Nikon, agoranomos (Berytos)

Berytos

1/8 Mina

Lead

Cast

Square

4.10 cm

4.10 cm

0.40 cm

Mass (g)	Mass (grain)	Date of measurement	Reference	fragmented	cleaned	reference weight
55.80	-	-	Rouvier 1897	No	No	Yes

Symbol	Technique	Direction	Position	Number	Synecdoche
Egg and dart pattern	Relief
Trident	Relief

Rouvier 1897: Ce poids affecte la forme carrée, avec 41 millimètres de côté; il pèse exactement 55 gr. 80. Son épaisseur est de 4 millimètres. La face supérieure présente un carré creux, circonscrit à l’extérieur par une sorte d’encadrement assez riche. Au milieu du champ se trouve un trident, à droite et à gauche duquel on lit en trois lignes : [...]. Dans le champ, à droite, entre la première et la deuxième ligne, on lit de plus la lettre M (indication pondérale).
Kushnir-Stein 2002: The meaning of the letters in the lower right field is unclear. On the weight of Berytus dated year 184 (129/8 BCE; 55.8 gm.) there is a letter M standing alone in the right field (Rouvier 1897: 369-372). This letter has been interpreted as an indication of weight. However, on the weight of year 161 (152/1 BCE; 267.8 gm.; Babelon and Blanchet 1895: no. 2250) one finds the letters MZ, which seem difficult to reconcile with this interpretation. These letters, as well as those on our weight, may thus have related to administrative matters rather than to the units of weight.
Kushnir-Stein 2005: The weight from Berytus, dated to the year 184 of the Seleucid era (129/8 BCE), has a one-letter sign standing separately in the right field. This was interpreted as a mu (M); however, judging by its form in the documentation published so far - a drawing and a small photograph of the inscribed side (Rouvier 1897: 369; Liban, L'autre rive 1998: 162) - one may say that the letter could in fact be an eta (H), meaning "an eighth." The item now weighs 55.8 g, but it also looks fairly worn and, moreover, has lost the loop at its top; thus, its original weight must have been greater.

No

Language	Technique	Legend type
Greek	Relief	Authority, Date, Denomination, Unidentified

(Ἔτους) δ–πρ´ | η´ (?) | Νίκ–ωνος | ἀγορ–ανό(μου).

GREEK

FROM -129 TO -128

SE 184 = 129/128 BCE

Name	Date of acquisition	Inventory number
Rouvier Collection	Dec. 31, 1897	None
Archaeological Museum – American University of Beirut	None	5769

Reference	Page/Column	Reference (number)	Plate / Figure	Comment
Rouvier 1897a	369–372	None	fig.	None
Rouvier 1897b	227–231	None	fig.	None
Institut du monde arabe 1998	162	None	fig.	(non vidi)
Augé and Sawaya 2002	331	None	None	None
Kushnir-Stein 2002a	228	None	None	None
Kushnir-Stein 2005	17*	None	None	None
Gatier 2014	153–154	None	None	None
Finkielsztejn 2015	80–82	121	None	None

The loop is broken.