TALBOTYPE. 



TALIONIS, LEX. 



10 



very strictly several of the precepts of the national religion which are 

 very little attended to by anybody else, especially the prohibitions 

 against the slaying of animals (although they will eat them when slain), 

 stealing, adultery, lying, and drinking wine. Sir J. E. Tennent states 

 that they are wretchedly poor, and in point of education rise little 

 above the peasantry, but that they are superstitiously sincere. 

 TALBOTYPE. [PHOTOGRAI-HY.] 



TALENT (rd\<u>Tov) was the highest denomination of Greek 

 weights and money, and was also commonly used by Greek writers as 

 the translation of words signifying a certain weight in other languages. 

 It is necessary to observe that the talent is properly only a denomina- 

 tion of weight. There was no coin of that name ; and when used in 

 reference to money, it meant originally a talent-weight of gold or 

 silver, and .afterwards a certain quantity of current money, the weight 

 of which (supposing the real and nominal value of the coin to be the 

 same) amounted to a talent. 



I. The Hebrew Talent, or Kirlcar (133), contained 3000 shekels, and, 

 according to Mr. Hussey's computation, its weight was 93 Ibs. 12 ozs 

 avoirdupois, and its value as i7i-fr-money 396J. 5*. lOd. [SHEKEL.] 

 The Hebrews had no gold money of their own. 



II. The Grtek. Talent. The following were the principal denomina- 

 tions of weight and money among the Greeks : o/3o\<ij, Xpaxt>dl, l"^, 

 T<i\amov, of which the ofjo\ds was the smallest. Their relative pro- 

 portions are shown in the annexed table : 



Obol 



I 



Mt 



30,000 



Drachma 

 ~~ 100 



Minn 



6000 



Talent. 



This system prevailed throughout Greece, but the actual values of the 

 talent varied in different states. Most of these variations may be 

 included under two chief standards, namely, the Attic and ^-Eginetan. 



1. The Attic Talent. The value of the Attic talent before the time 

 i >f Solon is a matter on which we possess little historical information, 

 though there is no doubt that previous to Solon the Euboic talent was 

 in use, and coins exist which are held to belong to that period. After 

 Solon had remodelled the coinage, the Attic silver money was 

 celebrated for its purity ; and therefore from the coins of that period 

 which still exist we may determine the value of the standard with 

 tolerable certainty. Now the chief com was the drachma of silver, the 

 average weight of which, from the time of Solon to that of Alexander 

 the Great, is found to be 66'5 grains. From this we get the following 

 values in avoirdupois weight : 



Ib. oz. gr. 



Obol 11-08 



Drachma . . . GG-3 



Min* 19 83-71 



Talent 56 14$ 100-31! 



This was the standard always used for silver money, and was there- 

 fore called " the silver staudard." 



Besides this there waa another standard, the chief weight of which 

 was called the commercial mina ( 7) /u>u ri innopuch), and contained 138 

 drachma;, " according to the standard weights in the silver mint " (see 

 a decree in Bockh, ' Corp. Inscrip.', i. 123, 4) ; that is, not that a 

 commercial mina contained 138 commercial drachma;, but that this 

 was quite a different standard from that used for silver money, its 

 unit being to that of the latter in the ratio of 138 : 100 ; while the 

 - proportions of the weights were the same in both systems. 

 The following table shows the value of the Attic commercial 

 standard : 



Ib. oz. gr. 



Obol 15-29 



Drachma 91-77 



Min* 1 4| 93-09 



Talent 75 5;[ 14-69 



Tli.-: weights were used for all commodities, except such as were 

 expressly required by law to be sold by the silver standard. 



This commercial standard is most probably, as Bockh has shown, the 

 real ancient Attic standard, as it existed before the tune of Solon. 

 The purpose of Solon's change was to lower the value of money, in 

 order to relieve debtors. The only direct information we have of the 

 nature of the change is the statement of Plutarch, that " Solon made 

 the mina of 100 drachma;, which had formerly contained 73," which 

 is probably a mistake made by Plutarch, through not understanding 

 the words of Androtion, whose authority he follows. The true 

 meaning seems undoubtedly to be, that out of the tame quant!/'/ *,f 

 filter which in the ancient standard made 73 drachma:, Solon coined 

 i a mina ; that is, that he lowered the standard in the ratio of 

 100 : 73. Now the ratio of the commercial to the silver standard is 



J8 : 100 = 100 : 72JjJ. Hence the commercial standard and the old 

 Attic only differed by a small fraction. 



.Still this ratio of 100 : 73 is a very singular one for Solon to have 

 adopted. Bockh suggested that Solon meant to lower the standard by 

 a <|n;irtcr, that is, in the ratio of 100 : 75, and that the new coinage 

 I")- in accident of not uncommon occurrence in minting) was found, 



when actually npade, to be a little too light, namely, in the ratio of 

 72ff : 100, or, in round numbers, 73 : 100 to the old money, instead of 

 75 : 100 ; but a further investigation has led him to conclude that the 

 true reason was to bring the new system into a definite proportion 

 with the ^Eginetan which prevailed widely in Greece, and this pro- 

 portion is as 3 : 5. 



The Romans reckoned both the Attic and Euboic talents as equal to 

 80 Koman pounds (compare Polyb. xxi. ] 4, with xxii. 26, and Liv. 

 xxxvii. 45. with xxxviii. 38). 



The Attic commercial standard underwent an alteration by the 

 edict above referred to, which made 



its mina =150 drachma; (silver) 



its 5 mime = 6 mina; (commercial) 



its taleut = 65 miuse (commercial) 



In this new standard the five-mina; weight was equal to 71b. 13| oz- 

 14-96 grs , and the talent to 85 Ibs. 2* oz. 707 grs. 



The Athenians took the greatest care of their standards of weight. 

 The principal set were lodged in the Acropolis, and there were other 

 sets in the Prytaneum, at Pineus, and at Eleusis. 



The highest coin used by the Athenians was the tetradrachm, or 

 piece of four drachma; ; the mina and talent were never coined, but 

 were paid in drachma;, oboli, &c. The following table shows the value 

 of all the denominations of Attic silver money, according to the com- 

 putations of Mr. Hussey : 



8. rf. ftirthinys. 

 Chalcus (of copper) . . . -8125 



i Obol 1-625 



i Obol 3-25 



Obol 12-5 



Diobolon ..... 31 



Triobolon 4 3'5 



Tetrobolun .... 62 



Drachma 93 



Didrachm 172 



Tcliadraclim 33 



Mina 413 



Talent 243 15 



2. The JSginetan talent. Pollux (ix. 76, 86) says that the ^Eginetan 

 talent contained 10,000 Attic drachma;, and the j-Eginetan drachma 

 10 Attic obols, which would give the ratio of 5 : 3 for that of the 

 JEginetan to the Attic talent. According to this statement, the 

 ^Eginetan drachma weighed 110 grains English. Now the existing 

 coins give an average of only 96 grams ; and the question therefore is 

 whether we are to follow Pollux or the coins. Mr. Hussey takes the 

 latter course, explaining the statement of Pollux as referring to the 

 debased drachma of later times, which was about equal to the Koman 

 denarius. Bockh adheres to the statement of Pollux, explaining the 

 lightness of the existing coins by the well-known tendency of the 

 ancient mints to depart from the full value. He has supported his 

 view by some very strong and ingenious arguments, and on the whole 

 he appears to be right. 



There were other talents used by the Greeks and Romans, most of 

 which seem to have been derived from one of these two standards, but 

 the accounts of ancient writers respecting them are very contradictory. 

 Their values are discussed at length by Bockh, Hussey, and Humphrey. 



The most important variations of the ^Eginetau standard were those 

 used in Macedonia, Corinth, and Sicily. 



The above talents were all reckoned in silver money. There was 

 also a talent of gold, which was much smaller. It was used chiefly by 

 the Greeks of Italy and Sicily, whence it was called the Sicilian talent 

 an well as the <jM talent. It was equal to 6 Attic drachma;, that is, 

 about } oz. and 71 grs. It was divided by the Italian Greeks into 24 

 numnii, and afterwards into 12, each nummus containing 24 Utr<B. 

 When Homer uses the word talent, we must always understand by it 

 this small one of gold. In other classical writers the word generally 

 means the Attic talent. 



(Bockh, Metrolo'/. Unttntich. ; Hussey, Antienl Weiyhti and Money ; 

 Humphrey, Coin Collector's Manual, 1853.) 



TALE'S. At common law, when the number of jurymen in attend- 

 ance was so small, or so much diminished by challenges that a full jury 

 could not be had, a writ (then in Latin) issued to the sheriff, command- 

 ing him to summon such (tales) other fit persons, &c., for the purpose 

 of making up the jury. The jurors so procured were called talesmen, 

 from the Latin word used in the writ. By the statute 35 Henry VIII., 

 c. 6, the defect of jurors might, at the request of the plaintiff or de- 

 fendant in an action, be supplied from suck other able persons of the 

 said county then present, and these were ordinarily called, from the 

 words in the Latin writ, " tales de circumstantibus." Subsequent sta- 

 tutes extended and regulated the application of this statute. The act 

 now in force is the 6 Geo. IV., c. 50, s. 37. 



TALIONIS, LEX, the law of retaliation ; the notion of which is 

 that of a punishment which shall be the same in kind and degree 

 as the injury. This punishment was a part of the Mosaic Law : 

 '' breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth : as he hath caused 

 a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. Levit. xxiv., 

 20. The name " talio" occurs in the provisions of the Twelve Tables : 

 it is not there defined what it means, but the signification of the term 



