Symbols of ancient Roman monetary and weight units are brief designations of such ancient Roman coins as the denarius, quinarius, sestertius, as, as well as some other monetary, accounting, and weight units of Ancient Rome. They appeared during the late Roman Republic (264–27 BC) both on the coins themselves and in written documents; some were used until the 20th century, for example, the symbol of the scruple in the apothecaries' system of weights. In most cases, they consist of:
Roman numerals, crossed out or uncrossed with a horizontal stroke (equivalent value in asses or sesterces); Greek letter-numerals (equivalent value in nummia); counting dots or strokes (equivalent value in unciae), in some cases with the addition of the letter S—abbreviation of the word "semis" ( —half); abbreviations of the names of the corresponding accounting and weight units in Latin, ancient Greek, or ancient Egyptian languages.
In the case of monetary units, the symbols are, as a rule, no more than nominals, denoting the value of the corresponding unit in asses, nummia, etc. In some cases, one can speak of the emergence of an independent symbol of the monetary unit itself — for example, the denarius symbol, which represents a crossed-out Roman numeral "ten" (𐆖, X)."Vindolanda Tablets Online". 2011.
Symbols of weight units
Ancient symbols The basis of the ancient Roman monetary system, like any other ancient monetary system, lay in units of weight. Most of them derive from ancient Roman names of duodecimal fractions — the minutiae (sextans, uncia, semuncia, sextula, etc.), but some have original names: "libra", "sicilicus", "scruple", "siliqua", "grain".
Thus, the "sicilicus" (), like the name of the ancient Roman province of Sicily (), which was the granary of ancient Rome, derives from the word "sickle" (); sicilicus was the name of the sickle-shaped () diacritic mark used in writing. Another version states that the symbol of the sicilicus, which was equivalent to a quarter of an uncia and sometimes called "quartuncia" (), derives from the ancient Greek symbol , meaning a quarter in the Attic numeral system.
The siliqua derives from the name of the seeds of the carob tree (); the grain () is simply a grain, a speck (as a unit of weight, equivalent, according to various sources, to the mass of a barley or wheat grainNumismatist's Dictionary, 2006–2010, article "Gran".); the meaning of the word "scruple" () is a small sharp pebble.
Libra () is weight, scales, balance, equilibrium. The ancient Romans abbreviated the word libra to libr, lib, L or lb, placing the last sign, for example, on a weight of 327.45 grams. This weight standard received the name libral (Roman) weight (pound)—libra pondo (from —weight, heaviness).
Along with the libra, the key weight units of ancient Rome were such fractions of it as:
the uncia, equal to of a libra and equivalent to 27.29 grams; the scruple, equal to of an uncia or of a libra and equivalent to 1.14 grams.
The weight and nominals of copper (bronze) coins were tied to the uncia, and those of silver and gold to the scruple.
Weight units had their own symbols. Those included in the Unicode standard are presented in the table. Other variants of the script can be found in the sources listed in the section "Additional illustrations". Name of the weight unitSymbol of the weight unitImage of the symbolIn the Cardo font (The Cardo Font by David J. Perry)Equivalent of the unit of weight in gramsThe exact weight of most units is not established; in this column, it is given for reference and calculated based on the relation to the libra of 327.45 gRatio of weight unitsin Latinliteral meaninggrapheme and position in UnicodeUnicode, 2011. Ancient Symbols (range: 10190—101CF).HTMLSome symbols of the Unicode standard are not displayed in all fonts; in this column, a possible rendering of them in HTML markup is given, and for a number of units—symbols from David Perry's proposal for their inclusion in Unicode and from the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efronto librato unciato scrupleLibraWeight—lb, L, Ɫ≈ 327.45112288SextansSixth [part] of the asU+10190=, z ≈ 54.58248UnciaTwelfth [part]U+10191 -, ~, ‿ ≈ 27.29124SemunciaHalf of the twelfth [part] (half-uncia)U+10192Σ, Є, £ ≈ 13.6412Binae sextulae, duellaTwo sixths [parts] of the twelfth [part] (third of uncia)U+10193+10193ƧƧ≈ 9.108Quartuncia (sicilicus)Quarter of the twelfth [part] (quarter of uncia)U+10140Ɔ or)≈ 6.826SextulaSixth [part] of the twelfth [part] (sixth part of uncia)U+10193Ƨ, ς ≈ 4.554Dimidia sextulaHalf of the sixth [part] of the twelfth [part] (twelfth part of uncia)U+10194Ƨ≈ 2.282Scrupulum (scripulum, scripulis)Small sharp pebbleU+2108Э≈ 1.141SiliquaPod; fruit, seed of the carob treeU+10195)) or »≈ 0.19GranumGrain [barley or wheat], speck—≈ 0.06
Modern symbols
Some ancient Roman weight units, as well as the Greek dram included in the Roman system of measures, were used until the introduction of the metric system and had their own symbols. Below are the symbols of the apothecaries' system of weights. Two of them—the symbols of the dram and uncia—derive from ancient Egyptian numerals (a variety of hieratic script) and became a pan-European standard with the publication in 1140 of the pharmacopoeia "Antidotarium", compiled by the rector of the Medical School of Salerno Nicholas. As the symbol of the grain, its abbreviation was usually used—gr. The symbol of the libra, which was increasingly called the pound, remained practically the same as in ancient Rome—lb, but in medieval German states it began to be crossed out: . At the same time, the meaning of such crossing out is not fully understood.
One of the few countries where ancient weight units and their ancient symbols are still used is the United States. The American weight system is thereby divided into three subsystems:
commercial, sometimes called avoirdupois ( from Frenche avoirdupois — "goods sold by weight"); troy, coin, or assay (—from the French city of Troyes, one of the centers of medieval trade); apothecary ().
The second and third are almost identical in ratios and mass values of weight units, but differ slightly in the units of weight used themselves (for example, the dram and scruple are not included in the troy system). But the commercial one differs substantially from them: one commercial pound is equivalent not to 373.24 grams, as in the modern Anglo-American troy and apothecary systems, but to 453.59 grams; a pound includes not 12 ounces, but 16. Finally, ancient symbols are not used in the commercial and troy systems.
To identify the system to which the used weight unit belongs, the following extension follows its abbreviation:
avdp—for the commercial system (e.g., commercial ounce—oz avdp); ap—for the apothecary (oz ap); t—for the troy (oz t).
However, these extensions may be omitted if it is clear from the context which system the unit of weight belongs to.NIST, 2010, Appendix C. General Tables of Units of Measurement. Weight unitSymbol of the weight unit in UnicodeUnicode, 2011, section Letterlike Symbols (range: 2100—214F);see also: Apothecaries' symbols commonly found in medical recipes.Symbol of the weight unit in the American system of measuresEquivalent of the weight unit in various weight systemsRatio of weight unitsIn the troy and apothecary systems (in parentheses—in the commercial system)GraphemePositionApothecaryTroyCommercialRussian until the 20th centuryModern troyModern commercialto librato unciato dramto scruplePound (libra)U+2114lb aplb tlb, lb avdp, #358.32 g373.24 g453.59 g1 (1)12 (16)96 (256)288 (—)Ounce℥U+2125℥, oz apoz toz, oz avdp29.86 g31.10 g28.35 g ()1 (1)8 (16)24 (—)DramʒU+0292ʒ, dr ap—dr, dr avdp3.73 g3.89 g1.77 g () ()1 (1)3 (—)Scruple℈U+2108℈, s ap——1.24 g1.30 g— (—) (—) (—)1 (—)Grain—gr.62.209 mg64.799 mg () () () (—)
Symbols (denominations) of currency units of the Roman Republic
Brief history of the coinage system
Sometimes the first Roman coins' appearance is associated with the name of the reformer king Servius Tullius (578–535 BC), but according to the author of the book Roman Coins Harold Mattingly, coins in Rome began to be minted shortly before 289 BC, when the institution of monetarii, officials in charge of minting, was introduced, and more precisely, around 312 BC (hereinafter the chronology of Roman coin minting is given according to Mattingly). These coins, which received the general name "heavy bronze" (), were the bronze as ( from – copper, bronze; or from – unit, whole, ingot), as well as its derivatives: Semis ( as), Triens (), Quadrans (), Sextans (), uncia () and others. Initially, the as weighed 1 libra (As libralis), but then its mass steadily decreased: in 289 BC – to libra, in 268 – to , in 217 – to , finally, in 89 – to libra. In 268 BC, in addition to copper (bronze) coins, Rome began to mint silver denarii, weighing 4 scruples (4.55 g). Based on the ratio of prices for copper and silver established by that time (120:1), 1 denarius was equated to 10 asses. In 217 BC, simultaneously with the reduction of the as weight to libra, Rome devalued the denarius – to scruples. As a result, its value was equated to 16 asses, and this ratio (1:16) was preserved until the reforms of Augustus. A little later (in 209 BC), gold coins weighing 6, 3, 2, and 1 scruple were first, but briefly, put into circulation. The last monetary reform of the Roman Republic was carried out in 89 BC in accordance with the law of Plautius–Papirius. Having reduced the weight of the as to libra, but keeping the weight of silver coins unchanged, as well as the ratio of the denarius to the as (1:16), Rome essentially turned copper coins into fiat money.Numismatist's Dictionary, 2006–2010, article "As".
Copper uncia, Semis, as, dupondius and others
The as was the key currency unit of the Roman Republic, from which all other denominations of both copper (bronze) and silver coins were derived for a long time. The second important currency unit was the uncia (, which means "twelfth part"). As noted above, the initial weight of the as was 1 libra or 12 unciae. At the same time, the uncia was also the name of a coin equal to as. Over time, the weight of the as decreased, so starting from 289 BC, the concepts of "uncia as a weight unit" and "uncia as a monetary (or accounting) unit" began to diverge. In both cases, it was of the whole, but in the first case – of the libra, in the second – of the as. In 217 BC, the weight of the as was reduced to libra. As a result, it itself became equal to the weight uncia, while having the accounting uncia as a derivative. The first retained its meaning in the system of measures and weights to this day, the second disappeared along with the cessation of minting the corresponding coin. Roman numerals I were minted on asses, the denomination of the coin. Larger copper coins were the Dupondius, trioondius (tressis), Quincussis and Decussis. Their denominations corresponded to the value in asses and were designated by Roman numerals II, III, V and X respectively. In addition, a coin of 4 asses denomination – the Quadrussis – was issued, but its denomination was not marked.DRC, 1889, article Quadrussis. The denominations of smaller currency units had a slightly different system of construction – from the uncia and from the Semis. The traditional designation of the uncia denomination ( as) is a dot (•), semiss ( as) – the letter S. Denominations from to as were designated by the corresponding number of dots from two to five, denominations from to as – by the letter S and the same dots. The dot could be replaced by a symbol similar to a hyphen (-), and several dots or "hyphens" could be arranged in two rows (for example, =-= or :·:).
Silver sestertius, quinarius and denarius