CONTENTS.

PAGE
CHAPTER I.
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 everywhere 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]
PART II.
CHAPTER X.
The Systems 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]
Appendix A[389]
Appendix B[391]
Appendix 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]
14.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.Regenbogenschüssel[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]
34.Coin of Tenedos with double-headed axe[318]
35.Coin of Phanes, earliest known inscribed coin[320]
36.Archaic Coin of Samos[321]
37.Coin of Cnidus[321]
38.Coin of Thurii[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.Coin of Croton[328]
44.Tortoise of Aegina[328]
45.Coin of Boeotia with Shield[331]
46.Coin of Lycia[332]
47.Coin of Messana[336]
48.Aes Rude[355]
49.Bronze Decussis, with figure of Cow[356]
50.As (Aes grave)[361]
51.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]
55.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.

ἮΜΟϹ Δ’ ΟΎΤ’ ἌΡ ΠΩ ἨῺϹ, ἜΤΙ Δ’ ἈΜΦΙΛΎΚΗ ΝΎΞ.

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 independent outcome of science, for beyond doubt the mètre 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 mathematical 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 hurling at each other statements drawn from tablets and papyri, as regards the translation of which no two of these savants are agreed. In spite of this all modern works on metrology start with the systems of Babylon and Egypt and from 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 Egyptian weight systems is most imperfect, being derived from 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.