A´RTABA
A´RTABA (
ἀρτάβη), a
Persian measure of capacity, principally used as a corn-measure, which
contained, according to Herodotus (
1.192), 1
medimnus and 3 choenices (Attic), i. e. 51 choenices = 102 Roman sextarii =
12 3/4 gallons nearly; but, according to Suidas, Hesychius, Polyaenus
(
Strat. 4.3, 32), and Epiphanius (
Pond.
24), only 1 Attic medimnus = 96 sextarii = 12 gallons nearly: the latter is,
however, only an approximate value. There was an Egyptian measure of the
same name, of which there were two sorts, the old and the new artaba
(Didymus, 100.19; cf. 100.21). The old artaba contained 4 1/2 Roman modii =
72 sextarii = 9 gallons nearly, according to most writers; but Galen (100.5)
makes it exactly 5 modii. It was about equal to the Attic metretes; and it
was half of the Ptolemaic medimnus, which was to the Attic medimnus as 3: 2.
The later and more common Egyptian artaba contained 3 1/8 modii = 53 1/3
sextarii = about 6 1/2 gallons, which is so nearly the half of the Persian,
that we may fairly suppose that in reality it was the half. It was equal to
the Olympic cubic foot. (Rhemn. Fann.
Carmen de Pond. et
Mens. 5.89, 90; Hieron.
ad Ezech. 5; Böckh,
Metrolog. Untersuch. pp. 242, &c., 285;
Publ. Econ. of Ath. p. 93, 2nd ed.; Wurm,
de
Pond., &c. p. 133; Hultsch,
Metroi. pp.
275, 284 f.)
[
P.S]
