= of a denarius; terun

of a denarius; the sembella, cius, of a denarius, 3 unciae of the ancient, and 4 unciae of the reduced copper money. A denarius weighed a little more or less than 73 Paris grains, but was gradually reduced, under the first emperors, to 63 grains; hence the Roman pound in the times of the Republic contained about 84 denarii (which, according to Plin., Hist. Nat., xxxiii., 46, was the legal amount), and in the reign of Domitian from 96 to 100.

Gold was coined in various ways: an aureus in the times of the emperors was equal to 25 denarii or 100 sestertii; consequently, 1000 HS are equal to 10 aurei, 100,000 HS to 1000 aurei, and decies HS to 10,000 aurei. The Emperor Honorius made 25 pounds of copper coin equal to one solidus (aureus), that is, a pound of copper equal to a silver denarius.

[§ 873.] 3. The Romans generally calculated according to sestertii, and a nummus is simply a sestertius. Instead of mille sestertii, we may say, with equal correctness, mille sestertium (genit. plur.), just as we commonly say mille passuum. A million, as was remarked in § 115, is expressed by the form of multiplication: decies centena milia sestertium, or more commonly by decies alone, centena milia being omitted; centies, therefore, is 10 millions, and millies 100 millions. As people were thus accustomed to hear the word sestertium in connexion with mille, they came by a kind of grammatical blunder to consider sestertium as a substantive of the neuter gender, and hence they said unum sestertium, septem sestertia, bis dena sestertia, sexcenta sestertia, &c., instead of unum mille sestertium, septem milia sestertium, &c. In Cicero it does not often occur, but is yet found in some passages, as in Verr., iii., 50; Parad., 6, 3; but in the writers of the silver age it is quite common.

Decies sestertium, a million of sestertii, centies sestertium, &c., is used as a singulare tantum of the neuter gender; e. g., Cic., in Verr., ii., 7, HS decies numeratum ess; Philip., ii., 16, amplius HS ducenties acceptum heredita ibus rettuli. But the mistake was carried still farther by declining this expression; e. g., Liv., xlv., 4, argenti ad summam sestertii decies in aerarium rettulit, up to the sum of one million sestertii; Cic., Philip., ii., 37, syngrapha sestertii centies, a bill of ten millions of sestertii; Tacit., Ann.,

xii., 58, Bononiensi coloniae, igni haustae, subventum centies sestertii largitione, by a present of ten millions of sestertii; Sueton., Caes., 50, Serviliae sexagies sestertio margaritam mercatus est, he bought her a pearl for six millions of sestertii; Sueton., Octav., 41, Senatorum censum duodecies sestertio taxavit, he fixed the senatorial census at 1,200,000 sestertii; Cic., p. Font. (Niebuhr, Fragm.), § 4, Testis non invenitur in ducentis et tricies sestertio ; ad Att., iv., 2, superficiem aedium aestimarunt HS (sestertio) decies.

[§ 874.] 4. With regard to Greek weights and money, we can here add only a few remarks. An Attic talent (talentum) is equal to 80 Roman pounds; a mina (μvā) is the sixtieth part of it; i. e., equal to 14 Roman pound; and 100 drachmae make one mina. Consequently, a talent has 60 minae or 6000 drachmae. The same names and proportions occur in the Greek coins. The most common silver coin, which forms the unit in calculations, is the drachma (which is worth 6 oboli). It varies very much in weight, according to the different places and times, but in general it is considered equal to the Roman denarius. The Attic drachma, however, is somewhat better than the Roman denarius. (See Böckh, The Public Econom. of Athens, chap. iv., 2d edit., Engl. transl.) When compared with Roman money, a mina is equal to 4 aurei, and a talent to 240 aurei, or to 24,000 sestertii.

[§ 875.] 5. The basis of Roman measures is the foot, pes, which, according to the most accurate calculations of modern scholars, contained 131 Paris lines, 144 of which make a Paris foot. The Roman foot is divided either, according to the general fractional system, into 12 unciae, or into 16 digiti (Sákтvào). Smaller measures are: semipes, foot; palmus, & foot, or 4 digiti, i. e., the breadth of a hand (raλacorn), but in later times, and even down to the present day in Italy, the name palmus is transferred to the length of a span, and is equal to of a foot. Greater measures are: palmipes, a foot and a palmus, i. e., 14 foot; cubitus (πñxνç), 14 foot; passus, a pace, or 5 feet; actus, 120 feet, or 12 decempedae. The Greek stadium has 600 Greek and 625 Roman feet; 40 stadia are somewhat more than a geographical mile. On the Roman roads milestones were erected at intervals of 1000 passus, and such a Roman mile of 5000 feet contains 8 stadia, amounting to very little more than } of a geo

graphical mile, whereas a modern Italian mile is of a geographical one. A Gallic leuca is 1 Roman mile. From leuca the French lieue is formed, but the Franks assigned to it the length of 3 Roman miles.

[§ 876.] A jugerum is a square measure of 240 feet in length, and 120 in breadth, that is, 28,800 Roman square feet.

Roman cubic measures for fluids are: the amphora or quadrantal, i. e., a Roman cubic foot; it contains 2 urnae, 8 congii, 48 sextarii, 96 heminae, 192 quartarii, and 576 cyathi. There is only one larger measure, viz., the culeus, containing 20 amphorae. Greek cubic measures are: the metretes or cadus, equal to 11⁄2 amphora; it is divided into 12 xous, and 144 korúλal, so that one korúan is half a sextarius. An amphora of water or wine is said to weigh 80 Roman pounds, and, consequently, a congius would weigh 10, and a sextarius 13. As the sextarius, being the most common measure, contains 12 cyathi, these twelfths are denominated, like the 12 unciae of an as, according to the common fractional system; e. g., sextans, quadrans, triens vini, for, 1, 1 of a sextarius.

Dry substances were chiefly measured by the modius, which is the third of an amphora, and, accordingly, contains 16 sextarii: 6 modii make a Greek medimnus. Respecting this whole subject the reader is referred to the excellent work of Joh. Fr. Wurm, De Ponderum, Nummorum, Mensurarum ac de Anni ordinandi Rationibus apud Romanos et Graecos, Stuttgardiae, 1821, 8vo.

APPENDIX IV..

NOTAE SIVE COMPENDIA SCRIPTURAE; OR ABBREVIATIONS OF WORDS.

[§ 877.] MANY words and terminations of frequent occurrence are abridged in ancient MSS., as well as in books printed at an early time; e. g., atque is written atq3, per p; the termination us is indicated by 9, as in quib9, non by ñ, and m and n are frequently indicated by a hori zontal line over the preceding vowel. Such abbreviations are no longer used in books, and whoever finds them A A A 2

in MSS. or early prints, may easily discover their meaning with the assistance of a modern text. Praenomina, however, and certain political words, i. e., names of offices and dignities, are still abridged in modern editions. We shall subjoin a list of those which occur most fre quently, for the assistance of beginners.

M'. Manius.

Aed.

Sp. Spurius.

T. Titus.

Ti. or Tib. Tiberius.

2. Constitutional Designations.

Aedilis.

.Cal. or Kal. Calendae, or

other cases of this word.

Cos. Consul.

P. C. Patres Conscripti.
Pl. Plebis.

Pop. Populus.
P.R. Populus Romanus.

Coss. Consules, or Consu- Pont. Max. Pontifex Max

O. M. Optimus Maximus, Tr. Tribunus. [testas. as a surname of Juppiter. Trb. Pot. Tribunitia Po3. Other Abbreviations which are still in use.

ANCIENT FORMS OF DECLENSION.*

[§ 878.] THE element of a word, stripped of all prefixes and suffixes, is called the Root. Generally, however, there is a secondary form, which may be called the Crude form, containing something more than the mere element, but yet not enough to render it fit for universal use, the base, however, of all the forms which are actually employed. For example, in the word currum, the letter m is the accusative sign; this being removed, we have the crude form of the noun, curru. It is clear that curru is the base on which are built curră-s, currû-s, curru-i, curru-m, and curri-bus, for in this last the u is only represented by a euphonic i. But curru is not the simplest element to which the word is reducible; we have the verb curr in curro, curris, currit, currère, &c.

* Allen's Etymological Analysis of Latin Verbs, &c., p. viii., seqq.