The weights and measures[[622]] in common use at Athens were the talent (65 lbs. 12 dwt. 5 grs.) equal to sixty minæ; the mina (1 lb. 1 oz. 4 grs.) equal to a hundred drachmas; the drachma (6 dwt. 2 grs.) equal to six oboloi; the obolos (9 grs.) equal to three keratia; the keration[[623]] three grains. The Athenian dry measures were the medimnos, equal to six hecteis;[[624]] the hecteus, equal to two hemihecteis; the hemihecton, equal to four chœnices; the chœnix, equal to two xestæ; the xestes, equal to two cotylæ; the cotyla, equal to four oxybapha; the oxybaphon, equal to one cyathos and a half;[[625]] the cyathos, equal to ten cochlearia.
Of the other measures that occur in ancient authors, it may be worth while to mention the Persian artabe,[[626]] (hodie ardeb,) which exceeded the Attic medimnos by about three chœnices; the akanè,[[627]] likewise a Persian measure, equal to forty-five Attic medimnoi or a Bœotian measure equal to two bushels; the addix[[628]] equal to four chœnices; the dadix[[629]] to six; the capithe to two; the maris to six cotylæ,[[630]] the cophinos, a Bœotian measure, to three choes.[[631]]
[389]. Lord Bacon, whose opinions were chiefly based on the study of antiquity, observes, after Plato and Aristotle, that military nations will always be somewhat inclined to idleness, and should rather be indulged in it than otherwise. Essays, p. 79. But both the Athenians and Romans were a hardworking people, and better soldiers have never been known. The best soldiers in the English army are drawn from the central provinces, where industry most abounds, and the laborious Normans are the best troops in France. Cf. Plut. Ages. § 26.
[390]. Plut. Lycurg. § 24.
[391]. Diog. Laert. i. ii. § 53. Plut. Sol. §§ 22. 31. Herod. ii. 177. Pollux. viii. 40. Ælian. Var. Hist. iv. 1.
[392]. Poll. viii. 40. Plut. Sol. § 17.
[393]. In Plutarch’s life of Pericles there occurs a very remarkable passage, describing the constant employment and plenty which were diffused through the city by the policy of that great statesman. As for the mechanics and meaner sort of people, they went not without their share of the public money, nor yet received it to maintain them in idleness. By the constructing of great edifices, which require many arts, and a long time to finish them, they had equal pretensions to be recompensed out of the treasury, (though they stirred not from the city,) with the mariners, soldiers, and garrisons. For the different materials, such as stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony, and cypress, furnished employment to carpenters, masons, braziers, goldsmiths, painters, turners, and other artificers; the conveyance of them by sea employed merchants and sailors, and, by land, wheelwrights, waggoners, carriers, rope-makers, leather-cutters, paviers, and iron-founders; and every art had a number of the lower people ranged in proper subordination to execute it, like soldiers under the command of a general. Thus, by the exercise of these different trades, was plenty diffused among persons of every rank and condition. § 12. Engl. Trans.
[394]. Aristoph. Ran. 761, ibique Schol. Cf. Meurs. Them. Att. p. 106.
[395]. Cf. Legg. Att. vi. 6. 426, with Meurs. Gr. Feriat. p. 274, sqq.