Now Dr Hultsch (_Metrologie_², 19. 3), following Mommsen, shows that gold being to silver as 12½:1, the small talent, called the Sicilian, of which we have just spoken, confined exclusively to gold, would be exactly equivalent to a Roman pound of silver (135 × 3 × 12½ = 5062 grains of silver; whilst the Roman lb. = 5040 grs.). Since at Rome, previous to the reduction of the As in 268 B.C., a _Scripulum_ of silver was equivalent to a pound of copper or as _libralis_, and there are 288 _Scripula_ or _scruples_ in the pound, it follows that the pound of silver or its equivalent the Sicilian gold talent was worth 288 _asses librales_. This gold talent = 3 Attic staters (or ox-units), therefore 1 Attic stater = 96 _asses librales_. But we learned from Festus and Gellius that the value of the cow fixed in 429 B.C. was 100 asses. From this it appears that the value of the ox on Italian soil at this period was almost exactly the same as the traditional value which it had in the Homeric Poems, and which it continued to have in the Delian sacrifices in later times. The mere difference between 96 and 100 asses calls for no elaborate comment. It is enough to remark after Hultsch, that the further we go back the cheaper copper appears to be in relation to silver. This fact will easily explain any discrepancy. Thus Mommsen’s view that silver was to copper as 288:1 gives us a most interesting result. Let us now turn to Mr Soutzo’s view on the same subject. He maintains that at no time was the relation between silver and copper greater than 120:1, basing his argument on the assumption (which we shall find to be against the statements of the ancient writers) that when the first silver _denarius_ or 10-_as_ piece was coined in 268 B.C., as the _as_ at that time weighed only two _unciae_, or one-sixth of a pound, silver was to copper as 120:1. He also argues from the fact that in Egypt, under the Ptolemies, the same relations existed between silver and bronze. He likewise maintains that the relation between gold and silver in Italy and Sicily at this period was as 16:1, from which it follows that gold was to copper as 1920:1. This of course gives us as the value of a cow about 390 grains of gold, that is about three gold staters, or ox-units. We would certainly be able to prove that at no time or place in the ancient world was a cow of so great a value in gold.