Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/335

 JEGIX.EAN SCALE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 31 3 eubsequently another rival scale in Greece, called the Euboic, differing considerably from the JEginaaan. We do not know at what time it was introduced, but it was employed both at Athens and in the Ionic cities generally, as well as in Euboea, being modified at Athens, so far as money was concerned, by Solon's debasement of the coinage. The copious and valuable information contained in M. Boeckh'd recent publication on Metrology, has thrown new light upon these monetary and statical scales. 1 He has shown that both the ./Egi- naean and the Euboic scales the former standing to the latter in the proportion of 6:5 had contemporaneous currency in different parts of the Persian empire ; the divisions and denomi- nations of the scale being the same in both, 100 drachmae to a mina, and 60 minaa to a talent. The Babylonian talent, mina, and drachma are identical with the -^Eginaean : the word mina is of Asiatic origin ; and it has now been rendered highly probable, that the scale circulated by Pheidon was borrowed immediately from the Phoenicians, and by them originally from the Babylonians. The Babylonian, Hebraic, Phoenician, Egyptian, 2 and Grecian scales of weight (which were subsequently followed wherever coined money was introduced) are found to be so nearly conform- able, as to warrant a belief that they are all deduced from one common origin ; and that origin the Chaldaean priesthood of Babylon. It is to Pheidon, and to his position as chief of the 1 Metrologische Untersuchungen iiber Gcwielite, Miinzfusse, nnd Masse des Alterthums in ihrem Zusammenhange dargestcllt, von Aug. Bocckh ; Berlin, 1838. See chap. 7, 1-3. But I cannot agree with M. Boeckh, in thinking that Pheidon, in celebrating the Olympic games, deduced from the Olympic stadium, and formally adopted, the measure of the foot, or that he at all settled measures of length. In general, I do not think that M. Boeckh's con- clusions are well made out, in respect to the Grecian measures of length and capacity. In an examination of this eminently learned treatise (inserted in the Classical Museum, 1844, vol. i.). I endeavored to set forth both the new and interesting points established by the author, and the various others in Irhich he appeared to me to have failed. correct to speak of the Egyptian money scale : the Egyptians had no coined money. See a valuable article, in review of my History, in the Christian Reformer, by Mr. Kenrick, who pointed out this inaccuracy.
 * I have modified this sentence as it stood in my first edition. It is not