Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/373

 the length or breadth of the as. The pieces in the Museum are all fragments, and, even if there were any of them whole, they would not by any means decide the original length, although they would of course represent the weight. For as they are late, they would probably have been made at a time when the original rod was shrinking up into a more compact form, just as the Chinese bronze knives get shorter and thicker. But the fact remains that the as was identified completely with the Roman foot measure, the divisions being the same in each. We therefore may with great probability infer that the as was originally a piece of copper a foot in length, and of a known thickness. We have seen that copper and iron are not weighed in the early stages of society, but are appraised by measurement. Why should not the same hold true for Rome? It may be asked, how came it that the as was taken as the typical unit for weight and superficial measure, and to express even an inheritance? The answer is not far to seek. To express fractional parts has ever been a great difficulty with primitive people. As the Malays cannot conceive abstract numerals, but must append the concrete padi to each of their numbers, so the old Italian found it necessary to employ some concrete object, the subdivisions of which were familiar, to express the fractional parts whether it be of an estate or anything else. The most common unit in use was the rod of copper divided into 12 thumbs. Accordingly, if a Roman wished to say that Balbus was heir to one-twelfth of an estate he expressed this by the homely formula that Balbus had come in for one inch, the denominator 12 being mentally supplied, as everyone knew that there were 12 inches in the copper bar. The same principle of taking some familiar object, the ordinary method of dividing which was known to all men, is seen in the method of expressing one-tenth. The Roman denarius was divided into 10 libellae; accordingly, when Cicero wishes to say that a certain person had come in for a tenth part of an estate he says that he has come in for a libella (heres ex libella). From this the reader will at once see that we might just as well declare that the word denarius is an abstract word meaning unity as make the same assertion about the as. Again, when