Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DESCRIPTIVE
CATALOGUE
OF
GREEK COINS
SELECTED FROM THE CABINET
OF
CLARENCE
S.
BEMENT,
PHILADELPHIA
1921
Esq.
FOREWORD
Soon
after the
described,
manuscript, of
this
became very ill and now for many months has leen unable
whatever plans he may have had for the development
to carry further
This interruption
is
Mr. Bement's interest in books and prints resulted in the formaThis library
tion of one of the noted private libraries of the country.
was disposed of several years ago, some of, the fine volumes passing
through the hands of the late Mr. Harry Widener to Harvard University, while many rare prints went into the possession of a distinguished
Philadelphia jurist.
It was to minerals that Mr. Bement devoted the most of his leisure
and the greatest care. His collection, purchased by the late Mr. J.
Pierpont Morgan for the American Museum of Natural History in New
York City, is rated "the finest ever made by a private individual".
Its real value is not measured so much by the more than 12,000 superior specimens as by the scientific importance given it by the discriminating care of an industrious student of the subject, who " had a
comprehensive knowledge of minerals, and was one of the most discerning and intelligent collectors that ever bought minerals ".
It has been only a few years since Mr. Bement became interested
At first this interest extended to both ancient and modern
in coins.
coins, but the latter, including the American series, soon ceased to be
He has thereattractive, because lacking historical or artistic values.
fore of late concentrated his attention on Grreek and Roman coins, his
Studious and painstaking he has
collections of which grew rapidly.
built
in
ownership.
T.
September
1,
1921.
L. c.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The
following catalogue includes only a small portion of the collection of Greek coins in the cabinet of Mr. Clarence S. Bement, Philadelphia, and embraces none of his much larger and, if possible, finer
In answer to the natural question, why the
collection of Roman coins.
entire collection of Greek coins was not included, it may be said that
such a publication would place before the various classes of persons in terested in the study of antiquity a great deal of material that is already
numerous treatises as well as in scientific and sales cataseemed useless, therefore, to include the hundreds of specimens found in almost every considerable collection of Greek coins or
even the scores possessed by many collectors. A complete catalogue of
Mr. Bement's Greek coins would, in addition to the useful purpose of
this publication, chiefly have served to exploit the riches of his carefully
selected collection, a consideration quite foreign to his desires. Accordingly, the selection of the 370 specimens that are here described has
been restricted to examples that are either very rare or at least not very
abundant. Among the latter will be found some that have been inavailable in
logues.
It
'
LVTEODUCTOUY NclTK
The sources
of the
gestions.
T.
L.
COMPARETTE.
little
little
has to do
Stater
/R.
hind, A
(=5)
11.11 gr}
22.5
mm.
Ohv.
Young male
head, laureate,
r.
be-
Rev. Plain.
Prowe
Coll.
many
CAMPANIA
Atella was an ancient Samnite town that had evidently been conquered by the Etruscans at
an early period when the empire of the latter embraced a portion of the Campania. Samnite influence long survived, however, as the Oscau inscriptions on the coins show for the town struck
no coins till about 250 B. C. The place was famous in antiquity as the place where the Fabulae
Atellcmae originated, a sort of farce comedy long held in esteem at Rome.
;
Hexas
JE.
13.00 gr.
27 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of Zeus, laureate,
r.
behind,
0' Rag an
1
This abbreviation
is,
grammes.
to
17.
reverse type shows an oath-scene in which the representatives of two states are malting
It is the old Italic rite of solemnizing a treaty.
a treaty.
Nuceria Alfaterna was originally an Oscan town situated on the Sarnus river a few miles
The town was conquered by the Romans in .308 B. C. and made a dritasfoederala,
but the anti-Roman party led a revolt a few years later. It was promptly reduced to submission,
but again showed a spirit of independence in B. C. 280 when Pyrrhus landed in Italy. It was at
south of Nola.
began
at
Rome
Ohv.
ftlVl/KlBTNSNJN
B.
^.
Campanian Didrachm
ITIVMI<1>|-1V1/1
1.
(=
^80-^68.
2%. 5
7.17 gr.;
mm.
-ZVMwA^nnMTO Alafaternum~).
behind, cantharus
Rev.
0.
Castor, with sceptre in left hand, standing and holding horse by bridle.
H. Chapman.
local
this coin,
was probably a Samnite town but the site of it is unknown. The fact that the
have inscriptions in Oscan on one side and in Greek on the other has led
to the suggestion that the town stood near the border of Campania, and this is confirmed by the
flnd-place of many of the coins.
The coins were thus expected to circulate in both countries, but
the standard on which they were struck is Campanian.
Phistelia
B.
i^.
Campanian Didrachm
The
Man-headed
bull
Ohv.
Head
of
nymph,
Rev. I
facing.
1.
Ooll.
types doubtless relate to local myths, and the man-headed bull very likely
^.
380-350.
Mathey
0.
Campanian Didrachm
8RTtVR
Bull
1.,
7.45 gr.
below,
19 mm.
is
a river-god.
fish.
H. Chapman.
Suessa Arunca doubtless belonged in Campania at an early period, but was later included in
Latium. The city was founded by Arunca or the Ausones, who were regarded in legend as the
most ancient inhabitants of lower Italy. Suessa was one of the twelve Roman colonies which,
whether because wasted by war or because they had lost heart and become lukewarm in the cause
of Rome, declared their inability to meet the demands for men and money required of them in B. C.
209 to continue the struggle with Hannibal. Rome regarded their course as a revolt, doubled the
As
levy.
many
other allied cities Suessa struck no coins until about B. C. 280, when the
Pyrrhic war upset commercial and financial relations in the South. Silver coins only were struck
from that date till B. C. 268, when the denarii coinage was instituted by Rome and nearly all
in so
non-Roman
Circ.
6
ate,
r.,
^.
Campanian Didrachm
B.
C. 280-268.
6.49 gr.
22 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of Apollo, laure-
4
Rev.
SVESANO
palm-branch across
Sir
r.
shoulder, riding
Hermann Weber
(in exergue).
1.
filleted
Coll.
The
of this coin are without special local significance, both being borrowed.
an imitation of a Croton type, whilst the reverse is taken from a Tarentine coin.
The types
Apollo-head
is
APULIA.
(Ad Aen. XI, S46), by Diomed, who went from Troy
Argos Hippion, which was later corrupted to Argyrippa,
then to Arpi. The myth may have been current at Arpi and thus explain the horse-type on the
reverse of this coin. The town came under Roman domination in B. C. .326 and remained loyal
during the war with Pyrrhus, but went over to Hannibal following the disaster at Cannae in
Arpi was founded, according
He
directly to Italy.
called his
to Servius
new
city
217 B. C.
B.
Circ.
^.
Persephone
head
1.,
215.
mm.
Obv.
Head
APPANfiN
of
behind, barley-
Rev. ^^
Sir
Hermann Weber
The head
of
1.
beneath,
A AIOY.
Coll.
Persephone
is
That
Syracusan coin.
and
0.
gr.; 22.5
to desert
the reverse
shifty person
Rome
is
when
the
(Livy 24,
had
Arpi he
4.5)
to
camp and offered, for a reward, to betray the town with its Punic garrison.
The Romans interned him at Gales, while Hannibal burned his family alive and confiscated his
property.
B. C.
Teate was the chief city of the Marrucini. The city formed an alliance with Rome in 303
Though twice devastated by the Carthaginians during the Hannibalic war, Teate remained
loyal to the
latter's
Circ.
M.
Pentoncion
Rev.
TIATI
15.84
;
g"""-
B.
33 mm.
above,
Owl perched
r.
217.
Obv.
Head
of Pallas
around, linear
r.,
in crested Corin-
circle.
circle.
Venusia was located on the Via Appia in the southwestern part of Apulia in a rich agriculThe place was captured by the Romans in 262 B. C. and a colony sent there to
form a bulwark against both the Apulians and the Lucanians, as Horace specifically states. Sat.
This Roman element of the city was greatly weakened during the exhausting Hannibalic
II, 134war and in 200 B. C. commissioners were appointed to add to it. Venusia was the birthplace of
tural district.
Horace,
who has
number
city.
Circ.
9
ivy,
r.,
B.
C.
268-217.
JE.
Nummus 31.09 gr. 34-5 mm. Obv. Head of Dionysus, crowned with
with long loose hair; behind, VE in monogram around, circle of dots.
;
Dionysus seated
Nummus
r.
1.
in
fillet
1.
behind, N-
I.
(=
i.)
Bunbury
Coll.
These types
relate
to the
Dionysus.
CALABRIA.
Tarentum was an ancient lapygian city, which apparently enjoyed great prosperity from an
early period because of its position on a good harbor.
According to legend it was founded by
Taras, sou of Poseidon and a local nymph. Taras had been shipwrecked and was brought to land
on a dolphin sent by his father Poseidon. At about 708 B. C. Lacedaemonian Partheniae, alleged
illegitimate sons of war times, under the leadership of Phalanthus arrived at Tarentum and established themselves in the city.
In time the myth of Taras and his miraculous rescue from shipwreck was transferred to Phalanthus, perhaps by design in order to establish a right of the
Spartans to the city of which Poseidon was the patron divinity. For centuries this Dorian colony
waged wars, sometimes disastrous, with neighboring native peoples, with other Italiot Greek
In the sixth and fifth centuries, perhaps earlier, the Greek states
states, and lastly with Rome.
were driven into alliances for protection against the common enemy, the native Lucanians, Bruttians, and, in the case of Tarentum, the Messapians at whose hand she suffered an almost ruinous defeat in 473 B. C. In this period the aid of the Spartan king Archidamus (B. C. 3.38), of
Alexander of Epirus (B. C. 330), and of Cleonymus of Sparta (B. 0. 314), was brought to Italy,
but in vain. Finally with the advent of the Romans in Magna Graecia a coalition of Greek and
native States was formed to meet this greater foe to their several ambitions and claims.
Pyrrhus
of Epirus was brought into the alliance in 282 B. 0., but after a ten-year war Tarentum was taken
and all Magna Graecia submitted to Rome.
Time of Cleonymus, B.
r.,
right side
315.
mm.
Obv.
veil
which
^.
JO
meter
C.
1.
side of head
TAPA
is
in front, dolphin
beneath,
KON.
Rev.
man
\ The
carries
crowning
Dioscuri riding
1.,
his horse
iillet,
the further
above, AI02K0P0I
plainly are
meant
is,
The
whom
were
aid.
Time of Pyrrhus, B.
jV.
ii
ate,
r.
in field,
behind,
Rev.
C. -281-272.
NK;
above, [QI]
TAPANTIN^N
mm.
Obv.
Head
of Zeus, laure-
beneath, eaaa
1.
on a thunderbolt;
A-
The types
his eagle.
M.
J2
r.
T[APA] Taras
Rev. i
in
mm.
naked youth
2Ti
Naked horseman
Obv.
r in three lines
riding on dolphin
r.,
1.,
welcomed by
holding bow in
1.
Hartivig Coll.
The elephant symbol on this coin leaves no doubt that it was struck during the control of
Pyrrhus at Tarentum. The elephant was a main reliance of his equipment against the Romans,
and symbolized his forces.
^.
J3
mm.
Naked boy
Obv.
rider
r.
crowning
his horse
in field, /^
Rev.
T[APA]
crowning him
in
1.,
shield,
1.,
holding Nike in
on which serpent
hand,
r.
who
is
below, waves.
Allatini Coll.
The
of the war.
B.
14
Nike,
Stater
iK.
who stands
C. 23f5-228,
;
6.30 gr.
22 mm.
on his ontstretched
r.
r.
Horseman galloping
Ohv.
r.
crowned by
TH;
in
field,
T^
TAPA5
Rev. \
r.,
Nike who
is
Mathey
crowning him;
1.,
with trident in
1.
hand
on extended
in field, ^E.
Coll.
LTJCANIA.
was founded by Tarentum and Thurium jointly in the latter part of fifth century
B. C. About a half century later it was selected by Archytas, the philosopher-statesman of Tarentum, as the meeting-place of the congress of the Italiot-Greek states. From B. C. 380 to 345
the cougress met at Heracleia, but in 331 B. C. Alexander of Epirus, in anger at the Tarentines,
removed the assembly to Thurium and beyond the control of Tarentum. In B. C. 278 Heracleia
deserted the coalition headed by Pyrrhus and made an alliance with Rome.
Heracleia
B.
J5
M..
Italic-Tarentine Stater
C.
;
370-325.
7.63 gr.
23.5
between
HPAKAHIfiN
his feet,
HirHch,
owl
XXVI,
The standard
in field,
1.,
r.
mm.
before,
Obv.
Head
A K
and strangling
of Pallas
r.,
4>.
lion
with arms
219.
nian colony of Thurium in the Athena head and the owl symbol.
a type purlimt relating to the
name
of the city.
It
B.
Circ.
^.
\6
r.,
0.
550-500.
mm.
kksiM^\)
Obv.
Man-headed bull
MON(gON)
Benson
incuse.
Coll.
was a
of Laus,
bull,
in-
fluenced the choice of a type for the colony, yet this man-headed bull suggests a river-god, probably of the river Laiis.
Thus Horace
It
cum
saevit
horrendumque
cidtis
The
is
is
itself.
on the Tarentine Gulf, was a very early Achaean colony that had estabtown called Metabas. After the Samnites had destroyed
Metabas the people of Sybaris induced the Achaeans to come and under the leadership of Leucippus, of Sybaris, occupied the town and changed the name to Metapontum.
From its fertile
Metapontum,
lished itself in a
soil
the
new
situate
still
older Lucanian
However, long before this dedication a head of barley had been the irapda-nfLov or badge
After a long period of wars with her Greek
of the city and as such appears as the coin-type.
neighbors and defensive struggles with the Lucanians, Metapontum cajme under Koman domination.
The city was held for some years by Hannibal, who carried the population with him when
compelled to abandon the place. It ceased from that time to be an important city, though it
It was at Metapontum that Pythagoras took refuge when
existed for some centuries afterward.
banished from Croton, and there he died.
at Delphi.
Circ.
17
^.
Italic
B. C. 400-350.
21mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Demeter
1.,
wearing
Rhousopoulos
it is
to
Coll.
This specimen belongs to the period of finest art in die-engraving. In simplicity and beauty
above criticism. The types of Apollo Karneios " of the flocks " (No. 18) and Demeter relate
agriculture.
^.
18
rain's horn,
Italic Stater
/ ET
Eev.
AUatini
7.62 gr.
23.5 mm.
Obv.
Head
r.,
Barley-head with
leaf.
Coll.
B.
Circ.
M..
J9
bearded,
which AT
in front of
Rev.
Italic
Tetradrachm
in Corinthian
r.,
350-330.
0.
15.87 gr.
Italic states.
26 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Leucippus,
r.,
I.
METAPONTINQN
leaf,
club, AMI.
20
Italic Stater
-i^.
with barley
7.95 gr.
Rev.
20.5 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Demeter
r.,
crowned
wears earring, necklace, and a veil thrown back from right side, the edge
\ META
1.,
4).
Merzbacher.
^.
2\
with barley
Rev.
23 mm.
M ETA
Head
of
Demeter
1.,
crowned
still
attractive
r.
in field
Metapontum
1.,
somewhat earlier
and the great variety of dies in the short period lend them increased
Obv.
wears earring.
interest.
Poseidonia, later called Paestum, was founded by colonists from Sybaris, said, however, to
have been Dorians whom the people of that Achaean city expelled. It was one of the most
northerly Greek towns on the west coast. The foundation is placed as early as the middle of the
It was taken by the Lucanians in B. C. 395 and by the Romans in B. C. 273.
sixth century.
B.
M.
22
ing
r.
0.
300-268.
mm.
06y.
PO^EIAQNECfiN)
Bull stand-
border of dots.
Rev.
The type
AI5T
Eros, with
of the bull
bow
in
r.
1.
border of dots.
where the
bull
was
the
well-known type.
Thurium was founded in J?. C. 443 near the site of Sybaris, which had been destroyed in
Pericles was the moving spirit in founding the colony.
It was aimed, apparently, to
make it in reality a pan-Hellenic colony, and to this end an appeal was sent out to all Greek cities
to participate in the establishment of the town.
While Greeks from many places apparently
B. C. 510.
Among
Herodotus who had been dwelling at Athens for a short period after his extensive travels. He
must have written a considerable part of his great work at Thurium. Another personage of note,
who soon came to Thurium, was Lysias, the wealthy business man and orator.
The plan for the city was drawn by the noted city-builder, Hippodamus, of Miletus, the same
who in B. C. 408 laid out the new city of Khodes.
B.
^-
23
400-350.
C.
28mm.
Head
Obv.
of
Athena
in
r.,
beneath chin,
helmet
<t>.
0OYPIQN
down, charging
r.
in exergue, fish.
Vlasto Coll.
The Thurian
when
The broad
among Greek
The
design, too,
is
No
Greek
ment
This
is
whose lowered head and charging attitude at once put spirit into the design and
Other engravers had resorted to the much less pleasing
fitted it nicely into the circular field.
method of turning the animal's head back to shorten its length and thus adapt it to the small field.
The Athena head is doubtless due to the predominant Athenian influence in the colony.
The standard of the coins necessarily was brought into harmony with that of neighboring
Italiot Greek cities.
of the bull,
Velia in
its
is
the
Velia was located on the western coast on the Mare Tyrrhenura, and doubtless shared in the
extensive commerce with central and northern Italy which came overland from Sybaris and Croton
rather than face the dangers of rounding the lower point of Italy.
Evidently the city soon be-
it
as
is
attested by
its
abundant
silver coins.
its
great son,
Parmenides, the philosopher, was in large measure responsible. For if he did not draw up a
constitution for his native city, he did reform the old one, and the magistrates were annually
sworn to uphold the laws.
Velia has long since disappeared, and so completely that even the site of it is unknown.
But an extensive series of attractive coins, and, above all, the influence andTenown of the Eleatic school of philosophy founded by the great Parmenides and Zeno, have rescued her from the
oblivion that overtook
many a prosperous
Circ.
city of antiquity.
B.
0.
400 and
later.
1.,
in crested
palniette on
10
Lion
I YEAHTfiN
Hermann Weher Coll.
Rev.
Sir
^.
26
Italic Stater
seizing a stag
7.6o gr.
r.
23 mm.
Head
Ohv.
later
Athena
of
in crested
1.,
and weaker.
Coll.
was brought
to their
The Bruttii separated from the main body of the Lucanians and became independent in
Their conquest of several Greek cities had for chief result the conquest of themselves
.356.
by Greek civilization. In B. C. 282 they entered the coalition of south Italian states to oppose
Rome with the assistance of Pyrrhus. The heavy expense of that war was the occasion of the
In B. C. 272 their capital city, Cosentia, was taken by the Romans and
institution of a coinage.
B. C.
the Bruttii
B.
Drachm 4-18
N.
27
9'>'-
C.
^82-W3.
16.5 mm.
Ohv.
Head
Poseidon
of
1.,
with diadem
bow
in field,
A niphi trite
BPETTIQN
Rev. \
with
r.,
riding on a hippocamp
1.;
on her
right, Eros
bee.
XL, 218.
Hemidrachm
Brilder Egger,
N.
28
lion's skin
beneath, r
BPETTIfiN
Rev. I
^J.07 gr.
in field
r.,
(in Ex.')
13 mm.
Head
Ohv.
of bearded Heracles
1.,
in
club.
Nike
in biga galloping
r.
^.
29
Octobol
o.47 gr.
mm.
i21
Ohv.
).,
wearing
cfelamydes and helmets bound with laurel-wreath; above, stars; behind, cornucopia.
Rev. J
RETT in N
on border, linear
Sir
Hermann
r.,
beneath horses,
circle.
Weher.
two very
i-are
ing a naval war, for the expense of which the former was struck, while the latter alludes to the
victory.
more or
But
it is
^.
neighboring states.
30
1.,
in crested
Rev.
\ BPETTIQN
Pallas, in crested
head facing, grasping shield with both hands and spear under
Croton was founded about B. C. 710 by Achaeans.
The
city
1.
arm
r.,
her
border of dots.
period, owing in part to the resources of its soil, but largely because
shared the profits of trade between the East and the western coast of Italy.
its
greatness.
11
Livy
(XXIV,
after that
alliances with
to attack.
neighboring
The
cities
coins.
In B. C. 297 the city, then greatly reduced and weakened, fell a prey of the Bruttii; but in
was freed from its captors by the Eomans, who in 277 took possession of Croton.
The temple of Hera Lakinia at Croton was a famous shrine resorted to by Greeks from all
Magna Graecia, nobile templmn
Laciniae lunonis, sanctum omnibus circa populis, says
Livy (1. c).
Croton became the center of a high culture, perhaps influenced by Pythagoras, who seems
to have settled there about the middle of the sixth century.
Just what influence that eminent
philosopher exercised over the politics of Croton and other cities is not now regarded so certain as
some years since; and the effort to connect the peculiar fabric of the early coinages of that whole
282
it
is
almost certainly
idle.
Few cities of antiquity won greater fame for the athletic prowess of its youth than
Croton. Many were the palms of victory brought home from the Olympian games, though
mighty Milo
is
name
Circ.
B.
number
did
the
of victors.
0. 550-480.
9 mm.
Obv. 910
Tripod, with lion's claw
feet, standing on an ornamented base, surmounted by lebes with three rings and from
the lebes issue two serpents in field, r., large crab; the whole in circle of dots.
Rev. f The same type, incuse.
31
J^.
tripod
is
the well-known
The
Circ.
32
^.
capital of a
B.
column
For the
C.
4.W-390.
mm.
Obv.
9 POT
Eagle perched
1.
on
border of dots.
Bev. \ 9 POT
Tripod surmounted by lebes witli three rings
border of dots.
;
in field, to
1.,
grain
of barley
Allatini Coll.
1.
on stag's head,
Rev.
9P0
1.,
ivy-leaf;
34 ^.
wings open.
Italic Stater
7.84 gr.
22 mm.
Obv. Eagle
r.
12
Rev.
leaf
9P0
<r-
The
is
1.,
laurel-
circle.
of Zeus, as
to
field,
victory.
thrown
his
bow
holds wine-cup in
r.
hand, the
1.
Hirsch,
XXVI,
It is related by
erected a temple to
331.
Diodorus Siculus that after Heracles had slain the robber Lakinios, he
Later arose the magnificent temple of Hera in the same
spot.
Hera on the
place.
Circ.
36
^.
Rev.
7.93 gr.;
Italic Stater;
Apollo, laureate,
1.,
B.
0.
390.
20.5
mm.
circle of dots
Head
KPOTfiNIATA
Obv.
of
around border.
This famous coin-type of Heracles strangling the serpents seems to have been used first at
Thebes (see No. 176). But the painter, Zeuxis, boru at Heracleia, in Magna Graecia, also painted
a famous picture with this subject as the central idea and presented it to Agrigentum. The choice
of the type at Croton was due to the united effort of Croton and the other Greek cities of Italy to
repel the attack of the Lucanians and Dionysius of Syracuse, and represents the struggle of
enlightened freedom against ignorant barbarism and tyranny.
Circ.
37
^.
Italic Stater
Rev.
crown one
KPO
r.,
B.
300.
6.22 gr.
21 mm.
Obv. Eagle perched r. on fulmen,
Hermes with patera and caduceus in field, ^
;
I.
Nike flying
r.
to
of the rings.
Vlasto
Coll.
Locri Epizephyrii, or
Throughout
its
history the
who
The Locrians
it
it from Locri
was colonized from the latter
so designated to distinguish
did
much
to
Lacedaemonians
in the attack
men
like Plato,
later.
Pindar, and
the place.
For some reason Locri Epizephyrii did not strike coins till about two centuries after her
neighboring Greek states had instituted a coinage. This delay may have been due in part to its
conservative government, or, as has been suggested, to the laws prepared for the city by Zaleucus, who took some of his ideas from the Spartan laws; but it is more likely that their needs were
amply supplied by the coinages of other states, such as Corinth. Their first issues were on two
13
separate standards, the Corinthian, with Corinthian types, for foreign commerce, and the Itahc
for domestic trade.
Alexander
to
Circ.
38
^.
Italic Stater
7.10 gr.
beneath, A
\ AOKPQN
B.
'20.5
a. 273.
mm.
Obv.
Head
Zeus, laureate,
of
1.,
border of dots.
personified as Loyalty, in
and niSTis.
Rev.
(in Exerg.')
Mhousopoulos
shield, a
Coll.
B.
39
17.33 gr.
JE'.
28.5
0.
mm.
300-268.
Head
Obv.
of Pallas
r.,
above, ex.
Rev. f AOKPfiN
Persephone, in long chiton, seated 1. on a throne, of which the
front leg is in form of an animal's fore-leg on 1. arm a sceptre ending in poppy-head,
;
in
r.
hand a wreath
above, in
field,
two
stars
Twice
it
was sacked,
Rhegium, located on the narrowest point of the Sicilian Straits, was one of the very early
Greek colonies established in Italy. Chalcidians are said to have settled there not much later
than B. C. 720, a date not long subsequent to the founding of Cumae, the first Greek colony in
Italy.
Little is known of the town prior to the time of the tyrant Anaxilas, B. C. 494-476.
He
crossed the Strait and seized Zancle; expelling the Samians he is said to have been induced to take
possession of the city, and then changed its name to Messene, in honor of his native country. About
ten years after the death of Anaxilas, his sons were banished and a democracy established.
In B. C. 387 Rhegium was captured by Dionysius I, of Syracuse, who sold the citizens into
slavery, enraged, historical gossip claims, because the citizens of the place had refused him a
But a few years later the Syracusans restored the city to the survivors.
bride!
Rhegium belonged to the early alliance of Italian Greek cities and struck coins with the alliance fabric, the obverse type repeated incuse on the reverse. But of special interest in the history of the city's coinage are the types of the mule-car and the hare on coins issued by Anaxilas.
For Aristotle is our authority for the statement that Anaxilas won a victory with a mule-car at the
Olympian games, and that he introduced the hare into Sicily. Anaxilas celebrated both achievements on that coin.
Circ.
40
^.
cle of dots.
Attic Tetradrachm
B.
C.
466415.
17.21 gr.; 27
mm.
Obv.
14
/ RECI N
baud holding staff
08
Rev.
r.
naked
to waist, seated
1.,
his
on border, laurel-wreath.
H. Chapman.
This coin of the revolutionized government was probably, to the Khegians, redolent of
It honors their traditional founder, who was, of course, a popular leader; and also it
democracy.
Samian element
in the population.
The standard
Attic,
is
turning.
B. 0. 415-387.
Oirc.
Attic Tetradrachm
-^.
4t
Rev. I
PHflNON
Spiiik
Son.
c)''
Head
17.04
9'>'-
^^-'^ ""
of Apollo, laureate,
r.,
^^i'-
Similar to preceding.
The
series of beautiful
B.
Girc.
42
mis, jugate,
r.
r.,
behind,
mm.
circle of dots
\ PHri NQN
Rev.
in field,
Tetras
-3i.
0.
W3-89.
Busts of Apollo, laureate, and Arte-
Ohv.
on border.
border of dots.
43
^.
B.
C.
425-400.
hair confined by an
Rev.
life.
r.
hand.
Ohv.
TEPINAIQN
Head
of
nymph
Catai,ooue of Greek
Rev.
in
r.
hand, her
Barron
1.
15
0(jin.s
1.
of engraver's signature.
i'ull.
Nos. 43 and 44 belong to a long series of what are probably agonistic coins, struck on the
occasion of festivals with games. The reverse type of the charming figure of Terina as Nike is
treated with numerous variations, sometimes toying with a bird in delight of victory, or tossing
It is evident that fondness for athletic contests
balls, or extending a wreath, and in other poses.
characterized the people of Terina as well as of their mother-city Croton.
SICILY.
Agrigentum, or Akragas as the Greeks called it, the modern Oirgenti, was founded early in
It was located near the confluence of the Hypsas and
the sixth century by colonists from Gela.
Akragas rivers, from the latter of which the city received its name. Owing to this situation, favorable to commerce, with Carthage in particular but also with Greek traders, and to the products
The political power of the city was
of the fertile territory, Agrigentum early became wealthy.
it
exercised quite as
much
influence as did
Following the death of the tyrant Theron in B. C. 472 and the liberation of all the cities of
few years later, Agrigentum entered upon a period of great prosperity. To this the extant
remains of the city testify, both ruined temples and beautiful coins. But hardly had the menace
Sicily a
to Sicily of the
Athenians been met by the defeat of the Expedition of 415 when Agrigentum
Pindar visited Agrigentum while a guest at the court of Ilieron of Syracuse, and the widely
KaWicTa pporeav iroXluiv.
it one of the most beautiful of cities
Though Timoleon rebuilt Agrigentum and there were periods of freedom in its subsequent
history, yet for the most part it became the prey of Carthaginian and Konian in turn.
traveled poet found
Circ.
45
M.
Attic Tetradrachm
B.
C.
413-406.
17.3^ gr.
26 mm.
AK PAT
NO.,
i-p^j.
down
Obv.
Two
standing
eagles
who
r.
Quad-
in exergue,
club.
Sir
Hermann Weber
Coll.
In B. C. 412 Exainetos of Agrigentum won the chariot race in the Olympian games and
About
received, on returning home, a welcome that a victorious general might well have envied.
time and probably in relation to that victory Agrigentum issued splendid Dekadrachms and
Tetradrachms with the type of two eagles devouring their prey. There may have been a touch of
jealousy and rivalry in connection with this type. For in the autumn of this same year Syracuse
instituted the Assinarian games to commemorate their victory over the Athenians at the River
Assinarus and struck the famous Dekadrachms in connection therewith. Agrigentum had remained neutral in the war and thus could not join in the general celebration. The victory of
Exainetos gave the opportunity for a public celebration and for a coinage that in splendor was
this
little if
any inferior
The
The
to that of Syracuse.
lines of a great
chorus in the
chose to
assist.
quoted in con-
C'atai. ucuK
1(3
^.
46
lar to
Attic Tetradrachm:
OF (tReek Coins
16.63 gr.;
..'7
mm.
Obv.
[A]KPArA[]
Simi-
No. 45.
/ AKPA TANTIN ON
Jiei'.
beneath, Skylla
Large crab;
swimming
1.,
one of
^.
47
is
1.
a scallop shell
Rev.
to
1.
Tetradrachm; 16.50
Attic
Eagle standing
on a hare which
it is
gr.;
30.5mm.
Ohv.
AKPAHA NTINON
sea-fish
fin
XXVI,
Hirsch,
59.
The crab was the wapia-qiiov or badge of Agrigentum and holds a promiiieut place as a cointype of the city, even to the disadvantage of the beautiful representation of Sibylla on No. 46.
These splendid coins, in the finest style of Greek art, were issued in the brief period of six
or seven years just preceding the capture of
in B. C. 400.
a tributary to Carthage
till
the
Roman
600-
rebuilt
conquest.
It
city, rebuilt
round
^.
Attic Didrachm
8.71 gr.
21.5 mm.
Obv.
Corinthian helmet on a
shield.
Rev. J
K AM API
Spink
Son.
ij-
fruit
This is probably a commemorative coin. In B. C. 480 the Sicilian cities met and defeated
the Carthaginians at Ilimera, and thus put an end to an invasion by an oriental people that was
almost as formidable as the Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes in the same year. Other cities
commemorated
by the
city of
rative coin.
49
1.,
the great event on interesting coins, but the people of Camarina had been expelled
Gela in 486, so must wait until after their return in B. C. 461 to issue a commemoThe palm, of course, relates to the African power.
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
crane flying
Hev.
r.
17.36 gr.
^6 mm.
fillet to
Obv.
A quadriga
in full career
;
in exergue,
1.,
in lion-skin
1.
\ KAMAPINAION
(retrograde')
Rhousopoulos, 284.
It is not
of
Camarina
improbable that the obverse type of this coin celebrates the victory won by Psaumis
in B. C. 456.
CatjVL0(i1ue of
its
GrtEEK Coins
17
C 476 and
Chalcidic population in B.
colonized
it
Ilieron,
with people
from Syracuse and the Peloponnesus. He also changed the name to Aetna. To celebrate the
founding of the city, Aeschylus, who was then living at the court of Hierou, wrote the drama,
The Women of Aetna. After the death of Thrasybulus, the brother and successor of Hieron, this
new population was driven out and the former citizens restored to their homes. This was in
B. C. 461, the year in which the last of the Sicilian cities secured their freedom from tyrant rule.
Although Catana was forced to side with Athens at the time of the expedition against Syracuse
and become the b&,se for the Athenian operations, yet the city's participation in the war was not
condoned and in B. 0. 404 Dionysius captured it and in punishment sold the citizens into slavery.
Oirc.
Attic Tetradrachm
.*
50
B.
(J.
41340
17.21 gr.; 27
'i.
mm.
r.
(Hpa/cXet'Sa?
Rev.
a
fillet
?)
fillet
A victorious quadriga
1.,
a triple moulding,
b}-
KATANAIQN
Obv.
hanging loose
Head
of
1.,
^.
51
ate, facing;
Mev.
action
Attic Tetradrachm
to
r.,
KATANAIQN
17.27 yr.
27
nun.
Obv.
Victorious quadriga
fillet
Head
of Apollo, laure-
border of dots.
for diiver
1.
1.
artist in the
ture
is
full
initial letter
H,
in the exergue.
.50
But equally
the style of the piece, especially in the treatment of the small locks of hair.
52
^-
Obv.
Victorious quadriga
Rev. \
fillet
to
i-.,
in
r.,
1.,
is
exergue, crab.
KATANAIQN
Head
of Apollo, laureate,
1.;
in front, bell
suspended by
crayfish.
This beautiful coin was engraved by Euainetos, the master engraver of all time, though it
Euainetos was evidently conscious of his powers at this time, if we may
is not his masterpiece.
judge from the striking manner he selected for signing the die.
These three coins were probably issued between the termination of the Athenian occupation
per-
Centuripini were pre-eminently the agricultural people of Sicily, a fact that had
much
to
The
do with
They occupied land in many parts of Sicily and produced a large surplus of foodFor that reason the Athenians captured the place in B. C. 415, in order to secure supplies
from them. Eor the same reason the Romans made haste to get possession of Centuripae in the
their history.
stuffs.
18
War. The Centuripini remained loyal to the Romans, supplied their army and navy
throughout that war, and as a reward they were granted immunity from taxation and so remained
till Cicero's time and later.
First Punic
After B. O.24I.
M.
53
Dekonkion
/ KENTO
Rev.
13.18 gr.
PITTINQN
r.
H. Chapman.
Eryx, situated near the mountain of the same name, was, according to Thucydides, a town
Apparently the place never received a Greek colony but became thoroughly
Hellenized.
After the failure of the Athenian expedition against Syracuse, Eryx became a dependent of Carthage and so remained, except for a brief interval when Pyrrhus reached the place,
until destroyed by the Carthaginians in the First Punic War.
of the native Elymi.
Circ.
^.
54
Attic Didrachm
B.
8.r)o gr.
C. If80413.
IPYKAIIIB
(o>i
-32
mm.
Ohv.
Hound walking
a tahUf)
Head
of
Aphrodite
r.,
wear-
Proive Coll.
On the summit of Mt. Eryx was a temple of Aphrodite, the Venus Erydnu of the Eomans,
and it is to that goddess the obverse type of this coin alludes. The reverse type is really the
" arms " of Segesta, and the appearance of the device on a coin of Eryx may point to an alliance
between the two cities.
Gela was founded by Cretans and Rhodians and received its name from the river on which it
was built, Gelafluvii cognomine dicta, says Vergil. Gela became rich and powerful at an early date,
and in the fifth century the tyrants Hippocrates, Gelon and Hieron raised it to a Sicilian empire.
These resourceful leaders brought under their sway Naxos, Leontini, Zancle (Messana), Syracuse
and several other smaller cities in the eastern and central parts of the island. In 485 B. C. Gelon
romoved his capital from Gela to Syracuse, at the same time transferring the most of the population of the former to the latter city.
In B. C. 406 some of the people were restored to Gela and
the city recovered some of its earher prosperity.
Xot long after 461, the year of Liberation from
tyrants throughout Sicily, the tragic poet Aeschylus took up his residence at Gela, where he died
in 456 and was buried by the State with great pomp. The massacre of 4,000 of its wealthy citizens,
suspected of leanings toward Carthage, by Agathocles put an end to Gela as a city of any importance.
Circ.
55
^.
B.
C.
413405.
i7'..W ^r.
^6 mm.
Ohv. rEAfilQN
Quadriga 1.,
by Nike apteros who holds reins in both hands, the whip in r.
with serpent in beak in exergue, barley-head.
Attic Tetradrachm
1.
rEAA
(^retrograde)
r.
above,
grain of barley.
Benson
56
^.
Coll.
Attic Tetradrachm
17.^0 gr.
Spink
Son.
mm.
2(>.5
linear circle
around border;
in
19
The presence of the fjuadriga on the coins of Gela is undoubtedly due to the victory won by
Gelon in the chariot-race at Olymiaia in B. C. 4S;j. But the quadriga on Nos. 55 and 56 closely
resembles the design of Euainetos on the Syracusan coins struck after the defeat of the Athenians
in 413.
The man-headed bull on the reverse is the river-god Gelas. This form of river-god is
more commonly met with in Campania, but occasionally elsewhere. As a rule the forepart of the
god, swimming, is found on the coins of Gela, and this type with the full form of the divinity is
rare.
city
was abandoned
in
Carthaginian invasion.
Himera was a colony of Zancle (Messana) of which little is known until early in the fifth
It was about B. C. 482 that the town came under the control of Thenm of Agrigentum.
years later occurred the battle under tlie walls of Himera which tlie Sicilians fought for their
with the Carthaginians. The latter were defeated and Theron's control of Himera was
century.
Two
lives
made
secure.
(Jirc.
^.
57
Attic
'DiAra.oh.va.;
B.
8.71 gr.;
C. /fS:2-!fr'2.
'22
mm.
Ohv
HIMEPA
Cock standing
1.
\ Crab.
Headlam, 46.
Rev.
The cock was from early times the principal coin-type of Himera. It may be the symbol of
some liealing god associated with the hot springs at the place. It has been suggested that it is a
punning type, the name of the city resembling Ijxipa, old form of inxipa, day, the dawn of which
The Agrigentiue crab marks the close relation between the two cities, under
tlie cock heralds.
the
common
Circ.
58
quadriga
driver
^.
r.,
B.
0. 47241.',.
Ohv.
17.17 gr.; 37 mm.
M EPA ION Victorious
Attic Tetradrachm
the iiorses walking; above, Nike liying 1. with fillet and crown for the
;
Rev.
across her
\ The
r.
nymph Himera,
in long chiton
of
which hangs
:
to
r.
Seile-
nos standing in a trough and receiving on his bieast jet of water from fountain
field,
grain of barley
Hirsch
XXI,
in
border of dots.
161.
This interesting reverse type doubtless alludes to the hot springs at Himera, famous in anThe nymph is sacrificing to some god of healing, while the playful Seilenos is enjoying
tiquity.
warm shower
bath.
In the early
Leontini was a Chalcidian colony, but founded directly from nearby Naxos.
part of the fifth century Leontini was brought under the sway of the tyrants of Gela, later of
Syracuse, and so continued until B. C. 427, when the quarrel with the latter city broke out. The
final result of this trouble
citj'
in
B. C. 415, from which Syracuse emerged stronger than ever and soon brought Leontini under its
domination. Among the commissioners Leontini sent to Athens in A'll to secure aid against
Syracuse was the famous Gorgias, whose eloquence aroused the admiration of all Greece. He
settled at Athens as a teacher of rhetoric, and as a leading sophist was later severely handled by
Plato in the dialogue that bears his name.
20
Oirc.
^.
59
r.,
Attic Tetradrachm
Nike flying
1.
B.
480-466.
0.
17.56 gr.
22 mm.
Obv.
r.
border of dots.
Rev.
\ AEONTINON
Apollo, laureate,
{retrofjrade}
r.,
formal curls on temple and long lock hanging from behind ear
leaves
hair,
r.
ffirsch.
The quadriga on
expression on
all
this piece
defeat of the Carthaginians in B. C. 480, the lion being at once the type parlant of Leontini and
The
cult of Apollo
Oirc.
60
ate,
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
B.
was
466-
0.
17.40 gr.
21.S mm.
Head
Obv.
of Apollo, laure-
r.
Rev.
J,
AEONTINON
Lion's head
r.,
of
barley.
Warren, 253.
The
which
it
is
attributed, and
city.
Messana was a very early Chalcidian colony located on the Strait of Sicily and at first named
Zancle from the shape of its harbor, which was that of a sickle, ^djK\oi>. The early coins
have a representation of the harbor and a dolphin for type. Not long after B. C. 494 Milesian
and Samian fugitives who had left their homes following the collapse of the Ionian Revolt arrived
at Zancle, having been invited by the citizens to find new homes with them.
But Anaxilas,
tyrant of Ehegium, induced the new-comers to seize the town; then, after bringing some Messenian colonists, he expelled the Samians, took possession of the town and changed its name to
Messene.
Circ.
6i
Rev.
^.
I
Attic Tetradrachm
MEEN[ION]
B.
490-461.
17.jOgr.; 23 mm.
Calf's head
1.
The types of this coin are the same as those of Samos, and were introduced at Zancle by
Samian fugitives. But the name of the town is Messene on the coin, so that the Samian influence must have continued some time after Anaxilas is said to have expelled the Samians and
changed the name of the place.
the
Circ.
B.
461-396.
C.
1.
hand
ME55ANION
Hirsch XXXni, 388.
Rev.
Hare running
r.
beneath, hippocamp
border of dots.
r.
^.
17.21 gr.
Attic Tetradrachm
but in exergue, two dolphins head to head.
63
Rev. J
Hirsch
ME^t^H\OH
XXXIV,
(retroi/rade')
21
25 mm.
Hare running
Obv.
1.
Similar to preceding
162.
After the death of Anaxilas and the banishment of his son, the old types were modified by
Motya was a Phoenician factory town on a small island a few miles from Lilybaeum. It was
connected by a mole with the mainland and became the Carthaginian naval base. It was destroyed
by Dionysius in B. C. 397.
^.
64
Attic Tetradrachm
16.57 gr.
Rev.
-r*
27 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of
nymph
1.,
wear-
Crab.
Naxos was, perhaps, the earliest Greek settlement in Sicily. It was a mixed Chalcidian and
Naxian colony, but the colonists from the island of Naxos apparently predominated. The city
was brought under the control of Hippocrates and his son Gelon of Gela and Syracuse. In B. C.
476 its population was transferred to Leontini. Later the city was restored, but never acquired
again much importance. Dionysius destroyed the place in B. C. 404, and later Tauromenium was
built by the surviving inhabitants on a neighboring site.
Before B.
480.
C.
22 mm.
Obv. Head of Dionysus 1.,
Corinthian Didrachm
crowned with ivy-wreath has pointed beard and long hair circle of dots on border.
iR.
65
5.62 gr.
\ NAXION
of dots on border.
Rev.
cle
Mathey
(retrograde').
Bunch
of grapes
cir-
Coll.
B. 0.461-450.
^.
66
Attic Tetradrachm
16.r36 gr.
29 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Dionysus
bearded, crowned with ivy, long lock of hair in wave on forehead and hanging
side, the
Rev.
turned
1.
border of dots.
NAXION
Butler
ysus
r.,
1.
head
Coll., 76.
B. C. 450-413.
^.
hand.
Sandeman
Rev. ,-NAEION
in
his
Ciro.
67
r.,
down
Coll.,
41
vine,
with thyrsus
22
Circ.
^.
68
Apollo, laureate,
r.
B.
;
C.
413-404.
23 mm.
Ohv.
NAEIfiN-
Head
of youthful
vine
has pointed ear
f Bearded Seilenos, naked, seated on ground near a
and long tail with r. hand lifts drinking cup to his lips, his 1. hand resting on 1. knee;
Rev.
in field,
r.,
The
Dionysus at Naxos
cult of
The
is
the history of Greek art and particularly of the engraver's art from
its
archaic period to
its frui-
The
full-faced eye on
Panormus, the modern Palermo, was an old Phoenician town on the northern coast of Sicily,
which the name of the place was derived. The Greek form
is, however, probably a translation of the Phoenician name, which may have been Ziz, a Punic
word that is found on numerous coins the Carthaginians struck in Sicily. No coins were struck
situated on a capacious harbor from
Panormus until after the defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera in 480 B. C. The earlier issues
show the influence of Greek art at Panormus and very likely of Greek trade, for the inscriptions
are in the Greek language.
But before the end of the century the Carthaginians recovered their
aggressive spirit and were less receptive of Greek influence. They ceased to strike coins at Panormus with Greek inscriptions and Greek engravers were evidently replaced by less skillful Carthaginians.
If Ziz is the Phoenician name of Panormus, and that is the most acceptable interpretation of the word yet given, then it seems that the mint at that chief center of Carthaginian
power in Sicily struck coins with the types of several Greek cities.
at
Circ.
^.
69
tion,
r.,
scription
l^-^l^,
16.59 gr.
409.
;
by Nike flying
1.
28.5 mm.
;
in exergue, sea-serpent
and Punic
in-
of
nymph
1.,
Hermann Weber
The head on
70
0.
Ziz.
/ Head
Rev.
necklace
Sir
Attic Tetradrachm
B.
^.
Rev.
Coll.
this piece is a
Attic Tetradrachm
Head
of
nymph
1.,
16.84 gr.
26 mm.
pendants.
Brader Egger
The head on
No. 69
is
XLV,
319.
this coin is a
later
No. 70 is still later, possibly subsequent to 409 B. C, though the date of the earliest Dekadrachm
by Euainetos with the Persephone head cannot be. determined. It seems probable, therefore,
that these coins were issued just after, rather than before, the beginning of Carthaginian invasion
in 409 B. C.
23
Tradition had
that
it
it
name
of Acestes,
whom
folk.
It is this Segestos,
when they
Quern genwit
B. C. 480-461.
^.
71
of
dog standing
1.
Ohv.
border of dots.
/ aiIVT3~13
Rev.
mm.
2:i.o
Head
(^retrograde).
of Segesta
r.,
till
B.
^.
72
Attic Tetradrachm
1.,
1.
r.
Q.
his
Head
Rev. \
Spink
The
29 mm.
Ohv.
ErESTAIQN
Youth,
r.
in
415409.
16.62 gr.;
his
Himera
Sicily.
hand,
1.
border of dots.
of Segesta
r.
Son.
if
influence of Euainetos
is
mark a
continuance or restoration of the Carthaginian practice of copying the types of other cities.
This seems to be, and probably is, an exceedingly rare variety of the Tetradrachm.
Selinus, situated on the Selinus river on the western part of the south coast of Sicily,
Megara
early colony of
Ilyblaea.
The town
received
its
name from
was an
the wild celery {(riXivov) that grew in abundance along its banks.
Though long hampered by contact with the Carthaginians, sometimes, however, apparently in alliance with them,
yet following the crushing defeat of that power in 480 B. C. and the general liberation of Sicilian
named from
cities
from
still
exist.
to the
Attic Didrachm
B.
<5.(35 (/r.
0.
tral
branch
HYYAS
in
1.,
city
never recovered
450.
V.S mm.
Rev.
The
Ciro.
^.
of
73
Numerous monuments
that greatness
slaj^
him
Oi.
;
EAINONTION
circle of dots
sacrificing at
an
altar,
in exergue, branch.
Heracles
around border.
in field
r.,
r.
hand, lus-
leaf of celery
24
B.
^.
74
ergue}.
action
above, wreath
in exergue, barley-liead.
Bev.
in
hand, sacrificing at an
1.
C. Ij.15409.
and figure
of a bull
Ex-Bean
About
altar,
mounted
1.
r.
and
lustral branch
in field,
r.,
celery leaf,
on a pedestal.
of York.
was
afflicted
ous that measures were taken to find the cause and remedy
how
it
Empedocles
of Agri-
gentum
for advice.
coins.
On Xo.
73
lie advised
is
them
to drain the
Heracles grasping the old god of the noxious river by the horn and swinging
On
the reverse
is
human form
sacri-
haunts.
No. 74
a later coin that repeats an earlier form of the types with the chariot and on the
is
At about
the same time the people of Selinus dedicated a golden celery leaf to Apollo at
beginning of the
Sicily,
va.pa<n)ixov
Little is
in-
history
is
form or another. And an important form of those records consists of the types of an abundant
and peerless coinage. For next to Kome no other city of antiquity left so many coins whose types
were influenced by historical incidents as did Syracuse. The Corinthians founded the city in 734
B. C. and the government was under the control of the Geomori, oligarchs descended from the
original colonists, until early in the fifth century,
mans under
many
of
them
expelled by a revolution.
From
the Ro-
Marcellus.
Circ.
75
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
B.
O.
500.
16.94 gr.;
.26.3
mm.
Obv.
:^VRA
Quadriga
r.,
border of dots.
The engraver of this early coin may not have known how to represent four horses in so small
a field or, perhaps, he followed the convention of the time and purposely represented them in
pairs as they are seen on the metope at Selinus.
At any rate we have two forms and the second
horses merely outlined about these forms.
it
may
25
Gelon was commander of the cavalry under Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela from 498 to 491
On the death of the latter Gelon managed to become tyrant of Gela and six j'ears later a
revolt of slaves against the Geomori or landowners of Syracuse gave hlni the opportunity to interfere in the affairs of that city and become its master.
Immediately he transferred his capital to
Syracuse and brought thither some of the population of Gela and all the inhabitants of Camarina,
which he had destroyed. Other conquests followed till Gelon was at the head of a considerable
empire in eastern Sicily. The most notable event of his reign was the defeat of the Carthaginians
at Himera in 480, a victory he won with the help of his ally Theron of Agrigentum.
B. C.
^.
76
Attic Tetradrachm
16.99 gr.
27 mm.
r.,
driven by male charioteer holding reins in both hands, the whip in left; above, Nike
with wings spread out and about to light on yoke to crown one of the horses
border
of dots.
Rev.
necklace
is
^.
Olympian games.
The
ISIike to
head on the reverse is that of Arethusa, whose founthe harbor of Syracuse, but one is inclined to surmise that it is.
77
in the
Attic Tetradrachm
driven by male charioteer in long chiton, holding reins in both hands, the whip in
horses walking
running
r.
Rev.
Female head
The
of the horses
r.
in exergue, lion
border of dots.
/ 5VRAK0SI0N
Hirsch
r.
r.,
XXXII,
r.
in linear circle,
up behind,
164.
the Carthaginians at
Himera
in
From
Hieron
called Deinareteia.
I,
Tyrant, B. C. ^78-^.67.
Hieron succeeded his brother Gelon at Syracuse and in 474 B. C. gained a decisive naval
combined Carthaginian and Etruscan fleets off Cumae. This victory is alluded
to by Pindar in the first Pythian Ode:
victory over the
26
6(t>po.
aXaXaTbs
vCjv t'
e'%7;,
vav-
rav
irpb
Ki//ias
5ap.a(rd^i/res irddov^
X<if
The
court of Hieron
brilliant of his
age and to
it
^.
78
Attic Tetradrachm
17.17 gr.
27 mm.
the male charioteer in long chiton, holding reins in both hands and
Nike flying
whole
r.
of the horses
whip
in
r.
r.,
above,
in circle of dots.
\ VRAKOION
Rev.
and necklace
XXXII,
Hirsch
Arethusa
of
r.,
;
171.
Attic Tetradrachm
j^.
79
Head
SO mm.
and whip
in
r.
r.
Victorious quadriga
Obv.
1.
r.,
in exergue, pistrix
around,
circle of dots.
SVRAKOSION
pendant
hair in
Du
O'Hagan, 195.
It has
Chastel,
No. 37.
been suLC^ested that the sea-monster in the exergue of these coins relates to the naval
two coins belong to the peiiod of transition from archaic art to the later
almost correctly represented on the profile head, but the horses of the
appear in two pairs with double outlines.
quadriga
The
still
eye
is
The Democracy.
The
bulus, in B. C. 460,
show
still
0. 4.66-^.05.
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
SYPAKOSION
Head
17.31 gr.; 26
of
Nike
known
as that of the
mm.
79,
but
Arethusa
r.,
is
art.
Rev.
B.
80
Circ.
coins issued by the democracy, following the expulsion of the last(ieloau tyrant, Thrasy-
fillet
fore-
H. Chapman.
Si
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
17.30 gr.
border of dots.
30 mm.
r.
to
crown horses
r.,
in
Rev.
Female head
27
r.
pass three times round the head and twice round kxrge knot of hair at back of head
82
^.
XLV,
366.
Attic Tetradrachm
above, Nike
front of head,
^.
in
1.
same
Attic Tetradrachm
\ Same
inscription.
XXXII,
Throughout
Victorious quadriga
Obv.
r.,
position.
F.), 198.
Rirsch
26 mm.
fl3'ing.
it
Burufle {R.
Rei'.
gr.
83
17 .SO
;'
17.^<S gr.
26 mm.
Female head
r.,
r.
284.
represented in the naive manner mentioned
above, there being but two forms but each with a double outline.
84
^.
Obv.
in exei'gue, Skylla
r.,
Victorious quadriga
r.,
to
1.
1.
hair rolled
XXXII, 330.
^. Attic Tetradrachm;
Hirsch
85
17.05 gr.;
31mm.
Obv.
Victorious quadriga
high action, with the fourth horse surging ahead of the rest
r.
1.,
the horses in
r.
to
\ SYPAK05I0N
Female head
1.,
around the head and crossing above the ear; wears earring and necklace
around, four
dolphins.
Hirsch,
XXXII,
304.
Cf.
du
Chastel,
PL
6,
No. 69.
Eumenos was one of the lirst artists to sign his name on a coin-die and fortunately several
examples of his work have survived. His treatment of the, perhaps, Arethusa head shows a great
advance over what had been the fashion just before his time. His quadrigae show all the horses
and in vigorous action, but he fails to attain truth in this regard.
The reverse of No. 84 is combined with an obverse die by Euth(ymos?), a contemporary engraver whose
No. 85
style.
full
is
name
is
as yet
unsigned, but
it
unknown.
28
Attic Tetradrachm
-R.
86
17.17
gr.
25 mm.
Obv. Victorious
quadriga
r.
driven by a bearded charioteer in long chiton, holding the reins in both hands, the
whip in r., the horses in high action, the first three together, the fourth surging ahead
above, Nike flying
Rev. *-
pairs
head
is
suspended a
tablet
border of dots.
inscribed etain
stars
1.
eto
in exergue,
5YPAK0SIQN
An
and above,
jSTo.
52,
is
this piece.
1.,
in
r.
to
An
88
^.
to this period,
Attic Tetradrachm
17.33 gr.
Rev.
in exergue,
r.
to
Obv. Victorious
quadriga
1.,
of barley.
\ YPAKIl[nN]
embroidered with
in
head
26 mm.
-nion).
stars,
Hirseh
XXXIV,
200.
to Eukleidas,
an engraver known
During
the
War
The Athenian
city.
Among
expedition against Syracuse had a great influence on the coinage of the latter
other things, in order to cope with the great expenditures occasioned by the strug-
were issued
at
first
time.
Rev.
Nemean
lion
Obv.
5YPAK0iriN
Similar to pre-
29
to
20 silver drachms.
The type
which Syracuse was engaged. They are the work of Euaineand Kimon, two engravers already famous throughout .Sicily and much of the Greek world.
tos
War
After the
Rev.
2.91
50 Litrae;
?f-
9i
(river-god ?)
1.
gr.;
mm.
1G..5
Ohv.
YPA
Youthful
male bead
r.
Hirsch.
N.
92
Rev.
50 Litrae
SYPAKO
2..56 gr.
11.
.~j
mm.
Free horse
{in exergue").
r.
Hirsch.
When the Athenians had met disaster and Syracuse was free from the peril that had threatened from one of the most powerful states of the time, a new issue of gold was brought out, with
the unbridled horse as a symbol of freedom.
They were probably issued between B. C. 412, when
the decisive battle was fought at the River Assinarus, and 404, when the tyranny of Dionysius
Sir Arthur Evans assigns them to the year 408.
The 50 Litrae gold piece was the equivalent of the
began.
the
large silver
Dekadrachm
issued at about
same time.
The Assinaria, B.
C. Jfl'Z
Agonistic Dekadraehms.
As a
and enduring memorial of their great triumph over the Athenian invaders at the
River Assinarus, the Syracusans instituted the festival of games to be celebrated annually on the
These games were attended by a large concourse of peobattle-field and known as the Assinaria.
fitting
ple
from numerous
The
great struggle.
many
cities of Sicily,
prizes
awarded
of
in the Assinaria
ample supply of money for the throng of visiand unusual coinage of Dekadraehms was resorted to. Such agonistic coins, issued on the occasion of games, are met with elsewhere in Greece and especially at
The agonistic character of these
Elis where coins were issued for the great Olympian games.
Dekadraehms is disclosed by the panoply of arms in the exergue on the reverse, with the designaBut the selection of the unusual denomination of the Dekadrachm
tion of AGAA or ''prizes.'"
for their agonistic issues suggests that the Syracusans also meant the coins themselves to be commemorative of the successful battle for it was in that denomination that the Demareteia had
been struck following the defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera in B. C. 480.
Partly, perhaps chiefly, in order to provide an
tors to these
games a
special
By
the
Engraver Kimon.
06y. SYPAKOSIfiN
Head of
93 Si. kttic 'Deka.Axa.chm; 4s. 68 gr.; 37mm.
Arethusa 1., with ampyx and sphendone, wearing earring of three pendants and necklace of beads;
wbole within a
circle of dots.
Rev.
reins in
1.
Victorious quadriga
r.
1.,
pairs,
head
to
bead; tbe
30
the team
a shelf,
rass
r.
to
on ends of which, to
1.,
in exergue, cui-
shield, to
r.,
crested
The
M.
94
but the
it
relief is higher,
Rev.
^1
Dekadrachm
Attic
is
are there.
Similar to preceding.
XXXII, 813.
Head of
05v. SYPAKOSIQN
95 ^. Attic DeksiAraLChm 43.34 gr. 34 mm.
drop
and
necklace
single
earring
of
wearing
sphendone,
ampyx
and
with
Arethusa 1.,
Hirsch
opposite
on the ampyx, k
Rev.
in
Similar to preceding.
XXXII,
Hirsch
swimming
307.
No. 93 is very likely a specimen of the earliest issue of these large coins, being a work by
Kinion in a style less advanced than No. 95. The latter coin bears the artist's signature in two
places, on the ampyx and on the dolphin. The obverse type is the head of Arethusa whose spring
was in the island of Ortygia in the harbor of Syracuse.
By
the
Engraver Euainetos.
06r. 5YPAK0SIQN
Head
96 ^. kttic Jiekdiirdithm; 43.76 gr.; 37.5 mm.
below,
with
barley-leaves,
wearing
earring
and
necklace
of Persephone 1., crowned
ETAINE around, four dolphins, three swimming in one direction, the fourth' in oppo;
site
Rev.
reins in
1.
Victorious quadriga
and whip
in
r.
hand
1.,
r.
to
in exergue,
same
two
whole within
circle of
dots.
EarU Coll.
^. A.tt\cl:etxdi6.rdithxa.;
97
34.5 mm.
Rev.
\ Similar
Hirsch
XXXII,
to preceding.
318.
The subject chosen for the Dekadrachms engraved by Euainetos was the head of Persephmyth of whose rape by Pluto and annual return to her mother Demeter was also localized
one, the
These great
silver coins
ever since the re-birth of a correct appreciation of Greek art in modern times, whilst in antiquity
the copies and imitations of both the heads, but especially of the Persephone head by Euainetos,
in
which the works of these two engravers were held by the Greeks them-
31
selves
and also that the ancients preferred the head by Euainetos
judgment of modern times.
;
^.
98
Attic Tetradrachm
three-quarters
1.,
iS.90 gr.
wearing ampyx in
"28
mm.
Head
Olv.
of
Arethusa facing
two dolphins also wears earring and necklace with pendants on border,
beyond which, above head of nymph, traces of name APEeosA.
;
\ SYPAKOSIQN
Rev.
whip
chiton, holding
in
r.
Victorious quadriga
circle of dots,
1.,
in exergue, barley-head.
Hindi XXXri,
328.
;i5.d mm.
Attic Tetradrachm 16.01 yr.
99 ^but from a different die no traces of nymph's name.
;
Rev.
Spink
This
j
if
Sun.
Kimon's masterpiece
is
in the art of
human
engraving
head.
and
it is
the masterpiece of
is
all
time
not desirable
do the prominent features of nose and chin wear off and leave an ugly
the world how such a type should be engraved if it had to be done.
And in spite of the recognized defects of that form of type the very charm and beauty of Kimon's
Arethusa led to a close imitation of it on the coins of several cities in almost all parts of the anFor the striking reverse type Kimon seems to have taken a composition from an
cient world.
The Nike stepping upon the yoke of the third horse (No. 76)
earlier coin and improved upon it.
and about to crown the horse was doubtless in his mind when he wrought out the design for this
for a coin type, so quickly
effect,
but
Kimon showed
Tetradrachm.
Hicetas, Tyrant, B. 0. 2<S8-279.
In B. C. ii8S Hicetas was made the general of the Syracusan forces defending the city against
an army of Greeks, Mamertine mercenaries, and later also of Carthaginians, under command of
Archagathus who demanded the succession to his grandfather Agathocles whom he had had poisoned by a favorite, Meno of Segesta. Though Hicetas could not save the city from humiliating
defeat and harsh peace-terms, yet he was retained as commander of the army and then ruled for
nine years as a virtual tyrant.
05tJ. SYPAKOSIQN
Head of PersephA'.
dO l,i\XdiQ; 4-35 gr.; 17 mm.
crowned with barley-leaves, wearing earring and necklace behind, torch around,
JOO
one
1.
circle of dots.
Rev.
<^ Biga
r.,
beneath horses,
in
H. Chajjman.
^-
JOI
15 Litrae
12.68 gr.
M mm.
Ohv.
Head
r.,
bee
Rev.
circle of dots
1.,
the
whip
in
Persephone
1.
crowned
;
on border.
SYPAKOSIQN (w
holding reins in
of
ea:er^M).
r.
hand
Quadriga
r.,
32
method of the clever demagogue. They are struck, ostenand only archonship of Hicetas as the legend on the reverse
states.
For Hicetas shuns the use of the genitive case form of his name, which would imply absolute or royal authority, yet only in such outward expressions was his power limited by legal
The
name
sibly, in the
of the Syracusans
restrictions.
B.
ffiero II,
0. '274-270-216.
Hiero II was the son of Ilierocles, a prominent Syracusan citizen, and a descendant of the
Tyrant Hiero. He served as a general under Pyrrhus during the latter's campaign in Sicily and
on the departure of the Epirote he was chosen by the army to command in the operations against
the Carthaginians and Mamertines. This choice was ratified by the Council and Assembly, probably with some assistance. As a reward for his successes he was made king in 270. His unswerving fidelity to his Eoman alliance secured prosperity for Syracuse throughout the long First Punic
War, and independence when nearly all the rest of Sicily was absorbed into the Roman province
of Sicily.
J02
^.
Rer.
X'lEPHNOS
Litra
o4
gr.
S.''>
Biga
r.,
mm.
Head
Ohv.
of Hiero II,
1.,
diademed.
circle
of dots.
The gold and silver coins of Hiero are not rare, for Syracuse was prosperous, especially in
the interval between the First and the Second Punic Wars, so that the coinage was abundant.
But the
^.
J03
crowned
3Litrae; 6.83
Kev.
SIKEAIQTAN
whip
chiton, with
Hirsch
in
XXXI,
r.
24.5 mm.
gr.;
is
Head
Obv.
Demeter,
veiled,
1.,
{in exergue).
in
Quadriga
both
r.
driven
above, Vt
circle of dots
on border.
231.
This excessively rare coin probably belongs to a special issue of Ilieron's government for
who in the settlement with the Romans following the First Punic
had come under his dominion. The Demeter-head is evidently a portrait of Philistis, wife
War
of Hieron.
Hieronymus, B.
C.
216-215.
When Hieronymus
succeeded his grandfather Hieron on the throne of Syracuse, Roman designs upon the entire island were fully matured
and these plans were certain of execution in
spite of precautions taken by Hieron before his death, the arts of Archimides, or the qualities of
;
But in his account of the young king's vicious character and his perverted policies,
Livy doubtless has preserved an excellent resume of Roman propaganda to justify both the Syracusans in assassinating the king and effecting a revolution and the Romans in declaring war and
taking Syracuse in B. C. 212.
the boy-king.
Rev. /
Spink
BASIAEQS
lEPQNYMOY
^.
linear circle.
Son.
B.
105
16 Litrae
1''>.57 gr.
0.
215-212.
27 mm.
Obv.
Head
of Zeus, laureate
1.
/ YPAKOION
Rer.
whip
lolding
in
r.
hand and
(in exergue).
Quadriga
reins in both
beneath horses,
r.
33
I A-
during the short interval between the assassination of Hieonynius and the taking of Syracuse by MarceJlus the old civic type of the swift quadriga is
estored
is
not
new on
MACBDON
PANGAEAN DISTRICT
The
were a
Orrescii
tribe
Little or nothing
/as located.
is
Macedon.
Before B. C. 480.
&
J06
Babylonic Stater
Maenad
in
0.20 gr.
liis
mm.
Obv. Centaur kneeling on r.
ground represented by a line of dots
I'U
arms
^.
J07
ograde).
0;'.
r.
0RRE5KI0N
in field, to
r.,
(ret-
flower;
Hermann Weber
The coinage
Coll.
of the large
The
ncreased trade and commerce occasioned by the passage of the Persians would require additional
urrency.
EMATHIAN DtSTKlCT
Aegae, formerlj' and again later Edessa, was long the capital of Macedon.
place of the
lurial
JOS
j51.
It
Macedonian kings.
Babylonic Stater
;;
8.(>'.i!
gr.
US mm.
Obv.
He-goat kneeling
r.
and
Mathey
Coll.
uide.
to
However, this long accepted attribution of these coins has recently been questioned, perhaps
M. Svoronos.
isproved, by
34
Ichnae is mentioned by Herodotus in Ms account of the march of the Persian armies, but it
does not seem to have survived the vengeance visited on several south Macedonian towns follow-
Before B. C. JfSO.
^.
109
Babylonic Stater
9.26 gr.
f2 mm.
Obi:
helmet, cuirass, and greaves, walking beside and restraining horse prancing
two
r.
in field,
pellets.
Sir
The
Ber.
BISALTIAX DISTRICT
Therma,
it
Gulf.
Before B. C. 480.
no ^.
r.
circle of
Phoenician Tetradrachm
i-5.1,? ^r.;
^5
7?i7n.
OJr.
Pegasus standing
dots on border.
Sir
Hermann Weber
Tradition makes
Coll.
Therma
may account
CHALCIDIAK DISTRICT
Orthagoreia was a town of uncertain identification even in ancient times, and modem scholars
have not yet solved the problem. .Some of the ancient authorities identify it with Stageira, the
birthplace of Aristotle, while others, according to Pliny, held
it
to be the earlier
name of the
later
Maroneia.
^.
Head
of
Bendis
behind, quiver
r.
with hair
around,
cir-
cle of dots.
\ OPGArO
Bev.
PEQN
pieces,
surmounted
The Thracian Bendis was the Artemis of the Greeks, and her cult was a favorite one in
Thrace, including those portions of the country conquered by Macedonia.
The helmet on the
reverse alludes to those conquests.
Acanthus is another town of which very little is known prior to the Persian Wars. It was a
colony of Andros, one of the Cyclades. The place probably first acquired
some importance when
Xerxes was cutting the canal across its territory to avoid rounding Mt. Athos. After the expedition of Brasidas in 424 B. C. Acanthus along with many other
Chalcidian and Thracian cities
joined the Spartan alliance.
C.
^.
of a bull
424-400.
Phoenician Tetradrachm
1^.09 gr.\ 27 mm.
and sinking teeth and claws into his flesh around,
til
1.
AKA
Rev.
35
Obv.
Lion
r.
on back
circle of dots.
The type of the lion and bull probably has reference to the worship of Kybele, and not to
an abundance of lions in the district as is described by Herodotus. More likely that capital storyteller invented the tale on seeing one of the coins.
Following the conquest by Sparta the Phoenician standard replaces the long used Euboic.
Terone was a colony of Chalcis situate near the point of the Sithonian peninsula.
Lying
the path of the Persian armies Terone was compelled to submit, or at least did submit, to
B.
-^;
JJ3
fleet.
0.
500-480.
in
tlie
gr.\ 27.5
mm.
Obv.
Amphora adorned
border of dots.
Hirsch
is
XXXI,
258.
Terone seems to have been a center of the wine trade, but the type of this rare Tetradrachm
more likely due to the worship of Dionysus which was well established in many Chalcidian town.s.
Olynthus was a colony of Chalcis, located at the head of the Torona'ic gulf. It is almost unprior to the Persian Wars, but became of great importance to the Persians during that
struggle
and subsequently rose to prominence as the capital of the Clialcidian League.
known
After B. G. 479.
^.
114
quadriga
r.
hand
r.
Euboic Tetradrachm;
driven by a bearded
man
17.31 gr.\
Macedonian shield.
Rev. * Eagle flying 1. in an incuse square
;
Sir
The
25 mm.
in talaric chiton,
Obv.
Slowly
holding reins in
1.
moving
and whip
in
in field, above,
Hermann Weber
Coll.
types of this coin, the quadriga and the eagle, are agonistic, relating to games.
an Olynthian
won a
the facts
Perhaps
Olympian games or there may be some other explanaare as yet unknown.
;
The Chalcidian League with Olynthus as the center of its federal interests was formed in B. C.
A few years later, in B. C. 379, the League was almost broken up when Olynthus was subdued by Sparta. But later the interests of the League were revived and Amphipolis was included
in the federal alliance.
This brought Athens into the field against Olynthus, the leading spirit of
the League.
Athens was supported by Philip of Macedon, the son of Amyntas, but a divergence
of interests soon put an end to that alliance
and shortly afterward Macedon and Olynthus united
to drive Athens out of Thrace.
In B. C. 358 Philip II of Macedon subdued all Chalcidice and
392.
IJ5
laureate,
^r.
Obv.
Head
of Apollo,
36
\ XAA
Rev.
A in legend,
th*e
KIA EQN
X.
May 1910.
^. Phoenician Tetradrachm
Paris,
U6
laureate,
-4-^ ""
Ofe.
Head
of Apollo,
Obv.
Head
of
1.
Rev.
r.
l^.^-? ^'-
crowned with
Rev.
laurel on
which are
Similar to preceding
above.
gr-;
ST mm.
ApoUo
berries.
beneath
lyre.
En apistdnos.
S. Chapman.
Mende was a
peninsula of Pallene.
and the
tr}-,
cult of
fertile,
Dionysus prevailed.
B.
500-450.
Obv. NOIA
Euboic Tetradrachm: 17. 2G gr.; 27 mm.
his tail
picking
beneath
back
and
crow
on
his
r.,
a
ithyphallic, standing
ANIW
nS ^.
Ass,
around,
cir-
cle of dots.
Munich, 1913.
Circ.
ii9
B.
a 450-424.
-^.
r.,
five
>i
bunches
'29
to waist, reclining
MENAAION
mm.
naked down
hand in field,
Obv. Seilenos,
holds cantharus in
r.
around border
a. Chapman.
The
was
specially consecrated to
to
Potidaea was a Corinthian colony situate on the isthmus that connected the peninsula of
promptly attacked
it
with their
fleet,
off
city.
^.
37
B. 0. 600-429.
120
on horseback
r.
with trident in
if"
tli
-SI.
horseback
\.
with trident in
Ohv.
Poseidon Hippios on
Spink
Son.
The Strymonian
District.
Amphipolis was a colony of Athens situate on the lower Strymon, and built on both banks
form of the name indicates. In B. C. 424 the city, then rich and populous,
was taken by the Spartan general Brasidas. This was a severe blow to Athenian interests and
Thucydides, the historian, then in command of the Atlienian fleet stationed at Thasus, was banished for his failure to reach Amphipolis in time to avert the capture. Athens never regained
the city.
It was taken by Philip of ISIacedon in B. C. 358.
of the river, as the
B. C.42!f-3rj8.
^.
122
Phoenician Tetradrachm
Rev.
whole
AM<t'
14-32 gr.
24 vim.
Ohv,
Head
of Apollo,
r.
IPO AIT
E.Q.H
the
in incuse square.
Paris, 1910.
^.
J23
Phoenician Tetradrachm
Rev.
Sir
14-19 gr.; 27
mm.
Ohv.
Head
of Apollo,
1.
Hermann
Weber.
These beautiful coins, with which in northern Greece only the federal coins of the ChalcidThe facing head
ian League are comparable, were very likely the work of an Athenian engraver.
of Apollo is specially interesting as one of the most successful of the numerous facing heads inspired by the masterpiece of Kimon, of Syracuse, his facing Arethusa.
The Race-torch alludes to a popular Thracian sport, the torch race in honor of Bendis, idenThe cult of Bendis was brought to Athens, where the goddess
tified with the Greek Artemis.
had a temple, and a solemn festival was celebrated in her honor at Piraeus. The torch-race on
horseback was a prominent feature of this festival. In the opening paragraphs of his Republic
Plato mentions this race as if the one alluded to were the first run with horses at Athens. " Don't
you know," said Adimantus, " that there will be a torch-race on horseback this evening in honor
" On horseback " ? said I, " that's something new.
Will the riders pass the
of the goddess " ?
torches on while the horses are racing ? Or how do you mean " ? " Exactly as you said ".
Philippi was the name given to a sixth century colony established in the Pangaean district
by the Thasians and called Daton. It was, of course, the rich gold deposits that attracted the
38
Thasians to the region. They were, however, soon driven out by the Pangaean tribes but they
reestablished themselves in the early part of the fourth century at Crenides, not far from the
former settlement. When Philip took the place in B. C. 368 he changed the name to Philippi.
It was one of the few cities of Macedon to lose its independence, but retain the right to issue
coins.
Before the end of Philip's reign, however, the right was withdrawn, though a royal Mace;
and
the place
to coin the
became famous
Europe
at that place
and
his letter to
the Philippians.
After B. 0. 358.
J
N.
24
Rev.
horse's head
r.
^.
125
26.5
mm.
Head
Obv.
of Hera-
Rev. <t>IAirrQN
side; above, palm- branch
to
1.,
hung with
at each
fillets
barley-head.
Alatini Coll.
of
The Macedonian influence is seen in these types of Heracles, so familiar later on the coins
Alexander the Great, and the tripod of Apollo, whose head is the obverse type of Philip's gold
staters.
B.
I,
C.
498-45^.
After the failure of the Persian expedition against Greece, Alexander I, who had contrived
to serve both Persian and Greek in turn, now freed from his vassalage of years to the Persian
domination entered upon a campaign of conquest. One of the first of these conquests were the
Bisaltae,
whose
mines he aimed
rich silver
at.
The product
1.
^-
26
Rev.
\ Head
of he-goat
r.
in a linear square
27 mm.
Obv.
Horseman
riding
toL, caduceus
square.
S. Chapman.
127
^.
Phoenician Tetradrachm
r.
12.67 gr.
r.,
with
r.
1.
26 mm.
Obv. Horseman wearhand around, circle of dots.
;
square.
Sir
Hermann Weber
The obverse
Coll.
it is
much
The goat
the coins
is
the early
No. 126.
I.
The
much
II, B. C. 454-413,
superior
to,
who
and doubtless
continued
later than
B.
I,
39
0. /fl3-399.
After this son of Perdiccas had disposed of rival claimants and reached the throne of Macedon he proved in fact a very able ruler. He fostered the arts and brought to his court a number
of eminent artists and literary men.
Thus Zeuxis was summoned to Edessa to adorn the royal
The
palace, for which service he received the generous reward of seven talents (about $8,000).
dramatist Agatho lived for some years at the court of Archelaus, but most notable of all was
Euripides who spent the last few years of his life there.
With the accession of Archelaus the standard of the Macedonian .silver coinage was changed
from the Phoenician to the lighter Persic. The reasons for the change have never been agreed
upon. It may have been due, as Prof. Gardner holds, to the influence of Persia, following the
But the lower standard may have been adopted in order to increase the cirdecline of Athens.
culation throughout the Greek commercial centers of Macedonian silver, said to have been a talent
a day from the Bisaltian mines. And the law of monetary circulation, now known as the Gresham
Law, that the cheaper money displaces the better, was certainly known to the Greeks of the
period.
Athens had suppressed coinage throughout her empire and forced the circulation of her
" owls ", a measure which Macedon could not take in the time of Archelaus.
^-
J28
mm.
Ohv.
Head
of
Apollo
r.,
wearing
taenia.
Rev.
\ APXEAAO
Horse walking
w^ith rein
r.,
hanging
Sir
Hermann Weher
Coll.
Amyntas
III, B. O.
This prince soon found that the throne gained by dispossessing Pausanias was far from
For in B. C. 383 he had to fly his kingdom in the face of an invasion by the lUyrians,
and to secure for his people that protection he could not give them, he
his country's ancient foe
even handed over some of his southern towns to the Chalcidian League. Amyntas regained his
secure.
cities
until Sparta, to
whom
League.
^.
129
Persic Stater
9.37 gr.
21 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of bearded Heracles
r.
in lion's skin.
Rev.
AMY NTA
Horse standing
r.
whole
in an incuse
square.
H. Chapman.
This piece was issued in the earlier period of the king's divided reign.
j^.
t30
Persic Stater
Sir
Lion
Hermann Weher
Coll.
\ AMYNTA
Rev.
its
^^' mm.
Ohv. Horseman prancing r., wearhand striking downwards on horse's flank, .
breaking hunting-spear which has pierced his r. foot.
9.98 gr.
spear in
1.
r.
The lion-hunt
and
silver
coinage.
politically
and there
For immediately
is
no better evidence
40
Pangaean district, one of the richest gold fields known in antiquity.. The
had already so affected the price of the metal, reducing it from 1 to
12 down to 1 to 10 as compared with silver, that the Macedonian monetary system had to be again
reorganized. Philip struck his new gold staters on the Attic standard and restored the Phoenician
standard for silver. This made the gold stater worth 24 silver drachms.
The gold of Phihp succeeded to the place long held by the Persian Daric and the Cyzicene
gained possession of
tlie
enormous production
of gold
commerce of the world. They were carried in great quantities into Central Europe
by the Gauls, where the types were rudely copied. These crude Gallic imitations were in turn
used and copied in Britain, with the ultimate result that the English Pound was derived from the
Stater in the
Macedonian
Stater.
N.
131
Stater
5.-55'
gr.
Vh'zi Ooll.
132
N.
Rev.
/ Legend
Spink
tf-
Attic Distater
17.20 gr.
22 mm.
to preceding
Son.
types of these gold coins relate to the victory won by Philip's horses in the Olympian
For this there is the definite statement of Plutarch. Ko. 1.32 was not struck in MaceIt is a rather early imitation.
donia, but most likely in Central Europe.
The
games.
Alexander III
the Great,
B.
C.
336-3S3.
Alexander exploited in conquest and commerce the great power his father Philip left him.
promptly put into execution Philip's plans to conquer Asia and in fact rather easily achieved
the role of a hero that for centuries captivated the imagination of mankind, and also converted
Of this the coins are
the world influence of his father's kingdom into an actual world-empire.
again a most important witness. His gold Staters and silver Tetradrachms were issued from
He
his empire,
133
^-
Attic Distater
17.17 gr.
23 mm.
Ohv.
Rev.
wreath
in
\ AAEEANAPOY
r.
in
1.
to
Head
of
Athena
and necklace.
front, head turned
r.,
1.,
wearing
holding
in field, trident.
Alexander is said to have ridiculed the chariot-type his father placed on his gold coins. He
promptly abandoned the type and introduced his own which were quite new on Macedonian coins.
His choice of Athena for his gold was probably dictated hy his desire to pose as a friend of Athens,
though his devotion
J34
^.
to that
goddess
is
an established
Attic Tetradrachm
1.
17.14 gr.
fact.
20.5 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of
young Hera-
/ AAEZANAPOY
Mei'.
hand, the
Spink
Zeus seated
supporting scepter; in
1.
1.
41
r.
jSoti.
<!"
Tradition has
it that the head of Heracles on his silver coins really presents the portrait of
Alexander himself. If so it is the first instance of a human portrait on Greek coins. The head
on the tetradrachras is usually turned to the right, very rarely to the left as on this specimen.
Demetrius Poliorcetes, B.
command
In 306 B. C. Demetrius in
won
As a memorial
That statue
C. 306-?i8S.
is
still
King
of Asia ",
preserved and
now
is
in the
Louvre.
represented on his coins, a type that was employed for an extensive, coinage in sev-
is
denominations.
135
Attic Stater
A^.
dem and
8.61 gr.
21 mm.
Obv.
Head
Demetrius
of
Hermann Weber
Sir
{36
ship's
Rev.
Attic Tetradrachm
jR.
/|j
10.91 gr.
137
^.
diademate
Bev.
30 mm.
Obv.
r.
arm
in field,
on border,
Nike standing
1.
hand
the
on border,
1.,
1.
on a
prow orna-
circle of dots.
r.
j^
Obv.
Head
of
Demetrius
circle of dots.
BA^IAEQS AHMHTPIOY
arm
1.
Poseidon standing
kausia and
\ BASIAEn? AHMHTPIOY
rock,
with dia-
Coll.
r.,
r.,
bull's horn.
Poseidon standing
1.
holding trident
1.,
his
in field,
I.
1.,
foot resting on a
eg
r.,
on bor-
Antigoyius Gronatm, B. C.
'li77-'23',).
The outstanding events in the long reign of this king was his crushing of the Gauls who had
invaded Macedon and his final defeat of Pyrrhus who claimed the crown, the latter being killed at
Argos.
J38
^.
holding
Head
of Poseidon
r.
of battle-ship
It is yet uncertain
onus Doson.
Obv.
plant.
But
whether
refer.
was issued by Antigonus Gouatas or Antigformer won a naval victory over the Egyptian fleet off Cos, to
in B. G. 253 the
42
PAEONIA.
whether Paeonia recovered its independence of Macedonia following the death
of Perdiccas or became a vassal kingdom of Philip II, with the right to coin money. In the latter
So that the
case one would expect the standard to conform to the Macedonian, but it does not.
Macedonia
and
Thrace,
may have
of
nearly
all
embraced
once
had
remnant of that nation, that
It is not clear
its
to the south.
Lycceius, B. Q. 359-340.
^.
J39
laureate,
r.
Rev.
in
r.
hand
Phoenician Tetradrachm
on border, circle of dots.
15.29 gr.
Rhousopoulos
24.5
mm.
Obv.
1.
Head
of Apollo,
Coll.
THRACE.
Aenus was situated at the mouth of the Hebrus river on which floated a very considerable
This assured the city wealth, but the city never acquired a commanding pohtical incommerce.
iluence, and was incorporated into the Macedonian empire about B. C. 350, when its independent
coinage came to an end.
B.
^.
140
wearing
Attic Tetradrachm
C.
460-400.
16.23 gr.
25 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Hermes
r.
close-fitting petasus
Rev. I AINI
goat a vine-leaf
offers the
1.
knee,
Allatini Coll.
B.
Chian Tetradrachm
jR.
J4J
ing,
0.
400-350.
15.81 gr.
25 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Hermes,
fac-
A N
I
Goat standing
r.
before,
amphora
Allatini Coll.
These beautiful types relate to the cults of Hermes, the god who directed commerce to the
Hebrus, and to Dionysus. The facing head shows one of the numerous efforts of Greek coin
engravers to imitate the success and renown achieved by Kimon with his Arethusa head at
Syracuse.
Abdera, situate on the southern coast of Thrace, was originally an unsuccessful colony of
Clazomene. But in B. C. 544 it was occupied by people from Teos who sought refuge from the
domination of the Persians. The city soon became prosperous and rose to great importance.
But some who had fled the Persians at Teos must have lived to see that hated master lord it over
For Abdera became one of the halting places for Xerxes and his host when on
their new home.
their
way
to
invade Greece.
.
142
^.
Ciro.
Phoenician Octodrachm
B.
;
480.
28.77
a
r.
gr.
paw
31 mm.
raised
Obv. Griffin
in field, 9
seated
on border,
1.,
lin-
43
Spink ^ Son.
t43
but the
^.
Phoenician Octodrachm
griffin
S0.70
gr.
field,
27 .5 wra.
Similar to preceding,
cantherus.
1.,
The
The
former home.
Tean refugees
standard, however,
at
It is apparently the
Phoenician standard
different.
is
likely issued to
B.
Circ.
J44
on a
fish,
way
its
to
for currency
invade Greece.
450-430.
0.
ABAHPITEQN
M.
Phoenician Tetradrachm
Rev.
/ EPINE T
14-88 gr.
37 mm.
beneath, phallus
1.,
head
1.
B.
J47
bent
^.
griffin,
V&xsicStdXer;
Rev. I
EPI irrn
10.1^7 gr.;
is
interesting.
NAKTOS
Athens had
408-350.
23.5mm.
66d.
ABAH
PITEQN
Recum-
1.
Head
Spink ^ Son.
The adoption of the Persian standard
century
C.
of Apollo, laureate,
of coinage at
fallen in
405 B.
C,
Abdera
r.
beneath, shell.
enormous subsidies of Persian gold. With the prostration of Athens the power of
This power and the enormous supplies of Persian gold were felt in all chantrade and especially in Thrace and Macedou, where the Persic standard was widely
chiefly of the
adopted.
Dicaea, in Thrace, was sometimes called " Dicaea near Abdera" to distinguish it from the
Macedonian town of the same name, which was a colony of Eretria and known as " Dicaea of the
Eretrians." The Thracian Dicaea was a relatively unimportant sea-coast town.
Before B. 0. 500.
148
r.
^-
in lion skin.
Babylonic Stater
9.72 gr.
19 mm.
Obv.
Head
of bearded Heracles
44
Rev. Incuse square divided by bands into four triangular compartments, two of
It
Circ.
Eev.
\ AMO
Kybele seated
patera in outstretched
to
1.,
r.
reading downward,
B. C. 280.
2-5
on
1.
mm.
Obv.
a throne,
Head
Pallas
of
in long chiton,
1.;
r.
in crested
modius? on head,
1.
MHTPONA[KTO].
first by the Argives and later received an addiBut in spite of its favorable location on the crossing of two great commercial
highways the city made little progress until Milesian colonists arrived. Following the Ionian ReThe Persians destroyed the
volt the city was abandoned before the Persian fleet could reach it.
empty town. It was not restored until after the defeat of Xerxes. Later the place suffered
and still later was made the splendid Concruelly at the hands of the Gauls, who sacked it clean
tion of Megarians.
stantinople of the
Romans and
Circ.
in
0.
221.
J50
r.,
^.
B.
Panticapaeum was a sixth century Milesian colony situated on the Cimmerian Bosporus, in
It stood, therefore, at the gateway to the gold mines of the Altai mountains,
the treasure guarded by the legendary griffins.
the
modern Crimea.
Circ.
i5t
N.
Stater
9.08 gr.
22.5
B.
mm.
C.
350.
Obv.
Head
of
Pan
1.,
paw
TAN
raised, spear in
he-goat,
1.,
r.
Spink ^ Son.
The head of Pan, a punning-type alluding to the first syllable of the city's name, is the fine
work of a Greek artist. Evidently the grain-fields of the territory vied with gold as a source of
wealth, as the barley-head would indicate.
45
KINGS or THRACE.
Lydmachus, B.
323-281.
C.
Lysimachus was regent of Thrace for Philip Ariflaeus and the young son of Alexander by
Roxana, but, following the death of the heir, he received Thrace as his portion of the empire and
assumed the title of King in B. C. 306. In B. C. 286 he obliged Pyrrhus to relinquish his claims
to Macedonia and withdraw to Epirus, and thus strengthened his claims to that much disputed
throne.
After B. C. 306.
N.
\S2
Stater
S.^S
gr.
18 mm.
/ BASIAEns AY5IMAX0Y
Rev.
standard
in
1.
hand
in field,
Head
Obv.
Athena
of
Nike standing
in crested Corin-
holding wreath in
1.,
r.,
r.,
wears necklace.
(Q)
below
r.
r.
and naval
wing
of Nike,
bucranium.
^.
J53
Attic Tetradrachm
Rev.
sceptre in
r.
16.79
hand
28 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
young Hera-
border of dots.
f BASIAEQS AYSIMAXOY
1.
(jr.
and crescent
1.
on throne, holding
beneath throne, ^.
of the conqueror.
t54
Stater
8.55 gr.
19.5
mm.
Obv.
Head
of deified
Alexander
with
r.,
with
circle of
Rev.
dots on border.
Inscription
to
i^
;
in
field, r., K.
friends of the conqueror by placing the head of the deified Alexander on his coins.
name.
THESSALY.
Lamia was the capital of the Malian people and located somewhat inland from the Malian
The place was famous in Greek history as the seat of the Lamian War waged between the
Macedonians and Greek confederates led by the Athenians.
Gulf.
aire.
Aeginetic Drachm
t56 ^.
wearing taenia and earring.
B.
O. 302-286.
5.4-3 gr.
21 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
nymph Lamia
r.,
46
Rev.
A AM
case with
r.
EQN
hand, his
1.
1.
in
The fine head on the obverse suggests a portrait and it has been suggested that it might be
Lamia, the mistress of Demetrius Poliorcetes. In that case the Lamians sought royal favor by
thus honoring the beautiful hetaira of whom Demetrius was so fond.
The reverse type of Philoctetes gives no suggestion of that Thessalian prince suffering with
Yet the type suits this mythical figure who was
his wounded foot, as portrayed by Sophocles.
banished from the army before Troy and abandoned in Lemnos, rather than Heracles.
;
Peneus
river,
city of Thessaly.
It
was probably a
named
Pelasgic town of great antiquity and founded by the same race by which the several cities
some
of
whom became
^.
petasus and
They
157
home
Aeginetic
Drachm
B.
480-430.
C.
6.07 gr.
21.5
mm.
Youth standing
Obv.
his
1.,
around,
circle of dots.
Rev.
AAPI
Mathey
AIA
r.
Coll.
The bull-fight was the national sport of the Thessaliaus. Suetonius {Claudius, SI), describes
manner of the contest. The youth on horseback pursued the bull around the arena until the
animal was nearly exhausted, then leaped from his horse, seized it by the horns and stretched it
upon the ground. The horse, of course, was free after his rider grappled with the bull and galloped away. The types of this coin portray the critical moment of the fight.
the
Circ.
M..
158
Aeginetic Didrachm
Rev.
with
1.,
AAPI AIQN
B.
C.
400-34^.
12.^4 gr.
25 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
nymph
La-
fillet in hair.
r.
Savastopoulos Coll.
The
159
^.
quarter face
1.,
Kimon
Aeginetic
in
it
at Syracuse.
Drachm
5.92 gr.
19.5 mm.
flaps
Obv.
in field,
Head
r.,
of
Aleuas
AAEYA and
threebattle-
ax.
Rev.
AAPI5AIA
Eagle on thunderbolt
1.,
field,
1.,
EAAA.
Rhousopoulos
The head on
Oetaei
Coll.
this coin is
meant
was the designation of the people who inhabited the slopes of Mount Oeta. They
less under the domination of the Thessalians.
^.
J60
Attic Didrachm
0.
496-U6.
7.6 J gr.
47
2^ mm.
head
Obv. Lion's
1.,
with spear in
mouth.
Rev.
OITAI
nN
hanging across
lion's skin
1.
hand, with
arm.
r.
among
it
was
specially favored.
Pherae was the birthplace of that Jason, whose exceptional military abilities and personal
made him practically monarch of all Thessaly and one of the famous leaders of Greece.
Soon after the assassination of Jason the supreme power fell into the hands of one Alexander.
qualities
Alexander of Pherae, B.
^.
i6i
quarter face
Rev.
cuirass
gr.
r.,
Horseman with
kK^l-kWLPQiy
369-357.
^^ mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Hekate three-
hand.
r.
C.
lance, charging
r.
These types
special worship of
Thessali-
Dionysus Pelekis
is
(77-^Xe/ci;s=battle-ax).
which continued
till
Macedon
in B. C.
146.
^.
J62
with oak
Rev.
Double Victoriatus
behind, ITAAOS-
/ 0ESA
with shield in
1.,
AfiN
spear in
5.81 gr.
Roman
Obv.
Head
r.,
of
Zeus
AAKET
below,
r.,
crowned
in fighting attitude,
Spink ^ Son.
The Victoriatus was struck on what was
an extensive
S2 mm.
basis of
wears crested
QnTAT[PO].
virtually the
Rhodian standard.
It
became the
coinage.
EPIRUS.
Alexander, B. C. 342-326.
This son of Neoptolemus, brother of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, is best
in history for his futile efforts to aid the Greeks of Magna Graecia against the Bruttii,
known
where he
J63
r.
^.
Aeginetic Stater
10.89 gr.
23 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Zeus Dodonaeus
48
TOY NEOriOAEMOY
Rev. i AAEEANAPOY
Rhousopoulos Coll.
of Alexander's coins
Thunderbolt.
to
his expedition.
Pyrrhus, B. 0. 295-27^.
This able but impetuous and capricious prince was one of the most interesting royal personPyrrhus is better known for his exploits outside his own kingdom of Epirus
than for anything he accomplished for his own people. He contested the throne of Macedon
with Demetrius Poliorcetes and for seven months was king of all Macedon in B. C. 287-286, while,
after his campaigns in the "West, he again won the throne of that country from Antigonus, B. C.
274-272.
Pyrrhus is best known, however, for his campaigns in Italy, at the invitations of the
Tarentines, against the Komans, and in Sicily against the Carthaginians and Mamertines in both
ages of antiquity.
won
164
Attic Stater
8.59 gr.
mm.
'B3
Head
Obv.
beneath, A
Athena
of
;
in
r.
field
in crested
1.,
owl
on
BAIAEf2
Rev. J
in
1.
TYPPOY
Nike standing
1.,
with oak-wreath in
r.
hand, trophy
Rev.
Drachm
Attic
^^^
4-^^
ff^-
behind, quiver
^^
i-
Obv.
in front, torch
Head
of Artemis
circle of
r.,
wearing
dots on border.
Similar to preceding.
Proive, 85.5.
at Syracuse while
is
R.
naeus
1.,
Hirsch.
The
where
it
style of this Tetradrachm betrays the fabric of the mint at Locri Epizephyrii
was almost certainly issued during the military operations of Pyrrhus in Italy.
in Italy,
AETOLIA.
The Aetolians were
civilization
till
The
failure of the
Macedonians
to
CaTALOUUE of (iKEEK
49
C'olNS
subdue them, while on the other hand their success in stemming an invasion of the fJauIs, Icil
them to boast of two victories. Their organized efforts to meet these two formidable enemies resulted in cementing their league as well as winning considerable respect throughout Greece
Their first coins were struck after these events.
B. a.
i67
Attic Stater
S.JfS gr.
:r/!i-168.
mm.
IS.o
Head
Ohv.
of
Athena
AITQAQN
Rev.
pile of
in
1.
in field,
1.,
in
crested
A-
hand
r.
r..,
X,
r.
r.
on
in exergue, club.
Rhousopoulos, 1598.
^.
J68
lion's skin,
r.
Rev.
Attic Tetradrachm
;
l(i.!>7 //v.
Similar to preceding; in
31 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Heracles,
in
border of dots.
IH
J and
field,
A,
on the
lower, AV.
figure of Aetolia on these two coins may represent the statue dedicated by the ActoDelphi to commemorate their victories over the Macedonians and Gauls. In that case
the letters on the shields very likely allude to the generals, Acichorius of the Gauls aud Lyciscus
of the Macedonians.
The
lians at
^.
].69
Aeginetic ? Stater
Rev.
1.,
Young
AITOAQN
r.
leg,
01>r.
2G mm.
Young male head
diadem behind, AY border of dots.
10.56 gr.
r.,
warrior standing
1.,
r.
his
hand
foot resting on
r.
;
rock, his
in
^K.
Rhouso])oulos Coll.
It has
in 15. C. 1!)2.
It
LOCRIS.
The Eastern,
them from
Peace of Antalcidas
in B. C. 387.
One of the terms of that peace required all Greek communities to be autonomous.
The Locrians may have been obliged to establish a mint. The mint was opened at Opus, the
capital, and the coins bear the name of that city.
or Opontiau, Locrians, as they were sometimes called to distinguish
B.
170
^.
Aeginetic Stater
(J.
till
after the
400-300.
11.03 gr.
:J4
nun.
Obr.
Head
of
Persephone
1.,
/ OrONTIfiN
thian helmet,
shield,
r.,
50
J7I
^.
Rev.
spear
Aeginetic Stater
1'2.16 gr.
2I/..5
mm.
>
on ground,
^.
172
crowned with
r.,
grain-leaves,
Philipsen Coll.
^.
173
1.,
Aeginetic Stater
21 x 26 mm.
and necklace.
12.24 gr.
Head
Obv.
of Persephone
on ground, between
Comparison of the head on these beautiful Staters with the Syracusan Dekadrachms by
Euainetos discloses the fact that the Locrians, like other backward peoples of Greece, turned to
the famous engravers of Sicily or of Italy when they began to Issue coins.
The reverse type celebrates the Locrian hero, Ajax, son of Oileus, who had been one of
Helen's suitors and went to Troy with forty ships. Ajax never returned, having incurred the
wrath of Athena for violating Cassandra when Troy was taken.
BOEOTIA.
Tanagra, situate in the southwestern part of Boeotia near the frontier of Attica, was one
two important
cities of the
its
^.
174
Aeginetic Stater
Wheel
Tanagra
is
was long
best
of
known today
necropolis.
B. C. 480-456.
Circ.
Rev. BOI
Euboea.
It
12.47
gr.
19 mm.
of four spokes,
retrograde.
The
shield
is
the
common
may
Circ.
175
^.
Rev.
Aeginetic Stater
B.
12.11 gr.
Forepart of horse
r.
387-374.
;
23 mm.
Durufle, 386.
may
the
Thebes was the principal city of Boeotia and capital of the Boeotian League. This city,
founded by Cadmus, the reputed inventor of the alphabet and hero of many a myth, was second
no other Greek
the
The
of antiquity.
common
^.
76
the leadership of
Thebes
Aeginetic Stater
0E
-_,
met
at
in
B.
Rev.
Under
legendary history.
Boeotia were at an early period formed into one of the most successful confederations
cities of
matters of
51
C.
426-387.
13.00 gr.
23 mm.
bow.
in field,
Benson
Coll.
Hera, enraged, sent two serpents to destroy the infant Heracles, but the mighty son of her
husband Zeus and Alcmena strangled the serpents. The type here simply treats one of the myths
of Heracles as aTheban hero
but soon the same type was employed elsewhere as a symbol of
the struggle of freedom against cruel tyranny.
It was so used at Croton, and by the anti-Spartan
league of Ephesus, Samos, and other cities.
;
B.
^.
177
Attic Tetradrachm
C. 288-211. If-
1G.85 gr.
27 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Poseidon
r.
with wreath.
Bev.
fish in
r.
\ BOIQTQN
and trident
in
Poseidon, nude
1.
hand
down
to hips, seated
on throne, holding
1.
around, circle of
dots.
Rhousopoulos
Coll.
EUBOEA.
Carystus began to strike coins about the middle of the sixth century, but the issues were
its
like
its
coinage.
Circ.
J78
^.
Bev.
XXXIV,
The cow
Oche
is
369-336.
Obv.
Cow
standing
r.,
calf.
KA PYSTIP.N
C.
B.
Cock standing
r.
330.
probably to be associated with the worship of Hera who had a temple on Mt.
whilst the cock is apparently a punning type alluding to the name Kapvaros
in the vicinity
suggesting xSpuf
B.
J79
skin,
N.
C.
107-146.
Obv.
Head
of
bearded Heracles, in
r.
Bev.
\ KAPY
Recumbent cow
1.
above, trident
below, club.
lion's
52
furnished four ships to the Athenian fleet in the expedition to succor Miletus at the time of the
Ionian Kevolt in B. G. 498. In revenge Datis destroyed Eretria when he got possession of the
Eretria had been in close alliance with Athens in the time of Pisistratus, whom
place in 490.
Eretrians restored to power in B. C. 533
in
and
it
was
to Eretria
Hippias withdrew
when
expelled
B. C. 511.
Oirc.
J
80
^.
Stater
8.52 gr.
B.
10 mm.
C. 550.
Obv.
Spink ^ Son.
is
B.
Oirc.
city.
511-490.
Obv. E
Cow standing
Euboic Tetradrachm 17.23 gr. '22.5 mm.
with head turned back scratching her nose with hind foot on her back, swallow.
\Z\
F^.
r.
Rev.
BJwusopoulos
Ooll.
The
182
cuttle-fish
^.
Tra.pia-Tnioi'
Euboic Tetradrachm
or badge of Eretria.
17.04 gr.
Obv. 3
Cow standing
around, circle of dots.
38 mm.
;
1.
Rev.
trasts so strikingly
is of special interest on account of its very broad flan, which conwith the usual thick lumpy coins struck at other mints at the same period.
Oirc.
J83
boea
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
B.
0.
16.35 gr.
400.
;
24.5 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
nymph
Eu-
r.
Rev. ^
EY
Consul Weber
Cow
standing
Coll.
This was a federal coin issued at Eretria for the entire island following the
404 B. C.
r.
fall
of Athens in
53
ATTICA.
Athens was confronted with
seventh century,
when
and
difficult social
laws of debt had ruined and dispossessed the small landowners and even reduced
The powerful
to slavery.
much
Archon
One
of the
tion secure.
meu
in
528 his son Ilippias continued the policy of favorand expulsion in 512
^.
J84
meted,
r.,
Rev.
Euboic Tetradraclim
with hair
in short curls
Owl
AGE'
Spink
The
SI4-4OO.
C.
17.70
gr.
2^
inm.
Oho.
Head
of
Athena, hel-
standing
B.
r.,
/So7i.
tf-
that goddess.
Rev.
AGE
Mathey
is
probable that
we have
of Hippias,
it is
Euboic Tetradrachm
AGE
Owl
standing
r.
C.
JffJO.
17.11 gr.
Rev.
After B.
^.
is
186
in incuse square.
Coll.
r.
?38
mm.
Ohv.
Head
of
Athena
r.,
in
Marathon was celebrated at Athens in many ways, including numerous dedithis time, between 490 and 480, the olive-leaves appear on the helmet of
Athena on an improved coinage. The olive-leaves doubtless mark a commemorative coinage.
The
cations.
victory at
At about
54
MEGARIS.
Megara was in very early times one of the more important cities of Greece but when
changed conditions deprived the place of the commercial advantages it had enjoyed because of
location on the trade-route between the Peloponnesus and Central Greece, it soon declined. Pausanias saw a number of temples when he visited Megara, evidence of greater days.
;
Sixth Century.
J87
Rev.
^.
Euboic Didrachm
8.50 gr.
19 mm.
Ohv.
Wheel
of four spokes.
Spink ^ Son.
The attribution
of this piece
is
doubtful
it
may belong
to Chalcis,
Euboea.
After B. C. 307.
J88
^-
Rev.
Ohv.
Head
of Apollo, laureate,
r.
(Jollignon Coll.
The head on this coin closely resembles the Apollo-head on the coins of Demetrius Poliorceand the Megarians may have copied or closely imitated that monarch's coin in gratitude for
his presenting the city with its freedom, which he did in 307 B. C, when he saw that his own
fall was Imminent.
tes,
AEGINA.
Some ancient
in
And
Aegina.
now
first
modern
issue of coins to
probably not
much
later
The standard of Aegina was a Stater of 194 grains, the drachm weighing 97 grains. The
Aeginetans enjoyed a decided commercial advantage because of their location and early became
known as the hucksters of Greece. Whether because of their wide-spread commerce or because
theirs was the first purely silver standard, their heavy coinage standard was adopted in .numerous
countries.
A.
Stater
12.2 gr.
13 x 25 mm.
H. Chapman.
This piece not improbably affords a very good notion of the form of commercial ingot that
just preceded the perfected coin.
^.
Stater
12.19 gr.
20.5
mm.
aire.
i9t
^.
Stater
13.!ll gr.
404-350.
C.
^i mm.
ftS
Land-tortoise,
Ohv.
with stiuctuie of
From
B. C.
4.56
after 404
till
The
And when
Athenian dependencies.
it
to
local coinage
CORINTHIA.
Corinth had, in
its
West passed
all
Much
of the
Megara, Chalcis, and Eretria became the great commercial cities before and following the Trojan
War. Corcyra and Syracuse were among the many flourishing colonies Corinth established in the
eighth and seventh centuries.
In the middle of the seventh century and following the expulsion of the dynasty of the
Bacchiades, Cypselus established a new dynasty at Corinth. This enlightened prince put new
life into Corinthian industry, especially the ceramic arts, and made the city in other ways worthy
His son and successor Periander (B. C. 629-.585) seems to
its wealth and commercial position.
have followed the course of his father, and Corinth became even greater and her colonies more
numerous. But his rule was harsh and the dynasty ended in the expulsion of his nephew Psammetichus after a brief reign.
Time of Periavder, B.
j31.
192
Stater
8.36 gr.
25 mm.
0. G29-585.
Ohv.
Pegasus flying
1.,
bridled,
and
With the golden bridle given him by Athena Bellerophon subdued the marvellous Pegasus,
Pegasus was recognized as the badge
the stroke of whose hoofs brought forth the gushing spring.
or
vapiff-^fiov
Circ.
193
JK.
Trihemidrachm
4-11
Rev.
Mathey
One
Chimaera
1.
From
colts ".
below,
B. C. 338-300.
'>'
A and
I
1^
flying
'**-
^*^-
"?
Bellerophon, wearing
1.
line.
Coll.
5G
PELOPONNESUS.
PHMASIA.
Phlius was an independent city in the northern part of Peloponnesus, mentioned by Homer
Its ancient aristocracy was supplanted by a democracy about
its earlier name of Araethyrea.
Agesilaus.
As in the Peloponnesian War so in the Theban
in
restored
379
by
but
393 B. C.
under
War
B.
r.,
430-370.
^.
194
ing
C.
Wheel
Bev. SION
Bull stand-
scription.
B.
M.
195
0.
Aeginetic Hemidrachm
370-328.
'2.79 gr.
16 mm.
Bull standing
Obv.
1.,
and
Spink
The
<!>
in ivy-wreath.
Son.
SICYONIA.
Sicyon, situated on the Corinthian Gulf, was one of the oldest cities of the Peloponnesus.
was a commercial
It
The
sculpture.
B. 0.400-323.
^.
J96
1.
Aeginetic Stater
Obv.
$E
above, wreath.
Bev.
1"
Dove
flying
1.
that of Aphrodite,
in front,
I.
or
it
may
refer to the
in Sicyonia.
ELIS.
which
it
known
Elis
is
in
very early period. The origin of the games celebrated in honor of Zeus whose temple was at
Olympia, not far from Pisa, was attributed to the race between Oenomaus and the stranger Pelops,
who must conquer the king of Pisa in a chariot race in order to win his daughter Hippodamia.
Whatever their origin the Olympian games grew into favor among the Greeks everywhere, and
the festival grounds at Olympia became a pan-Greek meeting-place, a religious center, too, where
the feelings engendered by quarrels and wars between cities were for the time at least laid aside.
Among
57
money
And
among
games was
eagle and the thunderbolt of Olympian Zeus, to whom the land of Elis was sacred and in
whose honor the games were held, form the most common types of the series. But Kike also
occurs frequently in the types and in numerous attitudes of proffering the victor's crown, thus
making a more direct allusion to the games, so that these coins became interesting mementos of
their attendance at the games to the Greeks who had come from Ionia, Sicily, or other distant
outposts of the Greek world.
The
Circ.
B.
0. Ii.71421.
J97
jR.
II.4I gr-
198
.^.
Aeginetic Stater
ll.i-G gr.
25 mm.
r.
with hare
in claws.
Rev.
rests,
F[A]
a wreath in
r.
1.
1.
hand
199
Aeginetic Stater
IK.
11.83 gr.
'26
mm.
Obv.
Eagle flying
r.
with hare
in claws.
[F]A Nike,
hand, peplos on 1. arm in
Sir H. Weber Coll.
Rev.
200
^gy.
eva
;
wreath in
r.
1.,
struggling
carries in
it
front,
running
(retrograde');
^.
with serpent
in long chiton,
Winged thunderbolt
in
cuse square.
Sir H. Weber Coll.
serpent,
These types are closely associated with the games. The eagle of Zeus with prey
would
assure
the
Greeks
before
Troy
of
his proZeus
When
omen.
good
was
a
fawn
or
hare
So
tection he sent his eagle with a fawn in its claws, and the Greeks understood and took heart.
on the coins of Elis the eagle is an omen of victory to whomsoever Zeus favored. On two of the
above pieces we have the charming figure of Nike as a complementary type, offering the prize to
the victor.
'
No. 199
is
B. C. 412-406.
went
signed by the
If the
same
artist,
artist signs
style.
Obv. F
Head of nyiuph
A
Aeginetic Sta.ter; 11.98 gr.; 24.5 mm.
Olympia r., with hair in sphendone, and earring of four pearls suspended fjom calyx.
Rev. -^ Eagle standing 1., with closed wings and head turned back, in olive wreath.
20i
^-
Philipsen Coll.
It has been suggested that the people of Elis meant to assert more strongly, for some special
reason perhaps, their right to the presidency of the games, hence the head of the nymph Olympia
on
their coins.
58
B.
T.,
0.
400-365.
Obv. FA AE\QH
Head of Hera
202 M. AegineticStatei; 11.9^ gr.; ^4 mm.
wearing high Stephanos bearing the inscription, necklace, and earring composed of
Merzhacher
203
1.
^.
Coll.
ksgmeticStaXQr; 12.07
floral
gr.; 26.5
mm.
Ohv.
Head
of
Hera
in
r.,
Rev.
Eagle standing
1.,
Hirsch.
The head
Hera on these two coins probably shows some influence of the colossal statue
made for Argos. The high Stephanos is differently and appropriately
of
is
B.
204
^.
Rev.
Aeginetic Stater
F
0.
b\'
still
artist.
365-323.
r.,
Head
Ohv.
Zeus
of
laureate,
in field,
r.
P.
Mirsch.
in
1.
205
^.
Rev.
Aeginetic Stater
FA
11.76 gr.
Eagle standing
r.,
21 mm.
Head
Ohv.
tail
of Zeus, laureate,
r.
of a serpent caught
1.,
thunderbolt; H be-
^.
Rev. ^
Aeginetic Stater
F
12.11 gr.
Eagle standing
r.,
25.5 vim.
Ohv.
Head
in field,
of Zens, laureate,
r.
thunderbolt
r.,
1.,
coins of Elis.
home was on
Circ.
207
r.,
^.
Aeginetic Stater
B.
370-350.
C.
11.12 gr.
25 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of Apollo, laureate,
/ A in N0
Hirsch.
59
Probably struck by Dion, who having been banished from Syracuse by Dionysius made
Zacynthus the rendezvous of the forces he was collecting in Greece for an expedition against that
incapable tyrant. The coins were struck with Dion named as magistrate to defray the expenses
of the enterprize.
The
cult of Apollo
was supreme
at
Zacynthus as
MESSENIA.
Messene was one of the few ancient
When
historic uncertainty.
cities
whose
origin
myth and
in
pre-
the defeat and death of the Spartan king Cleonibrotos at the hands
of
^.
208
Attic Tetradrachm
^S-zV
MESSANIQN
perched on
hand
r.
E. Weber
16.79 gr.
27 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of
Demeter
r.,
leaves.
in field,
Ni in wreath
to
r.,
r.,
Coll.
Demeter and Zeus had temples on Mt. Ithome. The head of Zeus may reflect something of
made for the Messenians living at Naupactus by Ageladas of Argos, the reputed teacher
the statue
of Phidias.
LACONIA.
Lacedaemon, the capital of Laconia, had the usual exalted origin boasted of by most Greek
having been built by Lacedaemon, son of Zeus, who also discreetly named the citj' in honor
cities,
When
it
fell to
Lycur-
gus, in the early part of the ninth centur}', to rewrite the laws and reorganise the government.
From
and
that time
the country
literateurs.
There is doubtless some truth in the story that iron was employed for monetary purposes at
an early period and was mentioned in the legislation of Lycurgus but no iron coins, rather iron
money, have come down to us, unless the iron oheliskui, small iron rods, found in the excavations
Sparta struck no coins until after the time of Alexander.
of the Heraeum at Argos are examples.
;
Kiny Areus, B.
^.
209
demed,
1.
Rev.
turned
goat
r.,
Attic Tetradrachm
C.
16.27 gr.
310-266.
29 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Areus,
dia-
A A
in
r.
and bow
in
1.
hand
in field,
].,
wreath; to
r.,
60
This piece probably
is
earlier
than B. C. 306, else Areus would most certainly have used the
title ^aaAeiJs-
The
archaic statue or agalma of Apollo, represented on the reverse, corresponds rather accu-
oue described by Pausanias as seen at Amyclae, some thirty miles from Lacedaemon,
where there was a shrine of that god. It was a mere wooden trunk " with a helmet on his head, a
spear and bow in his hands "rately to the
.
2t0
^-
Rhodian
in crested Corinthian
Mev.
A A
r.
Tetradrachm
helmet
266-207.
1.
1.
Obv.
Head
of
Athena
r.,
border of dots.
Heracles seated
hand, the
C.
lion's skin is
thrown, hold-
border of dots.
AEGOLIS.
Argos belonged to the ancient kiugdom of Agamemnon. After the Dorian invasion Argos
became the center of a confederation of several cities under the protection of the Pythian Apollo
whose shrine was on the citadel of Argos. Tradition credits the introduction of coinage into
Europe to Phidon, king of Argus, in the last years of the eighth century. But he issued his first
coins from Aegina, which was also under his scepter, and not from Argos, because the former
was commercially important, while the latter was not.
Politically Argos declined in the face of the steady rise of Sparta, but long retained considIn the sixth century Argos became one of the great
erable importance in alliance with Athens.
art centers of Greece, the school of sculpture identified
on the development
Circ.
2ii
^-
Aeginetic Stater
with
it
of that art.
APFEION
floral
Two
B.
C.
42UJ22.
dolphins
swimming
in
opposite
directions;
between
The
fine
head of Ilera on
ground
in the
Later
it
its
famous temple of Asklepios that stood on the supposed birthplace of the god
a few miles out of the city. The cures of the physician-priests were sought by the afflicted from
many countries, and the shrine acquired vast wealth. Gradually its treasures were stolen and
The
finally Sulla appropriated the bulk of what remained to defray the expenses of his army.
temple, however, was in good state of preservation when visited by Pausanias.
ation rested on
its
Aeginetic
^.
Drachm
C.
4-'yi
61
oon-323.
W-
'^^-^
!
"*-
^^''-
Head
of Apollo, laureate,
which
Asklepios seated
rises a serpent
1.,
1.
hand, his
r.
extended, to
ARCADIA.
Pheneus was situated in the northern part of Arcadia near the Toot of Mount C_yllene. It
was a very ancdent town, mentioned by Homer, and apparently of considerable size and wealth in
later times, but not much is known of the place.
B.
Circ.
213
^-
crowned with
Aeginetic
Drachm
<J.
362 and
3.33 gr.
later.
?d'ii
mm.
composed
Head
Oliv.
of
Demeter
1.,
calyx.
Rev.
ceus in
r.
<t>ENEnN
hand, the
Sir H. Weber
1.
Hermes seated
resting on rock
1.
before, BHPI
Coll.
^.
Ohv.
Head
Aeginetic Stater 13.12 gr. 20' mm.
crowned with grain-leaves, wearing necklace and earring composed of
2J4
tached to a crescent
Rev.
ceus in
r.
in
of
Demeter
r.,
five
pendants
at-
pearls.
1.
There was a temple of Demeter at Pheneus, and Pausanias states that Hermes was specially
worshipped there, facts that account for figures on these two coins. The reverse type of the
latter relates to the rescue of Kallisto's child Arkas, son of Zeus, which he is carrying to the
nymph Maia
to
be reared.
CRETE.
Cnossus, situated in the northern part of the island,
is
in
been credited to the northern part of the Mediterranean Sea. The culture long designated Mycenaean was derived from Crete, and Cnossus was
the principal center.
It was the legendary capital of king Minos, the lawgiver of Crete
and
there was the storied labyrinth Minos had the first artificer Daedalus build in which to confine the
monstrous offspring of Pasiphae's illicit love, the Minotaur. Although the cradle of a very ancient
civilization, yet Crete issued no coins until after the time of the Persian Wars.
seat of an earlier civilization than had hitherto
B. C. 500-400.
215
of a bull
Al.
and body
62
Rev. Labyrintli in cruciform with maeander pattern, star in center and deep
in-
That moment of the Minotaur myth is here presented when the Athenian hero Theseus,
with aid of the clew furnished him by the princess Ariadne, enters the Labyrinth to slay the
monster and free Athens from the tribute of youths and maidens annually furnished to feed him.
The representation
rocks.
Minotaur points
of the
to
B.
Circ.
350-200.
C.
Eev.
\ KNQ^IQN
Square labyrinth
r.,
Coll.
Circ.
2J7
;
wear-
r.
spear-head
1.,
1.,
^.
beneath,
Rev.
B.
C. 200-67.
Head
of Zeus, diademed,
festival to celebrate
Attic Tetradrachm
16.89 gr.; 30
mm.
06r.
A.
KN Q
I QN
Square labyrinth.
Hera
Cydonia in the northwestern part of Crete was one of the most powerful
by ancient writers to Kydon and to Samians expelled by Polywithstood the attack of Cnossus and Gortyna when they had reduced almost all
crates.
The
city
B.
C.
200-67.
^. Attic Tetradrachm; 13.93 gr. 29.5 mm. Obv. Head of Diktynna r.,
bow and quiver on shoulder in field, iiASinN on border, circle of dots.
Rev. / KYAQNIATAN
Diktynna standing to front, in hunting costume, holding
long torch in 1. hand on left, hound seated r. and looking up at nymph on border,
218
with
olive-wreath.
The legend of Britomartis, daughter of Zeus and Charme and called Diktynna after she had
leaped into the sea to escape the pursuit of king Minos and was rescued in the fishing-nets (^Skruo),
associated the nymph with Artemis and finally assimilated her with the huntress.
So on the coins
of Cydonia Diktynna appears in the usual guise of Artemis.
Eleuthernae was an important city situated in the interior of the island, on the northwestern
slope of Mt. Ida, where fable established the birthplace of Zeus.
city
to
Very
little
is
recorded of the
portance.
Circ.
2J9
r.
^.
Aeginetic Stater
B.
431-300.
C.
10.80 gr.
27.5 mm.
Obv.
Head
of Zeus, laureate,
\ EAEY0EP
Rev.
bow
in
63
r.
hand and
1.
The
island
presents.
Gortyna, situated in the south central part of Crete, was a rival of Cnossus in wealth and
power.
was a prosperous place in the time of Homer, who mentions its mighty walls Vhpjvvd
Gortyna and Cnossus at one time shared the dominion of practically the whole
but subsequently they became hostile toward each other.
It
re reix^Scaffav.
island,
Oirc.
^-
220
waist, seated
Rei'.
Aeginetic Stater
r.
in a tree, her
Bull standing
The abduction
B. C. 400-300.
r.
r.
Europa, the Phoenician princess, by Zeus in form of a bull was for over a
century the chief subject of Gortynian coin-types. The abandoned maid, seated in a plane-tree,
Very
in numerous variations of pose, and the tauriform Zeus are the subjects of these types.
unusual on Greek coins is the realism found here. A similar touch is seen in the pile of rocks on
which Apollo is resting, on the following piece.
of
B.
^.
221
Rev.
skin, his
J-
r.
WO-67.
r.
knee, his
1.
Head
Ohv.
1.
holding
of Zeus,
diademed,
is
bow
around,
resting on rock
r.
thrown a
cir-
cle of dots.
Oollignon Coll.
Itanus was probably located near the promontory of the same name.
Little is
known
which seems to have originated as a Phoenician factory town. And such an origin
gested by the type of these coins, the monster on the obverse suggesting a Syrian divinity.
place,
B.
222
swimming
1^.
r.,
Aeginetic Stater
striking
C.
10.85
downwards with
of the
is
sug-
450-350.
gr.
S6 mm.
trident held in
hand
in
1.,
net-cable.
223
swimming
Rev.
i5l.
r.,
Aeginetic Stater
striking
ITA
10.93 gr.; 26
downwards with
Two
mm.
trident, conch-shell in
1.
hand.
The myth
of Triton, son of
or of Glaucos, whichever
is
meant by
the type of these rare coins, was naturally connected with the sea, and on the coins of Itanus ap-
Phaestus, situated about five miles from the coast, was one of the very ancient of Cretan
King Minos is mentioned as its legendary founder but also Phaestus, son of Heracles,
towns.
'-''^
whom the towu was said to have beeu named. Phaestus is iiieutioued by Homer in tile
Catalouue of Ships. It was the birthphice of the marvelons Epimenides, the story of wliose tiftyyear sleep and awakening may have been the remote original of Irving's Bip Tioi Winkle tale.
from
B.
224
Hydra,
^^.
4.kUJ00.
0.
club with
i?cc.
r.
\ 4>AITIQN.
Bull standing
r.
Polyrrhenium was situated on the northwest eoast and its territory included all the western
The towu had long beeu a subjeet ally of t'liossus, but during the eivil wars
in Crete, in latter \nwt of the tliird century, it took sides rtgaiust Cnossus.
B.
225
-*^.
iiVr.
rOAYPH NIfiN
Aeginetic StSLter
Wfhcr
11. 0(>
(jr.:
JO. o
mm.
0, or!0-:JS(>.
name
on border,
Head
OJc.
fillets
of Zeus, laureate,
r.
circle of dots.
Coll.
in the eastern part of Crete, its territory extending aeross from sea to
In the territory of Praesus stood jMt. Diete and the famous temple of Zeus Dietiu'us. For
was on !Mt. Diete that legend had Zeus rest from all his labors both on earth and in the realm
sea.
it
of the gods.
Little has
come down
to
C!re.
B.
C. .;^()-40().
llcr.
\ (No
Eagle flying
inscription).
1.,
whole
r.
on
1.
in incuse
square.
Sir H. Wrhcr Coll.
CYCLADES.
on the southeastern eoast of the isliind, was one ol' the three eitios
of teos.
The island was fertile and besides liad siher mines of some value as a souree of wealth.
The island's best claim to fami> is as the birthplaee of the poets Simonides and Uacehylides.
Ceos.
(.'arthaea, situated
Sirih
227
.-K.
Aeginetic Stater
Cciltliri/.
12.,ir> ,ir.\
:30
mm.
Ohv.
Amphora and
beside
it,
dolphin.
liri:
known
in
was
first
eolonized
liy
Phoenii-ians.
65
dured for a long period. Thus the coinage standard became Phoenician, whilst the rest of the
Cyclades employed the Aeginetic standard. Also the Phoenician forms of the letters M (M/) and
were preserved.
(C)
Sixth Century.
Phoenician Stater
-^.
228
13.75
gr.
23.5 mm.
Obv.
Pomegranate with
leaves.
Rev. I
/WAAICN (MaXiW)
Hirsch.
The pomegranate
/itjXov,
Doric
name
^aXoi-, is
civil
of the island.
hampered
its
prosperity.
The
ancient oligarchic government was overthrown and succeeded by a tyranny headed by Lygda-
mis.
After Lygdamis had been twice expelled and each time restored with the aid of Pisistratus
B.
^-
Aeginetic Stater
of grapes hanging from handles
above,
229
600-490.
ivy-leaf.
H. Chapman.
The
its
clusters of grapes
of the wine-god.
west of Naxos, from which it is separated only by a channel. The island was first
and Achaeans. The Parians refused to assist the Greeks at Salamis, being offended at Athens because, following Marathon, Miltiades had besieged them for three weeks in
an effort to subjugate them. Themistocles imposed a heavy fine upon them and they were forced
Paros
lies
The marble of Paros was famous, specially pleasing to the gods, says
was there the famous Parian Chronicle was found, embracing events of
Athenian history for thirteen centuries. Paros was the birthplace of the poet Archilochus.
into the Delian
League.
It
r.,
field,
r.,
5IAHN0?.
myth
Seriphus was a rocky island of little importance except for being the scene of a part of the
The Seriphians seem to have been the subject of many a Greek
of Perseus and Danae.
joke.
Sixth Century.
231
^.
Aeginetic Stater
12.26 gr.
18.5
mm.
Obv, Frog.
66
M. Chapman.
There was a legend that the frogs of Seriphus were mute until transported elsewhere, hence
{k Sept^oK, said of a dull and silent person who on occasion became loquacious.
But the frog was sacred to Apollo, hence the type of this rare early coin.
the proverb Bdrpaxos
Thera was first colonized by Phoenicians, later by Dorians from Lacedaemon following the
Dorian invasion. The latter were led by Theras who gave his own name to the island. Compelled by volcanic disturbances to seek a home on a better soil some of the people emigrated and
founded Cyrene. The island is now called Saniorin, and is interesting to numismatists for the
discovery there in 1821 of a hoard of 760 Greek coins of the seventh and sixth centuries.
Sixth Century.
232
^.
Aeginetic Stater
12.2
1^.
gr.
20 mm.
Obv.
opposite directions.
The
is
not certain.
It
may belong
ASIA.
PONTUS.
Mithradates VI, Eupator, the Great, B. C. 120-63.
Within a few years after his accession this virile warrior and gifted king had extended the
comparatively small kingdom he had inherited into a vast empire. The Colchiaus, Cappadocia,
Paphlagonia, Armenia, Bithynia, were in one way or another brought under his scepter.
Rome
In his
he
Cicero probably states tlie Roman opinion when he calls Mithradates the greatest king since
Alexander the Great and the greatest general with whom Romans had ever dealt. Yet, later,
after having been deprived of his army through the treachery of his own son, he committed suicide to escape capture by the Romans.
233
^-
Attic Tetradrachm
BA^IAEQS
16.90
MiePAAATOY
32.5 mm.
fjr.;
Head
Ohv.
of Mithradates,
r.
EYTTATOPOS
Pegasus standing
1.
drink-
ing, the
gram, I.
Waddington,
235
Rev.
Attic Tetradrachm
j51.
II, 9.
16.51 gr.
;
;
32 mm.
elaus (?).
Paris, 1910.
struck at Athens in B. C. 88
Arcbelaus was in
forces in Greece
1.,
236
^.
Rev.
star
(==
Attic Tetradrachm
16.61 gr.
32 mm.
X month).
Lambros
Coll.
to
r.,
TK?
(= year
stag standing
223) and
1.,
grazing
in field,
beneath inscription,
68
237
^.
Rev.
tion,
Attic Tetradrachm
16.75 gr.
33 mm.
AK Q=
year
22J/.'),
and beneath
inscrip-
(XI month').
Butler
Coll.
Nos. 233 and 234 are dated in the Bithynian era which began in B. C. 297, so that the coins
were struck in B. C. 89 and 88 respectively, while Nos. 236 and 237 were struck in B. C. 74 and 73.
The portrait on the earlier pieces is without doubt a very faithful likeness of the king. It is
strong and virile, whilst that on the latter betrays some flattery at the hands of the artist.
The Pegasus on
the reverse of the earlier coins relates to Perseus, the Greek counterpart of
The
Pergamene Era, B.
At
0. 89-
the height of his power Mithradates seems to have issued coins dated in a
238
diademed,
at
^.
new
era and
Pergamum.
Attic Tetradrachm
16.35 gr.
35 mm.
Head
Ohv.
of Mithradates,
r.
Rev. f BASIAEQS
MIT0PAAATOY EYTTATOPOY
ing, the r. foreleg raised; in field, 1., star and crescent; to
Butler
Pegasus standing
1.,
drink-
r.,
(=
[T^K.
Coll.
PAPHLAGONIA.
Amastris, situate on a small peninsula in the Euxine, was founded by a princess of the royal
named Amastris. She had become the wife of Dionysius, tyrant of Heracleia, after
Persian House
B.
^.
239
gian helmet
300-
C.
dots.
AMA^TPIEftN
Rev. f
and chiton
sceptre
in front,
Hirsch
XXV,
The head
The Tyche
bud
in
r.
Amastris seated
hand, Nike
beneath throne,
of
r.
on a throne, wearing
bestowing crown upon her; in 1.,
1.
A-
1663.
House
it
to Sinope,
Euxine.
After the
Mithradates
VI
daughter of Asopus,
fall
because
whom
was
Apollo carried
off
from Boeotia
myth
cred-
to the coast of
^.
240
r.,
Attic Tetradraclim
B. 0. 220-180.
16.97 gr.
69
mm.
'Z9
Obv.
Head
of
nymph Sinope
Rev. I ^INfiTTEnN
and plectrum in r. hand
in field,
r.
1.
(reading downward).
BITHYNIA.
Calchedon, situate on the Bosporus nearly opposite Byzantium,
is
it
The
that the site of Byzantium, founded later, was superior to the one they had selected.
The
city
was under the hegemony of Athens after Cinion had driven the Persians from Thrace and so
mained till B. C. 41.3, thereafter being under domination of, or against, Sparta, according to
recir-
cumstances.
found on the
of the
name
is
B.
&.
241
it
coins.
C.
400-300.
Obv.
KAAX
Bull standing
1.
on
head of barley.
Mev. Incuse square of four compartments with granulated surfaces.
M. Chapman.
The
Byzantium in
Kings of Bithynia.
Frusias
I,
B.
0.
238-183.
Bithynia reached the zenith of its greatness under this able monarch and his son Prusias II.
Polybius relates with evident admiration the former's campaigns against the Gaulish invaders,
whom he cleared out of Troas and away from the cities along the Hellespont {Hist. V, 111). According to Strabo Hannibal took refuge with Prusias
I,
probably
when
the
^.
242
sias,
diademed,
Attic Tetradrachm
Obv.
r.
Eev. I BA^IAEQS
TTPOYSIOY Zeus, with himation thrown back across 1.
shoulder, standing to front, crowning the name of the king, his sceptre held in 1. hand
in field,
1.,
S. Chapman.
of
XXIX,
10.
70
243
^-
Attic Tetradrachm
king, diademed,
Rev.
bolt,
16.90 gr.
36 mm.
Obv.
Bearded head
of the
r.
Inscription
to preceding
in field,
1.,
eagle on thunder-
and f^.
Waddington, 29,
Sebastopoidos Coll.
XXIX,
14.
MYSIA.
was colonized by Megariansin the eighth
The city was subPersia tiU B. C. 478, and was a part of the
earlj' in
mentioned among
till
When
Circ.
244
Phoenician Hecte
El.
500-450.
^.81 gr.
12 mm.
Head
Obv.
;
of Triton
1.,
with
beneath, tunny-fish.
246
El.
Phoenician Stater
;
15.87 gr.
18 mm.
Obv.
1.,
Obv.
Head
r.,
beneath, thnny-fish.
247
El.
Pt ^enician Stater
16.17 gr.
23 mm.
tunny-fish.
of lioness
1.
to
Phoenician Stater
1639
gr.
20
min.
Ohv.
71
Dog
standing
1.,
ready to
at-
B.
Giro.
249
ing on
r.
0.
450-400.
fish.
Phoenician Stater
El.
250
16.03 gr.
20 mm.
Obv.
walking
Bull
1.
be-
neath, tunny-fish.
Sir H. Weber
Phoenician Stater
El.
251
Coll.
;
15.07
gr.
23 mm.
Obv.
Two
eagles
perched,
At first the tunny-fish constituted the type of the coins of Cyzicus, later it became merely a
symbol or mint-mark. The types of these fifth century and later coins, which are in great variety,
have been explained as either magistrates' symbols or the badges of cities for which the Cyzicus
mint struck coins. These Staters retained till the last their thick, lumpy fabric, the form in which
they were best known and least apt to arouse suspicion of genuineness, but the types are often
done in the
B.
^.
252
Kore Soteira
Rhodian Tetradrachm
1.,
Rev.
KYIIKHN
-^.
Rev.
Lion's head
Q.H
1.
^5
WTO.
wound round
veil
;
Ofe.
SQJEIPA
hair, earring,
Head
of
and necklace.
Coll.
arm resting on
The
330-280.
iJ.^^ ^r.
wearing cereal-wreath, a
Rhousopoulos
253
C.
large lyre, in
r.
a patera
in field,
1.,
.g-.
splendid silver coins with the head of Core Soteira, or Persephone, were
after
of our coin.
Lampsacus, located on the Propontis, was one of several towns into which colonies of Milesians settled for the purposes of the great trade with the Euxine.
The
first
dates from the end of the sixth century or, interestingly enough, from just about the time
when
an alliance between Hippias of Athens and Hippocles of Lampsacus was foi ned and cemented by
After B. C. .394 Lampsathe marriage of the daughter of the former with the son of the latter.
cus began to coin gold Staters in great quantities, which, like the Cyzicene Staters, acquired a
wide circulation.
^2
Circ.
254
Persic Stater
El.
beneath,
15.21 gr.
500-4S0.
21 mm.
winged horse
Obv. Forepart of
1.
Itev.
The winged
horse
is
B.
Circ.
N.
255
ate,
0.
Persic Stater
S43
gr.
394-350.
0.
IS mm.
Obv.
laure-
1.
Rev.
r.,
in incuse square.
Allatini Coll.
M.
trait of
Obv.
r.,
Head
of
wearing
1.,
in incuse square.
J. P. Six
Maenad
Lampsacus.
Obv.
Female head
1.,
with hair
r.
Coll.
These gold Staters are struck on the standard of the Persian Daric, a fact indicative
rapidly rising power of Persia following the fall of Athens.
Pergamum was
country, and later
in
of the
originally a natural fortress rising in the plain in the southern part of the
became the
citadel of the
Pergamum
it.
Because of
its
great
The
latter,
The misfortunes of Lysimachus prevented his recovertwenty years Philetaerus transmitted the crown to his nephew,
Pergamum, and
Eumenes I.
ing
after a reign of
Philetaerus, B. C. 284-263.
^.
258
lion's skin,
Rev.
tre in
r.
Attic Tetradrachm
16.86 gr.
29 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Heracles, in
r.
EAEYKOY BASIAEQS
hand
in field,
r.,
bust of Athena
1.
in crested Corinthian
r.
helmet
beneath
throne, crescent.
Eumenes
^-
259
laureate,
r.
Attic Tetradrachm
II,
B.
0.
16.85 gr.
197-159.
3^ mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Philetaerus,
73
<t>IAETAIPOY
ard,
and A.
Sehastopoulos Coll.
The founder of the kingdom was honored on coins of his successors down
whose nephew Attalus III bequeathed Pergamum to the Eomans.
Proconnesus was a small island in the Propontis.
from which
its
260
Chian Drachm
^.53 gr.
known
chiefly
derived.
is
B. C. 400-
^.
was
It
to Attalus II,
13 mm.
Ohv.
Head
Aphrodite
of
wear-
1.,
Rev.
/ rpo KON
Oenochoe
1.
Allatini Coll.
TROAS.
Abydus, located on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont at its narrowest point, was a Milesian
colony.
Abydus and Sestos on the opposite shore are renowned, partly for the story of Hero and
Leander, partly for being the place where Xerxes transported his vast army over a pontoon bridge
into Europe.
And numerous other armies have crossed the Hellespont at the same place. The
sacked after the Ionian Revolt then,
city was burned by Darius on his return from Thrace
after nearly a century of security and prosperity in the Athenian hegemony, fell into the hands
After the peace of Antalcidas in B. C. 387
of Sparta and became a naval base of that power.
Abydus again became autonomous. After the defeat of Philip
(B. C. 196) the Romans granted
freedom to Abydus and other cities of Asia Minor.
;
Circ.
B.
196-
C.
30.5 mm.
Ohv. Bust of Artemis r.
^. Attic Tetradrachm 16.64
26i
over shoulder, bow and quiver
wearing chiton, stephane, earring, and necklace
;
9'>'-
ABY AH
grapes; below,
262
^.
Rev.
HQ.H
Eagle standing
TAPMENHKOY
r.,
in front,
bunch of
Aeneid of Vergil.
five
to
of
well
known
to
everyone
own
dives
who has
read the
opum, attributing, no
day.
After B. C. 189.
Ohv. Janiform head of male
263 j^.
Attic Tetradrachm 16.75 gr. 31 mm.
and female heads, the former laureate, the latter with stephane.
;
74
/ TENEAIQN
Eev.
a right
hand open
Spink
The
Double ax
to
1.
and
4,
to
r.,
around, laurel-wreath.
Son.
who
Many
offered, but
none
in
satisfactory.
is
LESBOS.
Methymna was in the northern part of the Island of Lesbos. It was friendly to Athens
from an early time, and so was treated with great favor by the Delian League. The territory of
Methymna produced the famous Lesbian wines.
B.
264 ^. Euboic Stater 5.^5
rubbing his snout on 1. leg.
;
ing
C.
^r.
500450.
^^ mm.
MAVMNAI05
Ohv.
Boar stand-
r.,
Rev.
->
Head
of
Athena
r.,
spiral ornament,
M. Chapman.
The Athena head may be due
more
The
with Athens.
Methymna, but
is
yet
unexplained.
among
It
B.
265
^.
Attic
three-quarter face
Rev.
KA
Drachm
0.
4-09 gr.
387-301.
;
17 mm.
Obv.
Head
of Apollo,
laureate,
1.
1.
APOAAAS.
Sangorsky
Coll.
is
Ephesus, situate at the mouth of the Cay ster River, was famous in antiquity because of its
There was a legend that the city had been established by the Amazons,
of
the Asiatic Amazons connected them with Ephesus and the Ephesian
the
myth
and certainly
75
Artemis.
specially patronized
B.
266
r
E,
^.
Rhodian Tridrachm
394-295.
0.
11.19 gr.
2':i
mm.
Ohv.
Bee
<t>
beneath,
signature of magistrate.
Rev.
\ VN
r.
on
1.
is
When
267
of a fleet furnished
Rhodian Tetradracliin
jR.
lS.29gr.;
cit}'
'2o
used
mm.
its
own
Ohv.
historic arms.
<^
Bee
around,
circle of dots.
Rev.
TTArKPATIAHS, name
r.
of magistrate; the
on
r.
whole
in
front,
in circular incuse.
B ourgey.
The bee and
the stag were sacred to the Ephesian Artemis, even the High Priest of the
title 'Ecto-tJi', " King Bee ", while the priestesses were known as " hone3'-bees "
From
practiced
Ijy
Erythrae stood on the coast near the base of the peninsula that separated the gulfs of Smyrna
and Ephesus. The city was subjugated by Lydia, falling under Persian domination after the
defeat of Croesus.
It participated in the Ionian Eevolt, for which it suifered severely, like the
Though located just opposite Chios, whose monetary
rest of the cities, after the disaster at Lade.
standard was widely adopted, yet Erythrae never used that standard till the fourth century.
Fourth Century.
268
^.
Rhodian Tetradrachm
1^.3-j gr.;
> wwi.
Ohv.
Head
of Heracles
r.,
in lion's skin.
Rev.
EPY
wards, AlOPEI't'HS; in
field,
1.,
in
owl.
H. Chapman.
There was a temple of Heracles
at Erythrae,
which accounts
Sipylus,
it
It
76
tus
and
later
B.
^.
269
r.,
Attic Octobol
5.59 gr.
350-300.
mm.
i'5.5
neath horse,
TPIOY
Humped
Prowe
Armed horseman
r.
galloping
hand
be-
MArNHTON
Eev. t
Obv.
bull charging
Maeander
below,
1.;
AIONYIO
AHMH-
pattern.
Coll.
B.
C. 190-133.
pattern,
fillet
in
r.
hand,
HPorNHTOS mnxPifiNOS
Baron Coll.
hand resting on
1.
on which a quiver
tripod,
before,
Miletus was founded, or perhaps an existing town was only colonized, by Greeks, at the
time of the earliest emigrations from Greece. It early became one of the greatest commercial
cities of antiquity, possessed of a large fleet of merchant ships trading throughout the Mediterranean Sea and especially to the shores of the Euxine. Miletus, under the leadership of its tyrant
virtually destroyed.
by Darius
The
at that time
money
the earliest
anywhere
coinage of
first
is
among
little later
than
else.
B.
27J
of Apollo
j51.
Persic Stater
C.
250-190.
Head
Obv.
of Apollo, laureate,
1.,
Lion standing
f^
Sir H. Weber
The
lion
1.,
in front, /^
below, hkoaa.
Coll.
Smyrna was
near the mouth of the river Hermus that flowed under the walls of
occupied Lydia's natural outlet to the sea, and to get possession of the city
Lydian kings waged a long war. Smyrna was finally captured by Alyattes in B. C. 586 and deSardis.
first built
It, therefore,
stroyed.
Three centuries
Lysimachus.
later a
built a
Second Century.
272
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
Rev. I
wreath.
IMYPNAION
H. Chapman.
15.Jf8 gr.
and
Lion walking
39 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Kybele
r.,
with
on neck.
below, hpakaeiahs
^.
273
Attic Tetradrachm
1548
The
front.
new Smyrna a
lion
was sacred
tiie
gr.
39 mm.
whole
77
Ohv. Similar to preceding.
in oak-wreath.
splendid temple of Kybele, the mother of the gods, stood on the seato her.
Teos, situate on a peninsula southwest of Smyrna, was one of the very prosperous cities of
Before B. 0.
274
seated
r.,
^.
with
Aeginetic Stater
1.
paw
raised
in front, club
Rev. Incuse square, divided into four compartments with granulated surfaces.
The
on Tean coins has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It has been suggested
Hyperborean Apollo and the guardianship of the gold that Jason sought, for
the Teans had extensive commerce with the Euxiue long before they began to strike coins.
that
it
griffin
relates to the
The Persian
all
their places.
The
intervention of
Athens was sought, and that city, with Eretria, despatched a fleet, landed at Ephesus, reached
and burned Sardis. But disaster overtook the combined Greek fleet at Lade and with the command of the sea the Persians soon reduced the rebellious cities. Prof. Gardner has recognized in
a group of Electrum Staters, of peculiar and uniform fabric, coins issued at various Ionian cities
the exact mint not always determinable
The patriotic
to meet the expenses of the war.
cities refused to use Persian gold Darics to pay their soldiers and sailors, and reverted to their
B.
275
El.
Milesian Stater
G.
14-00
500494.
gr.
20 mm.
Ohv.
Sow walking
Ohv.
Cock standing
r.
276
floral
El.
ornament
Methymna
in Lesbos.
gr.
20 mm.
r.
above,
SATRAPY OF
The Persian
is
a cock or cock-iight.
IONIA.
satraps occasionally issued coins from the mints of western Asia Minor.
The
78
B.
277
sia,
^.
Rhodian Tetradrachm
bearded, kneeling
r.,
0.
400-
14-94- gr.
23.5
mm.
in
r.
Obv.
The king
liand, spear; in
1.,
of Per-
strung
bow.
Rev. Incuse with granulated surface and various raised patterns.
Sir R. Weber Coll.
This specimen has, with considerable degree of probability, been attributed to Ephesus.
ISLANDS OF IONIA.
is a few miles off the coast of Ionia, between the islands of Samos and Lesbos.
The
was very fertile and early contained a prosperous population. The city of Chios on the
eastern shore had an excellent harbor and its commerce was large. The fine marbles of Chios
were famous in antiquity, but still more famous were its wines, celebrated by almost all the poets
and still in high favor.
Chios
island
B.
^.
Ii.78-li.12.
278
1.
The sphinx
is
a symbol of the wine-god Dionysus, whose cult was specially favored in Chios.
Samos was one of the most prosperous of the Aegaean islands. At a very early period it
became a considerable naval power and in the time of its too fortunate tyrant Polycrates was respected or feared because of its fleet. In this period Samos had close political and commercial
relations with Egypt.
The city joined in the Ionian Revolt and furnished sixty ships to the conAfter the defeat many of the Samians refused to submit to Persian domifederate fleet at Lade.
nation and sailed away to Sicily and settled at Zancle (Messana). Samos was one of the first to
become an ally of Athens, but revolted in B. C. 489 and was conquered and punished by Pericles.
Samos was one of the earliest art centers of the Greek world.
Before B. C. 494.
279
^.
Tetradrachm
13.15 gr.
22 mm.
displayed.
Rev.
5A
Sir H. Weber
Bull's head
r.
in incuse square.
Coll.
B.
280
^.
Tetradrachm
C.
15.35 gr.
439-365.
^6 mm.
displayed.
Rev.
J,
olive branch
Hirsch.
Forepart of
above, [aak]MEON
bull,
|
r.,
ErMONfifiS
-31.
Rhodian Tetradrachm
5A
15.^6 gr.
2G mm.
(Q)
style.
Forepart of bull
r.,
with
r.
79
above,
HTHSIANAE;
below,
The
bull on the
is
of
Egyptian origin
is
certainly interesting.
This Satrap of Caria would have passed to that oblivion the most of such officials deserved
had not his sister and widow Artemisia erected for him at Halicarnassus the tomb which antiquity regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world, a distinction the Mausoleum seems to
have well deserved. The names of such architects and artists as Pythis, Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus, and Leochares, who were engaged to build and adorn the great structure with a variety of
sculptures, are sufficient to warrant the renown it had in ancient times, even if some remains
were not still extant to confirm that estimate. A more enduring glory for Halicarnassus was in
being the birthplace of Herodotus.
^.
282
Rev.
tion with
spear in
8.
r.,
MAYSSQAAO
r.
gr.; 2Jf.5
1.
mm.
Ohv.
Head
of Apollo,
arm
r.,
wearing
talaric chiton
r.
and hima-
shoulder, inverted
hand.
H. Chapman.
The
facing Apollo-head
is
Zeus
Stratios, the
Zeus of
the piratical Carians, had a temple at Labranda, a village near the old capital city of Mylasa.
Hidrieus, B. C. 351-3UThis Satrap was a brother of Mausolus and succeeded to the satrapy on the death of ArteHis wife was his younger sister Ada.
misia in B. C. 351.
283
Rev.
^.
gr.
'22
mm.
f
Sir H. Weber Coll.
Euagoras
II,
King
of Salamis, B. C. 351-
Euagoras was king of Salamis when the Phoenician revolt against Persia broke out in B. C.
He declared for Persia, but the several other kings then reigning in Cyprus took the side of
He went over to the Persians, was well
the Phoenicians and drove Euagoras from his kingdom.
received by Hidrieus, brother and successor of Mausolus on the throne of Caria, who aided him
351.
80
in equipping a fleet.
With
the aid of Phocion, the Athenian, they laid siege to Salamis, but failed
this coin
was struck
expedition.
M.
284
xerxes
III,
Rhodian Tetradrachm
IS.^S gr.
r.
21 mm.
Ohv. Persian King, Artaand discharging arrow from bow
Rev.
lance
r.,
striking
downwards with
ISLANDS OF CAKIA.
Carpathos was a small island off the coast of Caria. It seems to have been one of the numerous Phoenician trading-points in the seventh century. There were but three small cities on
the island, of which Poseidium was the most important and the capital.
Century.
Sixth,
285
ming
j51.
lines
Ohv.
Two
dolphins swim-
1.
Rev. Incuse square, divided by broad band into two parallel oblongs.
Mathey
Coll.
The dolphins
relate to the
name
of the
town Poseidium.
The
reverse
is
evidently an imita-
Cos was one of the more important of the Sporades. It is mentioned by Homer, so that it
must have been colonized at a very early period. The population was Dorian and the chief city,
Cos, belonged to the Dorian pentapolis, that included also Caniirus, Cnidus, and lalysus. The
island is said to have been settled by people from Epidaurus who brought with them the cult of
Asklepios. At any rate there was a famous temple of that god at Cos, in which was the celebrated Venus Anadyomene painted by Apelles, a native of Cos. The island was also noted for its
wines and its purple dye, and for a diaphanous silken fabric that was long popular among Greeks
and Romans. Against these Coan fabrics Juvenal levels some of his sharpest shafts.
Fifth Century.
286
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
16.58 gr.
Hirsch
On
XXXIV,
25.5
in field,
1.,
mm.
tripod
Ohv.
;
KOS
Discobolus,
border of dots.
489.
the Triopian Promontory opposite Cos was a temple of Apollo, where the Dorian Pen-
games a great
Si
fuq,
Tifif
festival in
Tploirov
KaraSfh
"
And
in
my
Aupihaai
B.
287
Rhodian Tetradrachm
^.
Rev.
in a
81
14-00 gr.
25 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
young Her-
r.
KOION
ISLAND OF RHODES.
Camirus was the greatest of the three cities of Rhodes and cliiefly a commercial town.
early commercial relations with Aegina is shown by its coin standards.
Its
Sixth Centm-y B. C.
^.
Two
285
Rev.
*S'.
Aeginetic Stater
1'2.28 gr.
20 mm.
Obv. Fig-leaf.
H. Chapman.
The
is
relates to
it
an important
local product.
Rhodes was founded by the three chief cities of the island purely for commercial consideraconcentrating the wealth and commerce of the entire island in a single city on a better
for it was laid out
harbor. But a nobler spirit seems to have controlled the building of the city
by a famous expert in city-building, Hippodamus, a native of Miletus. The same person also
designed the city of Thurium and the Piraeus. The well-known colossal statue of Helios was later
The cost of this Wonder of the World is said to have
erected by Chares at the harbor entrance.
been met largely from the material abandoned by Demetrius Poliorcetes when he raised the memIn B. C. 166 Rhodes was despoiled by the Romans of the large territory
orable siege of Rhodes.
granted in 189 including great portions of Caria and Lycia also her commerce suffered a fatal
blow but much was restored in B. C. 88 for fidelity during the Mithradatic war.
tions, thus
B.
^.
289
quarter face
ReiK
Chian Tetradrachm
0.
400-333.
15.10 gr.
26 mm.
Obv.
Head
of Helios three-
r.
POA
ION
<)>.
The
facing head of the patron divinity, Helios, on this coin shows the influence of Kimon's
the colossal.
The
rose
is
B.
290
^.
Attic ?
Drachm
r.
name
of the city.
G. 88-43.
4-11 gr.
21.5
mm.
Obv.
82
head
the whole
Merzbacher
comnierce had
face of IleUos on this coin, and the rays a duller imagination required
in Rliodiau art
the sun of
interesting, too,
set.
M.
29J
below, barley-
Coll.
KPITOKAHS
in circle of dots.
Ohv.
rays.
PO
Rec. f
wreath.
;,
UNCEETAIN MINT.
Sixth Century.
lioness)
19.5 mm.
Aeginetic Stater 11.11 gr.
neck,
punchniark,
bee?
forward;
on
one paw
^.
292
1.,
Obv.
Cf. Bab.
XIX,
Forepart of lion
(or
18.
Spink ^ Son.
This
is
one of a considerable group of early coins with types suggestive of Caria, but whose
LYDIA.
The
fairly
trustworthy history of Lydia begins with the accession of Gyges in B. C. 687, the
founder of the dynasty of the Mermnadae. Under this sovereign a policy of conquests was
launched that was pursued by his successors till the Lydiau empire embraced nearly all of Asia
Minor. The River Halys was its eastern boundary in the time of Croesus, who, misled by an ambiguous oracle, made the fatal mistake of trying to carry his conquests beyond that streani and
destroyed his own mighty empire.
Victorious Persia then extended her domination to the
And
now
most primitive specimens of coins are the best proof of the claim, for they almost cerLydian origin. These early coins are all of electrum or " white gold " {\evKt>^ xP'"'^^)i
an alloy of gold and silver found in the rivers and mines of Lydia. The proportion of gold in the
natural alloy varied from 56% to 80%, so that coins struck with uniform weight varied in value
so much as to hamper commerce.
To cure this evil
and numerous countermarked specimens,
so marked by responsible merchants, shows that the evil was realized
the government of the
long famous Croesus carried through a great monetary reform. The two metals were separated
and existing specimens of pure gold and pure silver coins conflrm the statement of Herodotus that
" The Lydians were the lirst people, so far as we know, to make use of money struck in gold and
the
tainly are of
Si
ivdpwwuv
tCov ijimh
CS/j.ev v6ij,ia/j.a
would readily
Sardis there must have been enormous profits, which went
it
find their
way
The purpose
sole motive.
For
It is not
83
it is to the operations of this mint that Croesus owed much of his fabulous wealth;
and the same operations may account for the scarcity of the electrum issues of several cities whose
few known coins must be later than the actual beginning of their coinage.
improbable that
Time of
293
and
r.
paw
Rev.
Croesus, B. C. 561-546.
?^.
Two
r.,
1.
294
Babylonic Drachm
-3^.
5.'31 gr.
16 mm.
Similar to preceding.
H. CJiapman.
The
lion
found as a type on the earlier coins of Lydia, but the bull first appears on the
It probably relates to some newly conquered country added to the empire.
is
coinage of Croesus.
PHRYGIA.
Cibyra became the capital city of a confederation of four
B. C.
an extensive conventus.
to
till
century.
295 ^.
Rhodian Tetradrachm 1^-47
wearing crested helmet border of dots.
;
r.,
gr.
30 mm.
Obv.
Male
bust, draped,
Mev.
shield,
KIBYPATQN
296
^.
Horseman galloping
pilei
in field,
Rhodian Tetradrachm
1.,
1A,
r.,
r.,
12.53 gr.
MA
cuirass,
30 mm:
on cuirass,
beneath
LYCIA.
Not much
known of the
a great many names
is
conquest in B. C.
54.5.
Circ.
297
^.
Babylonic Stater
Rev. Triskeles
H. Chapman.
r.
B.
C. If80-460.
0.50 gr.
mm.
Obv.
Forepart of boar
r.
84
Tathtidvaibi, Circ.
^-
298
Aeginetic Stater
B.
C.
480-460.
by
Head
Obv.
a cord
of
Aphrodite
1.,
with
wears
Ti^XXFF^EFBE
Rev.
Tetraskeles
r.
square.
Merzbaclier, 3143.
Vad
299
^.
Rev.
P'^/\
Babylonic Stater
Triskeles
1.
385-380.
9.81 gr.
25 mm.
Obv.
'
in circular incuse.
H. Chapman.
The
triskeles, or tetraskeles, is
emblem.
national
who was a
sjod of liwht.
PAMPHYLIA.
Aspendus, situate near the mouth of the Eurymedon river, was a wealthy commercial city.
The city was evidently of considerable importance someit was an Argive colony.
Strabo says
what
slain
by
citizens
who
It
was
at
The name
was Estvedys.
Circ.
B.
C. 400-300.
versary's legs
Rev.
les
on border,
circle of dots.
ESTFEAIIYS
Slinger standing
r.,
field,
r.,
triske-
H. Chapman.
scene from the palaestra forms the obverse type of this coin.
The
similarity
Perga, situate on the river Oestrus, was the metropolis of Pamphylia in the
our era and probably long before.
between the
first
century of
importance.
B.
30J
Attic Tetradrachm
laureate
C. 190-27.
16.78 gr.
28 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Artemis Pergaea
r.,
border of dots.
supporting scepter; at
r.
side, stag
looking up
in field,
r.,
thunderbolt?
85
CILICIA.
was located on the coast, northeast of the Anemuriau promontory. The place
was first settled by Phoenicians, but later received Samian colonists. The town occupied a natural stronghold and was selected for the town site either for protection against pirates, who for
centuries infested that coast, or the town itself was originally a pirates' retreat.
On the adjacent
plains horse-breeding was an important industry.
Celenderis
Girc.
302
^.
Persic Stater
ways galloping
r.,
B.
0.
23 mm. Obv. Nude horseman seated sideand rein in 1. hand below, T around, circle of
10.59 gr.
holding whip in
450400.
r.
dots.
Rev. *
KEAEN
Goat kneeling
on
r.
1.
leg,
cir-
cular incuse.
Paris, 1909.
mount
at the
Mallus was located on the river Pyramus at the point where the stream divided before reachAlthough the town was evidently prosperous and of considerable importance from
an early date, yet prior to the Macedonian conquest but very little is known of it. It was the
seat of a famous oracle, whose origin was associated with the myth of its foundation.
ing the sea.
B.
Circ.
425-385.
r.
C.
;
MAP
Swan walking
1.
in field,
1.,
dolphin
r.,
all in
circular incuse.
The swan,
goat on
like the
the Celendris coin, perhaps betrays local influence, though that bird was also sacred to Astarte.
near the mouth of the river Lamus, was an Argive colony with a later admixIt was the corruption of the Greek language of this city by contact with the
When Tigranes of Armenia wrested Cilicia
native speech that gave rise to the term solecimn.
from the Seleucid kings he destroyed Soli and transported the inhabitants to his new city of
Tigranocerta. But in B. C. 66 Ponipey restored the town and settled there the pirates he had
Soli, situate
ture of Bhodians.
coast.
304
^-
Persic Stater
B.
10.1f5 gr.
C.
;
450-386.
23.5
griffin
mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Athena
r.,
in
around,
circle of dots.
/ SOAEQN
and 1., te.
H. Chapman.
Rev.
r,,
Ai,
Bunch
and a
leaf; in field,
86
Athena on
owed
B.
^-
304a
Stater
Rev.
9.98 gr.
was due
this coin
name
its
was founded
to, Solon.
also occurs
386-333.
0.
22 mm.
Obv.
r.,
lion's
border of dots.
SOAIKON
Head
of Satrap
r.,
CAPPADOCIA.
This Persian satrapy was erected into a kingdom that became independent after the death
The name or title Ariarathes was inherited from the Satrap
who was on
the throne
Persia.
Ariarathes V, B. C. 163-130.
This prince, whose maternal grandfather was Antiochus III, the Great, had the misfortune
enmity of Demetrius of Syria, probably because he refused to support the latter
against Rome, but according to some authorities, because he had refused the hand of Demetrius'
Demetrius, therefore, drove him from his throne and placed thereon the pretender Orosister.
pherues. Ariarathes went to Rome, where his appeal found sympathetic ears and returning was
to incur the
famous incident
305 ^.
V, laureate, r.
Attic Tetradrachm
16.03 gr.
Rev. f BASIAEQS
APIAPA0OY'
crested helmet and talaric chiton, standing
|
her
29.15 mm.
EY$EBOY
1.,
Head
of Ariarathes
Athena, in
<t)IA0TTAT0P05
r. hand Nike r. with wreath,
holding in
1.
Obv.
in exergue, f-
306
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
IX?, diademate,
Rev.
ing
1.,
16.32 gr.
33.5 mm.
Head
Obv.
of
Ariarathes
r.
BA5IAEfiS
drinking; in
field,
APIAPA0OY
1.,
star
EY5EB0Y$
and crescent;
to
r.,
<t>IAO"rTATOPOS
/Sj/\
Pegasus stand-
Consul Weber.
It is a debated question
It hardly
resembles the
latter,
and M. Reinach
is
young king or
of Mith-
it is
to
87
The pegasus-
type recalls the coin-types of his father, No. 230, while the star and crescent are the symbol of
his ancestral house.
olis,
M. Eeinach
interprets the
monogram AM*I
as
taken in the last year of the reign, and the place of issue.
SYRIA.
Seleucus
The
I,
Nicator, B. 0. S12-280.
Kingdom
from the
from which he had been
driven by Antigonus.
In B. C. 301 Seleucus at the head of the coalition against Antigonus defeated that powerful monarch and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes in the battle of Ipsus, when
Antigonus lost his life and Demetrius fled. Seleucus, then saluted iSTicator, " Victor victorurn "
(Just. XVII, 2), soon thereafter became master of nearly all of Asia Minor and founded the new
monarchy with its capital at Antioch, which he built on the Orontes and named in honor of his
battle of
Gaza
in B. C. 312
when he recovered
of Syria, dates
father.
307
r.,
Attic Tetradrachm
pi.
in
bull's
13.2::i gr.
horn and
Rev.
r.
26 mm.
Obv. Head of Seleucus I,
and covered with panther's skin, a
ear,
L).
Probably struck after the battle of Ipsus. Like Alexander the Great, Seleucus here appears
young Heracles he also uses the title of "King," which he had assumed in B. C. 306, thus
removing the last vestiges of his former subordinate position.
Nike crowning the trophy recalls a similar type on the coins of Agathocles of Syracuse, and
is another illustration of the great influence of the Sicilian engravers throughout the Greek world
during the fourth and third centuries.
as
While
this
308
mate,
Attic Stater
and
;
set
up an independent kingdom.
8.4^ gr.
17 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Anliochus
II,
diade-
r.
Rev.
leg,
^.
C. S66-'6J-246.
king was engaged in a fruitless war with Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt, Diodo-
BASIAEQS ANTIOXOY
holding arrow in
beneath hand,
'^
r.
hand, and
= AtoSoVo? ?)
Apollo seated
bow
in
1.
1.
behind omphalos; in
field,
r.
above, star;
below, lyre.
H. Chapman.
Probably struck in Bactria before the revolt of Diodotus in B. C. 2.58. The Apollo-on-theomphalos is simply an imitation of the similar Syrian type, and hardly has any reference to an
oracle of the god established in the East.
One of the memorable revolts of the Jews took place in the reign of this monarch, and it
was put down and punished with a harshness quite as memorable. A cultured man, who patron-
88
marred
^.
309
laureate,
r.
Attic Tetradrachm
around,
ex.
Spink
16.73 gr.
33 mm.
Bearded head
Obv.
of Zeus,
fillet.
BAiAEn
Zeus, naked down
Rev.
in
ANTIOXOY
0EOY
r.
1.,
E"rTI<t>AN0Y5
on throne
1.
I.
in
NIKHtOPOY
r.
hand, Nike
in
r.
sceptre.
Son.
Some numismatists have regarded this splendid head as a portrait of Epiphanes. And it is
very probable that some of the monarch's features are portrayed in it, yet the head is doubtless
to represent that of the copy of the Olympian Zeus of Phidias, a replica of which Antiochus set up near Antioch, whether in the temple of Apollo at Daphne or in a new temple the king
had erected for Zeus. On the reverse is very likely a representation of the entire statue, but
meant
with remarkable
3J0
^.
Rev.
\ BAIAEn
Pentechalchus
31.1S gr.
ANTIOXOY
r.
3S.5
0EOY
mm.
Obv.
Bearded head
ETTI't'ANOYS
I.
of
Zeus
Eagle standing
r.
r.
on thunderbolt.
The
many
its size
authorities to attribute
Egypt.
to
it
PHOENICIA.
Sidon was the oldest and most powerful city of Phoenicia, celebrated at a very early period
for its manufactures of a varied sort,
its
who
who had
skilled
revolted.
B. 0.4^3-400.
3n
^.
sails
along the
rail,
row
of shields
1.,
with
around,
circle of dots.
Rev.
to
1.,
Spink
The king
?)
incuse
r.
r.,
shooting with
bow
Son.
fleet,
89
Tyre, a colony of Sidon, rivaled the latter city in manufactures and commerce. In addition
made of gold, silver, and bronze peddled in Phoenician commerce throughout
The dye was produced from the murex, a shellThe Old Tyre, as it was afterwards called, on the mainland,
was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the new city built on the island opposite was made famous by the siege of Alexander in 332 B.C.
the world, the purple dyes of Tyre were famous.
fish
abounding
B. C. 400-332.
312
a triple
shon
^.
= %o)
face of field
around, cable.
Owl standing
Mev. I
r.,
flail
under
1.
Mathey
Coll.
The dolphin probably alludes both to the sea-born commerce and the island seat of the new
Tyre, whilst the murex refers to the source of the Tyrian purple dye. The Athenian owl
city of
To
tions.
all
religious ideas or
Of
flail
its
appearance, then, these types are of purely commercial origin, unrelated to local
myths.
PALESTINE.
till
The "
sovereignty.
merchant"
vvere
commerce, while the sums of money mentioned in the Bible in later times were made
up of foreign coins, Persian Darics, Greek Tetradrachms, and others then current in their country.
Small bronze coins were struck by Simon Maccabaeus and his successors, both Asmonaean and
Idumaean Princes, till the Roman Procurators in A. D. 6. With the outbreak of the First Eevolt
in B. C. 66 came a new coinage born of a renewed hope of achieving their independence of Rome.
the silver of
^.
313
Slti'
"Shekel
Ww.
/fc^W-V/PW
^SnSi"!
2)
lily
Mathey
The
3W^1Pd y^lV^\^X
(nE-mpn
O^'^t^'IT
"Jerusalem the
Holy")
date, " year 2," points to the second year of the revolt which broke out in 66 A. D.
and
Dated Shekels and Half-shekels are known for each of the five years.
The types are interesting because so different from any of the vast number of ancient coin-types
known and specially interesting is the thick heavy flan that is characteristic of the Greek coins
continued for
five years.
90
Titus put
down
the
first
the breasts of the Jews, and smarting, indeed, were the measures taken to repress them.
The
from the poll-tax of a Half-shekel, formerly paid to the Temple but then collected by Rome,
So in A. D. 132
since the Temple had been destroyed, was not sufficient to bring contentment.
Simon Barcochba (" Son of a Star ") led the Jews in a determined revolt against Hadrian's government.
relief
314
^.
U-75gr.; 25 mm.
Tyrian Shekel;
Ohv.
[:]]/|.
7C0
(VyD*i!^
Simon) Tetrastyle building, with flattened columns, line of dots on architrave above,
waved line within, screen of Tabernacle with Ark of Covenant around, border of
;
dots.
Rev. }
'^
/,(J[)^q ::i_4-4.qg/,
(d'75J>*|-i''
(^ethrog')
on
nnn'? "Deliverance
of
Jerusalem")
Bun-
1.
PARTHIA.
This was a part of a Persian Satrapj- inhabited by a nomadic people, of which little is known
Alexander the Great. It was then that Arsaces established a royal government and promptly began a campaign of conquests that ultimately embraced nearly the whole of
the old Persian monarchy. The defeat and capture of two Syrian kings, Demetrius II and Antiotill
chus Sidetes, removed Parthia's only rival until she came into contact with the Romans. This
began with the fatal campaign of Crassus in B. C. 53 and ended with the virtual submission of
Phraates to Augustus, when the former returned the battle standards captured when the army of
Crassus was destroyed.
Period of Mithradates
3J5
mate,
r.,
Rev.
^-
Attic Tetradrachm
14.93 gr.
26 mm.
Ohv.
Bearded
bust,
diade-
draped.
\
BASIAEQS
standing three-quarter
Montagu
The
A. D. 171-138.
I,
MEfAAOY
APSAKOY
drinking-cup in
1.,
r.
<t>IAEAAHNO$
and club in 1. hand.
|
Heracles, beardless,
Coll.
Heracles
Rev.
BASIAEfiS
phalos, holding
bow
in
to
r.,
Arsaces seated
r.
on om-
H. Chapman.
In converting a Seleucid coin-type to their use the Parthians have substituted the founder
Arsaces for Apollo on the omphalos.
Next
nothing
to
is
known
91
II, B. 0. 88-77.
of this king,
years.
when
the
Romans
were engaged in their great struggle with Mithradates the Great and Tigranes of Armenia was
rapidly expanding his dominions.
Ohv. Bust of Artabanus
3J7 ^.
Attic Tetradrachm 1543 gr. 3'3 mm.
with sliort beard, broad diadem, spiral necklace, and decorated cuirass around,
;
1.,
II,
cir-
cle of dots.
Rev.
in ex.
I
Orodes
It
decline.
7,
B.
0. 57-38.
was in the reign of this king that Parthia reached the zenith of its power and began to
In 6.3 B. C. the Roman invasion was crushed at Carrhae, when Crassus was killed and
10,000 of his
men
captured.
Roman
et
Parthonim superhis
postibus,
3IS
JR.
Attic Tetradrachm
15.19 gr.
Orodes was
(his) RECVP(eratis).
3S.5 mm.
Bust
Ohv.
of
Orodes
1.,
with short beard, wart on forehead, broad diadem, and long hair in three rows of formal
locks; wears spiral necklace and cuirass; around, circle of dots.
outstretched
r.
hand, Nike
r.
offering
him
crown
holds sceptre in
1.
ETTI<f>AI-
throne; in
hand.
H. Chapman.
This coin may have been struck soon after the victory over Crassus, Orodes considering hima new founder of a greater Parthia and so takes the place of. Arsaces on the reverse and Nike
crowns him.
self
PERSIA.
Not
come
merce everywhere.
From
known
more than
in antiquity as To|6Tai.
92
N.
319
Sir H. Weber
Obv.
1.
and lance in
r.
r.,
crowned
hand.
Coll.
Throughout the two centuries they were issued the types of the Darics remained unchanged,
except for slight modifications of details or variations of the physiognomy of the king. It is,
therefore, impossible to attribute the Darics to particular kings with any degree of certainty. The
Double Darics were struck outside the regular royal mints for special military or other purposes
for the most part they were struck in Babylon, perhaps all of them.
BACTRIA.
The
civil discords
in
So in about B. C. 216 Diodotus, Satrap of Antiochus II, raised the standard of revolt
and succeeded in establishing an independent kingdom. Near the close of the third
century, however, the Scythians invaded Bactria and the Greek ruling class was driven out. The
latter invaded the territory now known as Afghanistan and the Panjab and there erected a GraecoIndian kingdom. The history of this latter kingdom has been almost entirely lost, and much of
what we have would never have been known had not the discovery of coins issued by its kings
made it possible to draw up a meager outline of that history.
cid kings.
in Bactria
320 N.
demed, V.
Rev.
1.
arm
Attic Stater
BASIAEQS
same name.
8.30 gr.
AIOAOTOY
18.5
mm.
Obv.
Zeus standing
1.,
Head
of
Diodotus
II,
dia-
in field, wreath.
M. Chapman.
Because of the youthfulness of the head
younger
Diodotus.
The
Evidently
types of the coins issued by the Greek kings of Bactria betray the best of Greek
tlie
art.
native population had no influence in the government, the types of their coins be-
Euthydemus
I,
Oirc.
B.
0. S30.
This king met a crushing defeat at the hands of Antiochus the Great in 210 B. C, when the
made an expedition into the East to recover the lost provinces. But Euthydemus proved
able to keep by his eloquence what he had virtually lost by arms.
He appealed to the generous
nature of the king, pointed out that he had not rebelled, but had destroyed the rebellious House
latter
and besides that the Scythian nomads were preparing to invade the country, so that
left undisturbed on the throne.
Antiochus agreed and even bestowed one of his
daughters upon the son and envoy of Euthydemus, his successor Demetrius. The extension of
the kingdom into India was effected by these two, father and son.
of Diodotus,
he should be
^.
321
diademed,
Rev.
r.
Attic Tetradrachm
<jr.
SO mm.
Head
Ohv.
of
Euthydemus
I,
EY0YAHMOY
BASIAEQ5
161)2
93
1.
on a rock,
1.
also rest-
over which
is
thrown
lion's skin
in
in field, ^.
F^.
322
thydemus
Attic Tetradrachm
diademed, r.
I,
Rev.
IGMi
Butler
r.
<jr.
mm.
JiO.n
Ohv.
to preceding.
Coll.
^.
323
trius,
diademed,
r.,
lion's skin in
Eirsch,
The
16.70 gr.
f BASIAEQ?
Rev.
and
Attic Tetradrachm
r.
AHMHTPIOY
35 mm.
Draped bust
Obv.
Deme-
of
on border.
fillet
in field,
f^
around,
fillet.
May, 1912.
portrait of
Demetrius on
this
siicli
Tetradraclim
one of
is
tlie
finest
mask
in every
way
masterly.
is
recalls that
god hold-
.U.5.
Euthydemus
II,
King of
Tiidin.
324
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
demus n, diademed,
r.
BASIAEQ5
Rev. \
lO.JG gr.
36 mm.
EY0YAHMOY
Young
Ohv.
Draped bust
of
Euthy-
r.,
his
club in
1.
and
lion's
skin
May, 1912.
Antimachus, King of India.
325
^.
r.,
Attic Tetradrachm
wearing kausia.
BASIAEQ? 9E0Y
diademed,
Rev.
KNP
in
Butler
ANTIMAXOY
holds sceptre in
r.
Ohv.
Draped bust
of the king,
hand, in
1.
fillet
in
monogram.
Coll.
B.
C.
100-
?.
According to Justin Eucratides engaged in a prolonged war, or in several wars, with Demeand finally became master not only of JJactria and the Indian kingdom, but also extended
He assumed the title of the Great (No. -'iSS), and tlie apparent extent of his dohis conquests.
minions justified his pride.
trius
94
^. Attic Tetradrachm
diademed, r. around, fillet.
326
tides,
16.05 gr.
Slf
mm.
Rev.
BASIAEQS
EYKPATIAOY
on ground; in
Sjnnk
327
tides,
r.
field,
diademed,
r.
around,
/ BASIAEQS
hand, in
1.
bow, which
rests
16.91 gr.
32 mm.
Ohv.
Draped bust
of Eucra-
fillet.
EYKPATIAOY
r.
|sj.
^ Son.
^. Attic Tetradrachm
Rev.
in
1.,
Ohv.
1.
shoulders
below,
r.,
<(>
Coll.
^.
horn
around,
Rev.
fillet.
BASIAEQS MEfAAOY
EYKPATIAOY
horse, ^.
H. Chapman.
Eeliodes, Circ. B. C. 150-125.
last
In the reign of this son and successor of Eucratifles the Scythian hordes overwhelmed Bacand drove the reigning House south of the Caucasus, into the Kabul valley. He was thus the
Greek king of Bactria.
r.
around,
tria
329
;
Rev.
^.
Attic Tetradrachm
BA^IAEQS
front, himation
ing sceptre
16.9^ gr.
S3 mm.
Ohv.
fillet.
HAIOKAEOY^
hanging from
in field,
Q.
1.
ex.
AIKAIOY
thunderbolt in
r.
hand,
1.
support-
AFRICA.
EGYPT.
Ptolemy
I,
Soter, B. C. 323-305-285.
After a conquest made easy because the native population would not light for their Persian
masters Alexander the Great established his own authority over Egypt with the least possible disturbance of the old constitution. In the division of the Macedonian Empire, following the death
of Alexander, the governorship of Egypt fell to Ptolemy, son of Arsinoe aud Philip II of Macedon,
who had
Egypt
BA2IAE02
7.15 gr.
TTTOAEMAIOY
18.5
mm.
Obv.
Head
Elephant quadriga
1.
1.,
of
Ptolemy
I,
dia-
driven by Alexan-
and thunderbolt
in
r.
hand
Spink
^-
Sou.
Tia(rt\e6s, assumed by Ptolemy in 305 B. C, fixes the date after which this piece
must have been struck. Ptolemy had proceeded very slowly and cautiously in dropping what pertained to Alexander from the coins, and perhaps in pursuance of that policy he is here introduced
The silphium refers to Cyrene, where the piece may have been coined.
as an Egyptian deity.
The
title
of
Ptolemy
II,
Philadelphus, B. C. 285-2If6.
The enlightened
library
long stood as a
33t
I,
Soter, diademed,
Rev.
r.,
N.
monument
2!
BA^IAEQS TTTOAEMAIOY
and buckler
H. Chapman.
21).
mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Ptolemy
of dots.
Eagle standing
1.
on thunderbolt
infield,
96
Au
symbol in the
field, later
N.
332
jugate
of
r.
in field, buckler
Ohv.
II,
AAEAtQN
Busts
aegis,
Earle
Coll.
N.
333
Phoenician Distater
13.88 gr.
mm.
t'i
to preceding.
334
II, r.,
fillet.
Con. Weber.
Ohv. Similar to preceding,
Phoenician Distater 14-03 gr. 21.5 mm.
but behind, K (^ year 10 ?^.
Rev. \ Legend and type similar to preceding; around, circle of dots.
335
A^.
^.
336
noe
II,
r.,
year iif)
Rev.
Phoenician Tetradrachm
Ammon,
14-.G9 gr.
29.5
mm.
Head
Ohv.
veil
of Arsi-
behind, B
(=
AP2IN0HS
Eagle standing
't'lAAAEAtOY
1.
on thunderbolt; around,
circle of dots.
Spink
337
ceding
Son.
jf
^.
Phoenician Dekadrachm
35.33
gr.
37.5 mm.
behind, YY.
Rev.
Arsinoe died
in
C. '246-221.
king were the reunion of the CyreThe Cyrenaica was brought under
ISyria.
who had
In prosecuting
the war against Syria Ptolemy carried his campaign aa far east as Bactria, returning
home
only
have won the affections of Egyptians by bringing back with him the statutes of their gods Cambyses had carried away.
when
He
is
said to
r.,
97
O/jw.
1.
Bust
shoulder
of
Ptolemy III
around, circle
of dots.
Met'.
field,
BA^IAEQ^ TTTOAEMAIOY
fillet;
in
M. Chapman.
Berenice II.
This princess was the first of the dynasty to bear the title of Queen, liaving inherited it from
her adoptive father Magas, king of the Cyrenaica. While Ptolemy was absent with his armies in
Asia Berenice was regent of Egypt and in control of the fleet. At this time she apparently struck
a large
number
of coins, including
many
Attic Pentedrachm
339 N.
wearing diadem, veil, and necklace
Bev.
21.37
BA^IAI^^H^ BEPENIKH2
26.r5
mm.
Bust
Ohv.
(jr.
of Berenice
r.,
in field,
Rev.
ijr.
-7-7.-5
mm.
Similar to preceding.
Consul Weber
34J
&.
Rev.
Coll.
Phoenician Dekadrachm
34.SG gr.
35 mm.
ing.
field.
Virzi Coll.
CYRENAICA.
Cyrene was founded by people from Thera, who seem to have been the first Greeks to succeed in establishing a successful and permanent settlement in this fertile section of the northern
coast of Africa.
The land had been often visited by Greeks and its resources were appreciated,
but that was about
The
was named
city
for the
first to last.
Circ.
342
Euboic-Attic Tetradrachm
B. C. 530-480.
;
at sides,
15.65 gr.
23.5 mm.
Virzi Coll.
The
is still doubtful
but it has been rather aptly suggested that
Therans who founded Cyrene.
home
of the
98
B. 0. 480-431.
Oirc.
Ode
of Pindar in
falls
honor
Olympia
of his victory at
343
in B. C. 460.
16.75 gr.
26 mm.
Rev.
Bearded head
KVPA
of
r.
around,
cir-
cle of dots.
Spink
Son.
tf"
B.
C.
431-323.
The reign of Arcesilas IV ended in B. C. 450 and not many years thereafter a republican
form of government was estabHshed. There followed over a century of prosperity if one may
rely upon the evidence of the abundant and splendid coinages, the evidence furnished by the
remains of her potteries, as well as what historians have stated.
riga,
A^.
walking
r.
outstretched
345
quadriga
r.
N.
hand
in front, thymiaterion
Euboic-Attic Stater
r.
^r.
5.(J.^
behind,
;
XAIPIOS
19 mm.
Obv.
holding whip
in
r.
KYPANAION
Walking
Rev. \ Zeus Ammon, laureate, standing to front, wearing himation, holding patera above thymiaterion with r., sceptre in 1. ; in field, r., roAiANeExs (reading upwards};
around, circle of dots.
^.
346
Ammon,
Rev.
was
Phoenician Tetradrachm
1.
12.87 gr.
27.5
mm.
Obv.
Head
of Zeus
V PA N A
Stalk of silphium.
After the marriage of Berenice to Ptolemy III it appears that a large measure of autonomy
Cyranaica, probably as a favor, for Ptolemy could have quickly and easily put down a
left to
revolt.
347
Rev.
10.72 gr.
JE,.
26 mm.
Obv.
Head
its
of
own name.
Zeus
Stalk of silphium
Ammon,
r.
ZEUGITANA.
Carthage occupied one of the very favorable commercial sites on the Mediterranean Sea.
Ships bound for either western or eastern ports passed through the narrow stretch of water be-
tween Sicily and Africa and necessarily put in at Carthage for safety and trade or at a Sicilian harbor
which was often a Carthaginian colony. Thus this early ninth century colony of Tyre soon became one of the greatest and wealthiest cities of antiquity. It was for long in almost complete
control of the western basin of the Mediterranean, including
much
of Sicily.
The
policy of raak-
99
ing that commercial domination complete occasioned long wars with Massilia, Etruria, and with
Her first great effort to seize Sicily was checked by the defeat at llimera in
Resuming the invasion in 410 B. C. Carthage destroyed or captured many of the
cities and held her gains till defeated by Timoleon in B. C. 340.
Though defeated by
B. C. 480.
greatest
Agathocles of Syracuse in B. C. 310, by Pyrrhus of Epirus in B. C. 278-275, yet it was not until
after the long first struggle with Eome, B. C. 264-241, that the African power was forced from
The commercial and political importance of Carthage, however, was saved from imthe island.
Home imposed by
mines of Spain.
B.
to
^.
348
galloping
r.,
and countries. For their first coinage they emwith which their troops were already familiar.
cities
cities of Sicily
of free horse
^^^^
Rev. -
ji']?
(niain
mn) "New
Date-palm
tree.
Virzi Coll.
^.
349
Attic Tetradrachm
r.
17.36 gr.
25 mm.
horse running
Obv. Free
r.
Date-palm tree
Hirsch.
The obverse
of
No. 348
is
coin-type
^.
350
Attic Tetradrachm
17.27 gr.
29.5 mm.
Obv.
Head
of Proserpine
r.,
in circle of dots.
Rev.
Mathey
in
background, palm-tree.
Coll.
^.
351
r.
Attic Tetradrachm
17.36 gr.
r.
in
25 mm.
Obv.
Head
of Proserpine
1.,
background, date-palm
tree.
H. Chapman.
Attic Tetradrachm
ZS2 ^.
but in front of head, thymiaterion.
Rev.
field, r.,
kerykeion
353
turned to
^.
r.
17.23 gr.;
2lf
mm.
Similar to preceding,
r.
Attic Tetradrachm
Obv.
1.
in
head
100
Rev.
Similar to
354
^.
last,
horse turned to
2) separated by foreleg
(n
K. Chapman.
letters
Attic Tetradrachm
head
1.
1.,
1.
field
the Punic
of horse.
17.1f0 gr.
and necklace
27 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of Persephone
shell
1.,
around, four
Camp ").
Horse's
~t)
Benson
Coll.
Nos. 350-.354 have for obverse type a more or less successful imitation of the Persephone
head on the Syracusan Dekadrachms by Euainetos. Some of them, such as the rather crude No.
351, may be the work of a Carthaginian artist, while others were probably engraved by inferior
Greek
artists.
In connection with the type of the horse's head the lines of Vergil pertaining to the founding of Carthage have been very aptly quoted:
Qua primum,
Poeni
Aen.
I,
442.
first
C,
They were
to
of gold
N.
1.,
came
355
sephone
circle of dots.
Rev.
Sangorski
r.
Coll.
Earle
19 mm.
Ohv.
Head
of
Persephone
1.,
r.
Coll.
B.
C.
241-U6.
Immediately following their .first war with Rome and the loss of Sicily the Carthaginians
launched new enterprises in other of their possessions, notably the mining industry in Spain. In
the last year of the war Hasdrubal had founded Nova Carthagena at the center of the richest
silver mining district.
The revenues from these mines were enormous and the coinages of the
period doubtless reflect the fact.
El.
Obv. Head
Phoenician Tridrachm 10.49 gr. 21.5 mm.
crowned with barley, wearing earring and necklace with pendants.
Rev I Free horse standing r. above, radiate disc flanked by uraei.
357
one
1.,
of Perseph-
^.
358
sephone
Phoenician Dodekadrachm
44-^^^ 9^-
'>
'^^
101
w*-
Obv.
1.,
Head
of
Per-
of three pendants,
and necklace.
Jtev.
Rhousopoulos
1.
Coll.
Ohv.
Head
359 M. Phoenician Dekadrachm 39.07 gr. 39.5 mm.
sephone 1., crowned with barley-wreath, wearing earring of single drop.
;
Rev.
" Byrsa ",
-^
fpSfS
(n!!fnS'J3)
Pegasus flying
The Punic
r.
legend,
of
Per-
" B'rtsth
",
Collignon Coll.
NUMIDIA.
There were two Numidian kingdoms up to the close of the Second Punic War, of one of
which Gala was king, of the other Syphax. The latter sided with the Carthaginians, while Gala's
son and successor Masinissa espoused the cause of Kome, and gave Scipio excellent assistance in
the African campaign.
For this Masinissa received a large portion of Carthaginian territory and
the entire kingdom of Syphax, who was captured and taken to Eome to adorn Scipio's triumph.
After the death of Masinissa the kingdom, then large and powerful, was divided by Scipio among
the three sons, two of whom soon died leaving Micipsa sole monarch.
Masinissa inaugurated the
Numidian coinage.
Micipsa, B. C. 148-118.
360
^. Phoenician Tetradrachm
of Melkart, laureate,
Rev.
1.,
Elephant
r.,
with
rider.
r.
1^.77 gr.
shoulder
27.5
mm.
Ohv.
Bearded head
SUPPLEMENTARY.
LUCANIA.
Thurium.
361
Italic Distater
-fl^.
15.78 gr.
26 mm.
0OYPIQN
Rev. \
Bull charging
r.
Obv.
Head
Athena
of
r.,
wearing
hounds forward.
in exergue, fish
r.
mouth
and Pyxus.
The former
Oirc.
^.
362
standing
1.
B.
C.
550-5m.
QM MM^M
mm. Ohv.
(Si/Dtro?).
Stater; 7.84 gr.;
Bull
on line "of heavy dots, his head turned back; around, linear circle within
'29
circle of dots.
Rev. f
Same type
[0 E M] X V 1 (Ilv^o'e?)
as obverse incuse
on border, wreath
incuse.
The
bull
on
this coin is
the more important city being adopted for the coinage of the two towns.
to the cities of
Magna
Graecia.
The
Siris,
fabric
the badge of
was
peculiar
CILICIAE.
Mallus.
Oirc.
B. O. 385-333.
Rev.
done, walking
MAA
r.
Demeter
in long chiton
with torch in
r.
r.,
and ears
of grain in
1.
hand.
364
^.
Persic Stater
10.43 gr.
23 mm.
Obv. Persian
bow
in
1.
and
in
103
r.
in an apple
behind, grain
of barley.
Young
/ MAA
Rev.
arms
behind, club
border of dots.
r.
this coin,
but
The
not certain.
it is
CYPRUS.
Amathus, situate on the southern coast of Cyprus, was one of the oldest cities of the island
and later one of the most powerful of the numerous petty kingdoms of Cyprus. The cult of Venus
was established at Amathus as well as at several other Cyprian cities Est Amathus, est celsa mild
Paphos .... Idaliaeque domus .... (Verg. Aen. X, 51) says Venus in her prayer to Jupiter in
:
behalf of Ascanius.
Zotimosi, B. C. 385-
^.
365
r.
on a
f Forepart of lion
Rev.
The
attribution to
Amathus
r.
Lion lying
r.
field,
C)T// (Z(u
rt
ix,(ci).
is
not
certain.
Citium, situated on the southern coast, was the Phoenician capital of Cyprus, whilst Salamis
city of the
The
Greek population.
Under
line of kings of
Citium
of
till
;
Baalmelek
366
moving
Persic Stater
-fl^.
r.,
Rev.
bow
in
1.
and
II,
10.09 gr.
f [/{]'j^4>[9^] (i'pd'?^.^'?)
B.
0.
425-400.
19 mm.
It
above head in
r.
r.,
in square of
but the
was
site of
the city
is
uot
known with
certainty.
And
is
the
367
ergue,A
Rev.
^.
Persic Stater
10.56 yr.
"23.5
mm.
Ohv.
Lion crouching
r.
in ex-
\ Bull standing
1.
below, A
square.
Idalium was situated but a few miles from Citium, with which city it was evidently in close
relations from early times and by which it was conquered and annexed in the reign of
political
Azbaal, B. C. 449-425.
Aphrodite.
The
place
was
chiefly
famous
and temple of
104
After B. C. 460.
368
seated
(Ba),
1.
1.,
Rev.
^.
Persic Stater
10.98 gr.
mm.
'22
Ohv.
,/
r.
paw
in field,
r.,
fj.
(Ka /9a).
in field,
r.,
ivy-leaf,
1.,
astragalos.
Astarte.
Paphos, situate near the River Bocarus on the southwestern side of the island, was an ancient
Phoenician or Syrian origin. Greek writers differ as to the founder of the city and of the
city of
famous temple of Aphrodite or Astarte, some claiming that Aerias and others that Cinyras was
Tacitus (H. II, .3) gives an account of the
the founder. For ages the temple remained famous.
visit of Titus to Paphos, especially to visit tlie shrine of Aphrodite, and describes the worship.
continuus orbis latiore
The effigy of the goddess was not in human form but a mere conical stone
initio tenuem in ambitum metae modo exsurgens
Giro.
369
^.
Persic Stater
head, standing
B. V. 460.
10.72 gr.
2^ mm.
Obv. Bull,
1.
Eagle's head
Mev. /
head, guilloche
1.
in dotted square
in
upper
left corner,
palmette
beneath
PHOENICIA.
Sidon.
370
IR.
Phoenician Shekel
veil,
^lAfiNOS
and
14-16 gr.
THl IEPA2
r.
29 mm.
Obv.
Head
of
Tyche
r.,
wear-
side
KAI
in field,
A2YA0Y
1.,
LN
Eagle standing
(j^ear SO"),
r.,
^.
1.
on a prow
GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.
Abdera Thraciae
Abydus Troadis
-H
Crete
73
Croton Bruttii
10
Acaathus Macedoniae
Aegae Macedoniae
34
Cydonia Cretae
Cyprus
Cyrene Cyrenaicae
Cyzicns Mysiae
62
33
...
Aegiaa
54
Aenus Thraciae
42
Aetolia
48
Agrigentum
15
Siciliae
....
Araastris Paphlagoniae
Amathus Cypri
Amphipolis Macedoniae
...
37
61
Arpi Apuliae
...
....
60
...
.
Aspendus Pamphyliae
Atella Campaniae
Athens
4
84
'2
Dicaea Thraciae
53
69
Boeotia
Bruttii
50
....
10
Byzantium Thraciae
44
Calchedon Bithyniae
Camarina Siciliae
Camirus Rhodi
Campania
...
...
....
69
16
Cana
56
....
Ephesus loniae
Epidaarus Argolidis
Eretria
Euboeae
Erythrae loniae
Gela
Siciliae
51
18
63
Heracleia Lucaniae
Himera
Siciliae
....
Ichnae Macedoniae
Idalium Cypri
19
103
...
63
74
34
Larissa Thessaliae
Chios
78
Laus Lucaniae
Cibyra Phrygiae
83
Leontini Siciliae
17
34
64
....
71
.
46
7
...
102
Lesbos
103
Lycia
Clazoraenae loniae
74
Lydia
Cnossus Cretae
61
Locris
Corinth
...
55
Cos
80
Lucania
19
Citium Cypri
59
45
.....
Cilicia
18
....
Lacedaemon Laconiae
Lamia Thessaliae
Lampsacus Mysiae
75
.
Gortyna Cretae
79
17
...
52
51
Chalcidice Macedoniae
47
...
Euboea
Carystus Euboeae
Ceos
Etruria
Ionia
....
Siciliae
Itanus Cretae
74
60
Epirus
80
Siciliae
62
Elis
98
Centuripae Siciliae
.43
96
Carthago Zeugitanae
Catana
70
81
2
Carpathus
97
.
Egyptus
Eleutherua Cretae
Eryx
Bithynia
103
68
103
Arcadia
Argos Argolidis
61
74
83
82
49
'
...
12
102
106
Geographical Index
Mallus Cilciae
75
102
Megara Megaridis
54
Meios
64
Mende
IMacedoniae
36
Messana Siciliae
Messene Messeniae
Metapontam Lucaniae
20
Methymna
...
76
....
Siciliae
Mysia
Naxos
Naxos
74
Lesbi
Miletus loniae
Motya
59
21
70
65
insula
21
Siciliae
....
Numidia
...
46
Oetaei Thessaliae
Olynthus Macedoniae
Orthagoreia Macedoniae
Orrescii
35
....
34
Macedoniae
33
Paeonia
42
Painphylia
Panormus
101
84
22
Siciliae
Panticapaeum
44
Paphlagonia
Paphus Cypri
68
.
104
Paros
65
Peloponnesus
56
Perga Pamphyliae
Pergamum Mysiae
Phaestus Cretae
Pheneus Arcadiae
Pherae Thessaliae
Philippi Macedoniae
Phistelia Campaniae
Phlius Phliasiae
Phoenicia
Phrygia
Pontus
Pyxus Lucaniae
...
84
72
....
63
61
47
.
37
....
.
3
.
56
104
83
67
102
Polyrhenium Cretae
Alexander I of IMacedon
...
Alexander of Pherae
Amyntas
...
Macedon
Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon
III of
Antimachus
Archelaus
I of
I of
Bactria
Macedon
Arsinoe II of Egypt
Berenice II of Egypt
...
Demetrius of Bactria
Demetrius Poliorcetes of Macedon
.
Eumenes II of Pergamum
Euthydemus II of Bactria
Gelon of Syracuse
5,47
Piale
Plate
II
Plate
III
Plate
IV
Plate
Plate
VI
Plate VII
Plate VIII
Plate
IX
Plate
Plale
XI
Plate
XII
Plate XIII
Plate
XIV
Plate
XV
Plate
XVI
Plate
XVII
Plale
XVIII
Plate
XIX
Plate
XX
Plate
XXI
Plate
XXII
Plate
XXlll
Plate
XXIV
Plate
XXV