In a late number of the Journal of Hellenic Studies the present writer endeavoured to show, (1) that in the Homeric poems the gold talanton simply represented the value of the ox or cow, a relation which remained at Delos down into historical times, and (2) that the actual value of both units was a gold daric, or gold Attic stater (two drachms) of 130–135 grains Troy; in fact the standard on which all the gold coins, and a large proportion of the silver coins of Greek Proper were struck; and at the same time the basis of the standards of Asia Minor, Syria, and probably of Egypt. I then confined myself to the countries immediately bordering on the Aegean, and did not attempt to deal with the weight system of the Italian Peninsula. I propose in the present paper to examine the Roman system, and to seek for it, as I have tried for the others, a natural unit, by which I mean a metallic unit based on some older unit of barter.

Dr. Hultsch remarks (Metrologie, p. 151) that whilst the weight unit of the Roman pound is the most accurately known of all ancient standards, its origin on the other hand is the most obscure. The Roman libra weighed 327·45 grammes. Though it was adjusted at a later period to the Attic system, it plainly dated from a period long before Rome had come into contact with the culture of Athens.