Arbuthnot on WPeights and Measures. 4to. London, 1754. 
“The Romans used the /ibra, which they divided into twelve uncia; and the later Greeks had their 
litra, which they divided into the same measure.”—p. 47. 
“The ratel, or litra, used all over Egypt, is of different quantities in several places, and in the same 
place for several goods, but always divided into twelve parts, which are their ounces.”’—p. 55. 
According to Appian—“ As to Gaul, Cesar exacted from it yearly quadringenties, £322,916. 13s. 4d.” 
—p. 194, 
“Lipsius is of opinion that quatermillies should be read for guadringenties, which would make the 
sum ten times bigger, viz. £3,229,166. 13s. 4d. But it is not probable that Gaul would be able to pay 
such asum yearly. However Velleius Paterculus affirms that Gaul was reckoned on the same footing 
with Egypt as to taxes.—p. 194. 
“The commerce of the Phceenicians lying more towards the west than that of the Egyptians, was the 
occasion of their being celebrated as the inventors of astronomy and navigation. When Pliny names the 
Peni, as inventors of navigation, it must not be understood of the Carthagenians, but the Phcenicians, 
from whom they were descended. They navigated into the ocean by the straights of Gibraltar—estab- 
lished many colonies—Thebes in Beotia, Cadiz, and Carthage itself, which was built fifty years before the 
destruction of Troy. It was under the conduct of the Pheenicians that Solomon’s fleet sailed to Ophir 
and Tharsis, from the ports of Ailath and Esiongeber on the Red Sea. Ophir was the general name of 
the eastern coast of Africa—and Tharsis, that of the western coast, both of Africa and Spain. This 
commerce, Jehosaphat, king of Judah, endeavoured to restore; but his enterprise was blasted by the 
destruction of his vessels in the harbour.’ —p. 218. 
“It is past all doubt that the Cape of Good Hope was doubled in those early times, and that the Por- 
tuguese were not the first discoverers of that navigation.” —p. 219. 
“The Pheenicians were much older sailers than the Greeks; the naval expedition of their Hercules 
mentioned by Sanchoniathan, under the name of Malcanthus, being 300 years before that of Jason.” 
“The Corinthians were said to (have been) be the inventors of weights and measures, though both 
their sea craft and arithmetic came originally from the Pheenicians.”—p. 248. 
« Strabo relates, that the commodities of Britain were corn, cattle, gold, silver, iron, skins, leather, and 
hunting dogs; and speaking of the Cassiterides, tin and lead. Tacitus adds pearls.” —p. 253. 
“ Tin and lead were used in the time of the Trojan war.’—p. 254. 
“ Arabia was a country of great commerce in the time of the Romans. Aden had in its harbour, ships 
from all parts of the world. The Gerrheans and the Mineans, ancient inhabitants of Arabia, carried their 
spices, by land, to the frontiers of Palestine.’—p. 364. 
Aden was afterwards called Portus Romanus. 
