A coin weighing four scruples; and the test-piece, and the one of full weight.[1]
Or a kind of coin.
Aristophanes in
Wealth [writes]: "and we used to play games with staters."[2] That is, we play at odds or evens with coins. "You see me lacking salvation for [the sum of] four staters."[3]
Aristophanes [says this].
For staters see also
kappa 2627,
sigma 1008.
[1] This opening set of definitions is borrowed from
Photius s.v.; cf.
Hesychius s.v. for
tetragrammon, which LSJ Suppl. equate with
tetragrammaion. As to the second term, the Suda mss evidently transmit it with a rough beathing,
hexagion, a word used in a fragment of
Oribasius to mean a weight of one-and-a-half drachmas; but as
exagion, in
Photius, it means testing or assaying. 'It is now standard practice among numismatists to call what appears to be the principal regular issue of a Greek mint a stater, if they are not perfectly sure of its denomination' (John Melville-Jones,
A Dictionary of Ancient Greek Coins (London 1986) 217).
[2]
Aristophanes,
Wealth 816 (abridged) and scholium. See web address 1 below for the text. See also
alpha 4036.
[3]
Aristophanes,
Ecclesiazusae 412-13. See web address 2 below. See also
tau 406.
William Hutton (Cosmetics, added notes, keywords and links.) on 10 May 2003@09:24:29.
David Whitehead (modified and supplemented translation; augmented notes and keywords; cosmetics) on 11 May 2003@05:47:17.
David Whitehead (another keyword) on 4 December 2005@09:36:17.
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