Timorumenos, adapted from a play of the same name by the Greek playwright Menander, a certain sum of money is referred to in one place as "ten minae" (line 724) and in another as "1000 drachmas of silver" (line 601). Usually the word referred to a mina of silver, but Plautus also twice mentions a mina of gold. In the 4th century BC, gold was worth about 10 times the same weight of silver. In Plautus, 20 minae is mentioned as the price of buying a slave. It was also the price of hiring a courtesan for a year. 40 minae is given as the price of a house. In classical Latin the approximate equivalent of a mina was the (the word also meant "balance" or "weighing scales"). With a weight of only , however, the Roman was lighter than either a Greek mina or a modern pound of 16 ounces. It was divided into 12 Roman ounces. Sometimes the word was used together with the word "in weight", e.g. "a pound in weight" (Livy, 3.29); but often was used alone; e.g. "five (pounds) in weight of gold" (Cicero, pro Cluentio 179). Hence the word by itself came to mean "pound(s)". From Latin comes the English word "pound", and from come the abbreviations "lb" (for weight) and the pound sign "£" (for money). Images Notes References Bibliography Units of mass Ancient Near East Coins of ancient Greece