X weighs Y pounds

[LenCabral]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering how to do expressions of weight in Latin. I know that "libra" is a unit of weight analogous to a pound, but can the verb "pendo" take "libras" transitively?

Hoc saxum octo libras pendit. `This stone weighs eight pounds.'

Is this possible or do you need something else?

Thanks!

 

[Iáson]

I was initially sceptical about whether you could use pendere like that. Often there is no verb and the weight is expressed with a number + lībrārum. But there is an example in Varro:

Atīlius Hispāniēnsis, minimē mendāx et multārum rērum perītus in doctrīnā, dīcēbat L. Volumniō senātōrī missam esse offulam cum duābus costīs, quae penderet trēs et vīgintī pondō, eiusque suīs ā cute ad os pedem et trēs digitōs fuisse.
Atilius of Spain, a thoroughly truthful man and one widely versed in a variety of subjects, used to tell the story that when a sow was killed in Lusitania, a district of Farther Spain, there was sent to the senator Lucius Volumnius a piece of the meat with two ribs attached which weighed three-and-twenty pounds;

In most of the examples I saw, the expression used would be more like saxum VIII lībrārum (erat etc.).

 

[LenCabral]

Thank you! This is very helpful!