7.

pay, Id. Planc. 28. solvere, Att. vi. 2. expungere, Plaut. Cist. i. 3. 41. Explicare, Att. 13. 29. Expedire, 16. 6. Transcribere nomina in alios, to lend money in the name of others, Liv. 35. Pecunia ei est in nominibus, is on loan, Cic. Verr. v. 7. Top. 3. In codicis extrema cera nomen infimum in flagitiosa litura, the last article at the bottom of the page shamefully blotted, Cic. Verr. i. 36. Rationum nomina, articles of accounts, Ib. 39. In tabulas nomen referre, to enter a sum received, Multis Verri nominibus acceptum referre, to mark down on the debtor side many articles or sums received from Verres, Ibid. Hinc ratio cum Curtis, multis nominibus, quorum in tabulis iste habet nullum, i. e. Curtiis nihil expensum tulit Verres, Ibid. Hence Cicero pleading against Verres often says, RECITA NOMINA, i e. res, personas, causas, in quas ille aut quibus expensum tulit, the accounts, or the different articles of an account, Ascon. Certis nominibus pecuniam debere, on certain accounts, Cic. Quinct. 11. Non refert parva nomina in codices, small sums, Cic. Rosc. Com. 1. Multis nominibus versuram ab aliquo facere, to borrow many sums to pay another, Cic. Verr. ii. 76. Permulta nomina, many articles, Ib. 5.—Likewise for a debtor; Ego bonum nomen existimor, a good debtor, one to be trusted, Cic. Fam. v. 6. Optima nomina non appellando fiunt mala, Colum. i. 7. Bono nomine centesimis contentus erat, non bono quaternas centesimas sperabat, 12 per cent. from a good debtor, 48 from a bad, Cic. Att. v. 21. Nomina sectatur tironum, i. e. ut debitores faciat venatur, seeks to lend to minors, a thing forbidden by law, Horat. Sat. i. 2. 16. Cautos nominibus certis expendere nummos, i. e. sub chirographo bonis nominibus vel debitoribus dare, to lend on security to good debtors, Id, Ep. ii. 1. 105. Locare nomen sponsu improbo, to become surety with an intention to deceive, Phædr. i. 16.

As the interest of money was usually paid on the Kalends, hence called TRISTES, Horat Sat. i. 3. 87. and CELERES, Ovid. remed. Amor. 561. a book in which the sums to be demanded were marked, was called CALENDARIUM, Senec, benef. i. 2. vii. 10. Ep. 14. 87.

TH

ROMAN MEASURES of LENGTH, &c.

HE Romans measured length or distance by feet, cubits, paces, stadia, and miles.

;

. The Romans, as other nations, derived the names of measure chiefly from the parts of the human body; DIGITUS, a digit, or finger's breadth; POLLEX, a thumb's breadth, an inch; PALMUS, an hand's breadth, a palm equal to (=) 4 digiti or 3 inches; PES, a foot, = 16 digits or 12 inches PALMIPES, a foot and an hand breadth; CUBITUS, a cubit, from the tip of the elbow, bent inwards, to the extremity of the middle finger, 1 foot, the fourth part of a well proportioned man's stature; PASSUS, a pace,=5 feet, including a double step, or the space from the place where the foot is taken up to that where it is set down, the double of an ordinary pace, gradus vel gressus. A pole ten feet long (decempeda) was called PERTICA, a perch (quasi Portica, a portando.) The English perch or pole is 16 feet.-Unâ perticâ tractare, to measure with the same ell, to treat in the same manner, Plin. Ep. 8. 2.

Each foot (PES) was divided into 4 palmi, or hand-breadths, 12 pollices, or thumb-breadths, and 16 digiti, or fingerbreadths: Each digitus was supposed equal to 4 barley-corns, (hordei grana), Frontin. de Aquæd. i. 2. But the English make their inch only three barley-corns.

The foot was also divided into 12 parts denominated from the divisions of the Roman as; thus, dodrans, vel spîthama, 9 polices, or unciæ, inches, Suet. Aug. 79. Plin. vii. 2.

A cubit (CUBITUS, v. -um) was equal to a foot and a half, (sesquipes), 2 spithama, 6 palmi, 18 pollices, or 24 digiti. PASSUS, a pace, was reckoned equal to 5 feet; Plin. ii. 23. 125. Passus or 625 feet made a STADIUM or furlong: and 8 Stadia or 1000 paces, or 5000 feet, a mile, (MILLIARUM, vel -re; vel MILLE, sc. passus v. passuum; Cic. Cacin. 10. Att. iii. 4. Gell. i. 16.)

The Greeks and Persians called 30 stadia PARASANGA; and 2 parasangs, SCHOENOS, Herodot. ii. 16. but others differ, Plin. v. 10. xii. 14.

The Roman acre (JUGERUM,) contained 240 feet in length, and 120 in breadth; that is, 28,800 square feet, Quinctil. i. 10. 42. Varr. R. R. i. 10. 1. Plin. xviii. 3, &c.

The half of an acre was called ACTUS QUADRATUS, consisting of 120 feet square; (ACTUS, in quo boves agerentur cum aratro uno impeta justo vel protelo, i. e. uno tractu vel tenore, at one stretch, without stopping or turning, Plin. xviii. 3. Donat. in Ter. Phorm. 1. 3. 36. non strigantes, without resting, Plin. Id. 19. s. 49. Senec, ep. 31. Phædr. iii. 6. 9. Actus quadrates UNDIQUE finitur pedibus cxx. Hoc duplicatum facit jugerum

jugerum, et abeo, quòd erat JUNCTUM, nomen jugeri usurpavit. Col. v. 1. 5. Jugum vocabatur, quòd uno jugo boum in die exarari posset. Plin. & Varr. Ibid.

An English acre contains 40 perches or poles, or 660 feet in length, and four poles or 66 feet in breadth. The Scots acre is somewhat more than one fifth larger.

The JUGERUM was divided into the same parts as an AS; hence uncia agri, the 12th part of an acre, Varr. de R. R.

i. 10.

THE

ROMAN MEASURES of CAPACITY.

HE measure of capacity most frequeatly mentioned by Roman authors, is the AMPHORA, (ex aupi et pepa, quod vas ejus mensura utrinque ferretur, duabus ausis), called also QUADRANTAL, or CADUS, and by the Greeks metreta or ceramium, a cubic foot, containing 2 urna, 3 modii, 8 congii, 48 sextarii, and 96 hemina, or cotyla. But the Attic amphora, (nados, or metrita,) contained 2 urna, and 72 sextarii.

The amphora was nearly equal to 9 gallons English, and the sextarius to one pint and a half English, or one mutchkin and a half Scots..

A sextarius contained 2 hemina, 4 quartarii, 8 acetabula, and 12 cyathi, which were denominated from the parts of the Roman as; thus, calices or cups were called sextantes, quadrantes, trientes, &c. according to the number of cyathi which they contained. See p. 455.

A cyathus was as much as one could easily swallow at once. It contained 4 ligula, vel lingulæ, or cochlearia, spoonfuls, Columel xii. 21. Plin. xx. 5. Martial. xiv. 120.

CONGIUS, the eighth of an amphora, was equal to a cubic half foot, or to 6 sextari. This measure of oil or wine, used anciently to be distributed by the magistrates or leading men among the people, Lip. xxv. 2. Plin. xiv. 14. Hence CONGIARIUM, a gratuity or largess of money, corn, or oil, given to the people, Liv. xxxvii. 57. Cic. Phil. ii. 45Suet. Cas. 38. chiefly by the emperors, Tacit. Annal, xiii. 31. Suet. Cas. 27. Aug. 42. Tib. 20. Dom. 4. or privately to an individual, Cic. Fam. viii. 1. Att. x. 7. Suet. Vesp. 18.

A gratuity to the soldiers was called DONATIVUM, Suet. Cal. 46. Ner. 7. Plin. paneg. 25. Tacit. Ann. xii. 41. sometimes also CONGIARIUM, Cic. Att. xvi. 8. Curt, vi. 2.

The

The congiaria of Augustus, from their smallness, used to be called HEMINARIA, Quinctil. vi. 4.

The weight of rain water contained in an amphora, was 89 Roman pounds, in a congius, 10 pounds, and in a sextarius, 1 pound 8 ounces.

The greatest measure of things liquid among the Romans, was the CULEUS, containing 20 amphora.

Pliny says, the ager Cacubus usually yielded 7 culei of wine an acre, i. e. 143 gallons 3 pints English, worth at the vine. yard 300 nummi, or 75 denarü, each culeus, i. e. L.2: 8:54, about a halfpenny the English pint, Plin. xiv. 4. Columell ii. 3

MODIUS was the chief measure for things dry, the third part of a cubic foot, somewhat more than a peck English. A modius of Gallic wheat weighed about 20 libra, Plin. xviii. 7. Five modi of wheat used to be sown in an acre; six of barley and beans, and three of pease, Ib. 24. Six modii were called MEDIMNUS, vel -um, an Attic measure, Nep. Attic.2. Cic. Verr. iii. 45. 47. 49. &c.

ROMAN METHOD OF WRITING.

MEN in a savage state have always been found ignorant of alphabetic characters. The knowledge of writing is a constant mark of civilization. Before the invention of this art, men employed various methods to preserve the memory of important events, and to communicate their thoughts to

those at a distance.

The memory of important events was preserved by raising altars or heaps of stones, planting groves, instituting games and festivals; and what was most universal, by historical songs, Tacit. de Mor. Germ. 2.

The first attempt toward the representation of thought was the painting of objects. Thus, to represent a murder, the figure of one man was drawn stretched on the ground, and of another with a deadly weapon standing over him. When the Spaniards first arrived in Mexico, the inhabitants gave notice of it to their emperor Montezuma, by sending him a large cloth, on which was painted every thing they had seen.

The

The Egyptians first contrived certain signs or symbols, called Heroglyphics, (from isgos, sacred, and yup, to carve,) whereby they represented several things by one figure.

The Egyptians and Phoenicians contended about the honour of having invented letters, Tacit. Ann. xi. 14. Plin. vii. 56. Lucan. iii. 220.

Cadmus, the Phoenician, first introduced letters into Greece near 1500 years before Christ, Herodot,v.58. then only sixteen in number, a, B, v, d, e, i, x, x, μ, v', 0, π, f, ☛, 7, v. To these, four were added by Palamedes, in the time of the Trojan war. 9,, P. x, and four afterwards by Simonides, &, n, ↓, w, Plin. vii. 56.s. 57. Hygin. fab. 277.

Letters were brought into Latium by Evander from Greece, Ibid. & Liv. i. 7. The Latin letters at first were nearly of the same form with the Greek, Tacit. ibid. Plin. vii. 58.

Some nations ranged their letters perpendicularly, from the top to the bottom of the page, but most horizontally. Some from the right to left, as the Hebrews, Assyrians, &c. Some from right to left and from left to right alternately, like cattle ploughing,as the ancient Greeks; hence this mannerofwriting was called Bergondov. But most, as we do, from left to right.

The most ancient materials for writing, were stones and bricks, Joseph. Ant. Jud. 1. 4. Tacit. Ann. ii. 60. Lucan. iii. 223. Thus the decalogue, or ten commandments, Exod. xxviv. 1. and the laws of Moses, Deut. xxvii. 8. Jos. viii. 32.

then plates of brass, Liv. iii. 57. Tacit. Ann. iv. 43. or of lead, Plin. xiii. 11. s. 21. Job. xix. 24. and the wooden tablets, Isaiah, xxx. 8. Horat. art. p. 399. Gell. ii. 12. On these, all public acts and monuments were preserved, Cic. Font. 14. Liv. vi. 20. Plin. pan. 54. Horat. od. iv. 8. 13. As the art of writing was little known, and rarely practised, it behoved the materials to be durable, Capital letters only were used, as appears from ancient marbles and coins.

The materials first used in common for writing, were the leaves, or inner bark (liber) of trees; whence leaves of paper, (charta, folia, vel plagula), and LIBER, a book. The leaves of trees are still used for writing, by several nations of India. Afterwards linen, Liv. iv. 7. 13. 20. and tables covered with wax were used. About the time of Alexander the Great, paper first began to be manufactured from an Egyptian plant or reed called PAPYRUS, vel -um, whence our word paper: or BIBLOS, whence figos, a book.

The Papyrus was about ten cubits high, and had several coats or skins above one another, like an onion, which they

separated