This was where the standard weights and measures were stored. They were used to make sure that shopkeepers and traders were effectively selling their customers the correct weight or amount of produce.
Nine round holes in a limestone block situated in a niche on the outer wall of the Temple of Apollo were used as standard measures. Here, under the supervision of the town magistrates, produce was weighed by placing it in the round cavities and then removed via the holes made below the counter.
This public service had already been introduced in the Samnite period, but after 20 B.C. the measures – including three additional ones on a new counter – were adapted to the new parameters of the Roman system of weights and measures, as is explained on an inscription that the Duumviri had engraved on the stone block.
This was where the standard weights and measures were stored. They were used to make sure that shopkeepers and traders were effectively selling their customers the correct weight or amount of produce.
Nine round holes in a limestone block situated in a niche on the outer wall of the Temple of Apollo were used as standard measures. Here, under the supervision of the town magistrates, produce was weighed by placing it in the round cavities and then removed via the holes made below the counter.
This public service had already been introduced in the Samnite period, but after 20 B.C. the measures – including three additional ones on a new counter – were adapted to the new parameters of the Roman system of weights and measures, as is explained on an inscription that the Duumviri had engraved on the stone block.
Gallery 3