Archaeologia Bulgarica ХХVII, 2 (2023), 71-91 A Glass exagium solidi with Monogram of the Eparch Akakios from Capidava. With a Review of Similar Finds in the Balkans and on the Lower Danube Ioan Carol OPRIȘ Abstract: A dark blue 4.06 g glass disk to check the weight of the solidus was found in- side one the storage rooms set up in the former portico of the horreum from Capidava. This paper is a review of all similar finds known from the province of Scythia, from the Balkan ones and beyond. Given the context records of the examples from Capidava and Luni (in Byzantine Liguria), the glass weight issued by eparch Akakios and his of- fice as prefect of Constantinople might be tentatively dated from Justin II (565-578) to the early regnal years of Maurice (582-602). Our assumption is based upon the general dating of the Byzantine domination in Liguria (AD 568-643), corroborated with a pre- cious terminus offered by the massive fire destruction that took place at Capidava. The latter happened at some point between 580/582-586, when a heavy attack and destruc- tion are clearly documented on a large scale. The small stamped disks were kept in wooden boxes with weighing sets formed by equal-arm balance scales, scale-pans and other copper-alloy weights. The most notorious of the 5 th -7 th century money changer’s boxes, including the lately found Yenikapı and Serdica ones, were equally reviewed. Do the known contexts of glass weights and weighing implements actually match the hoarding patterns established one decade ago by Florin Curta and Andrei Gândilă for the northern and central Balkans? That was another final question I tried to formulate an answer to. Key words: Capidava, glass exagium solidi, equal-arm balance scale, Lower Danube and Balkan provinces, Akakios. Introduction and Archaeological Context The major topic of this paper is the Early Byzantine glass weights, is- sued in the first place by the prefect of Constantinople but also by au- thorities from other major cities of the Empire during the 6 th to the middle of the 7 th century. The practical use of this Byzantine innovation was to weigh the solidus/nomisma (theoretical weight 4.54 g) and its divisions, the semissis (2.27 g) and tremissis (1.55 g) (Entwistle 2002, 605-606; 2016, 293). The solidus represented the standard gold coin pivotal to the whole Byzantine monetary system (1/72 of a pound, the litra) and it also was the reference coin in which all payments, taxes or prices were recorded (Pitarakis 2022, 27). Nevertheless, one has rightly observed that they do not always correspond exactly to known coin de- nominations. The main idea is that the glass disks were simply intended “as rule-of-thumb weights for checking the tolerance above or below which most coins would or not be accepted in everyday commercial transactions” (Entwistle 2016, 293). Christopher Entwistle rightly ob- served that they were never been intended to be highly accurate and as a consequence just those weights significantly above or below the relevant mean would have been re-melted and re-used. Besides such reversibility of the material, glass was practical also for it was impos- sible to alter without being detected. Entwistle established more than twenty different iconographic types in what is concerning the mono-