congii, from Greek konkhion, diminutive of konkhē, konkhos, "shellful"[1]) was a liquid measure that was about 3.48 litres (0.92 U.S.
Among ourselves, too, Novellius Torquatus of Mediolanum, a man who held all the honours of the state from the prefecture to the pro-consulate, could drink off three congii at a single draught, a feat from which he obtained the surname of 'Tricongius': this he did before the eyes of the Emperor Tiberius, and to his extreme surprise and astonishment, a man who in his old age was very morose, and indeed very cruel in general; though in his younger days he himself had been too much addicted to wine.The Roman system of weights and measures, including the congius, was introduced to Britain in the 1st century by Emperor Claudius.
[7] 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.
[8] 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.
[9] 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: