ROMAN WEIGHTS FOUND AT MELANDRA. 1 69 



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It is evident, from the small size of the majority of these 

 weights, that they were not employed for weighing copper 

 coins, eight of their number being of less weight than a bronze 

 sestertius ; and the low standard to which ten of their nimiber 

 included in Table I. conform, makes it evident that the latter 

 were not used for weighing coins of any description, except, 

 perhaps, as bullion. Yet the fact that so many small and 

 irregular weights have been found together in a military encam}> 

 ment strongly suggests that they were employed for some special 

 purpose, such as the apportionment of the various defective 

 and alloyed silver and gold coins forming the pay of the 

 garrison. If so, they probably correspond to definite numbers 

 of gold or silver coins, but whether these were aurei, solidi, 

 denarii, argentei, niiliarcnsia, or sestertii, or their sub-divisions, 

 could only be determined by a more definite knowledge of the 

 period to which the weights belong, which, however, was 

 probably late. 



No doubt the Roman quastor and siipendiarius were as 

 much alive to the necessity of weighing worn, defaced, and 

 imported coins as the money-changer and banker of the present 

 day. They likewise possessed special weights marked and 

 adjusted to the official standard ; and at Rome, the standard 

 weights were deposited in the temjjles of Ops, Mars Ultor, 

 Hercules, Castor, etc. Evidence also exists, in the form of 

 an inscription up(jn a statera (steelyard), that a central office was 

 provided for adjusting such instruments. The counterpoises 

 used in connection with the latter found in this country are 

 often patched with lead for a . similar purpose. The want of 

 sensibility in the extant examples of the statera and triitiua (beam 

 and scales), however, of which the support is obtuse and above 

 the centre of gravity, may explain the diversity of these weights 

 among themselves which is so confusing to us, and perhaps 

 suggests that no great precision in weighing was attained. 



The Roman monetar)- .system was based upon the libra weight 

 of bronze {aes), the earliest circulating medium being the 

 as libralis, with its sub-divisions, viz. : — 



