The Alexandrian talent was the Hebrew Kikkar or talent of the sanctuary. In the Chaldæan kingdom the standard measure was the Egyptian royal cubit, and the standard weight was the talent derived from its foot; but the miná appears to have been divided into 60 instead 50 shekels.
The words which Belshazzar saw written on the wall referred to the miná and shekel, or tekel, of this talent. Their meaning may be thus rendered:
Mene, a miná—the great King Nabupalasur, founder of the new Chaldæan Kingdom.
Mene, a miná—the great King Nabukudurusur, son of the preceding.
Tekel, a shekel (of 4 quarters)—Nabunahid (Belshazzar) and his three predecessors, all of small account.
Upharsin, a division, perhaps 2 half-shekels, the Medes and Persians. Or it may simply be the Parsīs or Persians, the enemies at the gate.
This talent is still extant at Bássora (in Chaldæa) as the _mánd sofi_ = 93·22 lb.
This was the measure made to hold an Alexandrian talent of wheat. The cubed Egyptian royal foot (probably used as a fluid measure) was increased in the Southern water-wheat ratio of 1 : 1·22. Thus 2605 c.i. × 1·22 = 3176 c.i. and 3176/277·4 = 11·45 gallons as the contents of the Medimnos.
This measure was adopted by the Romans, as well as by the Greeks, as the basis of their corn-measures, doubtless in consequence of the corn-trade from Egypt. A sixth part of it was the Roman Modius.
The Medimnos was divided by the Greeks into 48 Choinix, or into 96 Xestes (L. _sextarius_) = 0·95 Imperial pint or 19 fluid ounces.
2. THE LESSER ALEXANDRIAN OR PTOLEMAÏC TALENT
This was half of the ordinary or greater talent.
Half the calculated weight of the greater talent gives 46·956 lb. for the lesser. But the actual weight was somewhat less, 46·82 lb.
It was divided into 60 Ptolemaïc miná = 5462 grains, and the miná into 100 drachms. The drachm = 54·62 grains and the tetradrachm = 218·5 grains coincide as coin-weights with the quarter-shekel and shekel of the greater talent.
The miná was divided also on the Roman uncial system:
1/12 = an ounce = 455·28 grs.; of this 1/12 = a double-scruple = 37·94 grs.; of this 1/12 = a carat of 3·1616 grs.
The carat 1/144 ounce, is exactly, to 1/100 grain, the jeweller’s carat of to-day in European countries.