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Roman Abacus
The Ancient Romans developed the Roman hand abacus, a portable, but less capable, base-10 version of earlier abacuses like those that were used by the Greeks and Babylonians. Origin The Roman abacus was the first portable calculating device for engineers, merchants, and presumably tax collectors. It greatly reduced the time needed to perform the basic operations of arithmetic using Roman numerals. Karl Menninger said: For more extensive and complicated calculations, such as those involved in Roman land surveys, there was, in addition to the hand abacus, a true reckoning board with unattached counters or pebbles. The Etruscan cameo and the Greek predecessors, such as the Salamis Tablet and the Darius Vase, give us a good idea of what it must have been like, although no actual specimens of the true Roman counting board are known to be extant. But language, the most reliable and conservative guardian of a past culture, has come to our rescue once more. Above all, it has preserved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darius Vase
The Darius Vase is a famous vase painted by an anonymous Magna Graecia Apulian vase painter, commonly called the Darius Painter, the most eminent representative at the end of the "Ornate Style" in South Italian red-figure vase painting. The vase was produced between 340 and 320 BCE, probably in a large factory-like workshop in the Greek city of Taranto (ancient Taras), Magna Graecia, well before the fall of Taranto to the Romans in 272 BCE. It is an important part of Apulian vase painting. The "Darius Vase" was discovered in 1851 near Canosa di Puglia and is now on display at the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples (H3253). This work, a volute '' krater'' is of large dimensions. It is 1.3 meters in height and 1.93 meters in circumference. The vase contains several inscriptions, such as naming individual figures, but there are also thematical names (such as ''persai'' – Persians). To some extent these inscriptions can be seen as "titles". All available space on the vase is us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abacus Usages
The abacus (''plural'' abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times. It was used in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. The exact origin of the abacus has not yet emerged. It consists of rows of movable beads, or similar objects, strung on a wire. They represent digits. One of the two numbers is set up, and the beads are manipulated to perform an operation such as addition, or even a square or cubic root. In their earliest designs, the rows of beads could be loose on a flat surface or sliding in grooves. Later the beads were made to slide on rods and built into a frame, allowing faster manipulation. Abacuses are still made, often as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires. In the ancient world, particularly before the introduction of positional notation, abacuses were a practical calculating tool. The abacus is still used to tea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uncia (coin)
The uncia (Latin, "twelfth part") was a Roman currency worth one twelfth of an ''as''. Republican coin By derivation, it was also the name of a bronze coin valued at of an as made during the Roman Republic., ''A Manual of Roman Coins: from the earliest period to the extinction of the empire'', W. H. Johnston, 1865, p. 7. Availablonline The ''uncia'' started as a Roman-Oscan weight of about 23 grams for a 273 gram pound, with Attic weight issues of about 27 grams under the libral standard for a 327 gram pound and was produced occasionally towards the beginning of Roman cast bronze coinage. Obverse types of the uncia include a knucklebone (c. 289–245 BC), a barleycorn (c. 280–245 BC), and the helmeted bust of Roma (from ). Empire coin In imperial times the ''uncia'' was briefly revived under Trajan (98–117) and Hadrian (117–138). This coin was about in diameter and weighed about . It featured the bust of the emperor on the obverse with no inscription and "SC" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
As (coin)
The ' (plural '), occasionally ''assarius'' (plural ''assarii'', rendered into Greek as , ''assárion'') was a bronze, and later copper, coin used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. Republican era coinage The Romans replaced the usage of Greek coins, first by bronze ingots, then by disks known as the aes rude. The system thus named ''as'' was introduced in ca. 280 BC as a large cast bronze coin during the Roman Republic. The following fractions of the were also produced: the (), (), (), (), (), (), (, also a common weight unit), and (), as well as multiples of the ''as'', the (2), (2), and (3) After the ''as'' had been issued as a cast coin for about seventy years, and its weight had been reduced in several stages, a ''as'' was introduced (meaning that it weighed one-sixth of a pound). At about the same time a silver coin, the denarius, was also introduced. Earlier Roman silver coins had been struck on the Greek weight standards that facilitated their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Litre
The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). A cubic decimetre (or litre) occupies a volume of (see figure) and is thus equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre. The original French metric system used the litre as a base unit. The word ''litre'' is derived from an older French unit, the '' litron'', whose name came from Byzantine Greek—where it was a unit of weight, not volume—via Late Medieval Latin, and which equalled approximately 0.831 litres. The litre was also used in several subsequent versions of the metric system and is accepted for use with the SI,Bureau International des Poids et M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congius
In Ancient Roman measurement, ''congius'' (pl. ''congii'', from Greek ''konkhion'', diminutive of ''konkhē'', ''konkhos'', "shellful") was a liquid measure that was about 3.48 litres (0.92 U.S. gallons). It was equal to the larger chous of the Ancient Greeks. The congius contained six '' sextarii''. Cato tells us that he was wont to give each of his slaves a congius of wine at the Saturnalia and Compitalia. Pliny relates, among other examples of hard drinking, that a Novellius Torquatus of Mediolanum obtained a cognomen (''Tricongius'', a nine-bottle-man) by drinking three ''congii'' of wine at once: The Roman system of weights and measures, including the congius, was introduced to Britain in the 1st century by Emperor Claudius. Following the Anglo-Saxon invasions of the 4th and 5th century, Roman units were, for the most part, replaced with North German units. Following the conversion of England to Christianity in the 7th century, Latin became the language of state. From th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Currency
Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomination, and composition. A persistent feature was the inflationary debasement and replacement of coins over the centuries. Notable examples of this followed the reforms of Diocletian. This trend continued into Byzantine times. Due to the economic power and longevity of the Roman state, Roman currency was widely used throughout western Eurasia and northern Africa from classical times into the Middle Ages. It served as a model for the currencies of the Muslim caliphates and the European states during the Middle Ages and the Modern Era. Roman currency names survive today in many countries, such as the Arabic dinar (from the ''denarius'' coin), the British pound, and the peso (both translations of the Roman ''libra''). Authority to mint co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Roman Weights And Measures
The ancient Roman units of measurement were primarily founded on the Hellenic system, which in turn was influenced by the Egyptian system and the Mesopotamian system. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented. Length The basic unit of Roman linear measurement was the ''pes'' or Roman foot (plural: ''pedes''). Investigation of its relation to the English foot goes back at least to 1647, when John Greaves published his ''Discourse on the Romane foot''. Greaves visited Rome in 1639, and measured, among other things, the foot measure on the tomb of Titus Statilius Aper, that on the statue of Cossutius formerly in the gardens of Angelo Colocci, the congius of Vespasian previously measured by Villalpandus, a number of brass measuring-rods found in the ruins of Rome, the paving-stones of the Pantheon and many other ancient Roman buildings, and the distance between the milestones on the Appian Way. He concluded that the Cossutian foot was the "true" Roman foot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bi-quinary Coded Decimal
Bi-quinary coded decimal is a numeral encoding scheme used in many abacuses and in some early computers, including the Colossus. The term ''bi-quinary'' indicates that the code comprises both a two-state (''bi'') and a five-state (''quin''ary) component. The encoding resembles that used by many abacuses, with four beads indicating either 0 through 4 or 5 through 9 and another bead indicating which of those ranges. Several human languages, most notably Fula and Wolof also use biquinary systems. For example, the Fula word for 6, ''jowi e go'o'', literally means ''five lusone''. Roman numerals use a symbolic, rather than positional, bi-quinary base, even though Latin is completely decimal. Examples Several different representations of bi-quinary coded decimal have been used by different machines. The two-state component is encoded as one or two bits, and the five-state component is encoded using three to five bits. Some examples are: * Roman and Chinese abacuses * Stibitz rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abacus
The abacus (''plural'' abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times. It was used in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. The exact origin of the abacus has not yet emerged. It consists of rows of movable beads, or similar objects, strung on a wire. They represent digits. One of the two numbers is set up, and the beads are manipulated to perform an operation such as addition, or even a square or cubic root. In their earliest designs, the rows of beads could be loose on a flat surface or sliding in grooves. Later the beads were made to slide on rods and built into a frame, allowing faster manipulation. Abacuses are still made, often as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires. In the ancient world, particularly before the introduction of positional notation, abacuses were a practical calculating tool. The abacus is still used to te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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