Decree about weights and measures

SEG 66.125 Date: ca. 120 BC
 
. . . (1) [in the?][1] (1)Sunshade” or in Piraeus or at Eleusis;[2] . . . the owner of the measure (metron) shall be arrested . . . of the one who disputed the measure (metrou) . . . the officials shall [pay] - into the public bank (dēmosian trapezan)[3] . . . (5) list of goods to be auctioned (?); and if he is a slave (oiketēs), let him receive fifty strokes of the whip, and they shall destroy [the measure]; and if the officials do not support the individuals (i.e. complainants) . . . , the Council of Six Hundred shall [take care of it]. (2) The officials that the laws specify shall make copies (sēkōmata) equivalent to the master measures (sumbola) that have been created for both wet and dry measures and weights,[4] and shall compel those selling anything in the Agora or in the workshops (ergastēriois) or shops (kapēleiois) or wine shops (oinōsin) or warehouses (apothēkais) (10) to use these measures and weights, measuring all liquids by the same measure, and it shall no longer be permitted for any official to make measures or weights bigger or smaller than these; and if any official does this or does not compel the sellers to sell with these, he shall owe a thousand drachmas to be consecrated to Demeter and the Girl (Korēi) and, regarding this, an indictment (apographē) for property equivalent to this money shall be permitted to any Athenian who wishes (boulomenōi), of those for whom it is permitted, (15) to calibrate and examine the measures and weights, and in future, . . . and the Council of Six Hundred in session in the month of Hekatombaion shall take care of it,[5] so that no one selling or buying something uses a measure or weight that is not true to the master measure (asumblētōi), but only the correct ones (dikaiois). (3)[6] And those selling dried Persian nuts (walnuts) and almonds and Herakleian hazelnuts (filberts) and pine-nuts and chestnuts and Egyptian beans (nelumbo seeds) (20) and dates and any other dried fruits sold with these, and lupines and olives and edible seeds, shall sell them with a measure of capacity of three half-choinikes of grain levelled off, selling them with the choinix heaped up, with a depth of five fingers (daktulōn) and a width at the rim of one finger; and similarly those selling fresh almonds and newly picked olives and dried figs shall sell them with a choinix heaped up, twice the size of the one previously mentioned, (25) with a rim three half-fingers wide, and they must use wooden choinikes; and if anyone sells fresh almonds or newly picked olives or dried figs [in a larger?] or different type of vessel, he shall not sell less than (the equivalent of) a grain medimnos; and if he sells in a smaller vessel, the official responsible shall immediately sell the contents by auction and pay the price into the public bank and destroy the vessel. (4)[7] The commercial mina (hē mna hē emporikē) shall weigh (30) one hundred and thirty-eight drachmas of crown-bearing (stephanēphorou) silver[8] according to the weights in the mint (argurokopiōi) plus a make-weight (ropēn) of twelve drachmas of crown-bearing silver, and everyone shall sell all goods by this mina, except for those expressly specified to be sold according to the silver standard (pros argurion),[9] setting the beam of the scales level at a weight of one hundred and fifty drachmas of crown-bearing silver; the [commercial] five minas shall have a make-weight of one commercial mina, so that when the beam of the scales is level it shall weigh (35) six commercial minas; the commercial talent shall have a make-weight of five commercial minas, so that when the beam of the scales is level it shall weigh one commercial talent and five commercial minas; and they shall all be in harmony with the scales and weights in the commercial market (emporiōi). (5) So that the measures and weights may persist into the future, the man who has been appointed to provide the measures and weights, Diodoros son of Theophilos of Halai,[10] shall hand [the master-measures] over to the public slave (dēmosiōi) posted in the “Sunshade” (40) and the one in the Piraeus with his [manager?] and the one in Eleusis; they shall keep them safe, giving copies (sēkōmata) of the measures and weights to officials and all others who need them, and not having authority to change [the master-measures] or to take them out of the designated buildings except for the lead [marked] copies that have been created . . . (6) If they (public slaves) charge anyone money . . . (45) . . . to those having need . . . the one in the “Sunshade” . . . shall be punished by the prytaneis at the time and the [elected] hoplite general, who shall whip and punish (the slave) according to the seriousness of the offence; and the man appointed manager of [the harbour] (shall punish) the one in the Piraeus; and the hierophant and the . . . men appointed each year to supervise the festival assembly (panēgurin) (shall punish) the one in Eleusis.[11] (7) The public slaves shall hand over to the public slaves appointed to (50) succeed them all [the master-measures] along with a list of them; and if they fail to hand something over, they shall be made to do so by the men in charge of them according to the decree, and if [they destroy any master-measures, they shall provide] [other master-measures] instead of the ones that are destroyed; and they shall also deposit a handwritten account (cheirographon) in the Metroon of what they received and what they handed over; and if they do not deposit this, they shall not be permitted [to hold] another public service (leitourgian).[12] (8) . . . shall deposit on the Acropolis copies (sēkōmata) of the commercial talent (55) and the ten-mina and the two-mina and the mina and the half-mina and the quarter (tartēmorou) and the chous [and the choinix].[13] (9) If anyone is caught committing an offence concerning the measures and weights located in the “Sunshade” or in Eleusis or in the Piraeus or on the Acropolis, whether he is an official or a private individual or a public slave, he shall be subject to the law in force about the [punishment] of offenders; and the Council of the Areopagos shall take care of this and punish anyone who has committed an offence in these matters (60) according to the laws in force about offenders;[14] and the man who has been appointed in charge of the provision of measures and weights shall inscribe this decree on stone stelai and stand them in the buildings in which the measures and weights are located. From the same (decree):[15] The officials shall use the same measure marked with the lead symbol (charaktēri) corresponding to that in the “Sunshade”, charging no more than three obols; and the (65) officials shall also use the measures which have been stamped previously, if someone selling something does not use a stamped measure.