The Carat of The Romans and Greeks
The solidus was also a Roman weight unit. There is literary evidence that the weight of 72 coins of the type called solidus was exactly 1 Roman pound, and that the weight of 1 solidus was 24 siliquae. The weight of a Roman pound is generally believed to have been 327.45 g or possibly up to 5 g less. Therefore, the metric equivalent of 1 siliqua was approximately 189 mg. The Greeks had a similar unit of the same value.
Gold fineness in carats comes from carats and grains of gold in a solidus of coin. One solidus = 24 carats, 1 carat = 4 grains, is preserved right up to this day. Woolhouse's Measures, Weights and Moneys of all Nations gives gold fineness in carats of 4 grains, and silver in (pound) of 12 ounces each 20 dwt.
Read more about this topic: Carat (mass)
Famous quotes containing the words carat, romans and/or greeks:
“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“I’ll stay by your side until you confess. And if you don’t, I’ll feed you to the villagers like the Romans fed Christians to the lions.”
—Willis Cooper. Rowland V. Lee. Krogh (Lionel Atwill)
“We are only geometricians of matter; the Greeks were, first of all, geometricians in the apprenticeship to virtue.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)