Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- PREFATORY NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR
- EXTRACT FROM DR. MOMMSEN'S PREFACE
- Contents
- BOOK FIRST THE PERIOD ANTERIOR TO THE ABOLITION OF THE MONARCHY
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER II THE EARLIEST MIGRATIONS INTO ITALY
- CHAPTER III THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE LATINS
- CHAPTER IV THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME
- CHAPTER V THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION OF ROME
- CHAPTER VI THE NON-BURGESSES AND THE REFORMED CONSTITUTION
- CHAPTER VII THE HEGEMONY OF ROME IN LATIUM
- CHAPTER VIII THE UMBRO-SABELLIAN STOCK—BEGINNINGS OF THE SAMNITES
- CHAPTER IX THE ETRUSCANS
- CHAPTER X THE HELLENES IN ITALY.—MARITIME SUPREMACY OF THE TUSCANS AND CARTHAGINIANS
- CHAPTER XI LAW AND JUSTICE
- CHAPTER XII RELIGION
- CHAPTER XIII AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE
- CHAPTER XIV MEASURING AND WRITING
- CHAPTER XV ART
- BOOK SECOND FROM THE ABOLITION OF THE MONARCHY IN ROME TO THE UNION OF ITALY
- APPENDIX: ON THE PATRICIAN CLAUDII
- ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS
CHAPTER XIV - MEASURING AND WRITING
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- PREFATORY NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR
- EXTRACT FROM DR. MOMMSEN'S PREFACE
- Contents
- BOOK FIRST THE PERIOD ANTERIOR TO THE ABOLITION OF THE MONARCHY
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER II THE EARLIEST MIGRATIONS INTO ITALY
- CHAPTER III THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE LATINS
- CHAPTER IV THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME
- CHAPTER V THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION OF ROME
- CHAPTER VI THE NON-BURGESSES AND THE REFORMED CONSTITUTION
- CHAPTER VII THE HEGEMONY OF ROME IN LATIUM
- CHAPTER VIII THE UMBRO-SABELLIAN STOCK—BEGINNINGS OF THE SAMNITES
- CHAPTER IX THE ETRUSCANS
- CHAPTER X THE HELLENES IN ITALY.—MARITIME SUPREMACY OF THE TUSCANS AND CARTHAGINIANS
- CHAPTER XI LAW AND JUSTICE
- CHAPTER XII RELIGION
- CHAPTER XIII AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE
- CHAPTER XIV MEASURING AND WRITING
- CHAPTER XV ART
- BOOK SECOND FROM THE ABOLITION OF THE MONARCHY IN ROME TO THE UNION OF ITALY
- APPENDIX: ON THE PATRICIAN CLAUDII
- ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS
Summary
The art of measuring brings the world into subjection to man; the art of writing prevents his knowledge from perishing with himself; together they make man, what nature has not made him, all-powerful and eternal. It is the privilege and duty of history to trace the course of national progress along these paths also.
Italian measures.
Measurement necessarily presupposes the development of the several ideas of units of time, of space, and of weight, and of a whole as consisting of equal parts, or in other words of number and of a numeral system. The most obvious bases presented by nature for this purpose are, in reference to time, the periodic returns of the sun and moon, or the day and the month; in reference to space, the length of the human foot, which is more easily applied in measuring than the arm; in reference to gravity, the burden which a man is able to poise (librare) on his hand while he holds his arm stretched out, or the “weight” (libra). As a basis for the notion of a whole made up of equal parts, nothing so readily suggests itself as the hand with its five or the hands with their ten lingers; upon this rests the decimal system. We have already observed that these elements of all numeration and measuring reach back not merely beyond the separation of the Greek and Latin stocks but even to the most remote primeval times.
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- The History of Rome , pp. 213 - 227Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1862