April — sept. 1859.] Ancient and Modern times. 



105 



alteration. They probably disappeared along with Jewish inde- 

 pendence. Under Roman sway Roman currency circulated — the 

 fact is expressly cited in the New Testament as an obvious proof 

 of the extinction of Jewish liberty. The theocratic institutions of 

 the people (for the theocratic element was not altogether extin- 

 guished by the adoption of kingly government) had probably much 

 to do with the freedom of their coin from fraudulent depreciation, 

 and thus one cause of disturbance of the relative proportions of 

 their weights was avoided. The standard shekel was preserved 

 in the sanctuary. It was probably in imitation of this custom that 

 Justinian ordered the standard weights anct measures to be kept 

 in the principal church of each town, without, I fear, a similar re- 

 sult. The attachment of the Jews to their national customs, pecu- 

 liarities, and prejudices also contributed to the preservation of 

 their system of weights unchanged, so long as their power cor- 

 responded to their will. 



I have only to add that a passage in the book of Ezekiel (xlv. 

 12) — " twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels shall 

 be your maneh" — implies the existence of coins of those values 

 respectively, all multiples of five, and all together making 60 

 shekels, or one maneh or minah, the maneh itself being a multiple 

 of 12 and 5 shekels. 



In the States of Greece, I have already said, several standards 

 were in use ; but the relation between the four denominations of 

 their systems of weights and coins remained constant in all. The 

 Table was — 



Obolus. 



6 



Drachma. 







600 



100 



Mina. 





36,000 



6,000 



60 



Talent. 



In this system six and ten are the multiple numbers : the for- 

 mer may have come from the Hebrew division ; the connection 

 between the two Tables being shown by the evident identity of 

 the minah (fiva) and maneh. But twelve seems to have been a 

 Vol. xx. o. s. Vol. yi. n. s. 



