Of Roman Weights. The Romans used the libra, which they divided into 12 unciæ, or ounces, and the later Greeks, in imitation of them, had their litra, which they divided after the same manner.
They divided their ounce into 3 duellæ, and likewise into 6 sextulæ (sextula among the Greeks was called ἑξάγιον, and corruptly, στάιγιον). Another division of their ounce was into 4 sicilici. They likewise divided their ounce into 7 denarii. Then they divided it into 8 drachms. The 12th part of an ounce they called dimidia sextula. It was likewise divided into 24 scrupula, or rather scriptula, called by the Greeks, γράμματα.
The denarius was divided into 2 victoriati, not only as a piece of money but as a weight. The denarius was also divided into 6 sextantes, in imitation of the 6 oboli of a drachm; according to which division a sextans would contain, in English Troy weight, about 6⅓ grains. Celsus mentions the quadrans denarii and the triens denarii.
The value of the Roman pound is determined, as in the tables, from the value of the denarius, viz. 5245⁵⁄₇ Troy grains; according to the common reckoning it is 5256; this small difference proceeds from assuming the avoirdupois ounce to the Troy ounce precisely as 51 to 56.
Greek Weights. The talent was the greatest weight as well as the greatest sum of money among the Greeks. And this ponderal talent was divided, as the nummary talent, into 60 minæ, and every mina into 100 drachmæ.
A drachma was ⅛ of the ounce and ¹⁄₁₀₀ part of a mina. The Greeks used the expression τρίτον ἡμιδράχμον to signify 2½ drachms. The old division of drachma was into 6 oboli.
An obolus contained 6 χαλκὸι, or, as the Latins call them, æreoli.
An ἡμιώβολον, or semiobolus, contains 1 siliqua and a half, and 4 æreoli, according to Cleopatra, but 3 only according to Diodorus (Ap. Suidam.)
Χαλκὸς, or æreolus contained the 6th part of an obolus, and 7 λεπτὰ, according to Suidas.
The Λεπτὸν was the 7th part of an æreolus, and was called by the Latins minuta, and sometimes minutia, and is not divided into any lesser weight.