ber of days of the current month must be increased by two before we deduct from them. Hence, dies tertius ante Cat. Julias is the 29th of June, as June has thirty days. This is the cause of the whole apparent difficulty in calculating the Roman dates. But, besides this, we have to consider another peculiarity, which is a remnant of the ancient arrangement of the Roman year, ascribed to King Numa, viz., in the months of March, May, July, and October, the Nonae fall on the 7th, and the Idus on the 15th, instead of the 5th and 13th. In leap years (i. e., according to the Roman expression, every fifth year) February has one day more, but this intercalary day was not added at the end of the month, as is the custom in modern times, but was inserted in the place where formerly the intercalary month (mensis intercalaris) had been inserted to make the lunar year of King Numa harmonize with the solar year, that is, after the 23d of February, so that the 24th of February, i. e., the sixth day before the Calendae of March, was reckoned double, and was called bis sextus or bis sextum, whence the leap year itself was called annus bis sextus. On this subject, see the classical work of Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, Berlin, 1825, in the beginning of vol. ii.

[§ 868.] Respecting the grammatical form of stating the day of a month the following points must be observed. The ablative indicates the time when a thing occurs; hence we say, e. g., die tertio ante Calendas Martias, but die and ante may be omitted, and we may say tertio Calendas, or in figures iii. Cal. Cicero and Livy, however, use a different form, either exclusively, or, at least, much more commonly than others; e. g., ante diem tertium Calendas, or Nonas, Idus (abridged a. d. iii. Cal.). This peculiarity, instead of the correct die tertio ante Calendas, cannot be explained otherwise than by the supposition that ante changed its place, and that afterward the ablat. was changed into the accusat., as if it were dependent on ante, while the real accusat. Calendas remained unchanged. Pridie, the day before, and postridie, the day after, are either joined with the genitive; as, pridie ejus diei, or, in the case of established calendar names and festivals with the accusative, to which people were more accus tomed; as, pridie Idus, pridie Compitalia, pridie natalem, postridie ludos Apollinares.

[§ 69.] This expression ante diem must be considered 13 an indeclinable substantive, since we often find it preceded by prepositions which govern the accusat. or ablat. ; 3. g., Cic., in Cat., i., 3, dixi ego idem in Senatu, caedem e optimatum contulisse in ante diem V. Cal. Novembris (or Novembres, is being probably only the ancient termination of the accusat., instead of es); Liv., xliii., 16, in ante dies octavum et septimum Calendas Octobres comitiis dicta dies; xlv., 2, supplicatio indicta est ex ante diem quintum Idus Octobres, cum eo die in quinque dies; and in the same manner postridie, e. g., Cic., ad Att., ii., 11, nos in Formiano esse volumus usque ad pridie Nonas Maias.

[§ 870.] In order to facilitate the calculation of a date in the ancient calendar (such as it was established by C. Julius Caesar, in B.C. 45), we have annexed Bröder's table, in which the beginner may easily find his way.

APPENDIX III.

ROMAN WEIGHTS, COINS, AND MEASURES.

7

[§ 871.] 1. THE Roman pound (libra, pondo) is about of the Paris pound, that is, 11 ounces and 14 drachm. (According to Romé de l'Isle, it contained 6048 Paris grains; according to Cagnazzi, 6135; according to Letronne, 6154; according to Paucker and Böckh, 6165, 9216 of which make a Paris pound.) It is divided into 12 parts (unciae), and these twelve parts together are called an as. The names of the fractions are: is uncia (about an ounce in weight); sextans, that is, ; quadrans, that is,; triens, that is, ; quincunx; semis or semissis, i. e., half an as; septunx; bes or bessis, i. e., two parts out of three, or; dodrans, compounded from dequadrans, i. e., ; dextans or decunx; deunx, i. e., one ounce less, scil. than an as. These names are also applied to other relations; thus we say, e. g., he was instituted heir ex dodrante; i. e., he received; ex deunce, he received of the whole property. An uncia contains 2 semiunciae, 3 duellae, 4 sicilici, 6 sextulae, 24 scrupula or scripula. One ounce and a half is sescuncia (from sesquiuncia). Compounds of as are tressis, 3 ases ; octussis, 8 ases; decussis, 10 ases; centussis, 100 ases.

[§ 872.] 2. The most ancient Roman money was of copper, and the as, as a coin, was originally a pound of copper coined. At the time when the Romans commenced to coin silver (some years before the first Punic war), the copper as was reduced, at first to, afterward to, and at last to of the original weight, so that the coin which had originally weighed a pound of copper, was afterward only half an ounce in weight.

Silver coins were the denarius, originally equal to 10 ases, and subsequently, after the reduction of the as to, equal to 16 ases. Half a denarius was called quinarius ;

of a denarius sestertius, that is, originally 2 ases and a half (hence it is written HS; i. e., 24); but when the denarius had become equal to 16 ases, it was worth 4 ases. Silver coins of still smaller value were the libella,

1

of a denarius; the sembella, of a denarius; terun cius, of a denarius, 3 unciae of the ancient, and 4 unciae of the reduced copper money. A denarius weighed a little more or less than 73 Paris grains, but was gradually reduced, under the first emperors, to 63 grains; hence the Roman pound in the times of the Republic contained about 84 denarii (which, according to Plin., Hist. Nat., xxxiii., 46, was the legal amount), and in the reign of Domitian from 96 to 100.

Gold was coined in various ways: an aureus in the times of the emperors was equal to 25 denarii or 100 sestertii; consequently, 1000 HS are equal to 10 aurei, 100,000 HS to 1000 aurei, and decies HS to 10,000 aurei. The Emperor Honorius made 25 pounds of copper coin equal to one solidus (aureus), that is, a pound of copper equal to a silver denarius.

[§ 873.] 3. The Romans generally calculated according to sestertii, and a nummus is simply a sestertius. Instead of mille sestertii, we may say, with equal correctness, mille sestertium (genit. plur.), just as we commonly say mille passuum. A million, as was remarked in § 115, is expressed by the form of multiplication: decies centena milia sestertium, or more commonly by decies alone, centena milia being omitted; centies, therefore, is 10 millions, and millies 100 millions. As people were thus accustomed to hear the word sestertium in connexion with mille, they came by a kind of grammatical blunder to consider sestertium as a substantive of the neuter gender, and hence they said unum sestertium, septem sestertia, bis dena sestertia, sexcenta sestertia, &c., instead of unum mille sestertium, septem milia sestertium, &c. In Cicero it does not often occur, but is yet found in some passages, as in Verr., iii., 50; Parad., 6, 3; but in the writers of the silver age it is quite common.

Decies sestertium, a million of sestertii, centies sestertium, &c., is used as a singulare tantum of the neuter gender; e. g., Cic., in Verr., ii., 7, HS decies numeratum ess; Philip., ii., 16, amplius HS ducenties acceptum heredita bus rettuli. But the mistake was carried still farther by declining this expression; e. g., Liv., xlv., 4, argenti ad summam sestertii decies in aerarium rettulit, up to the sum of one million sestertii; Cic., Philip., ii., 37, yngrapha sestertii centies, a bill of ten millions of sestertii Tacit., Ann.,

xii., 58, Bononiensi coloniae, igni haustae, subventum cen ties sestertii largitione, by a present of ten millions of sestertii; Sueton., Caes., 50, Serviliae sexagies sestertio margaritam mercatus est, he bought her a pearl for six millions of sestertii; Sueton., Octav., 41, Senatorum censum duodecies sestertio taxavit, he fixed the senatorial census at 1,200,000 sestertii; Cic., p. Font. (Niebuhr, Fragm.), § 4, Testis non invenitur in ducentis et tricies sestertio; ad Att., iv., 2, superficiem aedium aestimarunt HS (sestertio) decies. [§ 874.] 4. With regard to Greek weights and money, we can here add only a few remarks. An Attic talent (talentum) is equal to 80 Roman pounds; a mina (uvā) is the sixtieth part of it; i. e., equal to 11 Roman pound; and 100 drachmae make one mina. Consequently, a talent has 60 minae or 6000 drachmae. The same names and proportions occur in the Greek coins. The most common silver coin, which forms the unit in calculations, is the drachma (which is worth 6 oboli). It varies very much in weight, according to the different places and times, but in general it is considered equal to the Roman denarius. The Attic drachma, however, is somewhat better than the Roman denarius. (See Böckh, The Public Econom. of Athens, chap. iv., 2d edit., Engl. transl.) When compared with Roman money, a mina is equal to 4 aurei, and a talent to 240 aurei, or to 24,000 sestertii.

[§ 875.] 5. The basis of Roman measures is the foot, pes, which, according to the most accurate calculations of modern scholars, contained 131 Paris lines, 144 of which make a Paris foot. The Roman foot is divided either, according to the general fractional system, into 12 unciae, or into 16 digiti (dákтvλ01). Smaller measures are: semipes, foot; palmus, foot, or 4 digiti, i. e., the breadth of a hand (aλacorý), but in later times, and even down to the present day in Italy, the name palmus is transferred to the length of a span, and is equal to of a foot. Greater measures are: palmipes, a foot and a palmus, i. e., 14 foot; cubitus (Tnxvs), 14 foot; passus, a pace, or 5 feet; actus, 120 feet, or 12 decempedae. The Greek stadium has 600 Greek and 625 Roman feet; 40 stadia are some what more than a geographical mile. On the Roman roads milestones were erected at intervals of 1000 passus, and such a Roman mile of 5000 feet contains 8 stadia. amounting to very little more than of a geo