In Rome the principal corn-measure, the Rubbio = 64·77 gallons, bears an Arabic name; it is doubled in the Tuscan Moggio, and investigation would probably discover a measure of 4 rubbii = 259 gallons = 32-1/3 bushels or about the old English chaldron of 4 quarters.
The Starello of Sardinia, = 10·8 gallons, is approximately a quarter of the Ardeb.
3. Hebrew Weights and Measures of Capacity
The Hebrews used the measures of Egypt and Phœnicia. The common Egyptian cubit, very near ‘the cubit of a man,’ was the usual measure of length. They brought back from the Captivity some Persian measures:
1. The Great Assyrian cubit, which is ‘the cubit and an hand-breadth.’
2. A measuring Reed of six cubits long, by the cubit and an hand-breadth = the modern qasáb of Egypt.
3. The Cubit of the Talmud = 21·914 inches, the 1/3000 of the Bereh, which was 1/1000 of an hour on the equator (see page 27).
For weights they used the Alexandrian talent or Kikkar divided in the Phœnician manner into 50 minás of 60 shekels = 218-1/2 grains. This shekel was sometimes called the Shekel of the Sanctuary and was then divided, not into 8 Gerahs of 27·31 grains (our dram, 1/16 of the Egypto-Roman ounce) but into 2 Bekah or 4 Reba or 20 Gerah = 10·9 grains. The Reba, 1/4 Shekel, was the drachma of the Phœnician weights, = 54·62 grains.
When, as recorded in Exodus xxvii, 603,550 men contribute each a Bekah or half-shekel of silver, the amount of 301,775 shekels is stated to be = 100 talents and 1775 shekels, after the shekel of the Sanctuary. In this statement the talent is of 3000 shekels, according to the Phœnician reckoning.
In Ezekiel xlvi, the shekel is given as of 20 gerahs and the miná is stated to be 20 + 25 + 15 = 60 shekels, confirming the Phœnician mode of dividing the Alexandrian talent as that used by the Hebrews, viz. 50 minás of 60 shekels.