Commentaria in Deuteronomium
THE SICLE was half an ounce, namely four drachms; hence sicle, stater and tetradrachm are the same; and since the sicle and the ounce are almost the same throughout the world, there is everywhere the same ounce, containing eight drachms. The sicle is named from sakal, that is, he weighed. The Chaldeans say takel, or tekel. A sicle of silver weighed as much as 4 Spanish reals of five stivers; it was therefore about one Brabant florin; but a sicle of gold was 4 French crowns, which are worth 12 Brabant florins.
THE HEBREW OBOL was the twentieth part of a sicle, and was the fortieth part of an ounce: it was therefore greater than the Attic obol, for this was the sixth part of a drachm, and therefore the 24th part of a half-ounce.
There was but one sicle: for the double sicle, namely sacred or greater and civil or lesser, is a fiction of the Rabbins.
Sicle is to be understood whenever gold or silver is read.
The two bracelets given to Rebecca by Abraham’s servant, Genes. xxiv, 22, were of ten sicles of gold; each, therefore, of 5 sicles, that is, of two ounces and a half.
As a half royal is sometimes called a royal, so a half sicle is sometimes called a sicle, especially in gold and brass; whence Rebecca’s earrings weighed each only half a sicle, as the Hebrew has; our Interpreter, however, says they weighed a sicle. See Alcazar, On Measures, p. 54.
The mina is 60 sicles.
THE DIDRACHM is half a sicle: for the whole sicle was a tetradrachm, since it weighed four drachms.
THE SILVER PIECE is a sicle of silver. Others think it was half a silver sicle.
Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver, that is, 20 sicles of silver, namely 20 Brabant florins; Christ was sold for 30 sicles of silver, that is, 30 Brabant florins, or 45 ounces of silver.
Solomon had in building the temple eighty thousand Egyptians and eighty thousand Phoenicians; and when he sent them home, he gave to each 40 sicles of gold, that is, 40 French crowns. The sum of all that he gave them was a thousand thousand, and besides six hundred thousand sicles. Besides, in this work he had a hundred and fifty thousand Gabaonites, or Nathineans, and thirty thousand Hebrews, to whom it is likely he gave as much, since they were equal in labour. Whence, all computed together, he gave a hundred and thirty-two hundred thousand crowns, and besides six hundred thousand, that is, thirteen millions and six hundred thousand crowns.
THE SOLIDUS was formerly the sixth part of an ounce, and hence was called sextula; hence 72 solidi made a pound: for this contains 12 ounces.
THE DENARIUS was a silver coin of one drachm: 4 denarii, therefore, were equal in weight and price to one sicle, or 4 Spanish reals of 5 stivers: for these weigh as many, namely 4 drachms. A denarius therefore was worth about 5 modern stivers. It was called denarius because it contained ten asses, that is, the smallest coins. The as was about half a modern stiver: the dupondium was two asses.
The fourth part of a denarius was called the SESTERTIUS, as if semis-tertius; the sestertius was therefore the old stiver, which is now worth a stiver and a quarter. A thousand sestertii, therefore, were a thousand old stivers, which were once worth 50 Brabant florins; they are now worth 62 Brabant florins, or even more: for from day to day the prices of coins change and increase, not without damage and disturbance to the commonwealth.
SESTERTIUM in the neuter, and in the plural SESTERTIA, each was worth a thousand sestertii. For each sestertium contained two pounds and a half; and each pound contained 100 drachms or denarii, that is, 400 sestertii. Two pounds and a half, therefore, were worth a thousand sestertii, and this they called by one name a sestertium. Ten sestertia, therefore, were worth ten thousand sesterces, which were worth 500 old Brabant florins. But if you express this number by the adverb, in this way, decies sestertium, you will have made this sum a hundred times greater. For to say decies sestertium is the same as ten hundred thousand sestertii, which are worth fifty thousand Brabant florins of the old kind: so centies sestertium is a hundred hundred thousand, or ten thousand thousand sestertii, which are worth five hundred thousand florins, or two hundred thousand philippics. See Budaeus, De Asse.
II. Of measures, or vessels.
All measures are to be estimated by the capacity of water which they can hold: hence as to capacity they are always equal, but according to the nature of the material they are unequal in weight, e.g. the sextarius is a large vessel or cup which holds 20 ounces of water, wine or vinegar (for these are of equal weight); but if the same sextarius be filled with gold, it will contain as much in bulk and capacity, but in weight far more: because the weight of gold is to the weight of water as 18 to one, or as 2775 to 148. Wherefore, since a sextarius of water contains 20 ounces, it follows, by the rule of three, that a sextarius of gold contains 375 ounces;
A Roman SEXTARIUS of water, wine and vinegar weighs 20 ounces; a sextarius of oil, 18 ounces; a sextarius of Roman wheat, or of ours, 15 ounces; a sextarius of its flour weighs 8 or 9 ounces (for wheat is denser and heavier than flour); a sextarius of honey weighs 30 ounces; a sextarius of gold weighs 375 ounces, a sextarius of lead weighs 233 ounces, a sextarius of silver weighs 208 ounces, a sextarius of copper weighs 182 ounces, a sextarius of iron weighs 161 ounces, a sextarius of tin weighs 150 ounces.
Hence it is easy to gather what is the proportion of weight between the metals, and that gold is heavier than all, even lead, although Pliny, lib. XXXIII, cap. iii, thought the contrary, but falsely. In equal quantity, therefore, as to weight, if oil weigh 9 ounces, water weighs 10 ounces.
Again, the wheat of Palestine is denser and heavier than the Roman and our own.
A sextarius of the wheat of Palestine, therefore, weighs 20 ounces, but of Roman wheat 15 ounces.
Again, wheat is heavier than barley: for a sextarius of Roman barley weighs 12 ounces, of wheat 15.
The AMPHORA was so called because it had two handles; it was a cube; the amphora held eight congii, that is 48 sextarii; by another name it was called Quadrantal, from the figure of the measure, which on every side had a Roman foot.
For if you make a vessel which, in length, breadth and height or depth alike, has a Roman foot, it will be a quadrantal or amphora. The amphora, therefore, was the cube of the Roman foot, containing 80 pounds of water or wine (of our wheat 60), that is 960 ounces of water;
I speak of the Roman amphora: for the Attic was greater by a third part; it contained three urns, says Fannius, that is 120 ounces of water.
The Romans divided the amphora into two urns, as Villalpandus shows geometrically and beautifully, p. 435. The urn they then divided into four congii: so that the URN is half the amphora, containing 24 sextarii, and the congius, which is also called chus, is the eighth part of the amphora. See the form of the congius in Villalpandus, p. 500.
The CONGIUS, therefore, is the fourth part of the urn; it contains 6 sextarii, 8 foglietti, that is 10 pounds of water, of our wheat seven and a half. From the congius Novellius Torquatus was called Tricongius, because he drank off three congii of wine at one draught before Tiberius Caesar, as Pliny testifies, lib. XIV, xxii.
From 20 amphorae is made the CULEUS, which was the greatest measure of the Romans, containing 960 sextarii, that is 1600 pounds of water or wine: but of our wheat it contains 1200 pounds.
From two amphorae is made the MEDIMNUS. The medimnus, therefore, contains six modii: for one amphora contains three modii. The medimnus is therefore the tenth part of the culeus, and in water and wine contains 160 pounds, in our wheat 120.
The MODIUS is the proper measure of the Romans, and the word is Roman; for modius is as it were modus, the measure by which grain is dispensed. Epiphanius, however, teaches that the name and measure of the modius were received from the Hebrews: for madad signifies to measure; whence midda is a measure, a modius. The modius is the third part of the amphora; it contains 16 sextarii, 32 heminae, that is 26 pounds of water or wine; of our wheat 20 pounds, and it is the sixth part of the Spanish fanega.
The CHOENIX contained 4 sextarii, and was the fourth part of the modius, the twelfth of the amphora: the choenix was a man’s daily food.
The Roman SEXTARIUS was the sixth part of the congius, and hence is called sextarius, says Fannius.
The sextarius served for measuring both dry and liquid things. The Roman sextarius contains 20 ounces: it was therefore like a great cup, and was the fourth part of the choenix.
The HEMINA, or cotyla, was half a sextarius: the QUARTARIUS was the fourth part of a sextarius: the ACETABULUM the eighth: the CYATHUS the twelfth.
The SEXTANS is two cyathi, the QUADRANS three, the TRIENS four cyathi.
Villalpandus contends that the Roman sextarius was equal to the Attic and the Hebrew. But Alcazar clearly demonstrates that they were different; and that the Roman contained 20 ounces, the Attic 15, the Hebrew 13⅓; so he from Mariana, prop. 5 and following, and this will presently appear more clearly. The COR, in Hebrew homer, as if chamor, that is a heap or mound of corn: whence also the ass is called chamor, because it carries such a heap; for a homer is as it were an ass’s load; hence the ass, Matth. chap. xxi, 2, is called a beast of burden; the Hebrew alludes to this also, Judic. xv, 16. Villalpandus assigns to the cor 10 Greek metretae, 10 Hebrew ephi, 30 sata, 7½ medimni, 6 artabae, 15 Roman amphorae, 45 Roman modii, that is 1200 pounds of water or wine, 14400 ounces. But Alcazar assigns better to the cor only 800 pounds of water, 9600 ounces, 30 Roman modii. This will presently appear more clearly from the bath, or ephi. To Solomon’s table there were daily served 30 cors of fine flour, and 60 of meal; whence were made 24 thousand, and again sixteen thousand, that is in all forty thousand pounds of bread. The cor contains almost 9 Attic medimni, or 5 Spanish fanegas: for these contain 30 modii.