FARTHING. This word occurs four times in the V. of the N. T. Two names of coins are rendered by it.
r. KoSpdvrns, quadrans (Matt. v. 26 ; Mark xii. 42), a coin current in Palestine in the time of our Lord. According to St. Mark, it was equal to two /epta (Xerra Sew 6 ea-71 Kapcivans, Mark, Z c.) The quaa'rans was originally the fourth part of the as, or a piece of three ounces, called tezuncius, and was marked with three balls to denote its value (Plin. xxxiii. 3, 13). It was already, in the time of Cicero (as recorded by Plutarch in the story of the impiety of Clodius, circa B.C. 62), the smallest Roman brass coin (rd Xorrbrarov roi", xaXKof.i popia /lards Kova6pcivrtiv Plut. /n. Cie. xxix. 26), though in the earlier times of the Republic there were the sex/ails or sixth part of the as, the uncia or twelfth part, and the semiuncia or half ounce (Cohen. 11-led. imp., Introduction, p. xii.) The /eptzwz was the smallest Greek copper coin, and, according to Suidas (s.vv. rdXavrop and .336X6s), was the seventh part of the xaXKoin. (MITE.] In the Roman copper coinage current in Palestine at the time of our Lord, the smallest coin seems to have been the as (eur ciptop, vi d. infra), but there was also another currency, the Grxco Roman or Greek imperial. The KoSpciprns and Xhrrou may have belonged to the latter. If so, the former would be the quarter of the deo-tiptop, and the latter the eighth.
2. 'AcrucEptoP (Matt. x. 29 ; Luke xii. 6) the Greek name of the Roman as or assarius. The Vulg. in Matt. x. 29 renders it by as, and the cio-o-cipta 860 in Luke xii. 6 by diponclius. The dipondius or dupondius was equal to two asses. From the fact t'nat the Vulg. substitutes dipandius for two assaria, it is probable that a single coin only is intended by this latter form. This statement is partly corro borated by our finding copper Greek autonomous coins of Chios (viz., coins struck during the Im
perial periorl, though without an Imperial head) having on them the words ACCAPION, ACCA PIA ATO or ATO and ACCAPIA TPIA. We also have copper coins of Chios with the words HMTACCAPION (sic) and OBOA0E, this latter being properly the name of a Greek silver coin, though it was used at Metapontum in Lucania for a copper coin. From the beauty of the work of this piece it cannot be later than B.C. 3oo, and the °bolus at this period was certainly of silver. It has been suggested that it was struck in a time of ex treme public distress, but this is doubtful (Millin gen, Num. a'e l'Ancienne Italie, pp. 25, 26). In later times the obolus of copper seems to have been of common occurrence (616a ^yap 1-Plz xxXKIN, 6po oto-Da, rap& 763 P icararXe6vrwp eK x&ywp, Lucian, ContempL, Didot. ed., p. 133 ; cf. Vitruvius 1). The HMTACCAPION (sic), half-assarius, was, according to Polybius, the sum given by travellers in Italy for a day's living, and the same writer adds that it was equal to the fourth part of the obolus T OCT 0 3' ?arc ab-ap TOV ,tapos Polyb. Hist. ii. 15, 6). The assarius would thus be equal to half the obolus. In another passage he states that the daily pay of a foot soldier in his time was two oboli (Polyb. Reliq. vi. 39, 12). At this time the attic drachm and denarius were identical [DnAcHtvi], and a de narius in paying the soldiers was estimated at ten asses (Plin. xxxiii. 3, 13). The obolzts being the sixth part of the drachm, two oboli a day would be equal to 31. asses. In this case the assarius would be equal to rather more than half the obolus. The ratio instead of being to 5 would be to 6, but the discrepancy is so small as to be of no material importance.—F. W. M.