Note 50 — Chapter XXIII · DIPLOMACY.

A mina and a half are equivalent to £5, 5s., eight minas, therefore, to £28, and five to £17, 10s. This allows, reckoning the weight of wheat at 64 lbs. per bushel, a buying price of 3s. 3d. (about) per bushel, and a selling price of 17s. for the wheat, and 1s. 7½d. buying, and 11s. selling, for the barley. The highest price paid for wheat in England during this century has been 14s. 3d. (1812), and the lowest 2s. 3d. (1895). I will not trouble my readers with the figures for the barley. Commonly it was much cheaper in proportion to wheat than it is now. (So in Rev. vi. 6 we have, "A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny", a penny being the Roman denarius, or 9½d.) We may calculate the gross profit of the voyage at £6660 (nearly), taking the mina as equal to £3, 10s. 3¾d., or £5222 for the captain's share. The sum entitling a Roman citizen to equestrian rank was £4000.