Attic talent

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A decadrachm (10-drachma silver coin) from Syracuse , 400 BC. One talent corresponded to 600 of these decadrachms .

The Attic talent ( Greek τάλαντον, talanton for scales, weight; Latin talentum ), also known as Athenian talent or Greek talent , is an ancient unit of measurement of mass, which corresponds to approx. 26 kg. Like other ancient units of measure for the masses, talent was used as currency by weighing in pure silver (less often gold or copper).

Originally, a talent corresponded to the amount of water needed to fill an amphora with a volume of 39 liters.

A tetradrachm (4-drachma silver coin) from Athens. One talent corresponded to 1,500 of these tetradrachms .

An Attic talent corresponded to 60 mines or 6,000 drachmas or 36,000 oboloi . The basis of the Attic coin standard was the tetradrachm made of silver with a weight of 17.2 grams. From this the weight of a Talent Silver can be determined to be 25.8 kg (1500 tetradrachms, 17.2 grams each).

In the monetary system, talent and mine are purely arithmetic, the largest coin in Athens was the decadrachm.

Subdivision

Attic talent is divided as follows:

mine drachma Obolus
1 talent 60 6,000 36,000
1 mine 100 600
1 drachma 6th

This subdivision of the Attic talent remained unchanged over the centuries in the Greco-Hellenistic world.

Purchasing power

Comparing purchasing power is generally difficult, so here are just a few figures:

In some years Athens obtained 200 talents of silver from its silver mines in Laurion , equivalent to 5.2 tons of silver. According to Thucydides, the annual average of the income from the contributions of the allies in the Attic League was 600 talents (15.6 tons of silver), in addition, 6000 talents of silver (156 tons of silver) were stored on the Acropolis. Originally 460 talents were set as the total of the annual contributions in the Attic League, in 431 BC. B.C. Athens moved z. B. only 430 talents from his allies.

A judge ( Heliast ) received an obolus for each day of the session since Perikles, at Kleon's instigation since 425 BC. Three oboloi (i.e. half a drachma) per day. A chous wine (approx. 3 liters) was given for one obolus . Entry to the theater cost 2 obols, which corresponded to the daily wage of the poor in the population.

In Athens the average wage for a skilled worker was one drachma a day towards the end of the fifth century and two and a half drachmas in 377 BC. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the wages of a hoplite were also one drachma per day. At the end of the fifth century in Athens you could get a Medimnos grain for 3 drachmas , which corresponds to an amount of approx. 52 liters.

When the Parthenon was built , a sculptor was given 60 drachmas for each figure in the frieze , according to an inscription on the building.

During the Peloponnesian War the pay of a rower ( theta ) was one drachma a day. A trireme with 200 rowers therefore cost a talent of silver per month in pay for the rowers alone. So a fleet of a hundred ships had wages of 100 talents (2.6 tons of silver) per month just for the rowers. According to Meier, the pay for a rower was only half a drachma per day. With a crew of around 200, the wages per ship and day cost around 100 drachmas, 3,000 per month, that was half a talent. So if a fleet of a hundred ships were in service for six months, wages would be 300 talents.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Herodotus, Robin Waterfield and Carolyn Dewald, The Histories (1998), p. 593.
  2. Talent (Biblical Hebrew), Unit of Measure , unitconversion.org .
  3. Darel Engen: The Economy of Ancient Greece , EH.Net Encyclopedia, 2004. (Section Money and Banking : The basis of the Attic standard was the silver tetradrachm of 17.2 grams )
  4. Peter Connolly , Hazel Dodge: Die antike Stadt, Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-8290-1104-0 , p. 47
  5. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities ( Memento from September 21, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  6. Darel Engen: The Economy of Ancient Greece , ( Country section : The mines were extremely productive, providing Athens with an income of 200 talents per year for twelve years from 338 BC onward. )
  7. Thukydides , Der Peloponnesische Krieg , http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_the_Peloponnesian_War/Book_2 (See section 13: Apart from other sources of income, an average revenue of six hundred talents of silver was drawn from the tribute of the allies; and there were still six thousand talents of coined silver in the Acropolis, out of nine thousand seven hundred that had once been there )
  8. ^ Christian Meier : Athens. A new beginning in world history . Paperback edition reviewed and expanded by the author. Goldmann, Munich 1995. ISBN 3-442-12852-8 , pp. 297-298.
  9. http://www.muenzenwoche.de/de/Archiv/8?&id=3&type=a
  10. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0046%3Achapter%3D27%3Asection%3D2 (see section 27.2: Also Pericles first made service in the jury-courts a paid office, as a popular counter-measure against Cimon's wealth. )
  11. Aristophanes , Die Ritter (line 255) and The Wasps (lines 609, 684, 690, 788–790, 1121).
  12. James Davidson: Courtesans and Fishcakes. The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens. Fontana Press, London 1998, ISBN 0-00-686343-4 , p. 59.
  13. ^ Peter Connolly, Hazel Dodge: The Ancient City, p. 91
  14. Darel Engen: The Economy of Ancient Greece , EH.Net Encyclopedia, 2004. ( Labor : In Athens the typical wage for a skilled laborer was one drachma per day at the end of the fifth century and two and a half drachmai in 377 . )
  15. Thukydides , Der Peloponnesische Krieg , http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_the_Peloponnesian_War/Book_3 (see section 17: Potidaea being blockaded by a force of heavy infantry (each drawing two drachmae a day, one for himself and another for his servant) )
  16. Darel Engen: The Economy of Ancient Greece , EH.Net Encyclopedia, 2004. (Section Labor : The price of wheat in Athens at the end of the fifth century was 3 drachmai per medimnos. )
  17. http://www.zeno.org/Meyers-1905/A/Medimnos .
  18. Peter Connolly, Hazel Dodge: The ancient city p. 77 "To Pyromachus of Kephisia for the youth next to the armor: 60 dr. [..] To Mynnion, inhabitant of Agryle, for the horse and the man who beats it. He later added the column (which is why he got a little more): 127 dr. "
  19. Cecil Torr: Triremes. In: The Classical Review 20, 1906, p. 137.
  20. ^ Christian Meier: Athens. A new beginning in world history . Paperback edition reviewed and expanded by the author. Goldmann, Munich 1995. ISBN 3-442-12852-8 , pp. 298-299.