Congius


In Ancient Roman measurement, congius was a liquid measure that was about 3.48 litres. It was equal to the larger chous of the Ancient Greeks. The congius contained six sextarii.
Cato tells us that he was wont to give each of his slaves a congius of wine at the Saturnalia and Compitalia. Pliny relates, among other examples of hard drinking, that a Novellius Torquatus of Mediolanum obtained a cognomen by drinking three congii of wine at once:
The Roman system of weights and measures, including the congius, was introduced to Britain in the 1st century by Emperor Claudius. Following the Anglo-Saxon invasions of the 4th and 5th century, Roman units were, for the most part, replaced with North German units. Following the conversion of England to Christianity in the 7th century, Latin became the language of state. From this time on the word "congius" is simply the Latin word for gallon. Thus we find the word congius mentioned in a charter of Edmund I in 946.
In Apothecary Measures, the Latin Congius is used for the Queen Anne gallon of 231 cubic inches, also known as the US gallon.

Congius of Vespasian

in his book A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities says:
In 1866, an article entitled On a Congius appeared in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association casting doubt on the authenticity of the Farnese congius. A 1926 article in the journal Ancient Weights and Measures notes that "there is no true patina upon it" and that apparent red oxide is drops of shellac.
The 2002 book Aqueduct hunting in the seventeenth century: Raffaello Fabretti's De aquis et aquaeductibus veteris Romae by Harry B. Evans reports that the original congius of Farnese has been lost and that the extant copies are considered spurious.
On the other hand, according to the 1883 edition of A complete handbook to the National museum in Naples item number 74599 bears the following description: