artaba
- an Egyptian dry measure = 3 1/3 Rom. modii, Rhem. Fan. Pond. 89.
Triginta modii facient modios tres; quinque modios apud Palæstinos
Qui seminat Artabas sex, recipiet mensuras tres.Ubi pro triginta modiis,
apud Persas tribus Chœnicibus Atticis Artabam esse capaciorem, quam Atticus Medimnus. Est autem Chœnix idem quod sesquisextarius, utpote medimni pars quadragesima octava, quæ sextarium valet Atticum et semissem. His adde Papiam in MS. Ecclesiæ Bituricensis :
Artaba genus mensuræ Syriacæ quæ tres modios facit et triens ; sextariorum septuaginta quinque apud Ægyptios.Hinc collige Artabam, non ejusdem fuisse capacitatis apud Syros, Perrsas, Ægyptios, finitimosque populos. De Artaba occurrit mentio Danielis cap. 14. vers. 2 :
Erat idolum apud Babylonios nomine Bel, et impendebantur in eo per dies singulos similæ Artabæ duodecim.Cujus si rationem quis inire velit juxta Papiæ sententiam, duodecim Artabæ quadraginta modiis pares sunt : si vero juxta
Facta sponsione, cum navim implevisset frumento æstimationeExpressius Chronicon Romualdi II. Archiep. Salern. apud Murat. tom. 7. col. 37 :unius holocotini in tredecim Artabas, quo pretio non inveniebantur vel quinque Artabæ in Ægypto universa venales, magno cum gaudio ad suum Monasterium frater navigationem instituit.
Ita ut de Ægypto per singulos annos quatuordecim millia octingenta talenti auri, et frumenti Artabas, quæ mensura tres modios et tertiam modii partem habet, quinquies et decies centena millia.Unde colligi datur
A´RTABA(ἀρτάβη), a Persian measure of capacity, principally used as a corn-measure, which contained, according to Herodotus (Hdt. 1.192), 1 medimnus and 3 choenices (Attic), i. e. 51 choenices = 102 Roman sextarii = 12 3/4 gallons nearly; but, according to Suidas, Hesychius, Polyaenus (Strat. 4.3, 32), and Epiphanius (Pond. 24), only 1 Attic medimnus = 96 sextarii = 12 gallons nearly: the latter is, however, only an approximate value. There was an Egyptian measure of the same name, of which there were two sorts, the old and the new artaba (Didymus, 100.19; cf. 100.21). The old artaba contained 4 1/2 Roman modii = 72 sextarii = 9 gallons nearly, according to most writers; but Galen (100.5) makes it exactly 5 modii. It was about equal to the Attic metretes; and it was half of the Ptolemaic medimnus, which was to the Attic medimnus as 3: 2. The later and more common Egyptian artaba contained 3 1/8 modii = 53 1/3 sextarii = about 6 1/2 gallons, which is so nearly the half of the Persian, that we may fairly suppose that in reality it was the half. It was equal to the Olympic cubic foot. (Rhemn. Fann. Carmen de Pond. et Mens. 5.89, 90; Hieron. ad Ezech. 5; Böckh, Metrolog. Untersuch. pp. 242, &c., 285; Publ. Econ. of Ath. p. 93, 2nd ed.; Wurm, de Pond., &100. p. 133; Hultsch, Metroi. pp. 275, 284 f.)
[P.S](ἀρτάβη). A Persian measure of capacity, much used as a corn-measure, and containing 51 choenices, or 12 3/4 gallons, nearly (Herod.i. 192).