Ex iniquitatibus mensurarum et ponderum. some notes on metrologic fraud in greek and roman antiquity

Resumen

The creation and distribution of systems to quantify weight, volume and length as well as their usage,especially in a commercial context, is closely connected to legal and administrative interventions and regularly subjected to control by the authorities throughout the legal history of the Greek and Roman world. Due to the sustained growth of trade activities among the territories surrounding the Mediterranean, the importance of technologies and knowledge of weighting and measuring increased considerably making it essential for market participants that mensurae et pondera were reliable. We will examine some aspects of how this legal and administrative challenge was met by the antique authorities, in particular what functionaries and public offices were assigned and authorized for such tasks in the Greek and, respectively the Roman world in order to empower a growing system of economic exchange by -ideally- intervening without interfering..