T A L 



TALEGONG, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in 

 Do\vlatabad ; I ; miles S. of Oudighir.— Alfo, a town of 

 Baglana ; 12 miles S. of Chandor. 



TALEKAN, a town and caftle of Perfia, m the pro- 

 unce of Khoraffan ; 160 miles N.E. of Herat.— Alfo, a 

 town of Perlia, in the province of Irak ; 30 miles N.L. ot 



Hamadan. _ r xt- 1, 



TALENNI, a town of Japan, in the illand ol Niphon ; 



160 miles W.N. W. of Meaco. 

 TALENT, Talentl'm, a weight, and a com, both very 



famous among the ancients ; but very different in different 



count lies. • -n vru 



The value of the talent it is very hard to allign in JinglUti 

 money, as being ufcd among all the people throughout the 

 Ealt, and its value, and the manner of computation, being 

 different among each : a difficulty abundantly fliewn by 

 Budius, in his learned treatil'e "De Affe." 



There were various kinds of talents, both with regard to 

 weight and to fpeeies ; the value of thefe kit ftill increafing, 

 as the metal of which they confiftcd was purer, though the 

 talent weights contained the fame number of pounds and 

 drachms. Accordingly, all talent weights are equally fixty 

 mina;, and the mina oiic hundred drachms ; but the drachma 

 of one place exceeding that of another, there hence arofe a 

 difference in the talents. 



The common Attic talent then (the talent weight \ve 

 mean) contained fixty Attic raina;, or fix thoufand Attic 

 drachmx ; equal, according to Dr. Arbuthnot's redudion, 

 to fifty-fix pounds, eleven ounces, feventeen and one-feventh 

 grains, Englilhtroy weight. 



There was another Attic talent, by fome faid to confift of 

 eighty, by others of one hundred minae. The Egyptian 

 talent was eighty minx ; the Antiochian alfo eighty ; the 

 Ptolemaic of Cleopatra eighty-fix and two-thirds ; that of 

 Alexandria ninety-fix ; the Infular talent one hundred and 

 twenty ; and that of Antioch three hundred and fixty minx. 

 In the valuation of money, the Grecian talent, according to 

 Dr. Arbuthnot, was equal to fixty minx, or reckoning the 

 mina at 3/. -ff. -fd. equal to 193/. 15^. ; the Syrian talent in 

 this valuation confiiled of fifteen Attic minx ; the Ptolemaic 

 of twenty ; the Antiochian of fixty ; the Euboic of fixty ; 

 the Babylonic of feventy ; the greater Attic of eighty ; the 

 Tyrian of eighty ; the Eginean of one hundred ; the Rho- 

 dian of one hundred ; and the Egyptian of eighty minx. 

 (See Arbuthnot's Tables of Ancient Coins, &c. p. 33, and 

 Tab. 18, 19. 23, 24.) Stating the Attic drachm of filver at 

 nine-pence of our money, the beft medium value, the mina of 

 Athens will be worth 3/. 15^. ; and the Athenian common 

 talent, 225/. ; and the reft may eafily be eftimated in pro- 

 portion. 



But Mr. Raper makes the Attic talent, which confifted 

 of fixty minx, or fix thoufand drachmx, each drachm being 

 equal to fixty-fix grains and a half troy weight, or 3/. I "js, 

 4,V<^. ilerhng, equal to 232/. 3J. Sec Drachm. 



This ingenious writer alfo obferves, that hiftorians and 

 others mention the Eginean and the Euboic talent. The 

 former weighed ten thoufand Attic drachms ; but, like 

 other talents, contained only fix thoufand of its own ; which 

 being fo much heavier than the Attic, the Athenians called 

 it OTa;:^!i«v ifo.xu'^'i or the thick drachm. This talent was 

 \ifed at Corinth ; and in a paffage of Aulus Gellius, lib.i. c. 8. 

 it is valued at ten thoufand Attic drachms ; and was pro- 

 bably ufed in moft of the cities of Peloponnefus. If the 

 Attic drachm weighed fixty-fix and a half troy grains, the 

 Eginean ftiould weigh one hundred and ten and five-fixths, 

 •wiuch Mr. Raper ftates at one hundred and eleven. This 



T A L 



Eginean talent he concludes from the mean drachm of ITk 

 Macedonian coins, which he found to be one hundred and 

 eleven grains and one-fourth, muft have been the ftandard of 

 the Macedonian money, till Philip changed it. And it ap- 

 pears likewife to have been the ftandard of the Ptolemaic 

 money in Egypt. Phny indeed (Nat. Hift.lib. xxxiii. c. 3.) 

 tells us, on the authority of Varro, that the Egyptian talent 

 weighed eighty Roman pounds ; but he fuppofes that this is 

 a falfe reading, and that for ^gyptium we ftiould read 

 Euboicum : for Pliny is fpeaking of the riches of Afia, 

 where the Euboic talent was ufed for weighing gold ; and 

 it is known, that the weight of that talent was fettled at 

 eighty Roman pounds, by the treaty between the Romans 

 .ind Antiochus. There is a paffage in Pollux (hb. ix. 

 c. 6. § 86. ) which makes the Egyptian talent contain fifteen 

 hundred Attic drachms. But this, he apprehends, is an 

 injudicious interpolation in the laft coUeftion of that author. 



The Euboic talent, fays this writer, certainly came from 

 Afia ; for Herodotus (lib. iii. feft. 8g. ) tells us, the kings of 

 Perfia weighed their gold by that talent : in the fame place 

 he informs us, that the Babylonian talent weighed feventy 

 Euboic minx. Pollux fays, it weighed feventy Attic minx. 

 Therefore the Euboic talent ffiould be equal to the Attic. 

 But iElian (Var. Hift. hb.i. c. 22.) tells us, that it weighed 

 feventy-two Attic minx ; and if fo, the Euboic talent 

 ftiould be heavier than the Attic, in the proportion of 

 feventy-two to feventy. By two paffages, cited by Mr. 

 Raper, from Xenophon, Exped. lib. i. it appears probable, 

 that the Babylonian talent weighed above feventy Attic 

 minx, and above feventy Euboic minx ; and if Pollux took 

 his value of the Babylonian talent from Herodotus, as the 

 text now ftands, and jElian his value of the fame from a 

 more correft copy of that author, or from fome^better autho- 

 rity, the Euboic talent muft have been equal to the Attic. 

 Accordingly it contained fix thoufand Attic drachms. Phil. 

 Tranf. vol. Ixi. part ii. p. 483, &c. 



There is another tiJent much more ancient, and much lefs 

 than any of thofe already mentioned, which Dr. Arbuthnot 

 calls the Homerical talent of gold, fuppofed, he fays, to be 

 equal to three Attic aurei. Pollux fpeaks of fuch a talent. 

 Euftathius upon Homer reckons it worth twenty-four 

 drachmx. That its value was fmall, whether ftxed or un- 

 certain, is conjeftured from the paffage of Homer, where, 

 defcribing the prizes at the funeral of Patroclus, two talents 

 of gold are propofed as a more inconfiderable prize than a 

 mare with foal, &c. Hence Mr. Raper, ubi fupra, p. 527, 

 concludes, that it was the fame that the Dorian colonies car- 

 ried to Sicily and Calabria : for Pollux teUs us, from 

 Ariftotle, that the ancient talent of the Greeks in Sicily 

 contained twenty-four nummi, each of which weighing an 

 obolus and a half, the talent muft have weighed fix Attic 

 drachms, or three darics ; but the daric weighed very little 

 more than one guinea ; and if two talents weighed about fix 

 guineas, we may reckon the mare with foal worth twelve ; 

 which was no improbable price, fince we learn from a paffage 

 in the Clouds of Ariftophanes, that, in his time, a running 

 horfe coft twelve minx, or above forty-fix pounds fterling ; 

 therefore this feems to have been the ancient Greek talent, 

 before the art of ftamping money had introduced the greater 

 talents from Afia and Egypt. 



According to this ancient talent, fays Dr. Arbuthnot, 

 fome reckon the treafure of king David, particularly that 

 mentioned 1 Chron. xxii. 14. which, according to the common 

 reckoning, would amount in gold talents to the value of 

 547,500,000/. and the filver to above 342,000,000/. ; or 

 reckoning according to the decuple proportion of gold to 



filver. 



