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)(8*=-0/']

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THE

PROBLEM

OF THE

FIRST

ITALIOTE

COINS

[See Plates I-III]

I. Date, Fabric, Finance
No group of Ancient Greek coins- not even the sixth-centurycoins
of Athens- has aroused so much discussion,so much controversy,as
the early incuse coinage of Magna Graecia. Having taken part in
these discussionsalready I venture once more into a dangerous field,
where, dodging round the holy tripod of Croton, eluding the sharp
spikes of Metapontum, and the horns of the Sybarite bull, I am still
confrontedwith the noble agalmata of Apollo and Poseidon to which
I raise my hands in supplication.
Those who have been attracted by these superb coins have been
eitherromanticsor realistsin theirapproach. The romantics,among
whom are to be included the Duc de Luynes, Franois Lenormant,
Ernest Babelon, Sir George Hill, and myself,have all thought that
these coins must, in some kind of way, have been linked to the
Pythagorean movement. I think perhaps they felt that it was
overstrainingprobability to deny all connexion between the movement and the money. The realists, among whom are included the
late Dr. B. V. Head, Sir W. Ridgeway, Mr. Sydney P. Noe, Dr.
Milne, and Dr. Sutherland, share that historical approach which
rightlysuspects everythingand anything that seems "too good to
be true". In fact,both sides feel that probabilitiescan be too attractive, and one side shrinksfromdiscardingthem, solely because they
are attractive, the other from admitting them because they are so
alluring.
Now the strongestargument of the realists who oppose any idea
of a connexion between the incuse coinage and Pythagoreans is one
of date. They maintain, rightly, that Pythagoras himself could
hardly have arrived in Croton before about 535 b.c., but that the
city of Siris was destroyed by Metapontum, Croton, and Sybaris in
alliance at some date shortlyafter550 b.c.1 and that, since thereare
coins with the name of Siris (in appearance just like the coins of
Sybaris), these must have been issued about or before550 b.c.
1 However,in C.A.H. iv, the destruction
of Sirisis put as late as 527 b.c.
B
vi.IX.1-2

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CHARLES SELTMAN

This, of course,would be conclusive ifit could be shown that there

were any coins of Siris. But therewere not any.
There are coins of a west-coast place called Pyxus (Greek,Ilves
= IIvovs), which,on the evidence of the legend, may be assumed to
have been founded or occupied by the remnantof the Sirinians who
survived the disaster of c. 550 b.c. By 530 b.c. these people, having
attained stabilityand prosperity,issued coins in imitationof current
Sybarite money and inscribedthem with an adjective and a noun in
the nominative2"Sirinian Pyxus". They are coins of Pyxus- certainly not of Siris. If "Pyxous" is thought to be an unusual form
one may recall the existence of Lokrian " Opous ". A simple nominative is in accordance with Italiote practice; for example, ?PoToN
at Croton,and TARA* on the firstcoins of Tarentum.
Fifty years later exactly the same kind of thing was done at
Poseidonia; for, after Croton destroyed Sybaris in 510 b.c., some
displaced Sybarites found a home in their own west-coast colony of
Poseidonia. There, after480 b.c., they issued, with the permissionof
the Poseidoniates, coins inscribed on their two sides Sv . . . Tloa,
which must surely mean " Sybarite Poseidonia".3
The coins of Pyxus, then, are imitations of coins of Sybaris and
may well have originated as late as 530 b.c.
The second argumentfromdate is based, sometimeswithoutsufficient reflection,on the Metapontinechronologyof Mr. S. P. Noe, who
was influencedby the supposed bulk of surviving coins of Sybaris
(destroyedin 510 b.c.) whichhe thoughtcovered more than 24 years.
Noe's scholarly work groups the incuse coins of Metapontum into
twelve classes, and I have long held the view that these call for a
partial rearrangement.4One of his most interestinggroups is his
2 ThusB. V. Head in H.N,2,p. 84. It is conceivablethatthesecoinswere
actuallymadein SybarisforPyxus.
3 Loc. cit.,p. 85.
4 TheCoinageofMetapontum
PartI; Num.NotesandMonogr
. no. 32, 1927.
mintor mintsissued
Probablybetween534 and 510 b.c. the Metapontine
statersof thefollowing
classesset forthby Noe: Class III (14 die-pairs),IV
in 24years,ora littleover
(12),I (27),II (10),VIII (10),V (6) ; i.e. 79die-pairs
3 die-pairsperannum. Noe,p. 50,thinksthesurviving
quantityofSybarite
coinsis twobigto be fittedintothesesame 24 years. My ownimpression
is
thatSybaritesare lessplentiful
thanMetapontines.
Failinga Corpus,I have
collectedfrom17 accessibleand publishedcollections
somedetailsaboutthe
coins of fivecitiesissuedbefore510 b.c. The sourcesare Carelli,Garucci,
B.M.G.Italy,Ashmolean
Museum,McClean,de Luynes,Hunter,Metropolitan

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

Class VIII (Pl. XII, nos. 145-54) [Pl. I. 9] which he sets apart as
4unofficialimitations" . Yet these coinsbear a
verycloseresemblance
to his Classes I and II (Pis. I to IV) [Pl. I. 8], and it is hard to avoid
the conclusion that they all hang together,and that the forty-seven
die-pairs of staters in Noe's Classes I, II, and VIII are all part of an
officialissue made, possibly, in a separate workshop in the city of
Metapontum. If this be true the earliest coins of Metapontum will
be Noe's Class III (Pl. V, nos. 54 if.) [Pl. I. 7]. And, since in daintiness
of detail and delicacy they most closely resemble the firstcoins of
Croton,Caulonia, and Sybaris, I thinkthat they are the earliestcoins
of Metapontum and that a likely date for their origin is c. 535 to
530 b.c. Noe's Classes I and II seem to me not more primitive,but
more clumsy than his Class III.
Certain fresh considerationsconcerningthe early incuse coins of
the Magna Graecian cities have recently been put forwardby Dr.
Sutherland.5 He emphasizes several remarkable facts, (i) We have
"
beforeus "a bold and arrestingfabric" which frequentlyachieved
effectsof unusual beauty", (ii) Nothing was behind it. It did not
grow; it was suddenly there.6 (iii) This special fabric is "a characteristicwhich (apart fromthe single exception of Zankle) is peculiar
to the principal Greek mints of South Italy in the second half of the
sixth century", (iv) "It involved exceptionally carefulpreparation
of dies with proportionatelygreater difficulty"of production, the
dies, of course, being fixed, (v) It was a fabricdesigned to facilitate
the use of other people's imported coined money which had to be
overstruck into a thin and disk-like form which required special
strength; and "it is a well-knownprinciplethat thin sheets of metal,
when traversed by pressure-mouldedridges which are correspondingly indented on the under-surfaceare remarkably proof against
bending or buckling". In fact, "the joint effortof type and border
Mus., Boston,Jameson,Sir H. Weber,and all the Collectionsin Sylloge
omitstheGermanand mostItaliansources.But
Nummorum.
This,perforce,
theresultsareas follows:Metapontum
81,Sybaris53,Croton50,Caulonia46,
suchas itis,indicatesthatMetaponThis
coins.
245
15
total
evidence,
;
Pyxus
militates
tumminted3 coinsforevery2 ofSybaris.Herenothing
againstthe
viewthatall thespreadSybaritecoinscouldhavebeenstruckduring24years.
6 Am.Num.Soc. MuseumNotes, iii, 1948,pp. 15if.
6 Noe,loc.cit.,p. 14,callsit "a spontaneous
. . . evolvedwithout
invention
development".
any evolutionary

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CHARLES SELTMAN

was to renderthese thin flans immenselystrong".7 (vi) "The coins

produced in this fabric formeda stock of silver currencywhich, so
far from being available for export, was in fact supplemented by
assiduous importation of silver, notably in the form of Corinthian
coin 'used for recoiningV'
However, there is more to be said about pressure-moulding,for
this in its turn has likeness to the cireperdue*technique introduced
to the Greeks by Rhoikos and Theodoros,9the technique of hollowcasting between a core and a mantle- the latter perfectlyadjusted
over the former. Monsieur Paul Naster, Librarian of the Royal
Cabinet of Coins in Brussels, pointed this out in 1947.10 The importance of Naster's paper is that he has shown beyond all doubt that
the early incuse coins of Croton, Metapontum, and other Italiote
cities were made froma deep intaglio-carvedobverse-die and from
a cameo-carved reverse-diein high relief,but not by any method
of hubbing. Accordingly,the cameo reverse-dieis to be regarded as
a kind of core, the intaglio obverse-dieas a kind of mantle. Just as
a thin-walled bronze statue was cast between its core and mantle,
so a thin11silver coin-diskwas pressed out by hammerblows between
its two dies : reverse core ; obverse mantle.
Yet there was one obvious disadvantage; for this coinage must
have been exceedingly expensive to produce- more expensive
than any other ancient money. Meticulous adjustment of dies, slow
technical production, a constant watch for small die-flaws12
which
would have broken these thin coins; all these factors must have
added to the cost of minting. Whereas, in many a State making
tougher coins, flaws could be- and were- ignored,the Italiotes had
7 Sutherland,
loc.cit.,pp. 21f. TheTableofFrequencyon p. 23 (incomplete
thoughit is forCrotonand Cauloniain particular)is ofgreatvalue.
GiselaM. A. Richter,The Sculptureand Sculptorsof theGreeks
, 1929,
p. 104.
9 Seltman,ApproachtoGreekArt, 1948, 37.
10Rev. Belgede Numis.,1947,pp. 5 ff.p.
He did not knowof Sutherland's
articleplannedforAm.Num.Soc. Mus. Notes, iii,of 1948; and whileSutherlandhad heardofNaster'spaper,he had notbeenable to see it.
11Naster,loc.cit.,Plate I with
ofcasts(takendirectfromthe
photographs
hollowreverses)whichrecreatetheformofthereversedies. On the extreme
thinness
see loc.cit.,p. 15.
12Witnessthe anxietycaused to a
Metapontinemint-operativeby an
butgrowing
flawin theobversedie ofNoe,op. cit.,no. la to Id,
insignificant
whichwas carefully
repaired.

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THE PKOBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

to discard or to remake completelytheirdies afterbriefuse. Therefore,in a short period of years they would be obliged to employ a
greater number of dies than any other coin-mintingGreeks. The
sheer expense was probably the main cause for the adoption after
c. 510 b.c. of smallerdies and the consequent thickeningof coin-flans.
This superb coinage could not have been broughtinto being by a
committeeof bankerswho would not have understoodthe technique,
nor by a committee of artists who would not have appreciated
economic necessities. It could only be the work of an exceptional
personality; an individual (a) who from youth had learnt and
mastered the technique of engraving, chasing, and working in
preciousmetals ; (b) who had delicate and finepersonalart-sensibility;
(c) who understoodcertainengineeringprinciples,and was acquainted
with the cire-perdueprocess recently introduced from Egypt into
Samos ; (d) who had a mathematical bent which turned his interest
to Greek world finance in his day, and who was fully alive to the
importance of Corinth and Corinthian trade within that economic
frame.
If Sutherland be right- and I believe he is- he is presupposing
forthe creationof this masterlycoinage out of nothing(anyway, out
of nothing obvious) the existence of a genius; a genius equal in
eminence at the very least to the eminence of Leonardo da Vinci.
For the latter half of the sixth century b.c. there is only one
name to fitthis role: Pythagoras.
II. Pythagoras as an Artist
It is a matter for some surprisethat there does not seem to exist
a moderncriticalbiographyof Pythagoras,slightthoughit would be.
Books by the hundred,articlesby the thousand,may be founddealing
with his thought,the thought of his followers,and Pythagoreanism
in general as science, philosophy,mysticism,or religion; but not a
recent critical "Life" of the man.13 The best I have been able to
discoveris in Latin by Mullach, published in Paris in 1867.14Yet the
ancient sources are not too bad. Primary is Herodotus, who, born
13Pauly-Wissowa,
has notyetreachedhim.
Real-Encyclopdie,
14r. A. G. Mullachin Frag, mosopriorum
u, lob/, edition
(Jraecorum,
ed. 4, 193,pp. 87f.,has a
Didot,Paris. J. Burnet,EarlyGreekPhilosophy,
slenderoutlineofhis lifewhichcannothelpus much.

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CHARLES SELTMAN

at Halicarnassus and ending his life at Thurii, was equally familiar

with Samos and Croton. He, of course, refersto Pythagoras and
supplies an admirable picture of his backgroundwhen talking about
the reign of Polycrates of Samos between 540 and 522 b.c.
A secondary source, of mixed value, is the Life in the eighthbook
of the Lives of thePhilosophersby Diogenes Laertius. To these two
sources must be added tales and fragmentsfrom other writers15
relating to Pythagoras and his father Mnesarchos. From all this
something was compiled by Mullach; but there seems a need for
some more modern biography,and especially for a carefulsiftingof
the different
tales, so variable in theirreliability,incorporatedby the
voracious Diogenes Laertius.
Here I can do no morethan give a summaryof my own conclusions
founded on much reading and considerable research. In the whole
corpus of ancient writingsconcerningPythagoras thereare fourkinds
of tradition:
I. Tradition based on Samos. This is the most reliable.
II. Tradition based on Crotonand Metapontum concerninghis life
and death in Italy : also fairlyreliable.
III. Tradition coming from Italy concerning the Pythagorean
Brotherhoodsand theirrules; less reliable ; sometimesdubious.
IV. Generaltraditionsconcerningthe beliefs,theories,and religious
and philosophical views of himselfand his followers. Some of
these are very late and oftenunreliable.
It is unfortunatethat in Diogenes Laertius' Life of Pythagoras
these four separate traditions are not always kept clearly apart ;
but, if you approach the text with the fourseparate strandsin mind,
it is usually fairlysimple to isolate items derived fromTraditions I
and II. For one who is not a philosopher- and I cannot claim to be
one- it is far more difficultto keep Tradition III and Tradition IV
15e.g.
Apuleius,Florida, ii. 15. 3; and the varioussourcescollectedby
Mullach. Thereis, of course,Porphyry's
; but thisis so
Life of Pythagoras
whichuses any appropriate
heavilychargedwithlaterneo-Pythagoreanism,
Mrchen
, thatit is bestleftout of account. Muchthe same criticism
must,
be appliedto the Life by Iamblicus. Both theselate writers
unfortunately,
carrysomehistoricaldetailsmissingfromothersources; but the detailsare
hardto identify.
See alsoJ. Burnet,op. cit.,onthevariablevalue
frustratingly
ofthesesources.

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

apart the one fromthe other.16Fortunately for the purpose of this

paper, I have no need to make the attempt,forI am concernedonly
with the life.
The background formedby the court and island empire of Polycrates of Samos is fairlyeasy to reconstruct,and this has been done
admirably by P. N. Ure in the CambridgeAncientHistory.11Many
of the Aegean Islands were under Samian control,and in the capital
itself art, poetry, and engineeringflourished. The principal artists
working here were the celators Theodoros and Rhoikos, sons of
Telekles I, and the son of Rhoikos, Telekles II,18 also Mnesarchos19
and, as we shall see, Pythagoras himself. The poets Ibycus and
Anacreon found a home at the court; and the celebrated engineer
Eupalinos, who constructed the famous tunnel, rediscovered fifty
years ago, and made the great mole round the harbour of Samos.
Demokedes of Croton came fromthe west to become court physician
to Polycrates. Commercial relations with Corinth were well
established.
When Polycrates became master of Samos in 540 b.c., Pythagoras
was probably in his sixties, and had been associated some thirty
years previously with Pherekydes, the Theolog, son of Babys of
Syros, a thinker who taught the doctrine of metempsychosis,or
more correctlypalingenesia, which Pythagoras himself so eagerly
adopted. Yet Pythagoras continued to practise the art of celature
in which he had been broughtup by his father,Mnesarchos,the gemengraver,as appears froma passage in the Life by Diogenes Laertius.
Shortlyafter540 b.c., Pythagoras, obviously still on good termswith
the despot Polycrates, acted as his emissaryto Amasis, Pharaoh of
Egypt. The significantpassages are as follows: "He made himself
three silver goblets, and gave them away to each of the priests in
Egypt. . . . Accordinglyhe went to Egypt at that time when Polycrates gave him a letter of introductionto Amasis ; and he learnt
their (i.e. the Egyptians') language."20 From Egypt he returnedto
16See, however,
F . M. Cornford
thebrilliantaccountby thelate Professor
in G.A.H. iv,pp. 544ff.; also J. Burnet,op. cit.
17Vol. iv,pp. 90 ff.,and in hisOriginofTyranny,
ch. iii.
18Seltman,ApproachtoGreekArt, p. 37.
19But Mnesarchos
and may have beendead
was of the oldergeneration,
before540 b.c.
20Diog. Laert.,viii. 1-3.

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CHARLES SELTMAN
Samos presumably after more than a year's absence- and, failing
to hit it offwith Polycrates, left Samos forMagna Graecia.
The new point which is now raised is that Pythagoras made for
himselfthe silver goblets and was, accordingly,a practisingcelator.
Commentators,later Greek, Roman, and modern, have too often
given an appearance of taking the followingline: "though our hero
was the son of a 'tradesman', and though Greek fathers taught
their sons theirtrade, perhaps Mnesarchosdid not teach Pythagoras
Ms trade" ! Nowadays it will, I think,be admitted that Mnesarchos
as a celator ranked in his own day with the other great ones, like
Theodoros and Rhoikos, and that the professionalcalling of Pythagoras was one held in high honour.21
With care and delighthe himselfmade silver cups, and- like some
- took them as gifts
ancient Keftian of Crete over 900 years before22
to Egypt.
Since this neglectedpassage surelysupportsthe view that Pythagoras practised celature himself,I must recall a paper writtenmany
years ago by Sir William Ridgeway.23 In 1896 he pointed out that
"
combining his knowledge of crystallography,gained from his
father's trade, with that of Egyptian geometry, Pythagoras conceived the world as built up of a series of material bodies imitating
"
geometricsolids".
Quartz-crystalwould give him a perfectpyramid and double pyramid"; iron pyrites "is found in cubes massed
together"; "the dodekahedron is found in nature in the common
garnet"; and the beryl is a cylindrical hexagon. Pythagoras, Sir
William concluded, was a practical engraver who could not help
observingthese and many other natural details in the pursuit of his
art. Further, Pythagoras, according to Aristotle,declared that the
sound of bronze being beaten was the voice of some deity shut up
within it.24 Who but a celator who loved his material would have
made such a remark? Shapes of bronze and silver; crystals in the
hands of a celator: it was Cornfordwho remarkedthat the Pythagorean philosophy,in contrast to the Milesian, was a philosophy of
formas opposed to matter.
21Seltman,op. cit.,and
, pp. 8 if.
Masterpieces
ofGreekCoinage
C.A.H., ii, pp. 275ff.; Bossert,Altkreta,
333-41.
Figs.
16ClassicalReview,1896, 92 ff.
pp.
A. B. Cook,Zeus, ii, p. 649 and references
ad loc.

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

And if Pythagoras was closely concerned with celature as an art

this was bound to affecthis policy and thoughtonce he foundhimself
in a position of unchallengedauthorityin Italy.
It is not known why Pythagoras, travelling west, should have
chosen Croton,rather than Sybaris, Tarentum, Syracuse, or Naxos,
forhis new home. There is, however,the fact that he had in Samos
a friend,Demokedes of Croton,the court physician,who could have
given him lettersof introduction. He sailed round Peloponnese, but
put into the gulfand visited Delphi first,a properprocedureforone
who was to be an oikistes. There is a tradition that while there he
showed some interestin the holy tripod upon which the Pythia sat,
and Apollo himselfmightsit.25
III. Coinage in the Samian Empire
So Pythagoras arrived in Croton about 535 b.c. - say between 537
and 533 b.c. - never to returnto his home in Samos. When he got

therethe citywas probably in a troughof depression,having recently

sustained, at the hands of the Western Locrians, a serious military
defeat on the banks of the river Sagras at Caulonia, a close ally of
Croton.
He came with a great reputation; and his tremendouspersonality
imposed itself almost instantly upon the Crotoniates, to whom he
must have appeared as a veritable emissary of the high gods. He
was now between 70 and 75, but full of energyand evidentlyone of
the greatest and most giftedmen in the.historyof the world. It is
not for me to write about his religio-politicalorganizations,and his
profound discoveries in the realms of acoustics, geometry, and
science. Many problems confrontedhim ; but we, as numismatists,
are at the moment interestedchieflyin the coinage-problemwhich
has been so brilliantlyoutlined by Sutherland and Naster in the
papers already cited.
It has, perhaps,not yet been remarkedthat Pythagoras came from
a countryof few coins to another altogether coinless, and yet perceived that somethingmust be done about it. All round the Aegean
one power after another adopted coinage ; the Kings of Lydia, the

25A. B. Cook,op. cit.,p. 221,quotingPorphyry,

a dubiousauthority.But
55
thevisitto t>elphiis probableon othergrounds.On thetripodsee footnote
below.

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10

CHARLES SELTMAN

merchant-princesof Ionia, Pheidon of Argos, Solon, and later Peisistratos, were concernedwith the issues of coinage ; and the Corinthians,withwhom the Samians were closelyassociated in trade, were
prolificmoneyers. Seventh-centurySamos had had a coinage of a
kind in electrum.26But it is not at present possible to assign more
than one issue of tetrobolsto the island forthe eighteenyears during
which Polycrates ruled.27His thalassocracywas not a rigidorganization, and within it, presumably, coin-using states like Delos and
Chios issued their own money. Samos, it seems, used any metal,
coined or uncoined, gold, electrum, or silver which came into its
market.
In Magna Graecia- far away fromsources of silver- the situation
was quite different.Somehow, as Sutherland has shown, a stock of
silver must be imported,and subsequently so controlledas to discourage its re-exportation. It required a man with experience of
Greek money markets to bring this about, and it also required a
technician.
We may reflectthat a man who will have learnt his father'strade
of gem-engraving,who was the contemporaryin Samos of Rhoikos
and Theodoros, who himself made silver goblets, and who was
thereforeassuredly a topevrrfs,
caelator, celator- what you will-

was preciselythe man to be successfulwith the technical side of this

coinage.
I know that it is a daring thing to claim this coinage- a spontaneous invention- as his personal creation. But I am bound to state
that I have been driven to this view. And, since it was the sponta26E. Babelon,TraiteII, i, pp. 201ff.and Pl. IX.
27 Viz. B.M.C. Ionia, p. 350. 10. The coinsassignedby Babelon,op. cit.,
pp. 281ff.,to thereignofPolycratesare surelylater. As therewerefewlocal
coinshe was in some difficulty
whena SpartanforcebesiegingSamos was
somespecialcoinsoflead,
readyto be boughtoff.He tooktheriskofminting
coatingthemwithgold,and handingthemover (see Hdt. iii. 56). As the
wereSpartans,thetricknaturally
worked.Two oftheselead coins,
besiegers
the giltcoatinggone,may survive:a staterwithan eagle tearinga serpent
(8*37grammes,the rightweightfor Samos, the rightfabricand reverse
punches). It is in Boston; K. Regling,Catal. WarrenColl.,no. 1769. The
second,of identicalfabric,has a lionlookingback (6-56grammes:in Paris,
a bogusMilesianblazon[Pl. I. 1, 2]. Herodotushad fifthpoorpreservation),
aboutthisstory,butsixth-century
century
scepticism
Spartansweregullible.
See also Babelon,loc.cit.,pp. 219ff.Mr.JeanBabeloninforms
me thatthe
leadpiecein Parisis nowina verybad stateofpreservation
andhefearsitwill
notlast verylong.

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

11

neous inventionof a genius, it will be found that in each of the six

- Croton,Caulonia, Metapontum,29
principalgroups28
Sybaris,Taras,30
Poseidonia- the finestcoins are in everyinstancethe earliest,because

they were so difficultto make, and meticulous care had to be exercised in the making of dies, in their adjustment, and in coining.
"A
spontaneous invention . . . evolved without any evolutionary
development:"31well, almost; but perhaps not quite. Within the
historical frameworkwhich I am trying to construct there was a
coinage of a city,in the orbit of the Samian empire,which must have
been known to Pythagoras, and which technically has more claim
than any otherto stand in locoparentisto the spread coins of Magna
Graecia.
The island of Calymna lies fiftymiles to the south of Samos ; and
there are some exceedinglyrare sixth-centurycoins [Pl. II. 2] which
probablybelong to this State. On the obverse is a bearded head, Ares
or a local hero, wearing a crested Corinthianhelmet, eye large and
full. The reverse shows a seven-stringedlyre, made of tortoise-shell
and curved horns, within a neat sunk incuse cut to take the lyre's
shape.32 The standard is peculiar, the two specimens in the British
Museum33weighing 10*51and 10*11grammes [Pl. I. 3, 4]. Dr. Head
remarked34that the coins are on the Lydian silver standard of
Croesus, and this pretty well fixes their issue between c. 560 and
546 b.c.
These coins were succeeded, aftera veryshortinterval,by a second
issue,35which differedfromthe firstin two points of detail. On the
28Apartfromthesesix thereare theimitativecoinsofSirinianPyxus(see
and
a mystery,
piece(witha boar)whichremains
p. 2 above),a uniqueproblem
ofthesix.
a Rhegiancoinwhichis notquitewithintheframework
29I am assumingthatNoe's ClassIII is theearliest; see p. 2, n. 4 andp. 3
above.
30The firstcoinswithApollokneeling,
coinswhich
not the Dolphin-rider
followed.
31S. P. Noe, op. cit.,p. 14.
32The celebratedringof Polycratesmade by JLheodoros
was reputedto
no. 310.
Die antiken
have beenengravedwitha lyre.Overbeck,
Schriftquellen,
33B.M.C. Caria,p. 188,1, 2.
34Loc. cit.,p. lxxxvi. The lyreon the reverseis possiblya canting-type:
- lyre*
(Babrius115,5) = x^vri
xXvfiva
35Represented
by two coins: in Boston,K. Regling,Catal. WarrenOou.,
Catal. no. 1844,fromthe Taranto
no. 1179; and in the JamesonCollection,
Hoard.

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12

CHARLES SELTMAN

bowl of the helmet,above the raised ridge,is a large letter A.36 The
weight is no longer that of the Lydian silver standard, but SamianEuboic, forthe coins weigh 8-49 and 8*68grammes [Pl. I. 5, 6]. This
standard had been employed in Samos forelectrumcoins minted in
the seventh centuryb.c., and may, since the coin is certainlyEast
Greek,be regardeddefinitelyas a Samian standard. A cogentreason
for regarding these coins with the helmeted head and the sevenstringed lyre as being struck within the region of south-western
Asia Minor, is the fact that their die-positions are in every case
regular jf . And lng ag> Sir George Macdonald pointed out that
this part of the world was "the original home of the mechanical
device to whose existence precision of adjustment testifies. In the
coinages of places like Cnidus, Samos, Calymna, and Carpathos,
irregularityis virtuallyunknown. There the dies seem to have been
fixedfromthe seventh or sixth centuriesb.c. onwards."37
In any event, Pythagoras, when living in Samos, must have seen
such coins; and for Asia Minor they are very queer coins indeed.
This pop-eyed,big-nosedgod (or hero) is elder brotherto a Peisistratid Athene of about 540 to 530 b.c. [Pl. II. I],38and I have recently
given reasons formy beliefthat the firstAtheniantetradrachmswere
struck in 566 b.c.39 They were, in any case, the first" two-type"
coins in the world. Ravel puts the firstCorinthian "two-type"
coins shortly afterwards,about 549 b.c.40 Croesus, whose new bimetallismtook a little while to develop, had his silver in circulation
by about 560 b.c. : it ceased with his downfallin 546 b.c.
Into this frameworkwe can now fitthe "Calymna" coins and they
36I do not fora momentbelievethatthe A is the middleletterof
KAA,
as Greenwell
and Reglingthought,
forthe A is fartoo conspicuous
and must
labelthewearerofthehelmet.But whois he ? Ares,Ankaios,Achilles,
Ajax ?
For thestylecomparearmedheroesby theAmasispainterin Athens,c. 550
to 535 b.c.
37CorollaNumis. 1906, 180. Mr.E. S. G. Robinson
p.
pointsoutto methat
thisis nottruefortheearliest
issuesofCniduswherethediesareon thewhole
irregular.
38In theHague: Seltman,Athens
, Hist. & Coinage
, no. 250,Pl. XI, A165,
P202. In thatworkI setthecointoolatebecauseI had onlya poorcastofit.
NowthatI havehad an opportunity
ofseeingthecoinitselfand havereceived
an excellentdirectphotograph
fromMr.H. Enno van Gelder,I prefer
a date
about 540 to 530 b.c. forit.
39Num.Chron.1946, 97 if.
pp.
O. Ravel,Les Poulainsde Corinthe,
1936,p. 57. Somescholarsthinkthis
date rathertoo early.

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

13
"
drop into place neatly- somewhatlater than the earliest two-type"
coins of Athens- and having two issues ; one of Lydian weightbefore
the disappearance of the Croesean silver-standard,the other Samian
in weight.
What is, however,remarkableis the fact that they are by far the
earliest East Greek " two-type" coins, that they are thin, that they
are from fixed dies, and that they have a reverse which is both
spacious and- aftera fashion- incuse. Accordingly,it may be that
when Pythagoras travelled west, and when he became the creatoror
inventor of the Italiote coinage, he had the memory of one very
peculiar Eastern coinage to influencehis ideas.
IV. Croton and the Rest
In each of the six principal groups of Italiote coins the finestare,
as already stated, the earliest. Yet, within the small group of the
"earliest-finest"there is one lot which forpure design and technical
perfectionsurpasses all the others- the widespread first coins of
Croton [PL III. 1, 2].41
On these dies the artistis tellingyou about his own art- the celator
is illustratingcelature. In his youth he too had made tripods of
bronze exactly like the great tripod of Croton, and he knew- with
the knowledge of an expert- how they were put together. The
4
principledescribed by Sutherland42that 'thin sheets of metal, when
traversed by pressure-mouldedridges which are correspondinglyindented on the under-surface,are remarkablyproof against bending
or buckling"- this principle,which gave strengthto the thin coindisks, was an engineeringprinciple already applied to the long legs
of bronze tripods. They have the finestructureof angle-girdersand
the same kind of strength.43
41B.M.C. Italy, p. 342. 1, snakesin the cauldron;de LuynesCatal. (Bib.
Nat., Paris),PI. 25. 702,snakesamongthefeet.
7 above.
42See footnote
43Later tripodsappear to have requiredthe reinforcement
o horizontal
rings;e.g. de LuynesCatal.,Croton,Pl. 26. 713, 715-24; Syracuse,Pl. 46.
1265-8; and at Abdera,Seltman,GreekCoins,PI. 28. 12; Thebes,ibid.,
Pl. 53. 2 ; Philippi,ibid.,Pl. 46. 6, 7. Fromthisonemustassumethatpressureand castingofthelegsand feethad beenabandonedin favourofan
moulding
is seenin paintingsof tripodson
inferior
technique.The samephenomenon
vases: e.g.on theFranoisvase (Furtwngler
Reichhold,Pl. 1), tripodsas on
the coin; on a vase by the BerlinPainter,c. 490 b.c. (J. D. Beazley,Der

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14

CHARLES SELTMAN

The two pairs of dies illustratedon Plate III were apparently the
first,or among the veryfirst,made forCroton,and probably antedate
all other coins of Magna Graecia.44 They seem also to differin one
important detail from the rest; for the three letters ?Po upon
them have been hammered into the die with punches of the shapes
O, I, >, exactly like the lettershammeredinto the side of the famous
45 The letters on coins of Caulonia,
gold Cypselid bowl in Boston
Metapontum,and othercitieslook as thoughtheyhad been engraved,
rather than punched with little " shapes" such as belonged to the
normal outfitof a celator.
I do not feel sure which came next, but thinkit was eitherdies for
Caulonia or forMetapontum;46nor am I suggestingthat Pythagoras
himselfmade these. Yet the possibilitymust not be excluded since
he did not have to go to those cities in order to make them dies. It
is more probable that he had efficientapprentices even within his
own family. When you imagine a picture of Pythagoras migrating
fromSamos to Croton,do not visualize the lone traveller,the sad old
man, leaning over the stern of some sixth-centurygalley until the
cliffsof Samos drop below the horizon. The truth,I think, can be
betterimaginedin the picture of a small clan migration; two, three,
or more ships, the patriarch in command, wife, sons, daughters-inlaw, daughters, grand-children,servants, crew, domestic animals,
and chattels. Long afterthis Apollonius the Arithmeticianstated47
that when Pythagoras had discoveredthat the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angledtriangle is equal to the squares of the sides
containing the right angle, he sacrificeda hundred oxen. Here is
hyperbole! But Apollonius thought of Pythagoras as within the
income-groupof those who could affordextravagant religiousobservances. Such an impact as all this on Croton, and presentlyon the
other cities, did produce results when you rememberthat the old
Berliner
horizontal
Maler,Pl. 25), reinforcing
rings.The longand important
articleon tripodsby MissSilviaBenton,B.S.A. xxxv,pp. 74 ff.,is concerned
almostentirely
withtripodsmadebefore700b.c.
44Except,of course,the "Phocaean" coins,c. 540 b.c., of purelyAsiatic
Ionianstylemintedin Velia,cf.Seltman,GreekCoins, pp. 79 f.
45Seltman,Approachto GreekArt,PI. 206; and C.A.H. Plates,i, 274.
p.
In SyllogeNummorum,
R. C. LockettColl.,nos.596,597,598,theuse oflittle
"shapes" formakingletterson thediesis veryclear.
46Noe's ClassIII ; nothis ClassI: see footnote
4 above.
47Diog. Laert.viii. 11.

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

15

man himselfwas an artist, an economist,a musician, a mathematician, a linguist, a man of science, a statesman, and a profound
thinker. It is no wonder that he and his were quickly able to found
the celebrated Pythagorean Brotherhoods in a number of Italiote
cities. He could win the affectionsof his followersto an unusual
degree by teaching them a "way of life".48
An attempt to establish a possible sequence forthe initial issues of
incuse coins in these cities may be made. If Croton was the first,
about 535 to 534 b.c., Metapontum and Caulonia could be second
and third, bearing in mind for the latter that the type is not an
engraver's idea of Apollo, but his memory-pictureof an actual cultstatue of the god. Just before530 b.c., perhaps,came the firstcoins of
Sybaris, closely followedby those of Pyxus,49and soon afterthat the
so-called "unofficial imitations" of Metapontines.50 The Sybarite
colony of Poseidonia may have started coiningnear 520 b.c., and on
these again the pictureis that of a cult-statue. By 510 b.c., in which
year Sybaris was destroyed,flans tended to become a little smaller,
and Croton broughtout a set of "victory" coins recordingtriumphs
over Sybaris, Pandosia, and Temesa. It was, apparently, precisely
at this timethat fourotherstates became coin-issuers; Tarentum,the
enigmaticPal. . . . , Rhegium,51and Zankle. The firstTarentineis the
coin with the kneeling Apollo, lyre in hand, for type ; and he may
profitablybe compared with a kneelingHerakles engraved on a sard
scarab,52dated, on other grounds, to about 510 b.c. Last of all,
shortlybefore 500 b.c., came the coins of Sybarite Laos with their
clumsily designed man-headed bull. Afterthis a general shrinking
and thickeningof flanstook place in all the Italiote cities.53
48J. Burnet,EarlyGreekPhilosophy,
1930,p. 85.
49See pp. 2-3 above.
60See p. 3 above; ratherissuesfroma separatemint.
51For Rhegiumsee E. S. G. Robinsonin J.H.S, 66, 1946,p. 18. Pal ....
Mol .... perhapsno longeran enigma,(i) Recentexcavations(graveswith
westofPyxus,
c. 530-20b.c.) at Palinurus,
Atticand Ionianpottery
imported
areevidencefora townbigenoughtohavemintedthePal .... Mol.... coins;
ofAeneasanddrowned
helmsman
A.J.A. Iii,1948,p. 510. (ii) Was Palinurus,
? The
offthe Palinuriancape, a kind of doubletof Palaimon(Melicertes)
fellintothesea fromtheMolurianrocknearMegara.
latter,withhismother,
Was thereperhapsa Molurianrockat Palinurustown? Both dead heroes
cult.
werewashedup and becametheobjectsofunderground
52Seltman,ApproachtoGreekArt, PI. 51a.
53It seemsimportant
to lookat Plateswherethesecoinsappearin quanti-

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16

CHARLES SELTMAN

Hitherto some of us have felt it probable that some connexion

may have existed between the theological-philosophicalorganization
of the Pythagorean communitiesand the queer coins currentin the
hey-day of the brotherhoodsand in several of their controlledcities.
Types, borders,and a peculiar incuse fabric have seemed to contain
possible allusions. We, the romantics to whom I referredat the
beginningof this paper, always felt there could be some link. The
coins are so very mathematical- even arithmetical- in form and,
as Burnet has remarked,54"we sometimesfeel tempted to say that
Pythagoras had really hit upon the secret of the world when he said,
'things are numbers'".
At any rate, stimulated by Naster's and Sutherland's views about
the technique and the economics of this coinage, I have decided to
put forththe startlingview that the very firstof these superb coins
- may have been the personal creation of
- the early Crotoniates55
the great celator-philosopherhimself,even though this may evoke
that most opprobriousof all words which can be aimed at a scholar;
"ingenious".
The death of Pythagoras at Metapontum is usually placed about
509 b.c. The sage, who had seemed god-givento the people of Croton
in 535, had left their city after exercisingpower for twentyyears.56
oftypesand sequences.One ofthemost
tiesin orderto obtaina conspectus
usefulsourcesis E. Babelon,Trait, Pis. 65-71; also JeanBabelon,de Luynes
Catal.,Pis. 19, 20, 25, 26; also the relevantPlates in SyllogeNummorum,
LockettCollection,
&c.
LloydCollection,
54Op. cit.,p. 112,note 1.
65Symbolically
mostimportant,
thetripodis,forPythagoras,
foritsassociaevenmusicalsoundtionis withApollo,Delos, Delphi,celature,numbers,
all thatmatteredmostto him. AlsonotethatAndronofEphesus(4thcent.
about a tripodawardedto and held fora
b.c.) wrotea book called Tpnovs
timebytheSevenSagesin rotation.Thaes,firstholder,passedit to another,
and it wenttheroundstillit camebackto Thaeswhothendepositedit with
enliventhestory,butthetextofDiog. Laert.
Apolloat Delphi. Plausibilities
(i. 7 ff.)is befuddledwithtwootherstoriesabouta phialeand a goblet. One
the teacherof Pythagoras.
of the Seven Sages in one list was Pherekydes,
I suspectthat ''Tripod-holding"
was a kindof hall-mark
ofa sixth-century
" seven-rota
sage. Pythagoraswas too youngto have heldit in theoriginal
4
tion"; buthe (orhisdisciplesforhim)musthavelaid claimto 'sage-status".
- assumingit to be his?
Is thisa further
reasonfortheCrotoniate
tripod
66Diog. Laert.viii. 25, at the end of the Life,mentionssomeothermen
namedPythagoras,
whom
KpoTcovarrjs,
rvpawLKs
vdpcjTTos,
amongthemels fiv
I suspectto be stillthegreatPythagoras.On Pythagoras
II see theexcursus
at theend ofthispaper.

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

17

Are we to thinkthat one who must have combined the giftsand the
energy of Leonardo da Vinci, Mr. Gladstone, and General Booth,
was gettinga little tiresomeat the age of 93 ?
*

Finally, one may summarize the conclusions of certain numismatists about the coins themselves,and then the literaryevidence for
the work of Pythagoras as a celator.
(a) Noe : "A spontaneous invention . . . evolved without any
"
evolutionary development. This is nearly true, though I
have observed a forerunnerof c. 548 b.c. in the coinage of
"Calymna" which lay withinthe thalassocracy of Samos.
"
(b) Sutherland: "bold and arrestingfabric"; effectsof unusual
"
special fabric peculiar to South Italy"; excepbeauty";
"
tionally careful and difficultproduction; pressure-moulded
ridges" giving immense strength;these coins, unfamiliarelsewhere,were specially designed to discourage their export. In
otherwords they were the creation of a technical and financial
genius.
(c) Naster: a marked kinshipwith cire-perduetechnique, since the
reverse-diein cameo equals the core of a hollow-cast bronze,
while the intaglio obverse-die equals the mantle of a hollowcast bronze. But this seems to have been introduced by
Rhoikos and Theodoros, contemporaries of Pythagoras in
Samos. Naster, therefore,maintains that the coins are the
"
"
work of a Samian- a toreuticienmigr who accompanied
"
Pythagoras in 535 b.c. and he calls him a praticien de
gnie".57
And now the literary evidence for the work of Pythagoras as a
celator:
(i) He was son of Mnesarchos,a ring-and gem-engraver.
(ii) He himselfmade three silver cups to take to Egypt.
(iii) Combininghis trade-knowledgeof crystalswithEgyptian geometry,he conceived a world built of solids.
67But is thisnotliketheexamineewhowrote: " It has beenshownthatthe
Homericepicswerenotwritten
by Homer,but by anotherman ofthesame
name" ?
C
VI.IX.1-2

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18

CHARLES SELTMAN
(iv) To this one may add a fourthconsiderationfoundedon a kind
of epitaph written about Pythagoras by a philosopher, an
ex-Pythagorean, of the followinggeneration,Empedocles of
Akragas :58
And therewas amongthema man of rare knowledgewho had
won the utmostwealth of understanding,
and was masterof all
mannerofskilledwork(" der mannigfacher
Knstemchtigwar
as Diels translates);59forwhensoeverhe strainedwithall hiswits
he easilysaw everything
of all the thingsthat are, in ten,even in
twentylifetimesof men.

Here is a concise appreciation by an author, nearer to him in time

even than Herodotus, who refersto his wealth of ideas, his skill in
fine art, and the vastness of his knowledge.
It seems a little difficultto argue against the contention that
Pythagoras was a practical artist.
Charles Seltman

Some of my friendshave helped with apposite suggestions and

criticisms; especially Jacqueline Chittenden,A. B. Cook, and E. S. G.
Robinson. I wish to thank Mr. Robinson, Mr. Jean Babelon, and
Miss Edith Marshall for sending casts, and John Seltman for some
statisticalwork on my behalf. This articlewas read as a paper to the
OxfordPhilological Society in June 1949.
A date chart forthe life of Pythagoras may be helpful. It begins
with the probable date of his association with Pherekydes. Nothing
earlier is known save the date of his birth in 608 b.c. Brchner,in
Pauly Wissowa, R.E . n. i. 2214, suggests 594 b.c. as an alternative
date forhis birth,but with a query.
58I quotethe besttext; H. Diels,Die Fragmente
derVorsokratiker
, ed. 3,
vol. i (1912),p. 272; Empedocles,Frag. 129:
84TL
KLVOLGLV
s V
l8u>S
rV
,
QLVTjp
7TpLO)Oia
OS8t)JLTKLarOV
TtXoVTOV
7Tpa7T8(X)V
KTTjGCLTO
TTCLVTOLOiV
TflXiOTCL
00<f>JV
7Tl7]paVOS
CpyCJV
7T7TT
ypTrorjMJLV
operano
irpairfeaaLV,
ovtcjv
nvrojv
evooeoKev
ckclotov
peo yercv
Kaire8kvOpco
ttcdv
Kait clkooiv
aicveooiv.
59J. Burnet,loc.cit.,p. 224,translatesless
in an
epyv
accurately.Zo</>v
contextmustmean"of skilledworks",e.g.likea celator's
earlyfifth-century
works.Ion ofChios(c. 450b.c.),an admirer
ofPythagoras,
echoedthephrase
in an elegiacfragment
; Eleg.i. 15.

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

19

All the dates in this chart are approximate.

B.C.
570. Pherekydes
of Syrosflor.Pythagoras,aged c. 38 (or 24), his pupil.
566. Peisistratos.First"two-type"coins.
564. CroesussucceededAlyattes,kingofLydia.
560. Croeseansilverstandardintroduced.
558. Pythagoras50 (or 36) yearsold.
550. ThreeItaliotecitiesdestroyedSiris.
549. Corinthbegan"two-type"coins.
548. "Calymna"first"two-type"coinsin East; Lydianweight,
TheodorosworkedforCroesus.
546. End ofLydianEmpire.
544. "Calymna"secondissue; Samian-Euboicweight.
540. PolycratestyrantofSamos.
Phoceansilvercoinsin Velia.
538. Pythagoraswentto Amasisin Egypt.
fromEgypt.
536. Pythagorasreturned
c.
73
535. Pythagoras,
(or 59), leftSamosforCroton.
aged
Croton; firstcoins.
Caulonia; firstcoins.
Metapontum,
Sybaris; firstcoins.
530. SirinianPyxus; firstcoins.
coingroups.
OtherMetapontine
525. Spartansboughtoffwithgilt-leadcoins.
522. Death ofPolycrates.
520. Poseidonia; firstcoins,
518. Pythagorasaged 90 (or 76).
515. Pythagorasperhapsmovedto Metapontum.
510. Sybarisdestroyed.Tarentum,Pal., Rhegium,Zankle; coins.
509. Pythagoras,aged 99 (or 85), died at Metapontum.
EXCURSUS

ON PYTHAGORAS

II

For the sake of symmetryit is worth consideringPythagoras II,

commonlycalled Pythagoras of Rhegium, who, as Mr. G. K. Jenkins
reminds me, may have been related to the great Pythagoras I. A
dergriech.
similarview was long ago mooted by H. Brunn (Geschichte
Knstler, i, p. 116). Mnesarchos I was a gem- and ring-engraver
; his
bronze-worker
and
a
I
the
; he
Great, gem-, silver-,
son, Pythagoras
had a son named Mnesarchos II who should have called a son of his
, celature. PythagoPythagoras. The familyprofessionwas ropevriK-q
ras II, one ofthe mostfamousGreekartists,was a celator. He worked
only in bronze; no marble statue of his has been recorded: he was an

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20

CHARLES SELTMAN

not a Xidovpys. Pythagoras II is almost always

vSpiavTOTTOLs,
described as "of Rhegium", but once on a statue base discovered at
Olympia he set Saynos afterhis name (Olympia v, Inschr. 144). For
this reason moderncriticshave suggestedthat he could have migrated
to Rhegium in the company of otherSamians alleged to have arrived
there in 493 b.c. This supposition, anyhow, raised a difficulty
; for
anothertradition(Pausanias, vi. 4. 4) maintainedthat Pythagoras II
was taught by Klearchos of Rhegium, and this same Klearchos was
one of the numerouspupils of Dipoinos and Skyllis (Paus. iii. 17. 6)
who were active mainlyin Peloponnesus c. 550 b.c. Accordingly,the
floruitof Klearchos should be c. 525 b.c. Now, if Pythagoras II had
only arrived in Rhegium in 493 b.c. and had instantly become
apprenticed this would have occurred very late in the life of Klearchos. However, we may now abandon the migration from Samos
theoryaltogether,forMr. Robinson has proved conclusivelythat the
Samians never went to Rhegium at all! (see J.H.8. lxvi, 1946, pp. 13
ff.). They went to Zankle. Anaxilas of Rhegium turnedthem out of
Zankle and took it over himselfabout 489 b.c.
If we were to assume that Pythagoras II was born about 525 b.c.
and in Croton; then, after the death in 509 b.c. of his grandfather,
Pythagoras I, he, at the age of about 16 mighthave gone to Rhegium
and been apprenticedto Klearchos. On this assumption Pythagoras
II would have been over 35 when he made a bronze statue of Astylos
ofCrotonin 488b.c. (Paus. vi. 13. 1), over 50whenhe made in 472b. c.a
portraitstatue of Euthymos of Italiote Locri (Paus. vi. 6. 4-6), over
60 when he made figuresof Leontiskos of Messina and of Mnaseas of
Cyrene (Paus. vi. 4. 3, and vi. 13. 7). His last work,a chariot-group
for Kratisthenes of Cyrene dated to 448 b.c. would have been
achieved in his seventies. That he signed Sbios on the base of the
portrait statue of Euthymos in 472 b.c. would be evidence of his
pride in his father's and grandfather'sland of origin. And indeed,
Pythagoras II, who was a celator,had good reason to be proud of the
Samian art traditionof his own familyand of otherslike Theodoros,
Rhoikos, and Telekles.
Two criticismsof the style of Pythagoras II can be traced back to
Xenocrates, a bronze sculptor and writerof the Lysippean School;
they have thereforesome value. Realism combined with rhythm
and proportion were attributed to him. When an athlete gained

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS

21

threevictories at Olympia it was the custom to set up a portrait

statue of him, but Pliny (N.H. 34. 16) does not state how early this
custom began. Pythagoras II made in 472 b.c. a statue of Euthymos
after his thirdvictory,possibly, therefore,a kind of portraitstatue ;
but we cannot know how realistic, though realism was ascribed to
Pythagoras II. If he had this gift it is conceivable that he could
have made frommemorya quasi-realisticportraitof his grandfather,
Pythagoras I. Such a portraitseems to have been known as early as
c. 440 b.c., for it was copied by an Abderite die-engraverfor the
reverseof a tetradrachmissued by a magistratenamed "Pythagors "
(Seltman, GreekCoins, pp. 143 f. and PI. 28. 11), and this in a city
where the memoryof Pythagoras I was held in reverence. Yet we
"
cannot know whetherthis portrait" gives anythinglike a faithful
record of his features.
(For ancient texts on Pythagoras II see J. Overbeck, Antilce
nos. 490-507 ; H. Stuart Jones, Select Passages Greek
Schriftquellen,
London
1895, nos. 72-7: modem discussions, H. Lechat,
Sculpt.,
Pythagorasde Rhgion,Lyon 1905 ; A. W. Lawrence, Classical Sculpture, 1929, pp. 164 f. ; G. M. A. Richter,Sculptureand Sculptorsof the
Greeks, 1929, pp. 151 f.)
O.S.

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NUM.CHRON.,SER. VI, VOL. IX, PL. I

THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS 1

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NUM.CHRON.,SER. VI, VOL. IX, PL. II

THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS 2

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NUM.CHRON.,SER. VI, VOL. IX, PL. Ill

THE FIRST ITALIOTE COINS 3

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