The mina (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is an ancient

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

ern unit of weight for silver or gold, equivalent to approximately , which was divided into 60

shekels A shekel or sheqel (; , , plural , ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams (0.35 ozt)—and became currency in ancient Tyre, Carthage and Hasmonean Judea. Name The word ...

. The mina, like the shekel, eventually also became a unit of

currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...

History

Sumerian

From earliest Sumerian times, a mina was a unit of weight. At first, talents and shekels had not yet been introduced. By the time of

Ur-Nammu Ur-Nammu (or Ur-Namma, Ur-Engur, Ur-Gur, Sumerian language, Sumerian: ; died 2094 BC) founded the Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, following several centuries of Akkadian Empire, Akkadian and Gutian period, Gutian rule. Thou ...

(shortly before 2000 BCE), the mina had a value of talent as well as 60

shekel A shekel or sheqel (; , , plural , ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams (0.35 ozt)—and became currency in ancient Tyre, Carthage and Hasmonean Judea. Name The wo ...

s. The weight of this mina is calculated at , or 570 grams of silver (18 troy ounces).

Semitic languages

The word mina comes from the ancient

Semitic root The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowel ...

/ 'to count', Akkadian , (), / (/), (), . It is mentioned in the Bible, where Solomon is reported to have made 300 shields, each with 3 "mina" of gold (), or later after the Edict of

Cyrus II of Persia Cyrus II of Persia ( ; 530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Media ...

the people are reported to have donated 5000 minas of silver for the reconstruction of

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries Common Era, BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. In the

Code of Hammurabi The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed during 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organized, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian language, Akkadi ...

which is considered one of the first examples of written law, the mina is one of the most used terms denoting the weight of gold to be paid for crimes or to resolve civil conflicts. In the Biblical story of

Belshazzar's feast Belshazzar's feast, or the story of the writing on the wall, chapter 5 in the Book of Daniel, tells how Neo-Babylonian royal Belshazzar holds a great feast and drinks from the vessels that had been looted in the destruction of the First Temple. ...

, the words ''mene, mene, tekel, upharsin'' appear on the wall (Daniel 5:25), which according to one interpretation can mean "mina, mina, shekel, and half-pieces", although Daniel interprets the words differently for King Belshazzar. Writings from

Ugarit Ugarit (; , ''ủgrt'' /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient port city in northern Syria about 10 kilometers north of modern Latakia. At its height it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. It was discovered by accident in 19 ...

give the value of a mina as equivalent to fifty shekels. The prophet

Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...

refers to a mina (''maneh'' in the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...

) also as 60 shekels, in the

Book of Ezekiel The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Nevi'im#Latter Prophets, Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and one of the Major Prophets, major prophetic books in the Christian Bible, where it follows Book of Isaiah, Isaiah and ...

45:12.

Jesus of Nazareth Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religi ...

tells the "

parable of the minas The Parable of the Talents (also the Parable of the Minas) is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in two of the synoptic, canonical gospels of the New Testament: * * Although the basic theme of each of these parables is essentially the ...

" in

Luke Luke may refer to: People and fictional characters * Luke (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Luke (surname), including a list of people with the name * Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luk ...

19:11–27, also told as the "parable of the talents" in Matthew 25:14–30. In later Jewish usage, the is equal in weight to 100 . From the Akkadian period, 2 mina was equal to 1 of water (cf.

clepsydra Clepsydra may refer to: * Clepsydra, an alternative name for a water clock A water clock, or clepsydra (; ; ), is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, an ...

, water clock).

Greek

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

, the mina was known as the (). It originally equalled 70 drachmae but later, at the time of the statesman

Solon Solon (; ; BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. ...

(c. 594 BC), was increased to 100 drachmae. The Greek word () was borrowed from Semitic. Different city states used minae of different weights. The Aeginetan mina weighed . The Attic mina weighed . In Solon's day, according to

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, the price of a sheep was one drachma or a

medimnos A medimnos (, ''médimnos'', plural μέδιμνοι, ''médimnoi'') was an Ancient Greek unit of volume, which was generally used to measure dry food grain.In ancient Greece, measures of capacity varied depending on whether they were being used to ...

(about 40 kg) of wheat. Thus a mina was worth 100 sheep.

Latin

The word also occurs in Latin literature, but mainly in plays of

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

and

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six Roman comedy, comedies based on Greek comedy, Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. A ...

adapted from Greek originals. In Terence's play ''

Heauton Timorumenos ''Heauton Timorumenos'' (, ''Heauton timōroumenos'', ''The Self-Tormentor'') is a play written in Latin by Terence (Latin: ''Publius Terentius Afer''), a dramatist of the Roman Republic, in 163 BC; it was translated wholly or in part from an ear ...

'', adapted from a play of the same name by the Greek playwright

Menander Menander (; ; c. 342/341 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek scriptwriter and the best-known representative of Athenian Ancient Greek comedy, New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the Cit ...

, 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)".Lewis and Short, ''Latin Dictionary'', s.v
pondo
From Latin comes the English word "pound", and from come the abbreviations "lb" (for weight) and the

pound sign The pound sign () is the currency symbol, symbol for the pound unit of account, unit of Pound sterling, sterling – the currency of the United Kingdom and its associated Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories and previously of Kin ...

"£" (for money).

Images

Image:Mina Athens.PNG, Mina of

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. Image:Mina Chios.PNG, Mina of

Chios Chios (; , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, tenth largest island in the Medi ...

. Image:Mina Antiochus IV.PNG, Mina of

Antiochus IV Epiphanes Antiochus IV Epiphanes ( 215 BC–November/December 164 BC) was king of the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC. Notable events during Antiochus' reign include his near-conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt, his persecution of the Jews of ...

. Image:Mina Antiochus of Syria.PNG, Mina of

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{Pound (currency) Units of mass Ancient Near East Coins of ancient Greece Pound (currency)