Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/386

 reduced asses. We must remember that the heaviest Roman as yet known is only 11 ounces, whilst the great proportion of the earliest specimens are only 10 unciae or (dextantals). When the idea of a real copper currency for local purposes gained ground, and it was found that it was not necessary to have the as of account of full weight, and at the same time to enable the state to make a profit of this copper currency which was solely for home use (just as our Mint makes a large profit of our silver coins), the first stage in reduction was to take off an ounce, or much more frequently two full ounces. I have already pointed out the vitality and universality of the uncia as an unit, and have given the reasons for this. Hence arose asses or bars of 10 ounces. The number 10 had of course great advantages, and presently, when further reductions in the copper currency took place, certain communities clave fast to the decimal system and, instead of taking off some more whole ounces, simply reduced the ounce itself, and retained the denomination, continuing to place the marks of value as before. In those Hellenized states of Apulia just referred to this reduced copper as or litra was the legal unit, and therefore denominated a nomos, especially as it probably corresponded in value (at least as money of account) to the silver unit or nomos in circulation in each district. But whilst Mr Soutzo seems wrong in his view of the nomos, there can be no doubt that there was a consensus among the Sicilians and Italians in favour of making an intermediate unit between 1 and 100, the tenfold of the litra and as, into a higher unit. The Syracusan decalitron and the Roman decussis and denarius are incontrovertible facts. For the latter at least a most interesting connection with a unit of barter can be proved. We saw that by the Lex Tarpeia (451 ) a cow was counted at one hundred asses (centussis, centumpondium) whilst a sheep was estimated at 10 asses (decussis). The reader will observe that, even if the theory were true that the Roman centumpondium is the starting-point of the Roman weight system, and that it was borrowed from the East, the cow all the same plays a most important part in the founding of the system. It would be another instance to prove the impossibility of framing a weight