TALENT, signifies both a weight and a coin very common among the ancients, but very different among different nations.
The common Attic talent of weight contains 60 Attic minæ, or 6000 Attic drachmæ; and weighed, according to Dr Arbuthnot, 56 lbs. 11 oz. 17½ gr. English troy weight. There was another Attic talent, by some said to consist of 80, by others of 100 minæ. The Egyptian talent was 80 minæ; the Antiochian also 80; the Ptolemaic of Cleopatra 86½; that of Alexandria 96; and the Inular talent 120. In the valuation of money, the Grecian talent, according to Dr Arbuthnot, was equal to 60 minæ, or, reckoning the mina at L. 3 : 4 : 7, equal to L. 193, 15s. The Syrian talent in this valuation consisted of 15 Attic minæ; the Ptolemaic of 20; the Antiochian of 60; the Euboic of 60; the Babylonian of 70; the Greater Attic of 80; the Tyrian of 80; the Eginean of 100; the Rhodian of 100; and the Egyptian of 80 minæ.
There is another talent much more ancient, which Dr Arbuthnot calls the Homerian talent of gold, which seems to have weighed six Attic drachms or three darics, a darc weighing very little more than a guinea. According to this talent, some reckon the treasure of king David, particularly that mentioned 1 Chron. xxii. 14. which, according to the common reckoning, would amount in gold talents to the value of L. 547,500,000, and the silver to above L. 342,000,000; or, reckoning according to the decuple proportion of gold to silver, the two sums would be equal. As David reigned in Judæa after the siege of Troy, it is not improbable but Homer and he might use the same numeral talent of gold.
Among the Romans there were two kinds of talents, the little and the great talent: the little was the common talent; and whenever they say simply talentum, they are to be understood of this. The little talent was 60 minæ or Roman pounds; the mina or pound estimated at 100 drachmæ or denarii: it was also estimated at 24 great sesterces, which amounted to 60 pounds.
The great talent exceeded the less by one-third part. Budæus computes, that the little talent of silver was worth L. 75 Sterling, and the greater L. 99 : 6 : 8 Sterling. The greater of gold was worth L. 1125 Sterling.