The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

302 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
value, whether more or less, was proportionate in each
case to the local talent. (87.) The Sicilian talent was of
least value, 65 the old one, as Aristotle states, being worth
24 of their numini, and the later one 12, the numrnus being
worth an obol and a half. 66
There is nothing to prevent our adding to our discussion
of coins that the Attic writers would speak of xpw aTa (as
money), but that xP^t^ (i n the singular) is used by them
for a thing or possession, but by the lonians also for
money ; (88) as also it is Attic usage to speak of Kcp/xara
(change), and not *ep/ua, while Ktpju,a also is used by the
Dorians. It may also be found in Attic writers, as in the
"
Vine-dresser of Amphis a little change (KCP/WX)," and in
Pollux' Authority to be late, is obliged to suppose that by
Aeginetan talent he means the Hebrew, which is excessively
unlikely (Metr. Gr.,p. 154).
It remains to speak of the Cilician and Egyptian talents of
the text. What the former may be, there is no clue ; we know of
no Cilician drachm of 33 grains ; although the later drachm of
Rhodes practically weighed no more. The explanation of
Mommsen (R. M., p. 47) seems to me inadmissible. The
Egyptian talent, which was worth one-fcnuth of the Attic,
may, as already stated, be that of the time of Tiberius ;
that case Pollux' Authority for his statement with regard to
it must of course be quite late.
65 The reason of this small value is that while the Greek
talent was reckoned in silver, that of Sicily was reckoned in
copper. The history of the Sicilian talent has been traced by
T
Mommsen (R. M., 77 sqq.) and Head (A m. Chron. N.S. xiv.,
p. 13). Boeckh had already proved (Metrol. Unters. p. 294) from
Sicilian inscriptions that the Sicilian talent was originally equal
to 120 litrae of copper. As the litra was 3,375 grs., or half an
Attic mina in weight, the Sicilian and Attic talents were iden-
tical as to actual weight, only one was reckoned in silver, the
other in copper. Oi the two reductions in weight of the Sicilian
talent, both of which must have taken place before the time of
Aristotle, the first reduced the talent to 24, the second to 12
litrae or numini.
66 See above, p. 296.
iii