WEIGHTS 101 



The first thing to be done was clearly to have the 

 present weight of the specimens determined with scientific 

 precision, and the members of our Association are greatly- 

 indebted to Dr. C. H. Lees, F.R.S., the Assistant Director 

 of the Physical Laboratory in the University of 

 Manchester,^ for his kindness in undertaking the duty, 

 and for his careful report. This I now subjoin, modified 

 by the insertion of the second column, identifying the 

 weights with those in Mr. May's list in the earlier of his 

 articles. I have also slightly amplified the details in the 

 third column, to place the identification beyond any future 

 doubt. 



The table proceeds from the heaviest to the lightest, 

 and includes four objects also found in the camp, which 

 it seemed well to weigh, but of which three (Nos. 16, 17, 22) 

 almost certainly, and one (30) possibly, should not be 

 counted as weights at all. 



We may proceed now to select from this list those 

 specimens which certainly, or with varying degrees of 

 probability, can be identified as Roman. Both Mr. May 

 and myself have based our work upon the admirably 

 lucid outline of the history of the Roman coinage 

 in Imperial times contained in Mr. G. F. Hill's 

 Handbook of Greeh and Roman Coins (London, 1899). 

 The fullness of the tables contained in his Appendix 

 diminishes by at least one-half the labour inevitably 

 involved in any metrological enquiry. 



The need for an elaborate apparatus of weights of small 

 denominations appears at once when we consider the 

 perpetual changes in the coinage (see Hill, pp. 50 — 55) 

 in the third and fourth centuries. Of the variations in 

 the gold coins after Alexander Severus (222 — 235 a. d.) he 

 writes (p. 55) : " Then begins a period of hopeless con- 



1. Professor designate of Physics in the East London College. 



