As (Pes, Jugerum) Deunx = ¹¹⁄₁₂ Dextans ¹⁰⁄₁₂ Dodrans ¾ Bes ⅔ Septunx ⁷⁄₁₂ Semis ½ Quincunx ⁵⁄₁₂ Triens ⅓ Quadrans ¼ Sextans ⅙ Uncia ⅟₁₂ Semuncia ⅟₂₄ Sicilicus ⅟₄₈ Sextula ⅟₇₂ Scriptulum ⅟₂₈₈ Now it has been hitherto assumed by all writers that the system of division employed in the _as_ as a unit of _weight_ has been transferred to _measure_. This however is contrary to all experience, for, as we have had occasion constantly before to notice, weight units are derived from measures, e.g. the bushel from the measure of that name, and so on. In the next place as the _as_ is not the unit of Roman weight, if even the measure unit was borrowed from the weight, we ought to expect the foot to be called a _libra_ rather than an _as_. It is far more likely that a unit originally employed for measure would in time give its name to a weight-unit corresponding in mass to the original measure-unit. There are besides certain pieces of evidence afforded by the nomenclature of the submultiples which point directly to the original as being a measure rather than a weight-unit. The 24th part of the uncia is called the _scriptulum_, _little scratch_, or _line_ (_scribo_), which is exactly translated by the Greeks as _gramme_ (γραμμή, scratch or line)[423]. Now whilst 24 strokes make an excellent method of dividing the uncia in its capacity of _inch_, they of course have no significance as submultiples of uncia, meaning _ounce_. Moreover, the forms of several of the best known divisions of the _as_, such as triens, quadrans, sextans, which are not easy to explain on the hypothesis that the terminology was primarily applied to weight, on the other hand admit of a ready solution when we take the _as_ as originally a unit of measure. For sextans means not a sixth, but that which makes a sixth, triens not a third, but that which divides in three parts, and quadrans not a fourth, but that which makes fourfold, i.e. divides into four, for _quadra_ means not a fourth part, but that which has four parts (hence usually a square). If we regard these words as referring to certain lines drawn across a bar of metal, their meaning is obvious. Whilst _sextans uncia_, the ounce which makes a sixth, is nonsense, _sextans linea_, the line which makes a sixth, gives excellent sense, so likewise _triens linea_ fits in admirably with the required meaning, whilst _quadrans linea_ seems to mean _the line which divides the whole into four parts_.