from Peloponnesus; and that they did not till subsequently adapt their coinage to the native standard. They then made the litra equal to the obolus, _i.e._, to the Æginetan, which was also the Corinthian;(1013) so that a Corinthian stater of ten oboli was called in Syracuse a δεχάλιτρον, or piece of ten litras. At the time, therefore, when this system was formed, the lb. of copper must have really been equal in value to a silver obolus. Now since the former weighed 6048,(1014) the latter nearly 23 French grains,(1015) the ratio of silver to copper must at the time of this arrangement have been as 1 to 263; the commerce of these regions having in early times determined this proportion. But as more silver was gradually introduced by the trade with the west of Europe, and probably at the same time some native copper-mines were exhausted, copper, which was the circulating medium of Italy, rose in comparison with silver, the circulating medium of Greece; and this was the principal cause of the constant diminution in the weight of the as in Etruria and Rome. But a detailed examination of this subject, so important in the history of the commerce of Greece and Italy, does not fall within the plan of the present work.(1016) What was the value of the νόμος of the Sicilian Greeks we are not informed by any decisive testimony: the name, however, proves that it was a current coin, and not of very inconsiderable value. For this reason I cannot assume that it was equal to a litra;(1017) Aristotle(1018) also states that the impression of the Tarentine coins was Taras sitting upon the dolphin; now, in the first place, this device does not occur on any litras or oboli of Tarentum; and, secondly, the coin would not be of sufficient size to contain it: for which reason the Greeks, whenever they stamped so small a coin of silver, always made use of the simplest devices. If, however, the Tarentine numus had the same ratio to the litra as the Roman numus sestertius to the as,(1019) the former would have been a large coin; and we are also on the same supposition enabled to explain how it came that in Sicily an amount of 24, and afterwards of 12 numi, was called a talent;(1020) for in that case 24 numi would be equal to 60 lbs. of copper, which was the same number of minas that the Æginetan talent of silver contained. It is also confirmed by the fact mentioned by Festus, that this talent in Neapolis amounted to six, and in Syracuse to three denarii, by which he means decalitra.(1021) And therefore, although other circumstances tend to shake the certainty of this supposition,(1022) it will be better to acquiesce in these arguments, on account of the harmony of the different statements. Chapter XI.