Amphoreus

The amphoreus of the prize-lists is a measure of capacity: in that singular “conspiracy of silence” as regards the mention of painted vases to which Greek literature almost universally adhered, the painted Panathenaic amphora is not alluded to, even in the prize-lists.

The expensive wine of Chios was worth a mina an amphoreus; but twenty drachmas an amphoreus, or forty cents a gallon, was regarded as an extravagant price to pay for ordinary wine.

Whether the Schol. on Plato, Rep., p. 399 (see p. 7) refers to Athens is uncertain; it states that the second prize was an amphoreus of wine, the third a goat, which was led away smeared with wine-lees.

Accordingly one Amphoreus Metrétés contained 12 Choes, 144 Kotyloi, 864 Kyathoi. The Amphoreus held 39·39 litres or 69·33 pints, or slightly over 8½ gallons. It may generally be assumed that the great pointed pottery jars in which wines were preserved, exported and sold were, each of them, such an amphoreus.

For the great chiefs, Agamemnon and Menelaus, they had brought a thousand amphoreis of wine as well as more cargoes to be bartered with the troops. […] Maro, the priest of Apollo, the guardian god of Ismarus, had paid a heavy ransom for himself, his wife and child, and it included a dozen amphoreis of his very best wine.

Amphoreis of wine [- - -] : 590, three choes¹² […] 12. I.e., 590 amphoreis (a unit of measurement probably equivalent to 12 choes) + three choes = 7,083 choes.

Figuring an amphoreus conservatively at ca. 9 gal. (34.06 l.), the silver vessel had a capacity of ca. 5,400 gal. (20,439 l.).

For a public case, such as this one, the total amount of water was 11 amphoreis, of which one-third (44 khoes) was for the prosecutor, one-third for the defendant, and one-third for the speeches about the assessment of the penalty if the defendant was found guilty (Ais. 2.126, 3.197).