Note 68 — Chapter III · HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH CENTURY.
Reading edition
The true value of the talent cannot well be ascertained, but it is known that it was different among different nations. The Attic talent, the weight, contained 60 Attic minæ, or 6000 Attic drachmæ, equal to 56 pounds, 11 ounces, English troy weight. The mina being reckoned equal to £3 4s. 7d. sterling, or $14 33 cents; the talent was of the value of £193 15s. sterling, about $861. Other computations make it £225 sterling.
The Romans had the great talent and the little talent; the great talent is computed to be equal to £99 6s. 8d. sterling, and the little talent to £75 sterling.
2. Talent, among the Hebrews, was also a gold coin, the same with a shekel of gold; called also stater, and weighing only four drachmas. But the Hebrew talent of silver, called cicar, was equivalent to three thousand shekels, or one hundred and thirteen pounds, ten ounces, and a fraction, troy weight.—Arbuthnot.