Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Libella

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1.

The diminutive of libra, the Roman pound, and used of the sum in silver, which expresses the value of the pound of copper. (See As.) It was, as a monetary term, originally equal to one-tenth of a denarius and later one-tenth of a sestertius. It was never coined, however, but was a mere “money of account,” like the guinea in England to-day. The half of a libella was called sembella (Varr. v. 174).

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2.

（διαβήτης, σταφυλή). A carpenter's level (libella fabrilis). It is represented in the illustration under the article Circinus (p. 350), in the left-hand lower corner, where it is partly inverted.