranbv Kara-
v?0et TroXXa.
52
68 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
..t the Issedones, that people who, though righteous in all
..ther respects, had the singular fashion of devouring their
dead fathers. The Issedones again obtained by barter the
gold from the Arimaspians, a race who had but one eye, and
were hardly human 1 . They in turn, so report went, obtained
the jHveimis article not by traffic, but by theft from the gold-
guarding griffins, who occupied the land where the gold was
i<l. At least Herodotus says, "How the gold is produced
niiot truly tell, but the story is that the Arimaspians,
people with one eye, cany it off from the Grypes 2 ." He
describes elsewhere (IV. 17) this region, which lay beyond
the Scythians, where the cold was so great that the ground
was frozen hard for eight months of the year, and that it
was even cold in the summer season, that the air was so
full of feathers that no one could see, by which, as Herodotus
very properly explains, the thick falling feathery flakes of
snow were meant, and that the cattle could not grow horns.
All this seems to point beyond all doubt to the Ural and
Altai ranges. Unquestionably there was a well-established
trade route extending from the Black Sea through the country
inhabited by the Scythians proper, which Herodotus describes
as consisting of plains of rich soil, a true description of the
fertile steppes of Southern Russia. Then beyond this lay a
large area of rugged, stony land, inhabited by a people called
Argippaei, who, males and females alike, were born bald.
Their territory formed the lower part of a range of lofty moun-
tains. They were a peaceful and a harmless race, dwelling in
tents of white felt in the winter. It was easy to learn about
them and their country from the Scythian traders who held
iiitrrrnurse with them, as likewise from the Greeks from the
factories of the Borysthenes, and from the other Greek trading
ports on the Euxine. No man could say of a truth what lay to
the north of the " Baldheads," as on that side rose the lofty,
1 Herod. IT. 13.
Herod. HI. 116, Xfyrreu &t VTT^K TWV ypvirw apwdfciv ' Api/j.d<nrovs dvSpas
For fields of India, cf. Dr Valentine Ball's excellent chapter (iv.) in
hi* Ofolow of Iwln,
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 69
impassable range of mountains, but Herodotus had heard (but
did not believe) that according to the " Baldheads " a race of
men having the feet of goats dwelt there 1 , a legend which
may be plausibly rationalized into a simple statement that a
race of mountain- folk, sure-footed as the wild goat, inhabited
the mountains. But on their east the existence of the Issedones
was an established fact.
It is plain then that from a date lost in the distance of
time the gold of the Ural-Altaic region had been worked and
exported, and that consequently it was known and prized by all
the tribes who came within the influence of this wide district.
The Scythians in the fifth century before Christ were engaged in
regular trade with this region, and possessed abundant store of
the prized substance. This is shown by Herodotus in a very re-
markable passage wherein he describes the burial of a Scythian
king. After recounting the ceremonials he thus proceeds: "In
the open space round the body of the king they bury one of his
concubines, first killing her by strangling, and also his cup-
bearer, his cook, his groom, his lacquey, his messenger, some of
his horses, firstlings of all his other possessions and some
golden cups; for they use neither silver nor copper 2 ." From
this passage we learn the interesting fact that the Scythians,
although possessing great quantities of gold and being able to
work it into articles of use, were yet ignorant of silver and
copper, which nevertheless, as we know now, exist in large
deposits in the Ural region. This is one of several cases
which we shall have to notice which go far to prove that the
knowledge and working of gold preceded not only that of silver,
but also that of copper.
The remoteness of the age at which some branch of the
Turko-Tartar family who dwelt in the Altai region, first dis-
covered the treasures which Nature had stored up there, is
evidenced, as Schrader (following Klaproth) rightly points out
(p. 253), by the fact that among all the branches of that wide-
spread family of languages, from the Osmanli Turks on the
Dardanelles to the remote Samoyedes on the banks of the
1 Herod, iv. 25.
2 Herod, iv. 71, dpytipy 8 ovdev ovde
70 THK DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
Lena, the same word for gold is found in slightly varying forms,
aUutt, altyn, iltyn, etc., which can hardly be etymologically
separated from Altai, the locality from which it first became
kn..\vn in tar-off days. In the ancient graves of the Tschudi
in the Altaic districts, have been found abundance of gold
and silver utensils which according to Sjogren (Schrader 136),
rxhihit tin- n pr.s. utation of the Griffin of Greek fable.
Before passing further west into Europe we shall complete
our survey of the gold-fields of Western Asia. One of the most
beautiful of Greek stories hangs around the eastern end of
the Black Sea, where lay the land of Colchis, the goal which
Jason and his fellow Argonauts sought in their quest of the
(i.-l.lrn Fleeee. In the Homeric poems the voyage of the ship
Argo is referred to as an event which had taken place in a past
generation. In the time of the geographer Strabo (B.C. 63-A.D. 21)
gold was still found in Colchis in a district occupied by a tribe
called Soanes, scarcely less famous for their personal uncleanli-
ness than their neighbours the Phtheirophagoi (Lice-eaters) who
bore this appellation from the filthiness of their habits. " It is
said that in their country the mountain torrents bring down
gold, and that the barbarians catch it in troughs perforated with
h"l'-s, and in skins with the fleece left on, from which circum-
stance they say arose the fable of the Golden Fleece 1 ."
Strabo's explanation, which seems from his words to have
been the current one in his day, is extremely plausible, and
it appears highly probable that from the first dawn of history
the torrent-swept treasures of the Colchian land were well
known to the dwellers in both Asia Minor and Europe. But
this was not the only place in Asia Minor where gold was
found. We shall have occasion again and again to refer to the
rum of Sardis, obtained from the sand of the river
Pactolus which flowed down from Mount Tmolus. Scholars
are familiar with the account which Herodotus gives of these
gold deposits, but probably the most convenient thing for our
present purpose will be to quote Strabo's enumeration of the
Htrabo, XI. p. 499, vapa TOVTOU 5 Xtyerai Kal xP vff t> v Karafopeiv rot>j
%rmdf>povi t inro^4\taB(u. 3' O.VTOV TOVI papfiapovs <pa.Tvais KaTaTeTprj^vais /cat /uaXXw-
TCMI lopait' dj ov 617 mnvQivaOou Kal TO \pva6 /xaXXoc 5^os.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 71
kings and potentates of antiquity in Asia and Europe who were
famous for their wealth, as he has added in each case the
source from which their wealth was obtained. The current
account as given by Callisthenes and others was, "that the
wealth of Tantalus and the Pelopidae was derived from the
mines of Phrygia and Sipylus, whilst the wealth of Cadmus
came from the mines of Thrace and Mount Pangaeum, but that
of Priam from the gold-mines at Astyra in the vicinity of
Abydus, of which even now there are still scanty remnants.
But the quantity of earth cast up is vast, and the diggings are
proofs of the ancient mining operations. But the wealth of
Midas came from the mines round Mount Bermion, whilst that
of Gyges and Alyattes and Croesus came from the mines in
Lydia. But in the district between Atarneus and Pergamus
there is a deserted city, with places containing worked-out
mines 1 ." This passage gives a good picture of the gold-fields
which in ancient days were worked round the shores of the
Aegean.
In the time of Strabo some of them were already worked
out and gave but a scanty yield, for he says, "above the territory
of the people of Abydus lies in the Troad Astyra, which now
belongs to the people of Abydus, a ruined city, but aforetime it
was independent, possessing gold-mines, now affording but a
scanty yield, as they are exhausted, just like the mines on
Mount Tmolus in the neighbourhood of the Pactolus." The
latter district was still productive in the days of Herodotus,
who declared that the land of Lydia had few marvels to
chronicle except the gold-dust that is borne down from Tmolus 2 .
Strabo too, elsewhere 3 , when describing the river system of this
part of Asia Minor says, " the Pactolus flows from Tmolus, carry-
ing down that ancient gold-dust from which they say that the
famous wealth of Croesus and of his ancestors became renowned.
But now the gold-dust has failed, as has been stated."
It is interesting to observe that according to tradition the
wealth of Midas, the king of Phrygia, who is perhaps more
1 Strabo, xiv. p. 680.
2 Herod. I. 93, Trdpe% TOV e/c TOV r f/j,w\ov Karafapo/mevov
3 xin. p. 625 sq.
7^ THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
famous for his ass's ears than his riches, came from the Bermion
Mount in that part of Macedonia, which was occupied in historical
time* l.v th.- powerful tribe of the Bryges. This in itself is an
interesting indication f tin- intimate connection and close com-
iiiunirati.'n between the countries and peoples on both sides of
th- Dardanelles fnnu the earliest epoch. There were on either
-ide lands gifted by nature with stores of wealth, as well as
possessing the portals of either continent. Hence the Helles-
jH.nt and Hosphorus have ever been the seat of rich cities, and
have 0m 1 ! regarded amongst the greatest of prizes in the
>t niggles of the nations.
It is possible that the ancient legend connecting the wealth
Priam of Troy with the mines of Astyra, still worked in
Strain's davs, may serve- to explain the real cause of that
in\a>ion of the Achaeans, which in all probability did occur,
although on what form or at what time we know not, and around
which there grew in the mouths of the rhapsodists the tale of
Troy Divine. In all our enumeration of gold-mines we do not
tii id a single one allotted to Greece Proper. The wealth of
Cadmus, the old Phoenician founder of Thebes, who was said to
have introduced the art of writing into Hellas, came, according
to Strabo's tradition, from Thrace and the mines of Pangaeum.
As Cadmus is the typical wealthy potentate of Northern Greece,
so the line of Pelops are the typical wealthy potentates of
Pe|.,p.nnesus. Their wealth, like that of Cadmus, is adven-
titious, for it is the product of the mines of Phrygia and
Mount Sipylus. This is quite consistent with the statement of
Thucydides that "those Peloponnesians who have received the
clearest accounts by tradition from the men of former time
declare that IVlops first by means of the mass of wealth with
which he an m- from Asia to men who were poor, having ac-
quired for himself power although he was a new-comer, gave
occasion for the land to be called after him."
Of the three cities which are called rich in gold by Homer,
n Hellas proper, namely Mycenae in Peloponnesus, and
th.- Minyan Orchomenus in Boeotia. Gold has been found in
bundanoe in the pn historic tombs at Mycenae, thus confirming
M-adition. This gold, beyond doubt, was imported
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 73
from outside Greece, and we may without hesitation accept
the view of the Greeks themselves that it came from Asia
Minor. The story of the wealth of Cadmus, who came to
Boeotia as Pelops did to Peloponnesus is equally in harmony
with the Homeric tradition of a great wealthy city in Boeotia.
Dr Schliemann excavated the remains of Orchomenus, as he did
those of Mycenae, and of the ancient city at Hissarlik, but his
labours unfortunately gave no confirmation of the accounts of
the ancient wealth of Orchomenus. The reason probably was
that he came many centuries too late, as the great prehistoric
tomb known as the Treasure-house of the Minyans had long
since been repeatedly plundered and ransacked ; not even one
bronze plate of those that once had probably lined its walls was
left. Still less likely was it that any vestige of gold would have
escaped the rapacity of the spoiler.
The wealth of Northern Greece, then, by the earliest tradition
is connected with the rich gold regions of Thrace, which, if we
accept the same tradition, must have been worked from the
remotest age. The connection of the Cadmus legend with this
region points clearly to very early Phoenician trade in the days
when as yet the Phoenicians had undisputed mastery over the
Aegean Sea and the Hellenes had not begun to develop mari-
time enterprize.
As a matter of fact the name of the island of Thasos, which
lay off the Thracian shore, was directly ascribed to a Phoenician
settler. In the time of Herodotus the Thasians had a large
revenue both from the mines on the mainland and from those
in their own island. For he tells us that "from the gold-mines
of Scapte Hyle they had a revenue on the average of eighty
talents, and from those in Thasos itself a lesser one, but yet so
good that the Thasians enjoyed exemption from taxation on
produce and had a yearly revenue from the mainland and the
mines together of two hundred talents on the average, but when
the revenue was at its maximum, it was three hundred talents.
And I myself likewise saw these mines, and by far the most
wonderful were those which the Phoenicians who had colonized
the island along with Thasos had opened up, it was this Phoe-
nician leader Thasos who gave his name to the island. These
74 I UK DISTIUBUTION OF THE OX
Phoenician mines lie in the part of Thasos between the district
t .iii-l ( 'oenyra; a great mountain has been upturned in
th- -M-uivh 1 ." But the most famous mines on the mainland of
; il,,,^ M!' Mount Piin^axMiin, Crenides, and Datum
, , ,, ..neeinet aeeount of this wealthy district:
"There are other cities round the gulf of the Strymon, as
fur instance Myrrinus, Argilus, Drabescus, Datum. The last-
namod has very excellent and fruitful land and shipbuilding-
yards, and mines of gold, from which comes the proverb a
Datum of riches, just like loads of wealth." And in another
passage he says that, " there are very numerous gold-mines at
. The city of Philippi is now seated close to the
Pangacum Mount. And the Pangaeum Mount too has mines of
gold and silver, and so has the region both on the other side of
and on this side the Strymon as far as Paconia. And they say
likewise that those who plough the Paeonian land find some
nmrsrls of gold."
It was in a struggle with a Thracian tribe, the Edonians,
for the possession of the mines at Datum that Sophanes, the
Kutyehides of Decelea, who had distinguished himself
above all other Athenians at the battle of Plataea, was killed 3 .
The possession of Thasos and the coast of Thrace was not the
least important means by which Athens held her supremacy in
Greece, and when Philip (360 336 B.C.) finally got supreme
rontrol over all this region, and built his new capital of Philippi,
his jKith of cninjm ->t was henceforward made easy by the golden
Philippi, the regale nomisma of Horace,
Diffidit urbium
Portaft uir Macodo, et submit aeumlos
Reges muiierilms.
(Carm. HI. 16. 13.)
Passing on now to Southern Asia we find that there gold
was found in Carmania (the modem Kerman) on the Persian
(in If. Strabo states on the authority of Onesicritus that in
Carmania a river carries down gold-dust, and that there is like-
wise a mine of dug gold and of silver and of copper 4 .
1 Herod, vi. 46 q. - Strabo, 331.
Herod, ix. 75. * Strabo, 618. 2<J. Didot.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 75
That there was gold in Arabia is placed beyond doubt by
various notices in antiquity. " He shall live and unto him shall
be given of the gold of Sheba (Saba 1 )," says the Psalmist (Ps.
Ixxii. 13), showing that the inhabitants of Palestine regarded
that country as a source from which the gold-supply came.
Strabo and Diodorus give somewhat similar accounts of the
gold found along the Red Sea littoral. The former, describing
the land of the Nomads who live entirely by their camels,
which they employ for warfare and for travelling, and on whose
milk and flesh they subsist, says : " a river flows through
their land which carries down gold-dust, but they have not
skill to work it up. Now they are called Debae 2 ; some of them
are nomads, others are tillers of the soil. But I do not mention
the numerous names of the tribes on account of their un-
certainty and outlandish pronunciation. Next to them come
more civilized men, who inhabit a more genial soil. For it
is well supplied with both river and rain water. And dug
gold is produced in their land, not from dust but from nuggets
of gold, which do not need much refining. The smallest
nuggets are of the size of olive-stones (?) (irvprjv), the medium-
sized are as big as medlars, and the largest are of the size of
chestnuts (?) (/cdpvov). Having perforated these they pass a
thread of flax through them in alternation with transparent
stones and make themselves chains, and put them round their
necks and wrists. And they offer their gold for sale to their
neighbours likewise at a cheap rate, giving thrice as much gold
as they get copper in exchange and twice as much gold as they
get silver in exchange, for they have not the skill to work the
gold, and the metals which they receive in exchange are rare in
their country and more necessary for life 3 ."
This is a most interesting and important passage, as it
brings us face to face with primitive peoples in the very earliest
stage of the use of metals. The Nomads do not possess skill
1 Cf. Isaiah xlv. 14.
2 The Debae of Agatharchides and Artemidorus are held by almost all
scholars to be the people of Ptolemy's Qrjpat 7r6\ts, i.e. Dhahaban, from Dhahab,
gold, with term. -an.
3 Strabo, 661. 45. Didot.
70 THK DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
enough to work the gold-dust of their river, although evidently
aware of its eortenoa Their neighbours being more favoured
|)\ the nature of their gold deposit are able to use the metal in
the wav in which we may with safety conclude that mankind
in ployed it Accustomed to use ornaments of
. : . . ,..j, jut,, nule heads, they had no difficulty in adapting
k. DM the small lumps of native gold. They readily
d th. >,.ft metal and making the nuggets into beads used
tii, in i.. tonn their neeklcts and armlets. But although this
people had made some progress in the working of gold, they
were incapable of working copper and silver. We shall have to
return to this passage hereafter. Let us now hear Diodorus in
refen to the same region.
H. speaks of it iii two separate places in his Collections,
first in his Second Book, when giving a brief general statement
;il)ia and its natural products, and again in the Third Book,
when he is giving a more detailed account of the tribes who
dwelt along the shores of the Red Sea or, as he called it, the
Arabian (Julf.
The first passage runs thus (he has just been describing
certain quarries) : " There are mines in Arabia likewise of the
gold that is termed 'fireless.' It is not refined down from gold-
diM as in other countries, but it is obtained straightway on
being dug up in size like unto chestnuts, and so fiery in colour
that the most precious stones when set in it by the craftsmen
make the most lovely of ornaments. And so great abundance
of all sorts of cattle is found in the country that many tribes
having eh'.< n a pastoral life are able to get a comfortable
subsistence, and being completely furnished with the plenteous-
Ben d. ri\ d from their herds, they even have no need of corn
in addition In his second reference, after describing the hill
district, where lay the Mount Chabinus, densely clad with
forests of all kinds of trees he says: "The land which comes
! the mountain region those Arabs called Debae inhabit.
these people are camel-keepers and make use of this
ill the most important affairs in life. For from
them, tli- y fight against their enemies and conveying their
1 Diodorus Sic. n. 50. 1 */.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 77
wares on the backs of these effect successfully all their business,
and they subsist by drinking their milk, and they range over
the whole region on their fleet camels. Now about midway
in their land flows a river which brings down so much shining
gold-dust that the alluvial mud deposited at its mouth posi-
tively glitters. Now the natives are completely unskilled in the
working of the gold, but they are hospitable to strangers, not to
all comers, but to those alone who come from Boeotia 1 and
Peloponnesus because of a certain ancient affinity of Heracles
with their nation, a tradition of which in legendary fashion
they relate they have received from their forefathers. The
next region is settled by the Alilaean and Gasandan Arabs, not
being torrid, like those near it, inasmuch as it is often overcast
with soft dense clouds, and from these arise snowstorms and
seasonable rains which make the summer season temperate.
And the land is capable of producing everything and surpasses
in excellence, yet it does not meet with proper attention, owing
to the ignorance of the folk. And finding gold in the natural
cavities in the earth they collect it in quantities, not that which
is obtained by fusion from gold-dust, but that which is native
and from the circumstance called ' fireless.' And as to size the
smallest piece found is similar to an olive-stone, whilst the
largest is not much less than a walnut. And they wear it
round their wrists and necks when it is perforated, the nuggets
alternating with transparent stones. But since this kind of
metal is plentiful with them, but copper and iron are scarce,
they barter these wares with the traders at an equal rate 2 ."
Strabo probably got his information from Artemidorus, who is
his chief authority for everything connected with the Red Sea.
Diodorus, whose authority is Agatharchides, substantially agrees
with Strabo in all the main facts, such as the name of the tribe
who cannot work up the gold-dust, whilst he adds the names of
the Alilaeans and Gasandans, which are not given by Strabo 3 .
1 This story about their connection with Boeotia doubtless arose from the
confusion between A^Scu and 6?7/3ai.
2 Diod. Sic. m. 45. 4.
3 His description of the size of the largest nuggets of gold varies slightly ;
in his second reference he compares them to "royal nuts" (Kapva pa<n\iKd), which
78 THK DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
KI..III Arabia we naturally pass on to Egypt. We have
already seen that the archaeologists assign reasons for sup-
puwing that the Egyptians were acquainted with gold from the
remotest ages. The Egyptian word for gold is nub, from which
the munr Nubia, i.e. El Dorado, is commonly derived. Having
fre*h in ur minds the interesting fact noticed above (p. 69)
that the universal wonl for gold in use amongst the Turko-
Tartaric races is probably derived from the Altai, the source
from which they first got the metal, we are tempted to reverse
the ordinary dot-trine, and to derive the Egyptian name for
gold from that of the region whence they first obtained it.
The principle of naming products after the region or place
from which they have been first brought is too well known
to need illustration. Instances are familiar in all languages:
Cappadocae, the Latin name for lettuce; Persica from which
has come our peach, through the French ; Indian corn, india-
rubber, etc. are sufficient examples. The negroes of Eastern
Africa call a certain kind of cloth Merikano, i.e. American.
IVrhaps, then, the name nub is rather a word of this class, and
Nubia is not like Gold Coast, which belongs to the category
of nami > formed by epithets applied in consequence of some
article already well known having been found there.
Strain, (j.. Nil), describing Meroe, that large and fer-
nl- inland formed by the Nile, says: "the island has many
great mountains, and some of its inhabitants are shepherds,
H..IIH- hunters, and some husbandmen. And there are likewise
:-r-di^in^s and iron-works, and gold-mines, and varieties
'I uable marbles. It is shut off from Libya by great sands,
are generally admitted to be walnuts, though walnuts are sometimes also called
Persian nuts" (xdpva lltpffiitd), the latter name reminding us of the derivation
of ratal* itself ; in the first passage he likens them in size to chestnuts ( K dpva
cosroMuxd or urrar<ua), the name being said to be derived from Castanaea, a
: P-.iitim. It would seem from this then that Diodorus got his accounts
from Iwo Hlightly different sources. Strabo has been so cautious as not to
give an any specific epithet for the large nut, which we may accordingly regard
M we please either an a chestnut or a walnut. There can be no doubt about
the froil to which Strabo compares the medium-sized nuggets. The mespilon,
lAtm mnpilum (from which comes the French nejle), is undoubtedly the
medlar, whilst ptrhape the most likely meaning for the smallest of the three
friUi..-
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 79
from Arabia by unbroken heights, and from the upper region
from the south by the junctions of the rivers, Astaboras, Asta-
pus, and Astasobus. On the north the Nile flows all the way
to Egypt in that tortuous fashion which I have described." This
island virtually coincides with the modern province of Atbar.
It is probably to this same region that Diodorus refers in his
famous description of the Egyptian gold- mining. Although the
passage is one of considerable length, it is of such interest and
importance that it is perhaps advisable to give it in full :
" On the confines of Egypt, Arabia which marches with it, and
Ethiopia is a spot possessed of many great mines of gold, where
the gold is got together with much suffering and expense.
Since the earth is black and has lodes and veins of quartz of
surpassing whiteness, and which excel in brilliancy all those
natural objects which are noted for their lustre, those who are
in charge of the mining works by the numbers of the labourers
prepare the gold. For the kings of Egypt collect together and
consign to the gold-mines those who have been condemned for
crime, and who have been made captive in war, and further-
more those who have been ruined by false slanders, and who
owing to an outburst of anger have been cast into prison, some-
times only themselves, but sometimes likewise with all their
kindred, at one and the same time both exacting punishment
from those who have been condemned, and obtaining great
revenues by means of those who are engaged in the labour.
Those who have been consigned to the mines, being many in
number and all bound with fetters, toil at their tasks con-
tinuously both by day and all night long, getting no rest, and
jealously kept from all escape. For guards composed of foreign
soldiers, and who speak languages which differ from theirs, are
set over them, so that no one is able by association or any kindly
intercourse to corrupt any one of the warders. The hardest of
the earth which contains the gold they burn with a good deal
of fire, and make soft, and work it with their hands, but the
soft rock and that which can easily yield to stone chisels or iron
is worked down by thousands of hapless beings. And the crafts-
man who distinguishes the stone takes the lead in the whole
process, and he gives instructions to the workmen. And of
M) THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
th*? who hnve been appointed to this misery those who sur-
in \*M\ Mivngth cut with iron pickaxes the glittering
. not l>v bringing skill to bear upon their tasks, but by mere
brutv force and they hew out galleries, not in a straight line,
but according to the vein of the glittering rock. They then
living in darkness owing to the bends and twists in the pits
carry about lamps fitted on their foreheads, and changing in
many ways the posture of their bodies according to the pecu-
liarity tit' tin- rock throw down on the floor the fragments that
are bring hrwn. ami this they do unceasingly under the severity
and stripes of an overseer. But the boys who have not yet
reached manhood going in through the shafts into the exca-
\ati..Ms in the rock, laboriously cast up the rock that is being
thmwii (l<>\vn bit by bit, and convey it to the place outside the
tin tilth of the shaft into the light. But the men who are more
than thirty years old take a fixed measure of the quarried
stone, and pound it in stone mortars with iron pestles until
they reduce it to the size of a vetch. From these the women
and >lder men receive the stone now reduced to pieces the size
of a vetch, and as there is a considerable number of mills there
in a row, they cast the stone upon them, they stand beside
them at the handle in threes or twos, they grind until they
have reduerd the measure given them to the fineness of
wheaten flour. And since they are all regardless of their
person*-, and have not a garment to cover their nakedness, no
..He who saw them could refrain from pitying the hapless
creatures owing to their excessive misery. For there is abso-
lutely no consideration nor relaxation for sick, or maimed, for
aged man, or weak woman, but all are forced to toil on at
their t;usks until, worn out by their miseries, they die amid
their tils. Wherefore the unhappy beings regard the future
i ore to he dreaded than the present owing to the excess of
punishment, and expect death as more to be longed for than
finally the craftsmen get the ground-up stone, and
the process. For they rub the ground-up quartz on
d placed on a slight incline, pouring water on it.
M tht- earthy part, of it, melting away by the action of the
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 81
liquid, flows down along the sloping board, but the part that
contains the gold adheres to the board owing to its weight.
Repeating this process frequently at first with their hands
they gently rub it, but after this pressing it lightly with deli-
cate sponges they take up by these means the soft and earthy
part until the gold-dust is left in a state of purity.
" Finally other craftsmen, taking over the collected gold
by measure and weight, put it into earthenware pots, and
in proportion to the amount they put in a piece of lead and
lumps of salt and furthermore a small quantity of tin, and
they add barley bran. Then having made a well-fitted cover
and having laboriously smeared it over with mud, they bake
it in kilns for five days and as many nights continuously.
Then after letting it cool, they find none of the other things
in the vessels, but get the gold in a pure state with but a
slight reduction in quantity. With so many and so great suf-
ferings is the production of gold at the frontiers of Egypt com-
pleted. For Nature herself makes it plain, I think, that gold is
produced with toil, is guarded with difficulty, is most eagerly
sought for, and is enjoyed with mixed pleasure and pain. The
discovery of these mines is of very ancient date, inasmuch as it
was made known by the ancient kings 1 ."
Such then is the vivid picture drawn by the humane
Diodorus of the horrible torments of the unhappy bondsmen
who worked these famous mines, sufferings only to be pa-
ralleled by the miseries endured by the miners in Spain under
Roman rule, by the Indians in the mines of Peru under the
yoke of the Spaniard, and by the helpless sufferers under
Muscovite cruelty who at this hour endure a living death in
the mines of Siberia.
For our immediate purpose it is interesting to notice that
the Egyptians from a far back time obtained an abundant
supply of gold from the confines of their own territory, and
doubtless drew a further supply from those rich gold districts
along the Red Sea of which we have just spoken.
Whilst in the latter case we had a most instructive instance
of the first attempts to utilize the metals made by men, so in
1 Diodorus, in. 12 14.
R. 6
v _> THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
the case of Egypt we find an example of the most elaborate and
scientific process of gold-mining known to the ancients. For
we shall Hud that the process employed in Spain by the
Romans for refining the crude gold was not nearly so elaborate
as that employed by the Egyptians.
I s of course quite possible that supplies of gold either
in the form of dust or of rings may have reached Egypt from
tin interior of Africa, but of that we have not as far as I am
inN historical record. F<>r tin- nrim.es who are depicted
_;vMtian paintings bringing tribute of gold rings might have
brought them from Nubia or from a region on the coast of the
Mediterranean further west. It is indeed a fact of great interest
that down to the present day gold in the shape of rings or links
is brought to Massowah on the Red Sea from Sennaar (Nubia).
This is the best of the three qualities which reach Massowah ;
the second quality is Abyssinian gold, "in grains or beads," and
the third is also Abyssinian gold " in ingots." Thus two most
ancient ways of using gold are employed in this region still, for
the gold in grains or beads reminds us at once of the story of
its being employed by the Debae to form necklaces 1 .
Once more let us advance westward, and notice the last gold-
field on the continent of Africa. That gold was obtained by the
Carthaginians from a district in North Africa is put beyond doubt
by a passage of Herodotus (iv. 195), who, after describing a certain
people called the Gyzantes, who coloured themselves red with
raddle, and ate apes, says that " the Carthaginians declare that
..pjMisitr this people lies an island named Cyraunis, two hundred
stadcs long (25 miles) but narrow in breadth, with a crossing from
th mainland; the island is full of olives and vines, and there
is a lake in it from which the native maidens by means of birds'
HiM-ared with pitch take up gold dust out of the silt."
Whatever may be the exact spot meant on the coast of the
Libyan n .ni:ils we may at least conclude that there is a distinct
indication that the Carthaginians were well acquainted with
gold deposits in tin* quarter. Whether or not the Carthaginians
and in later times the Romans nifiy have obtained by caravans
the desert supplies of gold from the great gold-baring
1 IfaiMfieKl l'ark\ , I /.////. Vol. i. j.. 405 (London, 1853).
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 83
regions of West Africa, we have no means of judging, but it is
on the whole probable that they did. The voyage of Hanno,
the Carthaginian admiral, along the western side of Africa can
hardly have failed to make known to them the existence of rich
gold fields, even if they had been previously ignorant of them ;
but it is still more likely that it was the knowledge of such an
Eldorado far away beyond the great Sahara that induced them
to send out the expedition.
It has often happened in the history of both ancient and
modern commerce that the products of a certain region are
known long before travellers or merchants from civilized lands
have ever reached the country that produces them. Thus the
merchants of Marseilles were probably familiar with the tin
brought from Devon and Cornwall across Gaul before the
famous Pytheas ever coasted round Spain and Gaul and visited
our shores. Again, in modern times, it is only within the last
thirty years that the source of that most familiar of drugs,
Turkey rhubarb, has been discovered.
By whatever means they may have learned its existence
the following passage of Herodotus (iv. 196) puts it beyond all
doubt that the Carthaginians in the fifth century B.C. traded
by sea for gold to the west coast of Africa, and that conse-
quently the savages of that region must have been long ac-
quainted with the metal: "The Carthaginians," he says, "also
relate the following: there is a country in Libya and a nation
beyond the Pillars of Heracles, which they are wont to visit,
where they no sooner arrive than forthwith they unlade their
wares, and having disposed them after an orderly fashion along
the beach, leave them and returning aboard their ships, raise a
great smoke. The natives, when they see the smoke, come
down to the shore, and laying out to view so much gold as they
think the worth of the wares, withdraw to a distance. The
Carthaginians upon this come ashore and look; if they think
the gold enough, they take it and go their way, but if it does
not seem to them sufficient, they go aboard once more and wait
patiently. Then the others approach and add to their gold,
till the Carthaginians are content. Neither party deals unfairly
with the other, for they themselves never touch the gold until
62
M THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
it comes up to the worth of the goods, nor do the natives ever
carry off the goods till the gold is taken away 1 ."
Let us now retrace our steps to Europe and take up our
investigation at the point from which we diverged into Asia.
\V found Thr.uv and Thasos to have been for many ages an
iiaustihle source of gold. We must now pass on from the
Balkan peninsula to the Italian.
Although according to Helbig (Die Italiker in der Poebene,
p. 21) no traces of gold have as yet been found in the lake-dwell-
ings of Northern Italy, which were erected and occupied by the
I'mln-ians, who occupied all that region until conquered by the
i scans*, we cannot take this negative evidence as at all con-
eluxjvr proof that the inhabitants of these dwellings were
utterly ignorant of gold and its use. Helbig has shown that
tin- inhabitants of the lake-dwellings were in the bronze age at
tin- time of the Etruscan conquest, which can be hardly placed
lutrr than B.C. 1100. Bronze implements are found in the
r. -mains. But as a matter of fact ornaments of gold are not
generally found in the ruins of the habitations of the living,
but rather in the tombs of the dead. That certainly has been
tin- ease at Mycenae, at Spata, on Mount Hymettus in Attica,
in the island of Thera, and at lalysus in Rhodes. Contrast
the wealth of gold ornaments found in the tombs at Mycenae
with the complete absence of that metal in the palace at
ns. Of course it may be urged on the other side that at
Hissarlik amid the ruins of a burnt city great treasure in gold
and silver has been found, and we must undoubtedly admit that
in certain cases such as that of a city suddenly destroyed by a
fire before there was time either for the owners to remove or the
n.-iny to pillage the valuables therein, there is the possibility of
finding such remains. If we were to apply this negative method
istently w<- must conclude that Orchomenus, which Homer
called "rich in gnld," was inhabited by men who were not yet
lintcd with that metal, and we should I believe be con-
strained to arrive at the same conclusion in the case of Nineveh
1 For similar ways of trading in Africa in modern times see Bawlinson's
note ad locum.
rod. IT. 49.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 85
and Babylon. At least Sir Henry Layard discovered scarcely
a fragment of any articles of gold in the course of his ex-
cavations on the site of those two cities, which nevertheless
we have the strongest grounds for believing were amongst the
wealthiest of those of ancient days. In dealing with the ques-
tion of Northern Italy we cannot separate it from the con-
tiguous region of Switzerland or Helvetia. Dr Keller, in his
well-known work on the Lake-dwellings (p. 459), gives instances
where gold has been found in lake-dwellings amongst remains
that indicated the owners to have been in the bronze period.
Of course it may be said and said with truth that the lake-
dwellings of Switzerland continued to be occupied down to a
time posterior to those found in the Aemilia. But when we find
that a gold ornament has been found in a dwelling of neolithic
age, we have a positive proof not simply of the knowledge, but
probably of the skill requisite to manufacture the metal. If
any upholder of the negative method urges that gold has been
found very sparingly in these lacustrine dwellings, let him
remember that the existence of one single object of gold in
these remains is sufficient to demolish all his argument. The
objects found in the lakes are chiefly debris, the offal of the
house, bones of animals, which had formed the food of the
former oAvners, broken and disused implements, and such like.
Ornaments of gold were not likely to have been flung into the
bottom of the lake for the purpose of getting rid of them. Such
precious articles were probably handed down with great care
from generation to generation, and possibly in later days gold
that once graced the neck or arms of prehistoric men and
women has reappeared time after time in the form of coins,
first the rude imitations of the staters of Philip of Macedon,
again under the form of Roman aurei, and perhaps even
bore the impress of some mediaeval monarch at a later time.
There have been issues of coins both in ancient and modern
times of which not a single specimen is at present known ;
yet if any one were to argue from this against the truth
of the documentary evidence, the spade of a peasant by
turning up a single coin might on the moment wreck all
his logic. The sum of positive knowledge which we obtain
s,; THK DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
trniii this discuion is therefore that some people who in-
habited Switzerland in what is called the neolithic age (a
vague and often misleading phrase) were acquainted with the
uaeof gold ornaments. Could we but fix the inferior limits of
i\\\> neolithic agr, we should at least obtain an approximate
date before which gold was already known. But it is most
probable that stone, bronze and even iron long continued to be
used Mil,- 1>\ side in the same areas. The man who had no
articles to barter for bronze continued to use stone implements
of his own manufacture, whilst his more fortunate coeval used
\\.-ajM, MX made <>t' the superior but more costly material.
ting now that bronze implements made their way
tn.in tin- Mediterranean into the middle and north of Europe,
brought mast likely by traders from the more civilized shores
of the Aegean, let us ask ourselves how did the men of
the neolithic stage obtain them. Did the kindly Phoenician
trader L:- ii'Tously bestow as free gifts these articles on the bar-
barians of the West ? Does the trader of today among the isles
M- i lavish for mere thanks his wares upon the natives
who gather round him on the beach ? In Homer those Phoeni-
cian shipmen are described by an epithet, which by the mildest
interpretation means knaves. The men who brought bronze
some valuable objects in exchange for it. Such objects
must be portable: slaves, gold, silver, copper, tin, skins and furs
\\ould probably form the main objects of barter. If we make
use of the philological method of Schrader and his school, there
can be no doubt that copper was known to the Italians before
a Phoenician keel grated against their shores, for the
Lit in aes is as we said a true Aryan word. There is no
suspicion of borrowing here from the Semitic as there is in the
case of the Greek clialkos. In such a case as this the philo-
logical argument has some distinct force; for whilst, as I
argued, it is easy to reali/e a state of things under which a
native name for a particular substance already known may
give place to a foreign one, on the other hand it is difficult
to see how a people who are receiving such a substance for the
time from foreigners, and who would therefore naturally
y to it a term obtained from the foreigners' language, could
AND THE mSTWMJTlON OK (JOU). 87
afterwards replace this name by one which is found applied to
the same substance by a cognate people dwelling thousands of
miles away from them. The Italians therefore probably had cop-
per from a very early age. But we have already seen good reason
for believing that a knowledge of gold precedes that of copper
whenever both are found in the same area. We saw that the
Scythians, who got copious store of gold from the Ural- Altai
region, made no use of copper in the fifth century before our
era, although copper is found abundantly in the same area.
From this we may infer with some probability that the Italian
stock were acquainted with gold sooner than with copper. We
may apply the same argument to gold in Italy as we did to
copper. Aurum (older ausum), the Latin word for gold, is
plainly not borrowed, as is perhaps the Greek chrysos, from the
Semites. Hence it cannot be maintained that it was only with
the Phoenicians that the knowledge of gold reached Italy.
It now only remains for us to see if the Italians had the
means within their reach of discovering gold. No one I suppose
will dispute that the Italian stock entered the peninsula from
the north, driving before them older occupants. They must
then have either entered Italy by the head of the Adriatic,
coming round from the valleys of the Balkan peninsula, or
through the Alpine passes. If they came from the first quarter
it is impossible to suppose that a people in close contact with
the tribes who occupied the Balkan peninsula, and who as
we have seen above must have been acquainted with gold
from a remote time, could have remained without a knowledge
of the metal. On the other hand it will be seen from the
following evidence that there was every opportunity for the
discovery of gold in the Alpine valleys. Strabo gives various
notices of the gold workings of this region. " Polybius states
that in his own day in the vicinity of Aquileia, in the territory
of the Taurisci of Noricum, was found a gold mine so productive
that on clearing away the surface dirt to a depth of two feet
gold which could be dug was straightway found, and that the pit
did not exceed fifteen feet, and that part of the gold was pure
on the spot, being the size of a bean or a lupin, only one-eighth
being lost in refining, whilst some of it required a process of
88 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
smelting which, though more elaborate, was still very remune-
vo. When the Italians worked them along with the bar-
barians for a space of two months, straightway gold coin went
down one-third in value throughout the whole of Italy; but
when the Taurisci became aware of this they expelled their
partners and held the monopoly. But now all the gold mines
are in the hands of the Romans. And there too, just as in
Il.-ria. th. rivers in addition to the dug gold produce gold dust,
but not in such quantities 1 ."
In another passage, speaking of the town of Noreia in Nori-
riim, he says " this district possesses productive gold-washings
and iron-works*."
Moving on again westwards, we easily find strong evi-
dence of active gold-mining in the Alpine regions. All the
granite strata on the southern side of the High Alps from the
Simplon to Mont Blanc are auriferous. Not only have extensive
mining operations been carried on at different points down
almost to the present day, but the mines were beyond all doubt
vigorously worked, not merely in Roman but in pre-Roman
days. In the district of La Besse, at the foot of Mont Grand
'ii tin- right bank of the Cervo between Biella and Ivrea, are
still to be seen very extensive traces of gold washings and gold
diggings*. Tln-M- are no other than the once famous mines of
imulae alluded to by Strabo when, in speaking of this
ii, In- says that "there is not now as much attention be-
d on the mines as there used to be, because the mines
in tin- country of the transalpine Kelts and in Spain are
ni"iv |>r'tital>lr, but formerly they were well worked, since at
Hi th. r. was a gold-digging. Vercelli is a village near
Irtimiiilac which is itself a village, and both of them are in
tli. \ irinit v of IMacentia 4 ." So important were these mines that
Pliny' .says there existed a Censorial! law relating to them, by
1 Strabo, 173. 8449, Didot. 2 Ibid 178 Didot>
' Th. Mommaen (Nordttnttkische Alfabetc, p. 250, seqq.) gives an admirable
summary of the metallurgical history of this region.
xxxui. 4. 78, extat lex censoria Victumularum aurifodiiiae, qua in
VWMUenn agro cavebatur, ne plus quinque M homiiium in opere publicani
Inherent.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 89
which it was provided that the capitalists who farmed the
mines were not to employ more than 5000 workmen.
There are also traces of ancient gold-washings on the
Cervo, on the Evenson, a small stream which comes down
from Monte Rosa, and which falls into the Doria at Bardo,
and likewise on the Doria itself from Bardo down to its junc-
tion with the Po. This latter region was anciently the territory
of the powerful and wealthy tribe of the Salassi. The traces I
speak of are beyond doubt the remains of the gold-workings
described by Strabo. " The territory of the Salassi contains gold
mines, which the Salassi, when aforetime they were strong, kept
possession of, just as they had likewise the control of the passes
(i.e. the Great and Little St Bernard). The river Durias
(Doria) gave them very great assistance in their gold washing,
and on this account dividing over many places the water into
many side-channels they used to empty completely the main
bed of the river.
" This was of service to them in their quest of gold, but
it did harm to the cultivators of the plains below, who were
being deprived of the means of irrigation, since the river was
riot able to water their land from the others having possession
of the stream in its upper course. From this cause there
were incessant wars between the two peoples. But when the
Romans got the mastery the Salassi were expelled from the
gold-mines and from their territory, but still being in pos-
session of the mountain, they used to sell the water to the
farmers who had hired the gold-mines, and with whom there
were constant quarrels because of the grasping conduct of the
contractors 1 ." This passage shows plainly that for a very long
period before the Roman Conquest the Salassi had not merely
worked the gold of their mountains, but had attained to very
considerable engineering skill in so doing. Further, in this
region have been found gold coins bearing the inscriptions
Prikou, etc. in one of the North Etruscan alphabets. These
coins were most probably struck by the Salassi, who were pro-
bably not Kelts, but a remnant of the ancient Rhaetian stock 2 .
1 Strabo, 205.
2 Th. Mommsen, Die nordetniskischcn Alfabete, p. 223; Pauli, Altitalische
Forschungen, p. 6.
.( rm: IUSTKIHUTION OF THE ox
Passing northunr.ls by the Pennine Alps, the regular road
in urn-it -lit .lavs from Italy into Switzerland, into the valley of
thr Rhone. thr >o-called Vallis Poenina, the modern Canton of
Valais, we come to the Helvetii, whom Posidonius of Apamc.-i,
thr iam.u> Stoic philosopher who travelled m Western Europe
a | H , ut 10090 B.C., describes as "wealthy in gold." This gold
was probably drrixvd from the same Alpine region. The Hel-
\rtii >tnick both silver coins in imitation of the silver coins of
MasKalia with the Lion type, and gold ones after the type of
Phili|.'> .statvrs. We may now pass on to Gaul Proper, many
peoplo of which wore famous for their wealth, especially the
An. mi. who have- loft their name in Auvergne, and the Tec-
tosages, whose chief town was Tolosa (Toulouse). The former,
whose original home was on the upper waters of the Loire,
pn.bablv had no gold in their native mountains (for if they had,
Strabo would hardly have failed to mention it), but in the
second century B.c. they became the most powerful state of
( '. -ni nil and Southern Gaul, for "they extended their dominion
\ 11 as far as Narbo (Narbonne) and the borders of the terri-
tory of Massalia (Marseilles), and they likewise had the control
11 the tribes as for as the Pyrenees, and as far as the Ocean
and the Rhino. And it is said that Luerius, the father of
BituitiiH, who fought against Maximus and Domitius (121 B.C.),
came to such a pitch of wealth and luxury that on one occasion,
making a display of his riches to his friends, he drove on a
waggon through a plain sowing broadcast gold and silver
coin, while his friends followed him gathering it up 1 ." It
was the Arverni who first 2 struck gold coins in imitation
of the gold staters of Philip II., a fact explained by the
passage just quoted, which shows that their empire extended
up t< th frontiers of the great Greek emporium of Massalia,
by which they would be brought into immediate contact with
Jill kiii'l k currency; furthermore their conquests put
th in in possession of those districts where we have direct
of the existence of gold fields 8 .
Bimbo. I'.tl. Hucher, I! Art Gauloi*, 19.
1 WY mtit then in all probability place the first striking of the Gaulish
limitation* of the Philippna about 150 H.C., rather than as is usually stated
boat 260 B.C.
ANJ) THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 91
Again Strabo says : " The Tcctosagcs adjoin the Pyrenees,
and to a slight extent they likewise touch upon the northern
side of the Cevennes (Ke/jL/j,va), and they occupy a land rich
in gold 1 ." It is no doubt with reference to the same region
that Strabo, whilst describing the Spanish gold-mines, remarks
incidentally that "the Gauls advance the claims of the mines
in their country, both those in the Cevenne mountain and
at the foot of the Pyrenees, themselves 2 ." Beyond doubt
from those mines came "the gold of Tolosa," those vast trea-
sures which were plundered by the Roman General Caepio.
They were said to have amounted to fifteen thousand talents
of unwrought gold and silver. There was a current story
that, for laying sacrilegious hands on the consecrated treasure,
misfortune dogged the steps of Caepio and his family, he him-
self dying in exile and his daughters, after lives of degradation,
coming to a shameful end. This was the account given by
one Timagenes, who also stated that the treasure of Toulouse
was part of the spoil taken by the Gauls from the temple of
Delphi in 279 B.C., the Tectosages as he alleged having formed
part of the invading host. This story doubtless is due to
the circumstance that one of the three tribes of Gauls who
settled in Asia Minor (the "foolish Galatians" of St Paul's
Epistle) was called by the same name as the Tectosages of Gaul
(the other two being called Trocmi and Tolistobogii). The
treasures were partly stored in shrines or sacred enclosures,
partly deposited in the sacred lakes. There can be little doubt
that Posidonius was right (as Strabo also thought) in considering
them ancient native offerings, not spoils of war. He put forward
the good argument that at the time of the attack on Delphi the
temple there was bare of treasure, as it had been plundered by
the Phocians in the Sacred War some seventy years before, that
any treasure that remained was distributed among many, and that
it was not likely that any of the Gauls returned to their own
land, since after their retreat from Greece they broke up arid
were scattered into various regions. This is confirmed by what
Diodorus tells us in a remarkable chapter : " The Kelts of the
interior have a singular peculiarity with respect to the sacred
1 Strabo, 187. 2 Strabo, 146.
:rj THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
enclosures of the gods. For in the temples and sacred en-
closures consecrated in their country gold is deposited in
quantities, and not one of the natives touches it owing to super-
>tition, although the Kelts are excessively avaricious 1 ." This
MIS to \i'l.u'n thumu^hly tin* real nature of the
treasures of Tolosa ; they were doubtless ancient votive offerings
under a taboo, not, as Timagenes imagined, some of the treasure
of Delphi, dedicated to appease the wrath of Apollo, with
additions from tlu- private resources of the Tectosages them-
selves. In the same chapter Diodorus says that "there is no
>il\er at all found in Gaul, but gold in abundance, of which the
natives get supplied without mining or hardship. The currents
of th> rivers, which are tortuous in their course, beat against
th- hanks formed by the adjacent mountains, and bursting away
considerable hills, fill them with gold dust. This the persons
who are engaged in the workings collect, and they grind or
lu-ak up the lumps which contain the gold dust. Then
having washed away the earthy part with water, they transfer
the gold to furnaces for smelting. In this fashion heaping up
of gold, not only the women but likewise the men
it for adornment. For they wear bracelets round
th-ir wrists and arms, and thick torques of solid gold round
thi-ir JM ck> and rings of remarkable size, and moreover breast-
plat-s of #ild." The statement regarding silver is not accu-
a> the more careful and trustworthy Strabo mentions
silver mines in various places in Gaul. Finally, in the land
"t tli'- Tarl><-lli, jin Iberian tribe of Aquitania, who dwelt in
tin- extreme south-west corner of Aquitania on the shore of
'!"' '''> " f Uix-ay. tin-re were extremely productive gold-mines.
- dug only to a shallow depth are found plates of
-li .it Bometamea require little refining, and the rest consists
I lu>t an. I nu^ets which involve but little working 2 ."
I have purposely gone somewhat minutely into the gold-
i- M ..f ancient (laul, and the story of the sacred treasures.
I think that no one who considers carefully the statements
"t P.M,l,,i,ii,s, Strabo, and Diodorus, can help regarding as
wholly inaccurate the conclusion of Schrader, based on the Irish
1 Diodoras, v. 27. a Strabo, 190.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 93
word or, that the Keltic peoples were not acquainted with gold
until the fourth century B.C. The sacred treasures point to
a ceremonial consecration of gold extending back through un-
told ages.
It must also be borne in mind that in the treasure of Tolosa
there was a good proportion of silver which probably came
from the silver mines mentioned by Strabo 1 as existing in the land
of the Ruteni and Gabales (TalBaXeis), two peoples of Aquitania,
whose names are represented by the modern Rovergue and
Gevaudan. As the working of silver is so much later than
that of gold, it is impossible to believe that if the Gauls in
Italy only learnt the use of gold in the 4th century B.C. we
should find consecrated treasures of silver, evidently of ancient
date, at Tolosa in the time of Servilius Caepio. It is also im-
portant to observe that it is among the Iberians of Aquitania,
not the Kelts, that we find silver mines being worked. The
former people were entirely free from Roman influence, and we
shall see shortly that there is the strongest evidence for believing
that the Iberians south of the Pyrenees were acquainted' not
merely with gold but with silver, centuries before ever Brennus
stood in the Roman Forum. But before we cross the Pyrenees,
we shall conclude our survey of the ancient gold fields of
Europe in the north-west by glancing briefly at Britain. When
Julius Caesar invaded the island he found the natives using
A. B.
FIG. 14. ANCIENT BRITISH COINS.
A. Coin of Iceni. B. Common type with plain obverse 2 .
gold not simply as ornaments, but in the shape of coins, for he
says, "They have great numbers of cattle, they use for money
1 Strabo, 191.
2 Both are from coins in my own possession; A found near Mildenhall
(Suffolk) in 1884, cf. Dr Evans, Ancient British Coins, PI. xxm. 4; B at Potton
in Bedfordshire, 1888 ; cf. op. cit. PI. B. 8.
!1 THK DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
rithrr hn.nxc, or coins of gold, or rods of iron of a fixed
standard of weight. Tin is produced there in the inland, iron
in the coast districts, but the supply of the latter is scanty ; the
copjx r which they use is imported 1 ." Caesar's statement is
!u II v continued by the existence of ancient British coins, chiefly
, -Id and copper; although silver coins are likewise found,
they are for the most part imitations of the types of Roman
d. nani, whilst the gold are the descendants of the Philippus,
from which the Gauls got their chief gold type. All the
lins.did not employ coins, but only the Belgic tribes in the
south and east, who had crossed over at a comparatively late
|M-riod. About a century before our era a king of the Suessiones
(Soissvns) by name Divitiacus ruled over all Northern France
and a large part of Britain*. Coins similar in type and weight
are found on both sides of the Channel, indeed the French
MumiMn.it ists claim them as struck in Gaul, whilst their English
brethren have maintained that they are of British origin. Those
found in Kent are regarded by Dr Evans, in his Coins of the
Ancient Britons, as the prototypes of the whole British series.
Hi nee we may infer that the Belgic invaders brought the
Philippus type of coin into Britain, as it is most probable that
thi- timr when the same coins were in circulation on both sides
i- Straits of Dover corresponds with the period when
hivitiacus held sway on both sides of the sea 3 . Strabo sub-
Htantiates Caesar's account; "It (Britain) produces wheat and
cattlf. and #ld and silver and iron. These are exported from
it, al.so hidi-s and slaves and good hunting dogs. But the
K-lts employ even for their wars these, and their own native
dogs 4 ."
1 Caesar, J?. 0. v. 12, pccorura magnus numerus. Utuntur aut aere aut
nn mm i aureifl ant taleia ferreia ad certum pondus examinatis pro nummo.
Naacitnr ibi plumbum album in mediterraneis regionibus, maritimis ferrum,
ed eiuii exigua eat copia, acre ntuntur importato.
1 Caeaar, H. 0. ii. 4.
f W. Ridgeway, "The Greek Trade Routes to Britain" (Folklore, March
, .-.,.
4 Strabo, 199, leaves out tin here although he mentions it when quoting from
Hi roaflon is that after the tin-mines of Northern Spain had
by Pnblias Craaans, fWaar'* lieutenant, tho British tin trade
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 95
There can therefore be no doubt that gold was found in
Britain although we are not told in what particular part.
Gold is still found in Wales and in several parts of Scotland,
although not in sufficient quantity to be worth working. Two
observations remain to be made on the statements of Caesar
and Strabo. Caesar tells us definitely that whilst they used
copper as money, they had to import that metal. He omits
all mention of silver, whilst Strabo, writing half-a- century
later, speaks of it as a British product. I have remarked
already that the silver coins of the Britons are all late, and
exhibit as a rule Roman influence. It would therefore seem as
if the working of silver had developed some time after Caesar's
invasions. Thus once more we have an instance of gold in full
use long before silver. But what is still more important, though
the Britons are in the bronze period and are actually using
copper money, they have to import that metal, although copper
is actually found native in Cornwall. It still remained un-
discovered in Strabo's time to judge by his silence, but as he
is equally silent about tin, which was known long before, we
cannot press the argument ex silentio. However, it is of great
importance to find a people who possess gold and copper in a
native state, already working the gold long before they have even
discovered the copper. This is completely in harmony with
what we have already seen in the case of the Scythians and
Arabs of the Red Sea coasts. At a later stage we shall have to
notice the rods or bars of iron used as currency by the Britons
in connection with a similar practice elsewhere.
The writers of the classical age have left us no information
respecting Ireland save that the people practised polyandry,
and ate each other 1 . Nevertheless there is abundant evidence
to show that there were large deposits of gold on the east side
of Ireland, in the Wicklow Mountains, and that the natives from
a very early period wrought it into ornaments of various kinds.
The vast quantity of gold ornaments to be seen in the Museum
of the Royal Irish Academy is a proof of its abundance.
We shall now return to Aquitania and the Bay of Biscay,
from which we digressed to Britain, and coming into Northern
1 Strabo, page 201.
I,; THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
Spain enter that region which was to the Greek of the sixth
and tiflh tvnturies B.C. what the Spanish Main was to the
}ioans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It
aeenis ln-vond doubt that whni the Phoenicians first reached the
Spanish coasts the natives were fully acquainted with both gold
and Mlvrr. Tradition told how the Phoenicians found the na-
IU-rian f-.-ding (heir horses from mangers made of silver,
and that afh-r having filled every available portion of their
ship with fivight of treasure, they replaced their anchors by
oth.-r- mad.- of silver. Colaeus of Samos in the eighth cen-
turv nr. had been the first of all Greeks to reach Tartessus,
th. " Tarshish of Holy writ, having been carried away by a storm
wh.-n on a voyage to Egypt, and driven right through the
ta oJ (iibraltar, "under some guiding providence," says
II. r. * I. -til- 1 : "for this trading town was in those days a virgin
port" (i.e. unfivipiented by merchants). "The Samians in con-
- Mjiieiice made a profit by their return freight, a profit greater
than any Greeks had ever made before, except Sostratus, son
of Laodamas, of Egina, with whom no one else can compare."
ii the tenth part of their gains, amounting to six talents,
the Samians made a brazen vessel. At a later period the
IMi.x-u.ans made great profit by trade with Iberia, which at
that time meant East Spain as opposed to Tartessus, as well as
with the Tartessians. The king of this people, by name
Arganthonius, who reigned over them for eighty years, and
attain.-d to the patriarchal age of one hundred and twenty,
became such a friend of the Phocaeans that he invited them
to settle in his land, perhaps through motives of policy, wishing
to have their support against the Phoenicians of Gadeira, or
Qades (Cadiz), the most ancient of all the daughter cities of
Tyre, When he did not succeed in persuading the Phocaeans,
afterwards having learned from them of the great growth of the
power of the Medes, he gave them treasure to enable them to
v th.-ir city with the strong wall by means of which they
to withstand Harpagus, the general of Cyrus, until they
I at inched their ships, and embarked their wives and children,
1 rv. 151.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 97
with that firm resolution to be free, which has made their name
memorable through the ages 1 .
The evidence of these passages is sufficient to show that
already in the seventh century B.C., not simply the gold, but
likewise the silver, of the Spanish peninsula was known to and
wrought by the Iberians, the oldest race of whom written
history affords any traces in the west of Europe.
We shall now deal with the actual localities and mines
described for us by the ancient writers. Strabo once more is
our chief helper: he seems as usual for all statements about the
mines of the west to have drawn his information chiefly from
Posidonius, although he likewise makes use of Polybius and
others. " Posidonius averred that in the country of the Artabri,
who are the most remote people in Lusitania towards the north
and west [occupying the present province of Galicia], the earth
crops out in silver, tin and white gold (for the gold is mixed with
silver), and that the rivers carry down this earth, and that the
women scrape it up with hoes and wash it in sieves into a box 2 ."
Here we have a description of the method employed by the
natives in the remote regions of the north-west of Spain about
100 B.C., before Roman influences had time to affect them, and
we may not unreasonably infer from it that the same process
was universal amongst the Iberians and Celtiberians of Spain.
In his general description of Spain Strabo declares that
nowhere in the world down to his day was such plenty of
gold, silver, copper and iron to be found as in Turdetania, the
district named after the Turdetani, one of the two great tribes
into which the Turti were divided [from the name of Turti it is
probable that Tartessus, the Greek name for this region, as
also for the Baetis (Guadalquivir), and also the Phoenician
Tarshish were formed]. " Not merely is the gold got by mining
but it is swept up. The rivers and torrents carry down the
golden sand, which in many localities is likewise to be found in
places where there is no water, but there it is invisible, but
in those that water flows over the gold dust gleams out.
And flushing with water that has to be fetched the arid spots,
they make the gold dust glitter, and by digging wells and by
1 Herodotus, i. 1634. 2 Strabo, 147.
R. 7
98 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
devising other means they get out the gold by washing the
sand, and what are called gold-washings are now more numerous
than the gold diggings. But they say that in the gold dust
are f.iind' nuggets sometimes even half a pound in weight
(Xoix? rnAi\iTpuua<:) which they term palae, which need but
iniiig, and they say likewise that when stones are split
little nuggets like teats are discovered, and when the gold is
.-d and purified with a kind of earth which contains alum
and vitriol, the residuum is electrum. When this residuum,
which consists of a mixture of gold and silver, is again refined,
tin- silver is burnt away and the gold remains. But the gold is
very fusible, and on this account it is melted with chaff rather
than with coal, because the flame being gentle acts moderately
ii|Min a metal which is yielding and easily fused, whereas the
charcoal causes excessive waste by melting it too much by its
violence, and detracting from it. In the river-beds the sand
is swept up and then washed in troughs beside the river ; or
else a well is dug, and the earth that is brought up out of it is
washed. They make the furnaces for the silver high, that the
smoke from the ore may be carried up into the air: for it is
noisome and pestilential 1 ." Then he adds that "some of the
copper works are called gold mines, from which people infer
that gold was formerly dug from them. Posidonius, when prais-
ing the number and excellence of the mines, refrains from none
of his wonted rhetoric, but warms up with hyperboles, for he
says he cannot doubt the truth of the story that once on a
time when the woods caught fire, the earth having been melted,
inasmuch as it was permeated with silver and gold, boiled out
"ii to the surface over the whole mountain, and that a whole
hill was a mass of money heaped up by the bounteous hand of
fortune. And to speak generally (he says) any one who saw
-<i regions would say that they were Nature's perennial store
i nbers or Sovereignty's inexhaustible treasure house. For
merely the surface but the under-soil is rich (ir\ovaLa
inr6tr\ovTos) t and with those people it is not Hades who dwells
in the region beneath the earth, but Pluto (UXovrwv). So
pnk )) in a fine figure as though he himself too were drawing
1 Strabo, 146.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 99
from a mine his diction in copious store. There was a saying
of Phalereus in reference to the eagerness of the miners of
Laurium in Attica, that they dug as continuously and earnestly
as if they expected to drag up Pluto himself. This saying Posi-
donius quotes anent the energy and vigour of those who worked
the Spanish mines, for they cut deep and winding galleries, and
by means of 'Egyptian pumps' combated the springs which
burst into the workings 1 ."
So rich were the silver mines of New Carthage (Cartagena)
that in the time of Polybius (140 B.C.) 40,000 men were
employed in working them for the Roman State, and the daily
out-put was reckoned at 25,000 drachms, or roughly speaking
about 3,000 ounces Troy.
Diodorus Siculus 2 gives an account of mines and mining in
Spain, which, as it is clearly derived from the same passage of
Posidonius as the account of Strabo, is worth quoting, especially
as it gives probably in extenso what Strabo has summarized.
For although it more particularly refers to the discovery of
silver mines, yet it is very relevant to our subject, since silver
invariably is later in point of discovery than gold ; thus if we
can fix at an early period an inferior limit for the knowledge of
silver in Spain, we may with confidence fix the inferior limit for
the knowledge of gold at a still earlier epoch. Diodorus 'has
been describing the range of the Pyrenees, which like all the
early geographers he represents as running north and south,
and thus proceeds : " Since there are on them (the Pyrenees)
many forests dense with trees, they say that in ancient times
the whole mountain region was completely burned by some
shepherds having cast away a firebrand. Then since the fire
kept burning on for many days continuously, the surface of the
earth was burned and the mountains from the circumstance
were called Pyrenaean (Tluprjvaia, scorched), and the surface of
the burnt region flowed with much silver, and since the natural
ore had been smelted, there ensued many lava-like streams of
pure silver. But inasmuch as the natives did not understand
the use of it, the Phoenicians trading with them, and having
learned about the occurrence, bought the silver for some small
1 Strabo, 146 sq. 2 Diodorus, v. 35.
72
|00 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
return in nth.-r waivs ; accordingly the Phoenicians by convey-
it to Greece and to Asia and all the rest of the world
acquired great wealth. And so covetous were the merchants
that though their ships were fully freighted, when much silver
still remained over they cut out the lead that was in their
anchors and replaced it with silver. The Phoenicians by means
of such trade increased greatly and sent out many colonies,
some to Sicily and the adjacent islands, others to Libya, others
again to Sardinia and Spain. But many years afterwards the
S|Nini:inls. having become acquainted with the peculiarities of
siKvr, started remarkable mines. Wherefore as they prepared
excellent silver in very great quantities they used to get
great revenues." Diodorus then gives a detailed account of the
working of the shafts and winding galleries which followed the
course of the veins of gold and silver, the difficulties caused
by the bursting in of springs and subterranean streams, and
the ways in which the miners overcame this latter obstruction
by means of the Egyptian pumps. But Diodorus, as a patriotic
Sicilian, takes care to tell his reader that this pump was in-
vented by Archimedes, the famous mathematician of Syracuse,
when, in the course of his travels, he paid a visit to Egypt.
Finally, he gives a short but graphic picture of the sufferings
of the wretched slaves who were bought wholesale by the mine
MWIHTS and endured incredible miseries until death, the only
In end they had to look to, came to end their sufferings. Strabo,
the stoic, is silent on this point, which here, as in Egypt, so
_:ly moved the heart of Diodorus.
The story of the discovery of silver by the burning of the
wood- at first savours of the mythical, but there is really good
reason for believing that there is in it a solid nucleus of truth.
Tin wus unknown in Sumatra until in 1710 1 it was discovered
h\ the accidental burning down of a house (an incident which
recall* Charles Lamb's delightful account of the discovery of
It i- highly probable that it was owing to some
accident that men first became acquainted with silver, as
that metal is rarely if ever found native. It may well be there-
in- that mankind has l.-arned the art of smelting metalliferous
1 Maradcn'H History of Sumntrn, p. 172.
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 101
ore from observing the results of some such conflagration as
that described by Posidonius.
Finally, we shall turn to Pliny the Elder for a moment.
That industrious collector has given us a minute account of the
various methods of mining carried on in Spain in his time, but
as that is beside our present purpose I shall only quote a short
passage, in which we get some interesting technical expressions
relating to gold-mining. After detailing the method of washing
soil containing gold by bringing streams of water to bear on it,
just as we found the Salassi doing in the valley of the Doria, by
which process he says 20,000 Ibs. of gold were annually obtained
in Asturia, Gallaecia, and Lusitania, he proceeds : "Gold obtained
by shafting (arrugia) does not require refining, but is straight-
way pure. Nuggets of it are found in this way ; likewise in pits
nuggets are found exceeding ten pounds each. The Spaniards
call them palacrae, others palacranae. The same people term
the gold dust balux 1 " Here then we have an interesting group
of technical terms, arrugia, palacra or palacrana and balux.
The latter forms at once remind us of Strabo's palae (trd\ai),
and we can have little doubt that palacra and pala are simply
dialectic variants, just as palacrana evidently was considered
by Pliny to be a bye-form of palacra. Corssen has sought to
find a Latin etymology for arrugia, connecting it with runco,
ruga, but it is hardly possible to regard it as otherwise than
Spanish, especially as this appears to be the only place where it
is found. Balux (also baluca) is undoubtedly a native Iberian
term. On Schrader's principles we might at once argue that as
the technical words for gold-mining and for the different kinds
of gold are native Spanish words, it is beyond doubt that the
Spaniards were acquainted with gold and knew the art of
working it before any foreign traders brought that metal to
them. Without dogmatizing in this fashion and keeping to
1 Pliny, H. N. xxxin. 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 parties d'or), Ital. paluola, Span.
palazuola, all used technically of gold, be derived from pala, the old technical
term, rather than from palea, chaff ?
102 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX
our more cautious principles we may say that the evidence of
those wonU is strongly in favour of such a conclusion, unless
a Semitic origin be sought for those tenns, which is highly
improbable. For we know beyond doubt that the Spanish
mines were worked for centuries before ever a Roman soldier
passed the Ebro. Unless then the technical terms were intro-
duced by the Greeks (which they were not, as Strabo considers
pala a native word) or by the Phoenicians, they are ancient
:c terms connected with gold from its first discovery. We
saw that in the Red Sea the first form in which gold was
utilized by the Arabs was that of nuggets used as rude beads.
The palae of the Iberians may represent the same period of
development as well as the same kind of gold. From the tradi-
ti.ms given us by the ancient writers there can be little doubt
that the art of mining silver was of extremely ancient date in
Spain. The founding of Gadeira (Cadiz) is placed at 1100 B.C.
and the tradition of Posidonius regards the Phoenician colonies
in the west as long posterior to their trading for silver with
the nide natives. If this tradition could be relied on, silver
must have been known to the Spaniards in the twelfth century
B.C. And there is no reason to doubt the story. At Mycenae
gold and silver were found along with Baltic amber. The two
t>rmer prove that amongst the civilized races around the Aegean
the precious metals were abundantly used, the latter that the
trade routes across Europe from the Baltic and North Sea to
the Adriatic were already in use. Accordingly there is no
improbability in the supposition that in the twelfth century B.C.
tin- shipmen of Tyre traded for silver to North Eastern Spain
as well as to Northern Italy for amber. If the knowledge of
-ii\er came so early in Spain, much earlier must that of gold
have heen.
I. UN M.,\V t;ike a general survey of the region over which
w. have travelled. In the far east we had both the literary
of the Rig Veda and the evidence of the traditions and
legends handed down by the historians to show that well back
in the second millennium B.C. the gold deposits of Thibet were
known and worked. Silver is as yet unknown to the people of
Rig V,-.la. Again in the region of the Altai and Oural
AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD. 103
mountains, the tale of the "Arimaspian pursued by a griffin"
pointed to great antiquity for gold-mining in this district ; the
barbarous Massagetae 1 , who occupied the modern Mongolia and
Sangaria, were rich in gold ; and to the west the Scythians,
who used neither silver nor copper, had abundant store of gold.
These tribes stretched right across Russia until they touched on
the west the Getae and the other tribes of the great Thracian
stock. Gold must early have been known throughout all Thrace.
Greek tradition and history unite in demonstrating the great
antiquity of the first Phoenician gold-seeking in Thasos and on
the mainland. The evidence in Greece itself puts it beyond
doubt that gold was in use 1500 years B.C. The Balkan Penin-
sula was occupied on the north-west by Illyrian tribes, some
of whom, like the Dardani, dwelt interspersed among the
Thracian clans. The Illyrians inhabited all the northern end
of the Adriatic, and originally much of the east side of all
Italy, although under the pressure of the Umbrians and Kelts
they had been almost completely crushed out of the Italian
Peninsula, only maintaining themselves in the extreme south-
east where the Messapians remained independent of both
Italian and Greek alike. The Keltic tribes were their neigh-
bours in Noricum, where they had succeeded the ancient Rhae-
tian stock, the survivors of which, like the Salassi, had managed
to maintain themselves in the fastnesses of the Alps. We found
strong evidence that these Rhaetians must long have known
the art of working gold, for they had devised elaborate pieces of
engineering work for the purpose of developing their gold fields ;
added to this was the fact that gold as an ornament seems to
have been used by the inhabitants of the Swiss lake dwellings
in the neolithic age. The Kelts must have been in contact
with this people for a considerable time before they ever invaded
Italy ; again in Spain we found every token of great antiquity
in the working of gold and silver. Again, before they invaded
Italy, the Kelts must have been long in contact with the
Iberians of what in later days was Aquitania, for the Keltic
conquest of Northern Spain can hardly be placed later than in
the fifth century B.C., and it is most probable that that con-
1 Herod, iv. 11.
104 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX, ETC.
quest only took place after long and stubborn struggles. The
Krlte too in Southern Gaul must have come in contact with
the Ligyes (or Ligurians), whose territory at one time extended
from the Iberus (Ebro) along the coast of the Mediterranean
to the frontiers of Etruria. The Ligurians had been in touch
with the Iberians on their western border; in fact the two
races had blended to a considerable degree, and since they had
also had communication with Etruscans, Phoenicians and Greeks
( \\\ t h the last from at least 600 B.C., when Massilia was founded
in their country), it is impossible to suppose that this people
could have remained ignorant of the use of gold. The Kelts
thus at i-vi-ry point along their southern front, as they advanced,
must have been for centuries in full knowledge of gold before
tht v ever entered Rome. Add to this the fact that when
entered Italy they appear to have brought nothing but
thi-ir gold ornaments and their cattle, and that in Gaul it had
been the habit to dedicate great piles of the precious metal in
tli sacred precincts of their divinities.
CHAPTER IV.
PRIMAEVAL TRADE ROUTES.
THERE can be little doubt that from the extreme West of
Europe to Northern India, or rather to China and the Pacific
shore, there was complete intercourse in the way of trade, from
the most remote epochs. In the lake dwellings of Switzerland
are found implements of Jade, a stone which is not found at
any spot in Europe; in fact the nearest point from which the
material was fetched must have been Eastern Turkestan on the
borders of China 1 . If in neolithic days such communication
1 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 gene-
rally 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 ivai, 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
icap or wai wai. " The intermediaries (in the purchase of a canoe) are paid
10t) PRIMAEVAL TRADE ROUTES.
existed between Further Asia and Western Europe, it is not
.unreasonable to suppose that when gold, an article existing
in almost every country across the two continents, came into
use, a like facility of intercourse must have existed. In one of
tin- passages of Herodotus which I have given above we had
explicit information respecting a trade route extending from
the Greek factories on the northern shores of the Black
Sea through the medium of the Scythians right away to the
remote region of the Altai. On the other hand there is good
evidence for the existence of a great trade route from the Black
Sea westward up the valley of the Danube, and so reaching the
head of the Adriatic ; and again, there is equally good reason for
l> 1 irving that from the mouth of the Po there ran a similar
route across Northern Italy through Liguria and Narbonese
Gaul and into Spain. In reference to the first of these routes
nay quote a tradition preserved in the Book of Wonderful
Stories before alluded to. It is there stated that once on a time
travellers who had \wyaged up the Danube finally by a branch
of that river which flowed into the Adriatic made their way
into that Sea. It is there alleged 1 that "there is a mountain
called Delphium between Mentorice and Istriana, which has
a lofty peak. Whenever the Mentpres who dwell on the
Adriatic mount this crest, they see, as it appears, the ships
which are sailing into the Pontus (Black Sea). And there is
likewise a certain spot in the intervening region in which,
\\hen a common mart is held, Lesbian, Chian and Thasian wares
set out for sale by the merchants who come up from the
Black Sea, and Corcyraean wine jars by those who come up
tV'.m the Adriatic. They say likewise that the Ister, taking its
in what are called the Hercynian forests, divides in twain,
ami .li- ml.ogues by one branch into the Black Sea, and by the
r into the Adriatic. And we have seen a proof of this not
only in mod, ni times, but likewise still more so in antiquity,
as to how the regions there are easy of navigation (reading
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. 341).
1 lArutotleJ De Writ Aiucult. 1045 (839* 34 seqq.).
PRIMAEVAL TRADE ROUTES. 107
For the story goes that Jason sailed in by the
Cyanean Rocks, but sailed out from the Black Sea by the Ister."
The story of the meeting between the traders from the
Black Sea and Adriatic has every mark of probability, whilst we
are possibly justified in regarding the legend of Jason as evi-
dence that for long ages the Greeks knew that up the valley
of the Danube traders from the Pontus made their way.
Doubtless too it was with a view to tapping the trade of this
very route that the trading factories like Istropolis were founded
on the Danube.
The branch of the Danube flowing into the Adriatic can
only mean that travellers from the Danube by passing up one
of its tributaries would reach a point from which it was but a
short journey to the Adriatic shore. But a famous story in
Herodotus will yield us more efficient aid. To the Greeks of
the fifth century B.C. the extreme north was represented by the
land of those happy beings the Hyperboreans, just as the
furthest south was represented by the sources of the Nile.
Thus Pindar sings : " Countless broad paths of glorious exploits
have been cut out one after another beyond Nile's fountains
and through the land of the Hyperboreans 1 ."
Some of the oldest legends of the young world's prime cluster
around this shadowy region. Herakles had wandered there in
quest of the hind of the golden horns, consecrated to Artemis
Orthosia by Taygeta 2 ; "In quest of her he likewise beheld that
land behind the chilling north wind; there he stood and mar-
velled at the trees." The judge at the Olympic festival placed
round the locks of the victor " the dark green adornment of the
olive, which in days of yore Amphitryon's son had brought from
the shady sources of the Ister, a most glorious memorial of the
contests at Olympia, when he had won over by word the
Hyperborean folk that are the henchmen of Apollo 3 ." The hero
Perseus too had reached that land where no ordinary mortal
could find his way. " Neither in ships nor yet on foot wouldst
1 Find. Isth. v. 22 sq. fivpiat 5' tpywv KaKuv r^r^vQ' 1 KaT6/j.Tredoi ev
K\V0oi | /ecu irepav NdXoio trayav KOL Si' '
2 01. in. 31 sq.
3 01. in. 13sqq.
108 PRIMAEVAL TRADE ROUTES.
thou find out the marvellous ways to the assembly of the Hyper-
boreans, but once on a time did the chieftain Perseus enter
thi-ir houses and feast, having come upon them as they were
sacrificing glorious hecatombs of asses to the god. Now
Apollo takes continuous and especial delight in their ban-
quets and hymns of praise, and he laughs as he beholds the
rampant lewdness of the beasts 1 ."
Herodotus felt puzzled where to place the Hyperboreans;
r concerning Hyperborean men neither the Scythians say
anything to the point nor any other of those that dwell in this
region, save the Issedones. But as I think, not even do they say
anything to the point ; for in that case the Scythians too would
have told it, as they tell about the one-eyed people" (the
Arimaspians*). "But a certain Aristeas, the son of Caystrobius,
a man of Proconnesus, alleged in a poem that under the in-
fluence of divine afflatus he had reached the Issedones, and that
beyond them dwelt the Arimaspians who have but one eye, and
that beyond these are the gold-guarding griffins, and beyond
tin -so the Hyperboreans, stretching to the sea 8 ." But where
I'indarand Herodotus hesitated, the priest of Apollo at Delos
!"<! in with an explicit statement of that "marvellous road"
which Pindar said no one could find by sea or land. Accordingly
1 1 -Klotus has to resort to the men of Delos for his information
about the Hyperboreans: "Much the longest account of them
tea by men of Delos, who have alleged that sacred objects
Ixnunl up in \v beaten straw are brought from the Hyperboreans
to the Scythians, and that the Scythians receive them and pass
tin -m on to their neighbours upon the west, who continue to
pan them on until at last they reach the Adriatic, and from
thence they are sent on southwards. First of the Greeks do the
MM n ..t Dodona receive them, and from them they travel down
to the Melian Gulf and cross over to Euboea, and city sends
them on to city as far as Carystus. The Carystians take them
t 'IVnos without stopping at Andros; and the Tenians
convey them to Delos." Then he adds a further story that on
first occasion the Hyperboreans sent two maidens, Hype-
1 I'in.l. /y/i. x. 29*70. * Herod, iv. 32.
Herod, iv. 18.
PRIMAEVAL TRADE ROUTES. 109
roche 7 and Laodice, with five male protectors, but as they died
at Delos, and returned home no more, they for this reason
"bring to their borders the sacred objects packed up in wheaten
straw and lay a solemn injunction on their neighbours, bidding
them send them forward to another nation, and the men say
that being forwarded in this fashion they arrive at Delos 1 ."
From the various passages quoted we may draw the probable
conclusion that there was a well-defined trade route existing
for untold ages between the heart of Asia, the valley of the
Danube and the head of the Adriatic. The nameless poets who
framed the legends of Herakles and his wanderings would
certainly make the hero travel by the routes where both in
their own time and from tradition they knew of the existence
of highways from nation to nation. Thus in his journey to the
Hyperboreans Herakles is represented as having visited the
shady forests of the Danube, which points to the same road as
that assigned to the Hyperborean maidens by the Delian tale.
Finally it may not be farfetched to conjecture that the sacrifice
of hecatombs of asses may be taken as evidence that the
Hyperborean legend points to a people of Central Asia, which
is the natural habitat of the wild ass. However, as it seems
that there was an annual sacrifice of asses to Apollo at Delphi 2 ,
we must be careful not to lay much stress on this argument,
although it is quite possible that a vague knowledge of a far-off
region where asses abounded and were sacrificed may have
given the Greeks the idea that the Hyperboreans were wor-
shippers of their own god Apollo, at whose altar like offerings
were made.
Having seen some reasons for believing that before the
beginning of history there was a well-defined route from Central
and perhaps Further Asia across Southern Russia to the valley
of the Danube, and then by one of the valleys of its tributaries
to within a short distance of the Adriatic, whence after crossing
the watershed it reached the head of that sea, we are now
in a position to enquire whether we have similar evidence for the
further continuance towards the west of this highroad of nations.
1 Herod, iv. 33.
2 Boeckh, Corp. Inscr. Graec. Vol. i. p. 807.
HO PRIMAEVAL TRADE ROUTES.
We have had occasion already to remark that the legends of
the Voyage of the Argo in quest of the Golden Fleece, and the
journeyings of Herakles and such-like stories, really represent the
mrlirst knowledge of the regions which lay far away to the east
HIM! nort h- \\vst . There is no tale of the hero Herakles more famous
than that of his travelling to the very marge of Ocean, where in
thr Pillars of Hercules he left an imperishable record of his
wayfaring for the men of aftertime. His object, so goes the
v. was the capture of the famous kine of the giant Geryon
who dwelt in the island of Erythia, in after years the site of
Gaddir, or Gadeira as the Greeks called it, the Gades of the
Romans, and the modern Cadiz. Many vague stories relating
to the early ethnology of Western Europe and Northern Africa
cycle round this expedition 1 . But for pur present purpose it is
only the fabled route by which he went with which we are
concerned. As might naturally be expected that part of Italy
with which the Greeks seem first to have become acquainted
was the district lying in the Adriatic around the mouths of the
Po (Eridanus). The reason why they came thither is not far to
seek. They doubtless simply followed the example of the
Phoenicians who probably had long traded thither to obtain
both the highly prized golden amber from the Baltic, and the
n-d amber of Liguria, called from that region Lingurium, or
li'i'irinii. ,-i name for which the Greeks found a strange ety-
mology which connected it with the lynx*. According to
II- I- * lotus, "the Phocaeans were the first of the Greeks who
made long voyages and discovered Adria, Tyrsenia (Etruria),
Iberia and Tartessus" (i. 163). The trade routes to the amber
coasts of the north have long been well known ; they passed over
the Alps, crossed the Danube at Passau, Linz or Presburg, and
proceeded then either to Samland or to the vicinity of Jutland 3 .
As these northern routes crossed that which came up the valley
1 Cf. Ballast, Jug. 18.
* They derived it from \6y and ovpov. The difference in colour between
the Baltic and Ligurian amber found an easy explanation, the latter was regarded
an the solidified urine of the female lynx, the former of the male animal. Pliny,
//. .V. xxxui. 2,884.
Cf. Boyd Dawkins, l-:,,rly Mun in llritain, 466. Von Sadowski, Die
n*itfhtr(u,m fa Griechen und Rftmer, p. 15.
PRIMAEVAL TRADE ROUTES. Ill
of the Danube, we see that by this route there was complete
communication between the Black Sea and the Adriatic. In
later times we know that active trade was carried on with all
Northern Italy from Marseilles along by the Ligurian shore, for
the coinage of Massalia, and the barbarous imitations of it struck
FIG. 15. Barbarous imitation of Drachm of Massalia.
by the peoples of what was afterwards known as Cisalpine
Gaul, formed the currency of that region until the Roman
Conquest. But once more the Book of Wonderful Stories comes
to our aid : " They say that from Italy into Keltike, and the
land of the Keltoligyes and Iberians, there is a certain road
called that of Herakles, by which if any journey, whether
Greek or native, he is protected by those who dwell along it,
that he may suffer no wrong. For those in whose vicinity the
wrong is done have to pay the penalty." Here we have a clear
instance of a well-defined caravan route, connected by Greek
tradition with the name of Herakles, which was placed under a
kind of taboo, so that all travellers could use it with impunity.
We may then conclude that as from Central Asia there was un-
broken communication with Northern Italy, so likewise from
Northern Italy there was from remote ages a definite trade
route into Gaul and Spain, and that these routes were in turns
connected with the great routes which lead from the Mediter-
ranean to the Baltic and North Sea.
CHAPTER V.
THE ART OF WEIGHING WAS FIRST EMPLOYED FOR GOLD.
WE have seen in the preceding pages that from the Atlantic
seaboard right across into Further Asia the ox was universally
spread, and from a period long before the daybreak of history
alivudy formed the chief element of property amongst the
various races of mankind which occupied that wide region. We
have likewise seen that gold was very equally distributed over
the same area, being ready to hand in the still unexhausted
deposits in the sands of rivers. And lastly we have seen that
tn.in the most remote times there was complete communication
tor purposes of trade between the various stocks. For whilst
I..-..J.I.-N in the pastoral and nomad stage do not dwell together
in large communities they nevertheless are within touch of one
another. No better illustration of this can be found than the
n-latinns between Abraham and Lot as set forth in Genesis
(xiii. 5 sqq.): "And Lot also, which went with A)*ram, had
flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to
bear them, that they might dwell together : for their substance
was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there
was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the
herdmen of Lot's cattle : and the Canaanite and the Perizzite
dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let
there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and
between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we be brethren.
I not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray
thee, iron i me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go
to the right : or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will
go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the
plain of .J.nlan, that it was well watered every where, before
THE ART OF WEIGHING WAS FIRST EMPLOYED FOR GOLD. 113
the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden
of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto
Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot
journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from
the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot
dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward
Sodom." But although, from the necessity of finding sufficient
pasturage for their flocks and herds, they had parted from one
another, they remained within touch. For we find that no
sooner had Lot and his possessions been carried away by
Chedorlaomer and his confederates, after the overthrow of the
kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, than Abraham at once hears of
his mishap and hastens to his rescue (xiv. 13 sqq.).
The picture here given may be taken as holding good for a
large part of Asia and Europe. There is a great intermingling
of various races and untrammeled intercourse between the
various communities. Thus we find that Abraham was able to
journey from Haran into Egypt with his flocks and herds and
suffered harm or hindrance of no man. Nay, a still stronger
proof of the safety and freedom of intercourse is that when
Abraham entered Egypt, although afraid that if it were known
that Sarah was his wife the Egyptians might murder him, yet
he had no fear that they would take her away by force if she
was supposed to be his sister. Thus, when his princes told
Pharaoh that the Hebrew woman was fair to look on, though
the king commanded her to be taken into his house, he did
not act with high-handed violence against the stranger, but
" he entreated Abram well for her sake : and he had sheep,
and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and
she asses, and camels." And when Pharaoh discovered that she
was really Abraham's wife, although on account of Abraham's
mendacity the Lord had " plagued Pharaoh and his house with
great plagues because of Abraham's wife," he did not, as he might
very justly have done, take a summary vengeance upon him,
" he commanded his men concerning him : and they sent him
away, and his wife, and all that he had." (Gen. xii. 12 20.)
Such then being the general distribution of cattle and
sheep, and such again the distribution of gold, we can have
R. 8
H 4 THE ART OF WEIGHING
lit t U- hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the ox, which
j,., l( v to show was the chief unit of value in all
those countries, had the same value throughout, and in like
manner that gold would have almost the same value over all
thr an-a in which we have shown that it was so impartially
a portioned out by Nature. From this it follows that if the
unit of gold was fixed upon the older unit, the ox, the same
quantity of gold would be found serving as the metallic unit
throughout the same wide area.
If then it can be proved that throughout the area in
\\hich those weight standards arose from which all the known
systems of the ancient, mediaeval, and modern world were de-
rived, the same gold-unit is found everywhere, and that wher-
evidence is to hand, this unit is regarded as equal in value
to a cow or ox, the truth of our hypothesis will have been
demonstrated. For it would be impossible that such an oc-
currence should be a mere coincidence if found repeated in
different areas. Furthermore, if it can be shown that in cases
at a comparatively late historical period peoples who were
borrowing a ready-made metallic system from more civilized
neighbours, have found it impossible to do so without ad-
justing or equating such metallic standard to their own unit of
barter, we may infer a fortiori that it would have been im-
possible for any people to have framed a metallic unit for the
first time for themselves without any reference to the unit of
barter. But as we have already proved that the unit of barter
is in every case earlier in existence than even the very know-
ledge of the precious metals, it follows irresistibly that the
metallic unit is based on the unit of barter. We have also
given reasons for believing that gold was the first of the metals
known to primitive man, but as yet we have not proved that
the metals are the first objects to be weighed. If this can
be proved, and if furthermore it can be proved that before silver
or copper or iron were yet weighed, gold has been weighed by
that standard, which we find universal in later times, we have
Mill more closely narrowed down our argument and put it
beyond all reasonable doubt that weighing was first invented
for traffic in gold, and since the weight-unit of gold is found
WAS FIRST EMPLOYED FOR GOLD. 115
regularly to be the value of a cow or ox, the conclusion must
follow that the unit of weight is ultimately derived from the
value in gold of a cow.
If we begin in modern times and reflect on the articles
which are usually sold by weight, we find at once that the
more valuable and less bulky the commodity, the more
regularly is it sold and bought by the medium of the scales
and weights ; furthermore, on enquiry we find that many kinds
of goods which are now sold by weight were formerly sold
simply by bulk or measure. At the present moment corn is
generally sold by weight (though sometimes still by measure),
although the nomenclature connected with its buying and
selling shows beyond doubt that formerly it was sold entirely
by dry measure. The English coomb, the Irish barrel, the
bushel and the peck are indubitable evidence. The selling of
live cattle by weight has only lately been adopted in some
markets in this country; but go back to a more remote period,
and you will find that even dead cattle were not sold by weight.
Thus we see that it is only in a comparatively late epoch that
two of the chief commodities on which human life depends
for subsistence have been trafficked in by weight. Nothing
now remains but man's clothing, weapons, ornaments, fuel and
furniture.
The more primitive the condition of life, the more scanty
and rude is the household furniture, and as even in modern
times timber is not sold by weight, beyond all doubt the
same must hold good in a still stronger degree of a time when
wood could be had for the mere trouble of sallying forth
with an axe and cutting it. The same argument applies
cogently to the question of fuel. For even though coal is
now sold by weight, both coal and coke are still sold in some
places at least in name by the chaldron, a fact that indicates
that it was only when facilities increased for weighing large
and bulky commodities that such a practice came into vogue.
Similarly, although firewood is now sold by weight on the
Continent, beyond all doubt at a previous period it was uni-
formly sold by bulk, as peat or turf is now sold in Cambridge-
shire, in Scotland, and in Ireland.
82
116 THE ART OF WEIGHING
Weapons and ornaments and utensils now only remain. To
take the last-named first, at no period have vessels of earthen-
ware been sold by weight. On the other hand those of metal,
especially when made of copper and iron, are usually sold in
this fashion, although vessels of iron and tin are commonly
sold by bulk, or according to their capacity, thereby following,
as we shall shortly see, a most ancient precedent. The value
of ornaments largely consists in the artistic skill displayed in
their manufacture, hence weight is not employed in estimating
their value except when the material is gold or silver, and
therefore possesses a certain intrinsic value apart from the mere
workmanship. We may therefore infer that in early times no
decorative articles save those in metal were valued by weight.
Next comes the question of weapons, one of the most important
sides of ancient life. Of course gold and silver are unfit for
weapons and implements, save in the case of the gods, as for
instance the chariot of Hera, with its wheel-naves of silver
and its tires of gold 1 . The spear-head and sword-blade must
be made from tougher and cheaper metals. Hence copper or
bronze (copper alloyed with tin) in the earlier periods which
succeeded the stone age, and iron at a later time, have mainly
provided mankind with weapons of offence and defence. But
precious as copper and bronze and iron were to the primitive
man, we do not find them sold by weight: a simple process
was employed ; the crude metal was made into pieces or bars
rtain dimensions, so many finger-breadths or thumb-
breadths long, so many broad, so many thick, just as wooden
planks are now sold with us, when the value of a piece of
timber is estimated by its being so many feet of inch board,
<>r half-inch board, and of a fixed width. Lastly we come to
tin- question of clothing. Skins of course were sold by bulk,
the hide of an ox or a sheepskin having generally a fixed
and constant value. Even when sheep came to be shorn,
the fleece was set at an average value. But beyond all doubt
ng the peoples who dwelt around the Mediterranean the
( ice of weighing wool was of a most respectable antiquity.
'. too, was the practice all through the middle ages in
1 11 v. 720 sew.
WAS FIRST EMPLOYED FOR GOLD. 117
England and on the Continent. We have abundant speci-
mens still left of the weights carried by the wool merchants,
slung over the back of a pack-horse.
Having said so much by way of preliminary, we can now
adduce testimony in support of our thesis. Once more let
us start with the Homeric Poems. The weighing of gold is
already in vogue, but the highest unit known is the small talent,
the value of an ox, weighing 130-5 grs, or 10-15 grs more than
a sovereign. Silver is not yet estimated by weight, although
large and handsome vessels of that metal are described and have
their value appraised. But it is not by their weight that their
value is estimated, but by their capacity. Thus as first prize
for the footrace Achilles gave " a wine-mixer of silver, wrought,
and it held six measures, but it surpassed by far in beauty
all others upon earth, since cunning craftsmen, the Sidonians,
had carefully worked it, and Phoenician men brought it over
the misty deep." (Iliad, xxin. 741 sqq.) Here we have a
vessel wrought in silver evidently of considerable size, but it is
simply by its content that its size and value are expressed.
Among the lists of prizes in the same book we find the size
of vessels made of copper or bronze similarly indicated. Thus
the first prize for the chariot race consisted of a woman skilled
in goodly tasks ; and a tripod with ears, which held two and
twenty measures; whilst the third prize was a lebes or kettle
which had never yet been blackened by the fire, still with all
the glitter of newness, which held four measures. So, too, in
the case of iron. As the prize for the Hurling of the Quoit,
Achilles set down a mass of pig iron, which he had taken
from Eetion. It is a piece of metal as yet unwrought, so
that here if anywhere its size and value ought to be reckoned
by weight, since no account has to be taken of workmanship.
But Achilles, instead of saying that it weighs so many talents
or minae, describes its value in a far more primitive fashion.
" Even if his fat lands be very far remote, it will last him five
revolving seasons. For not through want of iron will his
shepherd or ploughman go to the town, but it (the mass) will
supply him 1 ."
1 II. xxin. 826 seqq.
THE ART OF WEIGHING
Thus of the four chief metals mentioned in the Homeric
Poems, gold alone is subjected to weight. But the scales are
used for another purpose still. In the Twelfth Book of the
Iliad there is a curious simile wherein a fight between the
Trojans and Achaeans is likened to the weighing of wool :
" So they held on as an honest, hardworking woman holds the
scales, who holding a weight and wool apart lifts them up,
making them equal, in order that she may win a humble pit-
tance for her children: thus their fight and war hung evenly until
what time Zeus gave masterful glory to Hector, Priam's son 1 ."
Without doubt one of the first uses to which the art of
weighing was applied was that of testing the amount of wool
given to female slaves 2 , or in this case perhaps to a freed
woman, to make sure that they would return all the wool
when spun into yarn, and not purloin any portion for them-
selves. Thus in the older Latin writers we constantly find
allusions to the pensum (pendo = to weigh), the portion of wool
weighed out to the slave. It is quite possible that in the sale
of wool the more ancient conventional fashion of estimating
the fleece as worth so much in other familiar commodities long
continued for mercantile purposes, the weighing of the wool in
small portions being only used as a check on the dishonesty
of the spinners. At all events we have found wool estimated
by the fleece in mediaeval Ireland, at a time when weights are
in common use for the metals.
Such then is the condition of things in the Homeric Poems.
Gold is transferred by weight and by weight wool is appor-
tioned out for spinning.
1 //. i. 4337,
oXX' tx ov i &* T "rdXavra yvvij x P v V TL * o-Xi)0rjs,
^ T ffraOfjiov (XOVGO. nai etpiov d/z</>ls cWXjcet
iffdfrvff' Iva. vcufflf dciKta fjuffdov dptjTCU.
u* piv TUV ivi Iffa /*a'x? T^rarou irroXe/idj re K.T.\.
Dr Leaf, in his introduction to Book xn., 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 dispro-
portionately elaborated and lead up to points which are almost in the nature
of an anti-climax." But the use of the word dX^s in an entirely un-Homeric
enu to make it almost certain that these lines are of late date.
1 Cf. Plautoa, Merc. H. 3. 63. Virg. Georg. i. 390, carpentes pensa puellae.
WAS FIRST EMPLOYED FOR GOLD. 119
Lot us now turn to the Old Testament and find what are
the objects which are dealt in by weight. All transactions in
money are thus carried on, as for instance the purchase by
Abraham of the Cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite
when "Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had
named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred
shekels of silver, current money with the merchant" (Gen.
xxiii. 16). So likewise in Achan's confession: "I saw among
the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred
shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight "
(Joshua vii. 21). And so too in the Book of Judges (viii. 26)
the weight of the rings taken from the Midianites and given
to Gideon was " a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold ;
beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on
the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about
their camels' necks." And again David bought the threshing-
floor of Oman the Jebusite for six hundred shekels of gold by
weight (1 Chron. xxi. 25), although the same purchase is de-
scribed in 2 Samuel (xxiv. 24) as being effected for fifty
shekels of silver. In Solomon's time gold has become ex-
ceedingly abundant, and we find it reckoned by talents and
minae (pounds). For " king Solomon made a navy of ships in
Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the 'Red
sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his
servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the
servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched
from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought
it to king Solomon " (1 Kings ix. 26 8). And after the story
of the Queen of Sheba's visit and her gift to the king of " an
hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great
store, and precious stones," we read that " the weight of gold
that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore
and six talents of gold, beside that he had of the merchantmen,
and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings
of Arabia, and of the governors of the country. And king
Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six
hundred shekels of gold went to one target." Spices such as
myrrh, cinnamon, calamus and cassia (Exod. xxx. 23) were sold
THE ART OF WEIGHING
by Mviijlii. l-ing as costly as gold. The familiar description of
Goliath of Oath, the weight of whose coat of mail "was
thousand shekels of brass," and whose "spear's head
weighed six hundred shekels of iron," will serve to show that
'lea in the inferior metals were at that time estimated
according to weight by the Hebrews and their neighbours, the
Philistines. Of the weighing of wool we find no instance, but
(juite possible that it was from the practice of weighing
wool that Absalom when he "polled his head, (for it was
at every year's end that he polled it: because the hair was
heavy on him, therefore he polled it :) he weighed the hair of
head at two hundred shekels after the king's weight" (2
Sam. xiv. 26). But it is perhaps more probable that the habit
"t weighing a child's hair against gold or silver to fulfil a vow
(which was almost certainly Absalom's motive) may have
suggested the employment of the scales for wool 1 .
1 Mr J. O. Frazer gives me the following interesting note :
As to the catting 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, Beitrdge zur Ethnographic und Anthropologie dcr
Somdl, Galla und Harari (Leipzig, 1886), p. 70.
(2) Mohammed's daughter Fatima 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. Eich
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. n. No. 11.
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.
Pistorius. Studien over de inlandsche Huisponding in dc Padangsche
Bovenlanden, p. 66; Van Hasselt, Volksbeschrijving van
Midden-Sumatra, p. 268.
(6) There is the Egyptian custom, for which we have the evidence of
Herodotus, it. 65, and Diodorua, i. 8.
WAS FIRST EMPLOYED FOR GOLD. 121
Finally, once in the prophet Ezekiel do we find food
weighed, but evidently under special circumstances: "And
thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty
shekels a day : from time to time shalt thou eat it. Thou
shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin:
from time to time shalt thou drink" (iv. 10, 11). In any case
we should expect to find traces of later usage in the writers
of the age of the prophets, but from the directions regarding
the amount of water, it is evident that we cannot take this
passage as a proof of the ordinary practice of the time.
Unfortunately our oldest records of Roman life and habits
go back but a short way before the Christian era, and hence
we cannot get much direct information as regards the first
objects which were sold by weight. We have already seen
that in the time of Plautus (flor. 200 B.C.) the habit prevailed
of weighing wool out to the women slaves.
However, from the legal formula used in the solemn process
of conveyance of real property (res mancipi) per aes et libram,
we may perhaps infer that the scales were used for none but
precious articles such as copper, silver and gold. That they
were used for those metals there can be little doubt. On the
other hand, as we find all kinds of corn sold at a later period
by dry measure, such as the modius or bushel, we may with
certainty conclude that such too had been the practice of the
earlier period.
From the literary remains then of the Greeks, Hebrews
and Latins, it is beyond all doubt that in the early stages of
society nothing is weighed but the metals and wool (for the
apportioning of tasks). In this the records of all three na-
tions agree, whilst from Homer we learn that the Greeks were
using gold by weight, when as yet neither silver, copper nor
iron was sold or appraised by that process.
To proceed then to a people compared to whom the Greek
and Hebrews in point of antiquity of civilization are but the
upstarts of yesterday. The Egyptians seem to have used
weight exclusively for the metals ; the Kat and its tenfold the
Uten seem always used in connection with metals, whilst corn
is always connected with measures of capacity. The following
\2'2 THE ART OF WEIGHING
instances taken from the list of prices of commodities given by
Brugsch (History of Egypt under the Pharaohs, II. p. 199,
English Transl.) will suffice for our purpose : a slave cost 3 tens
1 Kat of silver ; a goat cost 2 tens of copper ; 1 hotep of wheat
cost 2 tens of copper ; 1 tena of corn of Upper Egypt cost 5 7
tens of copper ; 1 hotep of spelt cost 2 tens of copper ; 1 hin of
honey 8 Kata of copper. Even drugs were not weighed by the
Egyptians in the time of Rameses II. The physicians pre-
i 1,\ UK-asm^ ;ls we learn t'nnn the Medical papyrus
fibers 1 .
Passing then to the far East, we naturally are curious to
learn whether the oldest literary monument of any branch of
the Aryan race, the Rig- Veda, throws any light on our question.
We get there but meagre help: but yet, scanty as it is, it is
of great importance. As we saw above the Indians of the
Vedic age were still ignorant of the use of silver, although
possessing both gold and copper. Now, whilst we have no evi-
dence bearing upon the latter metal, there are two very re-
markable and important words used in connection with gold
which beyond doubt refer to the weighing of that metal. In
the Mandala (vni. 67, 1 2 ; 687, 1 2) a hymn commences :
" O India, bring us rice-cake, a thousand Soma-drinks, and an
hundred cows, O hero, bring us apparel, cows, horses, jewels
along with a mana of gold." Again, "Ten horses, ten
caskets, ten garments, ten pindas of gold I received from
Divodasa. Ten chariots equipped with side-horses, and an
hundred cows gave A9vatha to the Atharvans and the Payu"
i .'i/ -../-//-/. vi. H. i>:> 4). As we shall have occasion later on
to deal with the terms mand and hiranya-pinda at greater
Iriigth, it will suffice our present purpose to point out that
we have a distinct mention of a weight of gold in the ex-
pression inand hiranyayd. In only these two passages have
we any allusion to weighing, and in both it is in direct con-
nection with gold. The Aryans of the Veda are beyond all
doubt in a far less civilized state than the Egyptians, Hebrews,
Greeks or Romans of the historical period. Hence we may
1 F. L. Griffith, "Metrology of the Medical Papyrus Ebers," Proceed, of Soc.
(rch. Jun.
WAS FIRST EMPLOYED FOR GOLD. 123
without danger infer that they did not use weight for any
cereals they may have cultivated. Therefore we may, with a
good deal of probability, conclude that we have got a people
who had already a knowledge of the art of weighing before
they were acquainted with either silver or iron, and that this
people used the scales for gold and nothing else. This, taken
in connection with the fact that in Homer, although silver is
known, the weighing of metals is confined to gold, leads us
irresistibly to conclude that gold was the first of all substances
to be weighed, or, to put it in a different way, the art of
weighing was invented for gold.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE THE VALUE OF A Cow.
\\ i; have now proved four things : (1) the general distribution
t the ox throughout our area, (2) its universal employment as
th. unit of value throughout the same region, (3) the equable
distribution of gold throughout the same countries, and (4) that
gold is the first of all commodities to be weighed. Our next
step will be to show that gold was weighed universally by the
same standard, and that this standard unit in all cases where
we can find record was regarded as the equivalent of the ox or
the cow.
We have already seen that the gold talent of the Homeric
Poems, which was in use among the Greeks before the art of
stamping money had yet become known, weighed about 130
grains troy (8'4 grammes). In historical times gold was always
weighed on what was called the Euboic (or Euboic-Attic)
standard. Thus when Thasos began to strike gold coins in
111 B.C. after her revolt from Athens they weighed 135 grs.
I'lili-^ this h;id been the time-honoured unit employed for gold
in that island so famous for its mines the Thasians would hardly
have employed it. Certainly they would not adopt it simply
because it was the standard of the hated Athenians, especially
as they had a different standard for silver.
The gold coins of Athens struck a few years later are on the
name standard of 135 grs, and when Rhodes at the beginning
of the fourth century B.c. began to coin gold, she used the same
unit, although she employed for silver the unit of 240 grs.
Cyzicus also, although coining her well-known electrum
THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE THE VALUE OF A COW. 125
Gyzicenes on the Phoenician standard, used the unit of 130 grs
for pure gold.
FIG. 16. GOLD STATER OF PHILIP OF MACEDON.
This standard, as we shall presently see, virtually remained
unchanged for gold down to the latest days of Greek indepen-
dence. It likewise prevailed in Macedonia and Thrace. For
when Philip II. coined the gold from the mines of Crenides
into staters on the so-called Attic standard of 135 grains, he
did nothing else than employ for the first gold coinage of his
country the unit which had there, as in Greece Proper, prevailed
for many ages for the weighing of gold. For since gold was
first coined in that region about 350 B.C., and yet silver coins had
been current in Thrace and Macedon since about 500 B.C., it
would be absurd to suppose that there was no unit by which
gold in ingots or rings could be appraised.
I have shown elsewhere that the rings found by Dr
Schliemann at Mycenae were probably made on a standard
of 135 grains troy. It is natural to suppose that if within
the area of Greece Proper gold rings were fixed according to a
definite standard, and that standard the Homeric talent, the
Macedonians and Thracians would possess a similar unit in the
fifth century B.C. But there is a small piece of literary evidence
to show that the Macedonians were acquainted with the gold
unit, which we already know as the Homeric ox unit. Eusta-
thius tells us that "three gold staters formed the Macedonian
talent 1 ." Whether Mommsen is right in thinking that this
name was given to the talent in Egypt in consequence of its
having been introduced by the Lagidae (themselves Macedonians)
or not, it equally indicates that from of old such a talent, con-
fined in use to gold, and the threefold of the Homeric ox-unit,
1 Hultsch, Metrol. Scrip. 299, TO MaKe5oj>iK&i> TaXavrov rpets ri<rav
126 THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
had existed in Macedonia Hence Philip II. did not require to
go to Athens to seek for a standard for his new gold coinage.
Fio. 17. PERSIAN DARIC.
Passing into Asia we find there the shekel as the Daric(Aapet/to?),
the normal weight of which is 130 grains troy. This standard
prevailed all through the Persian empire, thus extending into
th- countries now represented by Afghanistan and Northern
India. Numismatists have pointed out the fact that Philip
coined his staters some five grains heavier than the rival gold
currency of the Persian empire, as if to enhance the estimation
of his new coiiuigr. This explanation is perhaps over subtle;
Fio. 18. GOLD STATER OP DIODOTUS, KINO OF BACTRIA.
at all events it is interesting to find the successors of Alexander
the Great in the Far East, the kings of Bactria, coining their
staters not on the standard of 135 grains, but rather on that of
130, in other words following the native standard which the
Daric simply represented as a coin. Thus Dr Gardner 1 in his
Table of Normal Weights makes the Bactrian stater of what he
calls the Attic standard weigh 132 grains and the drachm
66 grains, and it is also admitted that from the time of Eucra-
tides the Greek kings of Bactria adopted a native standard.
This new standard seems to be identical with that called by
m. trologists the Persian, on which [silver] coins were struck in
1 Catalogue of Greek Kingt of Ilactria, p. Ixix.
THE VALUE OF A COW. 127
all parts of the Persian empire, notably the Sigli stamped with
the figure of the Persian king, which must have freely circulated
in the northern parts of India that paid tribute to the king.
Whether the reason given for the use of this standard is right or
not, we may see hereafter, when a different explanation will be
offered to the reader. That great Indian archaeologist, General
Cunningham 1 , goes further, and maintains "that the earliest
Greek coins of India, those of Sophytes, are struck, not on the
Attic standard, but on a native standard which is based on the
rati or grain of abrus precatorius" Whatever may be the
ultimate decision of this dispute, it is enough for our purpose
that whilst undoubtedly a native silver standard sooner or later
replaced the Attic, so likewise the Attic standard, if used for
gold, did not remain at its full weight of 135 grains, but rather
approximated to that of the native standard of the Daric
(130 grains). It is almost certainly a native standard which
appears as the weight of the gold piece (suvarna) in the tables of
weights given in the Hindu treatise called Lilavati, written in
the seventh century A.D., before the Muhammadan conquest of
India, and which we shall notice presently at greater length.
This suvarna is the only unit for gold mentioned in the tables,
and its weight can be demonstrated to be about 140 grs troy.
That the gold unit only varied 10 grains in the course of 10
centuries is very remarkable.
Let us now return to the ancient peoples of Further
Asia Minor and Northern Africa. The Phoenicians and their
neighbours in historical times seem to have used the double of
the unit of 130 grains. It is quite possible that this doubling
of the unit can be explained by a simple principle, which
will likewise fit in with the threefold of the same unit, which
we have just now had to deal with under its name of Macedonian
Talent. But how far this double unit prevailed in earlier times
among the Semites it is not easy to tell. However, the evidence
to be derived from the Old Testament is in favour of the
priority of the unit of 130 grains. But this is not all our
evidence. The Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions give us con-
1 Catalogue of Greek Kings of Bactria, p. Ixvii.
ll'S
THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
siderable information regarding the currency not simply of
Egypt itself but likewise of neighbouring countries. For
when Egypt was at the zenith of her glory great conquerors
likr Thothmes III. and Rameses II. (the Sesostris of Herodotus)
carried their arms into all the surrounding lands and reduced
them to the position of tributary vassals. Many of the tablets
which recount their exploits contain the tale of the spoil, and
describe it as consisting amongst other things of gold rings.
The wall paintings which still survive the inroads of time,
and the still ruder hands of Arabs or tourist, constantly exhibit
iv presentations of the payment of tribute. Again and again we
see the tribute money in the form of rings being weighed in
scales, "on which solid images of animals in stone or brass in
the shape of recumbent oxen took the place of our weights 1 ."
Fio. 19. EGYPTIAN WALL PAINTING SHOWING THE WEIGHING OF GOLD RINGS 2 .
Erman gives several representations of such weighing scenes
(pp. Oil 12), and infers from the fact that the weigh-master and
-(Ales are always present at such payments, that the scales
the ordinary medium of such payments. Mere pictures
hnw-\vr.<lo not tell us anything about the weight of the rings
pMiirtrayed. Fortunately however we have examples
i-.-rli. n r . ,-it. i. 386.
2 Lepsiue, Denkmiilfr, 331.
THE VALUE OF A COW. 129
of such rings. Brand is 1 , who \v;is the first to seek for the unit
on which these rings were fashioned, thought that they followed
the heavy shekel (260 grs.), the double of our common unit.
On the other hand F. Lenormant 2 thinks that they are really
based on the light shekel, or rather on a lighter variety of the
light shekel, of about 127 grains, and he is followed in this by
Hultsch 3 . For our purpose it matters not whether the rings
were made on the simple unit or its double, for there are not
really two separate standards but simply one and the same.
It is hardly likely that the Pharaohs would have done other-
wise than the' kings of Persia at a later time, who made their
subject countries pay their tribute in the recognized currency of
the kingdom, the gold being reckoned (as Herodotus says) by
the Euboic talent, the silver by the Babylonian talent. There
can then be but little doubt that these gold rings give us either
actually the old Egyptian standard, or a standard so closely
related to it that there was to all intents and purposes no
material distinction between them.
Schliemann noticed a resemblance between some of the
rings found at Mycenae and those represented in Egyptian
paintings. It is not preposterous to suppose that the rings
of Mycenae represent a kind of ring both in form and
weight which was employed by the peoples of Asia Minor 'and
Egypt, as well as in Greece. The contact between Egypt and
Asia Minor is so close, communication so free, that it would be
in itself most unlikely that any wide divergence of currency
would exist in earlier times, whilst on the other hand her
relations with the people of Ethiopia and Libya were likewise so
close that they forbid any other conclusion. This is proved
by the statement of Horapollo that the Monad (/-torn?), which
the Egyptians held to be the basis of all numeration, was equal
to two drachms, that is, to 135 grs. 4
Passing westward let us try and learn something from the
early coinage of Italy. Unfortunately, with the exception of
1 Miinz- Mass- und Gewichtswesen in Vorderasien, p. 80 seqq. .
2 Lenormant, La Monnaie dans VAntiquitf, i. 103 seqq.
3 Metrol*, p. 375.
4 Horapollo, I. 11, Hap' AlyvrrTiois /m.oi>ds ecrriv at 8vo Spax/J-ai.
R. 9
130 THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
the Greek cities of Magna Graecia, all Italian mintages are of
a comparatively late date. The Etruscans were probably the
first of the non-Hellenic inhabitants to coin money, but un-
happily their gold coins are of rather uncertain date. How-
ever, it is worth noticing that these coins are probably thirds,
A and twelfths of the unit 130-5 grains, the weights
respcctivrly being 44grs., 22grs., 11 grs. This view borrows
considerable additional probability from the fact that the silver
coins with plain reverses, which very possibly belong to the same
age as the earlier gold, are struck on the standard of 135 grains.
Whilst in the latter case the Etruscans can be said to have
struck their coins on the Euboic-Syracusan, or Attic- Syracusan,
or Euboic-Attic standard which was in use at Syracuse, it
cannot be so alleged with respect to their gold. For not
<>nly are the subdivisions of the unit unknown to the Attic or
Syracusan gold, but the coins bear numerals, /!, =50, AXX
= 25, XII< = 12, X=10, which are found respectively on
the coins of 44, 22, 1 1 and 9 grains, while on others again which
weigh 18 grains we find the numeral A = 5 grains 1 . Here then
we have clear indications of a native Etruscan gold currency,
' ing prior to Greek influence and able to hold its own when
the art of coining, and the very coin types themselves, were
borrowed from the Greeks.
The Carthaginians were the close allies of the Etruscans
in the struggle for the maritime supremacy of the Western
Mediterranean against the Greeks, especially the bold Phocaeans,
who gained over the fleet of both peoples a "Cadmean victory"
at Alalia in Corsica (537 B.C.).
The first Carthaginian coinage was issued in the Sicilian
nti.-s, especially Panormus, at a comparatively late date, cer-
tainly not earlier than 410 B.C. As this coinage was entirely
under Greek influences of comparatively late date, we cannot of
course get any direct evidence from it as regards the original
Phoenician standard. Carthage herself did not issue coins
tin til about a century later, B.C. 310*. Hence we have no
data of an early date. The gold coins struck in Sicily are
1 Deecke, K truth. FnrxrJi. n. p. 1. Head, Op. cit. p. 12.
5 Head, o,>. cit. p. 747.
THE VALUE OF A COW. 181
didrachms of about 120 grains troy, with various subdivisions.
This is usually described as the Phoenician standard, or rather
the Phoenician gold standard of 260 grains considerably reduced.
But the full unit of 240 is never found in the coins, and
although we get coins of 2J drachms (= 147 grains), it is more
natural to regard the didrachm of about 120 grains as the real
unit, in other words the slightly lowered common unit, which we
already found fixed at about 127 grains in the Egyptian rings.
In Sicily and Magna Graecia we are fairly certain that the unit
was in early times that of 130 grains. But whether this was
native or brought in by the Greek colonists, it is impossible to
prove. All that we know for certain is that there was in Sicily
and Magna Graecia, a small talent used only for gold; which
was equivalent to three Attic gold staters, or in other words the
threefold of our Homeric ox-unit. Thus an ancient writer says
" the Sicilian talent had a very small weight ; the ancient one,
as Aristotle says, 24 nummi, the later 12 nummi. But the
nummus weighs three half obols 1 ." From this it is plain that
the ancient form of this talent weighed 36 obols, that is, six
drachms, or three staters.
Lastly, let us glance at those peoples who lay between
Northern Italy and the Bay of Biscay. Although we have, no
direct evidence as to the unit by which the Gauls reckoned
that gold of which, as we saw above, they had great store,
before they came under the influence of either Phoenician,
Greek, or Italian, we can perhaps make a justifiable inference
from the fact that when the Gauls proceeded to strike gold coins
in imitation of the gold stater of Philip of Macedon, they did
not, as might have been expected, follow also the weight unit
(135 grs.) of that coin. For as a matter of fact scarcely any of
the Gaulish imitations exceed 120 grains troy 2 . It would appear
then that the Gauls had already at that time a gold unit in
use, somewhat lighter than the usual weight of our "ox-unit,"
although we cannot of course ignore the possibility of its being
1 To fji^vr
\4yei T^rrapas /ecu eiKOfft TOI>S voijfjLfj.ovs TO 5 vvrepov SvoKaldeKa, duvacrdai d rbv
rpia Tj/atw/SoXta. (Hultsch, Eeliq. MetroL Scrip. 300.)
2 Of. Hncher, IS Art Gaulois, p. 19 and PL I.
92
THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
the form of the Phoenician gold standard, which we found above
was employed by the Carthaginians both in Sicily and Africa;
in other words it may be maintained that the Gauls followed
the standard on which the Phocaeans of Massalia struck their
silver coinage. As, however, the coins of Massalia were drachms
of about 55 grains the probability is not very high that the
I had no gold standard of their own for gold until they got
one from the silver of Marseilles.
The Teutonic tribes who likewise issued imitations of the
Philippus also followed a standard of 120 grs. for coins, from
which it is likely that they as well as the Gauls employed a unit
of 120 grs. for gold before they ever began to strike money.
We have now taken a survey of the most ancient gold
standards we can find throughout the wide regions through
which the common system of weights of after years prevailed,
extending in our range from the heart of Asia to the shores of
the Atlantic.
Our n suits will best be seen in the following table:
Grains.
Egyptian gold ring standard . . . . 127
Mycenaean 130 5
11 "i i K -ric talent (or "Ox-unit") . . . 130 5
Attic gold stater (the sole standard for gold) . 135
Thasos 135
Rhodes 135
Cyzirus 130
H.-luvw standard 130
I 1 rsiaii Dane 130
Ma-.-d.Mian -later 135
Bactrian stater 130 2
Indian standard (7th cent. A.D.) . . . 140
Phoenician <^<>ld unit (double) . . . 260
Carthaginian 120
Sx-il\ and Lower Italy 130 5
Etruscan 130 5
Gaulish unit . 120
nan 12()
THE VALUK OF A COW. 133
A glance at the table will suffice to show the truth of the
proposition which we laid down as the object of this chapter,
viz., that over the whole of the area with which we are dealing,
the same unit with but little variations and fluctuations was
employed for the weighing of gold.
Having proved the universal employment of the ox as a
chief unit of barter, the universal distribution of gold, the
priority of that metal both in discovery and in being weighed,
and finally, in the preceding pages, the remarkable fact that
to all intents and purposes the same unit of weight during
many centuries was employed in its appraising, we advance to
our next proposition, that this uniformity of the gold unit is
due to the fact that in all the various countries where we have
found it, it originally represented the value in gold of the cow,
the universal unit of barter in the same regions.
It will of course be hardly possible for us to find data for
a direct proof that in all the countries given in our table as
employing the gold unit, that unit really represented the value
of the ox. In some cases we shall be able to produce a fair
amount of evidence more or less direct, whilst in others owing
to the necessity of the case the evidence will be almost wholly
inferential. Finally we shall be able to bring forward a very
cogent form of proof by demonstrating the absolute necessity
felt by barbarous persons of equating a ready made weight
standard, which is being taken over from their neighbours, to
the older unit of barter, and likewise the necessity felt by semi-
civilized peoples under certain circumstances, even whenj^g
accustomed to the use of coined money, of returning to the
animal unit as a means of fixing the standard of their coinage.
Starting first with the Greeks, we have already seen at an
early stage in this work that the talent of the Homeric Poems
was the equivalent of the ox, the older barter name being as yet
the only term used in expressing prices of commodities, and the
term talent being confined to the small piece of gold.
Passing next to the Italian Peninsula and Sicily, although
possessed of certain definite statements as regards the value in
copper of an ox in the fifth century B.C., nevertheless, owing to
the uncertainty which still exists as regards the relative value
|;jl THK (JOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
of gold, silv.-r and copper at Rome, we shall encounter consider-
able obstacles in our attempt to find the value of an ox in gold.
AB Dr Theodore Mommsen 1 has laid down certain proposi-
ti.-ns in i. t ivm. t. inter-relations in value of the metals at
Rome, which were generally received until a very recent period,
when Mr Soutzo*, in a clever brochure, put forward views of a
ly different character which have met with the approval
of some competent critics, and as the matter is still sub judice,
I think it best, after briefly giving the historical evidence for
thr value of cattle, to give the views of both these writers.
Tin- biw known as Aternia Tarpeia (451 B.C.) dealt with
questions of penalties; certain notices of it fortunately pre-
serve for us some valuable material. Cicero 3 says, "Likewise
popular was the measure brought forward at the Comitia
Centuriata in the fifty-fourth year after the first consuls (451
B.c.) by the consuls Sp. Tarpeius and A. Aternius concerning
thr amount of the penalty." To the same law Dionysius of
Halicarnassus refers 4 : "They ratified a law in the Centuriate
Assembly in order that all the magistrates might have the power
of inflicting punishment on those who were disorderly or acted
illegally in reference to their own jurisdiction. For till then
not all the magistrates had the power, but only the Consuls.
But they did not leave the penalty in their own hands to fix as
much as they pleased, but they themselves defined the amount,
having appointed as a maximum limit of penalty two oxen and
thirty sheep. And this law continued to be kept in force by
th l.'.-.nian- for a long time." Festus (s. v. Peculatus p. 237 ed.
Miillrr) says: "Peculation (peculatus), as a name for public
theft, was derived from pecus 'cattle/ because that was the
004 kind of fraud, and before the coining of copper or silver
th '- ' !> iialty for crimes was one of two sheep and thirty
Thai law was enacted by the Consuls T. Menenius
lAnatu^ ami P. S, -tins Capitolinus. As regards which cattle,
after th< K,,i,, a n people began to use coined money, it was
i <>irc de la Monnaie Romaine, i. 236.
8 Ktutl,- ,/,-.< Mnnnaie* de Vltati,- antique.
De Rep. n. 35, 60.
4 x. 60.
THE VALUE OF A COW. 135
provided by the Tarpeian Law that an ox .should be reckoned at
100 asses, a sheep at 10 asses."
Again Aulus Gellius 1 has a curious notice, too long to quote
in full, which ends "on that account afterwards by the Aternian
Law ten asses were appointed for each sheep, one hundred for
each ox."
Cicero and Dionysius are probably right (as Niebuhr thinks)
in saying that Tarpeius and Aternius fixed the number of
animals. C. Julius and P. Papinius, who were Consuls in
429 B.C., to whose reckoning of fines (aestimatio multarum)
Livy refers (iv. 30), probably changed the penalties in cattle
into money equivalents. Festus and Gellius have evidently
muddled their authorities, having interchanged the words sheep
(ovium) and cows (bovum). But the important thing is that
both are agreed in giving the value of the cow at 100 asses.
Now Dr Hultsch (Metrologie*, 19. 3), following Mommsen,
shows that gold being to silver as 12 J : 1, the small talent,
called the Sicilian, of which we have just spoken, confined
exclusively to gold, would be exactly equivalent to a Roman
pound of silver (135 x 3 x 12^ = 5062 grains of silver; whilst
the Roman Ib. = 5040 grs.). Since at Rome, previous to the
reduction of the As in 268 B.C., a Scripulum of silver was
equivalent to a pound of copper or as libralis, and there are
288 Scripula or scruples in the pound, it follows that the pound
of silver or its equivalent the Sicilian gold talent was worth 288
asses librales. This gold talent = 3 Attic staters (or ox-units),
therefore 1 Attic stater = 96 asses librales. But we learned from
Festus and Gellius that the value of the cow fixed in 429 B.C.
was 100 asses. From this it appears that the value of the ox
on Italian soil at this period was almost exactly the same as
the traditional value which it had in the Homeric Poems, and
which it continued to have in the Delian sacrifices in later
times. The mere difference between 96 and 100 asses calls for
no elaborate comment. It is enough to remark after Hultsch,
that the further we go back the cheaper copper appears to be
in relation to silver. This fact will easily explain any dis-
1 Aulus Gellius, xi. 1. 2. 3; Plutarch, Poplic. 11, says a cow = 100 6/3o\oi, a
sheep 10 6/3o\ot.
1.% I Hi; (i(>LD UNIT EVEllYWHEHK
mc\. Thus Momms. -us view that silver was to copper MS
288 : 1 gives us a most interesting result.
I. us ii"\\ turn to Mr Soutzo's view on the same subject.
II. maintain* that at no time was the relation between silver
and copper greater than 120:1, basing his argument on the
assumption (which we shall find to be against the statements
!' th- ancient writers) that when the first silver denarius or
1" is piece was coined in 268 B.C., as the as at that time
Jied only t\v< nnciae, or one-sixth of a pound, silver was to
- 1 20 : 1. He also argues from the fact that in Egypt,
under tin- Ptolemies, the same relations existed between silver
and l>ron/e. He likewise maintains that the relation between
4"M and sil\vr in Italy and Sicily at this period was as 16 : 1,
in m i which it follows that gold was to copper as 1920:1.
This of course gives us as the value of a cow about 390
grains of gold, that is about three gold staters, or ox-units.
\V. woidd certainly be able to prove that at no time or place
in the ancient world was a cow of so great a value in gold.
I -hall refrain from any discussion of the merits of either
\iew tor the present. I will only add one observation: Mr
Soutzo (p. 17) regards the Italian weight standards as borrowed
from the East, and starts with bronze as the earliest stage in
th- history of the weights. The only clearly defined unit of
Roman growth according to him is the Centupondium, which
ya i- the Bttne MS the Assyrian talent. From this the
"Kt MI' ned their own libra or pound by dividing their
talents int.. 100 parts instead of GO. We shall find hereafter
that tin- i- MII untenable position, but meantime it is inter-
-.^ to find the ( Vntupondium, or sum of 100 asses taken by
Mpivjudieed writ.-r as the basis of the Roman system in the
light of the fact that the ancient Roman value of the cow is
likewise 100 asses. If Mr Soutzo was right, our thesis finds
support, as it would plainly appear in that case that,
the Italians received their weight-unit ready made,
found it QeTertheleae necessary to equate the new metallic
unit M ol.t.-.ii.ed to the cow, the older unit of barter.
In Sink \\v have an opportunity not merely of finding the
He value of a cow in gold without having to deal
THE VALUE OF A COW. 137
with the disturbing question of the relative value of copper
and silver, but also of showing that Soutzo's relation of 120 : 1
as that between silver and copper in early Italy must certainly
be wrong, and that Mommsen's view is in the main correct.
The famous Sicilian poet Epicharams has left us a line : " Buy
me straightway a nice heifer calf for ten nomoi 1 " As regards
the value of the nomos, or nummus (VO/JLOS or ^oO/^o?), Pollux
supplies us with some definite information.
In passage (ix. 87) already quoted he says: "Yet the
Sicilian talent was the least in amount, the ancient one, as
Aristotle says, weighed four and twenty nummi, but the later
one twelve ; now the nummus is worth three half obols." These
three half obols plainly mean the ordinary half obols of the
Attic standard. As the Attic drachm is 67 J grains (normal),
65 grains in actual coins, the ^ or obol = 11 grains roughly
speaking; three half obols therefore weigh 16 J to 17 grains.
Accordingly, if we take the weight of the nummus or litra at
16 to 17 grains of silver, we shall not be wide of the mark. The
price then of a good heifer calf was 10 nummi or 160 to 170
grains of silver. The term moschos (calf) is used rather vaguely
by various Greek writers, but fortunately by the aid of the Sicilian
poet Theocritus, we are certain that it means a calf of the
first year not yet weaned; for he speaks 2 of putting the mos-
chos to the cows to suck. From what we have seen (p. 32) of
the relative values of cattle of different ages, it is tolerably
certain that no full-grown cow would be worth less than six
or more than ten calves of the first year. Hence the Sicilian
cow, at the end of the sixth century B.C., must have been worth
from 9601020 to 16001700 grains of silver. We cannot
tell exactly what was the ratio between gold and silver in
Sicily or Italy at this time, but as we find it was 14 to 1 in
Attica in 440 B.C., the probability is that it was not very far
from that in Sicily. It certainly must have been at some
point between 15 : 1 and 12:1. Taking it at 12:1, the value
of the cow would range from 80 to 141f grains of gold, whilst
in the ratio of 15 : 1 the range is from 64 to 113 grains of
1 Pollux, ix. 80, evdbs irpib) JJLOL 5e/ca VQJJ.WV I*.Q<J\QV Ka\av.
2 Theocr. ix. 3, /moaxw fiovaiv i
j;}S INK <;ol.l> UNIT EVERYWHERE
^.|1. It i> thus absolutely certain that the value of a cow in
Sicily in thr sixth century B.C. must lie within the limits of 64
to 141 grains, and it' the calf of Epicharmus is a suckling, the
rang* in the valu- of the cow must be from 113 to 140 grains.
all we require for practical purposes, and it will be
admitted that the value of a cow in Sicily comes very close to
..in- H..in.-ric ox-unit of 130 5 grains.
\Y. uiv now in a position to test the truth of Mr Soutzo's
hvjH.tli.-sis. It will be conceded that at the beginning of the
fifth century B.C., the cow must have had about the same value
hnth in Italy and Sicily. The cow in Italy was worth 100
Roman pounds of copper, in Sicily about 1650 grains of silver.
Mt/o is right in saying that silver was to copper as 120 : 1
on multiplying 1G.">0 by 120 we ought to get a result in copper
corresponding to 100 Roman pounds: 1650 x 120 = 198000.
Taking the Roman pound before it was raised at about 5000 grs.
the Sicilian cow was worth 39 pounds of copper ( - - - = 39 J.
It ix absurd to suppose that even at any time the Italian cow
could have been worth 2J times the Sicilian. Let us now apply
tin- same test to Mommsen's doctrine, and multiply 1650 grs. of
M| V.T by 300. (I take this as being more likely than 288 to have
been the relation between copper and silver in the fifth century
B.C.). 1650 x 300 = 495000 -r 5000 = 99 pounds of copper. The
result is too striking to admit of our coming to any other
conclusion than that Mommsen is right.
Next let us examine his doctrine that in ancient Italy gold
was to silver as 16 : 1. Mr Soutzo 1 supports this view by three
arguments: (1) that when Rome in the course of the Second
Punic War issued gold coins for the first time, gold was to
silver as 16 : 1 ; (2) Mr Head 2 has shown that at Syracuse under
1 Mr Head (Coinage of Syracuse), Numismat. Chronicle, New Series, Vol.
XIT., tbinks that under Dionysus the Elder (400367 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
weight* M sufficient, when we consider the extraordinary devices to which
Dionysius resorted to raise money, causing coins of tin to pass as silver, making
UM silver coins bear a double value etc. as is related by Aristotle, Oeconomica, n. 21.
^p. dt, 26.
TIIK VALUK OF A COW. 139
the despot Dionysius (405 345 B.C.) gold was to silver as
15:1; (3) that certain symbols on the gold coins of Etruria
when interpreted as referring to silver litrae give the pro-
portion between the metals as 16 : 1. The same answer can
dispose of the first two arguments. The state of affairs both at
Rome in B.C. 207, and at Syracuse under Dionysius, was quite
exceptional. Rome was in a state of bankruptcy, her subjects
largely in revolt, the Lex Oppia (215 B.C.) prevented women
from wearing more than half an ounce of gold ornaments 1 . It
is therefore irrational to treat as normal the relation found to
exist between the metals at such a crisis.
Similarly at Syracuse the relations between the metals were
completely upset by the wild conduct of Dionysius, who forced
his subjects to take coins of tin at the same rate as though
they were silver. Moreover any evidence to be drawn with
reference to the ratio between silver and gold at Syracuse in
the time of Dionysius is completely nullified by the fact that
in the reign of Agathocles (B.C. 307) gold was to silver as 12 : 1 2 .
It is evident therefore that if in 207 B.C. gold was to silver all
over Italy as 16 : 1, there must have been a great appreciation
of gold. Are we not then justified in regarding the ratio of
16 : 1 as exceptional, and that of 12 : 1 as the more regular?
That great fluctuations in the relations of the metals' did
take place in Italy, we know from a statement of Polybius
that in his own time in consequence of the great output
of gold from a mine in Noricum gold went down one-third in
value. Silver was scarce in Central Italy, for it was only after
the conquest of Magna Graecia that Rome found herself in a
position to issue a silver currency. On the other hand there
must have been a large and constant supply of gold coming
down from the gold-fields of the Alps in exchange for the bronze
wares of Etruria. Now as at Athens, where silver was so plenty
and gold in earlier days scarce, the ratio was never higher than
15 : 1, it is impossible to suppose that in Northern and Central
Italy, where the conditions were contrariwise, the ratio can ever
have been in ordinary times higher than 12 : 1.
1 Livy xxxiv. 1. Valer. Max. 9. 1. 3.
3 Head, Op. cit. 160.
I lu nil: GOLD rNIT EVERYWHERE
It i- .juitc possible that after the Gauls got possession of
Northern Italy, the supply of gold which reached Etruria and
Latium may have been considerably reduced, and this would
perfect lv explain the relation existing at a certain period be-
tween gold and silver coins in Etruria, supposing that Soutzo's
interpretation of the symbols is correct. But as we have no
literary evidence to check off any deductions drawn from the
coins, it is iin])ossible for us to say whether the symbols on the
ijnld pieces refer to units of silver or bronze.
irning to the Kelts, the close kinsfolk of the Italians,
the reader will recollect that the Gauls struck their imitations
of th- Mater of Philip of Macedon on a standard of 120 grs.,
pMUi lo\s,-r than the weight of the archetype. Now similar
but still more barhamus imitations of Philip's gold stater are
found in <Iennuny. These Rainbow dishes (Regenbogen-
FIG. 20. " REOENBOOENSCHUSSEL "
(ancient German imitation of the Stater of Philip of Macedon).
schi'utseln), as they are popularly termed in allusion to the pic-
tun-sijiu- superMitioii that a treasure of gold lies at the foot of the
rainbow, and also to their scyphate form, are found in especial
abundance in Rhenish Bavaria and Bohemia. Like the Gaulish
imitations of the Philippus from which they are copied, they
follow a .standard of 120 grs. (and like the Gauls the Germans
k ') nailers of this coin, a division wholly unknown to the
Greeks) 1 . In the region just indicated dwelt the ancient
id there can be no doubt that it was this people
who issued the rnins found there. Now the Alamanni were
among the barbarians who after having overrun the provinces
of the I;.. in in Kmpire, committed to barbarous Latin their
immemorial l;i\\- and institutions. In the Laws of the Ala-
1 MomniHcn (Blacaa), Hhtoire de la Momuiii- nniitiini', in. 275.
THE VALUE OF A COW. 141
manni the best ox is estimated at five tremisses 1 , that is 1 J solidi,
or in other words 120grs. of gold, the medium ox = 4 tremisses
= 96 grs. The coincidence that the value of the ox in gold is
the actual weight of the coins of the Alamanni is too striking
to admit of any other explanation than that the gold coins of
this people were struck on the native standard, the ox-unit.
The Keltic and Teutonic tribes were so intermixed that we
may plausibly infer that the Gauls had reduced the weight of
the Philippus to 1 20 grs. because owing to gold being less
plentiful and cattle more abundant to the north of the Alps,
from a very remote time the ox-unit throughout Gaul and
Germany was slightly lower than along the Mediterranean.
In the Laws of the Burgundians the value of an ox is set at
2 solidi = 144 grs. of gold 2 . This of course is considerably more
than that of the Alamannic ox, but when we consider the late
period at which the laws of the Barbarians were compiled, and
the various recensions which they underwent, the strange fact
is that the ox should have varied so little in its relation to gold
from the Homeric ox-unit of at least 1000 B.C.
Passing into Scandinavia we once more, even so late as the
eighth century A.D., find the same strange agreement in value.
In the ancient Norse documents (where the cow is the unit
of value as we have already seen) it is reckoned at 2 J ores
(ounces) of silver = 1078 grains. But we likewise know from
the same sources that gold stood to silver as 8:1; accordingly
the cow was worth 134 grs. of gold 3 .
Besides the Hellenes and Italians there was another people
who strove for the mastery of all the Western Mediterranean.
The ancient city of Tyre had sent out many colonies into the
far West, when the nascent power of Hellas had already begun
to assert its superiority in the Aegean. Trade grew and flour-
ished between the colonies and the mother city in Phoenicia ;
thus there was unbroken intercourse between remote Gades
and her Eastern mother until after the destruction of the latter
1 Pertz, Monumenta Historica Germaniae, Vol. in. Lex Alamannorum, lib.
see. LXXX. summus bovis 5 tremisses valet cett.
2 Pertz, Op. cit. Leges Burgundiorum, p. 534 : pro bove solidos 2 cett.
3 Schive and Holmboe, Norges Mynter (Christiania, 1865), pp. i iv.
142 THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
(720 B.C.). HenrefoMvard tin- headship of the Phoenician cities
.f the West falls into the hands of Carthage, the scene of the
last great act and final catastrophe in the drama of Phoenician
history. At the very time, nay some say on the very day, when
the (Jiveks of the East were destroying the host of Xerxes in
the Strait of Salamis, the Hellenes of the West led by brave
Colon of Syracus were repelling a great army of Carthaginians
thr \\alU of Himera, and during the third and fourth
the Greeks of Sicily lived in constant danger from
the Carthaginians, who held the western part of the island with
their factories of Lilybaeum, Drepanum and Motye", until at last
they wm- finally expelled from the island by the resistless
might of Rome (241 B.C.).
('..iild we hut learn the estimate put upon the ox by the
Phoenicians or Carthaginians, we would get a fair index to its
value over a wide extended area. For as in earlier times the
Phoenician influence extended from Tyre to Gades, linking both
and west, so in later days Carthage extended her power
"\vr all North Africa from the Pillars of Herakles to the
c.ntines of Egypt, and over Southern Spain.
Some forty years ago the longest Phoenician inscription yet
known was found at Marseilles. The inscription seems to have
belonged to a temple of Baal, and contains directions touching
sacrifices and certain payments to be made to the officiating
priest. Chemical analysis of the stone has demonstrated that it
a kind not found in France, but known in North Africa.
e M. Renan thought that it had been brought as ballast in
some ship. The names of two Suffetes stand at the head of the
iption, which seems along with other evidence to point to
its having been engraved at Carthage. On palaeographical
ground* its <| a t- is placed in the fourth century B.C., but why it
came to Massalia seems still inexplicable. It is possible that in
urth century B.C. there was a considerable body of Cartha-
ginian- n-idcnt at Massalia, just as on the other hand we know
that there was a large (Jn-.-k community residing at Carthage.
If that w,,. 10, the Carthaginians would naturally keep up the
worship of Baal at Marseilles, and would regulate the temple
in a.-..,,pljince with the practice of the mother city. The
THE VALUE OF A COW. 1.43
stone in that case may have been imported to serve as an official
declaration of the rules to be observed in sacrifices. Movers and
Kenrick regarded the sums of money named in connection with
the victims as composition for the animals named, whilst the
editors of the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum (Vol. I. Pt. I.
p. 217) regard them as fees to be paid to the priests for the
performance of the sacrifices, saying that it is analogous to the
directions for the burnt offerings, peace offerings and thank
offerings contained in Leviticus i vii. The few lines of the
inscription with which we are concerned I shall translate from
the Latin version given in the Corpus.
" Concerning an ox, whether it is a whole burnt offering, or
deprecatory offering or a thank offering, there shall be to the
priests ten shekels of silver, and if it is a whole burnt offering,
in addition to the fees this weight of flesh, three hundred ; and
if it is a peace offering the first cuts and additions, the ap-
purtenances thereof, and the skin and the entrails, carcase and
the feet, and the rest of the flesh shall belong to the giver of
the sacrifice.
" Concerning the calf without horns, concerning an animal
which is not castrated, or a ram, whether it is a whole burnt
offering, or a peace offering, or a thank offering, there shall be
to the priests five shekels of silver, and if it be a whole burnt
offering in addition to the fee this weight of flesh, one hundred
and fifty.
" Concerning a he-goat or a she-goat, whether it is a whole
burnt offering, etc. there shall be to the priest one shekel of
silver two zer.
" Concerning a sheep or kid or goat, whether it is etc., there
shall be etc. f shekel one \zer~\ of silver.
"Concerning a tame bird, or wild bird, f shekel and two
zer"
Let me here remark that in Leviticus there is no mention
whatsoever made of any fees to the priest, also that whilst
according to the above version the giver of the victim gets the
skin, in Leviticus (vii. 8) it is the priest who gets it as his
perquisite, as seems also to have been the practice in Greece.
For we know that the Spartan kings, who in their capacity of
144 THE GOLD UNIT BVKRT WHERE
pnesU offered all sacrifices at Sparta, always got the skins as
their payment 1 . That the sum* mentioned are really the prices
of the vietiiii* is made almost certain by the fact that at the
famous Phoenician temple of Aphrodite at Eryx in Sicily the
victims were kept ready by the priests to be sold to worshippers
\vh. wished to sa entice, as we know from a curious story told
by Aelia;
WhiNt it would be of great importance for my purpose
to have been able to regard the sums mentioned in the in-
-erip ti-.n a- the actual value set upon the animals, even if we
-iinplv ivgard them as fees they still give us some aid. For
as it U niMxt unlikely that the fee for sacrificing would exceed
the value of the victim to be sacrificed, we thus can obtain a
minimum limit of value. We may then safely assume that the
value of the ox was not less than 10 shekels of silver. On the
other hand we shall find from Exodus what must have been
the maximum value among the Hebrews at a comparatively
late date. As the Punic ox cannot have been worth less than
1350 grs. of silver, and the Hebrew not more than 1760 grs.,
it is almost certain that the value of the ox at Carthage lay
between these limits.
The pieces of silver mentioned in the inscription are
probably ordinary silver didrachms of the Attic standard. The
Carthaginians had coined silver in Sicily on the Attic standard
from about 410 B.C., but issued no silver coins at Carthage itself
until after the acquisition of the Spanish Silver Mines (241 B.C.),
although gold, electrum, and bronze coins were minted. In
ce Proper in the 4th century B.C. gold was to silver as
10 : 1 ; we may therefore not be far wrong if we assume a
1 Herod, vi. 57. See evidence of this collected by Stengel, Die griechische
Sakralaltertiimer, pp. 29 </. 81 sq. (Iwan Miiller's Handbuch, Vol. v. pt. iii.)
Animal. X. 60, rd ye nty hpela ifd0T?;s ct-yA?;? avrb^ara <potrf Kal T$
, aya Si apa aura wpwrr} fj.ev i) 0e6s, elra 77 Suva/it's re Kal i] rov
el yovv l0Aott 6v<rat otv, I8o6 <TOI r$ /3av*< TraptffTrjKev oft, Kal
Kardptaoeai" el 8i e^v TWJ/ adporepuv Kal 0Aois 0v<rat povv QjXfiav TJ
*al In T\fovt, elra vrep 7^5 rt/x^j ofrre ol 6 vo/xei)5 tiriTinwv ftniwffei. otfre <rt>
\vwjffttt tKelvov ' r6 yitp //catoi/ TTJS irpdecus TJ defo tyoptj.. Kal ev Karadds iXeuv
tl ii I0l\o(t TOV &COVTOS irpla<r0ai evT\fffrepov, <rt> fdv KaredrjKas T&
f, rb M tfov direpx^rai, Kal 0v<rat OVK tx-
THE VALUE OF A COW. 145
similar ratio between the metals to have held at Carthage
about the same period. That silver was scarce is shown by the
fact that they did not coin it, although issuing gold, eleotram
and bronze. Ten silver didrachms would therefore = 1 gold
didrachm of 135 grs., which is of course our ox-unit. This is a
remarkable result, and of itself would make one believe that
the sum represents the real value of an ox, which the practice
at Eryx puts beyond doubt. We know that at Athens the
people who were bound to provide the public sacrifices supplied
very wretched oxen, so we need not be surprised to find pre-
cautions taken by the priests of Baal to ensure that proper
animals should be provided for the altar, especially as they
themselves got a share of the flesh.
Next let us see if that most ancient of all known civilized
lands, Egypt, can produce from her store of monumental records
any evidence for our purpose. Professsr Brugsch 1 , in his History
of Egypt under the Pharaohs, gives from inscriptions a list of
the prices of various commodities about 1000 B.C.: a slave cost
3 ten 1 ket of silver ; an ox 1 ket of silver (= 8 ten of copper) ;
a goat cost 2 ten of copper ; 1 pair of fowls (geese ?) cost J ten
of copper ; 1 hotep of wheat cost 2 ten of copper ; 1 tena of
corn of Upper Egypt cost 5 7 ten of copper ; 1 hotep of spelt
2 ten of copper ; 1 hin of honey 8 ket of copper ; 50 acres of
arable land 5 ten of silver. Of course there must be more or
less uncertainty about some of these statements owing to the
imperfect knowledge which we as yet possess. At first sight
the reader naturally wonders how it is possible to calculate the
value of the ox as here given, which is only 1 ket of silver,
that is, the Egyptian ox of 1000 B.C. was only worth 140
grains of silver, whilst an ox hitherto has been worth about the
same amount in gold. At first sight this is enough to stagger
us, but a moment's reflection makes the matter very intelligible.
We have already noticed (p. 59) that at a certain stage in the
history of the metals silver was far scarcer than gold, and that
its rarity combined with its beauty no doubt made it to be
eagerly sought and held in great esteem. We saw that the
Arabs of the Soudan down to the present day prefer silver
1 Egypt under the Pharaohs (2nd edit. Engl. trausl.), Vol. u. p. 199.
R. 10
146 THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
to gold; whilst in the earlier part of the present century
when Japan was opened to European commerce the Japanese
eager! v . xrhan^-d gold for silver at the rate of one to three,
and i-vrii less, as they possessed no native silver, and were
channel with the beauty of the little known metal 1 . Marco
Polo also tells us that " in the province of Carajan (the modern
Yunnan) gold is so plenty that they give a saggio of gold for
onlv six >t the same weight of silver;" and of the province of
X:ir.l:ind:ui, five days west of Carajan, he says, "I can tell you
thry give one weight of gold for only five of silver 2 ."
almost certain that in all countries at one stage silver
must have been of higher value than gold; afterwards as its pro-
ilurtinn became greater, it became equal in value, and finally,
little by little, much less valuable, until at last the relation
between the metals is 1 : 22. Of course we must add that there
must have been always* certain fluctuations, according as a
sudden increase of output of one or other of the metals altered
temporarily their relations. We have evidence that silver in
early times in Egypt was held in higher esteem than gold.
Thus Erman 3 says that according to ancient Egyptian notions
silver was the most costly of the precious metals; for they
always in an enumeration mention it before gold, and in the
tombs ornaments of silver are of far rarer occurrence than those
of gold. This circumstance is simply and sufficiently explained
(thinks Erman) by the fact that Egypt herself possesses no
ili-p>sits "t silver, l>ut musi ha\,- obtained the metal from
Cilicia. Under the 18th dynasty (1400 B.C.), the Phoenicians
supplied Egypt with silver and under the new empire the
supply had so increased that it was now evidently cheaper than
gold, for the later texts always name silver after gold, just as we
<1". We have previously noticed the paucity of silver articles
in the tombs at Mycenae which are commonly dated 1400 B.C.
tin n to re reasonable to suppose that towards the end of
the Second Millennium B.C. gold and silver were almost of equal
vain* .in- in Egypt, but in other parts likewise of the
1 Sir Rutherford Alcock, The Capital of the Tycoon, i. 281.
* Marco Polo, Yule's Transl. n. pp. <>2 and 70.
9 Aeyyptfn un.l ...iin.titchtt Leten in Alt.-rtlnnn, p. 611.
THE VALUE OF A COW. 147
ancient world. The great supply of silver had not yet been
obtained which in the 10th century B.C. made silver at Jerusalem
like stones. "As for silver," says the sacred writer, "it was
nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon" (900 B.C.) 1 , who
had "made silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones"."
By this time silver had become very cheap in Egypt likewise.
At least if we can at all rely on the author of the books of
Chronicles. For the king's merchants " fetched up and brought
forth out of Egypt a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver,
and an horse for one hundred and fifty: and so brought they
out horses for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of
Syria 3 ."
The shekel here meant is probably that of 130 135 grains,
while the price of the ox in Brugsch's list is 1 ket or 140 grains.
At a moderate computation this would make a horse worth 150
oxen, if our documents were contemporary. But from lists of
relative prices in ancient and modern times it is preposterous to
suppose that at any time or in any place such a remarkable
difference in value existed between the horse and the cow.
From this it follows that if Brugsch is right in his translation of
his Egyptian text, the latter must date from several centuries
before 1000 B.C., when as yet silver was of the same or almost
the same value as gold. Finally, we have no means of knowing
the age of the ox, but as it is equal in value to only four goats,
it is possible that it was not a full-grown animal. I have dealt
with this point at some length, and have little positive gain to
show, but it is necessary to put before the reader all data which
may aid in our search, and still more necessary to do so in the
case of evidence which seems to present serious difficulties.
Unfortunately for us the Old Testament gives very scanty
information on the question of the cost of various commodities,
and in no place do we get any information regarding the price
of cattle. For in the account of the purchase of the threshing-
floor and oxen of Ornan the Jebusite by king David, there is
a discrepancy in price between the Second Book of Samuel
(xxiv. 24) and First Chronicles (xxi. 25), the former making
1 1 Kings x. 21. 2 2 Chron. i. 15.
3 2 Chron. i. 17.
102
I 4S THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
in,- sum :>0 shekels of silver, the latter "six hundred shekels
of gold by weight," and in any case, as we do not know the
number of oxen used in threshing or the value of the floor and
threshing instruments, it is impossible for us to draw any in-
,<v. In the Book of Exodus, however, we obtain the value
fare, from which we may at least get an approximate
idea <-t the value of an ox: "If the (wicked) ox shall push a
manservant or a maidservant; he (the owner of the ox) shall
give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox
shall be stoned" (xxi. 32). Here, as in the ancient laws of
Wales and elsewhere, the value of the male and female slave
is the same, and thirty shekels or pieces of silver seems to have
been the conventional price of a slave among the Hebrews.
To this Zechariah (xi. 12) seems to allude, " So they weighed
for my price thirty pieces of silver," in reference to which the
Evangelist writes : " Then was fulfilled that which was spoken
by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces
of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the
children of Israel did value" (Matt, xxvii. 9). The average
slave among the Homeric Greeks (as we saw above) was worth
about three oxen, amongst the Irish three, among the modern
Zulus about 10, and among the wild tribes of Annam seven
(pp. 24 5). Allowing three oxen as the value of a slave among
the Hebrews, the ox is worth 10 shekels (ancient) = 1300
grains <>t silver =130 grains of gold, taking gold to silver as
10:1, which at an early period was probably the regular ratio
in parts of Asia Minor. The result thus reached gives us once
more the Homeric ox-unit as the value of the Hebrew ox. It is
certain that it cannot have been higher, although we cannot
show that it may not have been less.
The cow is estimated in the Commentary on Vendidad,
Fargard, iv. 1 2 at 12 stirs or Mrs.
Our task must be now to find out the weight of this Mr.
Istir or stir is identified with Greek a-rar^p (as dirham is with
Greek Spa^).
The Pahlavi Texts, translated by Dr West, naturally afford
us the readiest means of discovering our object 1 .
1 Sacred Book* of the East, Vols. v., xvni., and xxiv.
THE VALUE OF A COW.
149
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150 THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
Tin-re are in the Shayast-la-Shayast various lists of sins and
good \v,.rks. Thrsr sins or good works are put in the golden
balance and weighed, in which case the stir is a weight, whilst
in othrr cases we have a money evaluation. As much con-
fusion arises from variations in the lists, it will be best to tabu-
late thr ditVcivnt lists, and thus get a synoptic view of the
whole.
On looking at the table, we find that all our authorities
are in complete harmony as to the amounts of the last five ;
Aredus is 30 stirs, Khor = 60, Bazai = 90, Yat = 180, and Tana-
puhar = 300 stirs. Let us first consider these. We must re-
member that on the third night after death the soul is judged
by having its sins and good works weighed, and according as
the one or other predominates, is the ultimate destiny of the
s.Mil foul or fair. It is thus essentially a scale of weights, not
of coins. The arrangement of the numbers at once speaks for
itself. 30 stirs = J mina on the Babylonian system, as will be
- ii on p. 251. 60 stirs (Khor) = 1 mina, 90 stirs (Bazai) = 1J
<ie, 180 (Yat) = 3 minae, and finally we get 300 stirs (Tana-
puhar) = 5 minae. What then is the weight of the stir ? It is
none other than the light Babylonian shekel (130 grains Troy).
Now let us approach the bewildering tangle of the first four
ves. It is evident that there are mistakes of numerals in
some cases, e.g. in Column I., where the Agerept and Avoirist
are made equal, both being only ^ of the first degree or
Farman, and also in Col. II. we have the Agerept greater than
the Avoirist and Aredus. But in Columns III. IV. and v. we
get some elements of regularity. Two of them at least intro-
dinv coined money, thus giving us an indication that it is
wing to the constant effort to make the lower weight con-
t"nn i the monetary units of the various periods at which the
Commentaries were written that the confusion has in great
part aiis. n. We find the Farman = 3 dirhams of 4 mads, to
IMS of 5 annas, and to 3 coins. Dr West, calculating the
;iim;i mi the basis of the old rupee of Guzarat (Pt. III., p. 180),
in:iki'8 the coin of Col. IV. = 50 grains Troy, the old rupee being
lew than its present weight (180 grains). The Farman in this
is 150 grains. The 3 dirha.ms of 4 mads each probably
THE VALUE OF A COW. 151
are the same in amount. So too are the three coins and a half
of Col. iv. In which case each coin must weigh 43 grains
(150 -=- 3| = 42), that is the regular weight of the dirhams
struck by the Arab conquerors of Persia. Comparing Cols. III.
and iv., we shall find the Agerept worth respectively 53 dirhams
and 16 stirs, the Avoirist set at 73 dirhams and 25 stirs. We
find then a very close approximation in comparative values.
The same proportion for all practical purposes exists between
the coin of 5 annas (50 grains) and the coin of 43 grains, as
between the 53 dirhams, and 16 stirs and 73 dirhams and 25
stirs. But it is evident that in Col. ill. the coin of 5 annas is
a thing quite distinct from the dirhams mentioned in the same
table, or else why is there a difference in nomenclature ? The
dirham is probably the usual dirham of 43 40 grains. But
as we find 53 of these dirhams = 16 stirs of Col. IV. accordingly
the stir of Col. iv. = 132 grains Troy, which is plainly the
Babylonian shekel, and 73 dirhams = 25 stirs. This gives an
average for the stir of 126 grains Troy, which again points
directly to the light shekel of 130 grains Troy, or in other
words to the weight of the Daric. Another piece of evidence
in the same direction is the fact that the Sassanide kings
struck their silver coins on the so-called Attic standard, which
of course was identical with that in use from the earliest 'times
in Asia, as the standard of the Daric. The founder of the
Sassanide Dynasty, Ardeshir, struck his first gold coins on this
standard (staters of 135-0), whilst all the silver coins of this
dynasty are half-staters (65 grains) of the same standard. The
statement in Col. I. that each stir has four dirhams probably
refers to a later period, when 4 dirhams of the ordinary Mu-
hammedan standard (43 grains Troy) were equivalent to a
rupee (180 170 grains).
If it should be objected that the istir of the Avesta is the
old Persic silver standard of 172 grains, my reply is that as it
is evident from what we have seen above that in this weight
system there were sixty staters in the mina, this must be the
weight, not the silver coin, as there were only fifty staters in the
mwiey mina.
The ox of the Zend-Avesta according to tradition is there-
l.-,l THE GOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE
fore rated at 12 stirs or staters of 130 grains of silver each,
i t he time of Alexander right down to the third century
after Christ it is probable that all through the Eastern Mediter-
ranean and Asia Minor gold was to silver as 12 : 1. If this
so, the ox of the Avesta was worth 130 grs. of gold, that is
th- weight of a Daric, and of the Homeric ox-unit.
Such then are the approximate results that we have been
.-ihli' to obtain regarding the value in gold of an ox in various
parts of the ancient world. Of course I do not pretend that
they have the same force as if they represented the value of the
ox everywhere in one particular epoch, or as if we had found the
ox directly equated to gold in every case. But on the other hand
the persistency of prices in semi-civilized countries is a fact well
known: for example, prices have changed but very slightly in
India 1 during a long course of years, for although the silver
rupee has sunk to about two-thirds of its nominal value in
exchanges for gold, it purchases as much as ever in India.
It is likely therefore that the conventional value of the ox
would have remained unchanged for a long period of time,
and the fact that our approximate values taken from various
countries and from various centuries so closely coincide is a
strong indication that such was the case.
Savages are still more conservative in their ideas of the
relative value of certain articles ; and when once a standard
price has been fixed for certain commodities, it is almost im-
possible to get them to change.
Thus I am told by Mr W. H. Caldwell that, when he gave
h.ilt-a-crown to a Queensland black for the first specimen of a
certain kind of animal brought into camp, henceforth he had to
pay the same amount for every specimen, even when they came
in considerable numbers. So with the early men of Asia and
>pe who first possessed cattle, and later on gold. Once a
certain amount of gold was taken as the recognized value of a
cw of certain age, the idea would become strongly rooted that
so much gold was the proper equivalent of a cow. And it
would only be in the lapse of centuries and with the develop-
1 Report of the Royal Commission appointed to enquire into the recent changes
in the relative valuet of the precious metals. 1st Report, p. 60 (1866).
THE VALUE OF A COW. 153
ment of cities and general commerce that the price of cattle
would begin to fluctuate.
But even when such variation in price arose, it made no
difference as regards the weight standard. The unit had
already long been fixed and it remained unaltered, just as the
beaver skin of account still means only two shillings, although a
real beaver skin is now worth many times that amount.
Another reason why the price of cattle would remain
stationary would be that in early times as all the cows were
kept under more or less similar conditions of food, and there
was no attempt at the development of superior breeds, there
would be little difference in the value of animals of the same
age.
The connection between the cow and the gold unit is
rendered all the more probable not merely by the fact so often
noticed that the words for money in different languages originally
meant cattle, but by the remarkable fact that -the earliest known
weights are in the form of cattle. The relation between weight
and money must always be close, but it comes still more
prominently into view, when as yet there is no coinage, but
gold and silver pass by weight alone. If then the value of
a cow formed the first gold unit, we can at once understand
why the first weights took the form of oxen and sheep.
It was not for mere artistic reasons, for whilst such animal
weights appear on Egyptian paintings, the numerous known
Egyptian weights are of a very conventional form, as we shall
find below. Doubtless the horns and ears made a cow's head
exceedingly ill-suited for a weight, and in course of time utility
prevailed over the traditional idea that the weight unit ought
to take the shape of the animal, whose value in gold it was
meant to represent.
The following table sums up briefly the results of this
chapter:
Homeric ox-unit = 130 135 grains of gold.
Roman ox (5th cent. B.C.) = 135
Sicilian (5th cent. B.C.) =135
Ancient German =120
i:4 THK (iOLD UNIT EVERYWHERE THE VALUE OF A COW.
Ancient Gaulish =120 grains of gold.
Phoeokiaii? (4th cent ac.) =135
Egyptian ( 1 500 B.C. ?) =140 grains of silver =140 grains
ofgold(?).
II . 1 . i -i \v = 1 30 grains of gold.
/rllil A\- M.i = 130
Burgundian =140
Alaniannic =120
Scandinaviaii l (.Sthci'iit.A.D.) = 128
As has been remarked before, I do not include the values
of the ox or cow in the ancient Laws of Wales or Ireland, since
fnun thr insular position of Britain and Ireland the principle
that we must have unbroken touch between the various peoples
in order to have a constant unit does not apply. There could
be no free flow of trade in cattle between Britain and the
continent until the development of steam navigation.
It is worth noting that the value of a buffalo at the present
day among the Bahnars of Annam is almost the same as that
of the ancient ox. The buffalo is reckoned at 280 hoes 2 , that
is 28 francs = 1. 2s. 4>d. Taking gold at the rate of twopence
per grain, the value of the buffalo in gold is 134 grs. Troy.
1 This is almost exactly the weight of the orttig, into 3 of which the ora
(ounce) of 410 grs. was divided. The ortug 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.)
8 See above, p. 24.
CHAPTER VII.
THE WEICHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
Subiectos Orientis orae
Seras et Indos.
HOR. Garni, i. 12. 56.
WE have now found that within the area where our
weight standards arose the ox was universally diffused, and
regarded as the chief and most general form of property and
medium of exchange ; that over the same area gold was found to
be more or less equally distributed in antiquity ; that the
metallic unit is found in all cases adapted to the chief unit of
barter, whether that be ox or reindeer, beaver skin, or squirrel,
as soon as peoples have learned the use of metal ; and finally
that over our special area from the Atlantic to Central Asia the
cow at various times and places retained a value which fluctu-
tated only from 120 to 140 grains of gold. When therefore
we recall the fact, also pointed out above, that the gold unit
employed from Gaul to Central Asia was one that only fluctu-
ated from 120 to 140 grains, and when we recollect further that
this unit in the ancient Greek Epic is called not a talent but an
ox, when prices, and not merely the actual ingots of gold are
mentioned, the conclusion follows that not merely in Greece but
in all the other countries the gold unit represented originally
simply the conventional value of the cow as the immemorial
unit of barter.
Next follows an important question, How was the primitive
weight standard fixed? In other words, how did mankind
arrive at the general opinion that a weight of gold of about
156 THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
i:;o English grains was the equivalent to the conventional
value of the animal ?
If we could but discover a region in which the weight
ami monetary systems still in use are essentially indepen-
<lnt of our Graeco- Asiatic standards, and where it could be
proved that the monetary system is an independent native
.1. \. IMJ.HU nt, and where this development is of such recent date
that the record has been preserved in a written document, not
in. ivly reaching us in the dim form of a tradition, blurred and
broken in the long and misty space of years that lie between
us and those who first shaped our system, we would undoubtedly
discern more clearly the stages of its evolution.
The Chinese empire with the neighbouring peoples who
have participated in its civilization afford us just the case which
we desire. It will be seen from what follows that not merely
the monetary system of China, but her weight system is of an
origin almost wholly unaffected by Western influences.
We saw above that the earliest form of money in Greece
took the form of spits or small rods of copper, no doubt of a
specified size; we found in Annam that iron hoes, in mediaeval
India iron formed into large-sized needles, in modern times
in Central Africa pieces of iron of given dimensions, bars of iron
among the Hottentots and among the peoples of the West
Coast of Africa, brass rods of fixed length in the region of the
Congo, and pieces of a precious wood likewise of fixed dimensions,
have served or do still serve as media of exchange, and as
units by which the values of other commodities are mea-
sured. In all these cases mere measure not weight, is the
in- t hod of appraisement. As the archaic Greek "spit" or obolus
nf l.n.nze eventually became a round bronze coin, familiar to us
as Charon's fee, and in still later times under the abbreviation
06. as the accountant's symbol for a half-penny, as d. (denarius)
<1- imtes the penny, so we shall find that the common Chinese
copper coins pierced with a square hole in the centre have
had an almost identical history.
At the time when the Chinese made their great invasion
into South-eastern Asia (214 B.c.) they still were employing a
lPuze currency under the fonn of knives, which were 185
THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA. 157
millimetres (5f in.) in length, bearing on the blade the
character mirth, and furnished with a ring at the end of the
handle for stringing them. Under the ninth dynasty (479
50 1 A.D.) they used knives of the same form and metal, but
Fia. 21. CHINESE KNIFE MONEY
(showing the evolution of the modern Chinese coins).
180 millim. (7-J- in.) in length, furnished with a large ring
at the end of the handle and inscribed with the characters
Tsy Kti-u Hoa. Next the form of the knife was modified, the
handle disappeared, and the ring was attached directly to the
blade, but now as weight was regarded of importance, its thick-
ness was increased to preserve the full amount of metal, and
the ring became a flat round plate pierced with a hole for
the string 1 . Later on these knives became really a conven-
tional currency, and for convenience the blade was got rid of,
and all that was now left of the original knife was the ring in
the shape of a round plate pierced with a square hole. This is
a brief history of the sapec (more commonly known to us as
cash) the only native coin of China, and which is found every-
where from Malaysia to Japan 2 .
1 J. Silvestre, "Notes pour servir a la recherche et au classement des mon-
naies et des medailles de Annam et de la Cochin-Chine Franchise." Excursions
et Reconnaissances, No. 15 (1883), p. 395.
2 H. C. Millies, Kecherches sur les monnaies des Indigenes de. VArcJiipel
Indien et de lapeninsule Malaie (La Haye, 1871).
158 THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
Except where foreign coins such as American silver dollars
.in ii)|l..\ (1, all payments in silver and gold are made by
\\riijht, the nuly money being the copper cash, The Chinese
iii.-trir system, like our own, is based on natural seeds or grains
.f plants. Thus ten of a kind of seed called f&n (the Candarin)
|.ml.al)ly phuvd sideways make 1 ts'un (the Chinese inch 1 ), just
as our forefathers based the English inch on 3 barleycorns
placed lengthwise. So with their monetary system,
10 /i* (copper cash) = 1 fen (Candarin) of silver.
10 fen = 1 chieii (mace).
10 chien = 1 Hung (or tael or Chinese ounce).
This Hung or, as it is more commonly called, tael is the
maximum monetary weight. Hence we hear always of pay-
ini-nts in silver as being 1000 or 2000 ounces and so on, but
never in the higher commercial units of the catty or pound, and
pical or hundredweight, to which we shall come immediately.
But though the Chinese never employed any coinage of gold or
silver, beyond all doubt they have possessed and employed both
metals for almost an incalculable time in the form of ingots of
rectangular shape, and of very accurately fixed dimensions. The
maximum unit employed in commercial relations between
China, Cochin-China, Annam and Cambodia is the ndn or bar.
of course among her less advanced neighbours that we can
best see how the system developed and worked. For whilst
China herself now reckons exclusively by the tael or ounce,
Annam and Cambodia still employ ingots of fixed weights
and dimensions as metal units almost to the present time.
Thus when Msg. Taberdier in 1838 published his account of
tin- money of Annam, they had no coins except the ordinary
cash or sapec with a square hole in its centre, and which is
tin -re made of zinc and called dong*, they had no coinage in the
proper sense of the term. However they employed ingots of
gold and silver of a parallelepiped shape. Five sizes of ingots
were employed for both gold and silver alike.
1 Sir Thomas Wade's Colloquial Chinese Course, i. p. 213 (2nd ed.).
* J. Silvertre, Op. cit. p. 308 eqq.
THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA. 150
GOLD.
1 . Nen- Vang, loaf of gold = 10 luong or ta#fo'(ounces).
2. Tlioi- Vang or Nua Nen- Vang = 5 luong.
8. Lu'ong-Vang, nail of gold = llu'ong(%9'05 grammes).
4. Nua-Vang, half nail of gold = ^ luong.
5. The quarter luong = J toe/ (9*762 gram.).
SILVER.
1. Nen-bac, loaf of silver = 10 luong or tae/s.
2. JVwa Nen-bac, half loaf of silver = 5 luong.
8. Luong or Dinh-bac, nail of silver = 1 toe/.
4. Half Lu'ong, half nail = J toe/.
5. Quarter Luong = J toe/ (9*762 gram.).
The lowest unit then was the quarter nail of 152| grains
troy, whilst the largest was the nen of 6500 grains. These
ingots did not circulate freely but were generally kept in
wealthy families as reserve treasure.
In very similar manner in Greece and Italy gold and silver,
fashioned into talents and bars or wedges, were employed side
by side with the bronze oboli or spits which served as the
ordinary currency of every-day life.
We have now seen that the highest unit employed for silver
and gold is the Nen or bar of ten taels or ounces. Before going
further it will be convenient to describe briefly what we may
term the Chinese system of avoirdupois weight. Then we shall
give the system borrowed from the Chinese and used in Cam-
bodia and Cochin-China.
Chinese.
10 fen = 1 ch'en* (mace).
10 ch'en* = 1 Hang, tael or ounce.
16 tael = 1 chin, commonly known as catty, = 1J Ibs. English.
100 catties = 1 tan or shih 4 , commonly known to us as the
picul (= 133J Ibs. English).
160 THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
Cambodia. Money system.
60 cash or sapees of zinc = 1 tien.
10 < =1 string.
10 strings = 1 ndn or bar of silver (90 francs).
The n*-H is an ingot of silver of parallelepiped form, which
is invariably worth 100 strings of zinc cash 1 . This nen is
subdivided for money of account as follows:
1 urn (375 grammes) = 10 denh.
1 d*nh = 10 chi.
1 chi =10 him.
1 him = 10 li.
Tlu-v mploy a coin of silver called a prac-bat or preasat,
\v. -it h 4 strings or Jy we?? 2 .
Tlif Mexican piastre, which circulates also, is worth on the
average about 6 strings of cash.
1 gold ingot = 16 nens of silver.
Tin- half ingot of gold is also used =8 ingots of silver.
The unit of commercial or avoirdupois weight is the catty
(called by the Cambodians the neal) or pound.
1 ntal (catty) (600 gram mes)= 16 tomlongs or taels (ounces).
1 tomlong (37 '5 grammes) =10 chi (of 3*75 grammes).
1 chi =10 hun.
The preceding weights are plainly borrowed from the
Chinese, whilst the following are regarded as native in origin.
1 pey 0*292 grammes.
4 pey - 1 fuong (1-174 grammes).
Zfuong \ slong (2*344 grammes).
4 slong - 1 bat (9*375 grammes).
4 bat =1 tomlong (37*5 grammes).
For heavy merchandise they employ the hap or picul.
There are three varieties of picul : (1) that of the weight of
40 strings of cash (=100 catties), (2) that of 42 strings, (3)
that of 45 strings.
J. Ifonra, Le Royaume du Cambodge, i. p. 323 (Paris, 1883).
Thia coin beam on one side the sacred bird Hangsa, on the other a picture
of an ancient palace of thp kings.
THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA. 161
It will be noticed that the first-mentioned is simply the
standard of the Chinese picul of 133^1bs. English, whilst the
others are native.
In Armam we found that the ingots of gold and silver,
consisting of ten luongs or nails, were called nen. The
luong was equal in weight to the Chinese Hung, and Cam-
bodian tomlong, and was also called dinh (dinh-bac, nail of
silver), thus being identical with the ten denh into which the
Cambodian nen or bar is divided.
In Laos 1 we again find the Chinese picul as the highest
weight unit. It is divided into 100 catties (here called Chang)
of GOO grammes each (1^-lb. Eng.).
1 picul =100 catties.
1 catty (chang) = 10 damling (60 grammes).
1 damling = 4 bat (15 grammes).
1 bat = 4 chi (3*75 grammes).
1 chi =10 him.
All these or their equivalents are used as money of account.
" If there is but little coin in Laos," says M. Aymonier, " there
are monies of account in abundance." In the south-west of the
country, Bassak and Attopoeu, Cambodian currency is employed,
and they count by the nen or bar of silver.
1 nen =10 denhs (money of account).
1 denh = 10 strings of cash.
The string is also money of account and is worth the same
as the string of Annam, which is equal to the sling or Siamese
franc (which is worth 75 or 80 centimes). The nen is also
divided into 100 chi, and as there are 100 strings in the nen,
the string of cash is equivalent to a chi of silver (3'75 gram.).
The Siamese coins known also to Cambodia were the weight
and money units of the ancient Cambodians, who probably
weighed their precious metals. In Laos all of them except
the tical are only monies of account. The tical or bat which
under the ancient round form 2 was called clom in Cambodia is
1 E. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos. Saigon, 1885.
2 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).
R. 11
162 THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
actually struck as a small piastre in Cambodia and Siam in
imitation of European money. This tical is worth 4 Siamese
slings, but the only monetary division of it known in Laos is
the local lot or small ingot of copper.
4 copper lats= 1 silver tical (=4 sling = 3 francs).
4 tt =1 damling.
20 (l<tinling =1 catty (cluing).
50 catties = 1 picul.
The chtitig or catty of silver is a double one, hence 50
catties of silver are equal to 100 catties of ordinary commercial
weight.
Tin- '-titty of silver thus weighs 1200 grammes instead of
600 grammes.
They likewise use the moeun of silver = 10 changs = picul,
but more generally the moeun is used as a measure of capacity
which contains 20 catties of shelled rice, but as a measure of
capacity it varies and is sometimes equal to 20 catties, some-
tiiiM-s to 25 catties of rice. That it really is a measure of
capacity incorporated at a later date into the weight system
like our own bushels, barrels and y no tiers, is made probable
by the fact that in the provinces of Tonle, Ropon, and Melon
they employ a tramem or bag containing 10 Cambodian
catties, and in the province of Sipnoum the moeun is some-
tin n -s the name given to a bag or pannier of a cubit in depth,
ami a cubit in width at the mouth. It is usually called kanchoen
, and contains 25 catties of rice, and 36 kanchoen make
a cartload.
We Irani from another part of Laos an interesting fact
which also throws some light on the development of the larger
weight units from measures of capacity. For since in some
parts of that country the cocoanut is used as the measure of
capacity, and as neal, the native Cambodian name for the catty t
means simply a cocoanut, it looks as though this was the real
11 of the catty univ.Tsally employed over all Further Asia.
''' ms lilv ive8 us the reason why the catty of silver is
itfh't of a catty of rice. If a weight unit is derived
U PMMme "f r;i|,;irily, Mrrnnlhlg to the liatliro of the Sill)-
THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA. 163
stance or liquid with which the measure is filled, the weight
unit derived will be heavier or lighter, just as the Irish barrel
of wheat is 6 stones heavier than the barrel of oats. A cocoa-
nut, or bamboo-joint filled with silver will give a far heavier
weight unit than if it is weighed when filled with rice.
We have now had a survey of the monetary and weight
systems of China, Annam, Cambodia and Laos, and everywhere
found that the nen or bar of 10 tctels is the highest known
metallic unit, and that except in Laos the counting of money even
by the catty or pound is unknown, the Chinese themselves only
employing the tael as their highest monetary unit, the catty
being kept as in Annam and Cambodia itself for ordinary
goods. This is borne out by the practices in the weighing of
gold. In Attopoeu, the region where gold is found, 8 chi (=2
ticals or bats = 4 slings = 30 grammes) are exchanged for a bar
of silver (= 100 chi = 375 grammes). M. Aymonier thinks
that the gold bat, that is to say the weight in gold of a tical
(15 grammes, 234 grains Troy), must have been the unit for
weighing gold, as formerly it was necessary to give a gold bat
in order to marry a girl of the blood royal. This gets con-
siderable support from the fact that in Sieng-Khan the gold
bat has only the weight of a sling or chi (58 ^ grains Troy), that
is the quarter of a tical, and the weight of the tical or bat is
called a damling. In fact they hardly reckon gold in any other
way than by this small dan ding which is only the weight of
a tical (234 grains Troy). In reference to my argument
that as gold is the first of all things to be weighed, the
primitive weight unit is certain to be small, as no man has, as
a rule, any need to weigh his gold by the hundredweight or
large mercantile talent, this fact that the highest unit for
weighing gold in Attopoeu is so small, not even reaching the
weight of the Graeco-Phoenician heavy gold shekel or double
ox-unit of 260 grains, is of considerable importance.
This region supplies us with yet another point which can
help to clear up the history of early metallic currency. The
iron ingots which come from the Cambodian provinces of Kom-
pong Soai form a special kind of money. These ingots are not
weighed, but they have the length of the space between the
112
164 THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
base of the thumb and the tip of the forefinger, they are in
breadth two fingers, and one finger in thickness in the middle,
thinning off to either end. Three of these ingots = 1 cJn = I
1 -ring of cash; thus 12 ingots = 1 tical of silver.
These ingots are also counted by bags of 20 ; thus 1 nen or
t silver = 1 "> bags = 300 ingots of iron.
At Bassak the iron ingot is replaced by the lot, the copper
ot Laos, which varies in value in the different moenngs
(provinr.-s) according to its size. Here is a remarkable con-
tinuation of my contention that it was only at a period con-
ably later than the weighing of gold that the scales were
employed for copper and iron, the catty being kept as in
Annan i and Cambodia for ordinary goods.
We can now make a further advance in our quest of the
first I le-ri imings of money and weights in this interesting region.
Tin -re are many wild tribes in Annam and Laos, who still
employ no method save that of barter, when dealing one with
another, although when they touch on the more civilized
regions they have to conform their native systems in some
di-.Ljree to the more developed currency of their neighbours,
from whom they have to procure the few luxuries of their
-in i pie life. We saw above that among the wild tribesmen
all articles have a well-defined relationship to each other,
particular article being usually taken as the common
measure of all the rest, or rather two or three so that they
may have units for estimating their more common as well as
th.-ir more valuable possessions. So in Annam the buffalo
ot't.-n verves as the general unit of value for the more valu-
able articles. Thus a large chaldron is worth three buffalos,
a handsome gong two buffalos, a small gong one buffalo, six
".J.JM-J dishes om> buffalo, two lances one buffalo, a rhinoceros
horn ei^ht buffalos, a large pair of elephant's tusks six buffalos,
'II pair tluve buffalos 1 . Thus the buffalo which takes the
' !" "x in China and South-Eastern Asia, is used as the
">">". .irial unit in like fashion as we found the ox employed
th- Homeric Greeks, the ancient Italians, the ancient
OocktH-Cktne Franchise. Excursions et Keconnaisiances,
Vol. x. No. 2(1MH.-,), p. :H7.
THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA. 165
Irish, and the modem Ossetes. But the Aimamites themselves
employ as currency the silver bar and string of cash as we
saw above : accordingly when the hill tribes have dealings with
the people of the plain the full grown buffalo is reckoned at a
bar of silver, or, its equivalent, 100 strings of cash 1 , while the
small buffalo is set at fifty strings.
Thus the Orang Gla'i have often to buy a pair of elephant's
tusks at the cost of eight buffalos or eight bars of silver.
Taxes are paid in buffalos ; thus the Tjrons of Karang pay a
buffalo for each house, or compound for the whole village by a
payment of ten buffalos whose horns are at least as long as
their ears 2 . Here then we find that exactly as the ancient
Irish when they borrowed the Roman system of unciae and
scripula (unga and screapall) equated the ounce of silver to
their own unit, the cow, so we find these wild tribes of An-
nam forced to adapt their primitive unit to the metallic unit
of their more cultured neighbours. Again, the Bahnars of
Annam, who dwell on the borders of Laos, have much the
same system. With them the highest unit is the head, i.e.
a male slave, who is estimated, according to his strength, age
and skill, at 5, 6, or 7 buffalos, or the same number of kettles,
as the buffalo and the kettle have the same value, which
naturally varies with the size and age of the animal and
the quality of the kettle. A full grown buffalo, or a large
kettle, is worth seven glazed jars of Chinese shape with a
capacity of 10 to 15 litres each. One jar is worth 4 muks.
The muk was originally the name of some special article, but
now is simply used as a unit of account. Each muk is worth
10 mats, or iron hoes, which are manufactured by the Cedans,
and which form the sole agricultural implement of the wild
tribes of all these regions. This hoe is the smallest monetary
unit used by the Bahnars, and is worth about one penny in
European goods. This mat or hoe serves them as small cur-
rency and all petty transactions are carried on by it. Thus a
1 Aymonier, ibid.
2 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 iustructus of the Marseilles
inscription (p. 143).
1G6 THK \\KICHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
large bamboo hat costs 2 hoes, a Bahnar knife 2 hoes, ordinal-)
. : |ok| -v 86 Ibf 1 b0e and BO On, A largo elephant is
worth from 10 to 15 "heads" or sjaves, whilst a horse costs
4 kettles or buffalos. When we read of such a state
of Inn nan society we seem to be transported back into that
far away Homeric time, and as we hear of slaves, and kine,
chaldrons and kettles we think of the old Epics with their tale
of slaves valued in beeves, and " crumple-horned shambling
kine, and tripods" and "shining chaldrons." In the light of
such analogies we at last can understand the significance of
the 10 axes and 10 ' half-axes" which formed the first and
second prizes in the Iliad 1 when Achilles "set out for the
archers the dark-hued iron, and put down 10 axes and 10 half-
axes." Who can doubt that these axes and half-axes played
murh the same part in the Homeric system of currency as the
hoes do at this present moment in that of the Bahnars of
Annam? Probably such too were the 12 axes which Penelope 2
brought out from the treasure chamber to serve as a target
for the suitors in their contests with the bow of Ulysses. The
hoe is thus the lowest unit of currency among the Bahnars.
From the known interrelations of all the articles of daily life it
is easy to estimate how many hoes any even of their more costly
possession^ is worth. Thus the full-grown buffalo = 7 jars = 28
muks= 280 hoes, or about 1. 3s. 4>d. of our money. AIL these
transactions require no use of weights, being reckoned by bulk
or tale. But now comes the most interesting feature for us, a
people in the complete stage of barter, but who actually possess,
work and traffic in gold.
In all the streams on the side next Laos the wild people
wash gold, men, women and children all alike joining in this
laborious industry, and employ as 'cradles' little baskets made of
bamboo. The gold is sold in dust at the rate of the weight in
gold of one grain of maize for one hoe. Here then we have
finally run to ground one of the principal objects of our quest.
We have a primitive people, who carry on all their trade by
means of barter, who have no currency in the precious metals,
Imt \vh., nnpl.,y as their most general unit of small value the
1 xxiii. 860 tq. * od. xxi. 70.
THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA. 167
iron hoe. They are found to weigh one thing and one only,
namely gold, and for that purpose they do not employ any
weight standard borrowed from China or Annam, but equate a
certain amount of gold to the unit of barter, and then fix as a
constant that amount of gold by balancing it against a grain of
the corn that forms one of the chief staples of their subsistence.
Nature herself has supplied man with weights of admirable
exactitude ready to his hand in the natural seeds of plants, and
as soon as he finds out the need of determining with great
care the precious substance which he has to win with toil and
hardship from the stream, he takes the proffered means and
fashions for himself a balance and weights.
We saw that a buffalo was worth 280 hoes ; it is therefore
an easy task for a Bahnar to tell its worth in gold. It was
equally simple for the first Aryan or Semite who framed the
gold shekel standard to compute the exact amount of gold
which would represent the value of an ox. But perhaps we
have not reached the earliest stage of all in the development of
a standard for the sale of gold. I ventured to put forward in
1887 the suggestion that the way in which the amount of gold
which represented the value of a cow was first fixed approxi-
mately was by measuring it in some way, as for instance by taking
the amount which would fit in the palm of the hand, somewhat
in the fashion that rustics measure gunpowder or shot for a
gun. What was then but a mere guess may be now regarded
as fairly certain. That excellent observer, M. Aymonier, notes
that the Tapak tribe, who live at a distance of six days' journey
from Attopoeu, wash gold. The women wade into the streams
(after having first carefully placed five flowers or five leaves at
the foot of a tree close by the stream to ensure good luck).
Each dips a water-tight bag into the sand at the bottom of the
stream, and after a long series of rewashings and cleansings at
last gets the gold dust in a state of purity 1 . The savages carry
it to Attopoeu, and sell it at the rate of 9 chi of gold for a nen
or bar of silver (= 100 chi). The relative value in Attopoeu is
8 chi or two bats of gold to one bar (= 100 chi) of silver, or as
they express it one tical of gold is changed for 12 ticals of silver.
1 E. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos, p. 33.
168 THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
"The Heal of gold is," it is said, "equivalent to the weight of 32
grain- -t a JH vuliar kind of rice of the country, with large grains
and of a red colour, which is called ivory rice." Here we have
thr writhing by natural grains as before, but Aymonier adds
(p. 35) that "the natives relate that gold was formerly so
abundant that without weighing it people were content to
measure it. A little stick of gold an inch broad and a span
long was exchanged against a buffalo"
We found the Bahnars equating a small quantity of gold to
thi'ir smallest unit of barter, the hoe; now we find that in the
wild parts of Laos the unit of gold, before weights of natural
grains were employed, was based by measurement upon the
buffalo, the chief unit of barter. Thus we have found among
the remote peoples of Further Asia the very method of fixing
a metallic unit, which I have endeavoured to prove was that
followed by the Aryan and Semitic races in arriving at that
^hfkel of gold, which was the common standard of all the
civilized peoples of the ancient world, and which was the parent
of all our mediaeval and modern systems.
CHAPTER VIII.
How WERE PKIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ?
Ordiar ex minimis.
Carm. de ponder ibns.
WE have seen that the Chinese system of weights is based
upon natural seeds of plants, and we have actually found the
wild hillsmen of Annam and Laos weighing their gold dust by
grains of maize and rice. But it may be urged by the advo-
cates of a Babylonian scientific origin based on the one-fifth of
the cube of the royal ell, which in turn is based upon the sun's
apparent diameter, that the Chinese names of weights are merely
conventional terms taken from the name of certain seeds, and
on the other hand that the mere fact that a very barbarous
people like the Bahnars of Annam weigh their gold dust by
grains of rice is no evidence that people in a higher stage of
culture were content with such rude metric standards. I
propose to show in this chapter that it has been the actual
practice of peoples as far advanced in civilization as the ancient
Greeks or Italians, to employ seeds as weights down to the pre-
sent day in Asia, that it was the general practice in the middle
ages, that it was likewise the practice of the Romans of the
empire, of the Greeks, and finally that such too was the prac-
tice of the Assyrians themselves at a period long before the
bronze Lion weights were ever cast, or the stone Duck weights
were carved. If I succeed in proving this proposition, the doc-
trine that the art of weighing was scientific must give place to
the contention that it was purely empirical.
170 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEltJHT UNITS FIXED?
As we have found among the barbarians of Asia the first
beginnings of the art of weighing by the employment of grains
of rice and maize, it is best for us to take first in order some
other Asiatic countries lying towards the same region.
The great islands of the Indian Archipelago, singularly rich
in all endowments of nature, have for ages enjoyed a high
degree of culture. Conveniently placed, they have received
all the advantages of contact with the civilization of China,
India, and even that of the Arabs from the distant west of Asia.
Never were people more favourably situated for obtaining
foreign systems of weights and measures, if they felt so disposed,
than the Malays of Java and Sumatra and the other islands of
the Indian Archipelago. That admirable observer, John Craw-
furd, writing in 1820 says 1 : " In the native measures everything
is estimated by bulk and not by weight. Among a rude
people corn would necessarily be the first commodity that
would render it a matter of necessity and convenience to fix
some means for its exchange or barter. The manner in which
this is effected among the Javanese will point out the imper-
fection of their methods. Rice, ' the principal grain, is in
reaping nipped off the stalk with a few inches of the straw,
tied up in sheaves or parcels and then housed or sold, or other-
wise disposed of. The quantity of rice in the straw which can
be clenched between the thumb and the middle finger is called
a gagam or handful, and forms the lowest denomination. Three
ijmjmm or handfuls make one pochong, the quantity which
can be clenched between both hands joined. This is properly
a sheaf. Two sheaves or pochouge joined together, as is always
the case, for the convenience of being thrown across a stick
i<>r transportation, make a double sheaf or gedeng. Five
gedengs make a songga, the highest measure in some provinces,
or twenty-four make an hamat, the more general measure.
From their very nature these measures are indefinite and
hardly amount to more accuracy than we employ ourselves
when we speak of sheaves of corn. In the same district they
are tolerably regular in the quantity of grain or straw they
1 History of the Indian Archipelago by John Crawfurd, F.B.S. Vol. I.,
p. 271.
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 171
contain, but such is the wide difference between different
districts or provinces, that the same nominal measures are
often twice, nay three times as large in one as in another. For
the hamat or larger measure perhaps about eight hundred pounds
avoirdupois might be considered a fair average for the different
provinces of Java. This may convey some loose notion of the
quantities intended to be represented. For dry and liquid
measures they may naturally have recourse to the shell of the
cocoanut and the joint of the bamboo which are constantly at
hand. The first called by the Malays chupa is estimated to be
two and a half pounds avoirdupois. The second is called by
some tribes kidch and is equal to a gallon, but the most com-
mon bamboo measure is the gantung, which is twice this
amount. To those exact and business-like dealers, the Chinese,
arid in a less degree to the Arabs and people of the east coast
of the Indian Peninsula, the Indian islanders are chiefly in-
debted for any precision we find in their weights. In all the
traffic carried on between the commercial tribes and foreigners,
the Chinese weights, though occasionally under native names,
are constantly referred to. The lowest of these, called some-
times by the native name of Bungkal, but more frequently by
the Chinese name of Tahil [te], varies from twenty-four penny-
weights nine grains to thirty pennyweights and twenty grains.
Ten of these make a kati [catty] or about twenty ounces avoir-
dupois; one hundred katis make a, pikid or 133 Jibs, avoirdupois,
and thirty piculs make one koycm. Of these the kati and the
pikul, because they are constantly referred to in considerable
mercantile dealings, are the only well-defined weights. The
koyan by some is reckoned at twenty pitculs, by others at
twenty-seven, twenty-eight and even at forty. The Dutch are
fond of equalizing it with their own standards and consider it
as equal to a last or two tons.
" The Sahara, an Arabic weight, is occasionally used in the
weighing of pepper, but its amount is very indefinite, for in
some of the countries of the Archipelago it amounts to 396 Ibs.,
and in others to 560 Ibs."
Elsewhere he says 1 , " The pical is strictly a Chinese weight
1 P. 275.
172 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ?
as its amount shews, though the term happens in this case to be
native. Its meaning in the vernacular languages is a natural
load or burthen, and when used in this primitive sense it,
without reference to the Chinese weight, is not found to
exceed eighty pounds avoirdupois." This is a fact of great
importance as we shall see when we come to the development
of the mina and talent of Graeco-Asiatic commerce.
Finally Crawfurd says, " The nice question of weighing gold,
the only native commodity which could not be estimated by
tale or bulk, has given rise to the use of weights among the
natives themselves. Grains of rice are still occasionally used
in the weighing of gold in the neighbourhood of the gold mines
in Sumatra " (p. 274).
I have quoted at full length these passages in order that
the reader may accept with fuller confidence statements so
instructive as regards the origin of weight, the first object
to be weighed, and the origin of the picul, or as we may
call it the talent of Eastern Asia. Nine years before Craw-
furd wrote there had appeared William Marsden's admirable
History of Sumatra 1 . He gives us far fuller information on
the subject of gold than Crawfurd has done. Thus he writes :
" In those parts of the country where traffic in this article
(gold dust) is considerable, it is employed as currency instead
of coin ; every man carries small scales about him, and pur-
chases are made with it so low as to the weight of a grain
or two of padi. Various seeds are used as gold weights, but
more especially these two: the one called rakat or saga-tim-
bangan (Glycine abrus L or abrtis maculatics of the Batavian
trans.), being the well-known scarlet pea with a black spot,
twenty-four of which constitute a mas, and sixteen mas (mace)
a tail (tael) : the other called saga puku and kondori batang
(Aden anthera pavonia L), a scarlet or rather coral bean much
larger than the former, and without the black spot. It is the
<'.ui<larin weight of the Chinese, of which one hundred make a
tail and equal, according to the tables published by Stevens, to
5'7984 gr. Troy, but the average weight of those in my posses-
1 History of Sumatra by William Marsden, F.K.S. (London, 1811), p. 171.
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 173
sion is 10'50 Troy grains. The tail differs however in the
northern and southern parts of the island, being at Natal,
Padang, Bencoolen and elsewhere twenty-six pennyweights six
grains. At Achin the bangkal of thirty pennyweights twenty-
one grains is the standard. Spanish dollars are everywhere
current and accounts are kept in dollars, sukus (imaginary
quarter dollars) and kepping or copper cash, of which four
hundred go to the dollar. Besides these there are silver
fanams, single, double and treble (the latter, called tali),
coined at Madras, twenty- four fanams or eight talis being equal
to the Spanish dollar, which is always valued in the English
settlements at five shillings."
He adds that copper is sold by weight (picul), and that tin,
which was accidentally discovered in 1710 by the burning of a
house, is exported for the most part in small pieces or cakes
called tampangs, sometimes in slabs (p. 172), and furthermore
they purchase bar iron by measurement instead of by weight
(p. 176).
Several points of great importance are to be noticed in the
foregoing statements. Firstly, that whilst for foreign trade
with the Chinese they employ the Chinese weight, which we
know always by its Malay name of picul, a well-defined
weight standard of 133J Ibs. avoirdupois, they had evidently
a native unit of weight, their own picul, which simply means
and actually was as much as a man can carry on his back,
and which, as we saw, rarely exceeds 80 Ibs. avoirdupois.
This seems to give us an insight into the manner in which the
most primitive highest weight unit is arrived at. A man's
load is one of those natural standards which will vary according
to race and climate, and the conditions under which the load
has to be borne. Thus, the average weight of the load borne
by a dock porter who has to endure the strain for only some
few yards, will of course be far higher than that carried by
the porters of travellers in Central Africa, where the load has
to be borne day after day on a march of several hundred,
or a thousand miles. Thus in the case of the Madis, a pure
negro tribe, the average load seems to be about 50 pounds,
which they can carry " 20 miles a day for eight or ten con-
174 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED?
secutive days without shewing any signs of distress 1 ." The
Chinese, the superiors in science of all Eastern Asia, have care-
fully adjusted this "load," and it makes, as we have seen above,
their highest weight unit. Its particular amount is probably
due to the fact that, having carefully fixed the weight of the
smaller units, the candarin, the mace, the Hung or tael, and
the catty, their pound, they simply took the hundredfold of the
chang or catty as the standard for their highest unit, and thus
that which at an earlier stage was just as vague and fluctuating
as the picul, or back-loads in use still among the less-advanced
peoples of the Indian Archipelago, became a fixed scientific unit.
Secondly, we must notice that the Malays have not followed
the Chinese in the subdivisions of the catty. For whilst in
China 16 taels or ounces go to the catty, the Malays follow
more strictly the decimal system, and make their catty simply
the tenfold of the tael or ounce. This same method of division
we found already in Annam, and not only in Annam but also in
Cambodia and Laos we found the silver nen or bar, invariably
consisting of ten such parts, corresponding in weight to the
Chinese ta-el, sixteen of which go to the catty.
It would appear, then, that here we have a combination of
units of weight and units of capacity. The higher gold and
silver unit, the nen, is simply the tenfold of the lower unit, the
tael or ounce, while the catty, which is never employed in
China in estimating gold or silver, but is a genuine commercial
unit, was probably originally some natural unit of capacity.
We saw strong evidence of this in Cambodia, where the name
for this weight is neal or cocoanut, and we have just found
the cocoanut as the chief unit of dry measure amongst
the Malays of the Indian Seas. It was probably found that
16 times the tael or ounce came nearer to the weight of the
contents of a cocoanut or bamboo joint (whatever kind of
matter they may have weighed in it for this purpose, whether
rice, or water), than the original 10 ounces, which formed the
l a-, the highest genuine weight unit. Sixteen was likewise a
convenient number, its factors being numerous, and it could be
1 R. W. Felkin, 'Notes on the Madi or Moon tribe of Central Africa.' 7V/*-
i';;linri8 of Royal Socirti/ of Kdinlniri/h, Vol. xn. pp. 303,
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 175
divided in four portions, each of which contained four other
units. It will presently be a question as to whether similar
influences have not produced our pound avoirdupois, with its
16 sub-multiples.
M. Moura found a difficulty regarding the Cambodian neal
or cocoanut catty ; because a neal of rice only weighs half the
weight, at which the neal is rated as a weight. But we saw
in Java that the chapa or cocoanut measure is estimated at
2J pounds avoirdupois. It is then not improbable that some
liquid or substance far heavier than rice was used to fill the cocoa-
nut, when the value of its contents was being ascertained by
weighing so as to serve as a general unit. The same variation
in weight, owing to the different nature of its contents, has, as
mentioned before, given rise in Ireland to barrels of various
weights. Thus a barrel of wheat contains 20 stone avoirdu-
pois, a barrel of potatoes 24 stone, a barrel of barley 16 stone,
and a barrel of oats 14 stone. This diversity simply arose from
comparative lightness or heaviness of the different commodities
which were measured by one and the same unit of capacity :
the barrel itself, having been fixed by a process of measure-
ment, similar to that by which the milk-pan was regulated
among the Welsh, and the pannier among the natives of
Laos. The principle by which higher units of capacity or
weight are formed is likewise well illustrated by the instance
given above of the cartload of rice, which is simply regarded as
the multiple of the pannier or bag, which forms the smaller
unit for rice. The size of the cartload would be conditioned by
the size of the cart usually employed, which in turn would
depend on a variety of other things, such as the nature of the
country, or its roads, or the kind of animals employed for
draught. The vagueness in amount of the koyan or multiple
of the picul noticed by Crawford, may thus meet with a reason-
able explanation.
We may now return to the mainland of Asia, where we
shall find in the weight system of the Hindus at least one
remarkable point of affinity with that of Sumatra. Marsden
has told us that the rakat or scarlet pea with a black spot is
one of the chief weights employed for gold in Sumatra. This
170 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED?
rakat is none other than the ratti, which is usually taken as
the basis of the modern Hindu weight system. " This weight,"
says that eminent scholar Colebrooke 1 , " is the lowest denomi-
nation in general use, commonly known by the name ratti, the
same with rattika, which, as well as raktika, denotes the red
seed as knshnala indicates the black seed of the gunjd-
creeper." Mr Thomas has shown the true weight of the ratti
is 1*75 grains 2 .
Many different standards have been used in India for various
purposes, one for the weighing of gold, another for the weighing
of silver, another used by jewellers, and yet another by the
medical tribe, but all alike start from the ratti.
" The determination of the true weight of the ratti has done
much both to facilitate and give authority to the comparison of
the ultimately divergent standards of the ethnic kingdoms of
India. Having discovered the guiding unit, all other calcula-
tions become simple, and present singularly convincing results,
notwithstanding that the bases of all these estimates rest upon
so erratic a test as the growth of the seed of the gunja-creepeT
(Abiius precatorius) under the varied influences of soil and
climate. Nevertheless the small compact grain, checked in
early times by other products of nature, is seen to have the
remarkable faculty of securing a uniform average through-
out the entire continent of India, which only came to be
disturbed when monarchs like Shir Shah and Akbar in
their vanity raised the weight of the coinage without any
reference to the numbers of rattis, inherited from Hindu
sources, and officially recognized in the old, but entirely dis-
regarded and left undefined in the reformed Muhammadan
mintages 3 ." We shall learn shortly that in its uniformity the
ratti does not differ from other seeds such as wheat and barley.
Probably, however, the fact that the gunja-creeper was found
everywhere in India gave it its position of a universal standard.
1 H. T. Colebrooke, On Indian Weight* and Measures (Miscellaneous Essays
edited by Prof. E. B. Cowell, 1873), Vol. i. 528543.
2 Numismatic Chronicle, iv. 131 (N. a.).
3 Thomas, Initial Coinage of Hfnijal, n. p. C (Royal Asiatic Journal, Vol.
vi.).
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 177
Those who wish to study the elaborate systems of later times
employed in India can consult the works of Colebrooke and
Thomas already referred to.
The legislators Marm, Yajnavalkya, and Narada trace all
weights from the least visible quantity which they concur in
naming trasarenu and describing as the very small mote, "which
may be discovered in a sunbeam passing through a lattice."
Writers on medicine proceed a step further, and affirm that a
trasarenu contains 30 paramdnu or atoms. The legislators
above-named proceed from the trasarenu as follows :
8 trasarenus = 1 likshd, or minute poppy-seed.
3 likshds = 1 raja-sarshapa, or black mustard-seed.
3 raja-sarshapas 1 gaura-sarshapa, or white mustard-seed.
6 gaura-sarshapas= 1 yava, or middle-sized barley-corn.
3 yavas = 1 krishnala, or seed of the gunjd.
But as we want to learn what was the actual usage of the
Hindus, instead of dealing with the mere theoretic statements of
late authors, I shall at once quote in full the tables given in
the Lilavati of Brahmegupta, who wrote his Algebra and Arith-
metic about 600 A.D. 1
MONEY (by tale). Twice ten cowries' 2 are a cdcim; four of
these are a pdna, sixteen of which must here be considered as
a dramma, and in like manner a nishkd, as consisting of sixteen
of these.
WEIGHT. A gunjd (or seed of Abrus), is reckoned equal to
two barley-corns (yavas). A valla is two gunjas, and eight of
these are a dharana, two of which make a yadyanaca. In like
manner one dhataca is composed of fourteen vallas.
Half ten gunjas are called a masha by such as are conversant
with the use of the balance; a karsha contains sixteen of what
1 Algebra with Arithmetic and Mensuration translated from the Sanskrit of
Brahmegupta and Bhascara by H. T. Colebrooke (London, 1817).
2 Down almost to the present day a system of currency, similar to that
shown in the Lilavati 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).
R. 12
178 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ?
are called mashas, a pala four karshas. A karsha of gold is
named suvarna.
This is quite in harmony with the weight of gold as given
by the legislators :
5 krishnalas or raktikas = 1 mdsha.
16 mdshas = 1 karsha, aksha, tolaka, or suvarna.
4 karshas or suvarnas = 1 jt)aa or nisJika.
10 palas = 1 dharana of gold.
Yajnavalkya adds that according to some 5 suvarnas =
1 pala.
All the authorities seem agreed in regarding the term
suvarna as peculiar to gold, for which metal it is also a name.
We learn thus that the Hindu standards were fixed by
means of natural seeds, and at no period do they, clever mathe-
maticians as they were, seem to have made any effort at ob-
taining a mathematical basis for their metric systems.
We also observe that the weight known as the suvarna or
gold weight par excellence is the weight of a karsha or 80 gunjds,
which, if we take the gunjd = 1*75 grains Troy, gives the weight
of the suvarna as 140 grains. I have already (p. 127) taken the
original Hindu gold unit as not far from this amount. From
the Lllavati we may now with little misgiving assume it to
have been such.
Lastly, let us observe that the barley-corn appears as
the basis of the system in the tables of Brahmegupta and
Bhascara, although the raktika evidently overmasters it in the
course of time. This is very interesting, for it indicates that
the Hindus had learned the art of weighing in a comparatively
northern region, where barley was the chief cereal under culti-
vation. If the system had been invented in the more southern
parts of India, the grain of rice, the staple of life in the southern
regions, would certainly have appeared as the sub-multiple of
the raktika, instead of the barley. As a matter of fact, rice-
grains seem to have been occasionally used locally, for Cole-
brooke remarks that " it is also said that the raktika is equal
in weight to four grains of rice in the husk." This supposition
is completely in accord with what we found in Persia, where
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 179
the modern weight system for gold, silver and medicine runs
thus :
3 gendum dsho (barley-corn) = 1 nashod.
4 nashod (a kind of pea, lupin?) = 1 dung.
6 dung = 1 miscal 1 .
Although the miscal and habba denote Arabic influence, we
may, without straining probabilities, conjecture that the use of
the barley-corn here as well as in India, where we found it at
a period anterior to Muhammadan conquest, indicates that in
Persia it existed likewise from the earliest times. The close
relationship between the ancient Hindus and ancient Persians
makes it all the more likely. It is also pointed out that
formerly the nashod was divided into three instead of four
grains. As the Arabs divide their karat into four habbas, it is
all the more likely that the 3 barley-corns = 1 nashod belong
to the ancient system.
The Arab weight system is based on the grain of wheat,
four of which make a karat (the seed of the carob or St John's
Bread) 2 . Occasionally in the Arab writers mention is made of a
karat divided into 3 habbas*. The weight of the karat remains
unchanged, but the grains in this case are barley grains, since,
as we shall see presently, 3 grains of barley are equal to 4 grains
of wheat ('063 x 3 = 4'047 x 4).
It will now be most convenient for us to begin in the
extreme west, and once more from that work back towards
the coast of the Aegean Sea, in which our chief interest must
always be centred.
Whether the Kelts of Ireland had any indigenous weight
system or not, we have no direct evidence, although we do
know as a fact that when Caesar landed in Kent he found the
Britons employing coins of gold and bronze, and bars (or ac-
cording to some MSS. rings) of iron adjusted to a fixed weight.
However the earliest Irish documents reveal that people using
1 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.
2 Queipo, Essai sur les Systemes Metriques et Monetaires des anciens peuples
i. 360 (Paris, 1859).
122
180 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ?
a system of weights for silver directly borrowed from the older
Roman system (although it is likely that they had a native
standard for gold). As the solidus and denarius became the
chief units of Europe from the time of Constantine the Great
(336 A.D.), the Irish probably received their system at an earlier
date.
1 unga (uncia) = 24 screapalls (scripula).
\screapall = %pingiuns.
1 pingiun = 8 grains of wheat 1 .
When we pass to England, the very word grain which we
employ to express our lowest weight unit, would of itself
suggest that originally some kind of grain or seed was employed
by our forefathers in weighing, but as the grain in use among
us is the grain Troy, and as we have not yet learned its origin,
it will not do to argue vaguely from etymology. But a little
enquiry soon brings us to a time when the grain Troy did not
as yet form the basis of English weights, and when a far simpler
method of fixing the weight of the king's coinage was in vogue.
It was ordained by 12 Henry VII. ch. v. "that the bushel is to
contain eight gallons of wheat, and every gallon eight pounds
of wheat, and every pound twelve ounces of Troy weight, and
every ounce twenty sterlings, and every sterling to be of the
weight of thirty-two grains of wheat that grew in the midst
of the ear of wheat according to the old laws of this land 2 ."
Going backwards we find that in 1280 (8 Edward I.) the penny
was to weigh 24 grains, which by weight then appointed were
as much as the former 32 grains of wheat. By the Statute
De Ponderibus, of uncertain date but put by some in 1265, it
was ordained that the penny sterling should weigh 32 grains of
wheat, round and dry, and taken from the midst of the ear.
Going back a step still further we find that by the Laws of
Ethelred, every penny weighed 32 grains of wheat 8 , and as the
pennies struck by King Alfred weigh 24 grains Troy, we may
assume without hesitation that they were struck on the same
1 Ancient Laws of Ireland, Vol. iv. 335, (Book of Aicill), O'Donovan's
Supplement, s.v. pingiun.
2 Ruding, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain, u. 58.
3 Ruding, op. cit. i. 369,
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ? 181
standard of 32 grains of wheat. Thus from Alfred (871901)
down to Henry VII. (1485 1509), we find the penny fixed by
this primitive method, and the actual weight of the coins, as
tested by the balance at the present day, affords proof positive
of the method.
But all the standards of mediaeval Europe (with the excep-
tion of the Irish) were based on the gold solidus of Constantino
the Great 1 . The solidus (itself weighing 72 grains Troy or
-fa of the Roman pound) was divided into 24 siliquae. The
siliqua, or as the Greeks called it keration (xepdnov. from
which comes our word carat), was the seed of the carob, or as
it is often called, St Johns Bread (Ceratonia siliqua L). Thus
the lowest unit in the Roman system, as it is usually given,
is found to be the seed of a plant. The same holds of the
Greek system, for the drachma is described as containing 18
kerata or keratia, whilst according to others "it contains three
grammata, but the gramma contains two obols and the obol
contains three kerata, and the keras contains four wheat grams 2 ."
From this we see that the keration or siliqua was further re-
duced to 4 sitaria, or grains of wheat, whilst from another
ancient table of weights 3 we learn that the siliqua likewise
equals 3 barley-corns (siliqua grana ordei iii). Hence it- ap-
pears that 3 barley-corns = 4 wheat grains. Thus both Greek
and Roman systems just like the English and Irish take as
their smallest unit a grain of corn. This also throws important
light on the origin of that mysterious thing, the Troy grain.
We saw above (8 Edward I.) that at the time of its introduction
into England that 24 grains Troy = 32 grains of wheat, that is
the Troy grain stands to wheat grain as 3 : 4. But as we have
just seen that the siliqua = 3 barley-corns, and also = 4 wheat-
corns, it follows that 3 barley-corns = 4 wheat-corns. And as
3 Troy grains = 4 wheat-corns, it likewise follows that 3 Troy
grains = 3 barley-corns, or in other words, the barley-corn and
1 Marquardt, Rom. Staatsverioaltung, n. p. 30.
2 Fragm. ap. Hultsch, Metrol. Script, i. 248, ij 5 dpax/J-Ti K^para ir)'. d\\oi
x i 7p<W t ds T/oe?s...r6 ypd/m^a <5/3oXoi)s j3'. 6 8 6/3o\6s Kepara. y'. rb
i ffi-Tapia. 5' .
3 Hultsch, Op. cit. ii. 128.
182 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ?
Troy grain are the same thing. It thus appears that the Troy
grain is nothing more than the barley-corn, which was used as
the weight unit in preference to the grain of wheat in some
parts of the Roman empire. Furthermore this relation between
barley-corns and wheat-corns can be proved to be a fact of
Nature. In September, 1887, I placed in the opposite scales of
a balance 32 grains of wheat " dry and taken from the midst of
the ear," and 24 grains of barley taken from ricks of corn grown
in the same field at Fen Ditton, near Cambridge, and I thrice
repeated the experiment ; each time they balanced so evenly
that a half grain weight turned the scale. The grain of Scotch
wheat weighs '047 gram, the Troy grain = '064, '047 x 4 = 188,
064 x 3 = 192. Practically 4 wheat grains = 3 Troy grains.
Before passing from the Greek and Roman standards I
may add that even higher denominations than the siliqua were
expressed by the seeds of plants. The Romans made the
lupin (lupinus) = 2 siliquae and under its Greek name of
tltermos (deppos), it was assigned a like value (Metrol. Script. I.
81). In the Carmen de Ponderibus (Metrol. Script. II. 16), 6
grains of pulse (grana lentis) are made equal to 6 siliquae,
and a like number of grains of spelt are given a similar value.
We next advance towards the East and take up the Semitic
systems. We have already had occasion to touch upon that of
the Arabs when dealing with the modern Persians. " There can
be little doubt," says Queipo (i. 360), " that the Arab system of
weight was based on the grain of wheat." The habba was their
smallest unit. Four habbas are equal to 1 karat, the latter of
course representing the keration or siliqua, and the former the 4
sitaria or wheat-grains, which we saw were its equivalent. This
is the most ordinary value given to the karat in Makrizi and the
other Arabic writers on Metrology, but occasionally we find the
karat made equal to only 3 grains, which of course are barley-
corns. We saw above that in the Persian system the nashod was
formerly divided into 4 habbi of '048 gram (which is plainly the
weight of the wheat-grain), whilst now it is divided into 3 grains
each of '063 which represents the barley-corn, or in other words
the Troy grain of '064 gram. Of course the objection might
be raised that as the Arabs had borrowed their higher de-
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ? 183
nominations such as the dirhem (8pax/j,rj) and dinar (denarius,
fyvapiov), from the Greeks and Romans, and as their standard
weight the mithkal is nothing more than the sextula or J of
the Roman ounce, employed in the eastern Empire under the
name of exagion (dgdyiov, whence comes the saggio of Marco
Polo), so too their wheat-corns and barley-corns were not of
their own devising, but likewise adventitious. After what we
have seen above (p. 166) to be the practice of primitive
people in the selling of gold, a traffic in which the Arabs had
been engaged for many ages, it would seem hardly necessary
to reply to such an argument, but as a more complete answer
can be given in the course of the last portion of this enquiry, we
shall deal with it in that place.
We now come to the Assyrians themselves, from the
discovery of whose weights in the shape of lions and ducks,
the whole modern theory of a scientific origin for all the weight
standards of the Greeks as well as Asiatics and Egyptians has
had its origin. But even within this sacred precinct of d priori
metrology the irrepressible grain of corn springs up vigorously,
although almost choked by the abundant crop of tares which
have been sown around it. If we find that a Semitic people,
who were the ancients of the earth before Pelops passed from
Asia into Greece, or Romulus had founded his Asylum, em-
ployed the wheat grain as their lowest weight unit, we may
then well argue that ages before the birth of the Prophet and
the Arab conquest of Egypt and Syria, the Semitic folks
employed grains of corn to form their lowest weight unit.
M. Aures 1 , a well-known Assyrian metrologist, has recently
set forth the Assyrian system in its latest and most advanced
stage. Following the veteran Assyriologist, M. Oppert, he finds
that the Assyrians used a denomination lower than the obol.
In the Museum of the Louvre there is a small Assyrian weight
of the "duck" kind, which bears on its base the Assyrian
character of 22 grains J. The ideogram translated grain is
evidently meant to represent some kind of corn with a rounded
end. The weight of this object is '95 gram (14f grains
1 Recueil de travaux relatifs a la Pliilologie et I'Archeologie Egyptienne et
Assyrienne, Vol. x. fasc. 4, p. 157.
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ?
Troy). The weight is a f obol, and therefore 30 grains went
to the obol. This is the obol of the heavy Assyrian system,
of which we shall presently speak. For the sake of clearness,
I take M. Aures' table.
30 grains = 1 obol.
6 obols = 1 drachm.
2 drachms = 1 shekel.
10 drachms = 1 " stone."
60 =1 light mina.
For our present purpose it is quite sufficient to call atten-
tion to the fact that this grain which forms the lowest unit
of the Assyrian scale weighs '042 gram ('95 -f- 22*5) which is
a very close approximation to the weight of the wheat-grain
(047). Making allowance for some loss which the weight may
have sustained, it seems impossible to doubt that we have here
the wheat-grain being used to form the smallest unit as it is in
the modern Arabic system. The double obol of the Assyrians
weighs 30 grains ; we shall also find that the Hebrew gerdh or
obol (twenty of which made a shekel), weighed exactly 15 grains
of wheat, that is the Hebrew gerdh is the light obol which stood
side by side with the heavy obol of 30 grains in the Assyrian
system. Let us treat the matter from a slightly different point
of view : As the light Assyrian obol contained 15 Assyrian
grains, the light shekel contained 180 Assyrian grs. But as we
know that this light Assyrian shekel weighed 8*4 grams, or 131
grains Troy, and as we know that the Troy grain is really the
barley-corn and likewise that 3 barley-corns = 4 wheat grains,
it is obvious that 131 grains Troy = 175 wheat grs. nearly, a
very close approximation to the 180 Assyrian grs. Again as
180 Assyrian grs. = 8*4 grams, the Assyrian grain weighed
()4(j gram, that is almost exactly the weight of a wheat grain
('047 gram).
But let us see for a moment in what fashion M. Aures
accounts for the presence of corn-grains in a system so elabo-
rately scientific as he and his school maintain.
Starting as usual with the old assumption that all weight
standards come from the measures of capacity and all measures
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 185
of capacity in their turn are derived from the linear measures,
he proceeds thus : The Assyrian ideogram which represents
tribute, likewise represents talent. Tribute being paid in corn,
no doubt the idea of weight first arose as the people carried
their quota of corn on their backs to the receipt of custom.
They accordingly weighed the measure (bar), which contained
the proper amount of corn and took it as their weight unit, and
then proceeded to make subdivisions of it. When their weight
system was thus fixed, for convenience instead of going to the
trouble of adjusting weights they took 30 grains of corn which
would be just equivalent to the weight of an obol. After the
many historical instances quoted in the preceding pages in
which the methods of appraising the value of corn and other
dry commodities have been set out, and also the manner in
which corn grains have been employed for fixing the higher
standard, as for instance in the adjustment of the English
bushel in the reign of Henry VII., the reader will feel that
M. Aures has simply inverted the true order of events, and that
as we found the natives of Annam and the Malays of the Indian
Archipelago making their first essay in weighing by means of
a grain of maize, or rice, or padi, so the ancient inhabitants of
Mesopotamia made their first beginning, and as we have fo.und
everywhere that gold, the most precious of objects, was the
first thing to be weighed, and as it only existed in small quan-
tities, thus requiring but a very small unit of weight, so the
Assyrians likewise began to weigh gold first of all, employing
the natural seeds of corn, and only in process of time arrived at
higher units by multiplying the smaller.
To all the evidence collected from Asia and Europe we can
likewise add a fact of great importance from Africa. We saw
that it was highly probable that the Carthaginians traded for
gold to the West Coast of Africa, and beyond all reasonable
doubt the natives of the Gold Coast have for ages been ac-
quainted with that metal. Now it can be proved that these
peoples, whilst employing no weights for any other mercantile
transaction, used the seeds of certain plants for weighing their
gold ; thus Bosnian writing two centuries ago says, " Having
treated of gold at large, I am now obliged to say something
186 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED?
concerning the gold weights, which are either pounds, marks,
ounces or angels We use here another kind of weights
which are a sort of beans, the least of which are red spotted
with black and called Dambas ; twenty-four of them amount to
an angel, and each of them is reckoned two stiver weights; the
white beans with black spots or those entirely black are heavier
and accounted four stiver weights: these they usually call
Tacoes, but there are some which weigh half or a whole gilder,
but are not esteemed certain weights, but used at pleasure and
often become instruments of fraud. Several have believed that
the negroes only used wooden weights, but that is a mistake ;
all of them have cast weights either of copper or tin, which
though divided or adjusted in a manner quite different to ours;
yet upon reduction agree exactly with them 1 ".
I am informed by Mr Quayle Jones, Chief Justice of
Sierra Leone, that at the present day, a seed called the Taku
(with a black spot) is employed by the natives of the Gold
Coast for weighing gold. He also tells me that small quantities
of gold are measured by a quill in ordinary dealings in the
market 2 . I learn from another private source that 6 Takus =
1 ackie (20 ackies = 1 ounce). From Bosnian's equating the
bean with the red spot to 2 stiver- weights, we can deduce its
weight as 2 grs. troy; this result combined with the colour of
the bean would make us a priori conclude that the Damba was
the Abrus precatorius, so familiar to us already under its Hindu
name of ratti.
Here we have a primitive people with a weight system of
their own based on the Damba and Taku, just as the Hindu
is based on the ratti, and here too we have another proof that
the first of all articles to be weighed is gold. From Bosnian
we also learn that gold in small quantities was not always
weighed, for he says of the inferior gold which was mixed with
1 Bosman, Guinea, Letter VI. (Pinkerton's Voyages, Vol. xvi. p. 374).
2 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.
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 187
silver or copper, that it is cast into fetiches (small grotesque
figures). " These fetiches are cut into small bits by the negroes
of one, two, or three farthings. The negroes know the exact value
of these bits so well at sight, that they never are mistaken, and
accordingly they sell them to each other without weighing as
we do coined money 1 ." This recalls the practice as regards
silver among the Tibetans at the present day.
Crossing to the eastern side of Africa we find the natives of
Madagascar employing a system, the basis of which is a grain
of rice. " The Malagasy have no circulating medium of their
own. Dollars are known more or less throughout the island :
but in many of the provinces trade is carried on principally by
an exchange of commodities. The Spanish dollar, stamped with
the two pillars, bears the highest value. For sums below a
dollar the inconvenient method is resorted to in the interior, of
weighing the money in every case. Dollars are cut up into
small pieces, and four iron weights are used for the half, quarter,
eighth, and twelfth of a dollar. Below that amount, divisions
are effected by combinations of the four weights, and also by
means of grains of rice, even down so low as one single grain
" Vary vray venty," one plump grain, valued at the seven
hundred and twentieth part of a dollar 2 . The grain of -rice
therefore weighs f gr. troy ('036 gram). As gold is not found
in Madagascar 3 the natives could not weigh it first of all things ;
but they have carried out the principle of taking silver, the
most precious article they possessed, as the first object to be
weighed.
In this chapter, therefore, we have sought the method by
which weight standards are fixed among primitive and semi-
civilized peoples ; we have studied the system or systems of
China, Cochin-China, Cambodia, Laos and the great Islands of
the Indian Ocean. Everywhere we have received the self-same
answer, everywhere the lowest unit is nothing more than a
natural seed or grain. We found in two places in the area
1 Op. cit. 373. " The fetiches they cast in moulds made of a black and
heavy earth into what form they please." (p. 367.)
2 Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. p. 335.
3 Op. cit. i. p. 6.
188 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED?
studied, amongst the Tapaks of Annam and the Malays of
Sumatra, the art of weighing in its earliest infancy; only one
product, gold, as yet being weighed, and the weight unit em-
ployed for it being a grain of rice or maize. We found that
this smallest natural unit of gold was amongst the Bahnars
equated to the smallest unit of barter in use among them, the
hoe, whilst their highest unit was the buffalo; and that by a
simple process based on the known relation existing in value
between the hoe, the muk, the jar, and the buffalo, there was
no difficulty in arriving empirically at the exact value in gold
of a buffalo. We found also that the two higher units of
weight the picul, and the catty, which in almost every case were
found to be confined to the ordinary merchandise-, were beyond
reasonable doubt not originally multiples of the lower the tael,
but were really natural units obtained by a totally different
process ; the picul being the amount which an average man can
conveniently carry on his back, the catty, as seen especially in
the case of the neal of Cambodia, being nothing more than the
cocoa-nut shell used as the ordinary measure of capacity, as a
gourd of a certain kind is employed at Zanzibar, as the hen's egg
was employed by the Hebrews and also by the ancient Irish, as
the cochlea or mussel shell was taken by the Romans as the basis
of their measures of capacity, and as possibly the gourd itself
under its name of Kyathos formed the lowest unit of capacity
among the Greeks. We saw clearly that the catty has never
become a weight-unit for precious metals among the Chinese,
Annamites or Cambodians; the first named never having used
any higher unit for such purpose than a bar of ten taels, and at
the present day for the most part contenting themselves with the
tael or ounce, whilst the two latter still use the ndn or bar with
its subdivisions into 10 denhs, or in other words, use as their
highest monetary unit the tenfold of the tael or ounce. We
likewise found that in Annam among the less advanced peoples
there was considerable evidence to show that the bat or tical
was originally the highest unit used for gold, and that this name
bat was applied to weights of different amount; thus the
chi which in commercial weight is only the quarter of a bat,
is itself called the gold bat. The bat itself was the third
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 180
of the tael. We also found the bar of silver, the common
monetary unit at the present moment, equated to the buffalo,
the common unit of barter among the Bahnars, and finally we
had a distinct tradition that not so long ago the wild tribesmen
who win the gold dust from the sands of their native brooks
did not as yet even weigh the metal by means of the grains
of maize which are now employed, but that they measured
off a small rod of gold an inch long as the equivalent of a
buffalo.
From all these facts it seems easy to trace the history of
the development of weight standards in Further Asia; the
first stage in trafficking in gold seems to be one purely by
measure, then comes that of weighing by means of grains of
corn, the weight in gold of one or more grains of corn being
taken in the ordinary way of barter like other articles in the
common scale of exchange. A multiple of the higher unit the
bat was formed, possibly based on the slave as the multiple
of the buffalo. This multiple is threefold of the bat, in that re-
spect offering a strange analogy to the gold talent of Sicily,
Magna Graecia, and Macedonia, which is the threefold of the
Homeric ox-unit, and which, as I have conjectured, may have
represented the value of a slave, as we certainly know as a fact
that the highest unit in the Irish system, the cumfial, which
represented the value of three cows or three ounces of silver,
was neither more nor less than an ancilla (or ordinary slave-
woman): the tenfold of this tael was the highest unit employed
for either gold or silver by the most advanced peoples in this
region, and is very well known as the nen or bar. All other goods
were long appraised by measurement, the lowest unit of capacity
being the cocoa-nut or the joint of the bamboo, the former
known certainly to the Cambodians, the latter to the Chinese,
whilst both are equally familiar to the Malays. The weight of
the contents of the bamboo or cocoa-nut was presently taken, the
standard employed being the tael, or highest unit yet employed
for the precious metals. The weight of the contents would
depend on the nature of the substance or liquid employed, for
instance rice or some other kind of grain, or water. Thus
the Chinese equate their catty to 16 taels ; no doubt too
190 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED?
convention came in at a later stage, and even though the
contents might not actually weigh 16 taels, it was found con-
venient for practical purposes to regard some suitable mul-
tiple of the tael, such as 16, as the legal weight of the catty.
A similar process was carried out in the case of the picul in
the more advanced communities; a load was equated to the
most convenient multiple of the catty, and as it was found
that 100 catties gave a sufficiently near approximation to the
ordinary load which a man could carry on his back, 100 catties
were made the legal contents of the picul of trade.
We also learned how currency in baser metals such as
copper or iron takes its origin. The history of the ordinary
copper cash of the Chinese, which can be clearly traced step by
step, brings us back to a time when a bronze knife, one of the
most requisite articles of daily life, formed the ordinary small
currency of the Chinese, just as the Greek obolos originally was
an actual spike made of copper or iron, and just as the Bahnars
of Annam still use the hoe as their lowest monetary denomina-
tion, an implement likewise similarly employed by the Chinese
at an early period, as miniature hoes at one time used as
true currency put beyond doubt. We also saw the negroes of
Central Africa employing iron made into pieces ready to be cut
into two hoes, and we also found those on the West Coast of
Africa and the Hottentots employing bars of iron in a raw state,
as a kind of currency. We also saw one most important feature
possessed by all those in common, viz. the fact that in the de-
termination of the value of the bar, the ingot, the piece of iron
made in the shape of two hoes, and the bronze knife, not weight
but linear measurement based on the parts of the human body,
was the method invariably employed.
We then advanced to Western Asia and Europe and found
everywhere alike the weight standards fixed by means of the
seeds of plants. The process likewise was made perfectly plain.
We did not find the highest denomination taken as the unit
and the lowest reached by a long process of subdivisions, and
finally for convenience sake described as consisting of so many
grains of corn, as the brilliant French savant assumes in the
case of the Assyrians : on the contrary we found that the bushel
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED ? 191
of Henry VII. was reached by first fixing the weight of the
penny sterling by means of 32 grains of wheat, round and dry
and " taken from the midst of the ear of wheat after the old laws
of the land." Again the Irish Kelts did not say that the unga
or ounce must contain so many screapalls, and each screapall so
many pingiuns, but they proceeded in quite the reverse way
first fixing the weight of the pingiun by eight grains of wheat.
We may then well assume that such too was the process among
Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Hindus. Brahmegupta, and the
legislators quoted above support this view by starting always
with the smallest unit. It is only when we come to the system
of Babylon we are asked to reverse the process, to admit that
the idea of weights began with corn, the very commodity of all
others which, according to all the instances previously quoted,
was the last to be valued by weight, and which even amongst
ourselves at this present moment can hardly be said to be re-
garded as an article appraised by weight. But furthermore if
the Assyrians regarded the Talent as their unit, and their lesser
denominations as its subdivisions, why did not the maker of the
weight mentioned above inscribe it as j- obol, or by some other
term to indicate that it was essentially regarded as a fraction of
a higher denomination, and not as a multiple of a lower? But
the ancient Assyrian who made the weight must plainly have
regarded it in the latter light, for otherwise he would not have
engraved on it 22 grains J, actually resorting to the fraction of
a grain. The only reasonable explanation of his conduct is that
he was as firmly impressed with the idea that the basis of his
system was the grain of corn (wheat) as were Brahmagupta, or
Henry VII/s parliament with the idea that the barley-corn and
wheat-corn were the bases of their respective systems. If the
objection be raised that the grains of corn were only devised in
days long after the scientific fixing of weight standards, my
answer is that if it was necessary to employ natural seeds as a
means of determining the accuracy of scientifically obtained
units, a fortiori it was necessary for mankind to have employed
such . seeds as their first step in the establishing of a system of
weights.
No simpler idea connected with weight could have struck
192 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED?
the primitive mind. The difficulty experienced by savages
in counting beyond 3 or 4 is met by them by the use of
counters. We are all familiar with the use of pebbles or small
stones among the Greeks and Romans. Our own word calcu-
late is simply an adaptation of the Latin calculare to count
by pebbles (calculi). Some nations, probably all, have been
unable to form abstract names for their numerals, and the name
of the concrete object which they habitually employed as a
counter has become firmly embedded as a suffix in the names
of their numerals. Thus the Aztec numerals end in tetl, a
pebble, because they employed small stones as counters. Simi-
larly the Malays whom we found weighing gold by means of
grains of padi employ that word as a numeral suffix, because
they employed grains of rice for their calculations or, to speak
more accurately, seminations. In the case of this people we
find coincident the most primitive forms of numeration and of
weighing, both processes being carried on by means of the same
simple instrument, which Nature put ready to hand in the corn
which formed their daily sustenance.
If any one still maintains that the Indian Islander or Tapak
of Annam learned the art of weighing by grains from the
Chinese, and would maintain that the latter either invented for
themselves or borrowed from Babylonia a scientifically devised
weight system, I will go a step further and try to produce
some evidence of the process by which weight standards are
arrived at, by seeking instances in a region so isolated as to be
beyond the reach of all suspicion of having borrowed from
Babylon.
From what I have said above, we cannot expect to find any
such community in the Old World. The New World on the
other hand supplies us with what we desire. When the
Spaniards under Cortes, conquered the Aztecs of Mexico, that
people, although in a high state of civilization, had as yet
no system of weights. In consequence of this want the
Spaniards experienced some difficulty in the division of the
treasure, until they supplied the deficiency with weights and
scales of their own manufacture. There was a vast treasure of
gold, which metal, found on the surface or gleaned from the
HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED? 193
beds of rivers, was cast into bars, or in the shape of dust made
part of the regular tribute of the southern provinces of the
empire. The traffic was carried on partly by barter, and partly
by means of a regulated currency of different values. This
consisted of transparent quills of gold dust, bits of tin cut in
the form of T, and bags full of cacao containing a specified
number of grains 1 .
From this we get an insight into the first beginnings of
weights. Some natural unit (and by natural I mean some
product of nature of which all specimens are of uniform dimen-
sion) is taken, such as the quill used by the Aztecs. The
average-sized quill of any particular kind of bird presents a
natural receptacle of very uniform capacity. These quills of
gold-dust were estimated at so many bags containing a certain
number of grains. The step is not a long one to the day when
some one will balance in a simple fashion quills of gold dust
against seeds of cacao, and find how much gold is equal to a
nut. Nature herself supplies in the seeds of plants weight-
units of marvellous uniformity. If any one objects to my
assumption that the Aztecs were on the very verge of the
invention of a weight system, my answer is that another race
of America, whose political existence ceased under the same
cruel conditions as that of their Northern contemporaries, I mean
the Iiicas of Peru, who were in a stage of civilization almost
the same as that of the Aztecs, had already found out the art of
weighing before the coming of the Spaniards, although they
were inferior to the Mexicans in so far as they had not a well-
defined system of hieroglyphic writing, nor of currency such
as the latter possessed. Scales made of silver have been dis-
covered in Inca graves 2 . The metal of which they are made
shows that they were only employed for weighing precious com-
modities of small bulk.
Unfortunately I can find no record of weights having been
found along with the silver scales in the Inca graves. If the
weights were simply natural seeds, they would easily perish, or
even if perfect when the tombs were opened, would be simply
1 Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, p. 44.
2 Prescott, Peru, p. 56.
R. 13
194 HOW WERE PRIMITIVE WEIGHT UNITS FIXED?
regarded as part of the ordinary supply of food placed with the
dead in the grave. But I forbear from laying the slightest
stress on negative evidence of such a kind.
But beyond doubt we have on the American continent, far
removed from connection with Asia, a series of facts closely
harmonising with what we have found in Further Asia, and also
among the peoples of Hither Asia, Europe and Africa. The
Aztecs are still measuring gold, but the Incas have invented the
balance. The Incas have no alphabet, the quipus as yet being
their greatest advance towards a means of keeping a record of the
past. It follows that it is possible for the human race to invent
a system of weighing before it has made any advance in letters
or science. Hence it is logical to infer that the civilized races
of Asia and Europe could have discovered a means of weighing
gold long before the Chaldean sages made a single step in their
astronomical discoveries, or a single symbol of the cuneiform
syllabary had as yet been impressed on brick or tablet.
Weights of various grains.
grammes
Troy Grain '064
Barley '064
Wheat -048
Rice -036
Carob -192 = 3 barley = 4 wheat
Lupin -384 = 2 carobs
Maize (ordinary) '128 = 2 barley
Ratti -128 = 2 barley
Rye -032 = J barley
CHAPTER IX.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
Nee Babylonios
Tentaris numeros.
HOB. Carm. i. 11. 2.
WE now proceed to the statement and criticism of the
old doctrines of the origin of metallic currency and weight
standards. To enter into an elaborate account of the various
shades of doctrine held by the followers of Boeckh would be
useless and wearisome, for as they all alike are agreed in
starting from an arbitrary scientifically obtained unit, it
matters not as far as my object is concerned. Certain
metrologists lay down that Egypt borrowed her system from
Babylon, whilst others 1 again declare that Egypt is 'the
true mother of weight standards, and this battle is raging
hotly at the present moment. Thus but recently Professor
Brugsch has written a vigorous article (in the Zeitschrift fur
Ethnologie 2 ) to prove that the Chaldeans borrowed their system
from Egypt. But the Assyriologists were not prepared to
assent to a doctrine which placed the Babylonians in an inferior
position. Accordingly Dr C. F. Lehmann (Zeitschrift fur Eth-
nologie, 1889, p. 245 seqq.) has made an elaborate defence of the
original doctrine first propounded by Boeckh and developed
and expounded by Dr Brandis and Dr Hultsch. This Assyrio-
Egyptian struggle for pre-eminence has at present no im-
portance for our enquiry, as it is based almost entirely on d
1 Nissen, " Griechische und romisehe Metrologie" (Iwan Miiller's Handbuch
der classischen Alterthumswissenschaft i. 663 seq. or separately, Nordlingen,
1886).
- "Das alteste Gewicht," 1889, pp. 19, 3443.
132
196 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
priori assumptions, although when we come eventually to deal
with the question of efforts at systematization which arose at a
later stage in the evolution of weight and measure standards, it
will be necessary for us to examine the respective claims. At
present we are engaged in searching for an historical basis, and
as both the Assyriologists and Egyptologists alike unite in
deriving all weights from a deliberate scientific attempt on the
part of a highly civilized people, they are perfectly agreed in
the principle, the soundness of which it is the object of the
present investigation to test. The ablest exponent in this
country of the German theory is Dr B. V. Head, who has given
an admirable summary of the position of that school in his
Introduction to his great work, Historia Numorum (p. xxviii.).
To ensure a fair statement of the doctrine for the reader, it will
be better for me to give here Mr Head's exposition in preference
to any summary of my own, as any statement by the critic of
the doctrine to be criticized is always liable to the suspicion of
being ex parte and consequently inadequate. Such a suspicion
is avoided by letting as far as possible our opponents state their
position in their own words.
" For many centuries before the invention of coined money
there can be no doubt whatever that goods were bought and
sold by barter pure and simple, and that values were estimated
among pastoral people by the produce of the land, and more
particularly in oxen and sheep.
" The next step in advance upon this primitive method of
exchange was a rude attempt at simplifying commercial trans-
actions by substituting for the ox and the sheep some more
portable substitute, either possessed of real or invested with an
arbitrary value.
"This transitional stage in the development of commerce
cannot be more accurately described than in the words of
Aristotle, 'As the benefits of commerce were more widely
extended by importing commodities of which there was a defi-
ciency, and exporting those of which there was an excess, the
use of a currency was an indispensable device. As the neces-
saries of Nature were not all easily portable, people agreed
for purposes of barter mutually to give and receive some
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 197
article which, while it was itself a commodity, was practically
easy to handle in the business of life ; some such article as
iron or silver, which was at first defined simply by size and
weight, although finally they went further and set a stamp
upon every coin to relieve them from the trouble of weighing
it, as the stamp impressed upon the coin was an indication of
quantity.' (Polit. I. 6. 1416, Trans. Welldon.)
" In Italy and Sicily copper or bronze in very early times
took the place of cattle as a generally recognized measure of
value, and in Peloponnesus the Spartans are said to have
retained the use of iron as a standard of value long after the
other Greeks had advanced beyond this point of commercial
civilization.
"In the East, on the other hand, from the earliest times
gold and silver appear to have been used for the settlement of
the transactions of daily life, either metal having its value more
or less accurately defined in relation to the other. Thus Abra-
ham is said to have been ' very rich in cattle, in silver and in
gold ' (Gen. xiii. 2, xxiv. 35), and in the account of his purchase
of the cave of Machpelah (Gen. xxiii. 16), it is stated that ' Abra-
ham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the
audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver,
current with the merchants.'
" As there are no auriferous rocks or streams in Chaldaea, we
must infer that the old Chaldaean traders must have imported
their gold from India by way of the Persian Gulf, in the ships
of Ur frequently mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions.
" But though gold and silver were from the earliest times
used as measures of value in the East, not a single piece of
coined money has come down to us of these remote ages, nor
is there any mention of coined money in the Old Testament
before Persian times. The gold and silver 'current with the
merchant ' were always weighed in the balance ; thus we read
that David gave to Oman for his threshing-floor [including
oxen and threshing instruments] 600 shekels of gold by weight
(1 Chron. xxi. 25).
" It is nevertheless probable that the balance was not called
into operation for every small transaction, bat that little bars
198 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
of silver and of gold of fixed weight, but without any official
mark (and therefore not coins) were often counted out by tale,
larger amounts being always weighed. Such small bars or wedges
of gold and silver served the purposes of a currency, and were
regulated by the weight of the shekel or the mina.
" This leads us briefly to examine the standards of weight
used for the precious metals in the East before the invention of
money.
" The metric systems of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and
Assyrians.
" The evidence afforded by ancient writers on the subject of
weights and coinage is in great part untrustworthy, and would
often be unintelligible were it not for the light which has been
shed upon it by the gold and silver coins, and bronze, leaden and
stone weights which have been fortunately preserved down to
our own times. It will be safer, therefore, to confine ourselves
to the direct evidence afforded by the monuments.
"Egypt, the oldest civilized country of the ancient world, first
claims our attention, but as the weight system which prevailed
in the Nile valley does not appear to have exercised any trace-
able influence upon the early coinage of the Greeks, the metro-
logy of Egypt need not detain us long. . . .
" The Chaldaeans and Babylonians, as is well known, excelled
especially in the cognate sciences of arithmetic and astronomy.
On the broad and monotonous plains of Lower Mesopotamia,
says Professor Rawlinson, where the earth has little to suggest
thought or please by variety the ' variegated heaven/ ever
changing with the times and the seasons, would early attract
attention, while the clear sky, dry atmosphere, and level
horizon, would afford facilities for observations so soon as the
idea of them suggested itself to the minds of the inhabitants.
The records of these astronomical observations were inscribed
in cuneiform character on soft clay tablets, afterwards baked
hard and preserved in the royal or public libraries in the chief
cities of Babylonia. Large numbers of these tablets are now in
the British Museum. When Alexander the Great took Babylon,
it is recorded that there were found and sent to Aristotle a
STATEMENT AND CRITIC ISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 199
series of astronomical observations extending back as far as the
year B.C. 2234. Recent investigations into the nature of these
records render it probable that upon them rests the entire
structure of the metric system of the Babylonians. The day
and night were divided by the Babylonians into 24 hours, each
of 60 minutes, and each minute into 60 seconds a method of
measuring time which has never been superseded, and which we
have inherited from Babylon, together with the first principles
of the science of astronomy. The Babylonian measures of
capacity and their system of weights were based, it is thought,
upon one and the same unit as their measures of time and
space, and as they are believed to have determined the length of
an hour of equinoctial time by means of the dropping of water,
so too it is conceivable that they may have fixed the weight of
their talents, their mina, and their shekel, as well as the size of
their measures of capacity, by weighing or measuring the
amounts of water, which had passed from one vessel into
another during a given space of time. Thus, just as an hour
consisted of 60 minutes and the minute of 60 seconds, so the
talent contained 60 minae, and the mina 60 shekels. The
division by sixties or sexagesimal system, is quite as character-
istic of the Babylonian arithmetic and system of weights and
measures, as the decimal system is of the Egyptian and the
modern French. And indeed it possesses one great advantage
over the decimal system, inasmuch as the number 60, upon
which it is based, is more divisible than 10.
"About 1300 years before our era the Assyrian empire came
to surpass in importance that of the Babylonians, but the
learning arid science of Chaldaea were not lost, but rather trans-
mitted through Nineveh by means of the Assyrian conquests
and commerce to the north and west as far as the shores of
the Mediterranean Sea. Let us now turn to the actual monu-
ments. Some thirty years ago Mr Layard discovered and
brought home from the ruins of ancient Nineveh a number of
bronze lions of various sizes which may now be seen in the
British Museum. With them were also a number of stone
objects in the form of ducks 1 ."
1 The whole series of these ancient weights was some years ago subject to
200 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTKINES.
From this double series of weights Mr Head infers that
there were two distinct minae simultaneously in use during
the long period of time which elapsed between about B.C. 2000,
and B.C. 625. " The heavier of these two minae appears to have
been just the double of the lighter. Brandis is probably not
far from the mark in fixing the weight of the heavy mina at
1010 grammes, and that of the light at 505 grammes.
" It has been suggested that the lighter of these two minae
may have been peculiar to the Babylonian, and the heavier to
the Assyrian empire ; but this cannot be proved. But never-
theless it would seem that the use of the heavy mina was more
extended in Syria than that of the lighter, if we may judge
from the fact that most of the weights belonging to the system
of the heavy mina have in addition to the cuneiform inscription
an Aramaic one.
"The purpose which this Aramaic inscription served must
clearly have been to render, the weight acceptable to the Syrian
and Phoenician merchants who traded backwards and forwards
between Assyria and Mesopotamia on the one hand, and the
Phoenician emporia on the other.
" The Phoenician traders.
"The Phoenician commerce was chiefly a carrying trade.
The richly embroidered stuffs of Babylonia and other products
of the East were brought down to the coasts, and then carefully
packed in chests of cedarwood in the markets of Tyre and Sidon,
whence they were shipped by the enterprising Phoenician
mariners to Cyprus, to the coasts of the Aegean, or even to the
extreme West.
" Hence the Phoenician city of Tyre was called by Ezekiel
(xxvii.) ' a merchant of the people for many isles.'
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 com-
plete 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.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINKS. 201
" But the Phoenicians in common with the Egyptians, the
Greeks and the Hebrews etc. with whom they dealt were at no
time without their own peculiar weights and measures upon
which they appear to have grafted the Assyrio-Babylonian
principal unit of account or the weight in which it was cus-
tomary to estimate values. This weight was the 60th part of
the manah or mina.
" The Babylonian sexagesimal system was foreign to Phoe-
nician habits. While therefore these people had no difficulty
in adopting the Assyrio-Babylonian 60th as their own unit of
weight or shekel, they did not at the same time adopt the
sexagesimal system in its entirety but constituted a new mina
for themselves consisting of 50 shekels instead of 60. In esti-
mating the largest weight of all, the Talent, the multiplication
by 60 was nevertheless retained. Thus in the Phoenician
system as in that of the Greeks 50 shekels (Gk. staters) = 1
Mina, and 60 Minae or 3000 shekels or staters = 1 Talent.
" The particular form of shekel which appears to have been
received by the Phoenicians and Hebrews from the East was
the 60th part of the heavier of the two Assyrio-Babylonian
minae above referred to. The 60th of the lighter for some
reason which has not been satisfactorily accounted for seems
to have been transmitted westwards by a different route, viz.
across Asia Minor, and so into the kingdom of Lydia.
" The Lydians.
" ' The Lydians,' says E. Curtius (Hist. Gr. I. 76), 'became on
land what the Phoenicians were by sea, the mediators between
Hellas and Asia.' It is related that about the time of the
Trojan Wars and for some centuries afterwards, the country of
the Lydians was in a state of vassalage to the kings of Assyria.
But an Assyrian inscription informs us that Asia Minor, west of
the Halys, was unknown to the Assyrian kings before the time
of Assur-bani-apli, or Assurbanipal (circ. B.C. 666), who it is
stated received an embassy from Gyges, king of Lydia 'a
remote' country, of which Assurbanipal's predecessors had
never heard the name. Nevertheless that there had been some
202 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM <K TIIK <>U> DOCTRINES.
sort of connection between Lydia and Assyria in ancient times
is probable, though it cannot be proved.
" Professor Sayce is of opinion that the mediators between
Lydia in the west, and Assyria in the east, were the people
called Kheta or Hittites. According to this theory the northern
Hittite capital Carchemish (later Hierapolis) on the Euphrates,
was the spot where the arts and civilization of Assyria took the
form which especially characterises the early monuments of
Central Asia Minor.
" The year B.C. 1400 or thereabouts was the time of greatest
power of the nation of the Hittites, and if they were in reality
the chief connecting link between Lydia and Assyria it may
be inferred that it was through them that the Lydians received
the Assyrian weight, which afterwards in Lydia took the form
of a stamped ingot or coin.
" But why it was that the light mina rather than the heavy
one had become domesticated in Lydia must remain unex-
plained. We know however that one of the Assyrian weights
is spoken of in cuneiform inscriptions as the 'weight of Car-
chemish' If then the modern hypothesis of a Hittite dominion
in Asia Minor turn out to be well founded, the weight of Car-
diemish might by means of the Hittites have found its way to
Phrygia and Lydia, and as the earliest Lydian coins are regu-
lated according to the divisions of the Light Assyrian mina this
would probably be the one alluded to.
"From these two points then, Phoenicia on the one hand and
Lydia (through Carchemish), on the other, the two Babylonian
units of weight appear to have started westwards to the shores
of the Aegean sea, the heavy shekel by way of Phoenicia, the
lighter shekel by way of Lydia."
So far I have thought it but right to give Mr Head's ex-
position in extenso, that the enquirer may be enabled to fully
grasp the principles of the orthodox school, before we enter
on any criticism of them. I shall now treat more summarily
all that remains to be said.
Let us briefly state the peculiar doctrines of two leading
continental metrologists. The veteran Dr Hultsch derives all
standards of weight thus : The royal Babylonian cubit was
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCT1UNKS. ^O.'i
based on the sun's apparent diameter ; the cube of this measure
gave the maris, the weight in water of one-fifth of which was
the royal Babylonian talent, which was divided into 60 manehs
(minae) and each mina in turn into 60 shekels. For silver and
gold however they formed their standard by taking fifty shekels
to form a mina 1 : thus after elaborating with such care a
scientific system, they abandoned it as soon as they came to
deal with the precious metals.
M. Soutzo 2 in a clever essay has maintained that all the
weight systems both monetary and commercial of Asia, Egypt,
Greece, come from one primordial weight the Egyptian uten
(96 grammes), or from its tenth, the kat (9'60 grammes). He
ascribes the origin of these weights to an extremely remote
epoch not far perhaps from the time of the discovery of bronze
in Asia, and the invention of the first instruments for weighing:
he considers also that bronze by weight was the first money
employed in Asia, Egypt, and Italy, and that everywhere the
decimal system of numeration has preceded the sexagesimal.
The evidence which we have produced in the earlier part
of this work has I trust convinced the reader that gold, not
copper, was the first object to be weighed ; M. Soutzo's assump-
tion that the uten is the primordial unit is upset even for
the Egyptians themselves by the passage already cited from
Horapollo (p. 129).
The invention of coinage.
The evidence of both history and numismatics coincides
in making the Lydians the inventors of the art of coining
money. At first sight it may seem surprising that none of
the great peoples of the East, whose civilization had its first
beginning long ages before the periods at which our very
oldest records begin, should have developed coined money, ac-
quainted as they indubitably were with the precious metals,
both for ornament and exchange. But a little reflection shews
us that it has been quite possible for peoples to attain a high
1 Metrologie 2 , p. 393.
'* Etalons ponderaux priinitifs et Uiiyots monetaires (Bucharest, 1884), p. 49.
204 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
degree of civilization without feeling any need of what are
properly termed coins. Transactions by means of the scales
are comparatively simple, and as a matter of fact we shall find
hereafter that even after a coinage had been for centuries
established, men constantly had recourse to the balance in
monetary transactions, just as down to the present moment the
Chinese, who have enjoyed a high degree of culture for several
thousand years, still have no native currency but their copper
cash, foreign silver dollars being the only medium in the precious
metals, whilst all important monetary transactions are carried
on by the scales and weights. I may here likewise point out
incidentally that where the supply of the precious metals is
only sufficient to meet the demand for personal adornment,
the establishment of a coinage in those metals will naturally
be slow, whilst on the other hand where there is so abundant
a supply of the metals, that there is more than sufficient for
purposes of personal use, the tendency to produce a coinage will
be much greater. If we enquire what were the metalliferous
regions of Asia Minor, we at once find that Lydia above all
other countries was especially rich in gold, or rather a natural
alloy of gold and silver. The wealth of two Lydian kings,
Gyges and Croesus, which has been through the ages a
proverb consisted of vast quantities of this metal, which the
Greeks called electron (rj\KTpov) or white gold (Xeutfo? ^pucrd?,
Herodotus, I. 50). The ancients regarded it as almost a distinct
metal, doubtless because from their imperfect methods they
experienced the greatest difficulty in extracting the pure metal.
The pure gold in circulation in Asia Minor must have come
from the valley of the Oxus, or the Ural mountains. Thus
Sophocles speaks of " the electron of Sardis and the gold of Ind 1 ."
Even in the time of Strabo (A.D. 21), the process was regarded
as so difficult that the great geographer thinks it worth while
to quote from Posidonius (flor. 90 B.C.), the description of how
the separation of the metals was effected (ill. 146). It is there -
1 Soph. Antig. 1038 seqq.
Kp5alvT\ tfjLiroXare rbv irpbs
rj\fKTpov, el /3oi5\e<r0e, KCU rbv '
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 205
fore natural to find in Lydia, the land of gold, the first attempts
at coined money.
"So far as we have knowledge," says Herodotus 1 , "the
Lydians were the first nation to introduce the use of gold and
silver coin."
This statement is fully borne out by the evidence of Xeno-
phanes 2 , and also by the coins themselves, although some
writers, e.g. Th. Mommsen 3 , have held that it was in the great
cities of Ionia, Phocaea and Miletus that money was first coined.
" From the little we know of the character of this people (the
Lydians) we gather that their commercial instinct must have
been greatly developed by their geographical position and
surroundings, both conducive to frequent intercourse with the
peoples of Asia Minor, Orientals as well as Greeks."
About the time when the mighty Assyrian empire was
falling into decay, Lydia, under a new dynasty called the
Mermnadae, was entering upon a new phase of national life.
" The policy of these new rulers of the country was to extend
the power of Lydia towards the West, and to obtain possession of
towns on the coast. With this object Gyges (who, according to
the story told by Plato, was a shepherd who owed his good
fortune to the finding of a magic ring in an ancient tomb,
and who was the founder of the dynasty of the Mermnadae,
circ. B.C. 700) established a firm footing on the Hellespont, and
endeavoured to extend his dominions along the whole Ionian
coast. This brought the Lydians into direct contact with the
Asiatic Greeks.
" These Ionian Greeks had been from very early times in
constant intercourse, not always friendly, with the Phoenicians,
with whom they had long before come to an understanding
about numbers, weights, measures, the alphabet, and such like
matters, and from whom, there is reason to think, they had
received the 60th part of the heavy Assyrio-Babylonian mina
as their unit of weight or stater. The Lydians on the other
hand had received, probably from Carchemish, the 60th of the
light mina.
1 i. 94. 2 Pollux, ix. 83.
3 Histoire de la Monnaie Romaine, i. 15.
206 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
" Thus then, when the Lydians in the reign of Gyges came
into contact and conflict with the Greeks, the two units of
weight, after travelling by different routes, met again in the
coast towns and river valleys of Western Asia Minor, in the
borderland between the East and the West.
"To the reign of Gyges, the founder of the new Lydian
empire as distinct from the Lydia of more remote antiquity,
may perhaps be ascribed the earliest essays in the art of coining.
The wealth of this monarch in the precious metals may be
inferred from the munificence of his gifts to the Delphic shrine,
consisting of golden mixing cups and silver urns, amounting to
a mass of gold and silver such as the Greeks had never before
seen collected together." This treasure was called the Gygadas,
and is described by Herodotus 1 .
" It is in conformity with the whole spirit of a monarch such
as Gyges, whose life's work it was to extend his empire towards
the West, and at the same time to hold in his hands the lines
of communication with the East, that from his capital Sardes,
situated on the slopes of Trnolus and on the banks of the
Pactolus, both rich in gold, he should send forth along the
caravan routes of the East and into the heart of Mesopotamia,
and down the river valleys of the West to the sea, his native
Lydian ore gathered from the washings of Pactolus and from
the diggings on the sides of Tmolus and Sipylus.
" This precious merchandize (if the earliest Lydian coins are
indeed his) he issued in the form of oval-shaped bullets or
ingots, officially sealed or stamped on one side as a guarantee
of their weight and value. For the eastern or land- trade the
light mina was the standard by which this coinage was re-
gulated, while for the western trade with the Greeks of the
coast the heavy mina was made use of, which from its mode of
transmission we may call the Phoenician, retaining the name
Babylonian only for the weight which was derived from the
banks of the Euphrates."
To prevent misapprehension, it may be advisable to mention
that the standards here termed Phoenician and Babylonian arc
not to be confounded with the heavy and light shekels already
1 Herod, i. 14.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 207
mentioned, but are the standards derived from the latter
specially for silver, in the ways shown a little lower down.
Modern analysis of electrum from Tmolus shows that it
consists of 27 per cent, of silver and 73 per cent, of gold 1 . It
consequently stood to silver in a different relation from that
of pure gold. Thus while gold stood to silver as 13 '3 : 1,
electrum would stand at 10 : 1 or thereabouts. Mr Head
considers that " this natural compound of gold and silver pos-
sessed some advantages for coining over gold. In the first
place it was more durable, harder, and less liable to injury and
waste from wear. In the second place it was more easily
obtainable, being a natural product; and in the third place,
standing as it did in the proportion of about 10 : 1 to silver, it
rendered needless the use of a different standard of weight for
the two metals, enabling the authorities of the mints to make
use of a single set of weights, and a decimal system easy of
comprehension and simple in practice" (p. xxxiv.). The second
of these reasons is probably the true one, the first being a good
example of the tendency of even the most able modern writers to
ascribe to early times ideas which are only the outcome of a far
later period. The idea of getting a metal which will be more
durable in circulation is purely modern, and not even received
by Orientals in modern times. Thus the gold mohurs of India
down to their latest issue were of pure gold, free from alloy (in
consequence of which they are still sought after by the native
Hindu goldsmiths in preference to the English sovereign, as the
addition of alloy makes the latter less easy to work up into
jewellery).
I allude to this here because we shall find in the course of
our enquiry that most of the errors into which metrologists
have fallen, are the consequence of their failing to recognize the
great gulf which is fixed between the habits and ideas of a
primitive community, slowly evolving principles which are now
part and parcel of the common heritage of civilization, and an
era like our own, when all progress is effected by the develop-
ment and application of scientific principles long since dis-
covered.
1 Hultsch, Metrol* 579.
208 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
Electrum was thus coined on the same standard as silver,
one talent, one mina and one stater of electrum being con-
sequently equal to ten talents, ten minae, or ten staters of silver.
The weight of the electrum stater in each district would depend
therefore on the standard which happened to be in Use there
for silver bullion, or silver in the shape of bars or oblong bricks,
the practice of the new invention of stamping or sealing metal
for circulation being in the first place only applied to the more
precious of the two metals, electrum representing in a small
compass a weight of uncoined silver ten times as bulky and
ten times as difficult of transport.
The invention was soon extended to pure gold and silver,
and there is good reason to believe that by the time of Croesus
(568 554 B.C.) both these metals were used for purposes of
coinage in Lydia.
The Greeks begin to coin money.
The clever Greeks of Asia Minor, who formed the portal
through which so many of the arts of the East reached the
Western lands, were not slow to adopt, and by reason of their
superior artistic taste to improve, the great Lydian invention.
To the Ionic cities such as Phocaea and Miletus we must
probably ascribe the credit of substituting artistically engraved
dies for the rude Lydian punch-marks, and at a somewhat later
period of inscribing them with the name or rather the initial of
the people or potentate by whom they were issued.
The official stamps by which the earliest electrum staters were
distinguished from mere ingots consisted at first only of the im-
press of rude unengraved punches, between which the lump or
oval-shaped bullet of metal was placed to receive the blow of the
hammer. Subsequently the art of the engraver was called in to
adorn the lower of the two dies, which was always that of the
face or obverse of the coin, with the symbol of the local divinity
under whose auspices the currency was issued.
As our object is to deal with coins from the point of view of
metrology, the short summary here given of the genesis of the
art of coining will suffice for our purposes.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 209
Weight standards.
" Silver was very rarely at this early period weighed by the
same talent and mina as gold, but, according to a standard
derived from the gold weight, somewhat as follows :
Gold was to silver as 13'3 : 1. This proportion made it
difficult to weigh both metals on the same standard. That a
round number of silver shekels or staters might equal a gold
shekel or stater, the weight of the silver shekel was either
raised above or lowered below that of the gold. The heavy gold
shekel weighed 260 grains Troy, being the double of the light
gold shekel, which weighed 130 grains Troy (8'4 grammes).
THE SILVER STANDARDS DERIVED FROM THE GOLD SHEKEL \
I. From the heavy gold shekel of 260 grains :
260 x 13'3 = 3458 grains of silver.
3458 grains of silver = 15 shekels of 230 grains each.
On the silver shekel of 230 grains the Phoenician or Graeco-
Asiatic silver standard may be constructed :
Talent == 690,000 grains = 3000 staters (or shekels). '
Mina = 11,500 grains = 50 staters.
Stater 230 grains.
II. From the light gold shekel of 130 grains we get the
so-called Babylonian or Persian standard :
130 x 13'3 = 1729 grains of silver.
1729 grains of silver = 10 shekels of 172'9 grains each.
On the silver shekel or stater of 172'9 grains the Babylonic,
Lydian, and Persian silver standard may be thus constructed:
Talent = 518,700 grains = 3000 staters = 6000 sigli.
Mina = 8645 grains = 50 = 100
Stater = 172'9 grains = 1 2
Siglos = 86-45 grains."
1 Head, op. cit. xxxvi.
R. 14
210 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
It is desirable "to take note of the fact that in Asia Minor and
in the earliest periods of the art of coining, (a) the heavy gold
stater (260 grains) occurs at various places, from Teos north-
wards as far as the shores of the Propontis ; (13) the light gold
stater (130 grains) in Lydia (K/ooio-eio? ardTTJp) and in Samos (?);
(7) the electrum stater of the Phoenician silver standard, chiefly
at Miletus, but also at other towns along the west coast of Asia
Minor, as well as in Lydia, but never however in full weight ;
($) the electrum and silver stater of the Babylonic standard,
chiefly if not solely in Lydia ; (e) the silver stater of the Phoe-
nician standard (230 grains) on the west coast of Asia Minor 1 ."
Here we may call attention to the fact that whilst Miletus
struck her electrum staters on the Phoenician silver standard
(their normal weight being 217 grains), the Phocaeans always
from the infancy of coining employed for their electrum the
gold standard of the heavy shekel (260 grains). But the proper
time for discussing why the Lydians, Milesians and Phocaeans
all struck their electrum coins of various standards, will come
further on in our enquiry.
The coin-standards of Greece Proper.
Before we attempt to examine into the connection of the
Homeric talent or ox unit, and the ancient systems of the
East, it will be advisable to get a clear view of the coin-
standards found in actual use in historical times, and to under-
stand the common doctrine of the derivation of the same.
As gold was not coined in Greece Proper until a comparatively
late period, owing doubtless to the fact that there was no
great supply of it to be had, and that all of it was required
to meet the demand for personal adornment, the entire early
coinage of Greece (with some few exceptions to be presently
noted) consisted of silver. These silver issues were all struck
on either of two systems; (1) the Aeginean, or Aeginetic,
and (2) the Euboic, the stater of the former weighing about
195 grains, that of the latter about 135 130 grains. But it
is a fact of paramount importance that gold, whenever and
1 Head, op. cil. xxxvi.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 211
wherever coined in Greece, was always on the Euboic standard,
and there is likewise every reason to believe that gold bullion
in the days before gold was coined was computed according to
the same standard. Such at least was undoubtedly the case
at Athens, as we learn from Thucydides 1 , where he describes
the resources of Athens both in coined and uncoined metal, and
in the gold plates which overlaid the famous chryselephantine
statue of Pallas Athene, the masterpiece of Pheidias, and the
glory of the Acropolis ; and such also, as we shall see, was the
case, in the days of Solon.
All ancient accounts are agreed in the statement that
Aegina was the first place in Hellas Proper which saw the
minting of money. That island was famous from old time as
the meeting-place of merchants, and as such under its ancient
name of Oenone was glorified by Pindar' 2 . Its position rendered
it a most convenient emporium, where the merchantmen of
Tyre met in traffic the traders from both Peloponnesus and
northern Greece. Tradition makes its population a very mixed
one : " It was called Oenone," says Strabo, " in ancient times,
and it was settled by Argives, Kretans, Epidaurians, and
Dorians 3 ." According to a fragment of Ephorus, to be referred
to presently, it was owing to the barren nature of the soil that
the natives turned to trade.
All Greek tradition is unanimous in representing Pheidori
of Argos as the first to coin money in Hellas Proper, and to
have done so at Aegina. Much obscurity enshrouds the history
and the date of Pheidon, owing to the conflicting accounts of
the historians. For our immediate purpose it would be quite
sufficient to state simply that he cannot have lived later than
600 B.C., but in consequence of some prevailing doctrines
with regard to the history of Greek weights being based on
inferences (probably quite unwarrantable) which have been
drawn from the statements given about this despot, we must
take a more elaborate survey of the sources.
1 Thuc. ii. 13.
3 01. i. 75: Nem. iv. 46.
3 viii. 375, (bvofj-afcro 5' Qlv&vrj TroAcu, ir^Kf]ffav d OLVTT]V 'A/rye?ot KO.L
142
212 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
Pausanias 1 , writing about 174 A.D. says that the Pisaeans
in the eight Olympiad (747 B.C.) brought to their aid Pheidon
of Argos, who of all despots in Hellas waxed most insolent, and
that along with him they celebrated the festival. But now comes
the testimony of Herodotus 2 , who was writing circ. 440 B.C.,
and who tells us (vi. 127) that when Cleisthenes the despot of
Sicyon held the svayamvara for his daughter Agariste ;
amongst the suitors who came from all parts of Hellas, was
" Leocedes, son of Pheidon, the despot of the Argives, Pheidon,
who had made their measures for the Peloponnesians, and had
of all Greeks waxed to the greatest pitch of violence, he who
expelled the Elean presidents of the games and himself held
the festival." There cannot be the slightest doubt that both
Pausanias and Herodotus refer to the same tyrant, but the
dates are irreconcileable. As Cleisthenes, the Athenian law-
giver, was the son of Agariste, her wooing cannot have been
much earlier than 560 B.C., and consequently Pheidon must
have reigned at Argos shortly before 600 B.C.
Weissenborn (followed by Ernst Curtius) has sought to cut
the Gordian knot by emending the text of Pausanias, thus
reading 28th instead of 8th Olympiad, which would make
Pheidon help the Pisaeans in the year 668 B.C. But even this
drastic remedy is hardly sufficient to meet the requirements of
the statement of Herodotus.
Our earliest authority for the tradition that Pheidon coined
at Aegina is a passage of Ephorus preserved by Strabo (vui.
376) 8 : " Ephorus says that in Aegina silver was first struck by
Pheidon; for it had become an emporium, inasmuch as its
population, owing to the barrenness of the land, engaged in
maritime trade ; whence trumpery goods are called Aeginean
ware." According to another passage of Strabo, which may be
likewise from Ephorus, as it comes at the end of a long statement,
the first part of which Strabo expressly declares is taken from
1 vi. 22. 2, 'OXiyiTridSi p.tv TTJ dySoy rbv 'Apyeiov ^Trrjyayov 4>ei5wi/a Tvpdvvuv T&V
^v"EXXij(Tt /uaXtora vfiplffavTa K.T.\.
- ( I'f t'owj/os 5 TOU T& fMCTpa iroirjffavTot TO?J TleXowovvijffloia'i Kal vfBpicravTos /c.r.X.
3 *E0opoj 5' tv Atylvrj dpyvpov irpGyrov KOtTT/vai (prjffL virb Qeidwos, tfATrdpiov yhp
I(L rty XinrpoTrjra rrjs x^P a ^ r
or' rov puirov Aiyivaiav tfjnro\r)i> Xeyfa
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 213
that writer : (" They say) that Pheidon of Argos, who was tenth
in descent from Temenus, and who surpassed his contemporaries
in his power, whence he recovered the whole of the inherit-
ance of Temenus, which had been rent into several parts, and
that he invented the measures which are called Pheidonian
and weights and stamped currency, both the other kind and
that of silver." It must be carefully observed that this is the
only ancient passage which says a word about the invention of
weights by Pheidon. If this statement can be taken as trust-
worthy we might very well conclude that Pheidon was the
person who introduced the decimal principle and made 10 silver
pieces instead of 15 equivalent to the gold stater. If however
this is an addition of Strabo 1 , who wrote about A.D. 1 21, and
whose account of Greece Proper is the most defective portion
of his great work, we cannot let this passage weigh against
that already given from Herodotus, who is perfectly silent as
regards the invention of weights. Furthermore there is the fact
that Strabo does not venture to describe the weights as called
Pheidonian, but carefully limits that appellation to the measures
as we find also to be the case with Pollux, when he is describing
various kinds of vessels : " and likewise a Pheidon would be a
kind of vessel for holding oil, deriving its name from the Phei-
donian measures respecting which Aristotle speaks in his Polity
of the ArgivesV Here again we find a clear mention of the
Pheidonian measures, coupled with the high authority of Ari-
stotle's treatise on the Constitution of Argos in his great
" Collection of Polities," formed to serve as the material from
which to build his great philosophic work on Politics.
There is again no mention of Pheidonian weights in the
newly found Polity of the Athenians (which seems beyond
doubt the same as that known to the ancients under the name
of Aristotle), where it is stated that " in his (Solon's) time the
1 Strabo vm. 358, ^etdawa 5e rbv 'Apyeiov, SeKarov fj,ev 6t>ra dirb
dvva/J.ei d VTrepj3ej3\'r)fji.evoi> roi)s /car' avTov, a0' 775 rif/v re XTJ^IV oXtjv aVeXa/3e rrjv
Tr)/j.fvov SieffTraa-fj.^'rjv eh TrXei'w pepy, Kai fj-erpa eevpe TO. $ei5uvta Ka\ovfj.eva Kal
ora0/ctoi)s Kal v6fjucrfj.a Kexo.pa.yfJ.evof TO re d'XXo Kal rb dpyvpovv.
2 Pollux Onom. x. 179, eo; 5 1 av /cat Qeiduv TL dyyeiov eXcu^poj', oVo TUV $et-
Suviuv fj.Tpwv d)vofj,afffj,hov, vwep (av iv 'Apyeiwv TroXiTei'o 'AptfrroreXr/s X^yet.
214 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
measures (at Athens) were made larger than those of Pheidon "
(c. 10) 1 . Although the writer refers to the Aeginetic coin-
weights in the next clause, he does not refer to them as the
Pheidonian.
Now let us pass on to a remarkable passage in the Etijmo-
logicum Magnum (s. v. 'O/SeXtV/co?).
"First of all men Pheidon of Argos struck money in Aegina ;
and having given them (his subjects) coin and abolished the
spits, he dedicated them to Hera in Argos. But since at that
time the spits used to fill the hand, that is the grasp, we,
although we do not fill our hand with the six obols (spits) call it
a grasp full (Bpax^) owing to the grasping of them. Whence
even still to this day we call the usurer the spit-weigher, since
by weights the men of old used to hand (money) over 2 ." The
writer of this passage evidently regards Pheidon as the first
inventor of the art of coining but not of weight standards.
Finally the Parian Marble recounts that, " Pheidon the
Argive confiscated the measures... and remade them and made
silver coin in Aegina 3 ." Such then is the body of evidence
which we possess, all pointing to Aegina as the first place in
Greece which saw a mint set up, and to Pheidon of Argos as
the first to establish that mint. As we have pointed out above
we have nothing but a very dubious statement of Strabo (which
is coupled with another most certainly wrong, i.e., that Pheidon
was the inventor of every other kind of money as well as silver)
as regards the invention of weights by Pheidon, although from
the passage in Herodotus already quoted, metrologists one
after another have assumed that the measures (/ner/oa) meant a
metric system in the modern sense, and have not hesitated to
1 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 Peleponnesian) choenikes of barley meal for each of their men daily.
By this arrangement the beleaguered men got a larger ration.
2 TT&VTUV 5t irp&Tos ^dduv 'Apyetos po/xttr/ta ^KO^CV iv Aiylvy Kal dous rb
Kal avaXapuv TOJ)S dpeXlfrxovs, dvedrjKe Ty ev "Apyti "H/jp, tircidT) 3 rare oi
t rr)v xy><* tir\-fipovv, TOVTWTI, rr)v 5/>a/ca, i7/xets, Kainep ^ irXrjpowres
a rots t 6p6\ovs SpaxjJ.T)f avrrjv X^yo/xei/ irapa rb 8pda<r9ai.
6 'A/yyctos 18-^uevae TO, fj.crpa...Kal dveffKfua<re /cat w/uoyxa dpyvpovv tv
(1. 30).
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 215
build on this somewhat crazy foundation an elaborate Aeginetic
system of weights and measures intimately related to each other.
We are then probably justified in assuming that Pheidon
coined silver at Aegina. The numismatic evidence coincides
with the literary authorities. The coins of Aegina are well
known, for from first to last the symbol of the sea tortoise
(%eX&)j>?7, from which they are called in vulgar parlance tortoises)
is found on them. Why Pheidon set up his mint in Aegina
instead of in his own city of Argos is not very difficult to under-
stand. Argos was an inland town remote from the highways of
commerce, and little in contact with the merchants of the
Levant. On the other hand Aegina stood at the portal of
central Greece, intercepting the trade of Athens and Corinth;
in later days Pericles called it the " eyesore of the Piraeus." It
would be probably here that the Greeks first saw the new
invention of the East in the hands of the foreign traders, and
it would be here, in a great emporium, that the need of a
currency would be most felt. In an inland city like Argos or
Sparta bars of bronze or iron would serve well for the small
commercial transactions of a very primitive society, as we know
that the iron currency actually did at Sparta in historical times.
E. Curtius suggested (Numism. Chron., 1870) that the tortoise
on the Aeginetan coins, which is the symbol of Ashtaroth who
was the Phoenician goddess both of the sea and of trade, may
be an indication that the mint was set up in the temple of
Aphrodite, which overlooked the great harbour of Aegina.
Whilst his hypothesis as regards the origin of the tortoise type
on the coin is probably wrong, it is quite possible that the coins
were first struck in some temple, as we know that the great
shrines of the ancient world served as banks and treasuries,
as for example the temple of Athena at Athens, that of Apollo
at Delphi, and that of Juno Moneta at Rome. The temple
priests of Delphi and other rich shrines had at their command
large stores of the precious metals, which in the earliest times
doubtless were in the shape of small ingots or bullets, such
as the gold talents mentioned in the Homeric Poems.
The temple shrines of Delphi and 01ympia,Delos and Dodona
were centres not merely of religious cult, but likewise of trade
216 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
and commerce, just as the great fairs of the Middle Ages grew
primarily out of the feast day of the local saint, merchants and
traders taking advantage of the assembling together of large
bodies of worshippers from various quarters to ply their calling
and to tempt them with their wares. The temple authorities
encouraged trade in every way; they constructed sacred roads,
which gave facility for travelling at a time when roads as a
general rule were almost unknown, and what was just as im-
portant, they placed these roads and consequently the persons
who travelled on them under the protection of the god
to whose temple they led in each case, thus affording a safe
conduct to the trader as well as the pilgrim ; again at the
time of the sacred festivals all strife had to cease, the voice of
war was hushed, and thus even amidst the noise of intestine
struggles and international strife, peace offered a breathing
space for trade and commerce. Hence the probability is con-
siderable that the art of minting money, that is, of stamping
with a symbol the ingots or talents of gold or silver which had
circulated in this simple form for centuries, first had its birth
in the sanctuary of some god.
On the whole then we may assume that the bullet-shaped
coins of Aegina, which are undoubtedly the earliest coins of
Greece Proper, are the Pheidonian currency mentioned in the
ancient authors and on the Parian Marble. As silver was
probably not at all plenty at Argos, but was brought to Aegina
by the traders, Pheidon had every motive for minting at
Aegina instead of at his own capital. The fact that the Romans
struck silver coins in Campania before they issued any at
Rome affords a curious parallel. A local supply of the metal
offers the explanation in each case. "It may be also positively
asserted that none of the Aeginetan coins are older than the
earliest Lydian electrum money, and that consequently the
date of the introduction of coined money into Peloponnesus
must be subsequent to circ. 700 B.C. It follows that Pheidon
was not the inventor of money, for already before his time all
the coasts and islands of the Aegean must have been acquainted
with the pale yellow electrum coins of Lydia and Ionia 1 ."
1 Head op. cit. xxxvni.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OP THE OLD DOCTRINES. 217
What then was the standard on which these early coins of
Aegina were struck ?
The heaviest specimens of these Aeginetan staters or di-
drachms weigh over 200 grains Troy, but these seem somewhat
exceptional. The best numismatic authorities are agreed in
setting the normal weight at 196 grains Troy; the drachm
consequently weighs 98 grains, and the obol about 16 grains.
The origin of this standard has caused much difficulty to
metrologists. For it is not the standard of the Babylonian gold
shekel of 130 grains, nor of the Babylonian silver shekel of 172
grains, nor again that of the Phoenician silver shekel of 230
grains. Various solutions have been proposed. Brandis 1 re-
gards it as a raised Babylonian silver standard, 172'9 to 196
grains. Mr Head regards it as the reduced Phoenician
standard; "The weight standard which the Peloponnesians had
received in old times from the Phoenician traders had suffered
in the course of about two centuries a very considerable
degradation 2 ." Others, like Mr Flinders Petrie (En cyclop.
Britarmica, Weights and Measures), regard it as Egyptian in
origin. According to Herodotus (il. 178) the Aeginetans were
on terms of friendly intercourse with Egypt ; furthermore
weights of this standard have been found in Egypt.
Again, Dr Hultsch (Metrol? p. 188) regards it as an in-
dependent standard midway between the Babylonian silver
standard (172'9 grs.) on the one hand, and the Phoenician
silver standard (230 grs.) on the other, the old Aeginetan
silver mina being equivalent in value to six light Babylonian
shekels of gold (130 x 6 = 780 grs. = 10300 grs. of silver), assuming
that in Greece as in Asia Minor gold was to silver as 13'3 : 1.
All these theories labour under serious difficulties. Brandis'
theory was overthrown easily as soon as attention was called
to the well-defined heavy series of Aeginetic coins, he having
been led to his opinion by a comparison of the heaviest
specimen of the Babylonian standard with the lightest of the
Aeginetic. Here incidentally we may call the readers' attention
to the fact that in numismatics the weight of the heaviest
specimens of any series must be regarded as the true index of
1 Op. cit. 153. 2 Op. cit. xxxvm.
218 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
the normal weight, for whatever may have been the inclination
to mint coins of a weight lighter than the proper standard, we
may rest assured that the ancient mint-master was no more
inclined than his modern representative to put into coins of
gold or silver a single grain more than the legal amount.
Hence it is a most faulty and fallacious method when dealing
with coin weights to take the average of a certain number of
specimens as the true standard. Out of 30 specimens 29 may
have lost more or less in weight by wear, whilst one may be a
Jieur de coin, perfect as at the moment when it left the die.
No one can doubt that the evidence of that single coin as
regards the standard is worth far more than that of all the
remaining 29 examples. I have thought it well to call attention
to this question of method as the vicious principle of arriving
at standards by taking the average is still found in works of
men of great eminence.
Next let us consider the probability of the derivation of the
Aeginetic standard from Egypt. The fact that weights of like
standard have been found in that country, although superficially
plausible, in reality is of little force as evidence of borrowing.
For unless we find that the Egyptians used those weights for
weighing silver, even the prima facie case breaks down at once.
As a matter of fact there is no evidence up to the present
that these weights were so employed, although there is some
evidence of their being employed for gold (Flinders Petrie,
op. cit). But even granting that the Egyptians used the
same standard as the Aeginetans for silver, it does not at all
follow that there has been borrowing on either side. On the
principle laid down below it will be seen that it is quite possible
for two peoples to evolve a like silver standard perfectly in-,
dependently of each other. But the real difficulty which besets
the theory of an Egyptian origin is that if the Aeginetans were
to borrow their standard from abroad, the people from whom
they would in all probability have obtained it were not the
Egyptians, with whom they had but slight relations directly,
but rather the Phoenicians, with whom they were in constant
intercourse.
It cannot be proved that at any time the Egyptians were a
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 219
maritime people trading round the coasts of Greece. There
was undoubtedly intercourse between Greece and Egypt, but
that intercourse was through the medium of the shipmen of
Tyre. Why should then the Aeginetans adopt a standard from
abroad which differed from that of the Phoenicians with whom
they were in constant commercial relations ? Again, if there is
any connection between the importation of weight standards
and the commencement of coinage, it may be urged that whilst
it was from the Phoenicians the Aeginetans learned the art
which had been originated in Asia Minor, or at all events from
the Greeks of the coast of Asia Minor who coined electrum
money on the Phoenician standard, we ought naturally to find
the Greeks of Aegina using this standard for their earliest
coinage rather than a standard borrowed from Egypt, which
most certainly was very backward in developing the art of
coining, seeing that it was not until after the conquest of that
country by Alexander the Great (B.C. 330) that money was
there struck for the first time 1 .
Passing by for the moment Mr Head's view, let us next
deal with that of Dr Hultsch. This theory has the great merit
of granting that the Greeks were capable of evolving a silver
standard for themselves from a knowledge of the relative value
of gold and silver, whilst the other theories assume that they
borrowed blindly ready-made standards, which they for some
unknown reason either raised according to Brandis, or degraded
according to Head. But Dr Hultsch is met by two crucial
difficulties. (1) Why should the Aeginetans have taken six light
Babylonian shekels of gold and arbitrarily made them the basis
of their new silver standard ? (2) But the fatal objection is
that whereas Hultsch's theory depends on gold being to silver
in the same relation (13'3 : 1) in Greece Proper as it was in
Asia Minor, as a matter of fact it can be proved that the precious
metals there stood in a very different relation to each other.
In the Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1887, I gave some reasons
for believing that in early times gold was to silver in Greece in
the relation of 15 : 1. For whilst gold was plentiful in Asia,
1 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.
220 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
at no place in Greece Proper were there auriferous deposits.
Hence it is probable that gold had to silver a higher relative
value in Greece than it had in Asia. Certain archaeo-
logical discoveries recently made at Athens add great strength
to the view which I then put forward. At a meeting of the
Berlin Academy of Science in 1889 Dr Ulrich Kohler discussed
certain fragments of inscriptions which refer to the famous
statue of Athena, wrought in gold and ivory by Pheidias for
the Parthenon. By combining with a fragment published by
M. Foucart (Bullet, de Corresp. Hell. 1889, p. 171), another
fragment previously copied by himself, Dr Kohler arrived at
the result that the fragments relate to the purchase of materials
for the construction of the statue, that is of gold and ivory.
The gold purchased is described both according to its weight
and according to the price (TI/AIJ) paid for it in Attic silver
currency (whilst the ivory is only described by the value or
price). The sum paid for gold amounted to 526'652 drachms,
5 obols, the weight of the gold being 37'618 drachms : from
this we learn that the relative value of gold to silver at that
time was as 14 : 1. According to Thucydides (ll. 13), forty
talents of gold were used in the making of the statue, whilst
according to the more explicit statement of Philochorus the
amount was forty-four. The image was dedicated at the great
Panathenaic festival of the year 438 B.C. As not more than
10 to 11 talents of gold were used in the three years to
which the fragments refer, Kohler draws the inference that
the construction of the statue commenced in the same year
as that of the Parthenon (447 B.C.),. and that Pheidias was
engaged on his great work for fully nine years.
We thus know now the relative value of silver and gold in
Attica about 450 B.C. But we must not regard this as the
relation which existed at earlier times. It was only after the
Persian wars that Athens had got possession of the island of
Thasos with its rich gold mines, and the equally rich districts
on the Thracian coast. The fact of her coming into the pos-
session of such wealthy gold-producing regions must have
materially lowered the price of gold in Athens. We know how
the development of the mines of Pangaeum by Philip of Macedon
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 221
in the following century lowered the value of gold throughout
Greece, for by the time of Alexander the relative value of the
two precious metals was as 10 : 1. In the sixth century i'..r.
gold was so scarce in Greece that when the Spartans wanted to
make a dedication in gold they had to send to Asia to obtain a
sufficient supply of the metal 1 . Hence if we conclude that
in earlier times the relative value of gold to silver in Greece
proper was as 15 : 1, we shall not be far from the truth. At
all events it is put beyond doubt that the relation was higher
than that of 13*3 : 1, and accordingly Dr Hultsch's theory of the
origin of the Aeginetic silver standard, which is based on that
relation falls at once to the ground, unless he can shew that
such a standard, based on six light gold Babylonian shekels
had been previously fixed in Asia or Egypt, and thence adopted
by the Greeks without any regard to the relative value existing
in Greece itself between the precious metals. But as a matter
of fact Dr Hultsch does not make any such attempt. Thus
this essay at a solution breaks down.
On the other hand if we make the very slight and very
probable assumption that the early Greeks had formed a
definite idea of the relative value of gold and silver, which they
would have determined exactly on the same principle as they
would arrive at a notion of the relative value of any other two
commodities, which they were in the habit of giving and taking
in exchange, that is by the simple principle of supply and
demand, we shall find a ready solution without having to
resort to either Egypt or Babylon. If gold was to silver as
15:1 in Greece, it follows that the Homeric talent, the earliest
Greek standard, being about 135 grains, ten silver pieces of
202 grains each would be equivalent to one gold unit
j.
135 x 15 = 2025 grs. of silver.
2025 _._ , ..
= 202'0 grs. of silver.
This gives a singularly close approximation to the weight of
the existing coins of the Aeginetic standard of the earliest and
heaviest kind. Taking the Homeric talent at 130 grains of
1 Herod, i. 62,
222 STATEMENT AND CRTTTCISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
gold, by the same process we obtain 10 silver pieces each of
the weight of 195 grains (130x15 = 1950; 1950 H- 10 = 195
grs.
The second standard which we find in Greece at the be-
ginning of the historical epoch was the Euboic. This standard
was used for both silver and gold. The ordinary account
of its origin is as follows : " From Ionia possibly through
Samos the Euboeans imported the standard by which they
weighed their silver. This standard was the light Assyrio-
Baby Ionian gold mina with its shekel or stater of about 130
grains. The Euboeans having little or no gold transferred the
weight used in Asia for gold to their own silver, raising it
slightly at the same time to a maximum of 135 grains, and
from Euboea it soon spread over a large part of the Greek world
by means of the widely extended commercial relations of the
enterprising Euboean cities. This may have taken place
towards the close of the eighth century and before the war
which broke out at the end of that century between Chalcis
and Eretria, nominally for the possession of the fields of Le-
lantum, which lay between the two rival cities 1 .
This Euboic standard of 135 130 grains is seen at once
to be identical in weight with the Homeric talent.
Several difficulties (irrespective of the fact that there was no
need for the Greeks to borrow from Asia a standard which they
themselves already possessed from very early times) meet this
theory.
(1) If the Euboeans derived their standard from Ionia
why did they not rather adopt the Phoenician standards, on
which we have already seen the great Ionian cities based their
coinages of gold, silver, and electrum ? Some very early
electrum coins found at Samos (Head, op. cit. XLI.), have
suggested that that island formed the link. "The theory,"
says Mr Head, " that Samos was the port whence the Euboeans
derived the gold standard subsequently used by them for silver,
1 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.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 223
rests upon the weight of some very early electrum coins (about
44 grs.) which have been found in the island of Samos, and
of the earliest Euboean coins, Euboea and Samos having been
two of the greatest colonizing and maritime powers of the
Aegean Sea. Thus I think we may account for the fact that
the towns of Euboea, when they began to strike silver money of
their own, naturally made use of the standard which had become
from of old habitual in the island, precisely in the same way as
Pheidon in Peloponnesus struck his first silver money on the
reduced Phoenician standard which was prevalent at the time in
his dominions." But as a matter of fact the recognized Samian
coins are of the Phoenician standard (220 grs.) in its slightly
reduced state as found at Miletus (Head, op. cit. 515). This
being so it would indeed be strange if the Euboeans from oc-
casionally coming in contact with Lydian coins at Samos would
have adopted that standard in preference to that in use in the
great cities of Ionia with which their commerce directly lay.
(2) Why did the Euboeans take the Lydian gold standard
of 130 grs. for their own electrum and silver instead of the
Lydian silver standard of 17 2*9 grs. ? According to Mr Head's
view, as we have seen above, the early Lydian electrum was
struck on the standard of 172 grs. (the so-called Babylonian
silver) when meant for circulation in the interior of Asia Minor,
but on the Phoenician standard for circulation in trade with
the Greeks of the coast of Ionia.
(3) We may ask the question, why did the Euboeans if
they were taking over a ready-made standard which had no
relation to any standard which they themselves already pos-
sessed, adopt the gold standard of 130 grs. instead of the
electrum and silver standard which was in use among all the
Greek cities with which they traded ?
W T e can now conveniently revert to the theory that the
Aeginetan silver standard was a reduced Phoenician. Much has
been written about degradation of coin weights and reduced
standards. It may be therefore well to clear our notions on
the subject by asking ourselves what do we mean by such
terms. Both the terms and the process are equally familiar
to those at all acquainted with the history of mediaeval coinage.
224 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
The king then controlled, as for instance in England, the
mintage. If the sovereign thought fit to reduce the amount of
silver in the groat from 80 to 72 grains his subjects had no
alternative but to take the new and lighter pieces as equivalent
to four pennies sterling. The sovereign thus was able to re-
lieve an exhausted treasury, making a considerable profit off
every groat and penny put into circulation. Again, the im-
pecunious monarch might resort to another method of making
a profit, by debasing the coinage, and might issue one such as
the fourth of Henry VIII., of exceeding base silver, and again
his subjects could simply grumble and take the new money.
These groats and pennies passed as such within the realm, but
when the question of foreign exchange came, the matter assumed
an entirely new complexion. Would a shrewd Flemish merchant
from Antwerp accept a base or a reduced English groat at the
same rate for which it passed current in England ? Of course he
did no such thing, and the scales were at once called into use,
and the silver changed hands not by tale, but by weight. Now
the condition under which such a degradation or debasing of
the coinage as we have described can take place is that a state
or country shall be of such considerable magnitude that it has
room within its own borders to employ a large amount of coin
in internal trade without much necessity of external commerce.
Did such conditions exist among the Greek states of antiquity?
There is another condition, namely, sovereign power vested in
the hands of a monarch possessed of unlimited authority, who
has a direct personal interest in the profit to be made from the
degradation of the coinage, and who has power sufficient to
enable him to force his debased coinage on a reluctant people.
Did such conditions exist in any of the Greek states of an-
tiquity? Nowhere in Greece Proper do we find them fulfilled,
but if we turn to Sicily we get a good example of the practice
so often followed in after centuries by the mediaeval monarchs.
The tyrant Dionysius there put an arbitrary value on gold in
relation to silver: for although this relation was probably not
more than 12 : 1, this despot raised it perforce to 15 rl 1 . He
1 Hear), Coinage of Syracuse, p. 71.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 225
also issued a coinage of tin, according to Aristotle 1 , which he
perhaps forced his subjects to take as equivalent to silver coins
of like size. In later years again when Timoleon liberated
Syracuse and the democracy was once more restored, the
state issued a coinage of electrum instead of that of pure
gold, which had previously been in currency, by this means
making a profit of 20 per cent. 2 It is hardly necessary to
point out that whilst this coinage of Dionysius might pass
for an artificial value within the dominions of Syracuse, the
moment a Syracusan came to make payment to a foreign
merchant, its factitious value vanished and the transaction took
place according to the current value of the metals. So as long
as the English penny remained of good weight and quality it
found ready currency on the continent, and the potentates of
Flanders issued numerous imitations of them known as ester-
lings, but when the English silver penny became debased all
foreign imitations ceased 3 . Now the Greek states of Greece
Proper were very small in extent, and seldom had a very
strong central authority. The area being limited it was abso-
lutely necessary for them to have constant dealings with their
neighbours. It would have been difficult for any government
in republican times to have forced on its citizens a debased
silver currency, and even had this been possible, any benefit
derived therefrom would have been counterbalanced by the
great drawback arising to trade. If Athens had reduced her
famous "Owls" or as they were otherwise called "Maidens"
(from the head of Pallas Athena), by five grains, her credit would
have suffered and her merchants have gained nothing by it, as
the balance would have been at once resorted to, and allowance
would have had to be made on each coin of the new debased
standard. We who live in modern times are too apt to forget
the readiness with which men in older days had resort to the
scales, although at this moment large transactions in gold
between bankers and financiers are carried out by weight.
Only so late as the beginning of this century, when the gold
coinage of the country was in a wretched state, every farmer and
1 Arist. Oeconomica, n. 21. 2 Head, op. cit. p. 26.
" Chantard, Imitations ties monnaies au type esterling (Nancy, 1871).
R. 15
226 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
trader went to fairs in Ireland equipped with a pocket balance
(which was adjusted for the guinea, half-guinea, sovereign, half-
sovereign, and gold seven-shilling-piece).
It is difficult then to see what it would have availed the
Aeginetans to have reduced the standard which they are sup-
posed to have got from the Phoenicians.
Their island state was of diminutive proportions; they
devoted themselves almost entirely to traffick by sea, their
island was an emporium where strangers resorted. In all
dealings with the Phoenicians they would have to pay a draw-
back on their debased coin; for the cunning Phoenician or
Ionian was not likely to be beguiled into taking staters of
200 grs. as equivalent to 230 grs. It is plain therefore that
when we find divergencies of standard these are not due to
mere degradation, but to some far more practical consideration,
and this will be seen all the more clearly when we shall
find that whilst we have divergencies in silver standards, the
gold standard which was in use in Greece from Homeric times
down to the Roman Conquest remains almost absolutely with-
out variation. But there are other and stronger objections
against the Phoenician origin of the Aeginetic standard.
Now if we accept the doctrine that the Greeks received
their coin-standards across the sea from Asia, the Aeginetic
from the Phoenician traders whose commerce lay with Aegina
and Peloponnesus, the Euboic on the other hand from Lydia
by way of the great Ionian cities on the coast of Asia Minor,
we become involved in a serious difficulty. At the time re-
presented in the Homeric Poems, there is not as yet a single
Greek colony on the coast of Asia Minor 1 . Miletus, destined to
be in after years the Queen of Ionia, and to be one of the
greatest centres of Hellenic commerce and culture, is as yet
known only as the city of the barbarous-speaking Carians 2 .
Yet we find the Greeks represented in these self-same poems
as already in possession of a standard for gold identical with
the light Babylonian or Lydian gold shekel (130 grs.). But
again we find from the same source that the Greeks were
1 Mr D. B. Monro, Historical Review, January, 188G.
2 //. IT. 807.
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 227
already in full commercial intercourse with one Asiatic people,
but not a people who could serve as a bridge between Lydia
and Euboea. Everywhere in the Homeric Poems we meet the
shipmen of Tyre, who are represented as bringing the products
of the skilled artists of Sidon, beautiful cloths, and cunningly
wrought vessels of silver, articles of jewellery, necklaces 1 set
with amber (perhaps brought from the coasts of the Baltic),
and now and then as chance arose, kidnapping women and
children to sell as slaves in the marts of the Mediterranean 2 .
If the Hellenes had got their standard from an Asiatic
source, it must have been the heavy gold shekel of 260 grains,
which the Phoenicians employed, and consequently the Homeric
Talent would have weighed 260 instead of 130 grains, or on the
other hand if it be supposed that the Greeks might borrow and
use for their own gold a standard used only for silver in Asia,
the Homeric Talent ought to have weighed 225 grains, that is
the Phoenician silver standard, which, as we have seen, it
certainly did not.
A further difficulty arises in reference to the Euboic stand-
ard. No one who reflects for a moment could venture to
assert that Phoenician trade and influence were limited to
Southern Greece. Yet that virtually is the tacit assumption
made by those who derive the standard from Asia. There is
evidence to shew that the Phoenicians from a very early period
frequented Euboea, doubtless attracted by its copper mines
(from which perhaps the famous city of Chalcis derived its
name) 3 . Round no spot in Hellas do more legends cluster
which connect it with Phoenician colonists than Boeotia. It
was here that Cadmus settled, and introduced the Phoe-
nician alphabet, it was here according to Greek tradition that
Herakles, who is so strongly identified with the Phoenician
Melkarth, had his birth. Why then should the Euboeans have
been behind the rest of Hellas in receiving the Phoenician
standard, which, according to Mr Head, as we saw above, did
1 Od. xv. 460. 2 Od. xv. 470.
3 It is more probable however that Cluilkos copper got its name from the
place (Chalcis) where it was first found in Greece. The name Chalcis may
itself be connected with xa^s, an owl.
152
228 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
influence so powerfully the Ionic cities of the Asiatic seaboard,
with which their commerce was so largely connected ?
From these considerations it follows that before the Greeks
came into contact with either Phoenicians or Lydians they had
a weight standard of their own, the Talanton of the Homeric
Poems, based on the cow, which was as yet only employed for
the weighing of gold.
This standard we have found to be identical with one of the
two chief standards employed in historical times for silver, and
which from first to last was the only standard employed for gold
in all parts of Hellas Proper.
As we have seen that gold was to silver in that region as
15:1, there was not much difficulty in regarding fifteen weights
or staters of silver as equivalent to one of gold of like weight.
Hence there was not the same need in Greece to devise a
separate silver standard as there was in Asia, where the
relation of the precious metals stood as 1 3 '3 : 1, a fact which
made simple exchange very difficult. On the other hand we
have seen that for the Aeginetans and Greeks, who used the so-
called Aeginetic standard, the decimal system, the simplest and
most primitive method of reckoning, had a powerful attraction.
Primitive peoples perform all their calculations by means of
counters, using for such purposes their fingers and toes or seeds
or pebbles.
Nature herself has supplied man with the simplest and most
convenient of counters in his ten fingers. Hence naturally
arises a preference amongst primitive peoples for counting by
tens, and this method, although it has at times been sup-
planted partially (seldom altogether) by the duodecimal and
sexagesimal systems, which are superior by possessing a greater
number of submultiples than the decimal (e.g. 12 = 6x2, 4x3,
whilst 10 = 5 x 2 only), was adhered to by the Egyptians all
through their history down to the latest Pharaohs. It may
then perhaps be argued that it was through Egyptian influence
with Greece that a large part of Greece adopted for their silver
a standard based on the decimal system, especially as certain
traces of Egyptian influence in very early times have b< i <'n
discovered of late. But as I have already pointed out above
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 229
when discussing the theory of an Egyptian origin for the
Aeginetan standard, because standards of like weight are found
in two different regions, it by no means follows that one has
borrowed from the other. If we can point out that in both
Egypt and Greece there was a standard for gold almost identical
in weight, it is at once apparent that there was no need for the
Greeks to borrow from the Egyptians the idea of making ten
silver ingots or wedges equal to one gold; especially as the
decimal idea was next to that of five the simplest and most
rudimentary form of calculation known to mankind. It is
certainly preposterous to suppose that the Greeks were too
barbarous at the time when they had attained a knowledge of
silver to devise such a simple process as that of taking the
fifteen ingots of silver, which from the natural laws of supply
and demand they regarded as the equivalent of one gold ingot of
like weight, and redividing them into ten new ingots of silver.
This surely will not seem an incredible feat for the early
Hellenes to perform when we recall to mind the extraordinary
skill in arithmetic which is found among some barbarous peoples.
" In West Africa a lively and continual habit of bargaining has
developed a great power of arithmetic, and little children
already do feats of computation with their heaps of cowries 1 ."
To imagine that the Greeks could not perform so simple a feat
as that which I propose is to assume that they were in a far
lower condition of culture and intelligence than the negroes of
West Africa, rather resembling the lowest known tribes of men,
such as the aborigines of Australia and the savages of the South
American forests. To make such an assumption respecting a
race which has shewn such an unrivalled potentiality of progress
and development as the Greeks is absurd.
At this point it will be convenient to take a general survey
of our results so far. We found in the Homeric Poems a two-
fold system of currency, the gold Talanton, and the cow or ox,
the latter alone being employed to express values : we next
found that the Talanton was the equivalent of the cow, the
metallic unit being clearly the later in origin, and being based
1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. i. p. 219.
230 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
on or equated to the older unit of barter. Through the sacer-
dotal tradition of Delos we were enabled to fix the value of the
Homeric Talanton at 2 gold Attic drachms, or a Daric (135
130 grains Troy). Next came the standards used in historical
Greece. (1) The Euboic (135 grains Troy) used for silver in the
great Euboic towns, in Corinth, in Athens from the time of
Solon, and as a matter of course in the Chalcidian and Corinthian
colonies, and employed as the sole unit for gold in all parts of
Greece Proper at all periods; (2) the Aeginetic (200 195 grains)
employed in Peloponnesus, in Boeotia and Central Greece. We
learned that the Euboic standard coincided with the Homeric
Talanton, thus finding the Greeks of historical times using the
same standard universally for gold which they had employed
long before the introduction of the art of coining from Asia,
and partly using this same standard for silver, whilst in other
states they employed a standard for the latter metal, which was
based on the gold unit, simply dividing the amount of silver
equivalent to it into ten parts instead of fifteen.
We then put the question, " Is it rational to suppose that
the Greeks borrowed in the 7th century B.C. along with the art
of coining from Asia a standard which they themselves already
long since possessed ?"
At the time when I first put this view forward, I was unable
to offer any concrete proof of the existence of such a standard
on Greek soil before the introduction of coined money, although
the literary evidence was of the strongest kind. Since then
I have been enabled to obtain some data of considerable im-
portance. I have already (Chap, n.) described the rings and
spirals of gold and silver found at Mycenae, and shewn that
they were not improbably made on a standard of 135 grs.
We have thus found some definite evidence of the existence
of a gold and possibly a silver standard, corresponding to the
standard used for both metals in after ages under the name
of the Euboic or Attic. It may of course be argued that
though found on Greek soil, they are not really Greek in origin.
Ifror instance there may be certain indications of Egyptian art
and influence in these pre-historic remains, such as the frieze
discovered in the Palace at Tiryns of alabaster inlaid with
STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES. 231
blue glass which according to Lepsius and Helbig 1 is the
mock lapis lazuli which the Egyptians were so fond of
making in imitation of the rare and costly real stone which
had to be brought from Tartary. Granting then for the sake
of argument that the Homeric Talent was a standard intro-
duced into Greece from Egypt at a very early period, it by no
means follows that this standard has had a scientific origin.
The Greeks it will be noticed found it necessary in taking over
this standard to equate it to their primitive barter system. If
then the process of human development is such that the Greeks,
who above all people shewed the most extraordinary power of
acquiring civilization, found it necessary even when presented
with a ready made standard for metallic currency, to bring it
into harmony with their immemorial system of appraising values
by means of the cow, there is certainly a strong presumption
that the people from whom they derived that metallic standard
had not themselves obtained it by any mathematical process.
We can hardly doubt that mankind first obtained empirically
the art of weighing, and that it was only at a later period that
mathematics were called in to fix scientifically the standards
obtained by the older and cruder method. Such is the function
of mathematics still. Thus Professor Cayley observed (in his
address at Stockport), "I said I would speak to you not of the
utility of mathematics in any of the questions of common life or
of physical science, but rather of the obligations of mathematics
to these different subjects. The consideration which thus pre-
sents itself is in a great measure that of the history of the
development of the different branches of mathematical science
in connection with the older physical sciences, Astronomy and
Mechanics. The mathematical theory is in the first instance
suggested by some question of common life or of physical science,
is pursued and studied quite independently thereof, and perhaps
after a long interval comes in contact with it or with quite a
different question 2 ."
If such then is the part played by mathematics in an age
when even the mathematician has come to the aid of the hang-
1 Schliemann, Tiryns, pi. n. Helbig, Das homerisches Epos 2 , p. 79.
3 Report of the British Association, 1883, p. 21.
232 STATEMENT AND CRITICISM OF THE OLD DOCTRINES.
man, and the wretch meets a well-deserved doom in strict
accordance with a mathematical formula, a fortiori must em-
pirical discovery have preceded mathematical theory in the
second millennium before the Christian era. Just as countless
malefactors were successfully executed by empirical Jack Ketches
before ever the mathematician turned executioner, so we may
be certain that untold sums of gold had been weighed by means
of natural seeds and according to a standard empirically obtained
before ever the sages of Thebes or Chaldaea had dreamed of
applying to metrology the results of their first gropings in
Geometry or Astronomy.
PART II.
CHAPTER X.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
WE are now in a position to approach the last stage in our
task, that which deals with the growth and development of
various weight-standards, all of which start from a common
unit. Of necessity Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Italy will
claim a chief share of our attention. The question now is,
Shall we deal with these regions according to the priority of
their civilization, that is, in the order in which I have just
named them, or shall we rather adhere to the principle which
has hitherto guided us, of working back from that which is
better known to that which is less known ?
On the whole the former is perhaps the better for our pre-
sent purpose. As we believe that we have discovered by the
inductive method the common unit which 'lies at the base of
all these systems, there is no longer the same necessity for
always starting with that which is the less ancient. Besides,
if we were nominally to pursue this course, it by no means
follows that we would be starting from that which is the best
known. Prima facie we ought to start with the Roman system,
the tradition of which has remained unbroken down to our own
days. We could work back through the system of the Middle
Ages to the time of Constantine the Great, from Constantine
to the early Empire, and from the Empire to the Republic.
Moreover no weight-unit is more accurately known than the
Roman pound. But the early history of Rome is so obscure
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 235
that we have absolutely no records of a time, when Greece had
already a literature of a venerable antiquity. Rome has no
literary remains and even not more than a very few meagre
inscriptions dating from before the first Punic War (263 241
B.C.), the very time when Hellas was already far advanced
in the autumn of her life. Then Italy had borrowed so
much from Hellas that the enquirer must be cautious as to
how far he may be dealing with material of true Italian or
merely adventitious origin. As we are concerned rather with
the origin than with the later developments of weight-sys-
tems, it is plain that for dealing with our principal objects the
Italian systems present us with no special aid. The late period
(268 B.C.) at which the Romans struck silver coins places us
at a still further disadvantage if we start with their system.
Greece on the other hand presents us not only with abundant
literary records of great antiquity, some of them descending from
an age which knew not the uses of coined money, but also with
thousands of inscriptions cut in marble or bronze, many of
which contain data of great value for dealing with the history
of currency and weight, and finally presents us with vast series
of coins from which we can learn empirically the coin standards
employed in various times and places. But it is the very wealth
of material that is in some degree here our difficulty. The special
feature of Greek national life was its numerous autonomous
states. There was no central authority with a mint which issued
coins for a whole empire as was virtually the case in the great
Persian kingdom, and at a later period in the Macedonian empire
of Alexander the Great. In the palmy days of Hellas each petty
state issued its own coinage, following in its silver and copper
mintages whatever standard or module it pleased.
To commence our constructive part with a country where
we are confronted with such an array of separate coinages and
of diverse standards would be unwise if it were possible to
start from some region where there was a single central au-
thority, and consequently less diversity of standards. We
are thus led to choose either Egypt or Babylonia as our start-
ing point. The former presents to us a system less developed
and more simple than the latter. In fact we are tolerably
236 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
well justified, in view of recent discussion, in regarding all that
is more complex in the system of Egypt as borrowed from
Babylonia. Yet it must not be supposed that we escape all
difficulties in thus starting with Egypt. If in Hellas we found
ourselves embarrassed by the wealth of coinages, in Egypt on
the other hand we have no native coinage to guide us, for
it was only after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander that
under the Greek dynasty founded by Ptolemy Lagos the essen-
tially Greek art of coining was introduced into Egypt. We
depend therefore for our knowledge of Egyptian standards
upon the actual weighings of weight-pieces and sucli infor-
mation as can be gleaned from the ancient Egyptian docu-
ments. The same holds good likewise on the whole for the
Assyrian system, where however the actual weight-pieces and
statements derived from cuneiform inscriptions can in some
degree be supported by collateral evidence. At the same time
we must be careful not to assign as much importance to the
literary evidence supplied to us by Egyptian hieroglyphic or
Assyrian cuneiform as we do to the records of Greece or Rome.
The keys to the former have only been obtained within the
present century, and many of the translations of such docu-
ments given us by that brilliant band of savants who have
opened to us the portals of a Past far exceeding in antiquity
the most remote epoch of which the literatures of Greece and
Rome contain even any tradition, must at the best in many
cases be considered only as tentative.
Furthermore although the knowledge gained from actually
existing weights, which have been gleaned from the ruins of
Nineveh, Khorsabad, or Naucratis, may be regarded as positive
and more or less exact, we are met by the difficulty that in the
case of Egypt and Assyria, where there was no coined money,
we have no means of deciding what class of weight was used for
certain kinds of commodities. In Greece and in the countries
which formed the Persian empire we can be sure at all events
of the standards which were employed in the weighing of gold
and silver: the absence of this test is a serious hindrance in
the study of Egyptian and Assyrian metrology. It is easy to
illustrate by a supposed example the element of uncertainty
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 237
introduced. Let us suppose that in ages to come the ruins
of some English ironmonger's shop were excavated, and a series
of weights was found therein, a set of Avoirdupois weights
ranging from a one-hundredweight to half an ounce ; a set of
Troy weights ranging from one pound to half a grain, and one
of Apothecaries' weights consisting of ounces, drachms, scruples,
and grains. Suppose likewise that some ardent metrologist
of that age, in addition to this splendid find, should be able
to add to his material from elsewhere one or two sovereign and
half-sovereign weights, a guinea, half-guinea, quarter-guinea,
and seven-shilling-piece weight, perhaps even a noble, or a
half-noble weight, and then without consulting literary sources,
or previously studying the standards on which the English
coinage had been struck at different periods, proceeded to re-
construct the metrological system of England. It is needless
to say that his conclusions would be indeed widely aberrant
from the truth.
Having thus sketched however roughly some of the diffi-
culties which beset our path, and after warning the reader that
in metrology if anywhere the maxim of the old Sicilian poet
is to be observed,
Sober keep, to doubt inclined be;
Hinges these are of the mind 1 ,
I shall now proceed to set forth the method in which I con-
ceive the various systems gradually rose and expanded. Let us
bear in mind the fact already proved that gold was the first
of all commodities to be weighed, and that consequently the
standards employed for weighing that metal are the most ar-
chaic.
EGYPT.
As has been previously remarked, we are not concerned
with the long battle still raging between Assyriologists and
Egyptologists as regards the respective claims of Egypt and
Babylonia to the invention of measure and weight-standards.
iv t dpdpa TO.VTO. r&v <ppfi>0ov, Epicharmus,
238 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
Boeckh himself seems instinctively to have felt this difficulty.
For whilst he took Babylonia as the birthplace and home of
all the ancient systems, nevertheless he held that contempo-
raneously there must have existed a connection between Egypt
and Babylonia in remote antiquity, from which alone certain
agreements and relations between the measures and weights
of Egypt and Babylonia were capable of explanation 1 . The
primitive measures of length are undoubtedly by the consensus
of mankind based upon the parts of the body, such as the
finger, the thumb, the foot, the arm, or both arms fully ex-
tended, standards common to Egyptians and Chaldaeans alike.
Whilst at a later stage in the history of all civilized peoples
efforts have been made to obtain more accuracy in these
standards, which of necessity have produced certain local and
national divergencies, yet inasmuch as all alike started from
these standards which have been supplied by nature, it is
obvious that many striking similarities and relations will
always be found when any comparative study of different
systems is attempted. The same principle of course holds
good for weight-standards. According to our argument there
was a common animal unit existing in Assyria and Egypt,
which was represented by a metal unit, prevailing alike in
both regions possibly with certain modifications. Egypt and
Assyria starting with this common unit, each in their own
fashion constructed their distinctive national systems, and we
need not be surprised if at a later period under certain political
conditions certain parts of the system of one of these regions
are found exercising some influence upon that of the other.
We shall now briefly state the Egyptian weight-system.
In the oldest Egyptian documents two weights continually
occur, the Kat (Ket or Kite) and the Uten (Ten or Outeri).
Already in the third millennium before Christ the precious
metals were in full use in Egypt, and copper likewise was
employed in the purchase of articles of small value. Although
very large amounts are recorded, yet they had devised no larger
unit than those mentioned.
1 Boeckh, Metrol. Untersuch. p. 32.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 230
To M. Chabas belongs the honour of being the first to
clear up the relations between the uten and kat. The history
of this discovery is an interesting proof of the fruitlessness of
the purely empirical form of metrology which confines itself to
the measuring of buildings, and weighing of ancient weight-
pieces and coins, unless its path is made clear by means of the
light derived from ancient records. The names uten and kat
had been long known, as both of them recur frequently on the
walls of the temple of Karnak (Temp. Thothmes III. 1700
1600 B.C.), and Egyptian weights were in the museums of
Europe, but nevertheless " the exact relation of the one to the
other remained unknown until it was fortunately disclosed by
a passage in the Harris papyrus, which contains the annals of
Rameses III. (circ. 1300 B.C.). From this it appears that the
Uten contained ten Kats 1 ." The uten therefore is the tenfold
of the kat : Nissen 2 thinks that the latter was perhaps origin-
ally a gold weight (vielleicht ursprunglich ein Goldg enrich f).
These two units served for the weighing of gold, silver and
copper, and there seems to be no difference noted in the docu-
ments between the units used for each purpose. In the lists of
booty we read of such sums as 3144 utens of gold and 36692
utens of electrum. In lists of prices of commodities kats and
utens of silver and copper are frequently mentioned. The
weight of the kat has been fixed by Lepsius at 9*096 grammes
(142*1 grains) and that of the uten at 90*959 grammes (1421*2
grains). But as it often happens in the case of coins that
one well-preserved specimen is a better index of the normal
standard than any that can be attained by taking the average
of 100 bad specimens, so in the case of weights, one good
specimen, made of some hard and imperishable substance, will
give us a truer representation of the standard unit than the
average of a large number of weights made of some less durable
material, and carelessly executed, and meant merely for traffic
in goods of little value. If such a weight as we have supposed
is inscribed with its name, and we can also get some indication
1 Head, op. cit. xxvni.
2 " Griech. und rom. Metrologie" (in Iwan Miiller's Handbuch der klass.
Altertumswissenschaft, Vol. i. p. 684).
240 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
that it has all the authority that belongs to a weight used for
official purposes, its value becomes still greater. Such a piece
fortunately exists in the Harris Collection. It is a beautifully
preserved serpentine weight, and weighs 698 grs. Troy. Allow-
ing for its extremely slight loss we may suppose its original
FIG. 22. Egyptian Five-Kat weight (Harris Collection).
weight to have been about 700 grs. It bears the inscription,
Five Kats of the Treasury of On. This gives 140 grains Troy
as the weight of the kat 1 . This inscription also proves that
the kat was the unit. For if as is commonly stated the uten
is the unit, of which the kat is simply the one-tenth, we must
naturally expect to find this weight described as J uten rather
than as 5 kats. This is confirmed by a statement of the gram-
marian Horapollo (or Horus, who although writing about
400 A.D. nevertheless preserves much valuable information) that
"with the Egyptians the didrachm is the monad. But the
monad is the source of production of all numeration." As
two drachms were 135 grs., it is evident that it is the kat of
140 grs., and not the uten of 1400 grs. which the Egyptians
themselves regarded as the basis of their system 2 . Mr Flinders
Potrie from the weights of 158 specimens found in the ruins
of Naucratis, which range from 136*8 grains to 153 grains, con-
cludes that there were two distinct kat units, one weighing
1 Head, op. cit. xxix. Madden's Jewish Coinage, p. 277.
2 Horapollo I. 11, irap' Alyvirriois /JLOvds I<TTIV at Stfo dpaxpa-t- novas dt iravrbs
dpiOfjLou ytvfffis. tv\oyws ovv rds dtio dpaxna-s fiovXb/j.fi'oi drj\u>ffai ytiira ypd<f>ov(ri,
t-jrel fJiriTtjp SOKCI Kal ytve<ris etvai, KO.6a.irc ft Kal
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 241
142 grs., the other 152 grs. But until some literary evidence is
forthcoming for the existence of this second and heavier kat 1 ,
we must suspend our judgment. It is perfectly possible that
such existed, being used for some purpose different from that
of the kat of 140 grains. For instance it might have been
used specially for copper owing to a desire to make certain
adjustments between silver and copper, but this is of course
mere conjecture.
It is worth while here to see the method by which those who
believe in a scientific system of Egyptian origin obtain their unit.
Signor Bortolotti (Del primitivo cubito Egizio) thinks that
the uten of 1400 grains is exactly the j^ part of the weight of
a cubic cubit of Nile water, the cubit in question being not the
ordinary royal cubit of 20 '6 6 inches, but a measure which he
1 W. M, Flinders Petrie, Narckratis, 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.
B. 16
242 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT ; BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
calls the primitive Egyptian cubit of 1971 inches in length.
Signor Bortolotti also suggests that the standard uten of Mr
Pe trie's heavy system was 1486 grains, being the y-^ part of
the weight of a cubic royal cubit (20*66 inches) in Nile water.
But as I have just pointed out the evidence is in favour of
the kat being the original unit rather than the uten. Besides
if the Egyptians obtained their system for the first time by the
scientific process, we ought naturally to find some of those
larger units such as the talent and inina, which are found in
Egypt at a later epoch. But as we have seen in the case of
Greeks, Hebrews, Chinese and Hindus, everywhere weight
systems begin with a weight for gold, and this is naturally a
small unit.
There is still one element in this matter which we must not
overlook. A certain number of gold rings have been found
in Egypt. Their unit is fixed by Lenormant at 8*1 grammes
(128 grains). Brandis regarded them as Syrian in origin, and
thus got rid of all difficulty. Others regard the rings as evi-
dently of Egyptian manufacture, and from finding as they
think a corresponding mina appearing in Egypt in Ptolemaic
times regard this unit as a genuine ancient Egyptian standard
in use long anterior to the Persian conquest. It may thus be
very probable that the standard employed in early days in
Egypt for gold (and also electrum and silver) was this unit of
128 grains, which is of course almost identical with an ox-unit.
Silver, according to Erman 1 , was in the time of the oldest
Egyptian records more valuable than gold, for in enumeration
it is always named before gold, whereas under the later dy-
nasties it is named as with us always after gold, shewing that
a great change had taken place in the relations between these
metals. It is then clearly conceivable that at the outset one
and the same unit of about 128 30 grains, under the name of
kat, served as the unit for both gold and silver (which explains
perfectly the fact that an ox is valued at a kat of silver),
but that in after days when the change in the relative values
of the metals came, there was found a need for a new silver
unit, just as the Greeks in certain places found it necessary to
1 Erman, Aegypten und Aegypt. Lebcii, p. 611.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 243
form the Aeginetan and other standards, and the Babylonians
found themselves compelled to form that standard which alone
can with truth be termed the Babylonian, the silver unit of
172 grains.
We have now before us the data for the early Egyptian
weight system 1 . It is simple ; the unit is the kat probably-
based on the ox as we have seen already. The fact that
weights formed in the shape of cows and cows' heads are repre-
sented in Egyptian paintings as employed in the weighing
of rings, indicates that in the mind of the first manufacturer
of such weights there was a distinct connection between the
shape given to the weight and the object whose value in gold
(or silver) it expressed. Specimens of such weights are known,
and are always of small size, a sure indication that the com-
modity for which they were employed was very precious.
The fact that we find weights in the shape of lions can be
readily accounted for by the supposition that in the course of
time when the connection between the ox and the original
weight-unit became forgotten, and different standards had been
evolved, some distinctive animal form was adopted to distin-
guish the weights of a particular standard. The original unit
being thus obtained, the higher unit, the uten, was formed by
the method most familiar to all races of men. The fingers of
one hand suggested to mankind a simple means of counting ;
and the combined fingers of both hands gave them the decimal
system. The Egyptians accordingly simply took the tenfold
of the ox-unit as their highest unit. As weighing in the
earliest stage was confined to the precious metals, this unit was
sufficient for all practical needs 2 . It will be noticed that the
process employed in forming this weight-system is exactly that
which we have found in the Chinese and its related systems.
The Chinese Hang (tael or ounce) corresponds to the Egyptian
1 We also find mention of a weight called the pek, which weighed -71
grammes (11 grains), and was the ^ 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,
a 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.
162
244 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
kat (or shekel). Under its name of tical or bat we found
it as the unit of gold in South-Eastern Asia, and for the
weighing of precious metals we found that the highest unit
employed was the nen, the tenfold of the original unit, (the
tael) itself still the only unit in use in China for the precious
metals. In process of time when ordinary commodities of life
began to be reckoned by weight, the Chinese made use of the
pical (which originally simply meant a man's load) as their
highest commercial unit. Much the same process seems to
have taken place in Egypt, for in later times we find talents
of various kinds in use. Thus the Alexandrine talent which
was employed for wood contained 360 utens. Was this talent
originally nothing more than a man's load, which in a later
and more scientific age was adjusted to the weight standard
time out of mind employed for metals ? In this talent of
360 utens we can see the influence of the sexagesimal systems
of Asia Minor, which, as we shall presently see, was really a
commercial standard of comparatively late development and
never at any time was employed for the precious metals. The
Alexandrine talent of 360 utens contained 3600 kats ; just as
the royal Babylonian talent contained 3600 shekels.
THE ASSYRIO-BABYLONIAN SYSTEM.
Much has been written in the last thirty years concerning
what is known as the Assyria- Baby Ionian system : in fact so
much has been written that it is difficult to find out the data
amidst the masses of theory. What then are the facts which
we have to go upon ? Whence do we get the name Babylonian ?
Herodotus 1 tells us that when Darius imposed on his subjects
a fixed quota of tribute instead of the occasional gifts and con-
tributions which were brought to the king's treasury under the
reigns of his predecessors Cyrus and Cambyses, those "who
brought silver got orders to bring a talent of Babylonian weight
whilst those who brought gold one of Euboic weight. But the
1 ni. 89, Toiifft fjxv avruv dpytptov diraytvtovfft etp-rjro BafivXibviov
rdXavrov diraivteiv, rol<n 5t ~vffiov diraivtowri "EvoiKdv rb 5
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 245
Babylonian talent amounts to seventy Euboic minas." Properly
speaking then according to the ancients, the only specific
Babylonian talent was one employed for silver and which
was one-sixth heavier than the Euboic talent. It is to be
noted carefully that the standard employed for the weighing
FIG. 23. Lion weight.
of gold is not regarded by Herodotus as peculiar to Babylon
or Persia, but is treated as identical with the common Euboic
standard which was used for silver in many parts of Greece,
and the stater of which was the only standard employed for
gold in Greece, even in those states where the Aeginetic system
was in use for their silver currency. Thus in the system em-
ployed for gold in the empire of the Great King the mina con-
tained 50 staters, and the talent 60 minas. But the discovery
FIG. 24. Assyrian half-shekel weight of the so-called Duck type 1 .
A. Side view showing cuneiform symbol = J.
B. View from above.
of the weights known as the Lion and the Duck weights by
Sir A. H. Layard at Nineveh whilst from one point of view
most fortunate, from another may be regarded as the reverse.
1 This weight (in my own possession) said to have come from India, and
almost perfect, weighed 4-29 grammes.
24-6 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, HAHYLON, AND PALESTINE.
The large size of many of the weights caused scholars to fix
their attention entirely on the larger units, and ever since then
all the various efforts to reconstruct the Assyrio-Babylonian
weight system have had if nothing else in common at least
this that they have all commenced to build the pyramid from
the top downwards. They all took the highest units, the
talent or mina, as their starting-point, and proceeded to evolve
from thence the small unit or shekel. Yet all the evidence of
antiquity pointed in the opposite direction. In the Greek
system, which those scholars held to be borrowed from the East,
it was the small unit which was called the stater or " weigher,"
indicating clearly that it was regarded as the real basis of the
standard.
Again the Phoenicians and Hebrews who from the earliest
times were in constant contact with Mesopotamia ought certain-
ly to exhibit traces in their earliest extant records of the mina
and talent, if it was from these units that the weight-system
started. Yet that is not the evidence afforded by the Old
Testament. There is no mention of a mina except in Kings,
Chronicles, Ezra, and Ezekiel, all books of late date. In the
Book of Genesis where sums of money are mentioned, they are
reckoned by shekels and nothing else. So when Abraham bought
the cave of Machpelah for 600 pieces of silver, what could have
been more convenient than to describe the purchase money as
consisting of 12 manahs (minas) 1 ? Thus, as we shall see later
on, the conclusion to be drawn from the ancient Hebrew writings
is the same as that which we draw from the Homeric Poems,
that it is the shekel (or stater), the small unit, which was the
first to be employed, and that it was only in the course of time
that the higher units, the mina and tho talent, make their
appearance. If according to the common theory the weight
standards were the actual creations of either Chaldaeans or
Egyptians and only borrowed from them by other peoples, why
do we not find the higher units appearing from the first
amongst those supposed borrowers, if the other part of the
theory is true, that they started from a high unit ?
* If, as is held by some of the best critics, this is a late passage, there is an
fortiori argument against the early use of the mina.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 247
Now for the evidence of the monuments themselves.
The weights found by Sir A. H. Layard fall into two classes,
(a) those in the shape of Lions, which are made of bronze, and
(b) those in the shape of Ducks, which are of stone 1 . "The
bronze Lions are for the most part furnished with a handle on
the back of the animal, and are generally inscribed with a
double' legend, one in cuneiform characters, the other in Ara-
maic." The Ducks which are inscribed have a legend in cunei-
form characters only. These inscriptions contain not only the
name of the king of Babylon or Assyria in whose reign they
were made, but likewise a statement of the number of the
minas or fractions of a mina which each weight originally
represented. As these weights were found in the ancient
palace some have thought that they were possibly official
standards of weight deposited from time to time in the royal
palaces 2 . This seems at least to be implied by the inscriptions
on some of them, such as those of the largest and most ancient
of the Duck weights, which run as follows :
(1) 'The palace of Irta-Merodach, King of Babylon [circ.
B.C. 1050], 30 ManahsV
Wt., 15060*5 grammes, yielding a Mina of 502 gram.
(2) 'Thirty Manahs of Nabu-suma-libur, King of Assyria,'
[date unknown].
Wt., 14589 gram.
A small portion of this weight is broken off; if this is
1 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.
2 As no better selection of these weights could be made than that of Mr Head,
I have followed his description. Cf. E. S. Poole, in Madden's Jewish Coinage,
p. 261 seqq., and the Eeport of the Warden of the Standards, 1874 5, for a full
account of these weights.
3 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.
248 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
allowed for it will yield a Mina of about the same weight as
No. 1.
(3) 'Ten Manahs' (somewhat injured); bears the name of
'Dungi,' according to George Smith, King of Babylon circ.
B.C. 2000.
Wt., 4986 gram., yielding a Mina of 498*6 gram.
On three of the Lions we read as follows :
(1) ' The Palace of Shalmaneser [circ. B.C. 850] King of
the Country, two manahs of the King/ in cuneiform characters,
and 'Two Manahs' weight of the country 'in Aramaic characters.
Wt., 1992 gram., yielding a Mina of 996 gram.
(2) ' The Palace of Tiglath-Pileser [circ. B.C. 747], King of
the Country, two Manehs' in cuneiform characters.
Wt., 946 gram., yielding a Mina of 473 gram.
(3) 'Five Manahs of the King' in cuneiform characters,
and 'Five Manahs' weight of the country ' in Aramaic characters.
Wt., 5042 gram., yielding a Mina of 1008 gram.
The results which we obtain from these weights are that
there were evidently two standards used side by side in the
Assy rio-Baby Ionian empire, the Mina of one being about 1010
gram., that of the other about 505 gram. In other words one
standard was simply the double of the other ; also the weights
on which Aramaic legends appear are those which belong to the
double standard. Again, there is no evidence that the Talent
was as yet conceived, as all the weights are Minae or fractions
(or multiples) of Minae. Might we not equally well expect
fractions of the Talent, as for instance to find the weight of
30 Manahs described as half a Talent, if the Talent already
at this period formed part of the system * ?
But there is one most important point to be noticed. The
single mina of 505 gram, is plainly different from the mina
1 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.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 249
of gold, (the Euboic raina of Herodotus) which contained 50
shekels, staters (Darics) of 130 grains (8*4 gram.) each. For it
would require 50 shekels of 10*5 gram. (164 grains) each to
make a mina of 505 gram. On the other hand it will be found
that if we take 60 shekels of the Daric or ox-unit weight they
will exactly make up the mina of 505 gram. Neither can this
mina be the Babylonian silver mina of 50 shekels of 172 grains
(11*2 gram.) each. For the Babylonian silver mina consists of 50
shekels of 11 '2 gram., whereas the miria of 505 gram, would give
50 shekels of only lO'l gram. each. The obvious conclusion is
that this mina of 505 gram, is neither the gold nor the silver
standard. It is a mina composed of 60 shekels of the weight of
the gold unit (Daric or ox-unit). And its talent was composed
when the system was completed, of 60 minae, as was the case
with all other talents. From the weights just described it may
reasonably be assumed that both the heavy and light systems
were employed contemporaneously in the Assyrio-Babylonian
empire. Some have suggested that whilst the light system was
employed in Babylon, its double, or the heavy one, was em-
ployed in the northern part of the empire. But the fact that it
is on the weights of the latter standard that we find the double
legends, the second being in Aramaic characters, seems to point
irresistibly to the conclusion that the heavy standard (no
matter what it may have been employed for) was especially
used in Syria.
It is of great significance that it is in this very quarter we
find in use as the gold unit not our usual Daric or ox-unit, but
its double, which is commonly known as the heavy gold shekel
of 260 grains. I have suggested elsewhere that the explanation
of this may be due to the fact that among certain peoples,
especially those who dwelt after the fashion of the Sidonians,
quiet and full of riches, and who had passed from the life
pastoral into the settled agricultural stage, the yoke or pair of
oxen would readily be regarded as the unit instead of the single
ox of primitive days. The fact that a zeugos or yoke of oxen
was taken as the unit of assessment by Solon for the third of
the Athenian classes lends some support to this view 1 . We have
1 Of. Plautus,
250 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
likewise seen how the ancient Irish, after borrowing the Roman
ounce, and equating an ounce of silver to the cow, made for their
silver a higher unit by taking three ounces, which represented
three cows, the ordinary price of a female slave (cumhal).
The Phoenicians employed the double shekel as their unit,
but there is evidence to show that the light shekel was the
original unit. We have seen that in Egypt, Palestine and
Greece, from the remotest time, gold circulated in the form
of rings made of a fixed amount of gold, and also that the
unit on which they were made was our ox unit, or light shekel
(130 5 grains). From the practice of using gold rings in
currency as well as for ornament, we may safely conclude that
the standard of 130 grains upon which these were probably
made was far anterior to the use of the double shekel in Syria
and Phoenicia.
The standards which we have learned from the weights
found at Nineveh and Khorsabad are now generally known as
the light royal talent, and the heavy royal talent, because on
specimens of both standards the inscriptions describe them as
weights " of the king."
It is evident that as gold and silver had each a separate
standard, the " royal " standards were not employed for the
precious metals. It is then most probable that they were
employed for the weighing of the inferior rnetals such as copper,
which of course played a most important part in the daily life
of both Babylonians and Assyrians. We may rest assured that
corn was not weighed but continued to be bought and sold by
dry measure, as it was with the Hebrews in the days of the
Prophets, when the Homer and the Ephah were employed to
measure it.
I shall now give a tabular view of the three standards used by
the peoples of Mesopotamia and their neighbours, treating the
heavy royal talent as merely the double of the light one.
GOLD.
1 Stater = 130 grs. Troy (84 gram.).
50 Staters = 1 Mina = 6500 grs. (420 gram.).
60 Minae = 1 Talent = 390000 grs.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 251
SILVER.
1 Shekel = 172 grs.
50 Shekels = 1 Manah = 8600 grs.
60 Manahs = 1 Talent = 516000 grs.
ROYAL STANDARD.
1 Shekel = 130 grs. (8'4 gram.).
60 Shekels = 1 Manah = 7800 grs.
60 Manahs = 1 Talent = 468000 grs.
Let us now examine for a moment the current explanation
of the origin and inter-relations of these standards and we shall
find that they all start at the wrong end, assuming as earliest
that which can be proved to be later, and deducing what are
really the earliest stages from those which were in fact the
historical outcome of the others.
" The proficiency of the Chaldaeans in the cognate sciences
of Arithmetic and Astronomy is well known 1 ' 2 . The broad
and monotonous plains of lower Mesopotamia had nothing to
attract the eye, and impelled their inhabitants to fix their
attention upon the overarching skies studded with stars
'that shone with exceptional clearness and lustre in the dry
pellucid atmosphere of that region. There were no dark
mountains looming in the distance to hinder the eye from
watching down to the very horizon the heavenly bodies in their
periodic movements. Thus as Geometry may be regarded as
the special offspring of the Egyptian mind, so Astronomy and
Astrology were the children of Babylonia. The results of their
astronomical observations were duly recorded on clay tablets in
the cuneiform characters, and these tablets were then baked
hard, and stored up in the great libraries in their chief cities.
It is recorded that when Alexander the Great captured Babylon,
he obtained and forwarded to his tutor Aristotle a series of
astronomical records extending back as far as the year B.c. 2234,
according to our reckoning."
Certain investigations into these tablets, primarily suggested
by a fragment of Berosus which described the method of divi-
1 Brandis, 2038. ~ Head, xxix.
252 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
ding time employed by the Babylonians, have led scholars to
conclude that upon these observations " rests the entire struc-
ture of the metric system of the Babylonians 1 ."
Thus was obtained the famous Babylonian Sexagesimal
system. Although the French metric system of modern days
has returned to the decimal system, which was the first em-
ployed by primitive men, being probably suggested to them by
those natural counters, the fingers, the sexagesimal had a con-
siderable superiority over the older decimal system (which the
Egyptians had clung to) for certain practical purposes, as the
number on which it was based could be resolved into fractions
far more conveniently than the number 10. Dr Hultsch
(Metrologie 2 , p. 393) arrives at the Babylonian weight-unit
thus: the Babylonian maris is equal to one-fifth of the cube
of the Royal Babylonian Ell, which is itself obtained from the
sun's apparent diameter. The weight in water corresponding
to this measure of capacity gave the light Royal Babylonian
Talent ; this Talent was divided into 60 Minae, and each Mina
into sixty parts or Shekels. Their gold Talent was derived from
the sixtieth of this Royal Mina, with the modification that now
fifty sixtieths of the Royal Mina made a Mina of gold and
sixty Minae made a Talent 2 .
It seems strange that the framers of this theory did not
consider that just as undoubtedly the Chaldaeans must have
reckoned their time by the primitive methods of sunrise,
noon and sunset, "full market," or ox-loosing time for cen-
turies before they arrived at their scientific division of time,
and just as the Chaldaean artificer employed his fingers or
palm, or span or foot, as a measure of length ages before the
Royal Cubit was equated to the sun's apparent diameter, so in
all probability they employed as measures of capacity, gourds
or eggshells (as did the Hebrews) and for weights the seeds of
plants.
1 Berosus. Synkellos 30, 6 (Eusebii chronic, ed. Alfr. Schoene vol. i. col. 8) :
d\X' 6 fjv Brjpuffffbs did (rdpuv Kal vripuv Kal ffuxrawv dveypd\f/a.TO' n> 6 ^v <rdpo$
77>i<rxiMw Kal QaKovlw iruv xpovov ffrjuatitfi, 6 5 vfpos trwv et-a.KO<rl<i)v, 6 8t
ffuffffos f^Kovra.. l-'rtiiim. Uc.ript. Hist. (Inu'c.
- Hultsch, op. cit. p. 407.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 253
But since, after what we have already seen, it is perfectly
clear that the first of articles to be weighed is gold, and that
the unit of weight is consequently small, we at once join issue
with several points in the theory of Brandis and his school.
First they start with the Talent as the unit, and only arrive at
the shekel (the weight par excellence) by a twofold process of
subdivision ; secondly, it is assumed that the Royal Talent which
we have had reason to believe was a purely commercial Talent,
seeing that it was employed neither for gold or silver, was the
first to be invented, and that it was only at a later stage that
the mina and talent specially employed for gold were developed,
not out of the primal unit obtained originally from the one-
fifth of the cube of the maris, but from the sixtieth of the
mina of that Royal Talent ; thirdly one asks in wonder why did
the Chaldaeans, who only achieved their famous Sexagesimal
system after gazing at the stars through unnumbered genera-
tions, abandon this precious discovery the very moment they
set about the construction of a weight-unit for gold, for instead
of taking one-sixth of the cube of the maris, they are repre-
sented as following their old decimal system with invincible
obstinacy by taking one-fifth of the maris as their point of
departure ; lastly, it is astonishing that the Chaldaeans did not
employ their new discovery in the weighing of the precious
metals, the thing which above all others ought to have called
for the most scientific accuracy.
The fact is, that just as children find some difficulty in
realising that their parents were ever children, so when we
stand in the presence of the remains of the great cities of
Egypt and Babylonia, those ancients of the earth, we are too
prone to forget that Thebes, Babylon or Nineveh had ever
their day of small things. The familiar tale of Romulus and
Remus with their band of outlaws dwelling in their hovels
beside the Tiber has kept people in mind that " Rome was not
built in a day." If we can but just approach the question of
the first beginnings of Egyptian or Chaldaean civilization with
the same idea, it will be far easier to project ourselves into the
past of those great races, and thus to realize far better the con-
ditions under which they grew and lived.
254 THE SYSTKMS OF KGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTIXK.
There can be little doubt that the unit of the Babylonian
system was the light shekel (Daric or ox-unit) of 130 5 grs.
Troy. But I have shown that the Chaldaeans were aware of
and made use of the method of fixing weight-units by means
of grains of corn such as we have found to be the universal
practice from Ireland to China, and we have at once removed
all need for supposing that it was only when they had dis-
covered a scientific method of metrology that the Chaldaeans
constructed their weight-unit.
After what we have shown upon p. 115 concerning the
methods employed in the buying and selling of corn, where it
has been made clear that of all commodities corn is one of the
very last to be weighed because of its bulkiness in proportion
to its cheapness, I think no one will readily accept M. Aure's
ingenious hypothesis 1 .
Are we not now justified in supposing that, just as the
peoples of Mesopotamia had marked their seasons and time by
primitive methods, and used their fingers and hands and feet
as measures long before they dreamed of scientific methods,
so that likewise they had employed for weighing their gold the
natural weight-unit which lay ready to their hands in the
wheat-ears that crowned their plains.
Let us now start with the light shekel as our unit. Ac-
cording to our argument it was nothing more than the amount
of gold which represented the value of the cow, the unit of
barter throughout all Europe, Asia and Africa, as it still is
over considerable areas of both the latter continents. There is
no reason for not believing that as among other people, all
articles of property, utensils, weapons, clothes, ornaments and
the various kinds of animals stand to one another in well-
known relations of value, so the same principle was in full
force among the Semites of Mesopotamia. We found that
the wild tribes of Laos had a regular scale commencing with
a hoe as their lowest unit, leading up through kettles and
porcelain jars to the buffalo, their main unit; we also found
1 Recueil des travavx relntifs fi In Philolofjie et VArcMoloyie Efiyptiennet et
Astyriennes, Vol. x. fasc. 4, p. Io7,
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 255
that the weight of a grain of corn in gold was equated to a
hoe, and that thus by a simple process of multiplication it was
easy to ascertain the value of a buffalo in gold. The unit thus
attained was kept from fluctuating, as it was known to every
one how many grains of corn gave the true weight of the unit.
The practical accuracy of this method of fixing monetary units
has been demonstrated from the case of the Early English and
Mediaeval English silver penny (p. 180). There is complete
evidence to show that the light shekel system was older than
the heavy system. Firstly the so-called Duck weights with their
cuneiform inscriptions point to the fact that Babylonia was the
special home of this system, whilst the Lion weights with their
Aramaic inscriptions point to a later period, when the Assyrian
Empire was in immediate touch with the merchants of Phoe-
nicia. But, in the next place, a far more powerful argument can
be drawn from the Hebrew system. In later times the heavy
shekel system prevailed in Palestine, in accordance with which
the maneh contained 50 heavy or double shekels of 200 grs.
each. But that this maneh was simply imposed on the older
light shekel system is demonstrated from the fact that when
in two parallel passages articles of a certain weight of gold are
mentioned, in the one the weight is given at three manehs, in
the other at 300 shekels, the maneh thus being counted at
100 shekels. These 100 shekels are equal to the 50 heavy
shekels of the heavy Assyrian or Aramaic maneh. Now it is
evident that if the heavy system had been the original one
employed by the Hebrews, the maneh would simply have been
reckoned at 50 (heavy) shekels. As the matter stands it is
evident that on the contrary, the heavy mina was introduced
into a system where the unit was simply the light shekel, and
the Hebrews therefore clinging to their old unit, described the
maneh as consisting of 100 shekels instead of 50. Further
evidence to the same effect will be adduced later on. Finding
thus the light shekel in Babylonia, in Palestine and in Egypt,
and current even under the Assyrian Empire side by side with
the heavy system even amongst people who used the Aramaic
system of writing, we may without any hesitation regard it as
the older.
256 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
The process by which the gold Talent was arrived at was
somewhat thus :
The ox-unit of 130135 grs. is the basis.
Next the fivefold of this was taken, whether from five being
the simplest multiple, since it was suggested from the primi-
tive method of counting by the fingers of one hand, or far less
likely from a slave being estimated at 5 oxen, somewhat as
we find among the Homeric Greeks an ordinary slave-woman
estimated at four cows, and in ancient Ireland at three cows.
This weight is known as the Assyrian five-shekel standard, and
from it Mr Petrie derives the 80-grain standard which he
detects as the unit of a certain number of weights found at
Naucratis (Naukratis, p. 86). Whilst the Egyptians contented
themselves with the 5 ket and 10 ket, or uten, as their highest
unit, the Chaldaeans advanced to the fifty-fold (5 x 10), and
thus obtained that which probably for a long time formed their
highest unit.
What was this Maneh? Ts it a Semitic word or is it rather
an Aryan, as the present writer has argued elsewhere * ? At
all events it is interesting to find the appearance of a similar
word in the Rig Veda and that too in connection with
gold: this has been regarded by some as a loan word from
Babylon 2 . But it is equally possible, that it is a "loan
word " from India to Babylon. The maneh evidently belongs
to a period anterior to the development of the sexagesimal
system, for if it had come into use along with or subsequent to
that system, we should certainly find 60 instead of 50 shekels
in the mina of gold and the mina of silver : hence it cannot in
any wise be regarded as a distinctive feature of the Babylonian
scientific system, as it plainly existed at the time when the
decimal system was still dominant. As the latter was the
system which prevailed among the Indians of the Vedic period
there was no reason why they should borrow the Chaldaean
term. On the contrary there is rather a reason why the
Chaldaeans would have borrowed the term from India. Gold
did not pass into India from Babylonia, for as we have already
1 Kaeji in Fleckeisen's Jahrbiicher, 1880, first calls attention to this word.
2 Hnltsch, Metro!. 2 , p. 181.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 257
seen there are no auriferous strata in Mesopotamia, but it
passed from the rich surface deposit of the valley of the Oxus
and Central Asia into Chaldaea. Now if the same term inti-
mately associated with the same commodity is found among
two different peoples, and it is known as a matter of certainty
that one of these countries supplies the other with this par-
ticular article, there is a considerable probability that the
peculiar term connected with the commodity has passed along
with it from the source of its production into the country which
imports it.
We saw above that there was no native gold in Chaldaea
and therefore it must have been imported by those Chaldaean
merchantmen from India by way of the Persian Gulf. But was
there no gold in Chaldaea until the shipmen of Ur were able
to construct vessels capable of a voyage, even albeit only a
coasting voyage, to the mouths of the Indus ? Working in
metals must have been far advanced when such ships were
built. That gold came from India we can have little doubt.
But it probably came overland for ages before anything in
the form of a ship larger than a 'dug-out' had ever floated on
the Indian Seas.
The first voyage undertaken to the ancient El Dorado tnay
have been to search for the region from whence came the gold,
somewhat in the fashion that in after-times Pytheas of Massalia
sallied forth to investigate the sources of the tin and amber
which reached Marseilles overland from Britain and the Baltic.
After weighing these considerations we shall be careful to avoid
any dogmatic declarations as to the origin of the word mana.
One thing however is clear, and that is that the ancient Hindus
were employing certain lumps of gold probably of uniform size
in Vedic times, as we saw 1 . The Indians of the Vedic times had
thus a gold unit of their own (and as we have shown above pro-
bably based on the value of a cow) before they as yet knew the
use of silver or had as yet reached the sea in their downward
advance into the peninsula of Hindustan. Even granting that
they borrowed the Mana from Babylonia, it is plain that they
had already their own gold unit, for otherwise instead of em-
1 Rig Veda, Mandala, vi. 47, 234.
R. 17
258 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
ploying hiranya pinda, a most primitive term meaning only
gold-lump, they would certainly have borrowed the term shekel
along with the maneh. But the fact of most importance for us
at present is that, whether maneh be Semitic or Aryan, in either
case it seems to mean not a weight but a measure. It will be
remembered that we found the catty or pound of Further
Asia was in origin a natural unit of capacity, as was shown by
its Cambodian name neal, which simply means a cocoa-nut, and
that we found in China the joints of the bamboo of certain
sizes serving as their measures of capacity, and both cocoa-nuts
and bamboo joints among the Malays of the Indian Isles. This
will naturally suggest the question, Is it possible that the
maneh had a somewhat similar origin ? Was some natural
object, such as the gourd, which is at the present moment the
ordinary unit of capacity at Zanzibar, taken to serve as a measure
of liquids or of corn? It is probable that the Greek cyaihus
(tcvaOos) like its Latin congener cucurbita meant originally some
kind of gourd. But there is a certain amount of probability
that the Semitic peoples used gourds in primitive times for
vessels, not simply from a priori considerations, but from the
fact that the most archaic pottery obtained by Mr Petrie from
his excavations on the site of the ancient city of Lachish in
1890 show unmistakable signs of being modelled after the shape
of a gourd. Although the Chinese never have employed their
ching (catty) for the precious metals, yet the Cambodians have
advanced to counting silver not only by the catty but also by
the picul. Did then the Babylonians make 50 shekels of gold
or silver roundly equal to their maneh or measure of capacity ?
This is of course pure speculation, but it is at least supported
by the comparison of what has actually taken place elsewhere ;
and even from the empire of the Great King himself can we
get an insight into the method by which the maneh (and likewise
the Talent) may have been brought into the weight system.
Herodotus 1 tells us that when the tribute of gold (largely in
gold dust) and silver was brought to the King he stored it thus :
" he melts it and pours it into earthenware jars, and when he
has filled the vessels he strips off the earthenware, and when-
1 Herod, in. 96.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 259
ever he wants money, he cuts off as much as he needs on each
occasion." We saw above that the Cambodian catty of silver
is twice the weight of the catty of rice, the Cambodian catty
being simply the cocoanut, the ordinary unit of capacity, which
after being filled with rice or silver and then weighed has
given two different catties. The Great King no doubt poured
his gold into jars of knows capacity, and the weight of such
a jar when filled with gold was well known. It seems then
not unlikely that in this way from either a jar, or from the
gourd which preceded the jar, the mina was derived. How-
ever the maneh may have been determined, it is fairly certain
that the Babylonians fixed upon 50 as a convenient multiple
of the gold unit when silver first came into use; as we have
seen above it was probably equal if not superior in value
to gold and it was naturally weighed by the same unit. But
in the course of time as it became more plentiful, and at the
same time if likewise the art of weighing began to be employed
by merchants in the traffic in the costly spices and balsams
of the east, a necessity would be specially felt among traders for
a somewhat heavier unit than the original shekel. Possibly
then the Aramaean merchants adopted the double shekel
(based on the double ox-unit) for the purpose of weighing silver
(when that metal had now become much more plentiful than
gold), and for trade in precious gums and spices. Such a
procedure can be well paralleled by the old English pound of
silk, which is simply two pounds Troy weight. Silk was of
course of great value, and was accordingly weighed after the
same system as the precious metals ; but when it became less
costly and more abundant the weight unit was simply doubled.
We may therefore regard the doubling of the original shekel
as an early step towards the development of a commercial
standard. It is not difficult to understand how in the course of
time a nation of traders like the Phoenicians preferred this
double standard even for their gold, and made it perhaps, as we
shall shortly see, the basis of their silver standard.
We saw above that there is every reason to believe that
when silver first became known to mankind, they esteemed it
as highly as gold, if not more so. It would naturally, there-
172
260 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
fore, be weighed on the same standard as gold. This would
continue until, in the course of years, a time came when the
relation between gold and silver had become fairly fixed over
all Asia Minor. We know that in the beginning of the 5th
cent. B.C. gold was to silver as 13 : 1 (or rather 13'3 : 1).
Herodotus, in the celebrated passage in which he describes
the organisation of the Persian empire into satrapies, and
details the amount of tribute appointed by Darius for each,
tells us that the gold was reckoned at thirteen times the
value of silver. Now for ordinary purposes of exchange this
relation would be extremely inconvenient, and the more accu-
rate relation of 13*3 : to 1 would be still more so. It became
thus desirable to fix some separate standard for silver by which
a convenient number, such as 10, of silver ingots would be
equal to the gold ingot of the ox -unit standard. Metrologists
are wont to speak of the desirability of being able to exchange
a round number of talents of silver for a talent of gold. But
not even in the palmiest days of the wealthy Orient lands
was the ordinary individual so rich that he felt any incon-
venience in the way of exchanging talents of gold and silver.
The Great King might deal out talents as he pleased, but his
subjects were chiefly concerned with the exchange of silver
and gold shekels. I have made this remark because it ap-
pears to me that many of the misconceptions connected with
this whole subject have arisen from scholars concentrating all
their attention on the talent, and taking it as their point of
departure.
The Babylonians arrived at their silver standard as follows :
1 gold shekel of 130 grs. was worth 1730 grs. of silver
(130 x 13*3), since gold was to silver as 13*3 : 1.
130 grs. gold = 1730 grs. silver.
They divided this amount of silver by 10, and thus :
1 gold shekel of 130 grs. = 10 silver shekels of 173 grs.
As we stated already, Herodotus says that the Babylonian
talent was equal to 70 Euboic minas, that is, one-sixth more
than the Euboic talent. The latter contained 390,000 grs.
Troy, therefore the Babylonian ought to give 455,000 grs. If
we multiply our silver shekel by 50 and then by 60, we shall
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 261
obtain a total amount for the talent of silver of 519,000 grs.
Unfortunately several inaccuracies have crept into the text of
Herodotus, numerals always being especially liable to cor-
ruption in MSS. He seems, however, to have regarded the
relation of the Euboic to the Babylonian talent as about that
of 5:6, and also to have estimated the current weight of the
Persian silver piece at about 162 grs. Troy. But there can be
little doubt that the full standard weight of the Babylonian
silver shekel was 169 grs. (or, according to Mr Head, 172*9 grs.).
From this it is easy to construct the Babylonian silver
system, which was employed in Lydia and in the Persian
empire.
1 shekel =169 grs.
50 shekels = 1 mina = 7450,
60 minae-= 1 talent 447000.
From the double gold shekel was formed another silver
standard known as the Phoenician.
Gold being to silver as 13 : 1,
1 double shekel of 260 grs. = 3380 grs. silver,
3380 grs. silver = 15 shekels of 225'3 grs.
As this silver standard is found in the same area as- the
double gold shekel, I have thought it best to follow the usual
derivation, but at the same time it is worth pointing out that
it may have been gained directly from the light shekel.
The light shekel (which in the form of coined money ap-
pears either as the gold of Croesus, or the Daric), in the case
of the Babylonian system was made equal to ten silver di-
drachms, or 20 drachms known under the name of Sigli ; it
likewise is equal in value to 15 Phoenician didrachms of
112*6 grs. Thus, whilst in one region they obtained a silver
unit, ten of which would be an equivalent to the gold unit,
in another they formed a silver unit, 15 of which would be
equivalent to the same gold unit of 130 grs. In each case a
number convenient for purposes of exchange was substituted
for the extremely unmanageable number 13 (or still more in-
tractable 13*3) of the older system, according to which silver
was made into ingots of the same size as those of gold.
262 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
These now are the systems on which depended all traffic
and currency of the precious metals throughout Western Asia
for many centuries. I have been compelled in the statement
of the two silver systems to anticipate one step in the growth
of the fully developed weight system by speaking of the Talent.
We have seen that the mina of silver, like that of gold, con-
tains only 50 shekels, thus evidently having likewise been de-
veloped before the full elaboration of the Chaldaean system of
numeration, or at least before the application of that system
to their metric standards. But when we come to deal with
the talent we find that in every case alike, whether it be the
gold, silver, or royal talent of commerce, the talent invariably
consists of sixty minae. From this we may with safety infer
that it was at a period posterior to the invention of the sexa-
gesimal method that the Talent was added to the gold and
silver systems. When we turn to the royal system (both light
and heavy), we find that the mina consists of sixty shekels, just
as the talent consists of 60 minae, and consequently we are
constrained to believe that this royal system was fixed at a
date long after the growth of the gold and silver minae, and
when the sexagesimal system had now complete sway. We
have already seen good reason for considering the royal talent
to be essentially a mercantile unit. It certainly was not used
for gold or silver. Corn was not sold by weight, and so in
all probability it was meant for copper, iron, lead, and mer-
chandise of value. We have learned from our studies in the
metal trade of primitive peoples that copper and iron are not
weighed but are sold by measurement, being wrought into bars
or plates of a well defined size. It is only when communities
are well advanced in culture that they begin to employ the
scales for the buying and selling of the common metals. We
argued above that the double shekel system arose from a desire
amongst a nation of traders like the Phoenicians for a heavier
standard, more serviceable for such goods as were less valuable
than gold. It was probably the same desire which found its
complete realization in the royal system. Whilst gold and
silver had only the mina as their highest unit, there was a
new system developed scientifically from the ancient shekel or
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 263
ox-unit. The sixty-fold of this unit was taken to form a mina
considerably heavier than the old gold mina, and now a new
higher unit, the sixty-fold of the mina, was introduced. This
we know under its Greek name of talent, but it was called
kikkar in the Semitic languages. Now are we to suppose that
this kikkar or talent was purely and simply nothing more than
a higher unit formed by taking a convenient multiple of the
lower unit, just as in the French metric system the kilogram
is 1000 times the gramme ; or was it rather some ancient
natural unit, originally formed empirically, and at a later epoch,
when science had advanced, fitted into the system of com-
mercial weight by being made exactly the sixty-fold of the
mina ? Comparison with other systems in various lands will
incline us to the latter alternative. If we enquire for a
moment in what manner the highest unit of weight for
merchandise is fixed among barbarous and semi-civilized na-
tionalities, we shall find that the load, that is, the amount
that a man of average size and strength can carry, is the
universal unit. Readers of the various recent books of African
travel frequently meet in their dreary and monotonous pages
allusions to so many loads for which porters have to be. sup-
plied. The amount of the load seerns to vary in different
parts. Thus amongst the Madi or Moru tribe of Central
Africa, a pure negro race, according to that admirable ob-
server Mr Felkin, the load is about 50 Ibs. in weight, whilst
according to Major Barttelot, the load carried by the Zanzi-
baris on the Emin Pacha Relief expedition was 65 Ibs. (besides
the man's own rations for several days). We have already
had occasion to refer to the pical of Eastern Asia, which we
found was simply the Malay word for a load', and we also
found that the load varied in different places. Finally, we
found that the Chinese had introduced the picul into their
system of commercial weight, fixing it at 100 chings (catties),
but at the same time excluded it from their silver and gold
system, where the tael (ounce) has remained always the highest
unit. Yet in Cambodia we find that the further step has been
made, and that the commercial system of the catty and picul
has been called into service for the weighing of silver. In
264 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
Java, whilst gold and silver are weighed by units of small
size, copper is sold by the picul.
It seems to me not unreasonable to suppose that the origin
of the talent has been analogous to that of the picul. There is
certainly nothing in either the Hebrew kikkar or the Greek
talanton to imply in the slightest degree that they represented
a numerical multiple of the mina. The Greek word means
simply a weight, whilst the Hebrew seems to mean nothing
more than a round mass or cake of anything, whether applied
to a tract of country, as the region round the Jordan (as in
Nehemiah vii. 28), or a loaf of bread (Exodus xxix. 23 ; 1 Samuel
ii. 36). For as the talent was only introduced into the Hebrew
system at a late period the term was probably applied to a
cake or pig of copper or iron the weight of the ordinary load.
That there was a direct connection between the kikkar and a
man's load seems implied by the fact that Naaman " bound two
talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and
laid them upon two of his servants ; and they bare them before
him" (2 Kings v. 23). As we find Naaman asking Elisha for
" two mules' burden of earth" (v. 17) it is at least certain that
the Semites regularly estimated bulky weights by some kind of
load. We saw above that in Assyrian the same ideogram stands
for tribute and talent. If a load of corn was the regular
unit for tribute, the use of a single ideogram may be ex-
plained. In the case of talanton we have no difficulty in
directly regarding it as a load, whilst with kikkar it is not
difficult to see how easy it was for the meaning of a load of
a certain weight to spring from the earlier meaning of the
word. Its use as a loaf is interesting in connection with the
fact noted on p. 159 that in Annam the largest unit in use for
gold and silver is called a loaf.
When under a strong central government a metric system
more or less scientific was introduced at Babylon, it was
natural that an accurate adjustment of the old empirical unit
of merchandise, the load, to the mina and shekel should be
carefully carried out, just as in China the Mathematical Board
have fixed the picul of commerce as the hundred fold of the
ching (catty), giving it a value equal to 133J- Ibs. avoirdupois.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 265
Such scientific adjustments take place in all countries with the
advance of civilization and commerce, and above all under the
influence of a strong central government. Let us reflect how
long it has taken for the English Statute Acre to conquer
the local ancient acres in use in various parts of the United
Kingdom, such as the Irish, 'the Scotch or the Winchester
acre. In like fashion, although the standards of weight and
capacity were regulated by Act of Parliament in 1824, local
usage still held on, and units of weight unknown to the Statute
still survive in the usage of provincial places. Now it is not
unreasonable to suppose that the name royal or kings weight
was given to the Babylonian commercial system, which was
constructed on purely sexagesimal lines, because it was enforced
by royal proclamation and power throughout the whole of the
empire, and that in like manner the royal cubit mentioned by
Herodotus (I. 178) owes its origin to the establishment of one
uniform standard for the dominions of the Great King. In fact
no better illustration of what took place can be found than
that afforded by our own terms such as imperial pint, or im-
perial gallon, or in a less degree by the statute acre, as con-
trasted with the older customary pints, or gallons, or acres.
The mistake made by metrologists, in regarding the scientifi-
cally constructed Babylonian system as the first beginning of the
art of weighing, is just as great as if a person writing a manual
of English Metrology were to start with the metric legislation
of 1824 as the first beginning of our metrology, and were to
try and explain all traces of an earlier system or systems by
forcing the facts into some sort of conformity with our modern
standards. Undoubtedly in such an effort great facility would
be found inasmuch as the present scientific standards are simply
the ancient units of the realm accurately defined. But the
reader will best understand the relations which probably ex-
isted between the Babylonian royal standard (both single and
double) by having a short account of the adjustment of our
standards laid before him. Great inconvenience having been
felt in the United Kingdom for a long time from the want of
uniformity in the system of weights and measures, which were
in use in different parts of it, an Act of Parliament was passed
266 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
in 1824 and came into force on January the 1st 1826, by which
certain measures and weights therein specified were declared
to be the only lawful ones in this realm under the name of
imperial weights and measures. It was settled by this Act
(1) that a certain yard-measure, made by an order of Parliament
in 1760 by a comparison of the yards then in common use,
should henceforward be the imperial yard and the standard of
length for the kingdom : and that, in case this standard should
be lost or injured, it might be recovered from a knowledge
of the fact that the length of a pendulum, oscillating in a
second in vacuo in the latitude of London and at the level of
the sea (which can always be accurately obtained by certain
scientific processes), was 39*13929 inches of this yard : (2) that
the half of a double pound Troy, made at the same time (1760),
should be the Imperial Pound Troy and the standard of iveight ;
and that of the 5760 grains which this pound contains, the
pound Avoirdupois should contain 7000 ; and that, in case this
standard should be lost or injured, it might be recovered from
the knowledge of the fact that a cubic inch of distilled water
at the temperature of 62 Fahrenheit, and when the barometer
is at 30 in., weighs 252*458 grains: (3) that the imperial gallon
and standard of capacity should contain 27 7 "2 74 cubic inches
(the inch being above defined), which size was selected from its
being nearly that of the gallons already, in '"use, and from the
fact that 10 Ibs. Avoirdupois of distilled water weighed in air
at a temperature of 62 Fahrenheit, and when the barometer
stands at 30 in., will just fill this space. On p. 180 we saw that
the standard gallon in the Tudor period ultimately depended
on the pennyweight, which was, as we found, fixed by being the
weight of 32 grains of wheat, dry and taken from the midst
of the ear of wheat after the ancient laws of the realm. It was
from the descendants of this gallon that the imperial gallon
of 1824 was fixed, with a slight modification so as to make
it contain 10 Ibs. of distilled water weighed in air at a tempe-
rature of 62 and when the barometer stands at 30 in. The
double pound Troy made in 1760 depended in like fashion for
its ultimate origin on the wheat-grains, and it also affords us
an interesting illustration of the doubling of the original single
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 267
unit, such as we find in the heavy royal Babylonian system.
We may find further analogies between our own system and
that of the Babylonians. Whilst at the Mint gold and silver
are weighed for coinage by Troy weight, the copper coinage on
the other hand is regulated by the Ib. Avoirdupois, the ordinary
commercial standard. As already remarked, it is almost certain
from the method of elimination that copper was the principal
article for which the royal Babylonian system was employed,
as gold and silver had separate standards of their own, and
corn was sold by measure and not by weight.
To sum up then the results of our enquiry into the
Assyrio-Babylonian system, we started with the so-called light
shekel or ox-unit as the basis of the system; and found that
gold and silver were weighed by it and by its fifty-fold,
the maneh, which may have been itself a natural measure of
capacity, such as the catty used in Eastern Asia, where we
know for certain that this weight was originally a measure of
capacity obtained from the joints of bamboos or the cocoa-
nut ; that in a certain part of the empire a need was felt
for a slightly heavier unit for the weighing of silver and
precious commodities such as gums and spices, and that ac-
cordingly the great trading Aramaic peoples used the two-fold
of the ox-unit (260 grains Troy); that at the earliest period
copper would not be sold by weight but would be sold by bars
or plates of fixed dimensions, as is still the practice with iron
and copper among the barbarous peoples of Further Asia and
Africa ; that with the advance of culture the art of weighing
was extended to copper and other articles of small value in
proportion to their bulk, and that, as the maneh, or contents of
a gourd, and the load or amount that a man could carry on his
back, had been most probably in general use as units for common
merchandise, the time came when under the all-mastering au-
thority of the Great King a standard based on the ancient ox-
unit, but framed on the new scientific sexagesimal system, was
established for copper and certain other kinds of merchandise ;
that in this system 60 shekels made the maneh, and the load
(the kikkar or talent) was adjusted to the new system as the
sixty-fold of the maneh; and that in the course of time this
268 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
higher unit of the kikkar or talent was added to the gold and
silver systems, sixty manehs in each case making the kikkar
as in the case of the royal or commercial system ; that in the
case of silver, which on its first discovery and employment was
as valuable as gold, and was therefore weighed on the same
standard, when in course of time it became about thirteen
times less valuable than gold, and there was a difficulty ex-
perienced in exchanging the units of gold and silver; a separate
standard was created by dividing into ten new parts or shekels
the amount of silver which was the equivalent of the gold
shekel (ox-unit); that this was probably developed before the
royal commercial mina of 60 shekels had been formed, as in
that case the silver mina would have contained 60 shekels
likewise ; we were able to give an explanation of the name
royal as applied to the commercial standard by regarding it
as of late origin, created by a supreme central authority for
the regulation of the commerce of a great empire made up
of a heterogeneous mass of races, just as in the present century
our own imperial standards have been fixed for the whole king-
dom, being based, as was the Babylonian, on an ancient unit
empirically obtained; and just as the royal arms are stamped
on our imperial standards, so the weights of the Assyrian royal
system were shaped in the form of a lion, the symbol of royalty
throughout the East. Finally we found that at the base of the
Assyrio-Babylonian system lay, as the determinant of the ox-
unit or shekel, the grain of wheat, which we have already traced
all across Europe into Asia. We can therefore now come to a
very reasonable conclusion that the Assyrio-Babylonian weight
system was in its origin empirical, and that it was only at a
comparatively late date in its history, just as in the case of our
own standards, that a certain uniformity between the standards
of measures and weights was brought about by the (not com-
plete) application of the sexagesimal system of numeration, the
invention of which is their eternal glory.
Having now dealt with Egypt, and the systems which
prevailed in the Assyrio-Babylonian empire, it will be best to
treat of the region which lay between them. In both the
former countries we found the light shekel or ox-unit in use
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 269
from the earliest times; and it will also be remembered that
at an earlier stage we found that Abraham was able to traverse
all the wide country that lay between Mesopotamia and the
ancient kingdom of the Nile with his flocks and herds, and
that he dwelt in the land of Canaan in close neighbourhood
and on friendly terms with the sons of Heth, or Hittites, who
were then the possessors of that land ; and that furthermore
monetary transactions were then carried on by means of certain
small ingots of silver, as we see from the purchase of the Cave
of Machpelah. These ingots, translated shekels in the English
version and called didrachms in the Septuagint, are termed in
Hebrew Keseph ( ]D3 ), simply pieces of silver, or silverlings. In
the old Hebrew literature values in silver and gold are expressed
either in shekels or by a simple numeral with the words "of silver,"
"of gold" added (where the latter method is followed the English
version supplies pieces or substitutes " a thousand silverlings "
for " a thousand of silver" (Isa. vii. 23). The Septuagint renders
the skekel by the Greek didrachm). There are several inferences
to be drawn from this. It is evident that pieces of silver (and
no doubt of gold also) of a certain quality and weight were
employed as currency in Palestine, and we may likewise suppose
with some probability that these pieces of silver were according
to the standard in common use in Egypt and Chaldaea. Again,
since we have already shown that gold in the form of rings and
other articles for personal adornment was exchanged according
to the ox-unit of 130-5 grs., as evidenced by the story of the
ring given to Rebekah, it follows that there was but one and the
same standard for gold from the Euphrates to the Nile. This
is confirmed by the story of the sale of Joseph by his brethren
to the company of Ishmaelites "who came from Gilead with
their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh going to carry
it down to Egypt " ; to these Ishmaelites or Midianites Joseph
was sold for twenty pieces of silver 1 . Here we have evidence
that the same silver unit was current from Gilead to Egypt.
There are various other large sums of silver mentioned both
in Genesis and also in the Book of Judges and in Joshua.
Thus Abimelech, King of Gerar, is said to have given Abraham
1 For 20 pieces of gold (dKoai xpv(r&i>) LXX.
270 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
a thousand [pieces] of silver 1 , whilst the lords of the Philis-
tines persuaded Delilah to beguile Samson into telling her
wherein lay his great strength by the promise of eleven
hundred [pieces] of silver, which money she afterwards received*.
Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal (Gideon) was enabled to form
his conspiracy by hiring ' vain and light persons ' 3 with the
three-score and ten [pieces] of silver taken by his mother's
brother from the house of Baal-berith. Finally, we have a sum
of eleven hundred [pieces] of silver which were stolen by that
" man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah " from his
mother, of which his mother took (when he had restored the
money) two hundred [shekels] and gave them to the founder,
who " made thereof a graven image and a molten image 4 ." Now
although all these are considerable sums, all exceeding a mina,
yet there is no mention whatever made of the latter unit of
account in any of these passages. The story of another theft
shows that gold as well as silver was reckoned originally only
by the shekel and not by the mina. Thus Achan "saw among
the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and two hundred shekels
of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight 5 ." As fifty
shekels were a mina, here if anywhere we ought to have found
the latter term. From this we infer without hesitation that
the shekel was the original unit.
- But there is another word besides keseph which is translated
piece of money or piece of silver. This is the term qesitah
/HtO^p) which occurs in three passages of the Old Testament.
Thus Jacob bought the parcel of ground where he had spread
his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's
father, " for an hundred pieces of money " (Gen. xxxiii. 19) ; and
the same word is used in the parallel passage in Joshua
(xxiv. 32) where the children of Israel buried Joseph's bones
in Shechem in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought for an
hundred pieces of money. Lastly, Job's kinsfolk and acquain-
tances gave him every man a piece of money, and every one a
ring of gold (xlii. 11). It has been always a matter of doubt
what this piece of money really was. The Septuagint translates
1 Gen. xx. 16. 2 Judges xvi. 5. :J Judges ix. 4.
4 Judges xvii. 2 4. 5 Joshua vii. 21.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 271
qesitah in these three passages by efcarov dpvwv, e/carbv d
and dfjbvdSa fiiav, thus in every case regarding it as a lamb.
The most ancient interpreters all agree in this, whilst some of
the later Rabbis regarded it as signifying a coin stamped with
the form of a lamb : one of them says that he found such a coin
in Africa 1 .
Long ago Prof. R. S. Poole, speaking of this word, said :
" The sanction of the LXX, and the use of weights bearing the
forms of lions, bulls, and geese by the Egyptians, Assyrians, and
probably Persians, must make us hesitate before we abandon
a rendering [lamb] so singularly confirmed by the relation
of the Latin pecunia and pecus*" The connection between
A. B.
FIG. 25. Weights in the form of Sheep 3 .
weights and units of currency is especially close at a time
when coined money is as yet unknown, and hence when we
find weights in the form of sheep coming from Syria, and
also recollect that sheep were employed as a regular unit in
Palestine for the paying of tribute, and with the light obtained
from primitive systems of currency, we may well conclude that
the qesitah was an old unit of barter, like the Homeric ox, and
1 Cf. Buxtorf and Gesenius sub voce.
2 Madden's Jewish Coinage, p. 7.
3 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.
272 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
as the latter was transformed into a gold unit, so the former
was superseded by an equivalent of silver. We read (2 Kings
iii. 4) that Mesha, king of Moab (now so famous from the
inscription which bears his name), was a sheep-master, and he
rendered unto the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs,
and one hundred thousand rams with the wool. When payment
in metal came more and more into use silver served as the
sub-multiple of gold, just as sheep formed that of the ox, and
it is not surprising that in later times when coins were struck
FIG. 26. Coin of Salamis in Cyprus.
by the Phoenicians, as at Salamis in Cyprus and many other
places, bearing a sheep or a sheep's head, there arose some
doubt as to whether the qesitah was a sheep, a piece of uncoined
silver, or a coin stamped with a sheep. The very fact of the
Phoenicians having such a predilection for this type is in itself
an indication that the silver coin in its origin represented the
value of a sheep. At a later stage, when we come to deal with
the early Greek coin types, we shall develope this principle
more completely. The mere fact that the sheep on the
Phoenician coins is sometimes found accompanying a divinity
does not militate against our doctrine, as I shall explain when
I deal with the coins of Messana and Thasos.
But then comes the question, which was the shekel employed
by the Hebrews ? It must have been either (1) the ox-unit of
130 grs., used alike for gold and silver in early days both in
Egypt and Mesopotamia and Greece, or (2) the double of this,
or heavy shekel of 260 grs., used for gold only in parts of
Asia Minor, or (3) the Phoenician shekel of 225 grs., used only
for silver and electrum along the coast of Asia Minor, and never
employed for gold, or (4) the Babylonian or Persic standard of
172 grs., used only for silver. In later times the silver shekel in
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 273
use amongst the Jews was most undoubtedly the Phoenician
shekel, obtained, as we saw above, by dividing the amount of
silver equivalent to the double gold shekel into 15 parts. But
it may be reasonably doubted whether the silver piece or shekel
(called always a didrachmon in the Septuagint) mentioned in
Genesis and Judges is the Phoenician shekel. It is used with-
out any distinctive epithet, as if it were the weight par
excellence, and is employed for gold as well as silver. But
when we turn to certain other passages we find mention made
of a shekel called the Shekel of the Sanctuary 1 . This shekel is
frequently mentioned, generally in connection with silver, and
in reference to such things as the contribution of the half-
shekel to the Tabernacle, the redemption of the firstborn, the
sacrifice of animals, and the payment of the seer. Yet we find
this shekel likewise employed in the estimation of gold, a
fact which at once shews that it is neither the Phoenician
shekel of 220 grs. nor the Persic of 172 grs., both of which were
confined to silver. It must then have been either the ox-unit
of 130 grs. or the heavy shekel of 260 grs. As the latter was
confined in use to gold it follows that the ox-unit of 130 grs.
alone fits the conditions required. If then we can discover
what in the case of either silver or gold was the weight of this
shekel, we shall have determined it for both metals, for it- will
hardly be maintained that there was one shekel of the Sanctuary
for gold and one of different weight for silver.
Now we read in Exodus (xxxviii. 24 seqq.) that "all the
gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy
[place], even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine
talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel
of the Sanctuary. And the silver of them that were numbered
of the congregation was an hundred talents and a thousand
seven hundred and three-score and fifteen shekels, after the
shekel of the Sanctuary ; a bekah for every man, that is, half a
shekel after the shekel of the Sanctuary, for every one that
went to be numbered from twenty years old and upward, for
six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred
and fifty men. And the brass of the offering was seventy
1 Exod. xxx. IB. Levit. v. 15, etc.
R. 18
274 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
talents and two thousand and four hundred shekels." From
this passage we learn that, whilst the gold and silver were
estimated on the shekel of the Sanctuary (or Holy Shekel),
the brass was probably reckoned by some other standard.
It is also of importance to note that it is the shekel which
is regarded as the unit of the system, for we never hear of a
talent or mina of the Sanctuary. From this passage likewise
we readily discover that the talent of silver contained 3000
shekels (603,550 - 2 - 301,775 shekels - 1775 = 300,000 - 100
= 3000 shekels).
Now when king Solomon made three hundred shields of
beaten gold, three minas (translated pounds in the Authorized
Version) went to one shield (1 Kings x. 17). But in the
parallel passage (1 Chron. ix. 1) we read that " three hundred
shields made he of beaten gold, three hundred shekels went to
one shield," from which it is evident that a maneh of gold
contained 100 shekels 1 . A very important conclusion follows
from these facts, for it is plain that when the Hebrews adopted
the heavy or double maneh from the Phoenicians they did not
adopt for gold and silver at the same time the double shekel, of
which that maneh was the fifty-fold, but on the contrary they
retained their own old unit of the light shekel, and made
one hundred of them equivalent to the Phoenician or heavy
Assyrian mina. Since this light shekel was employed in the
estimation of the gold and silver dedicated by King Solomon
for the adornment of the Temple, this shekel can hardly be
any other than the Holy Shekel of the Sanctuary.
We are thus led to conclude that the shekel was the same
both for gold and silver, and was simply the time-honoured
immemorial unit of 130 5 grs.
It is natural on other grounds that this should be the unit
employed by the Israelites for the precious metals, since it was
the unit employed both for silver and gold in Egypt, the land
of their bondage.
1 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
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 275
The question next suggests itself, Why was the shekel called
by a distinctive name ? It is only when there are two or more
examples or individuals of the same kind that any need arises
for a distinctive appellation : again, as we have already observed,
in such cases the older institution continues to prevail in all
matters religious or legal. It is important to note that in
Exodus xxi. 32, a passage which the best critics consider of
great antiquity, the penalties are expressed in shekels simply
without any distinctive appellation. At that period there was
probably only one shekel (the ox-unit of 130 5 grs.) as yet
in use, and so there was no need to distinguish the shekel
in which fines were paid. This shekel was then described in
the later part of Exodus, where there was a second standard
in use, as the holy shekel. As a matter of fact we have
another weight mentioned in 2 Samuel (xiv. 26), where it is
related of Absalom that " when he polled his head (for it was at
every year's end that he polled it : because the hair was heavy
on him, therefore he polled it) he weighed the hair of his head
at two hundred shekels after the king's weight 1 ."
Now it will be observed that in the passage from Exodus
quoted above, whilst the shekel of the Sanctuary is care-
fully mentioned when amounts of gold and silver are enumerated,
no such addition is made in reference to the " seventy talents
and two thousand and four hundred shekels of brass." If then
the heavy or double shekel and its corresponding mina and
talent, known to us hitherto as the royal Assyrio-Babylonian
heavy standard, had already been introduced among the
Hebrews (and we have just seen that according to the First
Book of Kings it was in use, at least a mina of 50 double
shekels (100 light) was employed for gold), nothing is more
likely than that this standard would bear a title similar to that
which it enjoyed in Babylonia and Syria, and be known as the
king's weight or stone. As I have observed in the case of
1 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.
182
276 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
the royal Assyrian standards that they were employed for
copper, lead, and commodities sufficiently costly to be sold by
weight, so we may with considerable probability conjecture that
this king's weight was employed regularly among the Semites
for the weighing of the less precious metals, and other merchan-
dise. Hence it is that there was no need to add any explanation
of the nature of the standard by which the 70 talents of
brass were weighed, and it was only because in the case of
Absalom's hair we have an article not commonly weighed, that
it was thought necessary by the writer to make clear to us by
which of the two standards usually employed the estimate of
the weight of the year's growth of hair was made. We may
therefore conclude with probability that " the king's shekel "
was no other than the double shekel (260 grains). It will
have been noted that in Genesis and Judges, admittedly two
of the oldest books, there is mention made of only one kind of
shekel, and that it is only in Exodus, Numbers and Leviticus,
all of late date, that we find the shekel distinguished as that of
the Sanctuary, and that it is only in Samuel that we find refer-
ence made to the royal shekel. It is also worthy of notice that
neither in Genesis nor Judges is there any mention made of a
maneh or talent, although there was full opportunity for the
appearance of the former if it had been then in use, as we find
such sums as 400 shekels (4 manehs), 1100 shekels (11 manehs)
and 1700 shekels (17 manehs), whilst in the other series of
books named we find both the maneh and the talent. It is not
unreasonable therefore to suppose, that with the advent of the
maneh and kikkar or talent from their powerful kinsfolk and
neighbours came also the practice of employing the double
shekel, the fiftieth part of the mina of gold and mina of silver,
which was employed in that part of the Assyrio-Babylonian
empire, where the use of the heavy Assyrian shekel was in
vogue. Besides gold and silver, spices were likewise weighed
according to the shekel of the Sanctuary. "Take thee also
unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred [shekels],
and of sweet cinnamon half as much [even] two hundred and
fifty [shekels], and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty
[shekels], and of cassia five hundred [shekels], after the shekel
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 277
of the Sanctuary 1 ." If we had any doubt as to whether it was
not possible that there were two separate shekels of the Sanc-
tuary, one for gold, and one of different standard for silver, our
misgivings are at once dispelled by finding spices weighed after
the holy shekel. It is certainly incredible that there could
have been a separate standard of the Sanctuary for the weighing
of spices. There seems then no reasonable doubt that there was
only one shekel of the Sanctuary, and that the unit of 130
grains. In support of this we may adduce Josephus 2 , who
made the Jewish gold shekel a Daric (which as we have already
seen is our unit of 130 grains). This in turn derives support
from the fact that the Septuagint, which regularly renders the
Hebrew sheqel (which like the Greek Talanton means simply
weight) by both siklos and didrachmon, not unfrequently renders
shekel of gold by chrysus 3 , which means of course nothing
more than gold stater, that is a didrachm of gold, such as those
struck by the Athenians, by Philip of Macedon, Alexander and
the successors of the latter, including the Ptolemies of Egypt,
under whom was made the Septuagint Version. We have thus
found the earliest Hebrew weight unit to be that standard
which we have found universally diffused, and which we have
called the ox-unit.
Next let us see how from this unit grew their system. In
several passages the shekel of the Sanctuary is said to consist
of 20 gerahs*, a word rendered simply by obolos in the Septuagint.
As before observed, the Hebrew metric system was essentially
decimal, like that of Egypt ; in fact had Tacitus been a metro-
logist he might have quoted this as an additional proof that the
Jews were Egyptian outcasts, expelled by their countrymen
because they were afflicted with a plague, perhaps the scabies 5 ,
which so frequently affects swine. The measures of capacity,
both dry and liquid, are decimal, and so accordingly we find
a decimal division applied to the shekel. The latter is divided
into two bekahs (S?p3, "a division," " a half"), and each bekah is
1 Exod. xxx. 234. 2 Antiq. in. 8, 10.
3 Pollux, ix. 59, observes that when xp^ous stands alone, (rrar^p is always to
be understood.
4 Exod. xxx. 13. 5 Hint. v. 3.
278 THE SYSTEMS OF EciYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
divided into 10 gerahs (mi). The latter signifies " n grain" or
"bean." The Hebrew literature does not state what kind of seed
or grain it was, although it is defined by Rabbinical writers as
i-ijual to 16 barleycorns. But the fact is that, as we see from the
Scptuagint rendering, the name in the course of time came to
be considered simply as that of one-twentieth of the shekel,
whether that shekel was the shekel of the Sanctuary, the
Phoenician silver shekel of 220 grains, or the king's shekel of
260 grains used for copper and lead. The gerah of the gold
shekel or shekel of the Sanctuary was probably the most ancient
and came closest to the natural seed from which it derived its
name ; this gerah would be about 6 grains (130 -=- 20 = 6'5).
On an earlier page (p. 194) we gave the weights of a number of
grains and seeds of plants, and amongst them that of the lupin,
called by the Greeks thermos. According to the ancient tables
the thermos is equal to two keratia, or siliquae (the seeds of the
carob tree); but since each siliqua = 4 wheat grains, the thermos =
8 wheat grains, or 6 barleycorns, or 6 Troy grains. If the wheat
grain in Palestine was as heavy as that of Egypt or Africa
('051 gram, instead of '047 gram.), the 8 wheat grains, would
= 6*4 grains troy. Again, the Roman metrologists estimated
the lupin as the third part of the scripulum, which weighed 24
grains of wheat 1 ; thus the Roman lupin also = 8 wheat grains.
We may therefore have little doubt that the gerah was simply
the lupin*. But what about the Rabbinical gerah of 16 barley-
corns ? In the first place let us recall the confusion which
exists in the Arab metrologists respecting the habba, some
making three habbas, some four equal to the karat. This arose,
as we saw, from confounding the wheat and barley grain. If
the 16 grains assigned to the gerah by the Rabbis are really
wheat grains, all is at once clear. The gerah to which they
refer is that of the royal or double shekel (260 grs.), or in other
words it is a double gerah. We have just found the gerah of
the Sanctuary shekel to be the lupin, and equal to 8 wheat
grains, accordingly its double will contain 16 wheat grains.
1 Hultsch, Metr. Scrip. 8. v. Lupinus.
- In (resenius' Lexicon, ir. 88; u. 144, it is suggested that the gerah is the
lupin.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 279
Nothing is more common than a change in the value of a
natural weight unit, when in the course of time its real origin
has been forgotten, and it has been adjusted to meet the re-
quirements of newer systems. Thus the value of the Greek
thermos and its Roman equivalent the lupin both suffered
in later days, and were regarded as only equal to 6 wheat
grains instead of the original 8 owing to a like confusion
between wheat grains and barleycorns. Finally there is a
further reason why the authors of the Septuagint Version would
translate gerah by obolos. Writing at Alexandria under
Ptolemaic rule, at a time when the Ptolemaic silver stater
of 220 grains contained exactly 20 obols of the Attic or or-
dinary Greek standard of 11 grains, they would all the more
readily adopt a rendering, which harmonized so well with the
monetary system of their own day ; at the same time the Greek
habit of dividing all staters into 12 obols, no matter on what
standard the stater was struck, naturally would incline them all
the more to regard the gerah not as an actual weight, but simply
as the twentieth of the shekel, be the shekel what it might.
The Hebrew gold standard accordingly consisted of a shekel
of 130 grains, subdivided into 2 bekahs or halves ; each of which
in turn contained 10 gerahs or lupins: 100 such shekels made
a maneh, and according to Josephus 1 100 manehs made a kikkar
or talent. It would thus appear that, just as in the time of
Solomon the heavy mina had been introduced which was equal
to 100 shekels of the Sanctuary, so the Hebrews carried out
consistently this principle by making 100 miiiae go to the
talent. It is however most probable that before that time they
had employed a maneh of their own of 50 light shekels, for we
have seen above that the talent of silver mentioned in Exodus
consisted of only 3000 shekels, just as in all the other gold and
silver systems of Asia Minor and Greece : and since we have
proved that the silver shekel of the Sanctuary was the ordinary
light shekel of 130 grains, it is evident that the silver talent is
not made up of 3000 double shekels, but is really nothing more
1 Antiq. in. 6, 7,
280 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
than the sixty-fold of a inina which contained 50 shekels of the
ox- unit standard. If gold was weighed at all by any higher
standard than the shekel, it is almost certain that it must have
been weighed by this mina and talent 1 . However, by the time
of the monarchy it is most probable that the double or heavy
miua had been introduced for silver as well as for gold. In fact
the probabilities are that it was applied for the weighing of
silver before that of gold. Thus when Naaman the leper set
out to go to the Hebrew prophet, "he took with him ten
talents of silver, and six thousand [pieces] of gold, and ten
changes of raiment 2 ." Here the 6000 gold pieces are perhaps
the 6000 light shekels which would make a talent of the
heavy Assyrian standard after the ordinary Phoenician system
of 50 shekels = 1 mina, and 60 minae = 1 talent: and doubtless
Naaman counted these 6000 gold pieces as a talent of gold ; but
inasmuch as the Hebrews had a peculiar system of their own, by
which 100 minae, and 10,000 light shekels went to the kikkar,
these 6000 are not described as a talent by the Hebrew writer.
We may thus regard the silver talent as consisting of 3000 light
shekels, at the earliest period, and later on as of 3000 heavy
shekels: finally, when coinage was introduced and money was
struck under the Maccabees on the Phoenician silver standard,
it consisted of 3000 shekels of 220 grs. each. But there is one
period about which we find great difficulty in coming to any
conclusion. After the return from the Babylonian captivity
what standards were employed for gold and silver ? As Judaea
formed part of the dominions of the Great King, we would
naturally expect to find in Nehemiah and Ezra traces of the
standard then employed throughout the Persian Empire for
the precious metals. As we have found that the light shekel
formed the unit for gold from first to last, and as it was also the
gold unit of the Babylonians and Assyrians, we may unhesi-
1 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.
8 2 Kings v. 5.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 281
tatingly assume that it formed the basis of the Jewish system
in the days of Nehemiah (446 B.C.). As regards the silver
standard we have fortunately one piece of evidence, which may
give us the right solution. We found that in Exodus each
male Israelite contributed a bekah, or half a shekel (of the
Sanctuary) to defray, the cost of the tabernacle : this half-shekel
was a drachm of about 65 grs. Troy. Now after the Return
from Captivity, we find Nehemiah (x. 32) writing : " We made
ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part
of a shekel 1 for the service of the house of our God." Why the
third of a shekel instead of the half of earlier days ? When we
read of the generous and self-sacrificing efforts made by the
Jews to restore the ancient glories of the Temple worship, we
can hardly believe that it was through any desire to reduce the
annual contribution. The solution is not far to seek when we
recollect that the Babylonian silver stater of that age weighed
about 172'8 grs. This formed the standard of the empire, and
doubtless the Jews of the Captivity employed it like the rest
of the subjects of the Great King. The third part of this stater
or shekel weighed about 58 grains ; so that practically the third
part of the Babylonian silver shekel was the same as the half of
the ancient light shekel, or shekel of the Sanctuary. From .this
we may not unreasonably infer that after the Return the Jews
employed the Babylonian silver shekel as their silver unit, and
this probably continued in use until Alexander by the victories
of Issus and Arbela overthrew the Persian Empire, and erected
his own on its ruins. But although the Babylonian shekel was
the official standard of the empire there can be no doubt that
the old local standards lingered on, or rather held their ground
stubbornly in not a few cases. We saw above that the
Aramaean peoples had especially preferred the double shekel,
and from it they developed the so-called Phoenician or Graeco-.
Asiatic silver standard. Gold being to silver as 13'3:1, one
double shekel of 260 grains of gold was equal to fifteen reduced
double shekels of silver of 225 grains each. Now it is im-
portant to note that the Phoenician shekel or stater was always
considered not as a didrachm but as a tetradrachm ; a fact which
1 LXX. rpirov TOV
282 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
is explained by its development from the old double shekel,
which of course was regarded as containing four drachms, and
which at the same time explains why it is that in the New
Testament the Temple-tax of the half shekel is called a di-
drachm, the term applied to the shekel itself in the Septuagint.
When the Jews coined money under the Maccabees, they struck
their silver coins on this Phoenician standard, and their shekel
was always regarded as a tetradrachm. For the ancient half
shekel of the Sanctuary they soon substituted the half of their
shekel coins, that is about 110 instead of 65 grains of silver.
This change probably took place under the Maccabees ; silver
had then probably become much more plentiful in Judaea as
shown by the fact that they were able to issue a silver coinage.
When those who collected the Temple-tax asked Christ for his
didrachm, he bade Simon Peter go to the sea and catch a fish,
in the mouth of which he would find a stater, "that give him,
said he, for both me and thee." As the stater evidently
sufficed to pay a didrachm for each, there can be no doubt that
the shekel or stater was considered by the Jews to be a tetra-
drachm.
It is very uncertain whether the Hebrews at any time
employed a maneh of GO shekels. They most certainly did not
do so for gold and silver, and probably not even for copper
and other cheap commodities. Very unfortunately the famous
passage in Ezekiel (xlv. 12), which deals with weights and
measures, is so confused in the description of the maneh that we
cannot employ it as evidence. The one element of certainty is
that the gold shekel never varied from first to last. It is like-
wise probable that, whilst the heavy maneh was introduced for
gold silver and copper alike, the shekel always remained the
same, 100 shekels being counted to the mina of gold and silver
in the royal system, whilst 50 shekels always continued to be
regarded as composing the maneh of the Sanctuary, such as we
found it in the Book of Exodus. To confirm this view of the
shekel we can cite the Bull's-head weight (fig. 27), which came
from Jerusalem, and weighs 36*800 grammes, which represents
the amount of 5 light shekels (making allowance for a small
fracture), the light shekel being 8*4 grams. (130 grs.). It is plain
THK SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 283
that this is a multiple of the light and not of the heavy shekel,
for it is not likely that such a multiple as 2^ would be employed.
On the other hand, we found the five-fold multiple of the light
shekel appearing in the Assyrian system, and also the Egyptian.
FIG. 27. Bull's-head Five-shekel Weight.
The Hebrew systems, as we have tentatively set them forth,
may be seen in the following tables.
I. Earliest period. Shekel of 130-5 grs. alone employed for
gold and probably silver.
II. Mosaic period. Gold and Silver. (The old light shekel
or ox-unit is now called shekel of the Sanctuary to distinguish
it from its double.)
50 light Shekels = 1 Maneh
3000 light Shekels = (JO Manehs = 1 Kikkar (talent).
III. Regal period. Gold.
100 light (= 50 double) shekels = 1 heavy Maneh
5000 heavy (= 10,000 light) = 100 heavy Manehs = 1 talent.
The same system was probably employed for silver and
copper, but instead of counting 100 light shekels to the Maneh
as in the case of gold, they reckoned silver and copper by
the double shekel, probably called the king's shekel in contra-
distinction to that of the Sanctuary.
IV. After the Return. The light shekel still retained for
gold, and the Babylonian, or Phoenician silver standard, em-
ployed for silver.
284 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AN? PALESTINE.
V. Maccabean Period. Gold on the old standard, and silver
(now first coined) struck on the Phoenician silver standard of
220 grains.
Copper was estimated most probably on the the old double
shekel system ; and most likely the royal Assyrian heavy
system of GO shekels to the man eh and 60 manehs to the
talent was adopted in its entirety for copper and other articles
of no great value in proportion to their bulk 1 .
1 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 Eevised Version : " Thus saith the Lord God : Let it
suffice you, princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judg-
ment 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 explana-
tion on the principles which I have indicated. The LXX. runs thus: *ai ra
ffrddfua ctKOffi dfioXol, trtvTt ffinXot, Trtvre icai <rlK\oi, 56ca /cat irevT^Kovra ffiK\oi i)
two, tarai vfjiiv. So Tischendorf.
There is a MS. (Cod. Al.) reading ol irtvTc <rkXot, Kal Tnfire Kal ol 5<f*a 0-fcXoc.
Tischendorf's text can hardly be right, Trtvre Kal crkXot, 5^/ca Kal irevr^Kovra contain
two most unnatural collocations. dtKa Kal irevT^Kovra is absolutely absurd as
a way of expressing 60. eZj Kal irevT^Kovra up to ivvta. Kal wevT^Kovra 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 Trtvre Kal point to
some other numeral such as 10, or 20, as necessarily following. This is ob-
tained by taking the MS. reading TnWf Kal 5<f*a 0-toXot, Kal wevr-qKovra, K.T.\.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 285
PHOENICIAN STANDARD.
The total loss of the literature and records of the Phoe-
nicians, and the fact that neither in their own country nor
in the greatest of their colonies, Carthage, did they employ
coined money until a comparatively late period, make the task
of restoring their weight system very difficult if not hopeless.
The silver standard called Phoenician or Graeco- Asiatic is the
sole evidence to show that they employed as their unit for gold
the heavy Babylonian shekel of 260 grs. On the other hand
we have just seen that their close neighbours, the Hebrews,
from first to last, and the ancient people of the Nile with whom
the Phoenicians were in the closest trade relations (having
large trading communities settled in the Delta, and from whom
Now the LXX. gives the plural o-TdO/jua for " shekel " : a-rdO/jLia 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, tlte fifteen shekel weight,
and fifty shekels shall be your maneh." The article ot is very rightly used
before -rr^vre, 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 explana-
tion 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
( 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 ol dV/cct is due to the fact that after ot
irtvre ffixXoi stood ot dV/cct, which was followed by ot irevTeKaldeKa <rt'/cXoi. 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.
286 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
they had borrowed the hieroglyphic syllabic symbols, which
with them became the Alphabet), had employed the light
shekel, the only gold unit that likewise from first to last pre-
vailed throughout the vast regions of Central Asia Minor, and
as we have seen, was the unit of Greece even in the early days
when the great cities of Mycenae and Tiryns were in direct
contact with, and deriving their arts and civilization from Asia
or from Egypt.
The derivation of the Phoenician silver standard of about
225 grs. (14*58 gram.) according to the hitherto received doctrine
is as follows. As the Babylonians formed their silver standard
by making into ten pieces the amount of silver equivalent to
the "light gold shekel/ 1 so the Phoenicians and Syrians are
supposed to have divided the amount of silver equivalent to
" the heavy shekel " into fifteen pieces, gold being to silver in
each case as 13'3:1. But we ask why did the Phoenicians
adopt so awkward a scale as the quindecimal when it was
possible for them to employ the decimal or duodecimal ? In
the next place by the supposed system 7^ silver shekels were
equal to one light shekel, that is the gold unit which was
universally employed amongst all the peoples with whom they
traded : and what number could be more awkward for purposes
of exchange than 7^ ? If therefore we can show that it is
probable that at one period silver was exceedingly abundant in
Phoenicia compared with gold, and that consequently gold was
worth considerably more than 13 times its weight in silver, the
sole support for the heavy shekel being the Phoenician unit is
removed, and the theory of the fifteen statet^ system falls to the
ground. It is well known that the Phoenicians had much of
the trade of Cilicia and the other coast regions of Asia Minor
in their hands. It was Cilicia that produced the chief supplies
of silver for Western Asia 1 . From this land therefore the
Phoenicians obtained vast quantities of silver, and it was from
them almost certainly the Egyptians, who had no native silver,
obtained a supply of that metal. But this was not all. About
1000 B.C. the Phoenicians, in their quest after new and un-
exhausted regions, made their way westward and reached
1 Herod, in. 89, seqg.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 287
Spain. I have already related the ancient stories which
embody the account of the marvellous amount of silver which
the first bold explorers brought back. We need not wonder
then if in the days of king Solomon, "silver was nothing ac-
counted of" in Syria and Palestine. We also saw that the
relative value of gold and silver was just as liable to fluctuate
in ancient, as in modern times, according to the supply of either
metal, and when we come to deal with the Greek system we
shall find many instances of this. If we then suppose that
gold was to silver as 17:1 in Phoenicia, the gold shekel of
130 grs. would be worth ten silver pieces of 220 grs. each.
(130 x 17 = 2210 ; ^ = 221). This is in reality far closer to
the actual weight of the coins than the result obtained by the
old hypothesis : 260 x 13'3 - 3466 -r 15 = 231 grs. Troy, which
is about 10 grs. higher than the actual coin weights.
The approximation gained by our conjectural relation of
17 : 1, is far closer than that obtained by that of 13 3 : 1. The
conclusion is probable that silver was far cheaper in Phoenicia
and the contiguous coasts than elsewhere in Asia Minor,
and that it was natural that the weight of the silver unit
was increased in order to preserve the relation in value
between one gold unit, and ten silver units. Lastly we may
point out that at no place on the coast of Phoenicia or Asia
Minor, the region especially in contact with the Phoenicians,
do we find gold pieces struck on the heavy shekel. Electrum
certainly was coined on this foot; but of this we shall be able to
give a satisfactory explanation. We have (with the exception
of some Lydian pieces) to go as far north as Thasos or Thrace
before we find a gold coin of such a nature, which is of course
nothing more than a double stater.
The Phoenician gold mina was probably like the Hebrew,
which was most likely borrowed from it, the fifty-fold of the
heavy shekel, 100 gold shekels and 100 'silver shekels consti-
tuting a maneh, as amongst the Hebrews in the time of
Solomon. But we can conjecture with some probability that
at an earlier stage they weighed their gold and silver according
to the old common ox-unit, which we found in use among the
Hebrews under the name of the Holy Shekel or shekel of the
288 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
Sanctuary. No doubt the mina for gold always contained 100
light or 50 heavy shekels, and when their own peculiar shekel
of 220 grs. came into vogue for silver, 50 such shekels made a
mina. Finally, there can be little doubt that 60 minas in-
variably went to the talent.
In the case of commercial weights, it is most probable that
60 heavy shekels made a mina: this is rendered almost perfectly
certain by the Lion weights with Phoenician as well as cunei-
form inscriptions found at Nineveh, 60 heavy minas forming a
heavy talent.
THE PHOENICIAN COLONIES.
It is worth while before going further to enquire whether
we can gain any light from the systems of weight employed by
the famous daughter-cities of Phoenicia, such as Gades and
Carthage. A weight bearing in Punic characters the name of
the Agoranomos and the numeral 100 has been found at Jol
(Julia Caesarea) in North Africa, but uu fortunately it has
suffered so much by corrosion from water and the loss of its
handle that it is impossible to make any tolerable approxima-
tion to its original weight. Hultsch 1 conjectures with some
probability that, making allowance for its loss, it represents
100 drachms, and deduces from this that the Carthaginians
treated the drachm as their shekel, but for this latter hypo-
thesis there seems no sufficient evidence. If this supposition
were true, the weight would represent a half-inina of the
Phoenician silver standard. But there is one thing which this
weight does prove, and that is that, whether it be a mina or
half-mina, it is the drachm or shekel, which was evidently
regarded as the unit of the system, not the mina. Thus once
more we get a confirmation of our general thesis that the mina
and talent are the multiples, and that it is the shekel or stater
which is the basis. Nor does the coinage of Carthage furnish
us with all the information that could be desired, for it was
only after 410 H.r. that that great " mart of merchants " began
to strike coins, and even then it was only in her Sicilian pos-
1 Metrol.*, p. 420.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 289
sessions that she did so, no doubt induced to adopt the practice
by constant contact with her Greek enemies : for not only the
type (of Persephone) was borrowed from Syracusan coins, but
the very dies were engraved by the hands of Greek artists. The
gold coins are struck on a standard of about 120 grs. Troy, whilst
the silver issue consists of tetradrachms of the so-called Attic
(or more simply light shekel or ox-unit) standard of 130 135
grs. Since during the same period (405 347 B.C.) Syracuse 1 was
issuing gold pieces on the Attic standard, it is most probable
that it is only through the want of heavier specimens that we
are compelled to set the Siculo-Punic coins issued at Panormus
(Palermo) and other places in Italy so low as 120 grs. It
was not until about the time of Timoleon (340 B.C.) that money
was coined at Carthage itself. This coinage consists wholly
of gold, electrum and bronze, down to the time of the acqui-
sition of the rich silver mines of Spain, and the foundation of
New Carthage in that country by Hasdrubal, the son-in-law of
Hamilkar Barca and brother-in-law of Hannibal, in the interval
between the First and Second Punic wars (241 218 B.C.),
when large silver coins both Carthaginian and Hispano- Cartha-
ginian seem to have been first struck 2 .
The gold and electrum coins of the first period are of
the following weights: gold 145 and 73 grs.; electrum 118,
58 and 27 grains. The gold unit is thus some 10 grains
higher than the normal value of the ox-unit. If these coins
belonged to an earlier period we might with some confidence
affirm that the variation was due to the plentiful supply of
gold derived by the Carthaginians from the still unexhausted
gold deposits of Western Africa. This is perhaps the true
explanation even at the late period when the coins were issued,
but there may have been a desire to adjust the three metals,
gold, electrum and silver, so that they might be conveniently
exchanged. It will be observed that the electrum coins are
struck on a unit of 118 grs., and it is not at all improbable that
silver was reckoned by the same unit, even though not yet
coined ; for when the silver coins appear they are struck on a
standard of 118 or 236 grs. It will be at once noticed that
1 Metrol.\ p. 153. 2 Head, op. cit. p. 789.
R. 19
290 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
this standard is considerably higher than the Phoenician silver
standard found along the coasts of Asia Minor. It may thus
have been found convenient to raise by a few grains .the weight
of the gold unit so as to harmonize the relations between the
three metals. Further speculation is vain, as we do not know
the proportion of gold contained in the electrum coins 1 . From
what we shall shortly learn about the electrum of Cyzicus,
it is not impossible that the gold piece of 73 grs. was worth
an electrum stater of 118 grs.
Coming to the Phoenicians of Spain we find that Gades,
which did not begin her coinage until about 250 B.C., employed
a standard for her silver of 78 grains, and that the island of
Ebusus (Iviza) struck didrachms of 154 grs., a half-drachm of
39 grs. and a quarter-drachm. This coincides closely with the
78 grain drachm of Gades. It is palpable that there is no
connection between this standard and the Phoenician standard
of 220 grs. As the same system is found in the cities of
Emporiae and Rhoda (Ampurias and Rosas) in the north-east
of Spain, and in the earliest drachms of Massilia (Marseilles)*,
it is far more reasonable to suppose that the relations between
gold and silver throughout Spain were such that, in order to
make a certain fixed number of silver pieces equivalent to the
gold ox-unit, it was found necessary to make the silver didrachm
of about 156 grs. and the drachm of 78 grs.
It would thus seem that the principle which we shall seek
to establish for the Greek silver standards held true of the
Phoenician likewise, that whilst the gold unit, the basis of all
weight, remains unchanged or was but very slightly modified
even at a late period (when the idea of the original ox-unit
must have become dimmed by time), in order to effect a more
complete harmonizing of a threefold system of gold, electrum
and silver, the silver units shew every kind of variety, which
can only be accounted for by supposing that owing to the
different relations between gold and silver in various regions
1 The amount of gold in electrum varies greatly. Pliny, H. N. xxxui. 4. 23,
ubicumque quinta argenti portio est, et electrum uocatur. The Carthaginian
electrum probably came from Spain (cp. p. 94).
2 Head, op. cit. p. 2.
THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 291
and at various periods in the same regions, it was found
necessary from time to time to increase or diminish the
weight of. the silver unit. Thus if gold was to silver as
12:1 in the 3rd century B.C., we find a ready explanation for
the standard of Gades and Emporiae. The gold unit of
130 grs. would be worth ten silver units of 15G grs. each
(130 x 12 = 1560 - 10 = 156). So too the 118 gr. standard of
Carthage may be explained by supposing that gold was to
silver as 11:1; for then 1 gold unit of 130 grs. = 12 silver
of 118 grs. each (130 x 11 = 1430- 12 = 119 grs.), duodecimal
division perhaps being preferred to the decimal owing to the
relations between electrum and silver, the former perhaps being
as in Lydia 1 counted at 10 times the value of the latter. If
gold was to silver as 12 : 1, and electrum to silver as 8:1,
electrum being thus nearly two-thirds gold, one gold piece
of 75 grs. = 1 piece of electrum of 118 grains, and 8 pieces
of silver of 116 grs. each (75 x 12 = 900 ; 116x8 = 928), and
1 piece of electrum of 118 was worth 8 pieces of silver of
116 grs. each. All this is, be it remembered, purely conjectural,
as we know nothing of the actual relations existing between
any pair of the metals.
However, when we come to deal with the electrum of Cyzicus
we shall be able to "produce some data, which will at least show
that our suggested explanation of the relations existing between
gold, electrum and silver at Carthage is not purely chimerical.
Lastly comes the question of the commercial weight-system.
We have already spoken of the badly preserved weight from
Jol, but we could not say whether it was used for the precious
metals, or more ordinary merchandize. However, the great
Phoenician inscription of Marseilles, already referred to, makes
it plain that even in the weighing of meat they reckoned by
the shekel and not by the mina; for we find in it mention
of 300 [shekels] and 150 [shekels] of flesh from the victims.
This completely accords with the 20 shekels of food mentioned
by Ezekiel (iv. 10), and clearly indicates that even in what
we may well believe to be the heavy commercial shekel, the
ancient decimal system had not been superseded by the sexa-
1 Pliny, H. N. xxxiv.
192
292 THE SYSTEMS OF EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE.
gesimal ; and, further, that the mina had not succeeded in
supplanting the more ancient fashion of counting by shekels;
for had such been the case, the weight of the meat would have
been expressed in 6 manehs, or 3 manehs. This piece of
evidence confirms the results which we arrived at in the case
of the Hebrews that it was only at a later period that reckon-
ing by manehs came into use. The Phoenician colonies of the
West, including Carthage herself, had probably been planted
before the influences of the Chaldaean system had obtained
a solid footing in Palestine. We may however not unreason-
ably believe that the Carthaginians employed some such form
of talent as we find in the Book of Exodus, 3000 shekels
(50 x 60 = 3000) going to the talent, though as yet no record has
revealed to us the actual existence of either talent or mina.
CHAPTER XI.
THE LYDIAN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS.
" The Lydians," says Herodotus, " were the first of all na-
tions we know who struck gold and silver coin 1 ," a tradition
also attested by Xenophanes of Colophon, according to Julius
Pollux 2 . These statements of the ancient writers are con-
firmed by an examination of the earliest essays made in Asia
in the art of coining ; from which the best numismatists have
been led to ascribe it to the seventh century B.C. and probably
to the reign of Gyges, who from being a shepherd, by means
of the " virtuous ring" became the founder of the great dynasty
of the Mermnadae, and of the new Lydian empire as distin-
guished from the Lydia of a more remote antiquity. The
first issues of the Lydian mint were rudely executed coins
of electrum, being staters and smaller coins of the standards
usually known as the Babylonian and Phoenician, of which the
earliest staters weigh about 167 and 220 grs. respectively 3 . It
is most likely that the Babylonian standard was intended for
commerce with the interior of Asia Minor, and the Phoenician
for transactions with the cities of the western seaboard, to
coincide with the silver standards in use in these respective
regions. The proportion of gold and silver in electrum is ex-
1 Herod. I. 94, -rrp&Toi 5e avdpuTrwv, TUV ijfjieis id/J.tv, v6fu<r/J.a x/w<7ou KCU apyvpov
- Julius Pollux, ix. 83.
3 Head, op. cit. p. 544.
294 THE LYDIAN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS.
ceedingly variable : according to Pliny 1 any gold alloyed with
one-fifth of silver (and by implication any containing any
higher proportion of silver) was called electrum. We shall
soon find that the electrum staters of Cyzicus contained about
an equal amount of either metal ; but the analysis of Lydian
electrum gives a proportion of 73 per cent, of gold to 27 per
cent, of silver, or practically 3 to 1. As gold in the central
parts of Asia Minor stood to silver as 13 3 : 1 in the reign
of Darius and probably long before, we may not unreasonably
assume that such also was the relation between them in the
reign of Gyges, at least in the interior. In this case electrum
would stand to silver as 10 : 1, a proportion exceedingly con-
venient for exchange, as a single standard served for both metals,
one electrum ingot of 168 grs. being equal to 10 silver ingots of
like weight. We have already seen that one gold unit of 130 grs.
was equivalent to 10 silver units of 168 grs., therefore the gold
ox-unit was exactly represented in value by the electrum ingot of
168 grs., for, according to our statement of the composition of the
Lydian electrum, 168 grs. of that alloy would contain 126 grs.
of pure gold. If we were certain that on the coast of Asia
Minor the relation between gold and silver was 13*3 : 1, we
should be compelled to follow Brandis and the rest in making
the double gold shekel of 260 grs. equal to 15 silver shekels
of 220 grs. each ; again, if we accept as universal the relation
of gold to electrum as 4:3, and accordingly make one piece
of electrum of 220 grs. equal to 10 silver pieces of the same
standard, we shall find it impossible to obtain any convenient
relation between the gold stater of 130 grs. and the electrum
stater of 220 grs. But from this difficulty it is not hard to
find an escape : 224 grs. of electrum = 168 grs. of gold ; that is
exactly 1 J gold shekels Op = 43 x 4 = 172). The division into
thirds and sixths is of course a well-known feature in the
coinage of the Asiatic coast-towns. Thus there would be no
practical difficulty in the ordinary monetary transactions, for
three Phoenician drachms of electrum (=168 grs.) would = 1
gold shekel ; and 4 gold Thirds (Tritae), or 8 gold Sixths
(Hectae), would equal one electrum stater of 224 220 grs.
1 //. N. xxxm. 4. 23, ubicumque quinta argenti portio est, et electrum uocatur.
THE LYD1AN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS.
If on the other hand silver held a lower value in relation
to gold on the coasts of the Aegean, and the electrum em-
ployed in that quarter was alloyed to a greater extent with
silver, two disturbing elements are introduced. The proba-
bilities are in favour of silver being cheaper in Cilicia and the
contiguous region, and most certainly at Cyzicus the electrum
was half silver, whilst the Phocaic electrum had a bad name
in antiquity, since according to Hesychius Phocaic gold was
synonymous with bad gold. Is it then possible that 220 grains
of electrum were equivalent to 130 grs. of pure gold ? This
gives about 60 per cent, of gold. If gold was to silver as
13*5 : 1, the gold unit of 130 grs. is equal to 8 silver pieces
of 220 grs. (130 x 13'3 = 1765 -=- 8 = 220'6). In our present
state of knowledge it is impossible to decide in favour of
either view, but it is at least evident that some such rela-
tion and adjustment must have existed between the three
metals. In fact the problem which the Lydians tried to solve
was not merely that of Bimetallism, but of Trimetallism.
These early electrum coins are simply bullet-shaped lumps
of metal, like the so-called bean money formerly employed by
FIG. 28. Lydian electrum coin.
the Japanese, having what is termed the obverse plain or
rather striated, as a series of lines in relief run across the
coin, whilst the reverse has three incuse depressions, that in
the centre oblong, the others square. The coin here figured
(from the British Museum specimen) is on the Babylonian silver
standard (166'8 grs.), but it is on the staters of Phoenician
standard that we first find any attempt at types or symbols.
The idea of engraving some symbol on the punches used for
stamping the incuse depressions was in truth the grand step
296 THE LYDIAN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS.
towards the creation of a real coin. Thus a stater of 219 grs.
which bears in the central incuse a running fox, in the upper
square a stag's head, and the lower an X-like device, may be
regarded as the first complete coin as yet known. It would
seem from this, therefore, that it was on the coast-region, where
the Lydiaus came into contact with the artistic genius of the
Greeks, that the real start in the art of striking money took
place. Electrum was employed because it was found native
in great quantities in the whole district which lay around
Sardis, in the valleys of Tmolus, and the sands of Pactolus.
The ancients found considerable difficulty in freeing the gold
from the associated silver (p. 97).
Once known, Miletus and other important Ionian cities
were not long in improving on the Lydian invention. The
advantages of a metallic currency were so obvious that an
intelligent and progressive race hastened to avail themselves
of it. " Only those," says Captain Gill (speaking of the borders
of Thibet and China), " who have gone through the weary pro-
cess of cutting up and weighing out lumps of silver, disputing
over the scale, and asserting the quality of the metal, can ap-
preciate our feelings of satisfaction at being once more able
to make payments in coin 1 ." No sooner had the lonians com-
menced coining than they appear to have adorned the face of
the ingot with a symbol, probably both as a guarantee of weight
and purity, and perhaps as a preventive of fraudulent abrasion.
During this period it is not improbable that the arts of Ionia
had made their influence felt in Lydia, and hence " it is im-
possible to distinguish with absolute certainty the Lydian
issues from those of the Greek towns, but there is one type
which seems to be especially characteristic of Lydia as it
occurs in a modified form on the coinage attributed to the
Sardian mint and to the reign of Croesus; this is the Lion
and the Bull. These coins have on the obverse the fore-
fronts of a lion and a bull turned away from one another and
joined by their necks 2 ," whilst the reverse shows three incuse
depressions. This is Phoenician in weight (2 15 '4 grs.). There
1 River of Golden Sand, 11. p. 78.
3 Head, op. cit. p. 545.
THE LYD1AN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS.
are other coins, often attributed to Miletus, which may bo its-
signed to Lydia ; some with a recumbent lion on the obverse,
and a reverse exhibiting the fox, stag's head, and X of the
coin already described. To these may be added a series of
coins bearing a lion's head with open mouth, and with what
is commonly regarded as a star above it, but which is more
probably part of the lion's hair, and on the reverse incuse
sinkings, in some cases containing an ornamental star 1 . These
coins have now with great probability been assigned by the
eminent numismatist, Mr J. P. Six, to the Lydian king,
Alyattes, the father of Croesus.
When Croesus ascended the throne in 568 B.C., one of his
earliest acts seems to have been an attempt to propitiate the
Greeks both of Asia and Hellas proper by sending offerings
of equal value to the two most famous shrines of Apollo, Delphi
and Branchidae. In the course of some fourteen years he
reduced under the sway of Lydia all the regions that lay be-
tween the river Halys and the sea. " It seems probable (says
Mr Head) that the introduction of a double currency of pure
gold and silver, in place of the primitive electron*, may have
been due to the commercial genius of Croesus." If this be so,
the monarch seems to have acted with thrift in his offerings,
for according to Herodotus his dedications at Delphi were
all of white gold, i.e. electrum. Perhaps then he got no more
than he dese.rved when, induced by the declaration of the
Delphic prophetess that he would destroy a mighty kingdom,
he made war upon Cyrus with disastrous issue. There however
can be no doubt that Croesus made some important monetary
change, for in after years there still remained a clear tradition
of Croesus' stater (K/ootcrao? ararijp), just as the famous gold
stater of Philip of Macedon was known as the Philippean or
Philippus*. In his monetary reform Croesus seems to have had
regard to the weights of the two old electrum staters, each of
1 Ibid. p. 503.
2 Pollux, in. 87, fiidoKijAos 5e /cai 6 Yvyddas %/>f(r6s /cai oi Kpofrmoi (rrar^pes :
ix. 84 sq., i'(rws d ovofj-druv Kara\6y(^ wpoarjKov(riv oi Kpotaetoi ffTarijpes /cai <l>t\t7r-
Treiot, /cai Aapeuot, /cai TO Bepe/'i/cetcH' ^6/x.Kr/Aa /cai 'AXe^aj'Spetoj', /cat IIroAe / uau'OJ'
, /c.T.X.
208 THE LYDIAN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS.
which was now represented by an equal value, though not of
course by an equal weight, of pure gold.
Thus the old Phoenician electrum stater of 220 grs. was
replaced by a pure gold coin of 168 grs., equivalent like its
predecessor in electrum to 10 silver staters of 220 grs. each, and
the old Babylonian electrum stater of 168 grs. was replaced by
a new pure gold stater of 126 grs., equal in value like it to 10
silver staters of 168 grs. each, " as now for the first time coined."
These gold coins bear as obverse the foreparts of a lion and
a bull facing each other, and on the reverse an oblong incuse
FIG. 29. Coin of Croesus.
divided into two parts (Fig. 29). Of the Babylonian standard
we find :
Stater 168 grs.
Trite 56
Hecte 28
Hemihecton 14
And of the light shekel :
Stater 126 grs.
Trite 42
Hecte 21
Hemihecton 11
Of Babylonian standard silver :
Stater 168 grs.
stater 84
i stater 56
J stater 14
THE LYDIAN AND PEUSIAN SYSTEMS. 299
This double standard for gold is at first sight somewhat
strange until we observe that the two systems are in complete
harmony. For the gold piece of 168grs. is nothing more than
11 of the light shekel (168 -r f = 126 grs.). The third of the
light shekel (42 grs.) is the fourth of the Babylonian of 168 grs.
There can be no doubt that the coins of 168 grs. were simply
an experiment suggested by the coincidence that the number
of grains (168) in the Babylonian silver shekel was exactly one-
quarter more than those in the light gold shekel, in the hope
doubtless of obtaining a single standard for gold electrum and
silver. The division of the silver stater into thirds would
facilitate the process of exchange, as 13 silver staters and one-
third would be equivalent to the gold piece of the same Baby-
lonian standard, whilst 10 silver staters would be equivalent to
one of the old electrum pieces of 168 grs. It is at all events
certain that the standard of 168 grs. was not a regular gold
unit, for it simply makes its appearance for a brief space, there
being no trace of it at any earlier period, nor does it afterwards
appear save in its own legitimate province of silver. A perfectly
analogous case is that of the gold pieces struck by the Ptole-
maic kings, who, starting with the gold stater of Philip and
Alexander and the Phoenician standard for silver (after the
founder of the dynasty had for a short time used the so-called
Rhodian standard), presently struck gold pieces on the same
standard as their silver. But the experiment of Croesus, if
such it was, did not succeed. For the eastern mind was still
too much impressed with the necessity of cleaving fast to the
original weight unit obtained from the ancient unit of barter.
For whether the attempt had failed before the reign of Croesus
was brought to a sudden end by the conquests of the great
Cyrus, or whether he continued up to the very hour of the
Persian conquest to coin, at least for one part of his dominions,
the gold pieces of the Babylonian silver standard, it matters
little. As we have no evidence on the point, we cannot say
whether there were two gold miiiae and two gold talents in
use, one being of course the ordinary gold talent (called
Euboic) of 3000 light shekels of 130 grs., the other containing
3000 shekels of 168 grs. each. The probability I think is that
'300 THE LYD1AN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS.
only the former existed. As 50 of the latter shekels made
1 J minae, there was no practical difficulty in making any calcu-
lations; on the other hand, if there had been two separate minae,
and two separate talents, it would have led to great compli-
cations. The fact that we hear nothing about any such second
gold system existing in Asia, and that when Darius fixed the
tribute from each region he did not make it the basis of his
payment, which he would probably have done as he would thus
have made a considerable gain, by causing the payments in
gold as well as those in silver to be made on the Babylonian
standard, seems to put beyond all doubt that the 168 grain gold
piece was not a real unit, but was simply regarded as 1 J shekels,
and was nothing more than a temporary effort to simplify the
tri metallic monetary system of Lydia.
What system the Lydians employed for commercial purposes
we have no means of knowing, but we may conjecture plausibly
that the light royal mina of 60 shekels was the standard em-
ployed.
THE PERSIAN STANDARD.
We may adopt the generally received belief that the Per-
sians, like the Medes and Babylonians, did not coin money
(although they were probably acquainted with the Lydian
stater) until after the conquest of Asia Minor and Egypt by
Cyrus and Cambyses, and the reorganization of the empire by
Darius the son of Hystaspes (522 485 B.C.). For although the
learned savants MM. Oppert and Revillout 1 hold that Daric
(Aapet/co?) is unconnected with the name Darius (Aapetos),
an opinion supported by Dr Hoffmann 2 , and rather regard it as
derived from the Assyrian darag mana, " degree (i.e. -fa) of a
mina," and although Mr G. Bertin has read the word dariku on
a Babylonian contract, dated in the twelfth year of Nabonidas,
five years before the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus 3 , it does
not at all follow that either darag or dariku refers to a
1 Annuaire de Numismatique, 1884, p. 119.
2 Zeitschr. fiir Assyriolorjie. Vol. n. 48 (1887).
3 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 18834, p. 87.
THE LYDIAN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS. 301
coin. That the unit was employed for gold ages before the
Persians ever descended from the mountains there can be little
doubt But whether we adopt or reject the Greek tradition
that the Daric (Aa/oet/to<?) was named from Darius, as the
Philippean and Croesean staters were called after the sovereigns
who first struck them, it is perfectly certain that Darius or-
ganized the whole numbering system of the great empire to
which he had succeeded, and that he coined gold pieces of the
first quality : for Herodotus tells us that Darius, having refined
gold to the greatest extent possible, had coin struck 1 . This
would be very analogous to the course pursued by Croesus and
Philip; gold in some form was current in the dominions of both
these princes before their reigns, but it was owing to certain
reforms introduced and to the issue of a gold coin of a certain
pattern, that the names of both became associated with par-
ticular kinds of gold coins. By the time of Xerxes the son of
Darius vast quantities of these Darics were circulating through
Asia Minor, for Herodotus relates that the Lydian Pythius had
in his own possession as many as 3,993,000 of them, a sum
afterwards increased by Xerxes to 4,000,000. They became
the gold currency of all the Greek towns not only of Asia Minor,
but also of the islands, and made their way in considerable
quantities into the great cities of the mainland of Hellas, and
wrought as much harm in disuniting the various states of
Greece as did the gold staters of Philip at a period a little
later. Darics formed a regular part of the wealth of a well-to-do
Athenian at the time of the Peloponnesian war. Thus Lysias 2
relates that when his house was entered and plundered by the
minions of the Thirty, his money chest contained 100 Darics,
400 Cyzicenes, and 3 talents of silver. It is only necessary to
enumerate some of the passages in the Greek authors, where
mention is made of their coins, to show how wide an in-
fluence they exercised in the eastern Mediterranean. Besides
Herodotus and Lysias already mentioned, Thucydides, Aristo-
1 iv. 166, Aa/3e?os fj,ei> yap xp vff ' tov KadapuTarov air\f/r)(ras e? rb Swar^rarov
2 Or. xn. 70 rpia rdXavra dpyvplov Kai rerpaKOfflovs KviKr)vot>s KO.I exarbv
s nal 0td\a? apyvptov
302 THE LYDIAN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS.
phanes, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Arrian, Diodorus and many
others all make mention of these famous coins 1 . No classifi-
cation of them according to the reigns of the monarchs by
whom they were issued is possible, for this is precluded by the
absence of all inscriptions, and the great uniformity of style.
They bear on the obverse the king of Persia bearded crowned
and clad in a long robe ; he kneels towards the right on one
knee ; on his back is a quiver, in his right hand is a long spear,
and in his outstretched left a bow (from which came the familiar
Greek name of Archers for these pieces). The reverse is simply
marked by an oblong incuse.
Their weight may be set at 130 grs., which of course is the
light shekel or ox-unit. We have no difficulty in fixing the
gold mina or talent. In fact we have already seen on p. 260 that
the Persian talent of gold was the same as the Euboic- Attic
talent. Hence
1 Daric = ISOgrs.
50 Darics = 1 mina = 6,500 grs.
3000 Darics = 60 minas = 1 talent = 390,000 grs.
For silver currency the Persians employed half of the Baby-
lonian silver stater of 168 grs., its usual weight being about
84 grs. This coin was in every way similar to the Daric and
in fact is sometimes called by the same name by writers of
a later age 2 , but the more usual appellation in the classical
writers was the Median siglos (M^St/co? cr^yXo*?) or simply siglos.
Twenty of these sigli were equivalent to one gold Daric, for
Xenophon appears to count 3000 Darics as equal to 10 talents
of silver, or in other words to 60,000 sigli (6000 x 10 = 60,000).
The siglos may therefore be regarded as the Persian drachm
or half-stater. As 130 grains of gold are thus made equal to
1680 grs. of silver (84 x 20), gold held to silver the old ratio
of 13 : 1.
1 Thuc. vm. 28 ; Xen. An. i. 1. 9 ; I. 3. 21 ; i. 7. 18 ; v. 6. 18 ; vn. 6. 1 ;
Cyrop. v. 27; Dem. xxiv. 129; Aristoph. Eccl. 602; Arrian Anab. iv. 18. 7;
Diod. xvii. 66, etc.
2 Plutarch, Cimon, x. 11, 0tdXas 5vo, rijv fj.ev tipyvpeluv ^fj.Tr\ijffa^i.evoi>
THE LYDIAN AND PERSIAN SYSTEMS. .303
The Persian silver standard was formed thus :
1 siglos = 84 grs.
lOOsigli =50 staters = I mina =8400 grs.
6000 sigli = 3000 staters = 60 minae = 1 talent = 504,000 grs.
As regards commercial weight we may fairly assume that
the old light and heavy royal systems continued in use in the
respective regions where they had been employed in early days.
CHAPTER XII
THE GREEK SYSTEM.
WE are now come to the most important portion of our
task, the development of the Greek and Italic systems. In
the Homeric Poems we found the Talanton (or value of a cow
in gold) the sole unit of weight, and that only employed for
gold. This Talanton has been shown to be the same in weight
as the light gold shekel of Asia Minor, which, under the form
of coin, we have just been discussing as the Croesean stater
and Persian Daric. It was therefore nothing else than the
Euboic or Attic stater of historical times, which at all periods
and at all places that fall within our knowledge formed the sole
unit for the weighing of gold.
Besides the Talanton based on the ox, there was in all
probability another higher unit in occasional use in Greece
Proper. This was the threefold of the ox-unit. We have
already had occasion to notice the small gold talent, called
by some writers the Macedonian, which was equal to three
Attic staters. The same weight under the name of the
Sicilian talent was employed likewise for gold only in the
Greek colonies of Sicily and Southern Italy. The conserva-
tism of colonists is too well known to need illustration, and
we may with high probability infer that the Greek settlers in
Magna Graecia brought the small talent from their original
homes. What was the origin of this weight ? We have seen
that everywhere all over our area the slave is the occasional
higher unit. Thus the Irish slave (cumhal) was a unit of
account equal to three cows. The slave in the Welsh Laws is
equal to 4 cows, whilst in Homer we found a slave woman
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 305
valued at 4 cows also. From the way in which this notice of
her price occurs, it is probable that Achilles did not give
a woman of the most ordinary kind as a prize, for had she
been the ordinary slave-woman of account, there would have
been no need to mention the price, as any one would have
known how many cows exactly she was worth. It is then not
improbable that three cows were commonly reckoned as the
value of a slave, and accordingly the small gold talent, which
is the multiple of the ox-unit, is simply the metallic repre-
sentative of the slave, just as the Homeric Talanton itself is
that of the cow.
What the exact weight of this unit was on Greek soil we
are now enabled to ascertain by the aid of the treatise on the
Constitution of the Athenians known to the ancients as the
work of Aristotle, and the brilliant discovery and identification
of which by the officials of the British Museum reflects much
credit on British scholarship.
We had previously known from Plutarch (who ascribed the
first coinage of Athens to Theseus 1 ) that amongst his other
reforms Solon caused drachms to be coined of lighter weight
than those previously in currency, so that 100 of the new ones
would be equal in value to 73 old ones. Some scholars have
inferred that this was an expedient for relieving debtors, who
would be allowed to pay in the new coin debts contracted" in
the older currency. The newly discovered Constitution dispels
this assumption, and also affords us some most valuable ad-
ditional matter' 2 : " In his Laws then he appears to have made
these enactments in favour of the people, but before his
legislation he appears to have wrought the cancelling of
debts, and afterwards the augmentation of the measures and
weights, and the augmentation of the currency. For in his
1 Thes. xxv., ^Ko\l/e 5e v6fj.i<T/j.a /3ovv e
2 p. 27 (ch. 10) (Kenyon's ed.), ev ptv otv rots v6/x.ois ravra doKel deivat 8i)/jt,oTiKa,
irpb 5e TTJS vofAodeaias Tronja'da'daL rijv xpt&v ctTro/coTTTyj', Kai /j-era TO.VTO. TTJV re TU>V
fjtfTpuv Kai T&V ffTad^dov Kai TT}i> TOV j'o/i/aftaros av^rjatv. e?r' tKelvov yap tyevero
Kai TO, /j.rpa /J.eifa T&V 3>et8wvelti)v, Kai i] /j,va irporepov txovcra TrapairX-rja'tov c/3o-
dpax/^as dveTr\r}p<J}6T<] TCUS eKarov. yv 5' 6 apxaTos "xapaKrrip 8ldpax(*-ov.
Kai <TTadfj.bv irpbs TO vo[ucr/ji.a Tpeis Kai e^rfKovTa /j.vas TO ToXavTov dyov<ras,
/cat eiri8ii>e(ji.ri6'r)ffav al /wat ry arar^pt /cat rots aXXots crratf/xoty.
R. 20
306 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
day the measures likewise were made larger than those of
Pheidon, and the mina, which previously had almost seventy
drachms, was filled up by a hundred drachms 1 . But the ancient
type was the didrachm 2 , and he also made as a standard 3 for
his coinage 63 minas weighing the talent, and the minae were
apportioned out by the stater, and the other weights."
The first point to engage our attention is the formation of
a new standard for the silver coin (for no gold was coined for
nearly two centuries) : sixty-three old minas were taken to
form a new talent, which of course was divided henceforward
into 60 new minas. As the weight of the Attic talent in post-
Solonian times is most accurately known, we can at once dis-
cover the weight of the ancient mina by dividing the ordinary
weight of the talent (405,000 grs.) by 63 : 405,000 +- 63 = 6428
grs., that is 322 grs. less than the post-Solonian mina of 6750
grs. As there are 50 staters in the mina, the ancient stater
weighed 128*56 grs., or just a grain lighter than the Daric
(129-6 grs.). The old mina of 6428 grs. had been equal to
70 drachms ; each of these then must have weighed 92 grs.
nearly, that is, the ordinary weight of an Aeginetic drachm.
There can be no doubt that the coins of Aegina were used as
FIG. 30. Coin of Eretria.
currency at Athens before Solon's time, where they circulated
side by side in all probability with the coins of Euboea which
bore the bull's head, whence arose the tradition of the earliest
1 I have translated the irapa. .[[UKpbv~\ of Kaibel and Wilamowitz instead
of Kenyon's Trapair\r)<rt.ov. 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.
2 The. Reinsch needlessly regards -fjv 5t 6 apxaTos x.r.X. as an interpolation.
3 Kaibel and Wilamowitz read oratf/id instead
THE GREKK SYSTEM. .'i()7
coinage of Athens consisting of didrachms stamped with an ox.
The old rnina (63 of which went to the new silver talent)
was of course the ancient standard used for weighing gold
and silver before coined money was employed. It was that
known as the Euboic, based on the ox-unit. The Aeginetic
standard was only used for silver, gold at all times being
weighed by the Euboic standard even where the Aeginetic
was in use for silver. This standard was of course in full use
for gold and evidently likewise for silver in prae-Solonian times,
even though the Aeginetic drachms passed as currency at
Athens. For if they had adopted the Aeginetic standard, 100
Aeginetic drachms would have been reckoned to the mina, but
as only 70 drachms went to the mina it is evident that the old
ox-unit (so-called Euboic) standard of unit 130 grs. with its
corresponding mina was always the national Athenian standard.
We showed at an earlier stage that in the age when the
art of coining was first introduced into Greece by Pheidon
of Argos, it was probable that gold stood to silver in the
proportion of 15 : 1. For convenience, then, in Peloponnesus
and in Central Greece a system was adopted by which 10
pieces of silver were equivalent to one piece or ingot of gold.
This system, known as the Aeginetic, was thus otained.
Gold being to silver as 15:1,
1 gold ingot (Talanton) of 130 grs. x 15 = 1950 grs. of silver,
1950 grs. -^ 10 = 195 grs.
Therefore 1 gold Talanton of 130 grs. = 10 pieces of silver
of 195 grs. each.
It is possible that this method of making 10 silver pieces
equal to one gold unit was developed at the time of the intro-
duction of coined money, but it is more likely that it may have
been in use even before that time.
Now it is worth observing that all through the classical
period of Greek history the term stater is generally confined
in use to gold pieces. Thus silver coins, unless they weighed
135 grs., are not described as silver staters, but are regularly
termed didrachms. So general evidently was this practice that
the adjective chrysous (xpvaovs) was regularly employed to
express the gold unit, the masculine gender showing that
202
308 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
the noun understood is stater (crrarrjp). Thus Pollux says :
" Some were termed staters of Darius, some Philippeans, other
Alexandrians, all being of gold, and if you say gold piece,
stater is understood : but if you should say stater, gold is not
absolutely to be understood 1 ." From the fact that Pollux draws
attention to the exceptional use of stater to express a silver
coin, on the principle that exceptio probat regulam, it is evi-
dent that stater regularly represents a gold piece of two Attic
drachms. The familiar practice in Attic Greek, when speaking
of a considerable sum of silver without employing either the
term mina or talent, is to say 1000 drachms, 2000 drachms
and the like, but not 1000 staters or 2000 staters, etc., whilst
on the other hand, under like conditions, the practice is to
enumerate gold not by drachms, but by staters. Thus in a
fragment from the Demi of Eupolis quoted by Pollux 2 a man
is described as possessing 3000 staters of gold. We certainly
hear of an Aeginean stater and a Corinthian 3 stater (both of
silver), but both are found in writers of comparatively late date,
when usage was getting less exact, and besides, as the Aegi-
netic system had a separate -individuality of its own, its unit
being perfectly different from the Eiiboic Attic, might with
justice be termed a stater. We are thus justified in con-
sidering the gold stater the legitimate descendant of the
Homeric Talanton, the stater or weigher representing the
Talanton or weight of the older time. As long as no other
unit than the ox -unit or Talanton was employed, the Talanton
or weight par excellence was sufficient to describe it, but when
under Asiatic influences the higher unit of the mina (pva)
and talent were introduced, a term was substituted which in-
dicates clearly that the gold unit of 130 grs. was the weigher
or basis of the whole system. Starting then with our ox-unit,
we find already in Homer definite traces of a decimal, but
nothing to indicate the existence of a sexagesimal system.
Ten talents of gold are mentioned in several passages.
1 Pollux ix. 59.
2 Pollux ix. 58 %x(t)v ffTaTrjpas xpvvtov rpiffx^ovy.
3 Thuc. (i. 27) speaks of Corinthian drachms not staters; and (v. 47) of
Aeginetic drachms.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 300
Starting then with the ox-unit of 130 grs. we can thus arrive
at the fully elaborated Greek systems. The term mina (^va)
is beyond doubt a borrowing from the East. How far it was
ever much employed in the reckoning of gold it is hard to say,
but it is at least remarkable that, when we hear so frequently of
minae of silver in the Attic writers, no instance of a mina of
gold is quoted in our books of reference. From this one is
led to infer that it was for the purpose of measuring the less
precious metal, silver, that the term mina was brought into use
in Greece. In fact, as stater is essentially a term which clings
to gold, so mina is especially a term used of silver. With the
mina the Greeks borrowed likewise the highest Asiatic unit (the
kikkar of the Hebrews), which became the Talanton or talent
of historical Greece. But it is remarkable that the Greeks
did not borrow its Asiatic name along with the unit itself.
They simply gave it their own name weight (literally, ' that
which can be lifted,' cp. rXaoj, tollo, etc.). This fact can be
explained readily if we suppose that the Greeks, like all those
other primitive peoples whom we have mentioned, had a rough
and ready unit for estimating bulky wares, the standard of the
load, or as much as a man could conveniently carry on his back.
Having already such a unit they would have no difficulty in
adopting the load or talent, which had been fixed according to
the Sexagesimal system, and which had permeated all Western
Asia. In fact their position towards the Asiatic load, which had
been accurately fixed by the mathematical skill of the Babylo-
nians, would be exactly analagous to that of the Malays of Java
and Sumatra towards the accurately adjusted Chinese picul.
Because the Malays themselves were accustomed to use loads of
various weights as their rough highest unit of bulk, they have
with all the more readiness received the form of the same
unit, which the clever Chinese have incorporated into their
commercial weight system by making it equal to 100 chings
(catties, or pounds). But it is doubtful if at any time in Greece
Proper the talent of gold was ever considered as a monetary
unit. We have found Eupolis speaking of "3000 staters of
gold " instead of simply saying a talent of gold, and when we
do find mention made of talents of gold, as in a famous passage
310 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
of Thucydides, where he describes the amount of gold em-
ployed by Pheidias in the making of the world-renowned
chryselephantine statue of Athena for the Parthenon, whilst the
computations in silver are expressed simply by talents, the gold
is enumerated as talents in weight. We may assume that gold
was weighed throughout Greece in historical times on the
following system :
1 stater =130grs.
50 staters = 1 mina =6500 grs.
3000 = 60 minae = 1 talent = 390,000 grs.
When silver came into use it was probably weighed all
through Hellas, as in Asia and Egypt, on the same standard as
gold. This continued always to be the practice amongst the
great trading communities of Euboea, Chalcis and Eretria, and
their colonies, and also with Corinth and her daughter states.
Hence the system was commonly known as the Euboic, some-
times as the Corinthian, and in later times, for a reason to be
presently given, the Attic. But in this silver system it is no
longer the stater which represents the smaller unit, but rather
the drachm (Spa^jjLr/). Furthermore we find in most constant
use a subdivision of the drachm called the obol (o/3oX,o? nail or
spike), six of which made a drachm. There can be no doubt that
this silver obolos represented the value in silver of the ancient
copper unit from which it took its name, which itself was not
estimated by weight but probably, as we saw above, was simply
appraised by measure, as is done by all primitive peoples
in the estimation of copper and iron, nay even in the very
earliest stage of gold itself (p. 43). As six of these nails or
obols made a handful (Spa^rj) in the ancient copper system,
so when each of them was equated to a certain amount of
silver, the equivalence in silver was called an obol, and the six
silver obols obtained the old name of handful or drachm.
In the ordinary Greek system of reckoning silver it is 100
drachms, not 50 staters, of silver which form the mina. But
of course at the earlier stages of the use of silver we may with
some boldness assume that silver was simply weighed by the
stater (or Homeric Talanton).
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 311
It is important then to note that among the smaller weight
denominations silver has virtually no term peculiarly its own :
for we have seen that stater belongs essentially to gold, whilst
drachm and obol have originated in the use of copper. This is
in complete harmony with what we know of the history of the
metals themselves, gold and copper being known and employed
long before men had learned to utilize silver ; and so too, we
find the late-introduced term mina in especially close connec-
tion with the latest employed of the three metals. This
Euboic- Attic silver system maybe stated as follows :
6 obols = 1 drachm
100 drachms = 1 mina
60 minae = 1 talent.
The Corinthians, whilst making the obol of the same weight
as the Euboic, made a different division of the silver stater ; for
as Corinth occupied the very portals of Peloponnesus where the
Aeginetic system was universal, she found it convenient for
purposes of exchange to divide her silver stater of 135 grs. into
three drachms of 45 grs. each, one of which was for practical
purposes identical with the Aeginetan half drachm. Thus two
Corinthian drachms of 45 grs. each were equal to one Aegi-
netan drachm of 90 grs.
The Aeginetan Standard.
The desire to obtain 10 silver pieces equivalent in value to
the gold ox-unit induced the Aeginetans, who were famous
merchantmen, to make a silver system distinct from that of
gold. Gold being to silver as 15:1,
130 x 15 = 1950 grs. of silver.
1950^10= 195 grs.
With the Aeginetans as with the Euboeans in their silver
system, the ancient copper units of the nail and handful played
an important part. The story of Pheidon 1 having hung up in
the temple of Hera at Argos the ancient currency of nails of
1 Cp. p. 214.
312 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
copper and iron as soon as he struck his first issue of silver
coins, if not absolutely true in all details, at least contains a
most probable statement of what did actually take place when
a real silver currency was first introduced. We have seen
how the Chinese, starting with a barter currency of real hoes
and knives, the objects of most general demand, gradually
replaced those larger and more cumbrous articles by hoes and
knives of a more diminutive size, until finally they became a
real currency when they had been so reduced in size as to be
utterly unfit for practical use. We saw likewise how that at
the present moment the real hoe is the lowest unit of barter
among the wild tribes of Annam, and that small bars of iron of
given size are used in Laos, and that plates of metal ready to
be made into hoes, and hoes themselves, are employed by the
negroes of Central Africa, whilst on the west coast axes of a size
too diminutive for actual use are employed as a real currency.
As the day came when the Chinese finally replaced the archaic
knife by the full developed copper coin called the cash, so the
Aeginetans and Argives of the days of Pheidon superseded by a
real coin ancient monetary-units consisting either of real imple-
ments of iron and copper, or bars of those metals of certain
definite dimensions, or possibly mere Lilliputian representatives
of such, which had previously served them as a true currency.
On the whole however it is safest to assume from the names
nail (Obol) and Handful (drachme) that the form in which
copper or iron served as currency in Peloponnesus and the
mainland of Hellas in general was that of rods of a certain
length and thickness. We have cited already many analogous
forms from modern Asia and Africa, and from the ancient Kelts,
to which we shall presently add the ancient Italians. But just
as we found that in the Soudan, whilst the slave and ox
were universally the higher units of value, each particular
district had its own distinctive lower unit according to the
nature of its products and requirements, so it is most likely
that there were many different units of value (but all alike sub-
multiples of the cow) in use among the various Greek com-
munities. It is also probable that they must have exercised
a certain effect in the formation of the units of silver currency.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 313
Nor is evidence wanting for this. I have already maintained
(p. 5) that the fact of the occurrence of the type of the cow,
or cow's head, on early Greek coins is evidence that the original
monetary unit was the ox. Thus we find the forepart of an ox
on the early electrum staters of Samos of the Phoenician
standard (217 grs.), which was probably equivalent to a pure
gold ox-unit of 130 grs. The bull's head also appears on
the electrum coins of Eretria and of other places in Euboea.
But it is with the silver currency that we are now especially
concerned. Whilst it was extremely likely that silver coins
might in process of time bear the impress . of an ox, the
general unit of currency, it was still more natural that, as
pieces of silver supplanted as units not the ox but its sub-
multiples, that is the particular series of articles of barter in
use in any particular district, so these silver coins should bear
some traces in their types of the ancient units thus sup-
planted. That eminent scholar Colonel Leake many years ago
remarked that the types of Greek coins generally related " to
the local mythology and fortunes of the place, with symbols
referring to the principal productions or to the protecting
numina."
Modern scholars have more and more lost sight of the
doctrine contained in the words which I have italicized, and
directed all their efforts to giving a religious signification to
everything 1 . The forepart of the Lion and the Bull on the
coins of Lydia become symbols of the Sun and Moon, the
Tortoise on the didrachm of Aegina is regarded as a symbol of
FIG. 31. Coin of Gyrene with Silphium plant.
Aphrodite, the Ashtaroth of the Phoenicians, in her capacity of
patron divinity of traders ; even the silphium plant of Gyrene,
1 P. Gardner, Types of Greek Coins, passim.
314 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
which yielded a salubrious but somewhat unpleasant medicine,
is regarded not as holding its place on the coins of Gyrene and
its sister towns because it formed the chief staple of trade, but
because forsooth it may have been the symbol of Aristaeus,
" the protector of the corn-field and the vine and all growing
crops, and bees and flocks and shepherds, and the averter of the
scorching blasts of the Sahara." There is probably just as
much evidence for this as there is for believing that the beaver
on some Canadian coins and stamps is symbolical of St
Lawrence, after whom the great Canadian river is named, the
warm skin of the beaver indicating that the saint of the red-
hot gridiron is the averter of the cruel and biting blasts that
sweep down from the icy North. I do not for a moment mean
that mythological and religious subjects do not play their
proper part in Greek coin types. But it is just as wrong to
reduce all coin types to this category as it would be to regard
them all as merely symbolic of the natural and manufactured
products of the various states. If however we can show that
certain coins, even in historical times, were regarded as the
representations of the objects of barter of more primitive
times, we shall have established a firm basis from which to
make further advances.
In those now famous Cretan inscriptions found at Gortyn 1
certain sums are counted by kettles (lebetes, Xe/ifyTe?) and pots
(tripods, T/HTroSe?). Some have thought that these are the same
objects which are called staters in later forms of the same docu-
ments. But recently M. Svoronos 2 has advanced a very plausible
hypothesis that the lebetes and tripods of the inscriptions
really refer not to an actual currency in the kettles and pots of
the old Homeric times, but to certain Cretan coins which are
countermarked with a stamp, which he recognizes in many ex-
amples as a lebes, and in at least one case as a tripod. Whether
the first hypothesis, that actual kettles and pots were indicated
1 Comparetti, Leggi antiche delta citta di Gortyna in Greta, 1885 ; Museo
Italiano n.' 195, no. 39: ibid. 11. 222. Roberts, Greek Epigraphy, p. 53.
2 bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, 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 sup-
port of Svoronos' view.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 315
in the earlier inscriptions and that they had been replaced after-
wards by coins, or the hypothesis of M. Svoronos, be true, is im-
material for us. In either case there is evidence of a direct and
unbroken succession which connects the silver currency of Crete
with an earlier currency of manufactured articles. The very fact
that a lebes or a tripod stamped upon a coin gave it currency,
not merely in the town of issue but among neighbouring states,
indicates that in a previous age the common unit of currency
corresponding in value to the coin so marked was an actual
lebes or tripod. Such is the evidence preserved for us in this
remote corner of Hellas where life moved slowly, and where
the archaic style of writing known as boustrophedon (the lines
going from right to left and left to right alternately, as the
plough turns up and down the field) still lingered on long after
it had disappeared from every spot on the mainland of Greece.
If then amongst the symbols which appear on the earliest coins
of Greek communities, which began very early to strike money,
we can find some which have not been identified as religious,
and which we can show represent objects which actually did
or may well have formed a monetary unit in such places, we
shall have advanced a step further; and if we succeed in
making good this fresh position, we may in turn find a non-
religious explanation for certain types, which at present are re-
garded as mythological symbols.
The types with which we shall deal must be those found on
the most archaic coins, and which therefore date from a time
when barter was just being replaced by a monetary currency.
Thus in the case of cities like Athens and Corinth, which began
to coin at a comparatively late period and which had been long
accustomed to use the issues of other states before they struck
money of their own, we should hardly expect to find any trace
of the old local barter-unit in their coin types, as such a unit
had long since been replaced by the foreign coins.
Let us first turn to the well-known type of the tunny fish
(TTjyXa/xu?, 6vvvos\ vast shoals of which were continually passing
through the sea of Marmora (Propontis) from the Black Sea to
the Mediterranean 1 . This type appears invariably upon the
1 Head, op. cit. 450, who quotes Marquardt's Cyzicus, p. 45.
316 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
electrum coins of Cyzicus, and a tunny's head is found upon
some very archaic silver coins from the Santorin ' find ' which
Mr Head places at the top of the whole Cyzicene series, but no
one has, as far as I am aware, yet hitherto attempted to
mythologize it 1 , although the fecundity of this fish would
make it just as suitable an emblem for Aphrodite as the
" lascivious turtle," and the traders of Cyzicus might quite as
well wear the badge of the goddess of the sea as the merchants
of Aegina, for there is just as much or just as little evidence for
Phoenician influences at Cyzicus as there is at Aegina. From
what we have learned in an earlier chapter we know that the
articles which form the staple commodities of a community in
the age of barter virtually form its money. In a city like Cyzi-
cus whose citizens depended for their wealth on their fisheries
and trade, rather than on flocks or herds and agriculture, the
tunny fish singly or in certain defined numbers, as by the score
Fm. 32. Coin of Cyzicus with tunny fish.
or hundred and the like, would naturally form a chief monetary
unit, just as we found the stock fish employed in mediaeval
Iceland. Are we not then justified in considering the tunny
fish, which forms the invariable adjunct of the coins of Cyzicus,
as an indication that these coins superseded a primitive system
in which the tunny formed a monetary unit, just as the Kettle
and Pot counter-marks on the coins of Crete point back to the
days when real kettles formed the chief medium of exchange ?
But far stronger evidence is at hand to show that the tunny
fish was used as a monetary unit in some parts of Hellas. We
have had occasion to refer to the city of Olbia which lay on
the north shore of the Black Sea. It was a Milesian colony,
1 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.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. ;* I 7
and was the chief Greek emporium in this region. There
are bronze coins of this city made in the shape of fishes, and
FIG. 33. Coins of Olbia in the form of tunny fish.
inscribed T, which has been identified as the abbrevia-
tion of Ovvvos, tunny. Others are inscribed APIXO, which
Koehler read as rapt^o?, salt fish, but which the distin-
guished German numismatist Von Sallet 1 regards as meaning a
basket (appt^o?). He holds those marked T as the legal
price of a tunny fish, those marked APIXO as that of a basket
of fish 2 . When we recall the Chinese bronze cowries, the
Burmese silver shells, the silver fish-hooks of the Indian Ocean,
the little hoes and knives of China, and the miniature axes
from Africa, we are constrained to believe that in those coins of
Olbia, shaped like a fish, we have a distinct proof of the in-
fluence on the Greek mind of the same principle which has
impelled other peoples to imitate in metal the older object of
barter which a metal currency is replacing. The inhabitants of
Olbia were largely intermixed with the surrounding barbarians,
and may therefore have felt some difficulty in replacing their
barter unit by a round piece of metal bearing merely the
imprint of a fish, while the pure-blooded Greek of Cyzicus had
no hesitation in mentally bridging the gulf between a real
fish and a piece of metal merely stamped with a fish, and did
not require the intermediate step of first shaping his metal unit
into the form of a tunny. We shall find that this tendency to
shape metal into the form of the object which it supplants may
perhaps be traced in the coins of Aegina and Boeotia.
In the same quarter of Hellas we find another instance of a
coin type which may be regarded as evidence that the silver
coin which bears it was the representative of an older barter
1 Zeitschrift f. Numismatik, x. 144 seqq.
2 The tunny is a very large fish, usually four feet long, and is hardly likely
to have been sold by the basketful.
318 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
unit. The island of Tenedos, lying off the Troad, struck at a
very early date silver coins bearing for device a double-headed
FIG. 34. Coin of Tenedos with double-headed axe.
axe (the Latin bipennis). This "Axe of Tenedos"
TreXe/ci;?) was explained by Aristotle 1 as a reference to a decree
of a king of Tenedos which enacted that all who were convicted
of adultery should be put to death. This explanation is pro-
bably a bit of mere aetiology to explain the existence of an
emblem, the true origin of which had been forgotten. However,
it yields one important result, for it shows that the emblem was
not religious. Had that been its nature, priestly conservatism
would have kept an unbroken tradition of its origin. But from
another source some light may be obtained: Pausanias 2 in the
2nd century A.D. saw at Delphi axes dedicated according to
tradition by Periclytus of Tenedos, and then proceeds to relate
the following tale : Tennes, an old King of Tenedos about the
time of the Trojan War, cut with an axe the ropes with
which his father Cycnus had moored his ship to the shore,
when he came to ask pardon of Tennes for having cast him
and his sister in a chest into the sea, in a fit of anger caused
by the false accusation of a stepmother. We may gather that
according to this form of the legend the Janiform head, male
and female, on the obverse of the coins of Tenedos alludes to
the brother and sister. But Pausanias makes no attempt to
connect Periclytus in any way with Tennes except as being
a native of Tenedos. This is hardly enough to account for
the dedication of the axes at Delphi. Two explanations sug-
gest themselves. It was the custom of kings or communities
to send offerings to Delphi of the best products of their land.
Thus Croesus sent vast quantities of his Lydian electrum, and,
1 Apud Stephanum Byzant. s. v.
2 x. 14. 1.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. :||!)
still more to the point, the people of Mutapontum in Suuili
Italy, whose land was famous for its wheat, after an sjn-cially
favourable harvest sent to Delphi a wheat-ear (0e/>o?) of gold.
Were the double axes in like fashion an especial product of
Tenedos ? Or was this dedication analogous to that of Pheidon
when he hung up in the temple of the Argive Here the ancient
nails and bars ? The first explanation is the more probable,
for there was no reason why the Tenedians should not have
dedicated their cast off currency of axes in some temple at
home. I have already mentioned the hoe currency of ancient
China, and the axes used as such in Africa. I shall now
show that such double-axes as those stamped on the coins of
Tenedos formed part of the earliest Greek system of currency.
I have already enumerated the various articles used in barter in
the Homeric poems. The prizes offered in the Funeral games of
Patroclus are of course merely the usual objects of barter and
currency, slave women, oxen, lebetes, tripods, talents of gold and
the like. " But he (Achilles) set for the archers dark iron, and
he set down ten axes (TreXe/cea?), and ten half-axes (iJ/uTre-
\KKa) 1 " The axe is undoubtedly of the same kind as that on
the coins of Tenedos, the name (pelekys) being the same in
each case, and the Homeric one beyond doubt is double-headed
like the Tenedian, since the half-axe (hemi-pelekkon) must
obviously mean a single-headed axe 2 . The double-axes formed
the first prize, the ten half-axes the second, for " Meriones took
up all the ten axes, and Teucer bore the ten half-axes to the
hollow ships 3 ." These axes and half-axes then seem to go in
groups of ten as units of value, the half-axes representing half
1 Iliad, xxiii. 8501,
Avrctp 6 ro^evrrjcri n'0ei loevra aidrjpov,
Kad 5' er/0 5^/cct ntv TreXe/ceas, d^KO. 5' rjfj.i'ir&eKKa.
2 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, His-
toire de I' Art dans Vantiquite, 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.
3 I&. 8823,
OLV 5' apa M^/HOP^S TreX^/ceas 5^/ca -jravras aetpev,
Teu/cpos 5' i]/JUTre\KKa <ftpev /coiXas eVt injas.
320 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
the value of the double-headed. If then the kettle and tripod
of Homeric times are found as symbols on the coins of Crete,
why may not the axe on those of Tenedos represent the local
unit of an earlier epoch ? and that such axes were evidently an
important article in Tenedos is proved by the dedication at
Delphi
But could we only find a contemporary description of the
type on one of the earliest coins of Asia Minor, the cradle of the
art of coining, we might get our ideas on the nature of the
coin types greatly cleared. Fortunately such an opportunity is
afforded to us by an unique coin in the British Museum, the
oldest as yet known which bears an inscription. It is an oblong
electrum coin (Fig. 35), the reverse having the usual incuse,
but on its obverse it bears a stag feeding, and over it runs
FIG. 35. Coin of Phanes (earliest known inscribed coin).
(retrograde) in archaic letters I AM THE MARK OF PHANES (
e/jui aefia = Qdvovs elfu arjfjLa). There can be no doubt that
the mark of Phanes is the stag. If there was no inscription
it would have been at once asserted that the stag was the
symbol of the goddess Artemis, and who could deny it ?
But as it stands it is plain that the stag is nothing more than
the particular badge adopted by the potentate Phanes, when
and where he may have reigned, as a guarantee of the weight
of the coin and perhaps the purity of the metal. The Daric
itself needs no inscription to tell us that its type is not religious.
The figure of the Great King with his spear and bow and quiver
can hardly be allegorized even by an Origen *. Emboldened by
these instances we may even hold up our hands against the host
of Heaven, and raise doubts as to whether the foreparts of the
1 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.
THE GREEK SYSTEM.
lion and bull upon the coins of Lydia represent the Sun-god
and the Moon goddess. May not the lion simply be the royal
emblem ? I have already suggested this explanation for the
lion weights of Assyria. Undoubtedly from the earliest, tin,.
the king of beasts (as in Aesop s Fables) was regarded in the
East as the true badge of royalty. " The Lion of the tribe of
Judah " is familiar to us all, and it is more rational to regard
the lions which guarded the steps of Solomon's throne as
emblems of kingship rather than as symbols of the Sun. Is
then the Lion on the coins of Lydia nothing more than the
king's badge, just as the stag is the badge of Phanes ? But
what about the bull or cow ? Shall I go too far if I regard it
as indicating that the coin is the ox-unit ? When the Greeks
Fm. 36. Archaic coin of Samos.
borrowed the art of coining from Lydia it is easy to understand
that they would likewise borrow the type either in a complete
or modified form, and hence it is that we find the lion or
lion's head on the coins of Miletus 1 , the lion's scalp on those of
Samos (on which the cow's head also is found), the lion's head
on the coins of Cnidus, of Gortyn in Crete, at Rhodes, at Mi-
FIG. 37. Coin of Cnidus.
letus, and at the Phocaean towns of Velia in Lucania, and
Massalia in Gaul, and put by the Samian exiles on their coins
at Zancle. If the Greeks had been barbarians they would have
1 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).
a. 21
3'2'2 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
slavishly copied the lion coins of Lydia, just as the Gauls copied
the lion of Massalia, and at a later time the stater of Philip, and
as the Himyarites of South Arabia, the " owls " of Athens *, and
as in mediaeval times the Danes of Dublin copied the coins of
the Saxon kings 2 . But the artistic genius of the Greeks could
submit to no such trammels, and the lion type was varied and
diversified according to the fancy of each community. The same
holds good of the type of the cow and cow's head. The Greek
genius gave us these beautiful types such as the cow suckling her
calf (Dyrrachium), the cow with the bird on her back (Eretria),
the cow scratching herself (Eretria), the two calves' heads seen
on the coins of Mytilene, and the magnificent charging bull on
the coins of Thurii. The cow or bull's head on the early gold and
FIG. 38. Coin of Thurii.
electrum coins was the indication of the value. In later times
when the connection between ox and coin was only traditional,
the ox was put on coins simply as symbolical of money.
Again Phocaea, one of the very earliest Greek towns to
issue coins, employed a symbol which cannot be termed re-
ligious. Her coins bear a seal (pJioca) a type parlant referring
to the name of the town. Many examples of the same kind
FIG. 39. Coin of Khoda in Spain.
can be quoted, the rose (p68ov) on the coins of Rhodes ('
and also on those of Rhoda in Spain, the bee (melitta) on those
1 Head, Op. cit. 6. 88.
2 Lindsay, Survey of the Coinage of Ireland, p. 6 seqq.
THE GREEK SYSTEM.
of Melitaea, perhaps even the owl (%aX/a?) on coins ascriln-d to
Chalcis in Euboea. These considerations will serve to show
that we may expect many things on coins besides religions
symbols. Thasos was famous for its wine, and accordingly tin;
wine-cup is a regular adjunct of its coins, either standing alone,
or held in the hands of old Silenus, who quaffs therefrom a
"draught of vintage that hath been cooled a long age in the
deep-delved earth." All who have read Horace remember the
fame of the wines of Chios, and accordingly the wine-jar is a
regular adjunct of the mintage of that island. Now there is
proof that the trade in wine was of extreme antiquity, if not
in the islands just mentioned, at least in Lemnos, and that
that trade was carried on by barter, for we read in Homer
how " many ships stood in from Lemnos bringing wine, which
Euneos the son of Jason had sent forward, whom Hypsipyle
had borne to Jason shepherd of the folk, but separately for the
sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus, the son of Jason
gave wine to be fetched, a thousand measures. From thence
used the flowing-haired Achaeans to buy their wine, some with
copper, some with glittering iron, some with hides, others
with the kine themselves, others again with slaves 1 ." From
what we have seen in an earlier chapter it is clear that a
measure of wine would have a known value in relation to the
various articles here enumerated. Thus in North America
where the beaver skin was the unit, a gallon of brandy = 6
skins, a brass kettle = 1 skin, an ounce of vermilion = 1 skin
and so on 2 . In other words, the ordinary currency with
which the Lemnians would purchase wares from other people
who had no wine of their own would be wine, the unit of
which was the measure (which elsewhere I have tried to
show was the cup Sevra?, Smith's Diet. Antiq. s.v. Meusura).
This measure would be the size of the vessel ordinarily em-
ployed for wine, probably much the same as the two-handled
vase out of which Silenus is seen drinking on coins of Thasos.
With the introduction of silver currency nothing is more
likely than that an effort would be made to equate the new
1 II. vii. 468 seqq.
2 A. Dobbs, Account of Hudson's Bay (1744).
212
324 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
silver unit to that which had formed the principal unit of
barter. That the earliest types should indicate the object (or
its value) which the coin replaced is in complete accord with
the statement of Aristotle (quoted on an earlier page) that
"the stamp was put on the coin as an indication of value 1 ."
As no numerals appear on the early Greek coins, it is evident
that Aristotle regarded the symbol, whether ox-head, or tunny,
or shield, as the index of the value. If it be said that the
putting of a cow, or axe, or tunny on a coin was simply a
picturesque way of indicating a single unit, we may reply that
it is far easier to understand why a certain people chose a par-
ticular symbol, if in their minds the object symbolized w;is
identified with the value of the silver or gold coin. It is at all
events certain that Aristotle did not regard the type as
religious in origin. But we are not without actual evidence
that such an equating of the silver unit to the barter- unit
really took place in Greece. It is held by the best numis-
matists that Solon was the first to coin money at Athens. It
is also well known that the highest class in his constitution,
called Pentacosiomedimni (Five-hundred-measure-men), were
rated at 500 drachms. Thus the Olympic victor received 500
drachms to qualify him to be a Five-hundred-measure-man 2 .
Furthermore Plutarch distinctly tells us that Solon reckoned a
drachm as equivalent to a measure 3 or a sheep. It is hardly
possible to doubt that the first Attic coined silver drachm was
equated to the old barter unit of a measure (either of corn or
oil). The same may be said in reference to the olive sprig which
from the earliest issue is found on the coins of Athens. The
sacred olive-trees (fiopiai) which belonged to the state, and
for the care of which special officials were appointed, and
even the very stumps of which, and the spot on which they
had grown, were under a taboo 4 , were a source of considerable
1 Politics II. 1257 B 6 yhp x a P aKT ^lP ertOr] roi) irtxrov ffy/j.eiov.
2 Plutarch, Solon 18.
3 Ibid. 23 Els fdv ye ra rt^/iara rdv 6v<nC)v \oyi^erat 7rp6(3aToi> Kal
dvrl fj.edlfj.vov ry S'lafyua viK-f)<ravTi dpax/J.as era^ev eKarbv dido<rQai, r$ 5'
irevrctKoolas' \VKOV 5 T< KOfilffavn Trevre 8pa.xfJ.as
o &a\T]pevs A?7/>njT/3tos rb fj^v ftobs elvai, rb 8
4 Lysias, de Sacra oliva, 6.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 325
revenue to the state in the 6th century B.C. The fact that
they were all supposed to be scions of the sacred olive-tree
on the Acropolis, which was itself supposed to be the gift of
Fm. 40. Tetradrachm of Athens.
Athena, and the religious care bestowed on them, puts it
beyond doubt that the olive at an early date formed one of
the most important products of Attica. The instances given
already of the employment of various kinds of food as money
are sufficient to show that there is nothing far-fetched in sup-
posing that olives and olive- oil may have been so employed at
Athens.
We have already spoken of the silphium or laserpitium plant
on the coins of Gyrene, Barca, Euesperides and Teuchira, and
mentioned the interpretation which makes it the symbol of
the hero Aristaeus. It seems however far more reasonable to
treat it on the same principle as the others just discussed.
The silphium formed the most important article produced in
that region, and it is perfectly in accordance with all analogy
that certain quantities of this plant and of the juice extracted
from it should be employed as money. We saw above that
at the present moment tea is so employed on the borders of
Tibet and China, and raw cotton in Darfur. But there is also
some positive evidence in favour of this assumption, for Strabo 1
tell us that a traffic was carried on at the port of Charax
between the Carthaginians and Cyrenaeans, the former bringing
wine wherewith to purchase the silphium of the latter. There
must have been a wine-unit, and also an unit for the silphium,
or otherwise the barter could not have been earned on; and
just as in Gaul 2 a jar of wine purchased a boy fit to serve
1 Strabo, xvn. 836.
2 Diodorus Siculus V. 26. 2 didovres yap rov otvov Kepdfjuov a
326
THE GREEK SYSTEM.
as a cupbearer, a certain measure of wine being equated
to a slave-boy, so we may conclude that some such wine-unit
was equated to a packet or bale of silphium, the latter in
turn having a certain amount of silver equated to it, which
when coinage was introduced was stamped with the silphium
device. That the silphium was packed in bales of a fixed
weight is proved by a now famous vase-painting which repre-
Fio. 41. Vase from Cyrcne, shewing the weighing of the Silphium.
sents the weighing (on ship board ?) of the bales of silphium
in the presence of Arcesilas the king of Gyrene 1 . The figure
who points to the scales is marked sliphiomachos (ffXifao-
1 Baumeister, Denkmfiler, s. v. Silphium. Studicyna, Kyrene, p. 22. Birch,
Ancient Pottery (frontispiece). The vase is in the
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 327
which is taken to mean silphium-weigher (crXifyo- being
either a mis-spelling of the artist, or the local form of the
word, whilst the latter part is connected with the Egyptian
mach = to weigh). Close to the silphium packets is the word
MAEN, which has not been explained, but which may be simply
a form of the word mina (manah, menefi) and denotes that each
packet weighed that amount.
FIG. 42. Coin of Metapontum.
The ear of corn (wheat) on the coins of Metapontum 1 , an old
Achaean colony in Magna Graecia, is explained by modern
writers as a symbol of Demeter : but the story told by Strabo
of how the early settlers dedicated a golden ear at Delphi
because they had amassed such great wealth from agriculture,
indicates a far simpler solution, that the chief product and
chief article of barter of Metapontum was naturally placed on
her coins. As the tunny adorns the coins of Cyzicus, so we find
the cuttle-fish on the coins of Croton and Eretria. As this
creature was devoured with great gusto by the ancients, as
it is at the present day at Naples and in Palestine, there is
1 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
SwTTjpta. It has been inferred that this is an epithet of Demeter, but this is
most unlikely, for in that case we should expect Swreipa, as on the coins of
Hipponium, Syracuse, Agrigentum, Corcyra, Cyzicus, and Apamea, not Swrrjpla,
as the adjective. Thus we always find Zei)s Swr-^p, not SWTT^IOS: cf. Zwret/aa
Eypo/4/a, Find. 01. ix. 16, Scireipa T^xa, 01. xn. 2, Surretpa Qtfus, 01 vin. 21.
ZWT^/M'CI 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. vn. 21. 7 ; vn. 24. 3). We also find such names of divinities
as'T7ieta, '0(j,6voia and Nt/ca 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. Gfyos is the ear cut from the stalk after the ancient way
of reaping, cf. 6ep-rj ffraxvuv, Plut.
328 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
no necessity to regard it as a symbol of Poseidon, or of treating
it in any way different from the tunny.
FIG. 43. Coin of Croton with cuttle fish.
I now come to two most important types, the Tortoise of
Aegina, and the Shield of Boeotia. I have already mentioned the
FIG. 44. ' Tortoise' of Aegina.
symbolic interpretation given by E. Curtius to the former. That
various natural productions, such as gourds, cocoa-nuts, joints of
bamboo, served and still serve as vessels and measures of capacity
in various countries we have seen already, and we likewise found
that in the ancient Chinese monetary system of shells the shell
of the tortoise stood at the top as the unit of highest value, and
that down to a comparatively late epoch it was still highly
prized in Cochin China for making bowls of great beauty. In
both Greek and Latin there is abundant evidence to show that
the functions which in a later time were performed by pottery
were discharged by natural shells at an earlier period. Thus,
if we do not find any actual vessel called a cheldne (tortoise)
in use amongst the Greeks, we at least find one called a Sea-
urchin (Echinus, e%t^o<): for not only was the shell of this
creature used as a vessel for containing medicines and the
like, but vessels of artificial construction of the same shape
and name were actually employed ; thus the casket in which
were deposited and sealed up the documents produced at the
preliminary hearing of an Athenian lawsuit was called an Echi-
nus. There was likewise a small vessel called conche
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 329
after the shell-fish of that name, the Latin concha, whilst, ;i
cognate name, conchylion, was applied to the case placed over
the seals of wills.
Nay, ostrakon, the common word for a potsherd, familiar
to us from its famous derivative Ostracism, or Voting by Pot-
sherds, so called because the people inscribed their votes on
pieces of pottery, meant originally nothing more than an oyster
shell. In Latin testa,, the ordinary name for an earthenware
vessel, means nothing more than the covering of a shell-fish,
and from this word testudo, the Latin name for the tortoise, is
simply a derivative. Such instances could be multiplied if it
were necessary, but those mentioned are sufficient to show the
high probability of so valuable a shell as that of the tortoise
having been employed. Owing to its beauty it would prob-
ably hold its place in Greece as the choicest kind of vessel for
centuries after the art of pottery was known, just as it did in
Cochin China. It would be only when the art of glazing and
embellishing pottery had made some progress that vessels of
baked clay could compete with the lustrous, many-hued shell.
Nor are we without some direct evidence for the use of -tor-
toise shell among the Greeks. The famous story of the in-
vention of the lyre by the god Hermes is not without sig-
nificance. According to the Hymn to Hermes, "the precocious
divinity on the very day of his birth sallied forth and found a
tortoise feeding on the luxuriant grass in front of the palace,
as it moved with straddling gait." His eye was caught by the
dappled shell (aloXov oarpaicov), and carrying home his spoil,
he made of it a lyre. The legend which thus explains why
the sounding-board of the lyre is so called points back to a
time when the best form of bowl or hollow vessel for making
a sounding board for a musical instrument was that afforded
by the shell which was probably one of the common articles
of everyday life.
But, in addition to all this indirect evidence, we are able to
point to actual Greek vessels made of earthenware, fashioned in
the shape of a tortoise. In the second Vase Room of the British
Museum (case 48 and 49) there are two terra cotta vases from
the island of Melos, wrought in the shape of this creature, and
330 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
with these before us it is hardly possible to regard as other than
wooden bowls carved in the shape of the same animal the wooden
tortoises with which the Thessalian women pounded to death
Lais the famous courtezan, in the temple of Aphrodite, after she
had taken up her residence in their country 1 . We can parallel
this development of artificial vessels of wood and earthenware
from the use of the actual shell in modern times. Lady Brassey
saw in the Museum at Honolulu, amongst the ancient native
weapons and swords, " tortoise-shell cups and spoons, cala-
bashes and bowls 2 ." Now in the Cambridge Ethnological
Museum there is a very fine wooden bowl from the South
Seas, carved in the shape of a tortoise, and also earthenware
vessels in the shape of tortoises from Fiji, which shows that the
islanders of the Pacific not only used the real shells for vessels,
but likewise imitated them in wood 8 .
On an earlier page I quoted the statement of Ephorus that
the Aeginetans took to commerce on account of the barrenness
of their island. But they must have had something to give in
exchange to other people before they could have developed a
carrying trade, and as the island had been the resort of mer-
chants from very early days, it must have had something to
attract strangers as well as its position. Let us take the case
of an island with barren soil in modern days, and see what it
has to export. Thus Dhalac Island in the Red Sea is fre-
quented by the Banyan merchants for the sake of its pearls,
and at Massowah tortoise-shell forms an important article of
commerce. Just as the Banyans come to Dhalac 4 , so the
Phoenicians probably came to Aegina, searching for the murex
1 Athenaeus xiu. p. 589 ab ; Schol. on Aristophanes, Plutus, 179 ; Suidas,
tt.v.
2 Voyage of the Sunbeam, p. 276 (London, 1880). [L.M.R.]
3 We learn from Strabo, 773, that the Greeks were familiar with the em-
ployment 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 (vm. 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.
4 Mansfield Parkyn, Aty**inia, Vol. i. p. 407.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 331
(purple fish) and tortoise. No doubt tortoise-shell must have
been the chief article of export from Tortoise Island, described
by Strabo (773), as situated in the Arabian Gulf (Red Sea).
The foregoing considerations make it not at all improbable
that the tortoise on the coins of Aegina simply indicates that
the old monetary unit of that island was the shell of the sea-
tortoise (77 6a\arria ^eXcoz/T?), which was considerably larger,
and therefore more valuable for making bowls, than that of the
land or "mountain" tortoise (97 opeivr) ^eK^vrf}. There was
a well-known headland on the Coast of Peloponnesus called
"Tortoise Head" (Chelonates), and this creature must have
been a peculiar feature of the shores of Aegina, or it would
not have been chosen as the type for her coins, whether it be
a religious symbol or not. At all events we know from the
story of Sciron the robber, slain by Theseus, that the sea-tortoise
was a familiar feature on the shores of the Saronic Gulf, as
the hapless travellers who were kicked over the rocks by the
caitiff were devoured by a large sea-tortoise which frequented
the strand below. This creature's picture is handed down on
a well-known vase-painting which commemorates the exploits
of Theseus. Finally, it may well be supposed that had not its
connection with the invention of the lyre attracted to that
instrument the name of " Tortoise " both in Greek and Latin,
we should have found the name employed for some sort of
vessel, as is the case with the Echinus.
Coming now to Central Greece, we find on the coins of all
the Boeotian towns (with the exception of Orchomenus in her
earliest issues) the well-known device of the Boeotian shield.
FIG. 45. Coin of Boeotia with shield.
This has been confidently pronounced to be a sacred emblem,
symbolic of a common worship, conjectured to be that of Athena
Itonia. whose temple near Coronea was the meeting-place of the
332 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
Boeotians 1 , whilst at Coronea golden shields were preserved in
the Acropolis 2 . This may be so, but it is equally possible that
the shield represented a common monetary unit in ancient
times. The shield of early Hellas was a simple ox-hide buckler,
described in Homeric language simply as an ox-hide*. Amongst
barbarous peoples, as we saw above, weapons form one of the
regular commodities commonly employed as currency; the
Achaeans bought wine with hides as well as with oxen from
the ships that came from Lemnos, and as there can be no
doubt that the hide was a regular sub-multiple of the cow, it is
very probable that the ox-hide shield stood in a similar relation
to the cow, the chief or most universal unit ; and as we find
axes and half-axes among the prizes offered by Achilles as well
as kettles and caldrons, so we learn from a famous passage 4 that
shields were amongst the most usual articles offered as prizes
and therefore were regular units of currency: " For they strove
neither for an ox to be sacrificed nor yet for an ox-hide shield
which are wont to be the prizes for the feet of men, but they
strove for the life of the horse-taming Hector."
When silver money was struck, it was natural that the
barter-unit which came nearest in value to the silver di-
drachm would be equated to it, and the piece of silver would
accordingly be termed Shield or Tortoise, just as the silver
equivalent for the old copper rod was called the Obol, and
in due course the corresponding device would be impressed on
the silver coinage. The same explanation may probably be
Fio. 46. Coin of Lycia.
applied in other cases, such as that of the boar on the coins
of Lycia. On the coins of the Gaulish tribe Sequani who made
1 Pausan. ix. 34. 2 Pausan. i. 25.
8 Iliad xvii. 381. ' Hind xxn. 15H.
THE CiiiEEK SYSTEM. :;:;:;
the best bacon and hams which came into the Roman market.,
the swine is found 1 . Doubtless this animal was their chief
source of wealth, and formed a unit of barter, but we have not
space for any more examples.
It is worth noting that it is quite possible that the men
who issued the earliest coins of Boeotia and Aegiria were
influenced in the shape they gave these coins by the actual
objects which they were replacing. The coins of Aegina with
their high round upper side and flat under side suggest the
general outline of a tortoise. As the people of Olbia, like
the Chinese, Burmese and Ceylonese, had to make coins
in the shape of a fish, so the Aeginetans acting under a
like instinct may have wished to give a conventional repre-
sentation of the tortoise. The earliest coins have the incuse
on the reverse divided into eight triangular compartments. Are
these the eight plates which form invariably the plastron or
under surface of all the tortoise family ? Later on the
Aeginetan -incuse is always in five compartments, but in
the two well-known triangular depressions we perhaps find
an echo of the tortoise-plastron 2 . The earliest coins seem
to represent a sea-tortoise, for the feet are real flippers quite
distinct in shape from the legs shown on the later coins. As
the plates of the carapace (upper surface) are not fully repre-
sented in the archaic coins, this omission may not be merely
due to rudeness of work, but rather because in the case of the
sea-tortoise the thirteen plates of the carapace are not so
prominent as in the land-tortoise. On the later coins where
the feet are those of the land- tortoise the coins accurately
represent the thirteen plates.
It has to be borne in mind that the shape of the incuse
depressions on the reverse of coins is very constant. Thus
on the Aeginetan coins we never find what is known as the
mill-sail incuse which is the peculiar feature of the reverse
1 Strabo 192, odev ol apurrcu rapixetcu TWJ> velwv xpeuv els rrjv 'Pw^v KO.TO.-
Ko/ufrj'Tcu. Hucher, Art Gaulois, PI. 78. The swine is also found on coins of
Bellovaci, Pictones and Armorican Gauls.
2 On the plastron of the sea-tortoise eight triangular patches are made very
conspicuous by pigmentation.
334 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
of the early Boeotian coins, nor on the other hand do we
even find the eight-fold incuse on the coins of Boeotia. Some
influences must have determined the choice of form, such as I
have just suggested in the case of Aegina. Did the first
Boeotian Mintmaster shape his coins with the real buckler
in his mind's eye ? On the reverse of these coins we find
the incuse forming a rude X, which is bounded by a circle
of dots, whilst in the centre of the incuse is the initial letter of
the name of the issuing town, such as for Thebes, B for
Haliartus. Does the X-shaped incuse represent conventionally
the cross-bars of the frame of the shield seen at the back,
the circle dots indicating the outline ? The letters on these
coins are the earliest inscriptions on the coins of Greece Proper.
We can easily see how they came to be placed on the coins, as
soon as we remember that there was a A on the Lacedae-
monian shields, a S on the Sicyonian, a M on the Messenian 1 .
Why do not we find the initial in the coins placed on the
front of the shield, where it must have stood on the real
buckler? If as is held by the best authorities the coins of
Boeotia formed a federal currency, we see a reason for the
practice. As the silver shield replaced the real buckler, the
old unit which had been universally employed through Boeotia,
no town would have been permitted to put its initial on the
shield engraved on the obverse. No doubt the old actual
shield of currency was plain, and each purchaser painted the
initial of his own country upon it. The Mintmasters accordingly
of each town regarding the whole coin as a shield placed
the letter of these several states on the reverse. Baumeister
(Denkmdler, s.v. Wappen) gives pictures of the back of two
shields. The frame of the shield consists of a circular rod,
with two cross bars. The idea of making the incuse represent
the other side of the object given in relief on the obverse
seems to be just the stage between a complete representation
of the object as in the tunny of Olbia, and that evinced by
the early coins of Magna Graecia, on which the reverse gives
1 Photius Lex. s.v. Ad/t^da. 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).
THK GREEK S VST KM.
in the incuse exactly the same form as that in relief on the
obverse.
At first sight the result of this great variety of local units
apparently places impassable barriers to trade, but a know-
ledge of the actual facts of barbarous communities and their
monetary systems as they exist in our time easily dispels this
impression. I quoted above (p. 40) the words of Mohammed
Ibn-Omar, wherein he points out that every separate district
in the Soudan has its own lower unit or units, whilst every-
where alike the ox and the slave are the higher units; these
local units are equated one to the other, so that there is no
difficulty in trading. The same holds true of ancient Greece ;
the tortoise-shell of Aegina may have been reckoned equal to
a certain amount of Attic olive oil or to a jar of wine of certain
size, which formed the unit of commerce at Thasos and Chios,
whilst in its turn a jar of wine was reckoned as equivalent to
a package of silphion from Gyrene, a kettle from Crete, or an
axe, or certain number of axes, or half-axes from Tenedos, or
an ox-hide shield from Boeotia. All were sub-multiples of the
ox, and had a fixed value in gold, and later in silver, as weighed
against grains of corn. This supposition is in complete accord
with the system revealed to us in the Homeric Poems, and
is confirmed by the evidence drawn from barbarous races in
modern times. It is likewise to be borne in mind that the
tendency to place religious and mythological types on Greek
coins was one especially developed in the later but not in the
earliest period of coinage. No doubt aesthetic considerations
played a large part in the adoption of such types, which came
especially into prominence when Greek art was at its height.
On the early coins one simple type is the rule, whilst at a
later stage, besides the old national type, many adjuncts and
symbols are added. Contrast the early coins of Athens with
the later. The archaic issues have an olive spray and an owl, the
later have not merely the owl, but an amphora, and a symbol
in the field alluding to the legend of Triptolemus. Again, at
Argos the early coins have simply the wolf or half-wolf or
wolf's head, with a large A on the reverse, but in the later
times the A is accompanied by symbols, such as a crescent
THE GREEK SYSTEM.
and letters. The hare appears on the coins of Rhegium
and Messana, having been chosen as a type, according to
Aristotle, by the tyrant Anaxilas in commemoration of the
introduction of that animal by him into Sicily ; but it also
appears on a rare coin of Messana, not as a main type, but as
caressed by Pan. This does not prove that the hare was a
symbol of Pan, but that for artistic purposes the rustic god in
the act of caressing the hare is chosen instead of the more
commonplace type of the hare all alone. So at Thasos the
coins with old Silenus quaffing from a wine-cup do not signify
that Silenus was a principal object of worship, but he is simply
added for picturesque effect. We can at all events draw one
conclusion from the historical origin assigned to both this type
and that of the axe of Tenedos, that in the middle of the 4th
cent. B.C. the Greeks did not see any religious significance
in them, any more than they did in the representation of the
mule-car which had won at Olympia, placed on his coins by
Anaxilas. If, as has been so emphatically laid down by the
leading modern Greek numismatists, the types on Greek coins
FIG. 47. Coin of Messana.
are so essentially religious in origin, it is extremely difficult to
explain the extraordinary rapidity with which all such notions
as regards their origin must have vanished from the minds of
the most learned of the Greeks, at so early a date as the 4th
cent. B.C. (hardly more than two centuries after the introduc-
tion of the art of coining). The Greeks regarded those types
from much the same point of view as we regard St George
and the Dragon on sovereigns and crowns, or the Lady Godiva
riding in puris naturalibus on the Coventry tokens. The effort
THE GREEK SYSTEM.
to turn agonistic into religious types by contending that, as
the Olympic festival was of religious origin, so the successful
chariot which had won at Olympia was a sacred symbol, can
only be regarded as an ingenious effort to attach by even the
most slender thread a simple commemorative type to a religious
origin.
There is not the slightest reason for treating with incre-
dulity the statement that Anaxilas introduced the hare into
Sicily. Pollux 1 tells us that there were no hares in Ithaca, and
from the same source we learn that the islanders of Carpathus,
wishing to add the animal to the products of their isle, intro-
duced a single pair, the descendants of which became in a
short time so numerous that they ruined the crops, a story
which finds a singular parallel in the history of the intro-
duction of the rabbit into Australia in our own days. The
hare was to the old Greek sportsman (as we know from the
Tracts on Hunting of Xenophon and Arrian) what the stag
was to the mediaeval baron, and the fox to the modern English
squire. If William the Conqueror, as says the chronicler,
"loved the tall deer as though he were their father," the
tyrant Anaxilas may well have prided himself upon the in-
troduction of the hare into Sicily in much the same manner
as modern sportsmen have brought the French partridge into
England. When once the type was started, the dislike of any
change in coin types is so strong that we need not be surprised
at the hare appearing for a long period on the coins of Messana
and Rhegium. Besides, the hare was considered by the Greek
gourmet as the choicest of viands : all readers of Aristophanes
are familiar with "jugged hare" as a proverbial expression for
" the best of cheer."
Variation of Silver Standards.
The connection between the types on early silver coins of
Greece and the earlier local units of value being probably such
as I have indicated, we next approach the question of changes
in the weight of the silver coins at various places and at various
1 Pollux, v. G6.
B. 22
338 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
times. Besides the ordinary Euboic and Aeginetic standards we
find others such as the Rhodian, and the Ptolemaic, the former
so named because the island of Rhodes from the beginning of
the 4th century B.C. ceased to strike tetradrachms of the full
Attic weight of 270 grs. and coined instead pieces which range in
weight from 240 to 230 grs., the latter getting its name from the
dynasty of the Lagidae, who quickly dropped the full weight
of the tetradrachm (270 grs.) as struck by Alexander, and re-
verted to the Phoenician silver of 220 grs., which they used not
only for silver, but also for gold ; it is to this last fact that the
name Ptolemaic as given to the standard is really due, for as a
standard for gold it was certainly new. But not merely shall
we find coins standing so far apart from the usual standards that
we are obliged to give them distinctive appellations, but we
likewise find various modifications of the Aeginetic in various
places, whilst in some parts of northern Greece and Thrace we
shall find the so-called Phoenician and Babylonian standards
in occupation. It is hardly possible that mere degradation of
weight will account for all the phenomena ; accordingly the
object of this section will be to show that from first to last
the Greek communities were engaged in an endless quest after
bimetallism : we shall find, as we have already indicated,
that whilst the gold unit never varies in any part of Hellas
until a late epoch, the silver coins exhibit differences not merely
between one district and another, but even between one period
and another in the self-same city or state. There is incontro-
vertible evidence to prove that the same trouble was caused by
the fluctuation in the relative value of gold and silver as arises
in modern times. Xenophon 1 in his treatise De Vectigalibus
(speaking of the benefit likely to accrue to the state if the
silver mines of Laurium were better worked) makes the most
interesting remark that " if any one were to allege that gold
too is not less useful than silver, that I do not deny, yet
this I know that gold, whenever it turns up in quantity,
1 Xenoph. De Vectigalibus, iv. 10, el 8t rts 0^0-eie Kal xp v<T ^ olf /"jSev
ftvai rj apytipiov, TOVTO [j.ti> OVK avTiXtyto, tKtivo fdvTot olda OTL
QTO.V TroXi) irapa<pavri, O.VTO fdv aTi/MTepov yLyveTai, TO 5e dpyupiov Ti/Mi!)Tepov
7TOt.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 339
becomes on the one hand cheaper itself, and on the other makes
silver dearer." This passage alone is sufficient to show how
sensitive was the old Greek money market in the beginning
of the 4th century B.C., and this statement is amply substanti-
ated on Italian soil by a passage quoted by Strabo 1 from
Polybius, from which we learn that after the discovery of a
rich gold mine in the land of the Taurisci of Noricum, within
the space of two months " gold went down one third in value
throughout all Italy." Such being the effect of a discovery of
gold, it is evident that either the silver currency must undergo
certain modifications in order that a definite round number
of silver units may be equal to the gold unit, or on the other
hand the gold unit must undergo modification. But as we
have shown that the gold unit remained unaltered throughout
all Hellas, Asia and Egypt down to the time of the Ptolemies,
it follows that whatever changes were necessary must have
taken place in the silver standards. Of this we have proof in
the case of Rhodes itself. Down to 408 B.C. the three ancient
cities of lalysus, Camirus and Lindus issued each a separate
series of coins, Camirus on the Aeginetic standard, the other
two on the Phoenician. In 408 B.C. all these united in founding
the new city of Rhodes, and henceforward there is a single
coinage. At first the Attic standard seems to have been em-
ployed for silver, as rare tetradrachms of 260 grs. are found, but
it must have very soon given place to the so-called Rhodian,
the tetradrachm of which ranges from 240 to 230 grs. About
the same time (400 B.C.) the Rhodians began to issue gold
staters of the so-called Euboic standard, and for a century
this double issue of gold and silver continued unbroken. It is
plain, from the case of this famous island, that it is only the
silver standards which changed. There can be no doubt that
the unit by which gold in bullion was reckoned before that
metal was coined was the so-called Euboic or ox-unit, but during
the archaic period we find both the so-called Phoenician (220
grs.) and Aeginetic (drachms of 92 grs.) being employed for
silver in the island, whilst after 408 B.C. gold is issued on the ox-
1 Strabo, IV. 208, vvvepyaaa^vuv St <rvi> pappdpois ruv 'IraXtwrwv tv
T$ rpirif ptpei K0.6' o\-r]i> rty lra\iav.
222
340 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
unit, but silver, although at first on this standard, immediately
changes to the Rhodian of 240 grs. Evidently then the fixed
element is the gold, the fluctuating the silver. The coinage of
Rhodes likewise exemplifies the doctrine already indicated, that
the employment of religious and mythological symbols seems
to mark not the earlier but rather the later stages of Greek
coining. Thus Camirus employed the fig-leaf, lalysus half a
winged boar, and Lindus the lion's head with open jaws, but
after 408 Helios the Sun-god, from whom all Rhodians alike
claimed descent, and to whom the island was sacred 1 , becomes
the regular type, with the type parlant of the Rose (Rhodon) on
the reverse.
Next let us take the money of Macedonia, where there was
an abundant coinage of both gold and silver. The Pelasgian
tribe of Bisaltae, and the Thracian Edonians and Odomanti, had
during the half century which preceded the Persian wars all
struck silver on the so-called Phoenician standard. It is com-
monly supposed that they obtained this standard from the
important town of Abdera, which at the same period employed
a like standard, and it is suggested that Abdera had borrowed
it from her mother Teos, who had borrowed it from Miletus
and the other great towns of the Ionian seaboard, among which
it was especially employed for electrum. But unfortunately,
whilst the types of Teos and Abdera are the same (a seated
Griffin), the staters of Teos weigh only 186 grs., which is the
Aeginetic, not the Phoenician (220 grs.) standard. Shortly
after the overthrow of the Persian host Alexander I. of Macedon
acquired the land of the Bisaltae along with the rich silver
mines, which were said to produce for him a talent daily, and
he adopted both the types and standard of the Bisaltian silver
coinage, only substituting his own name for that of the Bisaltae.
During the century which elapsed between Alexander I. and
the accession of the famous Philip II. the coinage of Macedon
and that of Abdera followed the same course in each case;
the Phoenician standard of 230 grs. gave way to the so-called
Babylonian or Persian of about 170 grs. Again, it has been
suggested that Abdera influenced the neighbouring communities
1 Pindar, Olymp. vn. 58 sq.
THE GREEK SYSTEM. :J41
in this change. But when Philip came to the throne he returned
to the Phoenician standard for silver, and when for the first
time in Macedon he issued a bountiful coinage of gold staters,
they were struck on the ancient gold unit, the so-called
Euboic standard of 130 grs. But hardly had Philip slept with
his fathers, and Alexander reigned in his stead, when a need
was felt for a change in the silver standard. Accordingly the
latter in the early years of his reign began, and continued to
his death, to strike his silver on the same standard as his gold.
Let us now study the lessons to be learned from this history of
currency. There can be no reasonable doubt that the ox-unit
or stater was the unit by which gold was estimated from first to
last in that region. Unless it already existed Philip would not
have employed it for his gold coinage at a time when he was
making changes in his silver, but would have assimilated his gold
to his silver standard. But, as before remarked, just because
gold was not coined anywhere in Greece until the closing years
of the 5th century, and in all transactions it passed as bullion, so
much the stronger was the reason for keeping its weight-unit
unchanged. Bat was the standard of 220 grs. really an im-
ported Phoenician, or was it not rather one arrived at in that
region by the natives themselves owing to the relations then
existing between silver and gold? It is evident from the ac-
count given of the Bisaltian silver mines that in the time pre-
ceding and immediately posterior to the Persian invasion silver
was exceedingly abundant in all that region. It is then by no
means unlikely that it required ten silver pieces of 220 grs.
each to make the 'equivalent of one gold unit of 130 grs. With
the exhaustion of the silver mines, and perhaps a greater out-
put of gold, silver became dearer, and consequently 10 silver
pieces of 170 grs. each were now equal to a gold stater. Abdera
on the coast would come perfectly within the sphere of such
changed conditions, and her standard would consequently like-
wise undergo modification. With Philip's accession, fresh con-
quests and a general development of resources may have tempo-
rarily thrown more silver on the market, thus inducing him to
revert to the 220 grs. standard, but the exploiting of the famous
mines of Crenides increased the supply of gold to such an
342 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
extent that by the time Alexander mounted his father's throne
gold stood to silver in the relation of 10 : 1, and it was found
extremely convenient to coin this on the same footing as gold,
10 silver pieces of 135 grs. being exactly equal to the gold stater
of like weight. A like explanation applies to the coinage of
Thrace. Amongst the Thracian tribes who dwelt near Mount
Pangacum and worked the gold and silver mines of that region
the art of coining had been known from the 6th century B.C. and
they issued silver coins of about 160 grs. This is regarded by
some as debased Babylonian or Persic standard. But it is far
more rational to suppose that in that region gold was m<nv
plentiful in proportion to silver than it was at that time further
west in Macedonia, and accordingly a certain number of silver
didrachms of 160 grs. were found to represent the gold stater or
ox-unit. It seems most unlikely that a people long acquainted
with both gold and silver could not devise for themselves ;i
simple method of making some convenient number of silver
pieces be equivalent to one gold, and that, on the contrary,
having once obtained a certain standard fixed for silver in Asia
Minor, at a time when gold was to silver as 13 : 1, they would
blindly cleave to this standard, no matter how great a change
took place in the relation of the metals. In face of the state-
ments of Xenophon and Polybius already quoted and the fact
that Solon deliberately constructed a new silver standard, it
is simply impossible to believe such a doctrine.
On the opposite shore from Thrace lay the flourishing
city of Cyzicus. This wealthy community commenced to issue
electrum staters and hectae in the 5th century B.C., if not
earlier, the former being about 252 grs., the latter 41 grs.
These electrum staters have been shown by Professor Gardner
to have contained gold and silver in about equal proportions 1 .
1 Numismatic Chron. vn. 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 (vn. 96 seqq.) ; where 4 Darics
seem worth more than 5 staters :
Tafrrm 5e 3w<rer Ke[i]vo rb ^repov frvyoff
Kbffov; irdXiv 717)77 /JLIJV ov d^lav <f>wi>i)v
<rew < u > TOV.
K. ffTaTrjpaff irfrre val fj.a 0cov<r 0o[i]rcu
THE GREEK SYSTEM. 343
This most important fact, taken in connection with the literary
evidence derived from Xenophon and Demosthenes, makes it
probable that the Cyzicene stater of 252 grs. was counted
equal to a Daric of 130 grs. of pure gold 1 . "These coins of
Cyzicus," says Mr Head, "together with the Persian Darics
formed the staple of the gold currency of the whole ancient
world, until such time as they were both superseded by the
gold staters of Philip and Alexander the Great 2 ."
Not only did they circulate side by side with the Darics,
but it is worthy of notice that when the Cyzicenes struck coins of
pure gold (circa 413 B.C.) they were of Daric type and standard.
The earliest silver coins (430 412 B.C.) were small pieces of
32 and 18 grs., whilst the larger coins which come later are
on the Phoenician silver standard of 212 grs. (412 B.C.), whilst
from 400 B.C. to 330 B.C. the Rhodian standard of 235 grs. pre-
vailed. From the story of her coinage we learn clearly that
at Cyzicus the inferior metals bowed to the sway of gold. The
electrum stater of 252 grs. is made equal to the pure gold unit,
and whilst the silver standard changes from 212 grs. to 235 grs.
the gold and pale gold pieces in currency remain inviolate.
Once more, it is almost certain that some displacement in the
relative values of the metals had caused the raising of the
standard from 21 2 grs. to 235 grs. One thing certainly is
beyond doubt, and that is the utter improbability of the intro-
duction of the 235 grs. standard being in any way due to the
influence of Rhodes. This remark likewise applies to Chios,
where from a very early period (600 490 B.C.) side by side
with electrum staters of 217 grs. we find didrachms of silver of
123 120 grs., "a weight peculiar to Chios," says Mr Head,
" which was probably the Phoenician somewhat raised." But why
was it raised ? The real solution is that the relations between
gold, electrum and silver at Chios necessitated the striking of
i] \l/a\rpC < Eu > tropic- ijfj^prjv iracrav
Xaeo> dvu>yov<r ' dXX' eyu fuv [ex0a]fy>w
KTJV rfoaapdcr poi 5apet/coi>(T vir6(TXT]Ta.i.
QTe()VK.iv IACV TT]V yvVCUKO. T(i}0dei
Ka.Koi<ri Se[i>]voi<r. ei ......... XP 6 ' 7 ?-
1 Xen. Anal), v. 6. 23 ; vn. 3. 10. Dem. Plwrm. p. 914.
2 Op. cit. p. 449.
344 THE GREEK SYSTEM.
silver on a standard a few grains lighter than the gold unit
in use (the Persian Daric), and the electrum stater of 2l7grs.
Space forbids our going through all the cities of the Ionian
coast in detail, but the principle which we have laid down and
illustrated from the currency systems of several leading states
is sufficient to indicate the method by which we would explain
the fluctuations in the silver standards employed at different times
in various states. The Daric is the universal gold unit of all
this region; by its side is the electrum stater usually of 217 grs.
and most probably the equivalent in value of the pure gold coin
of 130 grs.: along with them we find singular fluctuations in
the silver currency ; towns that are close neighbours employing
different systems contemporaneously.
There is, however, one state which cannot be passed over
without more particular reference. At an earlier page I spoke
of the gold mines of Thasos, which had attracted the attention
of the Phoenicians at a very early time. But, in addition to
the mineral wealth of their own island, the Thasians drew a
huge annual revenue from their mines on the mainland. Al-
though the first influence in the island was Phoenician, and
the Thasians themselves were lonians from Paros, instead of
finding the Phoenician standard employed for its silver coins,
we see them striking their archaic coins on the so-called
Babylonian system. Under the supremacy of Athens this
standard fell so much that it eventually coincided with the
Attic (138 grs.) or even was lower. The Thasians, after re-
volting from Athens in 411 B.C., struck gold coins for the first
time; these were on the Euboic or ox-unit standard (con-
sisting of half-staters and thirds). But about the same period
they began to coin silver on the so-called Phoenician of 220
grs. It is indeed strange that in the early age, when the
Phoenician tradition was still strong, they did not employ
the 220 grs. standard, but only resorted to it after employing
for a long period the Babylonian and Attic standards. It is
evident that in Thasos, as elsewhere, there had existed the
same gold unit for untold generations, else at the very time
when they revolted from Athens and adopted a new standard
for their silver, they would not have struck gold on what is
THE GUEEK SYSTEM. :| J..",
commonly called the Attic or Euboic standard. It is evident
that the changes in the silver standards were due to changes in
the relation of silver to gold, the fall in standard from 168 grs.
to 135 grs. indicating perhaps that silver, which at first was
to gold as 1:13, had gradually grown dearer.
Commercial Weight System.
We must now turn to the commercial weight system. As
elsewhere, one of the chief commodities to come under such a
system was copper, and the history of the weighing of this
metal, as far as it can be learned, will be of great importance
to us. Now we should naturally expect that at Athens, which
had in later days but one standard for gold and silver, copper
likewise would have been estimated on this unit. But, as a
matter of fact, there were two distinct standards in use at
Athens, as is proved by two weights preserved in the British
Museum, the inscription on one of which is Mina of the
Market (MNA ATOP), that 011 the other is Mina of the
State (MNA AHMO). This mina of the market is the same
as that called the Commercial Mina on an Attic inscription 1 ,
where its weight is given as that of 138 silver drachms, that
is, the weight of an Aeginetic mina of silver. Athens had not
coined any money of her own up to Solon's time, but seems
to have employed the coins of Aegina. But this standard,
although no longer employed for silver, did not fall into desue-
tude. As already pointed out, all peoples have felt the need
of a heavier standard for cheap articles than that which serves
for gold. Probably the Aeginetic mina had been used at
Athens for copper: accordingly, when Solon made his new
silver standard for the weighing of silver, the Aeginetic standard
was found convenient for less costly and more bulky wares, and
was therefore retained in use as the mercantile or market
standard, the name STATE being given to the silver standard.
We have learned already that in the early stages of society
copper and iron are not sold or appraised by weight, but rather
by measurement. We have also seen that there is every reason
to believe that the Greek obol originally was a spike or rod
1 Corp. Inscr. Graec. 125, dytru T\ ^va rj e^iropiK^ ^retjxivrj^opov 5/oax/xas
rpiaKovra /cat 6/CTw irpbs ra arad^ia. TO. ev
346 THE SICILIAN SYSTEM.
of copper of a definite length and thickness. If we can be-
lieve the statement of Ephorus given by Strabo that Phidon
of Argos established a weight as well as a measure system for
the Peloponnesians (although Herodotus is silent as regards
weights), it is not at all improbable that, taking this story
in conjunction with the dedication of the old bar money by
Phidon in the temple of Hera, we have here a genuine tra-
dition of the superseding of the bars of metal, the value of
which simply depended on their dimensions, by a system based
essentially on weight. It is plain that, as copper was weighed
both at Aegina and Athens by the Aeginetic silver standard,
copper most probably was never estimated by weight until
after the forming of the separate silver standard in the way
already described.
We have previously noticed the fact that the two principal
terms applied to silver coins, drachm and obol, give clear in-
dications that they have been borrowed from an ancient system
of copper (just as we shall presently find that the denarius, the
special term employed for their silver currency by the Romans,
owes its origin to the ancient copper as). If further proof
were required, it is afforded by the name employed for the
subdivisions of the obol. The latter at Athens was divided
into 8 chalci or coppe?*s (^aX/col). The smallest silver coin at
Athens was the half-obol, but in some places names, Trichal-
cum, Tetrachalcum, etc. were given to copper coins. Now, as
the Aeginetan obol weighed about 16 J grs. and the Attic
11^, the former is one-third greater than the latter. But we
shall see shortly that as the Attic obol has 8 chalci, the Aegi-
netan must have had 12, from which it follows that the ancient
copper obol or bar used in Aegina, throughout Peloponnesus,
and at Athens, and probably throughout Boeotia, was every-
where the same.
The Sicilian System.
In dealing with the Sicilian and Italian systems we must
reverse the order of treatment of the metals, and as it is in the
copper that we shall find the closest link between the Greek
and those other systems, we shall therefore commence with
that metal.
THE SICILIAN SYSTEM. 347
On the Italian Peninsula and in Sicily we find ;i scries of
weight and monetary terms totally distinct from any found in
Greece Proper. From this alone we may infer that, even he lore
the settlement of any Greek Colonies in Magna Graecia and
Sicily, there existed a well denned system, if not of weight, at
least for the exchange of copper by fixed standards of measure-
ment. In various Sicilian cities we find small silver coins
called litrae-, these beyond all question are simply the repre-
sentatives in silver of an ancient copper unit employed by the
Sicels, and which they had brought with them into the island.
These Sicels were a tribe of the great Italian stock (itself a
branch of the Aryan family) closely related to the Umbrians,
Latins, and Oscans, had probably formed the van of the Aryan
advance into the Peninsula, and had finally crossed the straits
and overcome the Sicanians, an Iberic race, who were the
earliest inhabitants of the island of whom any historical record
exists. The word litra is merely a dialectic form of the
same original lidhra 1 , from which the Latin libra itself is
sprung. But whilst we shall have little difficulty in finding
out the weight at which the Latin libra was fixed, we have just
as great difficulty in discovering that of the Sicilian litra, as we
have lately found in the case of the ancient Greek copper obol.
As copper was only coined at a late period, and the copper
coins are merely tokens, or money of account, we are unable to
arrive at any conclusion as to the original full weight of the
lifcra from any data afforded by the copper coins of the various
Sicilian states, although, from the circumstance that many of
these coins bear marks of value, at first sight it might seem
far otherwise. Thus at Agrigentum in the period preceding
415 B.C. the copper litra weighed about 750 grs., between
415 B.C. and 406 B.C. 613 grs., and from 340 B.C. to 287 B.C.
it was about 536 grs. only. At Himera between 472 B.C.
and 41 5 B.C. it was about 990 grs., but within the same period
it fell to 200 grs., whilst at Camarina between 415 B.C. and
405 B.C. it was about 221 grs. Not only therefore is it futile to
attempt any statement of the reduction of the litra in Sicily in
general, but also to arrive at any sound approximation to its
1 Cf. Wharton, Etyma Latina, s.v. litra.
348 THE SICILIAN SYSTEM.
full original weight, as far as the weight of the copper coins is
concerned. On the other hand, any calculation based on the
relative values of copper and silver has been up to the present
unsatisfactory, owing to the great uncertainty which still
prevails, Mommsen making the relation in the earlier period
stand as 288 : 1, whilst Mr Soutzo thinks it never can have
been higher than 120 : 1.
The latter view I have already proved to be untenable when
we apply the test of the value of cattle, and it was made
probable that in the 5th century B.C. silver was to copper
as 300 : 1. From this it will be possible to show that the
full weight of the copper litra was originally about 4900 grs.
Any effort to determine the original weight of the copper
litra by a new method calls for a merciful consideration, even
though it too may fail. Whilst the original weight of the
litra is still a matter of doubt, we are fortunately completely
acquainted with the method of its subdivisions. The litra
was divided into 12 parts called Ungiae, Unciae or Onciae,
a name which is no other than the Latin Uncia. This at
once brings us face to face with the Roman copper system,
where the as was the higher unit, and was divided into
12 unciae (ounces). But there are other striking coincidences
of nomenclature. Thus ^ of the as was called sextans ; one-
sixth of the litra is called Hexds (efas), and the Tiiens
and Quadrans are paralleled by the tr^ias (rpias) and tetras
(rerpds) although there is a difference in the application of
these terms. Then the five-twelfths of the as is Quincunx, the
same fraction of the litra is Pentonkion (ireToyKiov). We have
plainly therefore a common Italo-Sicilian copper system, the
terms of which were adopted and Graecised by the settlers in
Italy and Sicily.
Now we have already adverted to the fact that the earliest
Sicilian towns which coined money, Naxos, Zancle and Himera,
although Chalcidian colonies, yet employed the Aeginetic
standard, whereas we might naturally expect them to follow
the Euboic. This would give the maximum of IGJgrs. for
the silver obol. Now according to Pollux, Aristotle in his lost
treatise on the constitution of Agrigentum says that the litra is
THE SICILIAN SYSTEM. 349
worth an Aeginetan obol, and Pollux goes on to say that "one
would find in him (Aristotle) in his Constitution of the Hime-
raeans likewise other names of Sicilian coins, such as ungia, which
is equivalent to one chalcus, and hexas, which is equivalent to
two chalci, and trios, which is equivalent to three chalci, and
hemilitron (half litra), which is equivalent to six, and litra
which is equivalent to an obol 1 ." It is plain from this that
Aristotle knew that the Aeginetic obol was divided into twelve
chalci. Thus the proposition laid down above, that the ancient
Greek copper obol was a rod or spike divided into 12 parts, is
thoroughly proved. The reason why the Attic obol had only
8 chalci is now plain; it was, as we saw, only two-thirds of the
Aeginetan and consequently only contained two-thirds of the
whole number of pieces of copper into which the ancient copper
unit was divided. Now, as we find the Chalcidian settlers of
Himera and other places not using their native Euboic standard
for coining, but employing the Aeginetic, and as the Aeginetic
obol was equal to the Sicilian litra, we are justified in the con-
clusion, that when the Greek settlers reached Italy and Sicily
they found their Italic kinsfolk using a copper unit exactly. the
same as that employed in Greece; and that finally, when they
began to coin, they found it more convenient to strike silver on
a standard which was both convenient in reference to exchange
with gold, as I have shown above, and had the further advantage
of corresponding accurately in value to the ancient copper unit
in use among the Sicels. If, as I indicated, silver was to copper
as 300 : 1, the Aeginetic silver obol of 16| grs. would be worth
5000 grs. of copper (practically the same as the early Roman
libra). It follows then that if we could only discover the weight
of the Sicilian litra we should know that of the old Greek copper
obol. Is this possible? We have no reason to doubt that the
obol was a rod of copper of a certain size, which in the course of
time after the introduction of coined money shrank up until
the original rod was only represented by what had been its
equivalent in silver, or a small copper coin, whose name still
survives in the ob used in old account books as the symbol for
i Pollux, ix. 80.
350 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
half -penny 1 . The Greek coinage has preserved for us but faint
traces of the various steps in the degradation of the copper obol,
but, as we have already seen, we find the Sicilian copper litra
in various stages of its decadence from 990 grs. down to 200 grs;
Again, whilst no trace has as yet been found of obols at all
in the archaic shape of rods, or anything approaching it, we
find in Sicily at Agrigentum litrae which are in form distinct
survivals of an earlier stage when the litra, like the obol, was a
rod or bar of copper. These are very strange looking lumps
of bronze made in the shape of a tooth with a flat base, having
on one side an eagle or eagle's head and on the other a crab,
while on the base are marks of value ::, .*., : (tetras, trias,
hexas). The uncia is almond-shaped with an eagle's head on
one side, and a crab's claw on the other 2 . As we found the
Chinese knife shrinking up into a shorter and thicker mass until
at last it only survives in the round cash, so in all probability
we here find the Sicilian litra in its mid course from its
original full size and shape to that of the ordinary round
copper coin of a later age. That the shape of the original
copper unit of the Italians was that of a rod or bar we shall
now proceed to demonstrate in the case of the Roman as.
The Italian System. Bronze.
As the cow formed the highest unit in the monetary
system of ancient Italy, so the lowest unit employed was a
certain amount of copper called an as. We have already
found the cow serving the same purpose in Sicily (as late as
the time of Dionysius forming the rateable unit at Syracuse).
The systems of Further Asia, where the buffalo stands at the
head of the scale and the hoe or a piece of raw metal of a
certain size stands at the bottom, form a perfect analogy in
modern times. As far as its value and divisional system go,
we have identified the Sicilian litra with the ancient Hellenic
1 Cf. Shakespeare, I. Henry IV. n. 4, 590, in Falstaff's tavern bill : " Item,
Anchovies and sack, Gd. Item, bread, Ob. O monstrous ! But one halfpenny
worth of bread to such an intolerable deal of sack 1 "
2 Head, op. cit. p. 105.
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM. 351
obol or rod, and we have in turn discovered a very close
resemblance between the divisions of the litra and that of the
as. I now propose to examine into the original nature of this
denomination, and the form of the object to which it was
applied. This will have been effectually accomplished, if I
can succeed in establishing the proposition that the as was
primarily a rod or bar of copper, one foot in length, divided into
12 parts, called inches (unciae), thus coinciding with the Greek
obol inform, as also in its duodecimal division.
We must, as a preliminary, note carefully several most
essential facts connected with the as: (1) The term as (as
used in respect of metals) is never employed for either gold
or silver, but is appropriated to bronze exclusively; (2) it is
not the Roman unit of weight, for that is expressed by the
general term libra, a word exactly corresponding to the Greek
Talanton, since it means both the weight and the scales', (3) the
as is not confined to weight, but is also employed as the unit
of linear measure equal to the foot, and also as the unit of
land measure equal to the jugerum or acre.
The following table exhibits the subdivisions of the as : .
As (Pes, Jugerum)
Deunx
= H
Dextans
tt
Dodrans
3
4
Bes
1
Septunx
A
Semis
i
Quincunx
A
Triens
*
Quadrans
?
Sextans
i
Uncia
A
Semuncia
4
Sicilicus
A
Sextula
7*Z
Scriptulum
rfs
Now it has been hitherto assumed by all writers that the
352 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
system of division employed in the as as a unit of weight has
been transferred to measure. This however is contrary to all
experience, for, as we have had occasion constantly before to
notice, weight units are derived from measures, e.g. the bushel
from the measure of that name, and so on. In the next place
as the as is not the unit of Roman weight, if even the measure
unit was borrowed from the weight, we ought to expect
the foot to be called a libra rather than an as. It is far more
likely that a unit originally employed for measure would in
time give its name to a weight-unit corresponding in mass to
the original measure-unit. There are besides certain pieces
of evidence afforded by the nomenclature of the submultiples
which point directly to the original as being a measure rather
than a weight-unit. The 24th part of the uncia is called the
scripttdum, little scratch, or line (scribo), which is exactly trans-
lated by the Greeks as gramme (ypafifirj, scratch or line) 1 . Now
whilst 24 strokes make an excellent method of dividing the
uncia in its capacity of inch, they of course have no significance
as submultiples of uncia, meaning ounce. Moreover, the forms
of several of the best known divisions of the as, such as triens,
quadrans, sextans, which are not easy to explain on the hy-
pothesis that the terminology was primarily applied to weight,
on the other hand admit of a ready solution when we take the
as as originally a unit of measure. For sextans means not a
sixth, but that which makes a sixth, triens not a third, but that
which divides in three parts, and quadrans not a fourth, but
that which makes fourfold, i.e. divides into four, for quadra
means not a fourth part, but that which has four parts (hence
usually a square). If we regard these words as referring to
certain lines drawn across a bar of metal, their meaning is
obvious. Whilst sextans uncia, the ounce which makes a sixth,
is nonsense, sextans linea, the line which makes a sixth, gives
excellent sense, so likewise triens linea fits in admirably with
the required meaning, whilst quadrans linea seems to mean
the line which divides the whole into four parts.
1 The forms scripulum, scrupulum, scrupulm are all due to its simply being
regarded in later times as a weight, and thus falsely identified with scrupulm, a
small pebble.
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM. 353
The etymology of the word as has long been a puzzle.
Scholars starting with the assumption that as was the Roman
abstract term for unity have accordingly searched for an ap-
propriate derivation. Some have identified it with the Greek
heis one (efr through a Tarentine a?), whilst the most recent
attempt connects it with the first syllable of eZementum The
same principle has been carried out with regard to uncia, which
has been treated simply as meaning unit and connected with
unus and wnicus.
Now it is notorious that the Roman mind was essentially
concrete, and found great difficulty in arriving at abstract
ideas, and consequently at abstract terms. This alone would
make us hesitate to believe that as had originally begun
as an abstract term meaning unit, and rather incline us to
believe that it started in life as a name for some common
concrete object. But we have seen above that the numerals
in all languages seem originally to have meant certain actual
physical objects which served as counters, such as the fingers
and toes (decem Be/ca, digitus Sa/crv'Xos), seeds or pebbles. If
such has been the origin of the various names for unit, we
can hardly believe that any term for unity can have originated
independently of some concrete object. To add to the mists
which hang round the origin of the as, its division into 12
parts is taken to indicate a Babylonian source. Now the
Roman foot was divided, not merely into 16 fingers like the
Greek, but also into 12 unciae or inches like our own. The
latter is most probably the true Italian system, as it is that
found among their cousins and neighbours the Kelts, as well
as amongst the Teutonic peoples. With ourselves still the
rustic measures inches by his thumb, just as he measures feet
by means of his own natural foot. The ancient Irish foot was
divided into 12 thumbs or inches (ordlach, Lat. pollex, the
initial p being lost in Irish) 1 . The Romans too (as did likewise
the Teutonic peoples, e.g. Icelandic tomme, an inch) used the
thumb (pollex) as the ordinary measure in practical life 2 . The
division then into 12 unciae is simply the result of the fact that
1 Book of Aicill, p. 335.
- Caesar, J5. G. in. 13.
R. 23
354 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
a certain natural relation exists between the breadth of the
thumb and the length of the foot, and as the relation held
true just as much for the Kelt as the Chaldaean, there was no
need for the ancient Italians to borrow their duodecimal system
from the East. Now what are we to say as to the origin of
the word uncia? Does it mean anything more or less than
the breadth of the (thumb) nail ? The use of unguis, a nail,
as a measure was common in Latin, as we know from the
phrases transversum unguem (the thickness of a nail) and latum
unguem (a nail's breadth) side by side with transversum digitum
(a finger's thickness) in Plautus. Uncia may be simply a
derivative from unguis ; there is no phonetic impossibility,
and even if there were any linguistic irregularity, false analogy
with unicus would amply account for it. The use of a word
meaning nail to express the divisions of the foot is completely
paralleled by the ancient Hindu system, where the finger-
breadth is termed angola, i.e. nail (cognate of unguis and oi/uf ).
Next we come to the word as itself, which appears in old
Latin as assis. It is masculine in gender, which of itself is
sufficient to throw doubts on its being a really abstract word.
Can it be that we have a close relative of it in asser a rod, bar,
pole, which is likewise masculine in gender ? Whilst one form of
the name was specially confined to a small rod or bar of copper,
the other was employed in a wide and general way. These two
forms assis and asser, -is are completely analogous to vomis and
vomer, -is, a ploughshare. The meaning rod is in complete
harmony with what we have said about the Greek obol. All
that is now wanting to make our proof complete is some evidence
that the primitive Italian as was really in the form of a rod or
bar. The most archaic specimens of ancient Italian bronze
money as yet described are those found at the Ponte di Badia
near Vulci in 1828. These consisted (1) of quadrilaterals broken
in pieces, weighing from 2 to 3 pounds each, stamped with an
ox and trident, (2) cube-shaped pieces of copper without any
mark, weighing from an ounce to a pound, and (3) some
ellipse-shaped pieces for the most part weighing two ounces 1 .
But in the British Museum are preserved a number of pieces of
1 Blaca*, Mommsen, i. p. 177.
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
bronze which are roughly quadrilateral. A cursory examination
showed me that, whilst two parallel sides exhibit the marks
of a mould, the two remaining sides displayed unmistakable
FIG. 48. Aes Kude.
signs of fracture. Several of them are end pieces, showing
the voluting of the mould on two sides and at one end, whilst
the other end shows marks of having been broken (Fig. 48).
232
356
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
Several of them bear stamps, or letters. There can be no
doubt that these are pieces of short bars of bronze, which were
afterwards cut up, as occasion demanded. The imprints on
them prove them to be of comparatively recent date. If there-
fore the asses still retained their bar shape after the art of
stamping metal to serve as currency had come into use, d
fortiori the primitive as of Italy must certainly have been
nothing more than a plain rod or bar of copper, which passed
from hand to hand as the obols in Greece, and the bars
of iron and copper pass at the present among savages of
Africa and Asia 1 . This was what was called by the ancient
writers the raw copper (aes rude), as distinguished from the
stamped copper (aes signatum) of a later date. The fact that
FIG. 49. Bronze Decussis.
early specimens of aes signatum, such as the decussis, bearing
a cow on both obverse and reverse (Fig. 49), were still made
in the shape of a bar, is a further proof that such was the
original form.
It will be observed that I can give no positive evidence for
1 It is worth noticing that Plutarch (Poplicola 11) translates the libral asses
of early Borne by the Greek obolos; yv 8t TIM irpopdrov plv dfioXol 56fa, o6s 3
^Karbv oOTTb) vofj.iap.arL -xpu^vuv TTO\\<^ rbre T&V 'Pwyuafwj', dXXd Trpo/Jaretaus KO.I
KTijvoTpoQiais tt6r)vovi>TWj>. 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.
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM. :jf>7
the length or breadth of the as. The pieces in the Museum are
all fragments, and, even if there were any of them whole, they
would not by any means decide the original length, although
they would of course represent the weight. For as they are
late, they would probably have been made at a time when the
original rod was shrinking up into a more compact form, just
as the Chinese bronze knives get shorter and thicker. But
the fact remains that the as was identified completely with
the Roman foot measure, the divisions being the same in each.
We therefore may with great probability infer that the as was
originally a piece of copper a foot in length, and of a known
thickness. We have seen that copper and iron are not weighed
in the early stages of society, but are appraised by measure-
ment. Why should not the same hold true for Rome ? It
may be asked, how came it that the as was taken as the typical
unit for weight and superficial measure, and to express
even an inheritance ? The answer is not far to seek. To ex-
press fractional parts has ever been a great difficulty with
primitive people. As the Malays cannot conceive abstract
numerals, but must append the concrete padi to each of their
numbers, so the old Italian found it necessary to employ some
concrete object, the subdivisions of which were familiar, to
express the fractional parts whether it be of an estate or any-
thing else. The most common unit in use was the rod of copper
divided into 12 thumbs. Accordingly, if a Roman wished to
say that Balbus was heir to one- twelfth of an estate he ex-
pressed this by the homely formula that Balbus had come in
for one inch, the denominator 12 being mentally supplied, as
everyone knew that there were 12 inches in the copper bar.
The same principle of taking some familiar object, the ordinary
method of dividing which was known to all men, is seen in the
method of expressing one-tenth. The Roman denarius was
divided into 10 libellae ; accordingly, when Cicero wishes to
say that a certain person had come in for a tenth part of an
estate he says that he has come in for a libella (heres ex libella).
From this the reader will at once see that we might just as
well declare that the word denarius is an abstract word meaning
unity as make the same assertion about the as. Again, when
358 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
the Roman land surveyors elaborated their system of mensu-
ration, they found that the simplest method of expressing the
fractional parts of the jugerum was to employ the old duodecimal
method of the as. Nor is this without a parallel elsewhere.
As the yard was the common English unit of linear measure,
it was applied to the most common unit of land, the quarter
of the hide, which was accordingly termed a yard of land, or a
virgate (virga terrae). The English analogy is even still more
complete, for as the as or foot-rod became the unit of weight,
so in Cambridge the yard of butter is identical with the pound
of butter 1 .
Our next step will be to trace the process by which
the as or rod became the general weight-unit, the pound
(libra). The term libra is not the oldest Latin name for weight,
for pondus or its cognate verb pendeo, which literally means
to hang, is the true claimant for that position. Libra seems
properly to mean the balance, as is seen from the legal formula
(employed in Mancipatio) per aes et libram, by means of copper
and the balance. From the fact that its chief use was to weigh
asses of copper, the mass of an as came to be termed the weight
par excellence, just as the most usual amount weighed in the
Greek talanta (scales) became the talanton par excellence. This
process can be illustrated by modern examples. Thus in the
south of Ireland potatoes are sold by the unit of 21 Ibs., which
consequently is termed a weight, and instead of speaking of so
many stones or hundredweights, everyone speaks of a weight of
potatoes. But, as already remarked, it was only at a compara-
tively late epoch that the bars of copper were weighed. It
would be only with the growth of greater exactitude in com-
mercial dealings that the art of weighing, which was employed
for all dealings in gold and silver, would be applied to copper.
Just as the Malays and Tibetans have been gradually taught
by the careful Chinese to employ weights commercially, so the
Italian tribes may have been led to do so under the influence
of the astute Greek traders from Magna Graecia and Sicily.
1 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.
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
The system in vogue for gold was that of our old friend the
ox-unit. This is proved from the fact that not only is the
oldest gold coinage of the Etruscans, the close neighbours of
Latium, based upon this standard, but that also in Sicily and
Southern Italy there was the small gold talent, the three-fold
of the ox-unit. This three-fold of the stater was also used
at Neapolis. Although the earliest Greek colonies in Sicily
employed at first the Aeginetic standard for silver, we soon
find them reverting to the gold or Euboic standard for that
metal, whilst the early silver coinage of the Etruscans (before
350 B.C.) is also of the Euboic standard. We may with high
probability assume that when the Sicilians and Italians first
essayed to weigh their copper rods, they naturally employed
the standard already in use for gold and silver. The highest
unit of this was the small talent of 3 staters which weighed
about 405 grs. The bar was divided into 1 2 inches, and it
was found that an inch of copper rod closely approximated in
weight to the small gold talent. The weight of the bar, which
was the ancient unit for copper before weight had been em-
ployed, now became the standard weight-unit for that metal.
It is to be observed that this ounce of 405 grs., though some
27 grs. less than the full Roman uncia of later times, is only
15 grs. lighter than the Roman ounce prior to 268 B.C., for it is
an ascertained fact that the old Roman uncia did not exceed
4 20 grs. 1 It must be remembered that the weight of the ounce
would depend on the standard foot by which the bar was
measured. Now, whilst the Roman foot measures 296 millim.,
there was likewise in use in Campania, and probably in many
parts of Southern Italy, a foot of 276 millim. The relation of
bars of these lengths and of a given thickness to the Roman
libra is not without interest. If we take an ordinary engineer's
table of materials we shall find that a copper rod a Roman foot
long, and half a Roman inch in diameter, weighs 5040 grs.
Now, as the Roman pound weighs 5184 grs. this approximation
seems almost too close to be a mere coincidence. If on the other
hand we take a rod of a foot of 276 millim. and with a diameter
of the corresponding half-inch, we shall get a pound of 4680
1 Many of the Roman unciae in the British Museum are under 410 grs.
360 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
grs. and an ounce of 390 grs , which is certainly not far from the
weight of the small gold talent. It follows from this that we
may expect pounds of different weights in Italy, according as
the foot-unit varies in different districts.
In later times, besides the pound of 12 unciae, there
were several commercial pounds on Italian soil, the pound of
16 ounces (from which our own avoirdupois is probably de-
scended), that of 18 unciae, and that of 24. The last two are
easy of explanation, since one is simply the double, the other
one and a half times the Roman pound. But perhaps a
different explanation must be sought for the 16 ounce pound.
The foot was divided by Greeks and also by Italians into 16
fingers as well as into 12 thumbs. Was therefore the pound
of 16 ounces simply derived from the division of the foot bar
into 16 fingers, the weight of the finger being however equated
to that of the Roman thumb or inch of copper ?
The as, having been once subjected to weight, its hundred-
fold, the centumpondium or "hundred weight," became the
highest Roman weight-unit. Thus the as and the centum-
pondium of the Italians correspond to the mina and talent of
the Greeks. But it will be observed that the Italians ob-
tained their higher unit by the old decimal system, whereas
the Greeks had borrowed the mina and its sixtyfold from
Asia. The centumpondium must be regarded as a true-born
Italian unit, not one borrowed .from Greece or Asia, and of
this there is further proof. We saw by the ancient Roman
law that the cow was estimated at 100 asses, the sheep at
10 asses. No doubt from time out of mind 100 of the bars
of copper, which formed the chief lower unit of barter, made
one cow, just as in Annam 280 little hoes make one buffalo
(p. 167). When copper came to be weighed, the amount of
copper which formed the equivalent of the highest unit of
barter, the cow, was taken as the highest weight-unit. From
what I have said above it is not improbable that the Roman
libra and the Sicilian litra of copper were almost equal in
weight. The fact that the Greek writers always employed
the Sicilian word litra (\lrpa), to translate the Latin libra,
likewise indicates that in the Greek mind there was a tra-
THE ITALIAN KVSTKM.
361
dition of their identity. And if the doctrine here put forward
of the original nature of the as be right, nothing can be more
likely than that the Italians who had crossed into Sicily and
their kinsfolk who had remained behind employed rods of
similar size, and that when they began to weigh the latter,
the " weight " (libra or litra), derived from the standard copper
rod, should be the same in each region, until certain modifi-
cations occasioned by new monetary conditions according to the
needs of different communities had caused some divergency in
coin weights, although as a commercial weight the litra re-
mained unchanged. As Aristotle identified the Aeginetic obol
and chalcus with the Sicilian litra and onkia, we may with
some plausibility suggest that the ancient Greek copper obol
or spike and the Italian as or rod were identical in dimensions
and in origin.
In Greece the copper obol rapidly fell in weight, for, when
once silver currency had been introduced, copper was thrust
aside, arid it was not till the fourth century B.C. that copper
coins came into use. When the copper obol appears as a coin
it is but a small piece, being in fact a mere token.
The history of the degradation of copper was seen better in
Sicily, where we found the litra still weighing 990 grs., but it
FIG. 50. As (Aes grave). (Before 2nd Punic War.)
rapidly sank to only 200 grs., evidently in this case also
being mere money of account. For as the silver litra was
about 13J grs., unless the 200 grain copper litra was a mere
token, silver would have been to copper as 17:1, which is
obviously absurd. In the case of the Italian as the process
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
is still clearer, for we have every stage of the as, from the bars
which I have described through the libral as (aes grave), the
sextantal as, the uncial and half-uncial, down to the small coin
of the empire commonly called "a third brass."
FIG. 51. As (half uncial standard).
FIG. 52. As, 3rd Cent. A.D. ("Third Brass").
Gold and Silver.
Whilst in the infancy of coining the Sicilian silver litra was
probably the same as the Aeginetic obol, that is about 16| grs.,
the Aeginetic didrachm being probably treated as a deca-
litron (ten-litra piece), nevertheless after no long time the
common Euboic standard of 135 grs. was employed at Syra-
cuse and elsewhere, and we have the authority of Aristotle for
the statement that the Corinthian stater was called a deca-
litron. Corinth, as we saw above, used the 135 grain unit for
her famous Pegasi, commonly known as " Colts " (TTO)\OI), and
FIG. 53. Didrachm of Coriuth.
therefore the litra was by this time 13| grs. Now, in Etruria
we find about 400 350 B.C. a silver currency struck on this
same 135 grs. standard. These coins bear marks of value, X on
coins of 131 grs., A on those of 65 grs., II 1 on those of 32 grs.,
and I on those of 14 and 13 grs. It is plain therefore that
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
the stater of 135 grs. was considered to consist of 10 units
of 13^ grs. each. In other words, whatever the Etruscans may
have called their stater, it was exactly the same in weight and
method of subdivision as the decalitron of Syracuse. At a
later period (350 268 B.C.) we find on coins of like weight the
symbols XX instead of X, X instead of A, A instead of II 1 . The
unit now is exactly half of what it was at an earlier stage, 6f
grs. instead of 13^ grs.
Not till 268 B.C., just on the eve of the First Punic War,
did Rome first coin silver. This coin, called denarius, as its
name implies, represented 10 asses. It was divided into four
parts, each of which was called a sestertius or 2|, and was
marked with the symbol 1 1 8 representing that number.
It is very remarkable that the Etruscan coin of the second
series, marked 2-J-, is only very slightly heavier than the Roman
sesterce (sestertius) which bears a similar mark. Hence it has
been very reasonably inferred that when the Romans set about
the coinage of silver, they simply adopted with slight modifica-
FIG. 54. Sesterce of first Boman silver coinage.
tion the silver system employed by their neighbours across the
Tiber. This is all the more probable, as it is almost certain
that, though Rome did not strike silver she like Athens before
the time of Solon, and like Syracuse, used freely the coins of
other communities for a long time previously. The Etruscan
coins would therefore serve as silver currency at Rome. We
may then assume that the monetary system must have been
much the same on both sides of the river. Accordingly,
since in 268 B.C. we find the Romans striking a coin in silver
representing 10 copper asses, which is almost the same in
weight as the Etruscan coin marked X, we may reasonably
infer that, if the Romans had commenced coining silver a
century earlier, their denarius or W-as piece would have been
the same weight as the Etruscan.
364 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
Now besides the litra, which we found to be both a copper-
unit and a silver coin in Sicily, there is another term of great
interest, especially as it plays an important part in the history
of Roman money. The general Latin name for a coin is nu-
mus, which in the later days of the Republic usually meant a
denarius when used in the more restricted sense, but in the
earlier period it was the term specially applied to the silver
sesterce (sestertius). This is almost certainly a loan-word, for
Pollux is most explicit in warning us that, although the word
seems Roman, it is in reality Greek and belongs to the Dorians
of Sicily and Italy 1 . It is always a name of a coin of silver in
Sicily, being so used by Epicharmus. The coin meant by this
poet cannot have been one of great value, for he says : " Buy
me a fine heifer calf for ten nomi." It was in all proba-
bility the Aeginetan obol, for Apollodorus in his comments
on Sophron set it down at three half (Attic) obols, that is,
almost 17 grs. This is confirmed by the fact that an Homeric
scholiast makes the small talent weigh 24 nomi, which gives
nearly 17 grs. as the weight of that unit. Crossing into Italy,
we find that according to Aristotle 2 there was a coin called a
noummos at Tarentum, on which was the device of Taras
riding on a dolphin. This is the familiar type of the Tarentine
FIG. 55. Didrachm of Tarentum.
didrachms which, from their first issue down to the invasion
of Pyrrhus (450280 B.C.), weigh normally 123120 grs.,
although one specimen weighs 128 grs. This coin Mommsen
recognized as the noummos of Aristotle. Professor Gardner
afterwards suggested that the diobol, on which occasionally the
same type is found, was rather the coin meant. Recently
1 6 5 vov/J.fJ.03 doKfi fj.ev cli>ai'Pti)iJ,ai(i}i> Tovvo/m TOV voyla /xaros, &m 5e '
Kdl TUV iv 'lra\lq. /cat iv "2iKt\
2 Pollux ix. 84.
THE ITALIAN S VST KM. :{H.">
Mr A. J. Evans has almost proved this hypothesis impossible
by showing that all the diobols yet known are probably later
than the time of Aristotle 1 . As, however, this rests on negative
evidence, and is liable to be overthrown at any moment by the
discovery of an archaic diobol, it is advisable to cast about
for some more positive criterion. Heraclea of Lucania, the
daughter-city and close neighbour of Tarentum, as we know
from the famous Heraclean Tables (which scholars are agreed in
regarding as written about the end of the 4th cent. B.C.), em-
ployed as a unit of account a silver nomos. It is so probable
that the nomos employed at Heraclea (circ. 325 B.C.) would be
the same in value as that employed at Tarentum in the time
of Aristotle (ob. 322 B.C.), that if we can prove the nomos of
Heraclea to be a didrachm and not a diobol, we may henceforth
hold with certainty that the nomos of Tarentum was the larger
coin.
On the Heraclean Tables it is enacted that those who held
certain public land should pay certain fines in case they had
failed to plant their holdings properly ; four olive trees were to
be planted on each schoenus of land, and for each olive. tree
not so planted a penalty of 10 nomi of silver was to be ex-
acted, and for each schoenus of land not planted with vines
the penalty was two minae of silver 2 . The schoenus is identi-
cal with the Roman actus (half a jugerum), being the square
of 120 feet. Four olive trees were the allowance for each
schoenus. Now if we can determine the number of vines
which were planted on a schoenus, we shall be able to get a
test of the value of a nomos. Two minae of silver contained
in round numbers 110 Tarentine didrachms of 123 grs. each,
or 675 diobols of about 20 grs. each. Olives were many times
more valuable than the vine, so that any result which will
make the vine about the same value as the obol will be
absurd.
1 Evans, Horsemen of Tarentum, pp. 9 11.
2 Tabulae Heracleenses (Boeckh Corp. Inscrip. Grace. 5774 5; Cauer,
Delectus 40, 41) I, 122. at 6^ KO. fj.r) 7re0ureikw'Ti Kara yeypa/j-^va,
Trap fj.ei> r&v eXaiav 5<?/ca v6fj.ws apyvpiu Trap TO (pvrbv ZKCUTTOV, Trap 5e ras d/
dvo /j.vas apyvpiw Trap rav ayolvov e
366 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
Now Mr A. J. Evans, when in Southern Italy, at my re-
quest kindly ascertained that vines, when trained on poles on
vineyard slopes, are usually about 3 yards apart, whilst when
trained on pollard poplars (as is much more usual in Cam-
pagna), they stand about 6 yards apart. In the case of the
former about 150 vines would go to a scJioeiius (1600 sq. yards),
whilst in the latter case barely 50. We cannot doubt that the
distance between the vines must have been much the same in
ancient as in modern times.
If now we take the nomos to be a diobol, each vine is worth
4 nomi, or 14 nomi, according as there are 50 or 150 vines to
the schoerms. Now, as the valuable and slow growing olive
is only worth 10 nomi, and it is impossible to believe that
the relative values of olive and vine could have ever been
such as those arrived at on the assumption that the nomos is
a diobol, we must turn to the alternative course and take the
nomos as a didrachm. The penalty for a schoenus of vines is
two minae or 110 didrachms. If 150 vines go to a schoenus,
each will be worth about f didrachm, 15 vines being equal to
one olive, or taking 50 vines to the schoenus, each vine will be
worth about two didrachms, 5 vines being worth one olive. This
result is so rational that we need hesitate no longer to regard
the well-known Tarentine didrachm as the nomos (noummos) of
Aristotle.
There is such a difference between the nomos of Sicily,
identical with the Aeginetan obol, and that of Tarentum that
we are forced to conclude that the term nomos is not specially
applied to any particular coin unit. In Sicily we found the
native unit, the litra, identified in certain cases, at least in
earlier times, with the Aeginetan obol as well as with the
nomos. Why two names nomas and litra for the same unit ?
Is one Sicilian and the other Greek? This at least gives a
reasonable explanation. The Dorians then in Sicily gave the
name to their earliest coins, nomos, with them indicating the
unit of currency established by law just as did nomisma among
other Greeks. As in Sicily the Aeginetic obol was the legal
coin (nomos) par excellence, so at Tarentum, where didrachms
were the first coins to be struck, the term (nomos) was applied
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM. 367
to that unit. We may therefore expect to find the term nomos
applied to various kinds of coins among the Italiotes and Italians,
according to the particular coin chosen by each state as its own
unit of account.
Accordingly we find the term nomos applied to certain
bronze coins struck on the sextantal (two ounce) and uncial
standards, at Arpi and other towns, which are inscribed N II
(the double nummus), N I (nummus), (quincunx), ....
(triens), . . . (quadrans), . . (sextans), . S (sescuncia), . (uncia), and
S (semuncia). The divisions being those of the as, it is clear
that the nomos, or current coin in those places, was the reduced
as. Finally, when the Romans first use the term nummus, it
means the silver sestertius (2^ asses), the one-fourth of the
denarius or ten-as piece, which weighed a scruple (i.e. IS^grs.)
at the time of the first Roman coinage of silver. Here
we have all our positive evidence for the nomos. As diobols
of 18 to 17 grs. are found in the coinages of various towns
in Magna Graecia, such as Arpi, Caelia, Canusium, Rubi,
and Teate, it has been plausibly held that such a diobol was
the nomos par excellence of these states, and that it was from
contact with them that the Romans learned both the use and
the name of such a monetary unit. But Rome may have been
influenced by her Etruscan neighbours, for, as we have seen,
the smallest denomination in the second silver series of
Etruscan coins (of which the coins weigh 129 grs., 32 grs. and
17 grs. respectively) is just the weight of the Roman sestertius,
and bears the symbol All (2-|), just as the latter bears IIS (2J).
Taking into consideration these facts, it looks as if the Romans
and Etruscans grafted on to a native system the diobol, or
current silver coin of Southern Italy, the Romans (and for all
we can tell the Etruscans likewise) adopting at the same
time the name nummus. Finally, we observe that this nummus
is identical with the Sicilian nomos, which in turn was found
to be none other than the Aeginetic obol. The Roman sester-
tius being a scriptulum (17^ grs.) in weight, we thus find a
direct connection between the latter and the Aeginetic obol
(16| grs.). This need not surprise us, for it is most natural that
in the welding of a weight system (partly foreign, and on
368 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
the native side only employed for gold and silver) and of a
system of measurement employed for bronze, certain features
derived from the special silver units in use would be introduced
into the new system, which afterwards became universal for
weighing all commodities. The term Sicilicus 1 employed for
the quarter-ounce is good evidence for this hypothesis. Its
name seems to mean simply Sicilian. In weight it was about
108grs. Now, didrachms struck on such a foot are found in
the Greek cities of south-western Italy, at Velia, Neapolis and
at Tarentum, after the time of Pyrrhus. Did the Romans, who
must have carried on by weight all dealings in silver up to
268 B.C., treat such coins as quarter-ounces, and ultimately take
the name of the coin (wrongly connecting it with Sicily) to
designate the quarter-ounce ? In like fashion it was probably
discovered that the Aeginetic obol of the Greek colonists was
about equal in weight to the line (scriptulum) which is one-
twenty-fourth of the inch (undo) of copper. Thus as there are
24 nomi in the Sicilian talent, so there are 24 scriptula in the
Roman uncia. These considerations help to explain the re-
lations which existed between the nomos (Aeginetic obol),
sestertius, and scruple.
Mr Soutzo 2 gives a very different account of the nomos.
Starting with the Egyptian hypothesis he makes all the
Italian weight systems of foreign origin. He thus makes the
Roman libra the -^ of a Roman talent, which he seems to
identify with a light Asiatic talent 3 . Starting with the talent
he supposes that on Italian soil it was divided into 100 librae
instead of 60 heavy or 120 light minae, as in the East.
Each of these librae or pounds was divided into 12 ounces,
and each ounce into 24 fractions. He holds likewise that the
Italians adopted from the East the use of bronze " comme
matiere premiere de leurs ^changes," at the same time as they
obtained the first germs of civilization and their first weight
1 Boeckh, Metrol. Unters. 160, takes the Sicilicus as originally the Silician
quadram in the Roman silver reckoning. Cf. Mommsen, Ulricas, i, 243.
Hultsch, Metrol. p. 145.
2 Etude des monnaies de V Italic antique. Premiere partie, pp. 8 and 16.
s Ibid. p. 29.
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM. 369
standards. The centumpondium or 100 weight therefore he
takes as his prime unit. But besides the talent and the mina
and the centumpondium and libra or as, according to Mr Soutzo,
" all the Italian peoples availed themselves of an intermediate
weight unit : this was the nomos or decussis 1 . This unit was the
libral nomos, the twelfth of the heavy talent, being worth ten
minae or librae, and the libral decussis, the tenth of the centum-
pondium, weighing 10 librae." The monetary nomos and decus-
sis, he thinks, played an important part in the history of Italian
coinage. He admits however that no specimen of either nomos
or decussis of libral standard is known, the heaviest being a
decussis of the Roman triental (one-third) standard, whilst the
pieces from Vermsia and Teanum Apulum marked N I and
N II (nomos and double nomos), representing 10 and 20 minas
respectively, belong to a still much more reduced standard.
The simple multiples of the as (libra) and litra, such as the
tripondim and dupondius, were just as rarely cast in the libral
epoch. The mina or the as with their fractions, on the
contrary, were the kinds most employed : originally the series
was ordinarily composed of the as (marked I or sometimes
), the semis (S), the triens ( ), the quadrans (. . .),
the sextans (. .), the uncia (.) and semuncia (2). In some series
the as is rare and the semis is wanting, but in addition to the
other denominations here given the quincunx (::) and the
dextans (S , 1 semis + 4 unciae) are found. The presence or
absence of these pieces characterizes certain Italian and Sicilian
monetary systems 2 . All the evidence virtually which can be
produced by Soutzo for this hypothetical nomos is -that at
Syracuse the Corinthian stater of 135grs. was called a deca-
litron, that the Tarentine didrachm of 128 grs. (max.) was
similarly divided into 10 litras, that the Romans employed the
tenfold of the as (decussis) and when they coined silver called
their silver unit a denarius as representing 10 copper asses,
and the fact that certain copper coins such as those of Arpi,
called nomi, were evidently regarded as containing 10 units, the
half being the quincunx. But, as we have already seen, the
real explanation of these coins seems to be that they represent
1 Ibid. p. 30. 2 Soutzo, ibid. p. 31.
E. 24
370 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
reduced asses. We must remember that the heaviest Roman
as yet known is only 11 ounces, whilst the great proportion of
the earliest specimens are only 10 imciae or (dextantals). When
the idea of a real copper currency for local purposes gained
ground, and it was found that it was not necessary to have the
as of account of full weight, and at the same time to enable the
state to make a profit of this copper currency which was solely
for home use (just as our Mint makes a large profit of our
silver coins), the first stage in reduction was to take off an
ounce, or much more frequently two full ounces. I have al-
ready pointed out the vitality and universality of the uncia
as an unit, and have given the reasons for this. Hence arose
asses or bars of 10 ounces. The number 10 had of course great
advantages, and presently, when further reductions in the
copper currency took place, certain communities clave fast to
the decimal system and, instead of taking off some more whole
ounces, simply reduced the ounce itself, and retained the
denomination, continuing to place the marks of value as before.
In those Hellenized states of Apulia just referred to this
reduced copper as or litra was the legal unit, and therefore
denominated a nomos, especially as it probably corresponded
in value (at least as money of account) to the silver unit or
nomos in circulation in each district. But whilst Mr Soutzo
seems wrong in his view of the nomos, there can be no doubt
that there was a consensus among the Sicilians and Italians in
favour of making an intermediate unit between 1 and 100, the
tenfold of the litra and as, into a higher unit. The Syracusan
decalitron and the Roman decussis and denarius are incontro-
vertible facts. For the latter at least a most interesting con-
nection with a unit of barter can be proved. We saw that by
the Lex Tarpeia (451 B.C.) a cow was counted at one hundred
asses (centussis, centumpondium) whilst a sheep was estimated
at 10 asses (decussis). The reader will observe that, even if
the theory were true that the Roman centumpondium is the
starting-point of the Roman weight system, and that it was
borrowed from the East, the cow all the same plays a most
important part in the founding of the system. It would be
another instance to prove the impossibility of framing a weight
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM. 371
standard independent of the unit of barter, just as we have
already seen that the Irish, when borrowing a ready-made
weight system from Rome, found it absolutely necessary to
equate the cow to the ounce of silver, and as Charlemagne
had to adjust the solidus by the value of the same animal. If
again the centiimpondium and as grew up independently as
weight units on Italian soil, and copper was weighed there
before gold, the cow is evidently the basis of the system; whilst
again, on my hypothesis that copper went by bulk in bars of
given dimensions, and was not weighed until long after the
scales had been employed for gold, the cow is directly connected
with that unit of weight (the gold ox-unit of 135 grs.) which
ultimately forms the basis of the uncia (as weight) and libra.
On every hypothesis alike the cow must be retained as the
chief factor in the origin of the Roman weight system. It
will be observed that Mr Soutzo offers no explanation why
the Romans, instead of retaining the sexagesimal division of
the talent which they are supposed to have imported, subdi-
vided it according to the decimal scale. It cannot be alleged
that they had any deep-rooted antipathy to the duodecimal
system, seeing that the as was divided into 12 unciae, and the
ounce into 24 scruples. The fact that the Romans resisted
in this respect the Greek influences, which were so potent a
factor in their civilization, is strong evidence that the em-
ployment of the tenfold and hundredfold of the as was of
immemorial native origin, and most intimately connected with
the animal units, which must certainly be held to be autoch-
thonous. As we found in Further Asia and Africa hoes or bars of
metal as the lowest unit of currency, so many hoes being worth
a kettle, so many kettles a buffalo, so in ancient Italy 10 bars
(asses) of copper made a sheep, and 10 sheep made a cow. It is
exceedingly probable that the same system prevailed among
the Sicels and Sicilian Greeks, 10 litras going to the sheep,
10 sheep to the cow. For we saw on an earlier page that at
Syracuse down to the time of Dionysius the cow remained the
unit of assessment, just as at the present moment the buffalo
is the unit of assessment among the villages of Annam ; and,
just as with the latter the buffalo is the unit of value, so we
242
372 THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
may well infer that with the Sicilians the cow played the same
r61e. It may therefore be assumed with considerable proba-
bility that the employment of the decalitron and decussis as
monetary units was originally due to their connection with the
value of the sheep.
As Soutzo has observed, the degradation of the local copper
series moved on most unequal lines, and no doubt in some
places the decussis did not represent perhaps one half the value
of its archetype, the sheep, whilst at the same moment the
copper unit in another community stood at almost its original
weight and value. Where silver was coined the degradation of
copper went on all the quicker; there was a tendency more
and more to get rid of the old cumbrous copper coins, and
to employ those of a lighter and more portable size. Moreover
the inter-relations between copper and silver made the coinages
in these metals act and react upon each other. Thus the state
after reducing the copper would reduce likewise the silver, so
as to make the two series correspond. This was probably
facilitated in some cases at least by the change in the relative
value of these metals. Italy was not a silver-producing region,
whilst it was rich in copper. Naturally with the increase of
commerce and the development of silver mines in neighbour-
ing countries such as Spain, silver became more abundant and
the price of copper rose accordingly. We have had occasion
already to remark that the abundance or scarcity of gold or
silver is indicated by its being employed or not for coinage.
In the case of gold we know that it is only when the supply of
that metal is in excess of its demand for purposes of ornament
that it is or can be employed in the form of coined money.
The history of the coinage of Persia, Lydia, Macedonia, Rhodes
and elsewhere in ancient times, as well as the history of
mediaeval gold coining, make this evident, whilst modern
Hindustan teaches us the same lesson. Of course in times of
great financial straits under the pressure of war a gold coinage
was sometimes issued, as perhaps at Athens 1 in 407 B.C. and as
1 If we take the Kaivbv K6n/j.a of Aristophanes (Ranae 720) to refer, as the
scholiast ad loc. asserts on the authority of Hellanicus and Philochorua, to a
gold issue in B.C. 407, which was much alloyed. As Mr Head says it is quite
THE ITALIAN SYSTEM.
at Rome during the second Punic war in 206 B.C. Backward-
ness in the coinage of silver among certeim peoples is probably
to be accounted for in the same way. The employment of iron
money at Sparta (and Byzantium) was probably due to the dearth
of precious metals rather than to any ordinance of Lycurgus
against the employment of the latter. If accordingly we find
that Rome did not coin silver until 268 B.C. we are justified in
concluding that it was from want of silver she had been so long
in following the example of the Etruscans and the Greeks.
It is certainly most significant that within four years after
the capture of Tarentum (272 B.C.) and the subjugation of all
Southern Italy we find her issuing a well-matured silver
currency. Doubtless by her conquests she obtained a vast
supply of the precious metal, for we know from the records
of Livy and Pliny that great masses of foreign coins and bullion
flowed into the treasury after every fresh conquest. We may
therefore reasonably assume that previous to 272 B.C. silver had
been much dearer in relation to copper.
But to return. We have seen that with the imprinting of
some device on the primitive bars of copper, the tendency to
reduce their weight would quickly evince itself. Accordingly
it was possible that in certain places when the coinage of silver
began, and there was still a desire to make the silver unit equal
to the copper, the latter having been already reduced, the silver
would be proportioned thereto. Thus when silver was first
coined in some towns in Sicily, the silver Aeginetic obol
of 16 J grs. was regarded as the equivalent of the copper litra,
but when Syracuse started a coinage of Corinthian staters, a
piece of silver of 1 3^ grs. was accounted as the litra.
But in other parts of Italy the process was somewhat
different. For we find the silver unit when once fixed remain-
ing the same in weight, but simply having its denomination
altered to meet the requirements of certain changes in the
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.
374 THE ROMAN SYSTEM.
bronze series. Thus the Etruscan silver staters of the period
prior to 350 B.C., whicji weigh 130 grs., are marked X, whilst
the coins of the same weight at a later epoch are marked XX,
showing that the copper unit had undergone a change. This
Soutzo thinks was simply a reduction from the triental to the
sextan tal foot, and in no wise due to any change in the relative
value of silver and copper. That however both influences may
have aided in the change will be made clear from the history of
the reduction of the Roman denarius and as in the second
Punic war. Finally when the Romans coined their first denarii
in 268 B.C., the libella or tenth of the denarius, which repre-
sented in silver the copper libra, was only 7 grs., an indubitable
proof that the as was but then a mere fraction of its former
self. Yet all the same it is clear that this silver denarius, which
represented a reduced decussis of bronze, had its ultimate
source in nothing else than the 10 libral asses which repre-
sented the value of a sheep. Are we not then justified in
suggesting that the Etruscan stater of 135 grs. marked X had
a like origin, that the 10 litra piece or noummos of Tarentum
of almost the same weight, and the Syracusan 10 litra piece
of 135 grs., had also a similar origin, whilst at an earlier period
10 Aeginetic obols (the nomi of the poems of Epicharmus and
Sophron) were the equivalent of the same animal ? Ten nomi
were the price of a calf in the time of Epicharmus, and as we
have seen already the value of a sheep and a young calf is
always about the same, even down to the present day.
Roman System.
Although it is not our concern to go into the history of
Roman money, it is nevertheless necessary to give the reader a
short sketch of its principal features in order to make the
history of the Roman weight standards intelligible.
First came oxen and sheep, which according to their age and
sex bore definite relations to each other, and by which all other
values were measured. From an early period (at least 1000 B.C.)
copper was in use, not yet however weighed, but estimated
THE ROMAN SYSTEM. :',7.",
by the bulk, as I have already described. Side by side with it
ingots of gold and silver passed from hand to hand. Such ingots
are mentioned by Varro under the name of bricks (later &?)*.
Though this mention refers to a later period, we can yet infer
from it with certainty that the practice of trafficking in small
ingots of gold and silver prevailed in Italy as elsewhere. With
gold came the art of weighing, which was also applied to silver.
We have given reasons for believing that the weight-unit
employed was the same as that which I have termed the ox-unit.
We found the Etruscans, the close neighbours of the Romans,
and who had access to the gold fields of Upper Italy, employing
this unit as their standard from the commencement of their
coinage in the 5th century for both gold and silver. Any of
the towns of Southern Italy which struck gold, such as Meta-
pontum, coined on the same standard, which was likewise
employed for silver, sometimes a little reduced, by many com-
munities, such as Tarentum. The standard ingot of gold would
bear a known relation to that of silver, to the bar of bronze,
the cow, and the sheep. We have given absolute proof of the
relation between cattle and bronze in the 5th cent. B.C., and we
may well infer similar constant relations between cattle and
bronze, and the other metals. With greater exactness in com-
mercial dealings the bronze rod was next weighed by the standard
already in use for gold, and it was found that each of the
12 parts or unciae into which it was divided weighed just three
times the ox-unit, that is, the weight of the small talent which
we have found likewise in Macedon, Sicily, and Lower Italy,
and which may have itself represented originally the con-
ventional value of a slave, which was three cows among the
Celts, the close kinsfolk of the Italians, and probably about
the same among the early Greeks. As soon as the rods or
asses were exchanged by weighing, they would quickly lose
their original form, which was only required so long as it was
necessary that they should be of certain fixed dimensions.
Under the new system it mattered not whether an as was
1 Varro ap. Non. p. 356 nam lateres argentei atque aurei primum couflati
atque in aerarium conditi. Lateres is used in this sense by Tacitus, Anna I a,
xvi. 1.
376 THE ROMAN SYSTEM.
8 inches long, and three inches thick, provided only it was of
full weight when placed in the scale. These are the pieces
which are known as aes rude; as yet they are mere lumps of
metal, without any stamp or device. Gaius well describes this
stage : " For this reason bronze and the balance are employed
(in mancipatio) because formerly they only employed bronze
coins, and there were bars (asses), double bars (dupondii), half-
bars (semisses) and quarters (quadrantes), nor was there any
gold or silver coin in use, as we can learn from a law of the
Twelve Tables, and the force and power of these coins depended
not on their number but on weight. For as there were bars
(asses) of a pound weight, there were also two pound bars
(dupondii), whence even still the term dupondius is used, as if
two in weight 1 . And the name is still retained in use." The
half-bars likewise and quarters were no doubt proportionately
adjusted to weight. It will be observed that the omission of
all mention of the decussis as a standard seems to throw
additional doubt on Mr Soutzo's hypothesis. The plain fact
is that a mass of bronze ten pounds in weight would have been
extremely cumbrous and unhandy for purposes of manufacture
into the implements of everyday life.
When and by whom a stamp was first placed on the bars,
it is of course impossible to say. Tradition however seems
unanimous in assigning it to the Regal period. Pliny's account
of the Roman coinage is as follows 2 : "King Servius first
stamped bronze. Timaeus hands down the tradition that afore-
time they employed it in a rough state at Rome. It was
stamped with the impressions of animals (nota pecudum),
whence it was termed pecunia. The highest rating in the
reign of that king (Servius) was 120,000 asses, and accordingly
this was the first class. Silver was struck A.u.c. 485 (B.C. 268)
in the Consulship of Q. Ogulnius and C. Fabius, five years
before the first Punic war, and it was enacted that the denarius
1 Gaius i. 122. This passage is unhappily corrupt. The Verona MS. runs
asses librales erant et dupondii unde etiam dupondius. As du^ond'ni* is
really a masculine adjective used as a noun, a masculine noun must be under-
stood, this can only be as. Dupondius then is simply a two-pound bur.
2 xxxin. 3. 13.
THE ROMAN SYSTKM. 377
should pass for ten pounds of bronze, the quinarius for five, and
the sestertius for two and a half. Now the libral weight was
reduced in the First Punic war, as the state could not stand the
expenditure, and it was appointed that asses of the weight of a
sextans (2 unciae) should be struck. Thus there was a gain of
five-sixths, and the debt was cleared off. The type of that
bronze coin was on the one side a double Janus, on the
other a ship's beak, whilst on the triens and quadrans there
was a ship. The quadrans was previously termed a teruncius
from tres unciae (three ounces). Afterwards under the pressure
of the Hannibalic wars in the dictatorship of Q. Fabius
Maximus, asses the weight of an ounce were coined, and it
was enacted that the denarius should be exchanged for sixteen
asses, the quinarius for eight, the sestertius for four ; thus the
state gained one half. Nevertheless in the soldiers' pay the
denarius was always given for ten asses. The types of the
silver were bigae and quadrigae (two-horse and four-horse
chariots), hence they were termed bigati and quadrigati 1 . By
FIG. 56. Komano-Campanian Coin.
and by in accordance with the Papirian law half-ounce asses
were struck. Livius Drusus when tribune of the Plebs alloyed
the silver with an eighth part of bronze. The Victoriatus
FIG. 57. Victoriatus.
1 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 Ugati as the oldest issue instead of the coins with the
Dioscuri (Fig. 54). The biga came next, after it the genuine Roman quadriga.
378 THE ROMAN SYSTEM.
was struck in accordance with a law of Clodius, for previously
this coin brought from Illyria was treated as merchandize.
It was stamped with a Victory and hence its name. The
gold piece was struck sixty-two years after the silver on such
a standard that a scruple was worth twenty sesterces, and
this on the scale of the then value of the sesterce made 900
go to the pound. Afterwards it was enacted that 1040 should
be coined from gold pounds, and gradually the emperors reduced
the weight, most recently Nero reduced it to 45."
This statement of Pliny is supported in various details by
several disjointed passages of Varro and Festus. Thus the
former says that " the most ancient bronze which was cast was
marked with an animal (pecore notatum) 1 , and elsewhere he says
that the ancient money has as its device either an ox, or a sheep,
or a swine 2 ," a statement repeated by Plutarch and other later
writers. Festus (s. v. grave aes) says " aes grave was so called
from its weight because ten asses, each a pound in weight, made
a denarius, which was so named from the very number (i.e. deni).
But in the Punic war, the Roman people being burdened with
debt, made out of every as which weighed a pound (ex singulis
assibus librariis) six asses, which were to have the same value
as the former." We have also a statement in the fragment of
Festus (4, p. 347, Mtiller) that afterwards the asses in the
sestertius were increased (i.e. to 4 from 2|), and that with the
ancients the denarii were of ten asses, and were worth a
deciissis, and that the amount of bronze (in the denarius) was
reckoned at xvi asses by the Lex Flaminia when the Roman
people were put to straits by Hannibal 3 . Again, Festus says :
" Asses of the weight of a sextans (two ounces) began to be in
use from that time, when on account of the Second Punic war
which was waged with Hannibal, the Senate decreed that out
of the asses which were then libral (a pound in weight)
1 Varro, R. R. n. 1. 9.
2 Varro ap. Non. p. 189 out bovem aut ovem aut vervecein habet signum. Pro-
bably uerrem, not ueruecem, is the true reading, since Plutarch says that the coins
were marked with an ox, a sheep or a swine (ftovv tirexdpa-TTov rj irpb^arov -f) vt>).
Popl. 11.
a Festus fragm. p. 347 Miiller s.v. Sextantari asses.
THE JttOMAN SYSTEM. 379
should be made those of a sextans in weight, by means of which
when payments began to be made, both the Roman people
would be freed from debt, and private persons, to whom a debt
had to be paid by the state, would not suffer much loss 1 ."
FIG. 58. Sextans (Aes Grave).
(The two globules mark the value.)
Varro likewise is worth hearing: "In the case of silver the term
nummi is used : that is borrowed from the Sicilians. Denarii
(were so named) because they were worth ten (coins) of bronze
each, quinarii because they were worth five each, sestertius, be-
cause a half was added to two (for the ancient sestertius was
a dupondius and a semis). The tenth part of a denarius
nummus is a libella, because it was worth a libra of bronze in
weight, and being made of silver was small. The sembella
is half the libella, just as the semis is of the as. Terun-
cius is from ires unciae ; as this is the fourth part of the
libella so the quadrans is the fourth part of the as."
As so much difficulty and controversy surround the various
questions connected with the beginnings of Roman currency, I
have thought it best to give at full length the scanty data afford-
ed by the ancient authorities. Let us now state the principal
facts revealed by those extracts. (1) The Romans in the Regal
epoch employed aes rude, but according to the testimony
of Timaeus (an Italian Greek historian who wrote about B.C.
300), they had already before the days of the Republic
stamped bronze with figures of cattle. (2) Silver was first
coined five years before the beginning of the First Punic war :
(3) Some time during that war the as was reduced from a
pound to two ounces ; (4) In the Second Punic war under
like circumstances the as was reduced from two ounces to one
ounce ; (5) The denarius when first struck represented ten
1 v. 173 Miiller.
380 THE ROMAN SYSTEM.
libra! asses, or a decussis ; (6) In the Second Punic war when
the as was reduced, the denarius was ordered to pass for 16
instead of 10 asses; (7) In spite of this reduction, the denarius
continued to be regarded as containing only 10 asses when
employed in paying the soldiers.
Considerable numbers of asses and the parts of asses have
come down to us, many of them bearing marks of value as before
described. There is undoubted evidence of a constant reduction
of the as. The question arises, did the reduction take place
per saltum or by a gradual process ? Mommsen thinks that the
as continued to be of libral weight until shortly before 264 B.C.
and that it was then without any intermediate steps reduced to
the triens (4 ounces). Mr Soutzo on the other hand maintains
with vigour that from 338 B.C., the date at which he fixes the
first coinage of asses at Rome, to 264 B.C., the degradation was a
gradual process, and he arraigns Mommsen on a charge of disre-
garding the ancient authorities, who state, as we have seen, that
the change was from libral to sextantal asses. Mr Soutzo is thus
compelled to state that all the asses within that period (338
264 B.C.) although they have a range from almost full libral
weight to only 3 ounces were treated as libral asses. Now this of
course is a very reasonable hypothesis on the principle which I
have adopted that bronze money was in fact merely token cur-
rency, used only for local circulation and not for extraneous trade.
But Mr Soutzo is precluded from adopting such a position unless
he gives up the basis of his whole work. He has laid down that
the bronze money was not a mere conventional currency, but
always was actual value for the amount which it represented.
On this assumption he obtains his relation of 1 : 120 between
copper and silver. Assuming that the sextantal reduction was
contemporaneous with the issue of the first denarius (which is
in direct defiance of the historians), he found that the denarius
of 70 grs. = 2 ounces (840 grs.) of bronze ; therefore silver was
to bronze as 120 : 1. Again, when the financial crisis took place
during the Second Punic war and the denarius was reduced (as
we learn from the actual coin weights) to 62 grs., and it was made
to pass for 16 asses instead of 10 asses, he finds that since 62 grs.
of silver = 16 asses of 432 grs. (unciae) silver was to bronze as
THE ROMAN SYSTEM. 381
112 : 1. But in the latter case he omits to explain why it was
that the denarius in paying the troops only counted for ten asses.
It is evident that if the relation between copper and silver was
really as 1 : 112, there could have been no need for making this
difference. But as the soldiers were serving outside Rome, and
Roman local token currency would not be taken in payment, it
was necessary to pay them according to the market value of
bronze. At Rome the denarius was made to pass for 16 asses, or
three-fifths more than its actual value. It appears therefore
that the data given us by Pliny are not sufficient to allow us to
come to any definite conclusion as regards the relative value of
silver and bronze at that time. Moreover there is no evidence
to show that the denarius was reduced from 70 grs. to 62 grs.
by the Lex Flaminia. It is on the whole more likely that this
reduction took place when the first gold coinage was issued (62
years after the first silver) in 206 B.C., since there was every
inducement to make such a change in the silver as would admit
of a convenient relation 'between the gold scruple and 20
sestertii. This again raises just doubts as regards the accuracy
of Mr Soutzo's calculation. With reference to the reduction of
the as to the sextantal standard we have seen that the truth of
his deductions rests entirely on the assumption that the degrada-
tion took place before the First Punic war at the same time as
the issue of the first silver coinage. This of course is directly
contradicted by the historians. But even granting that it was
correct, it is difficult to see why we should assume that the
Roman as, which according to Soutzo's own principles had been
nothing more than a token, should suddenly have been treated
as though it really was of the actual value which it represented.
There was no reason why, even though the unit of account was
the sextantal as, the as should have been anything else than a
token in its relation to the silver currency: certainly it is
strange that, if the Romans after treating the as as a token down
to 268 B.C. then suddenly gave it its full monetary value, they
did not continue to carry out their new principle. For as a
matter of fact there are very great differences in the weight of the
sextantal asses, and after the reduction to the uncial standard,
the same process of degradation went on without ceasing, as
382 THE ROMAN SYSTEM.
Soutzo himself has shown 1 . All these facts point to the con-
clusion that the bronze coinage at Rome was only a local
token currency, such as is our own silver and bronze series at
the present day.
Let us now see if we can give a consistent explanation of the
statements of the ancient writers which I have quoted above.
Acs rude or bronze in an unstamped or unmanufactured state
was originally in use at Rome, according to Timaeus. This
period corresponds to that time when, as I have endeavoured to
show, asses or bars of given dimensions intended to be made
into articles for use or ornament passed from hand to hand, as
do the brass rods mentioned above at the present moment in
the Congo region of Africa. Then came the stamping of the
asses towards the close of the regal period (according to
Timaeus), when figures of animals were placed thereon. We
have seen above (p. 354) that such figures are actually found on
certain rough quadrilateral pieces of bronze found in some parts
of central Italy. With the use of weight instead of measure
for appraising their value, the shape of the asses would become
modified, getting shorter and thicker. Finally, they assume
the round shape of ordinary coins, and bear certain well-defined
symbols on both sides, such as the Janus head and Rostrum on
the as, that of Mercury on the sextans. But as few of these
round asses are found to weigh more than 10 unciae, it would
seem that the process of degradation had already set in before
their issue. Gold and silver at the same epoch passed by
weight either after the ancient fashion in ingots, or as the
coined money of the Greek cities of the South or of the
Etruscans. The unit of account continues to be the as of
full weight. Thus all penalties due to the state would be paid
not in reduced asses of only 5 or 4 ounces, but in full libral
asses as weighed in the balance. On the other hand although
reduced asses were used by the state in paying debts to private
individuals, they were only received as tokens, and no doubt the
state was bound if called upon to pay a full pound of bronze for
1 Deux. Partie p. 41. " Le poids normal de 1'as oncial est de 27 gr. 25, mais
il alia en s'affaiblissant progressivement du commencement a la fin de la
periode, "
THE ROMAN SYSTEM. 388
every stamped reduced as presented to it, but in ordinary times
this made no practical difference, for the bronze currency was
purely local all over Italy and Sicily, as we have seen above.
It was far too cumbrous to be used as a medium of international
trade.
When the Romans after defeating Pyrrhus and taking
Tarentum had reduced all Southern Italy and hence obtained
great quantities of silver, they proceeded five years before the
beginning of the First Punic war to issue silver denarii or
ten as pieces. Are these pieces real representatives of the as
of account, or do they rather simply represent the value of the
then normal as of currency, which was probably not more than
a triens or four ounces or perhaps not more than a quadrans or
three ounces ? The latter is the more likely hypothesis. They
had been long accustomed to a bronze token currency, and it
was most likely that the new silver currency would be adapted
to it. It is then likely that the denarius equalled ten asses of
at least 3 ounces each, in which case silver was to bronze as
180 : 1. In transactions inside the state the balance would
be commonly, and in dealing with strangers invariably,
employed in all monetary transactions, ancient states being
very jealous of alien mintages. This is exemplified by Pliny's
statement that the Victoriates brought from Illyria were treated
simply as merchandize. Then came the First Punic war, which
lasted for two-and-twenty weary years, during which the
resources of the Republic were almost drained dry. The state
became virtually a bankrupt arid simply paid in modern
phraseology 3s. 4d. in the pound. It was effected thus : up
to the present the as of full weight was the unit of account,
although the coined asses had by this time come to be simply
tokens of about 2 ounces each. The state accordingly enacted
that the as of currency should become the unit of account, and
paid the state debt by these coins, and at the same time made
it legal for private individuals, who were bound under the old
order of things to pay their debts in libral asses, to discharge
their obligations by sextantal asses. Thus Pliny is perfectly
right in saying that the state made a profit of five-sixths. The
influx of silver after the conquest of Southern Italy and the
384 THE ROMAN SYSTEM.
requirements of large quantities of bronze for the building
of fleet after fleet, and for military equipment, may have
very well tended to appreciate the value of bronze at this
period. As the reduction in the size of the as continued,
though the unit of account was two ounces, under the pressure
of the Second Punic war they repeated the same process. The as
was now not more than an ounce, so they decreed that the as
of currency should again be the as of account, and the state
thus gained a half, this time paying ten shillings in the pound.
The ounce and libra had been long well defined at Rome
before the silver coinage first appeared, and whilst we saw that
the sextula or one-sixth of the uncia was the lowest weight
employed for bronze, the fourth part of this weight, the
scriptulum, had been regularly employed in weighing silver
and gold ; as we have seen it owed its origin to the fact that
the Aeginetan silver obol was found to be about the weight of
the 24th part of an uncia or inch of bronze. The first denarii
were the weight of a sextula or 4 scriptula (70 grs.) of the older
weight. The scriptulum and sestertius were thus identical,
and hence in later days the unit of account was the sestertius
and not the as. Accordingly when the gold coinage of 206 B.C.
was issued, it was based on the scruple, and consisted of pieces
of 1, 2, and 3 scruples.
We have now traced the origin of Roman currency suffici-
ently for the purposes of this work. After various fluctuations
in the weight of the gold pieces under Sulla, Pompey, Julius
Caesar and others, Constantine the Great finally fixed the
Fm. 59. Gold Solidus of Julian II. (the Apostate).
weight of the aureus or solidus at 4 scruples in 312 A.D., and
so it remained until the final downfall of the Empire of the
East in 1453. From this famous coin the various mintages of
THE ROMAN SYSTEM. 385
mediaeval and consequently of modern Europe may be said to
trace their pedigrees. The solidus was divided into thirds
or tremisses, for the scrupular system had been abandoned, the
solidus being regarded simply as a sextula or one-sixth of the
uncia, and not as a multiple of the scruple. The tremissis
FIG. 60. Gold Tremissis of Leo I.
therefore weighed 24 grs. Troy, or 32 wheat grains. When the
barbarian conquerors of the Roman Empire began to coin
silver they took as their model the gold tremissis. In the
earliest stage of the Anglo-Saxon mintage we find so-called
gold pennies of 24 grs. occasionally appearing. These are
nothing else than tremisses. But silver henceforward was to
form for centuries the staple currency of Western Europe, and
the silver penny of 24 grs. (whence comes our own penny-
weight) became virtually the unit of account. As its weight
shows, the penny was based on the gold tremissis.
The first regular coinage of gold in Western Europe began
with the famous gold pieces of Florence in the beginning of the
14th century. These weighed 48 grs. or 2 tremisses. From their
place of mintage the name florin (fiorino) became a generic term
for gold coins. Accordingly when Edward III. issued his first
gold coins of 108 grs. each, although differing so completely
in weight from their prototype, they too were called florins.
In reality however Edward's coin was 1^ solidus (72 + 36).
The first attempt did not prove satisfactory, and with the issue
of the famous noble, first of 136 J grs., and afterwards of 129 grs.,
the series of English gold coins may be said to begin, of which
the latest stage is the sovereign of 120J grs. Troy.
I have already explained at an earlier stage the origin of
the Troy grain ; before we end let me add a word on the origin
of the Troy ounce. The Troy pound like the Roman has
12 ounces, but whereas the Roman ounce had 432 grs. Troy or
R. 25
386 THE ROMAN SYSTEM.
576 grs. wheat, the Troy ounce has 480 grs. Troy or 640 grs.
wheat. How came this augmentation of the ounce ?
It is in Apothecaries' weight that we find the key. This
standard runs thus
20 grs. = 1 scruple,
3 scruples = 1 drachm,
8 drachms = 1 ounce,
12 ounces = 1 pound.
Now note that there are 24 scruples in the ounce, and
288 scruples in the pound, exactly as in the Roman system.
But there is an element foreign to the old Roman system as
seen in the drachm of 60 grs. Now Galen and the medical
writers of the Empire used the post-Neronian denarius of 60 grs.
as a medicine weight. What more convenient weight unit
could be employed than the most common coin in circulation ?
The drachma and denarius had long since been used synonym-
ously in common parlance. But as there were 18 grs. (Troy,
24 wheat grs.) in the old scruple, and there were 60 grs. in the
drachm or denarius, they were not commensurable, and accord-
ingly to obviate this difficulty the physicians for practical
purposes raised the scruple to 20 grs., in order that it might
be one-third of the drachm. The number of scruples in the
ounce remaining 24 as before, the ounce became augmented by
48 grs. (24 x 2) and accordingly rose to 480 grs. We saw
above that the Troy grain is the barley-corn. Why is the
latter so closely connected with ' Troy weight ' ? When the
scruple was raised from 18 grs. Troy, 24 grs. of wheat, to
20 grs. Troy, it no longer contained an even number of wheat
grains, for the new scruple contained 26f grs. wheat. As this
was inconvenient, and on the other hand the new scruple
weighed exactly 20 barley-corns, the latter henceforth became
the lowest unit of this system.
CONCLUSION. 387
Conclusion.
It now simply remains to sum up the results of our enquiry.
Starting with the Homeric Poems we found that although
certain pieces of gold called talents were in circulation among
the early Greeks, yet all values were still expressed in terms of
cows. We then found that the gold talent was nothing else
than the equivalent of the cow, the older unit of barter, and we
found that the talent was the same unit as that known in
historical times under the names of Euboic stater or Attic
stater, and commonly described by metrologists as the light
Babylonian shekel. Our next stage was to enquire into the
systems of currency used by primitive peoples in both ancient
and modern times, and everywhere alike we found systems
closely analogous to that depicted in the Homeric Poems, and
we found that in the regions of Asia, Europe and Africa, where
the system of weight standards which has given birth to all
the systems of modern Europe had its origin, the cow was
universally the chief unit of barter. Furthermore gold was
distributed with great impartiality over the same area, and
known and employed for purposes of decoration from an early
period by the various races which inhabited it. We then
found that practically all over that area there was but one unit
for gold, and that unit was the same weight as the Homeric
Talanton. Next we proved that gold was the first object for
which mankind employed the art of weighing, and we then
found that over the area in question there was strong evidence
to show that everywhere from India to the shores of the Atlantic
the cow originally had the same value as the universally
distributed gold unit.
From this we drew the conclusion that the gold unit, which
was certainly later in date than the employment of the cow as
a unit of value, was based on the latter ; and finally we showed
that man everywhere made his earliest essays in weighing
by means of the seeds of plants, which nature had placed ready
to his hand as counters and as weights. Then we surveyed the
theories which derive all weight standards from the scientific
252
388 CONCLUSION.
investigations of the Chaldeans or Egyptians, and having found
that they were directly in contradiction to the facts of both
ancient history and modern researches into the systems of
primitive peoples, we concluded that the theories of Boeckh
and his school must be abandoned.
Next we proceeded to explain the development of the
various systems of antiquity from our ox-unit, taking in turn
the Egyptian, Assyrio-Babylonian, Hebrew, Lydian, Greek and
Italian. New explanations of the origin of the Talent and
Mina and also of the earlier types on Greek coins and of the
varieties of standard employed for silver by the Greeks were
offered, and finally in dealing with the systems of Sicily and
Italy arguments were advanced to show that the Roman as was
originally nothing more than a rod or bar of copper of definite
measurements, and was in weight and method of division the
same as the Sicilian Litra and the Greek Obol.
In how far the propositions here put forward have been
proved, it must remain for others to decide.
3&eo, ^ax Fibts,
jWortuts.
APPENDIX A.
THE HOMERIC TRIAL SCENE.
Retro 5' ap iv pAffffouri dva) %/3V(roto
T^; 56/xev, 6s ^uera, roiffi diKyv ldiJi>Ta.Ta etiroi.
II. xvni. 5078.
I WOULD not return to so well-worn a theme, were it not that
editors like Dr Leaf (ad loc.) still state that there is nothing in the
language of the last line to hinder us from taking it either of the
litigant or of the judge.
Scholars have fixed their attention so closely on the words
etTTot that they have completely overlooked the qualifying
In modern courts of law we do not expect to hear the straightesl
statement of a case from advocates, but rather from the judge.
The ancient Greek would never dream of expecting a litigant to
give a straight statement of his case. The following passages will
show that iOvs, Wvveiv, tvOvvcw, op#os are always applied to a judge
(the converse o-KoXto's being used of unjust judges). The metaphor
is from the carpenter's rule (cf. eVt oratf/w^ I0vvf.iv Od. v. 245).
Find. Pyth. IV. 152 KCU 0po'vos, <5 Trore yKa0icoy Kpr/tfet'Sas tTTTrorats
vOvv Xaots Si/cas.
Solon 3. 36 ev^vvwv (TKoXtas Sue as.
II. XVI. 387 ot (Sir} eiv ayopfj (TKoXtas Kpfvwrt
Hesiod Opp. 221 a-KoXt-gs 8e SIK^S /cptVwcrt
Hes. Opp. 222 (AiK-^) KOLKOV dvOpw7roi<ri <epou(ra
ot re JAW ^Xao-a)(rt /cat OVK t^etav evei^iav.
Arist. Rhet. I. 1 ov yap Set rov SLKa&rrjv 8tacrTpe^)tv cts
Trpoayovras 17 <j)06vov rj eXcov O/JLOLOV yap KUV ct ris, w /xeXXet
Kavovi, rovrov Trot^crcte (rrpe/JXov.
Find. P^/^A. XI. 15 op0o8tKav yas
Aesch. Persae 764 evOvvrrjpLov
390 APPENDIX A.
No one can then doubt that the words BLKYJV WVVTO.TCL euroi can
only refer to the judge.
The following account of a trial on the Gold Coast so well
illustrates the principle of payment having to be made to the judges
that I think it worth quoting. (Eighteen years on the Gold Coast of
Africa, by Brodie Crookshank, Vol. i. p. 279, London, 1853.)
" When the day arrived for the hearing of Quansah's charge, a
large space was cleanly swept in the market-place for the accommo-
dation of the assembly ; for this a charge of ten shillings was made
and paid. When the Pynins (elders) had taken their seats, sur-
rounded by their followers, who squatted upon the ground, a
consultation took place as to the amount which they ought to
charge for the occupation of their valuable time, and after duly
considering the plaintiff's means, with the view of extracting from
him as much as they could, they valued their intended services
at .6. 15s., which he was in like manner called upon to pay.
Another charge of ,2. 5s. was made in the name of tribute to the
chief, and as an acknowledgment of gratitude for his presence upon
the occasion. ,1. 10s. was then ordered to be paid to purchase rum
for the judges, <! for the gratifi cation of the followers, ten shillings
to the men who took the trouble to weigh out the different sums,
and five shillings for the court criers. Thus Quansah had to pay
,12. 15s. to bring his case before this august court, the members of
which during the trial carried on a pleasant course of rum and palm
wine."
APPENDIX B.
WHAT WAS THE UNIT OF ASSESSMENT IN THE CONSTITUTION
OF SERVIUS TULLIUS?
TH. MOMMSEN in his Roman History (i. 95 96 English Trans.)
has laid down that land was the basis of assessment, on the
analogy of the Teutonic hide. He makes the members of the
First Class those who held a whole hide ; and the remaining four
classes were made up of those who held proportionally smaller
freeholds. When Mommsen has once spoken, it is presumptuous
to raise doubts. If however it can be shown that the Italians
rather based their assessments on cattle, and that furthermore the
statements of the later historians point to an original rating which
harmonizes well with such an original condition, it may have
been worth while to start enquiry once again in a case where
the data are so scanty and obscure.
Pliny H. N. xxxm. 3. 13. Maximus census cxx. assium
f uit illo rege, ideo haec prima classis. This is confirmed by Festus
(s.v. infra censum, p. 113 Miiller) infra classem significantur qui
minore summa quam centum et viginti millia aeris censi sunt.
Livy i. 42 says the rating of the prima classis was Centum
millia aeris, of the secunda classis was infra centum assium ad
quinque et septuaginta millia. Tertia classis quinquaginta millia,
Quarta classis, quinque et viginti millia. Quinta classis, undecim
millia.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (iv. 16 17) puts the rating of the
1st class at 100 minae (of silver) or 10,000 drachms; of the 2nd at
75 minae, of the 3rd at 50 minae, of the 4th at 25 minae, and that
of the 5th at 12 minae.
All are agreed that it is absolutely incredible that the original
rating of the first class was 120,000 libral asses of bronze. The
392 APPENDIX B.
cow was worth 100 libral asses at Rome in 451 B.C. Therefore the
rating of 120,000 asses would have been equivalent to 1200 cows.
It is impossible to believe that there could have been a numerous
body of men in early Rome possessed of such vast capital. Boeckh's
explanation is that with the reduction of the as from its original
weight of a libra to two ounces, and one ounce, there was a
corresponding raising of the amount of the rating of the several
Mommsen on the other hand thinks that the rating was
originally on land, and that the change in the method of rating
from land to bronze took place at a time when land had greatly
risen in value, and that accordingly 120,000 asses of the First Class
are libral asses. Such a change as Mommsen supposes must have
taken place before 260 241 B.C., for the as was reduced to two
ounces during the first Punic War. Yet we cannot easily suggest
any period before that date when there was likely to have been so
great a rise in the value of land, as is necessary to account for
the large rating of 120,000 asses, which according to Mommsen's
reckoning would be worth about 400 Ibs. of silver (or according to
Soutzo 1000 Ibs. of silver).
Boeckh's hypothesis seems to fit better the conditions of the
problem. Much of the importance of the rating of the various
classes passed away when Marius (104 B.C.) changed the whole
military system and chose the troops from the Capite censi, as well
as from the five property classes.
The as had been reduced to a single uncia in the 2nd Punic
War (cf. p. 377). Thus 12 asses of the uncial standard were
required to make up the weight of the old libral as. Accordingly
120,000 asses of the 2nd century B.C. would be equal to 10,000
libral asses of the earlier days. But as by the Lex Tarpeia 100
asses is the value of a cow, 10,000 libral asses =100 cows. This
would be by no means an unlikely number of cows, to form the
minimum of the wealthiest class of a pastoral community. There
is another curious piece of evidence which seems to confirm my
hypothesis. One of the provisions of the Licinian Rogations
(367 B.C.) was that no one should hold more than 500 jugera of the
Public Land, or should be allowed to feed more than one hundred
large cattle or 500 small cattle on public pastures. [j,r]8eva ex etv
Trj<rBf r?7S ytys irXiQpa. TrcvTaKOOuW TrAeiWa, /utrySe Trpo/^arcveu/ SKCLTOV
to) rd /Aiova /cat TrevraKoaitov rd eAaertrova. Appian, Bell. Civ. I. 8.
APPENDIX B. 393
If 100 large cattle were the number which qualified a Roman for
the first class, there was every reason why Licinius and Sextus
should have taken 100 as the maximum number of cows which a
citizen could keep on the public pastures.
Next I shall show that the method of rating by cattle and
not by land was that actually practised in Sicily. That island
stood in such close relations to the Italian Peninsula both geo-
graphically and ethnologically that we may reasonably infer that
the method of rating in use there was also in use in Italy.
Now we learn from Aristotle's Oeconomica (u. 21) that when
the tyrant Dionysius oppressed the Syracusans with excessive
exactions, they ceased to keep cattle :
Ton/ Sc TroXiTwv 8ta ras eiox^o/oas ov Tpe<f>6vTiov /^cKT/o^aTa, ciTrfv on
LKava rfv aura) Trpos TOCTOVTOV' rovs ovv vvv Krrjcrafjitvovs arcXcis fo-or$ai,
TToXXwi/ Se ra\v Krf](ra^v^v TroXXa ^oo-K^/xara, cos drtXr) e^oWwv, evret
OJCTO KcupoV cu/cu, TLjji-^a'acrOaL /ceXevo-as 7re/?aXe reXos, K.r.X.
If the citizens of Syracuse, a great Greek trading city, were still
rated in cattle in the time of Dionysius (405 367 B.C.), ct, fortiori
we may expect the same primitive method of assessment to prevail
among the pastoral peoples of Central Italy in the 6th and 5th
centuries B.C.
Among the Kelts, the close kinsfolk of the Italians, the same
system probably prevailed. Thus in the ancient Irish laws, where
the various classes of freemen are described, there are a number of
them called Bo-aires l , cow-freemen.
As modern research has shown that everywhere among the
Aryans land was originally held in common, and that separate
property in land sprung up only at a comparatively late period, we
may with some confidence infer that in Italy likewise in early days a
man's wealth was reckoned in his cattle, and not in lands, such as I
have shown to have been the practice among the Greeks of the
' Homeric times ' (' The Homeric Land System,' Journal of Hellenic
Studies, 1885).
1 Ancient Laics of Ireland, Vol. i. p. 61. O'Curry, Manners and Customs of
the Ancient Irish, Vol. i. pp. 100 seq.
APPENDIX C.
KELTIC AND SCANDINAVIAN WEIGHT SYSTEMS.
IT is always dangerous to deal with things Keltic. So much
difficulty is there in getting at any facts amidst masses of wild
assertions and loose conclusions, that a prudent man may well shrink
back. However, as it is worth while to give some facts respecting
the actual weights of gold rings and other ornaments, I have thought
it best to print the following pages.
Attempts have long ago been made to find the standard of the
so-called ring money. Sir William Betham, followed by John Lind-
say 1 , after weighing many examples, arrived at the conclusion that
they are based on the ounce Troy. Now as the ounce Troy is
entirely unknown to the Brehon Laws, and was only brought into
Ireland by the English settlers, it is needless to argue further
against that doctrine. Dr Petrie's 2 discussions about Irish coins are
similarly vitiated by his treating as Troy grains the grains of wheat
mentioned by the authorities.
1. Irish. Let us work back from the known to the unknown.
The system in the Brehon Laws is as follows :
1 Cumhal (ancilla) = 3 Cows.
1 Cow = 1 Unga (uncia of silver).
1 Unga = 24 Screapalls.
1 Screapall = 3 Pinginns.
1 Pinginn = 8 grs. of wheat.
Unga= 576 grs. of wheat.
1 Survey of the Coinage of Ireland, p. 3.
2 Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, p. 213 seqq.
APPENDIX C.
305
The ounce seems to be the highest unit of weight, and just as in
the Brehon Laws an unga of silver is equated to a cow, so in early
times an unga of gold seems to have been the regular value of a
slave, the most valuable of living chattels. At least we may so infer
from a curious story of St Finnian of Clonard :
LIFE OF ST FINNIAN (OF CLONARD, Co. MEATH).
(Booii or LISMOEE, fol. 24 b, c.)
Tainic iar sin Finnen cu Cilldara co
Brighit, cu rn-bui ic tiachtuin leiginn
ocus proicepta fri re. Ceilebrais iar sin
do Brigit ocus dobreth Brighit fainne
oir dho. Nir 'bho santach som imon
saegul : ni roghabh in fainne. " Ce no
optha," ar Brigit, "roricfea a leas."
Tainic Finnen iar sin cu Fotharta Air-
brech. Dorala uisce do. Eoinnail a
lamha asin usci 1 : tuc lais for a bhais
asan uisci in fainne targaidh Brighit
do.
Tainic iar sin Caisin, mac Naemain,
co faelti moir fri Finden. Ocus cone-
adhbair fein do ocus roacain fris ro
Fotharta ic cuinghidh oir fair ar a
shaeire. " Cia met," ar Finnen, ' ' con-
aidheas ? " " Noghebhudh uingi n-oir,"
ar Caisin. Eothomthuis se iar sin in
fainne [ocus frith uingi oir 2 ] ann.
Dorat Caisin hi ar a shaeriri.
1 Folio 24 c.
2 The bracketed words are interlined in a
recent hand; but the final word shows that
they were a portion of the text.
TEANSLATION.
"After that came Finnian to Kildare
to Brigit and he was engaged in teach-
ing and preaching for a time. He
takes leave afterwards of Brigit and
Brigit gave a ring of gold to him. He
was not covetous regarding the world :
he accepted not the ring. " Though
thou refusest," said Brigit, " thou wilt
require it." Finnian came after that to
Fotharta Airbrech 3 . [On his way] he
met water. He washed his hands with
the water [and] brought on his palm
from out the water the ring that Brigit
offered to him.
After that came Caisin, son of Nae-
man, with great joy to [visit] Finnian.
And he offered himself to him and
complained to him that the king of
Fotharta was demanding gold from
him for his liberation. " How much,"
said Finnian, "asketh he?" "He
would accept an ounce of gold," said
Caisin. He [Finnian] weighed after
that the ring (and there was found an
ounce of gold 4 ) in it. Caisin gave it
for his liberation."
3 Near Croghan Hill, in the north of King's Co.
* See note on Irish text.
I am indebted for this valuable reference, which also enables us
to form an idea of the relative value of gold and silver in early Ire-
land, to the Rev. B. Mac Carthy, D.D., of Youghal.
But there is another weight called crosoch (crosog or crosach),
found in the most ancient poems. For instance in Cuchulaind the
396 APPENDIX C.
brooch of Queen Medbh, "My spear brooch of gold which weighs
thirty ungas, and thirty half ungas, and thirty crossachs and thirty
quarter [crossachs]." (O'Curry, Manners and Customs, Vol. HI. p.
102.) The weight of a crosoch we learn from a gloss quoted by
O'Donovan (Supplement to O'Reilly's Dictionary) from MS. R. I. A.,
No. 35, 5. 49.
da pinginn agas cetrime pinginne isin lacht caerach i, crosog 1 .
" Two pinginns and a fourth of a pinginn are a milk of a sheep,
i.e. a crosog." Since 1 pinginn = 8 grs. wheat therefore a crosog =
18 grs. wheat or 13 '5 grs. Troy.
There are accordingly 32 crosochs in the unga of the Brehon
Laws.
Inspection at once shows that the crosoch must have belonged to
a different system, on which either the system of ungas and screa-
palls was grafted or vice versa. The expulsion of the crosoch from
the later Irish shows that the first alternative is the true one.
Again, it is certain that the unga and screapall were borrowed
from the Roman system, probably before the time of Constantino,
as after his time the solidus became universal throughout the Empire,
and has left its impress everywhere.
The crosoch therefore must be non-Roman, i.e. belong to the
native population.
Above we saw that it was used along with ungas and half ungas
in describing Medbh's Fibula. Here is historical evidence of its use
in the weighing of gold ornaments.
There were certainly 32 crosochs in the ounce of the Brehon
Laws, but if we can show in another system of north-western
Europe a weight exactly the same as the crosoch, with an ounce
which is its thirty-fold, we may hesitate to lay down that the full
Roman ounce with its 432 grs. Troy (576 grs. wheat) was the
earliest form of Irish unga.
There is no mention of screapalls in the weight of Medbh's
brooch. It is quite possible that under ecclesiastical influences the
full Roman ounce and its division into screapalls may have been
introduced at a comparatively late period. The contact between
Kelts and Scandinavians in early times has of late excited much
interest.
1 O'Donovan has omitted caerach of the MS.
APPENDIX C.
2. Let us now turn to the old Norse system. Tt is as follows :
1 pening = 13-5 grs. Troy
10 penings = 1 ortug = 136 '7 grs.
3 b'rtugs = 1 ore =410 grs.
8 ores = 1 mark = 3280 grs.
Let us deal first with the mark. As its name signifies, it in all
probability was originally not a weight, but a measure. The use of
mark as a land measure is well known in the Teutonic languages.
It is also used as a measure of length. Thus a mark of cloth
consists of 448 alen or ells. After what we have learned about
the history of the Roman as (p. 354) we need not be surprised
if a term originally used as a measure of some article which was
not as yet sold by weight, came in similar fashion to be in-
corporated at a later period into the weight system as a higher
unit. If the mark was originally a given measure of bronze or iron,
we can readily see how it came later on to be used as a weight,
and ultimately to be the chief unit of account among our Anglo-
Saxon forefathers, until it was at last driven out by the pound.
That silver was cast into bars which weighed a mark is rendered
highly probable by the fact that three of the silver bars found
at Cuerdale weigh respectively 3960, 3954, and 3950 grs. Troy;
that is, just the weight of 160 pennies of the reign of Alfred.
160 pennies are two-thirds of a pound of 240 pennies, or in other
words a mark.
The practice of running silver into ingots of such a weight may
well have arisen from an earlier practice of employing bronze or
iron bars of such a weight. It is at all events certain that the
mark is native Teutonic and is not borrowed from Rome. That the
Kelts at least used bars of iron as money is made not unlikely by a
famous passage of Caesar which I shall quote later on. A various
reading states that the Britons used iron rods as money (ferreis
taleis). Even without this we may reasonably infer from what we
have learned of the practice of primitive peoples in dealing with
iron or copper, that the Teutons and Kelts must have used
these by measure. It is well known that the Swedes used ingots
of copper as currency down to comparatively recent times. It
is then most likely that the ore or ounce of 410 grs. was the
highest original weight unit, just as the unga is in the ancient
Irish system. The weight of this ore is of great interest. If
we found the Roman pound of 12 ounces in Scandinavia, we should
398 APPENDIX C.
at once say that the ore of 410 grs. was the reduced Roman ounce
(432 grs.). But as the native mark evidently got its position
before the influence of Rome was felt in the North, we may well
consider the ore to be pre-Roman. The reader will remember that
I identified the ancient Roman uncia with the small talent of
Sicily and Macedonia. The latter weighed 3 ox-units or about
405 grs. I also suggested that it originally represented the value
of a slave, and was thus the original highest unit used for gold
or silver. I showed on an earlier page (141) that the Norse wing,
the one-third of the ore, was the price of a cow. If three cows
were the price of a slave in Scandinavia as they were in Ireland,
and probably in Homeric Greece, an ore of gold was the price
of a slave. The passage from the life of St Finnian given at once
shows that an ounce of gold was the regular price of a slave
in early Ireland, and probably a good Scandinavian scholar could
soon find similar evidence for the value of the old Norse slave.
The meaning and derivation of the term ortug have been much
discussed. It occurs in the forms or tog, ortug, ertog, cer tug.
Cleasby's Lexicon makes nothing out of the first part of the word,
but takes the second part (-tog -tug = tugr = 20), because ortug
had the value of 20 penningar, though tugr means 10. But as
a matter of fact there were, as we saw above, 240 penningar in
the mark, and therefore there were 10 penningar in the ortug.
Holmboe 1 goes more deeply into the origin of ortug. He says, " As
, pi. cer, signifies a ewe, and tug-r as a derivative of ten both by
itself and in compounds signifies ten, ertug seems originally to have
signified 10 ewes, just as the weight ertug betokens the weight of
10 peningar, and peningr itself also means a sheep. It may be
regarded as questionable to assume the plural cer to form the first
part of the compound, yet cer must at an early period have been
used in the formation of compounds, since both the folkspeech
of Norway has the form osr-saud-ewe, sheep, technically a ewe-with-
lamb, and the folkspeech of Denmark has cer lain in the sense of
ewe-lamb*" Another suggestion is that ortug comes from arta = a
pen-formed knob, so that ortug = b'rtu-vog, the weight of a pea.
The objection to this would be that the pea would weigh
13 '5 grs. Troy, which seems far too much.
In spite of the philological difficulty in making ortug =10 ewes,
1 Norges Mynter, iv v.
2 I am indebted to Mr E. Magniisson for the translation of Holmboe.
APPENDIX C. 399
it is very remarkable that this value corresponds so accurately with
the value of a cow, which I independently found for it. I have
already pointed out that 10 sheep were the usual value of a cow. So
it was at Rome in 451 B.C. and so it is with the Modern Ossetes.
The ox fit for the yoke was probably worth 20 lambs or 5 sheep in
Lusitania 1 , and as we saw that in the Welsh Laws the ox when fit for
the yoke was worth half a full-grown cow, the Lusitanian cow was
worth 10 sheep. So also at Athens, when Plutarch 2 says an ox was
worth 5 sheep, he probably means an ox fit for the yoke, the cow being
worth 10 sheep. In the Brehon Laws 8 sheep go to the cow, but as
I have already pointed out the insulated position of Ireland would
tend to cause a variation in prices from those on the mainland of
Europe. Thus we see from the story of St Finnian that gold must
have been worth only three times its weight in silver in Ireland in
the early centuries of our era. For the price of a slave was
an ounce of gold, whilst in the Brehon Laws it is 3 ounces of silver.
It might be said that we cannot prove that this was the value of
a slave in gold and silver at any one time, and that silver may
have been much cheaper at an earlier date. When we recollect
that silver has never existed in any quantity in Ireland, and that
where it does exist it can only be obtained by systematic mining, a
thing impossible in the eternal turmoil of Ireland, and also bear in
mind that when Japan was opened to Europeans in this century
gold was exchanged for three times its weight in silver, we need not
think such a relation at all unlikely in ancient Ireland. The paucity
of silver ornaments in the Royal Irish Academy Museum confirms
this opinion. But the evidence from the Penitentials shows that
silver was scarce at a comparatively still early date in Ireland 3 .
Thus XII altilia vel XIII sicli praetium unius cuiusque ancillae.
I have already shown the universality of making gold ornaments
after a fixed weight. The passages given above show that a similar
practice existed among the ancient Irish.
Let us turn to the numerous gold rings, commonly called Ring
Money, of which there are some 50 in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy of various weights and sizes. I give these weights. Let
us examine them, and see if we can find any indications gained
inductively of a weight standard.
1 Polybius xxxiv. 8.
2 Solon 23, see p. 324 supra.
3 Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen d. Abendlandlsch. Kirchen (De dis-
putatione Hibernensis SinocU et Gregori Nasaseni sermo), p. 137.
400
APPENDIX C.
As by inspection we see that the smallest rings weigh 13 and
14grs. Troy, and the next three 29, 31, 32 respectively, which look
like the double of the smaller, I shall group the rings according
as they approximate to the multiples of 15.
Multiples
of 15
Actual Ring Weights
(Royal Irish Acad.)
Multiples
of 15
Actual
Rings
Weights
15
13, 14
180
179
345
30
29, 31, 32, 36
195
199, 203
360
45
40,46
210
206, 209
375
372
60
54, 56, 58, 59, 61, 65, 65
225
220
370
75
69,73
240
247
90
84, 84, 88, 96
255
259
105
98, 104, 111
270
120
121, 124
285
'283, 283
135
300
150
144, 144, 147, 147, 150, 151
O\J\J
315
322
165
171, 172
330
332
A glance at the foregoing table shows that the most numerous
group of rings occurs at the fourfold (60), no less than seven speci-
mens ranging themselves at that point, next we find six specimens
at the tenfold (150), whilst next in order comes the sixfold with four
examples. There are three cases of the double (30). On the other
hand it is worth noticing the absence of the ninefold, whilst there
are three instances of the sevenfold, and the absence of the eighteen-
fold (2x9) likewise, whilst we have the elevenfold, twelvefold, thir-
teenfold, fourteenfold. However from the absence of the twenty-
fold (2 x 10) we cannot lay great stress on this. The heaviest
specimen (372) closely approximates to the twenty-five fold (375).
I add the weights of the ancient Irish gold rings preserved in the
British Museum.
Irish small plain ring money. Some are without localities but
may be assumed to be Irish. Marked thus *.
*103, 563, *389, *121, *29, 218, 224, 323, 295 injured, 218, 122, 90,
28, 56, 215 copper plated with gold (injured), 299, 148, 98, 366, 89 piece
APPENDIX C. 401
cut from a larger bracelet ?, 48 hollow and open ? plating of l>ron/c> ring?
(banded), 422, 410 (ounces), 288 (injured).
Irish fluted ring money. * No precise locality, l>vt pre*uml>l,/ /,-/*/,.
*106, *123 (worn), 30, 59, 90, 66, 59.
With disks, 249, 806 (2 oz.), 595, 283, 169, 665, 139, 119.
Dots, no lines, 32.
The weights of these rings show many points of agreement with
those in the Irish Museum. Thus we get 28, 29, 30, and 32 grs.
corresponding to 29, 31, and 32 grs. of the second group in the Irish
Table. Again, 56 and 59J- where we get 54, 56, 58, 59, 61 in the
Irish, and 66 corresponding to 65, 65 ; 98 to 96 and 98 ; and 89
corresponding to 88 and 90; 119, 121, 122 and 123 to 121 and
124; 139 to 144, and 144 and 148 to 147 and 147; then 169 to
171 and 172. Then comes a break, and we get 215, 218, 218, 224
corresponding to 220, and 249 to 247, and 283 to 283 and 283 ;
and 323 to 322, and 360 to 366. But the British Museum gives us
in the higher weights three very important specimens : for 410 grs.
is the ounce corresponding exactly to the old Norse ore of 410 grs.,
and the ring of 422 grs. looks like the later ounce rising towards
the full weight of 432. The ring of 806 grs. is plainly 2 ounces of
the standard of 410 (806 - 2 = 403).
The occurrence of several specimens so constantly all of the same
weight, as for instance those about 220 grs., points beyond doubt to
the conclusion that when the rings were being made a given quantity
of gold was weighed out for the purpose. The story of St Finnian
proves that for any transaction in which rings were employed as
money, the scales were employed.
There is a set of leaden weights in the Royal Irish Academy
Collection, found at Island Bridge, Dublin, in 1869, when Ancient
Irish and Scandinavian remains were found together. As they are
more or less corroded, it is not advisable to lay much stress on their
present weights.
grs.
1. Semicircular weight 1852
2. Animal's head 1550
3. Circular 1221
4. 958
5. 634
6. Oblong 539
7. 459
8. Quadrangular 414 (oz.)
9. 395 (oz.)
10 220
R. 26
402 APPENDIX C.
There are certainly some interesting points of agreement between
the weights and the gold ornaments, e.g. the weights of 220, 390,
414, 630, have corresponding weights in gold. The largest weight
may be 4i oz. of 410 grs.
Let us now return to the Irish monetary system, and see if we
can determine more accurately its relation to that of Rome.
8 grains of wheat = 1 pinginn.
14 3 pinginns = 1 screapall.
6 ,, = 72 = 24 screapalls = 1 unga.
24
576
As regards unga and screapall we have spoken already. Of
their origin there is no doubt. The pinginn on the other hand is
not so easy. The name is certainly Teutonic, said to be ultimately
a loan word formed from pecunia. It seems to have been employed
as a general term for the smallest form of currency. Hence we
find the Saxon form (pendinga) applied to the 240th part of the lb.,
and of about 32 grs. wheat, and the Norse peningr used for the
240th part of the mark, whilst in Ireland the cognate form is applied
to the 72nd part of the ounce, and is of the weight of 8 grains
wheat.
The Irish employed the system of Uncia and Scripula. Shall
we say then that this system was in vogue in Britain likewise
before the time of Constantine and yielded slowly before the later
one?
Since then it was common to the Kelts on both sides of the
Irish Sea, and we find that in Ireland it was grafted upon an earlier
system, of which the crosoch is a survival, we may reasonably infer
that the Kelts of Britain had likewise a native system analogous to
the crosoch. But further, of this we have strong evidence of two
kinds. Caesar E. G. v. 12, when describing the British Kelts and
their manners, says ; pecorum magnus numerus. Utuntur aut aere
aut nummo aureo aut annulis ferreis ad certum pondus examinatis
pro nummo 1 . The passage has been mutilated by Editors, but this
is the reading of the best MSS. Caesar thus tells us that they had
1 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.
APPENDIX C. 403
a system of weights of their own. Secondly the evidence of the
actual British Coins (cf. Evans, Coins of Ancient Britons) which are
of a standard not Roman.
Now we have seen above that the Irish gold rings were weighed
on a standard of almost 13 -5 grs. Troy. Let us now see if the
larger gold ornaments preserved in our Museums confirm or disprove
the evidence of the rings. I shall first give the weights of those
in the Royal Irish Academy :
1 Crescent shaped ornaments: 1539, 434 (ounce of Brehon Laws?),
733, 1008, 255, 2013, 489, 552, 660, 1081, 98, 432 (ounce of Brehon Laws),
339, 400 (early ounce = Norse c/re?), 187, 390 (old ounce?), 797 (2 ounces,
2 x 398).
The following are not in Wilde's Catalogue : 472, 505, 542, 540, 630, 647,
667, 687, 720, 722, 737, 1092, 4331.
Torques: 476, 1013, 1527, 3126, 3168, 4722, 5941, 6007, 10268.
Not in Wilde : 154, 342, 1946, 2715, 4172, 5207, 5275, 6012, 6881.
Armlets: 144, 158, 182, 329, 401 (small pre- Roman ounce), 421 (ounce),
487, 510, 684, 757, 894, 989, 1037, 1369, 1630 (4 ounces of 407 grs.?), 1716
(4 ounces of 426 grs.?), 2089 (5 oz. of 418 grs.?), 5635 (14 oz. of 402 grs.?),
6265 (15 oz. of 417 grs.).
Not in Wilde : 130, 145 (J of oz. of 432 grs.?), 178, 184, 187,
199, 208, 215 (half oz. of 432 grs.?), 241, 289, 301, 303 (f oz. of
405 grs.?), 345, 396 (oz.?), 487, 509 (1} oz.?), 547 (1J of oz.), 606
(11 oz. of 405 grs.?), 630 (1 oz. of 420 grs.?), 740, 753 (If oz.), 1093 (2i
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 (4| oz. of 410 grs.?),
1940 (5 oz. of 388 grs.? or 4 oz. of 410 grs.?), 1980 (5 oz. of 396 grs. or 4f
oz. of 410 grs.?), 2201, 6144 (15 oz. of 410 grs.?), 13557 (33 oz. of 410 grs.?).
Fibulae: 56 (4 crosachs), 179, 180 (f oz. of 400 grs.?), 415 (oz.), 600 (U
oz. of 400 grs.?), 1231 (3 oz. of 410 grs.), 1345 (3| oz. of 432 grs.), 1596
(4 oz. of 399 grs.?), 2301 (5} 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 (] oz.), 170, 170 (f oz. of 425 gr.), 191, 196 ( oz. ?),
207, 209 (Joz.), 248, 275 (f oz. of 411 grs.), 315 (f oz.?), 379 (oz.), 542
(1J oz.?), 557 (li oz.?), 586 (IJ oz.?), 649 (Ijoz. of 432 grs.?), 1187 (3 oz. of
396 grs. ?).
Gorgets: 1160 (3 oz. of 387 grs.?), 2020 (5 oz. of 404 grs. ?), 3091 (8oz. of
386 grs. ?), 3444 (8 oz. of 430 grs. ?).
1 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.
262
404 APPENDIX C.
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 1 , 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 (2J 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. (1?, oz. of 420 grs.).
Lincolnshire torques ; 1454 grs. (3J oz. of 415 grs.), coiled band 119.
Quadruple ring, 93| (\ oz.?), another similar 93.
Cambridgeshire torques (not in B. M.) 1944 (5 oz. of 387 '? or 4f oz.
of 410), rest in B. M. viz. : bracelet 613 (1| oz. of 412 grs.), two treble
rings linked together, combined weight 358, double ring, weight 132
(J oz.), another 131, two others similar but smaller are each 68 ( oz.).
Wales. Two plain bracelets, near Beaumaris, Anglesea, 1028 (2| 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 (Joz.): 215 (Joz.): 192 (Joz.): 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,
8482 grs.
1 My friend Mr F. Seebohm has shown me that as a weight the Swedish
Jungfrau is equal to the Irish Cumhal.
APPENDIX C. 405
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 57 J 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
406 APPENDIX C
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 13 grain unit from the 13 grain
obol of Massilia, or is it of far earlier growth ? The Etruscans used
a unit of 13 grs. in the 4th century B.C., and we tind 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 13 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.
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
Altin( = 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
408
INDEX,
Aures, 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 Kiver, 40
Boroimbe, 32
Bortolotti, 241
Bosnian, 185
/3oOs firl 7\u><r(TT7, 8
Boyd Dawkius, 110
Bracelets, 35
Brabmegupta, 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 Home, 31
chief wealth of Britons, Gauls,
Italians, etc., 51
- in Avesta, 27
Catty, origin of, 162, 174
Cauer, 365
Cayley, Prof., 231
Centu'pondium, 136, 360
Centussis, 370
Ceramus, 82
INDEX.
400
Chabas, M., 239
Chabinus, 76
Chalci, 346
Chalcis, 227, 361
Xa\K6s, 86
Chariot of Hera, 116
Chariots in Veda, 26
Charlemagne, 34
Charuz, 60
Chautard, 225
Chauter, 45
Chinese coinage, 10
shell -money, 21
weight-system, 156
Chios, 322, 343
Chisholme, 199
Xpwr6s, 60
Chrysus, 277
Cicero, 134
Cilicia, silver of, 286
Cloth, 35
- silken, 22
Cnidus, 321, 322
Cocoanut, 162, 171
Coinage, invention of, 203
- of gold, 125
- of silver at Rome, 136
Coins, early Lydian, 293
normal weight of, 218
Coin-standards, 210
Colaeus, 62, 96
Colchis, 70
Colebrooke, 176
Colpach, 33
Commercial weights, 344
Comparetti, 314
Compensation for wounds, 30
Concha, 328
Conchylion, 329
Constantine, 384
Constantino's solidus, 181
Conti, Nicolo, 27
Convention, 47
Coomb, 115
Copper coins in Greece, 361
in Britain, 94
- in Greece, 312
- in Meroe, 78
- in relation to gold, 77
native, 58
of Haidas, 17
rings, 22
- standards, 348
wire, Calabar, 40
Corcyraean wine jars, 106
Corinthian standard, 362
- system, 311
Corn sold by measure, 115
Cotton as money, 45
Counters, 192, 228
Coventry tokens, 336
Cow, 2 seqq. , 370
among Ossetes, 30
- at Delos, 5
- at Syracuse, 31
- equal centumpondiurn, 360
- Hebrew, value of, 148
- in Avesta, 26
- in Rig Veda, 25
- in Scandinavia, 35
- in Welsh Laws, :52
names for, Sanskrit, Zend, etc., 51
- on coins of Eretria, 5
- suckling calf, 321
- unit of assessment at Rome and
Syracuse, 393
value of, in Gaul and Germany,
140
- in Greece, Italy, 133
at Rome, 135
- in Scandinavia, 141
- in Sicily, 137
Persian, 151
Phoenician, 143
- (Table), 153
the same over wide area, 52
Cowell, Prof., 176
Cowries, 13, 177
as counters, 229
Cows among Madis, 43
in Darfour, 44
Crab's claw, 350
Crab's eyes, 186
Crawfurd, John, 170
Crenides, 74, 341
Croesus, 204, 297
Crosach, 36; crosog, 396
Croton, 328
Cubit, royal, 265
Cucurbita, 258
Cumhal, 33
Cunningham, 55, 117, 127
Curtius, E., 201, 212
Cuttle-fish, 327
Cyathus, 258
Gyrene, 326
Cyzicene staters, 342
Cyzicenes, 301
Cyzicus, 316, 342
Damba, 186
Damleg, 45
Danes, 321
Danube, 106
flows into Adriatic, 107
source of, 107
Dapper, 43
Darfour, 44
Daric, 126, 277, 297
- as talent, 6
derivation of, 300
= Homeric talent, 7
410
INDEX.
Datum, gold mines, 74
Debae, 75
Decalitron, 362
Decimal system, 203, 228, 371
in Homer, 308
Decussis, 356, 369, 370
Deecke, 130
Degradation, 226
- of coin weights, 223
- of weight, 338
Delian priests, 108
Delphium, 106
Delos, 215
Demareteion, 297
Demeter, 327
Denarius, 357, 363
Deuux, 351
Dewarra, 20
Dextans, symbol of, 369
Dhalac, 330
Digitus, 353
Dinar, 63
Diodorus, 81
Dionysius, 31, 225
of Halicarnassus, 134
- of Syracuse, 224
Dioscuri, 377
Dirham, 148, 182
Dodona, 215
Dodrans, 351
Dogs, 94
Dollar, Maria Theresa, in Soudan, 56
Mexican, 24 ; Spanish, 44
Double Unit, 267
Doukha, 45
Drachm at Athens, 324
- Corinthian, 311
- origin of, 214, 310
Draco, 5
Dragon's eye, 22
Dublin, 321
Duck weight, 83
- suggested origin, 247
Duck weights, 199, 245
Dungi, 248
Duodecimal system, 371
Dupondius, 376
Dyer, Dr Thiselton, 186
Dyrrachium, 322
Earring, 35
Ebusus, coinage of, 290
Echinus, 328
Egypt, coinage of, 219
- gold in, 78
Egyptian gold-mines, described by
Diodorus, 79
measures, 122
- Monad, 129
records, 236
weights, 122
Egyptian weight system, 237
Electrum, 98, 204, 290
- at Carthage, 289
- Lydian, 70, 294
- why coined, 207
Elephant, price of, 24
Elephant's tusk, 25
Ellis, 187
Emporiae, 290
English coinage, 224
Imperial weights and measures,
266
- penny, 225
weights, 186
Ephorus, 211
Epicharmus, 137, 364
Eretria, 322
Erman, 146, 242
Erytheia, 110
Eryx, 144
Esterlings, 225
Etruria, 374
Etruscan gold coins, 130
gold unit, 359
- silver, 363
- standard, 130
Etruscans, 64
Etymology, danger of, 65
Euboic- Attic system, 311
Euboic standard, 9, 210
origin of, 222
Eustathius, 125
Evans, A. J., 271, 365, 366
- Dr J., 94
Exagium, 183
Ezekiel, 121, 282
Falgo, 45
Fanam, 173
Fee, 4, 34
Felkin, 43, 263
Fen Ditton, 182
Fertyt tribe, 46
Festus, 134
Fetiches, 187
Fibulae, 41
Fifteen-stater standard, 286
Fiji, 21
Fines, 135
Fiorino, 385
Fish-hooks, 28
Florin, 385
Foot, Roman, 359
Foucart, 219
Fractions, 357
Frankincense, 6
Frazer, J. G., 30, 320
French metric system, 1
Fuel sold by bulk, 115
Gades, coinage of, 200
INDEX.
411
Gaius, 8, 376
Galetly, A., 30
Gallaecia, 101
Gardner, Dr, 126, 342
P., 222, 313, 364
Gaul, 325
Gaulish gold unit, 131
Gauls, 332
- in Italy, 61
value of cow with, 140
Gaus, 51
Gelon, 142
Gerah, 277
Germans, 131
Geryon, 110
Gill, 23, 296
Gold, 57 seqq.
- alone weighed in Homer, 117
among Salassi, 89
at Vercellae, 88
bat, 163
Coast, 105
coinage, 372
- coinage, Athens, 124; Macedon,
125; Thasos, 125; Cyzicus,
125
- coinage, Konian, 362
- coins, Athens, 372
distribution of, 65
- equal distribution of, 114
first coinage at Home, 378
first of all articles weighed, 114
from India, 257
in Bactria, 67
in California, 58
- in China, 22
- in Gaul, 90
- in Meroe, 78
in Noricum, 87
- in quills, 17, 186, 192
in Kig Veda, 25
- in rings from Sennaar, 82
in Swiss lake-dwellings, 85
in Thibet, 66
in Wales, 94
measured, 168
measured by quills, 186
- mining, methods of, 101
- not weighed, 187
nuggets of, 75
- of Tolosa, 92
ornaments of Gauls, 92
Irish, 402
placer, 98
- poured into jars, 259
- relation of, to silver in Etruria,
140
relation of, to silver and copper
in Italy, 139
- relative value, and silver, 75
scarce in Greece, 221
Gold, standard, 211
Talent of, 3
unit, the same everywhere, 133
unit of Attopoeu, 163
units, table of, 132
Ural- Altai, 67
wedge of, 270
weighed in Veda, 122
weighing, 167, 172
white, 97
Golden Bough, 320
Fleece, legend of, 70
Goliath, 120
Gortyn, 314
Gourds, 43, 258
Greek (old) standard, 306
standard (table), 310
system, 304
weights, 181
Griffins, 68, 70
Guadalquivir, 97
Gunja, 176, 178
Gygadas, 206
Gyges, 71, 201, 204, 293
Hachachah, 45
Haddon, 105
Hair weighed, 275
Hakon the Good, 34
Haliartus, 334
Hamilcar, 289
Handfuls of rice, 170
Hanno, voyage of, 83
Hare, 336
- hunting of, 337
Hares at Carpathus, 337
Hare-skin, 13
Harich, 45
Harpoon, 105
Harris papyrus, 239
Hasdrubal, 289
Haxthausen, 4
Head, 130, 138, 196, 314, 316
Hebrew system, 269
system, tables, 283
Hectae, 342
Hectare, 1
Helbig, 36, 84
Helix, 36
Helvetii, 90
Heraclea, 365
Herakles, 107, 227
road of, 111
Hercynian forests, 106
Herodotus, 107, 258, 260
Herondas, 342
Hexas, 348
Hide (of land), 391
Hides, 51
- as money, 332
Hierapolis, 202
412
INDEX.
Himera, 142, 347
Hindu weights, 177
Hiranya-pindas, 26, 258
Hissarlik, 73
Hittites, 202
Hoe money, China, Annam, 22
Hoes, 45, 165, 312, 371
Hoffmann, 36
Homeric Greeks, analogy of, to modern
barbarians, 50
Poems, 2
Trial Scene, 8, 389
Honey, 34, 122
Horapollo, 129
Horse, value of, 147
Hottentots, 42
Hucher, 131
Hultsch, 95, 129, 202
Hyksos, 50
Hyperborean maidens, 109
Hyperboreans, 107
Hyperoche, 109
lalysus, 339
Iceland, 18
Icelandic proclamation, 18
Illyria, 378
Incas, weight, 193
Incuse on coins of Magna Graecia, 334
- square, 333
India, mediaeval, 27
Indian weight standards, 176
Ireland, gold in, 95
Irish currency, early, 31
- weights, 180, 401
Iron in Homer, 117
- ingots, 25, 163
money, 373
- needles of, 27
- plates, 43
- rings, 40
Issedones, 68
Istir, 148
Istropolis, 107
Italian system, 350
Ivory tusks, 42
Jade, 48, 105
Janiform head, 318
Japanese Bean money, 295
Jars in Annam, 24
Jersey torque, 405
Job, 35
Jol, 288
Jones, Quayle, 186
Jordan, 112
Josephus, 277
Jugerum, 358
Juno Moneta, 215
Kaibel, 306
Karnak, 239
Kat, 238
Keller, Dr, 85
Kelts, 31
- their early knowledge of gold, 104
Kenrick, 143
Kenyon, 306
Keseph, 270
Kesitah, 270
Kettle, 31
Kettles, 24
Kid, 33
Kikkar, 264, 279, 309
King's weight, 275
Klaproth, 69
Knife money, 156
Knives, 312
Koehler, 219, 317
Kolben, 43
Lacedaemonian shield, 334
Lachish, 258
Lady Godiva, 336
Lais, 330
Lake dwellings, 84
Lamb, 271
Laodice, 109
Laos, weight system of, 161
Larins, 28
Lassen, 66
Lateres, 375
Latham, B. G., 57
Laurium, 99
- mines of, 59
Layard, Sir A. H., 85
Leake, Col., 313
Lebetes, 314
Lehmann, 195
Leinster, king of, 32
Lelantum, 222
Lemnos, 323
Lenormant, 129, 242
Leocedes, 212
Lex Flaminia, 378
Tarpeia, 31
Libella, 357, 374
Libra, 347, 358
Lindus, 339
Linguistic Palaeontology, 60
Lingurium, Greek derivation of, 110
Lion and Bull, 296
on coins, 321
weights, 199, 245
Litra, 347
its subdivisions, 348
silver, 361
- translation of libra, 360
Litre, 1
L. M. B., 330
Load, 173, 263
as unit, 172
INDEX.
413
Load, Greek, 309
Lupinus, 278
Lusitania, 97
Lycia, 332
Lydia, 201
Lydian coinage, 299
- coins, 321
- electrum, 296
system, 293
Lynx, 110
Lyre, 329
Lysias, 301, 324
Macedonian standard, 346
talent, 125, 304
Machpelah, 246
Madagascar, 187
Madden, 240
Madi tribe, 43, 263
Maine, Sir H. S., 8
Maize, grain of, 166
Makrizi, 182
Malay weights, 171
Malays, 309
Mana of gold, 26, 122
Mancipatio, 121, 358, 376
Mancus (of silver), 34
Maneh, its origin, 256
Mansous, 46
Manu, 177
Maris, 203
Mark, 358, 397
Marquardt, 181
Marsden, W., 172
Marseilles, inscription at, 142
Massilia, 62
- court of, 111
Mathematical hangmen, 231
Measure of corn or oil, 324
Medbh, 36
Medimnus, 324
Melitaea, 323
Melkarth, 227
Men, 327
Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin, 247
Mennan, 33
Mentores, 106
Mermnadae, 205
Meroe, gold, copper, iron in, 78
Mesha, 272
Mesopotamia, cattle in, 50
Messana, 336
Metals, first objects to be weighed, 114
relations of, in Greece, 219
- their discovery, 57
Metapontum, 319, 327
Metre, 1
Metric systems, 198
Midas, 71
Miletus, 205, 210, 226, 296
Milk of cow, 33
of goat. 33
Milk of sheep, 33
Millies, 157
Mill-sail incuse, 334
Mina, Greek, 309
- Hebrew, 274
- in Ezekiel, 284
origin of, 258
- use of, 309
Mines of Spain, 97
Mithcal, 183
Moda, 46
Modius, 121
Moeun, 162
Mohurs, 35
Mois, 24
Mommsen, 88, 134, 205, 348, 364, 380
Money, development of, 48
Monro, D. B., 226
Moriae, 324
Moschus, 137
Moura, 160, 175
Movers, 143
Muk, in Annam, 24
Murex, 330
Mycenae, 72
rings at, 77
Mytilene, 322
Naaman, 280
Nails, 159, 312
Naucratis, 241
Naxos, 348
Nehemiah, 280
Nejd, 29
Nero, 378
New Britain, 20
New Carthage, 289
mines of, 99
Niebuhr, 135
Nile, source of, 107
water, 242
Nineveh, 85
Nissen, 195, 239
Nomads, 75
Nomisma, 366
Nomos, 369
bronze, 367
of Heraclea, 364
- Sicilian, 364
Noummos of Tarentum, 364
Nub (gold), 60
its derivation, 78
Nubia, 78
Numerals on coins, 130, 363
Nummus, 131, 137
Numus, 364
Oats, 34
Ob, 349
Obol, 346
Attic, Aeginetic, 346
copper coin, 361
414
INDEX.
Obol, its subdivisions, 349
origin of, 310
Oenone, 211
Olbia, 67, 316
Olive trees, 365
Olives, 324
Olympic victor, 324
Oncia, 348
Onesicritus, 74
Onions, 45
Oppert, 183
Oppian Law, 139
Or (gold in Irish), 61
Orang Glai, 25
Orchomenus, 72
Ordlach, 353
Ore, 397
Oman's threshing-floor, 148
6'rtug, 397
Ossetes, 4, 30
Ostiaks, 4
Ostracism, 329
Ostrakon, 329
Owls, 225
Ox, fore part of, on coins of Samos, 313
in Capitularium Saxonicwn, 34
name of coin, 4
on coins of Eretiia, 313
value of, in Egypt, 146
Oxus, 204
Pactolus, 70, 206
Padi, 192
Paeonia, gold mines of, 74
Pahlavi texts, 148
Paille, 101
Palacrae, 101
Palae, 98, 101
Palestine, 269
Pallegoix, 161
Pangaeum, 71, 220
Panormus, 130, 289
Parkyns, Mansfield, 82
Parthenon, 310
Pauli, 89
Pausanias, 212
Pea, scarlet, 172
Peach, 78
Pecunia, 4, 376
Pegasus, 362
Pendeo, 358
Pening, 397
Penny, its cognates, derivation, 64 ;
weight, 385
Pentacosiomedimni, 324
Pentoncion, 348
Pericles, 215
Perseus, 107
Persian Gulf, 27
- silver standard, 261
standard, 300, 303
Persian tribute, 129
wars, 220
- weights, 179
Persians coin money in Egypt, 219
Pertz, 141
Peru, 193
Petrie, W. M. F., 216, 240, 241, 258
Phanes, 320
Pharaoh, 113
Pheidias, 211, 310
Pheidon, 211, 311
Pheidonian weights, 213
Philip II., 74, 341
Philippi, 74
Philippus stater, 140
<f>\jopi, 61
Phocaea, 205, 322
Phocaean standard, 210
Phocaeans, 62, 96, 110, 130, 132
Phoenicia, 86, 200
Phoenician inscription of Marseilles , 142
- standard, 206, 261
- origin of, 286
system, 285
weights, 201
from Jol, 288
Phoenicians, 317
Phtheirophagoi, 70
Picul, 263, 309
origin of, 174, 190
Pig, 25
Pindar, 170, 211
Pinginn, 33
Pipilika, 67
Plutarch, 135, 378
Po, 110
Pollex, 353
Polo, Marco, 14, 146
Polybius, 62, 139
Polygamy, 54
Pondus, 358
Poole, E. S., 271
Posidonius, 91, 97
Pottery, in shape of gourds, 258
Pound, English, 266
- of 16 ounces, 18 ounces, 24 ounces,
360
of silk, 259
Powell, 20
Priam, 71
Propontis, 210
Ptolemaic coinage, 299
- standard, 338
- stater, 279
Pump, Egyptian, 99
Pylus, 214
Pyrenees, 99
Pytheas, 257
- his voyage, 83
Qesitah, 270
Quadrans, 348, 352
INDEX.
415
Quadrigae, 377
Queen Charlotte Islands, 17
Queensland blacks, 152
Queipo, 179, 200
Quills of gold, 17
Quincunx, symbol of, 369
Rakat, 172
Rameses II., 128
Ratti, 127, 176, 186
Red Sea, 76
Regenbogenschiisseln, 140
Reindeer, 4
Relation of gold to silver, to copper,
135
Rhegium, 336
Rhinoceros, horn of, 25
Rhoda, 290, 322
Rhodes, 132, 322, 339
Rhodian standard, 338, 339
Rhys Davids, 29
Rice, 178
- bag of, 162, 172
- grains, 187
Rig Veda, 25, 59, 122, 257
Ring money, 35, 394
Rings, Egyptian, 242
- gold, 34, 128
- of Egypt, 129
in Homer, 36
Mycenaean, 36
of tin, 44
Road, sacred, 111, 216
Robes, in Homer, 49
Roman coins of Campania, 216
- foot, 359
(later) weights, 181
pound, 234
- system, 374
Romans, use of weights by, 121
Rose, 320
Rotl, 46
Royal standards, 250
Rubat, 45
Ruding, 180
Rupee, 4
purchasing power of, 152
Rye, 34
Saggio, 23, 146
Salamis, 142, 272
Salassi, 89
Sallet (von), 317
Sallust, 110
Salt, 45
Samhaisc, 33
Samos, 222
Samoyedes, 3
Sapec, 24, 157
Sarah, 113
Sardes, 206
Sassanide kings, 151
Saxon coins, 321
Sayce, 202
Scales of silver, 193
- used, 226
Scandinavian currency, 34
Scapte Hyle, 73
Schliemann, 129, 231
Schoenus, 365
Schrader, 60, 69, 70, 92
Scillinga, 39
Sciron, 331
Screapall, 33
Scriptulum, 351
Scripulum, 135
Scrupulus, 352
Scythians, 67
- use gold, but not copper, 69
Seal, 322
Sedacy, 44
Seebohm, F., 404
Sembella, 379
Semis, 369
Sequani, 332
Servius, 376
Sestertius, 363, 379
Sexagesimal system, 198
Sextantal as, 362
Sextans, 348
Sextula, 351, 384
Shakespeare, 349
Shayast, 150
Sheep, 33, 324, 370, 374
as coin type, 272
as unit, 272
weights, 271
Shekel, 35
- as unit of Hebrew system, 273
earlier than mina, 246
heavy, 259
- light, heavy, 201
of Sanctuary, 273
Shekels, 269
Shell money, 14
Shells of silver, 22
Shield, 331, 334
- in Homer, 331
Shilling, 37
Siamese bullet- money, 28
coins, 161
Sicanians, 347
Sicels, 347
Sicilian gold unit, 131
silver coinage, 359
system, 346
talent, 131, 137, 304, 359
Sicilicus, 368
Sicily, 31
Siculo-Punic coins, 289
Sicyonian shield, 334
Sidonians, 117
Sierra Leone, 39
Siglus, 261
416
INDEX.
Silenus, 323
Siliqua, 182
Silphiomachos, 326
Silphium, 314, 325
on coins of Gyrene, 50
Silver, 57
- at Home, 139, 373
- coinage, Roman, 362
- coins, origin of Greek, 315
discovery of, 98, 100
found in Cilicia, 146
- furnaces for, 98
- in Cilicia, 286
- in Gaul, 93
- in Greece, 310
in Palestine, 147
not weighed in Homer, 117
- relation to bronze, 380
scarce in Egypt, 146
- standard, 260
- standards, table, 209
variation of, 337
- value of, 146
Silverlings, 269
Silvestre, 157
Sipylus, 71
Six, M., 321
Sjogren, 70
Slave-boy, 326
Slave, foreign, more valuable, 55
- Hebrew, value of, 148
- in Homer, 30
Slaves, 11, 323
- constancy of price, 54
- in Congo, 42
in Darfour, 46
in Wales, 32
male, female, 54
Soanes, 70
Solidus, 33, 181, 384
Solomon, 147
Solon's coinage, 306, 324
- standard, 306
Sophocles, 204
Sophron, 364
Sophytes, 127
Soteria, 327
Soudan, 312
Soul, weighing of, 150
Soumyt, 46
Soutzo, M., 134, 203, 347, 368, 380
- view of relation between the
metals, 136
Spain, mines of, 96, 97
Sj .iitii, 84
Spear-brooch, 36
Spices weighed, 276
Spirals, 36
- Keltic, 38
- Scandinavian, 37
Squirrel skin as unit, 4
Stater, use of, 308
Sterlings, 225
Stiver, 186
Stockfish, 18, 316
Strabo, 71, 97
String of cash, 24
Sumatra, 172
Sun's diameter, 203
Suvarna, 127, 178
Svoronos, 314
Swine, 378
- with Gauls, 333
Symbol as mark of worth, 324
Syracusan standard, 362
Syracuse, coinage of, 225
Szins, 25
Taberdier, 158
Tacoe, 186
Tael, 158
Taku, 186
Talanton, 228, 304
Talent, 244
- Homeric, 2 seqq.
- Macedonian, 125, 304
- origin of, 262
- Sicilian, 304
Tantalus, 71
Tapaks, 167
Taras, 364
Tarbelli, 92
Tarentum, 364
Tarneih, 44
Tarshish, 97
Tartessus, 96, 97
Taurisci, 87, 339
Tax, hut, 25
Tea as money, 23
Teanum, 369
Tectosages, 90
Temples as banks, 215
Tenedos, 318
Teos, 210, 340
Testudo, 329
Tetl, 192
Tetras, 348
Teutonic peoples, 34
Thasos, 220, 323, 344
mines of, 73
Thebes, 334
Theocritus, 137
Theseus, 331
Thomas, 176
Thothmes III., 128
Thracian coinage, 342
Thracians, 340
Thucydides, 72, 211
Thumb, 353
Thurii, 322
Tibetan currency, 23
Tical, 29
Timaeus, 51, 379
Time, measurement of, 198
INDEX.
417
Timoleon, 225, 289
Tin, 97, 173
Cornish, 83
- discovery of, in Sumatra, 100
coins, 225
rings of, 44
Tiryns, 84, 231
Tjams, 24
Tmolus, 70
Tobacco, 45
Tola, 177
Tolosa, 90
Tomme, 353
Torres Straits, 105
Tortoise, 313, 333
Island, 331
(sea), 215
shell, 328
currency, 21
masks, 105
Tortoises of terra cotta, 329
of wood, 330
and earthenware, 330
Toukkiyeh, 44
Trade routes, 105
Tremissis, 385
Trias, 348
Trichalcum, 346
Triens, 348
Tripods, 314
Troy grain, origin of, 181 ; of ounce,
386
Tschudi, 70
Tunny coins of Olbia, 317
- fish, 315
Cyzicus, 50
Olbia, 50
Turdetani, 97
Turkey rhubarb, 83
Turti, 97
Types parlants, 322
Tyre, 200
- fall of, 141
Tylor, 229
Umbrians, 64
Uncia, derivation of, 353
- Eoman, 359
Unga, 33
Unguis, 354
Ur, 197
Ural-Altaic range, 204
region, 68
Uten, 203, 238
Varro, 375, 378
Venusia, 369
Victoriatus, 377
Victumulae, mines of, 88
Vieh, 4
Vines, distance apart, 366
R.
Vomis, 354
Vulci, 354
Wadai, 44
Wade, Sir T., 158
Wai wai, 105
Wales, 31
Wall paintings, 128
Walrus hide, 47
Wampum, 14
Weapons, 35
Weighing of the soul, 150
Weight, its origin, 12
of potatoes, 358
- unit, how fixed, 168
Weights, false, 241
in connection with currency,
271
in form of animals, 153, 401
oxen, 128
in shape of cows, 243
Weissenborn, 212
Welsh currency, 32
West, E. W., 148
Whale's teeth, 21
Wheat, 122
corn, 179
corn in Assyria, 183
corns, 180
ear, 327
grain, 182
Wheaten straw, 109
Wicklow, gold in, 334
Wife, payment for, 44
price of, 44, 105
Wilamowitz, 306
Wine, 323
cup, 323
jar, 323
trade, of Carthage, of Gauls, 326
Wolf, 335
Wood as currency, 42
Woodpeckers' scalps, 15
Wool merchants, 117
weighed in Homer, 118
weighing of, 116
Xenophanes, 205, 293
Xenophon, 337
De Vectigalibus, 338
Yard, English imperial, 266
of butter, 358
of land, 358
Zancle, 348
Zechariah, 148
Zend Avesta, 149
physicians' fees, 26
Zulus, 2, 42
27
Cambridge :
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AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
SOME PUBLICATIONS OF
Otamimtigc SJtitbemtg
The Types of Greek Coins. By PERCY GARDNER, Litt. D.,
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of all parts of the Greek World. Impl. 4to. Cloth extra, 1. 11*. 6d.;
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