Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="EWC3, post: 4579237, member: 93416"]As I understand it the initial ('Greek') Cistophoric issues weighed 3 Attic Drachms but was tariffed at 4 Attic drachms.   Since there were there 100 drachms in a Greek mina that gives a reduced drachm weight of maybe 3.27g  - well below Augustus' drachm - and a little below  Nero's.  But maybe the same as the "Rhodes standard" and the Cappadiocian standard recently mentioned elsewhere.   That of course because Nero's drachm went 96 to the libra - not 100 to the libra - but also the libra has become 100 drachms in the east because 3/4 x Attic mina = Roman libra. Confused? - well - read Roman accounts of metrology and you might agree with me that the whole idea of the Roman state behind Roman coin issue was to confuse the population about what was going on.  It seems 25 became the new 24. Maybe take comfort from Rome itself.  By the medieval period they had apparently gotten so confused that its pound was c. 340g That is not the ancient Roman libra of 96 denarii of  3.4g,  (c. 327g) Nor the Eastern reduced attic pound of 100 (reduced) drachms.    (c. 327g) Its 100 Roman denarii............. Rob T PS  I find Ancient Chinese tax philosophy useful in understanding the real fundamentals of such matters: "People like to to be given things, but they do not like to give things.  Therefore what you must do is give to them openly, and take from the secretly." Kuan Tzu (Maverick translation)[/QUOTE]