[ 532 ] 
But the opinion that the ancient Attic Drachm 
was really equal to the Denarius, hath occafioned 
much confuhon in the writers on this lubjedh. Hence 
it is, that Rhetnnius Fannius hath told us ot an Attic 
Libra, or Mina (for he calls it by both names) of 75 
Drachms ; for the Roman Pound being reckoned to 
weigh 75 ancient Attic D.achms, Fannius, fuppofing 
them to be equal to fo many Denarii, concluded it 
rwufl: be an Attic weight, as it could not, on luch 
fuppolition be the Roman Pound. 
An anonymous fragment lays, The Attic Mina * 
weighs 12 Ounces^ the other 16(1): the lormer was 
the Roman Pound ; the latter, tlie ancient Attic 
Mina. Which makes it probable, that when the 
Athenians reduced their money to the Roman 
ftandard, they adopted the Roman Weights ; and 
this may have occafioned many midakes in the later 
writers. 
The great difproportion between the copper and 
' filver money, when the Romans fird coined the latter, 
hath induced many to believe that the fird Denarii 
mud have been heavier than the eighty -fourth part 
of their Pound ; thinking it incredible that filver 
diould ever be valued at 840 times its weight of 
copper. But they can produce no ancient author of 
credit, in fupport of this opinion. 
On the contrary, Dionylius of Halicarnadus, who 
made diligent enquiry into the antiquities of Rome, 
while all, or mod of the evidences relating to then> 
were in being, giving an account of the fird indi- 
i \ ) See the Appendix to Slcphcns’c Gicck ThcfatiPus, 
tut ion 
