OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 219 



Europe, and her gold pieces are known in Western literature as 

 Bezants, or Byzants. Mr. Finlay is the only writer who has set forth 

 the financial, political, and literary history of Byzantium in its true 

 light and its real importance. 



" It is proposed here, however, to consider only the Attic copper 

 coins, in addition to the silver pieces. They are, — 1. The Chalcus 

 (XaXicovs) and duplicate. 2. Half-Chalcus. 3. Two-Lepta piece. 4. 

 The Lepton, the smallest product of the Attic coinage. Now, as there 

 were, seven lepta in a chalcus, and eight chalcoi in an obolos, we can 

 conveniently construct a table of the values of the Attic currency, in 

 our own money, by taking these and the preceding data, comparing 

 the weight of the silver pieces with our own standard dollar, and 

 making an allowance for the difference of alloy, which was much 

 smaller in the ancient mint than in our own. 



" Assuming the weight of the drachma, as above determined, to be 

 67 gr., and the per cent of alloy to be the same as in the American 

 dollar, the drachma will be worth 16.26 cents. Adding a small per- 

 centage for dilFerence of alloy, and we have, almost exactly, the sixth 

 pai't of a dollar, or 16.66 cents, for the value of the Attic drachma. 

 As the drachma is the unit to which the rest of the series bear a 

 definite proportion, we may construct the table as follows, beginning 

 with the smallest copper coin : — 



1 Lepton = $ 0.0004 or ^Ij of a mill. 



7 Lepta = 1 Chalcus = 0.0034 or SyV mills. 



8 Chalcoi = 1 Obolos = 0.0277 or 2 cents 7yV mills. 

 6 Oboloi = 1 Drachma = 0.1666 or 16 cents 6^^ mills. 



100 Drachmai = 1 Mna = 16.666 or 16 dollars 16 cents 6y'^(j mills. 

 60 Mnai = 1 Talanton (Talent) = $ 1,000, or one thousand dollars. 



" The tetradrachmon exhibited above is worth, according to the 

 same rule of estimation, 63 cents 6| mills ; it has therefore lost a 

 little less than three cents. The drachma is worth 15 cents 7 mills; 

 it has lost 1 cent 9-|- mills, — a larger rate of loss than that of the 

 tetradrachmon, which would have been, according to this proportion, 

 7 cents 8 mills. But the problem of settling the comparative value 

 of money in different ages, in reference to daily life, is another, wholly 

 different, and much more difficult question, if indeed it can be settled 

 at all. The comparative value of money changes with every moment 

 of time, and every degree of latitude and longitude. If we take the 

 price of wheat as a standard of comparison, even that is equally 



