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 minae, or 6000 Attic drachms; and weighed, according to Dr Arbuthnot, 59 lbs. 11 oz. 17 gr. English Troy weight. There was another Attic talent, by some said to consist of 80, by others of 100 minae. The Egyptian talent was 80 minae; the Antiochian also 80; the Ptolemaic of Cleopatra 86½; that of Alexandria 96½; and the Insular talent 120. In the valuation of money, the Grecian talent, according to Dr Arbuthnot, was equal to 60 minae, or, reckoning the mina at 31. 48. 7d. equal to 193l. 15s. The Syrian talent, in this valuation, consisted of 15 Attic minae; the Ptolemaic of 20; the Antiochian of 60; the Euboic of 60; the Babylonic of 70; the Greater Attic of 80; the Tyrian of 80; the Egyptian of 100; the Rhodian of 100; and the Egyptian of 80 minae.

There is another talent much more ancient, which Dr Arbuthnot calls the Homeric talent of gold, which seems to have weighed six Attic drachms or three darics, a daric 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 547,500,000, and the silver to above 342,000,000l.; or, reckoning according to the decuple proportion of gold to silver, the two sums would be equal. As David reigned in Judaea 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 minae 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. Budaeus computes, that the little talent of silver was worth 75l. sterling, and the greater 99l. 6s. 8d. sterling. The greater of gold was worth 1123l. sterling.

Talent, as a species or money, among the Hebrews, was sometimes used for a gold coin, the same with the shekel of gold, called also stater, and weighing only four drachms. The Hebrews reckoned by these talents as we do by pounds, &c. Thus a million of gold, or million of talents of gold, among them, was a million of shekels or nummi; the nummus of gold being the same weight with the shekel, viz. four drachms.

But the Hebrew talent weight of silver, which they called cecor, was equivalent to that of 3000 shekels, or 113 lb. 10 oz. 1 dwt. 10½ gr. English Troy weight, according to Arbutus's computation.