DRAMMA (βραχμή). — A Hellenic coin. According to the Greek Septuagint and the Vulgate, it already appears in the 5th century B.C. as a monetary unit (Est. 2, 69); but Codex Vaticanus (B) omits *drachmās*. It is generally held to refer to the Lydian drachma, in use since the time of Croesus. Many modern scholars, however, rightly see in the Hebrew word *darkē-nōn* (Neh. 7, 70) not a transcription of βραχμή, but of βραχμός (= daric), the monetary unit of the Persians.
During the Hellenistic period, the drachma was also used in Palestine, probably corresponding to the Attic drachma, which was later assimilated to the Roman *denarius* (v.) (cf. 2 Macc. 4, 19; 10, 20; 12, 43). In the New Testament, the parable of the woman who anxiously searches for a lost drachma is well known (Lk. 15, 8-9). See DIDRACHMA. Angelo Penna