On Weights and Measures


On Weights and Measures is a historical, lexical, metrological, and geographical treatise compiled in 392 AD in Constantia by Epiphanius of Salamis. The greater part of the work is devoted to a discussion on [Ancient Ancient Greek units of measurement|Greek units of measurement|Greek] and [Ancient Ancient Roman units of measurement|Roman units of measurement|Roman] weights and measures.
The composition was written at the request of a Persian priest, sent to Epiphanius by letter from the Roman emperor in Constantinople. Although five fragments of an early Greek version are known to exist, with one entitled, added by a later hand, this Syriac version is the only complete copy that has survived. Partial translations in Armenian and Georgian are also known to exist. Its modern title belies its content, as the work also contains important historical anecdotes about people and places not written about elsewhere.
Two manuscripts of On Weights and Measures, written in Syriac on parchment, are preserved at the British Museum in London. The older was found in Egypt and, according to the colophon, was written in the Seleucid era, in "nine-hundred and sixty-".
The first to attempt a modern publication of Epiphanius' work was Paul de Lagarde in 1880, who reconstructed the original Syriac text by exchanging it with Hebrew characters, and who had earlier published excerpts from several of the Greek fragments treating on weights and measures in his Symmicta. In 1973, a critical edition of the Greek text was published by E.D. Moutsoulas in Theologia.

Synopsis

Part One

In folios, Hadrian's journey and arrival in the East is dated "47 years after the destruction of Jerusalem."
  • Translations
In folios ; ; Epiphanius names four major translations of the Hebrew Bible, made in the Greek tongue: the LXX made by the seventy-two translators, another by Aquila of Pontus, one by Theodotion, and yet another by Symmachus. A fifth Greek translation was discovered in wine jars in Jericho, and a sixth in Nicopolis near Actium. Afterwards, Origen arranged six columns of the extant Greek translations and two of the Hebrew side by side, naming it the Hexapla. Epiphanius expands his description of the translation of the seventy-two translators and how they were assigned thirty-six cells, two to each cell, on the Pharian island. Two translators translated the Book of Genesis, another two the Book of Exodus, another two the Book of Leviticus, and so forth, until the entire 22 canonical books of the Hebrew Bible had all been translated into the Greek tongue. The seventy-two translators were drawn from the twelve tribes of Israel, six men to each tribe who were skilled in the Greek language.
In folios Epiphanius gives a description of the canonical books of the Hebrew Bible and translations made of the same. In his day, he notes that the Scroll of Ruth and the Book of Judges were joined together, and considered as one book. So, too, the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah were joined, and considered as one book, as were First and Second Chronicles considered as one book, as were the First and Second Samuel considered as one book, and the First and Second Kings considered as one book.

Part Two

  • Prominent figures
In spite of Epiphanius' interest in Jewish themes, his narrative often takes on a distorted and stereotypical view of Judaism. Still, he is an invaluable source on the lives of people and places that figure highly in Jewish lore. In folios ; Epiphanius treats on the lives of two prominent persons who became proselytes to the Jewish religion; the one Aquila who was a relation of Hadrian, and whom he made the overseer of Jerusalem's rebuilding around 115 AD. The other person of interest who is described by him is Symmachus, also known as Sūmkos in rabbinic literature. Symmachus is mentioned as belonging originally to the Samaritan nation, and is said to have converted to Judaism during the reign of Verus. He subsequently underwent a second circumcision and became a disciple of Rabbi Meir. Symmachus belonged to the fifth generation of Rabbinical teachers referred to in the text of the Mishnah. The Emperor Hadrian is said to have passed through Palestine while en route to Egypt, some 47 years after the destruction of Jerusalem.

Part Three

  • Weights and Measures
Folios contain a treatise on the known weights and measures used in his day among the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans. He states the equivalent weights for the kab, kor, the lethekh, homer, bath, modius, and mina, among others. Epiphanius, explaining the sense of certain obscure passages in the original Aramaic New Testament, writes: "The talent is called Maneh among the Hebrews," the equivalent of 100 denarii. In folios Epiphanius distinguishes between "a handful" in and "a handful" in and ; in the former case it refers to only one handful, but in latter cases it refers to "a measure of two handfuls."

Part Four

In folios Epiphanius gives the names of several cities and places of renown, both in his time and in ancient times, such as: Mount Ararat, Aṭaṭ, or what is known as the "threshing floor of the thorn bush", and whose description echoes that of Rashi's commentary on Genesis 50:10, Abarim ; Aviʿazar, or what is Eḇen haʿezer of I Samuel 4:1, said to be "fourteen miles distant east and north of Eleutheropolis, in a valley"; Carmel; Carmel of the sea ; Akko ; Anathoth ; Azekah - a city in whose time was called Ḥǝwarta; Bethel ; Ophrah ; Carthage - where the Canaanites had migrated from Phoenicia and who were called in his day Bizakanoi ; Rekem, Jaffa, Jerusalem, ''et al.''

Chronology of the Ptolemies

Chronology of the Roman emperors

The regnal years of the Caesars as stated by Epiphanius differ slightly in some places from the extant Greek sources. With respect to events in Rome after the reign of Pertinax, both Epiphanius and Jerome do not mention the ascension of Didius Julianus after the assassination of Pertinax, but write only that Severus succeeded him. This may have been because they did not consider his 9-week reign, which he obtained through usurpation, to be legitimate. Similarly, Epiphanius does not mention the ascension of Aemilian. It can be adduced from Jerome's Chronicon that Aemilian, who "caused a revolt in Moesia," was never officially confirmed by the Senate in Rome. Epiphanius' method of recording the regnal years from Augustus to Hadrian, with his pinpoint recollection of the number of months and days to each reign, can be said to be accurate, based on Josephus' own testimony about himself, saying that he was aged 56 in the 13th year of the reign of Caesar Domitian, and that he was born in the 1st year of Caesar Gaius. Using Epiphanius' chronology for the later empire, the years are collected as 56. By comparison, the span of years in Suetonius' De vita Caesarum, which gives 14 years for Claudius and 15 years for Nero, the same time frame would span a period of some 58 years.