The following measures are identical in pairs, if the /2E81/AVOS be two amphoras :—The xovs and the congius ; the Zeo-rws and the sextarius ; the sorviin and the hemina ; the reraprov and the quartarius; the ii/v ospav and the acetabulum; the nvaBos and the cyathus.
All the Greek measures above given are Attic : there are some variations of description which, if not erroneous, probably belong to other parts of Greece. It is customary to give the Greek and Roman measures in two collections, without any attempt to distinguish the times at which they were in use ; so that Homer and Athenmus, or Herodotus and Galen, may appear as authorities in the same set. There are many other names of measures noted by different writers, some of which are but synonymes of some of those above mentioned, and of others it may be doubted whether they were really names of recognised measures. If the writers of our day were compared in isolated passages as closely as those of the ancients, we might probably have a great many measures made for us of which we know nothing : the shells which the grocers use would have good chance of a per manent establishment, and their paper bags could not possibly escape.
The Hebrew measures, though tolerably well settled in their pro portions, are very imperfectly known as to their absolute magnitudes.
We shall only give here the usual summary, and shall then give some account of the mode of determining the actual magnitude of the Creek and Roman measures. With regard to these Hebrew measures, much uncertainty prevails ; the authorities are by no means so numerous as those for the other ancient measures, nor has the subject received so much discussion.
The cubic was about 22 inches ; 4 digits make 1 palm ; 3 palms, I span ; 2 spans, 1 cubit ; 4 cuhits,1 fathom ; 6 cubits, 1 reed (Ktuieh); 8 cubits, 1 pole (Arabian); 80 cubits, 1 measuring•line ;* 400 cubits 1 stadium ; 5 stadia, a Sabbath-day's journey; 10 stadia, a mile ; 21 miles, a day's journey.
In liquid measures, the bath, or ephah, of about Of imperial gallona, is thus divided :—Four logs make 1 cab, 3 cabs, 1 bin ; 2 bins, 1 scab ; 3 seals, 1 epheh. The caph is three-fourths of the log. For dry measures, besides the cab, seah, and ephah, 5 ephah make 1 letech ; 2 letech, 1 Chortler, or Homer. The gamer is the tenth of the seah. For weight, 60 shekels make one mulch; 50 mane)), 1 talent of 03.75 pounds averdupois.
We now come to the comparison of the Greek and Roman measures with our own. The Roman foot, the most important of all, has been determined in the following t ways :-1. By feet laid down on sepul chral monuments. 2. By foot•rules obtained in the ruins of Rome and elsewhere. 3. By the distance of mile-stones. 4. By the distance of places. 5. By specimens of the congius. 6. By some obelisks. 7. By the dimensions of buildings. The results are given in lines of 144 to the Parisian foot, and as many dissertations on this subject make great use of the line, it will be convenient to give a table of its multiples in terms of the English inch.
The sepulchral feet are :-1. That marked on the tomb of one Statilius,: found in the Vatican garden in the 16th century; 2. That found on the tomb of Cneius Cossutius (Vitruvius mentions an archi tect of that name), dug up in the garden of Angelo Colossi § before 1516; 3. That ou the tomb of M. Abutius ; 4. That on a monument without inscription, given by the Marquis Capponi to the Capitoline Museum at Rome. Taking the means of such trustworthy measures as have been made of these different feet, it appears that the Statilian foot is Paris lines; the Cossutian, or Colotian, lines; the zEhutian 131.14 lines; and the Capponian 130'80 lines.
The first foot-rule was measured by Lucas Pietas, `De Mensuris et Ponderibus Romanis et Grxeis,' Venice, 1573, who found three of them agreeing with each other so far as his means of comparing them went, a copy of which he caused to be engraved on stone and placed in the Capitoline Museum. This was called the Capitoline foot, and was frequently regarded as conclusive. Pietus himself makes the foot amount to lines ; but there is reason to suppose either that his measures are too short or that the standard to which he referred them has been mistaken ; for others make his own Capitoline foot to be 130.5 lbws. Two other foot•rules give 12S•75 and 13093 lines. There was a porphyry column at Rome (now lost) marked rob. 8, which was certainly meant for nine Roman feet. An editor of Vitruvius, Philander (1552), makes the Roman foot to be, from this column, 131.03 lines ; but Pictus makes it only 13093. Other foot-rules have been made to give 130.5, 130.93, 132.89, Some of these are different measures of the same rule.