Talent (weight)

A talent is an ancient unit of mass. The Babylonians and Sumerians had a system in which there were 60 shekels in a mina and 60 minas in a talent (in Ancient Greece one talent = 26kg of silver). The Roman talent consisted of 100 libra (pounds) which were smaller in magnitude than the mina.

Related Topics:
Mass - Babylonians - Sumerians - Shekels - Mina - Ancient Greece - Silver - Roman - Libra

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When used as a measure of money, it refers to a talent of gold, and therefore roughly a person's weight in gold. This would indicate that in modern dollar equivalent, a talent of gold was worth about $100,000 2005 United States Dollars. A talent of silver was also often used. This would be eguivalent of about $12,000 2005 United States Dollars.

Related Topics:
Money - Gold - United States

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Thus when we read that King Auletes of Egypt paid Gaius Julius Caesar the sum of 6,000 talents of gold to grant him the status of a "Friend and Ally of the Roman People," the amount paid, in modern equivalency, was about six hundred million 2005 United States Dollars, a considerable sum.

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During the Peloponnesian war in Ancient Greece a talent was the amount of silver needed to pay the crew of a trireme for one month. Hellenistic mercenaries were commonly paid 1 drachma for every day of service, which was a good salary in the post-Alexander (III) days. 6,000 drachma made a talent.

Related Topics:
Peloponnesian war - Trireme - Alexander

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