Greek city of Hermocapelia in Lydia
Bronze 17mm (3.29 grams) struck during the
time of Hadrian circa 117-138 A.D.
Reference: Sear GIC 5019/ B.M.C. 22.99,7
ΙЄPA CYNKΛHΤOC,
Draped bust of the Roman senate right.
ЄΡΜΟΚΑΠΗΛΙΤΩΝ, Turreted and draped bust of Roma
right.
Hermocapelia. This town is identified with the modern
Geukche-keui on the north side of the Hyrcanian plain, a few miles
south-west of Apollonis.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
In
traditional Roman religion
, Roma was a female
deity
who
personified the city of Rome
and more broadly, the Roman state. Her image appears on the base of the
column of Antoninus Pius
. Roma, formerly queen of almost the whole
earth. Horace (L. iv. od. 3) calls her the prince of cities; and according to
Martial (L. xii. epig. 8) she is terrarum dea gentiumque.
Roman Senate
One of the most personifications represented emissions autonomous provincial
Roman is that of the Roman Senate , widely present emissions of Lydia and
Phrygia , in general, much of Asia Minor (Table 9a- c ) .
The reason may be found in the fact that the province of Asia was under the
control of the Senate, but this conclusion clashes with the evidence that the
Senate has never shown instead in the emissions of other provinces Senators,
such as Bithynia .
Emissions autonomous province with the Senate of Rome covering virtually the
whole of the period from Tiberius to Philip I, with a maximum in the period of
the Antonines and the Severi .
Coinage in the iconography of imperial Rome , the Senate appears robed , with a
beard as a sign of maturity , the scepter as a sign of power and sometimes with
an olive branch .
It is often portrayed in the presence of the imperial figure , ie the emperor
shaking hands as a sign of harmony or only hope for such a harmony between the
parties, as it appears on a sestertius of Commodus RIC III 549 , a similar scene
is found on a
sestertius of Hadrian RIC II 968, but here also appears the figure of Rome
holding her hands on those imperial and Senate that huddle .
On a golden age of Trajan takes on a quasi-religious while sacrificing on an
altar in front of the Genius of the Roman People (RIC 374).
E ‘ instead of a lone Caracalla Antoninianus RIC 246 and a golden Commodus RIC
157a .
The inscription Genivs SENATVS confirms that the embodiment in question is
precisely that of the Roman Senate .
In contrast to what was seen for the imperial emissions , the Senate of Rome
autonomous provincial emissions is depicted with a portrait male youth with
medium length hair type Genio Populi Romani or Bonus Eventus , sometimes the
picture is instead purely feminine and l ‘
hairstyle becomes similar to that of Plotina , wife of Trajan, or that of
Longina Domitia , wife of Domitian as it appears on the issues of mint Apollonis
in Lydia (fig. 14).
The
legends that accompany
the portrait in emissions
are almost independent
of the provincial
type CYNKΛHTOC,
ΣYNKΛHTOC, IERA
CYNKΛHTOC, ΘEON
CYNKΛHTON, ΣYNKΛHTON
or ΘEON
CYNKΛHTOY and leave no doubt
on the identification. The appeal
is therefore the
authority of Rome through
his organ very
representative, who
takes on a sacred
(IEPA) or divine
(ΘEON). As mentioned above,
the period Flavio
brand the passage
from the use of ΘEOΣ
to IEPA.
A large bronze
issued to
Mallus in Cilicia (BMC
30, Levante 1286)
portrays the personification
with head
veiled in conjunction
enrollment SACRED SINATVS
(fig. 15).
In this case, even though the
Senate is in
the masculine gender, the
personification is typically
feminine boulh in
greek is in fact
female and perhaps
the engraver of this type
did not know Latin well
(considering also
the obvious corruption of
SENATVS in
SINATVS) and has remade
the genre greek.
A similar issue
shows instead
the legend
SACER SENATVS (Ovens
n. 537).
How
to interpret the presence of
this representation emission
greek imperial is not easy.
It is probably limited to
believe that confirmation of the
subjection of the Greek cities
in Rome were
confirmed by the presence of a
call to the Senate, since over
time the importance of the
same was gradually decreasing,
while his cult in the provinces
remained almost unchanged.
It should not be forgotten that
the Roman Senate assumes
emissions pseudo
autonomous on a religious
or divine, or
IEPA ΘEON
(the Senate is the only cult
that was called both divine
and sacred), and this probably
has nothing to do with the
control politician
of the provinces. “The
deification and the consecration of
the Roman Senate are a product
of the school of thought of
the Eastern world, who wants to be
surrounded by a halo and
be the object of worship
every manifestation of human power,
as this is considered
emanation of divine power”
(Forni, 1954).
Lydia (Assyrian:
Luddu;
Turkish
: Lidya)
was an Iron Age
kingdom of western
Asia Minor
located generally east of ancient
Ionia
in the modern western
Turkish
provinces of
Uşak
,
Manisa
and inland
İzmir
. Its population spoke an
Anatolian language
known as
Lydian
.
At its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia covered all of western
Anatolia
. Lydia (known as Sparda by the
Achaemenids) was a satrapy
(province) of the Achaemenid
Persian Empire
, with
Sardis
as its capital.
Tabalus
, appointed by
Cyrus the Great
, was the first satrap
(governor). (See:
Lydia (satrapy)
).
Lydia was later the name of a
Roman province
.
Coins are said to have been invented in Lydia around the 7th century
BC.
Defining Lydia
The
endonym
Śfard (the name the Lydians
called themselves) survives in bilingual and trilingual stone-carved notices of
the
Achaemenid Empire
: the
satrapy
of Sparda (Old
Persian),
Aramaic
Saparda,
Babylonian
Sapardu,
Elamitic
Išbarda. These in the Greek
tradition are associated with
Sardis
, the capital city of King
Gyges
, constructed during the 7th century BC.
The cultural ancestors appear to have been associated with or part of the
Luwian
political entity of
Arzawa
; yet the Lydian language is not part of
the Luwian subgroup (as is
Carian
and
Lycian
).
An Etruscan/Lydian association has long been a subject of conjecture. The
Greek historian
Herodotus
stated that the Etruscans came from
Lydia, repeated in Virgil
‘s epic poem the
Aeneid
, and Etruscan-like language was
found on the
Lemnos stele
from the Aegean Sea island of
Lemnos. However, recent decipherment of
Lydian
and its classification as an Anatolian
language mean that Etruscan and Lydian were not even part of the same language
family. Nevertheless, a recent genetic study of likely Etruscan descendants in
Tuscany found strong similarities with individuals in western Anatolia.
Geography
The boundaries of historical Lydia varied across the centuries. It was
bounded first by Mysia
,
Caria
,
Phrygia
and coastal
Ionia
. Later, the military power of
Alyattes II
and
Croesus
expanded Lydia, which, with its capital
at Sardis, controlled all Asia Minor west of the River Halys, except
Lycia
. Lydia never again shrank back into its
original dimensions. After the Persian conquest the River
Maeander
was regarded as its southern boundary,
and during imperial Roman times Lydia comprised the country between Mysia and
Caria on the one side and Phrygia and the
Aegean Sea
on the other.
Language
The
Lydian language
was an
Indo-European language
in the
Anatolian language family
, related to
Luwian
and
Hittite
. It used many
prefixes
and
grammatical particles
. Lydian finally became
extinct
during the 1st century BC.
History
Early
history: Maeonia and Lydia
Lydia developed as a
Neo-Hittite
kingdom after the collapse of the
Hittite Empire
in the 12th century BC. In
Hittite times, the name for the region had been
Arzawa
; it was a Luwian-speaking area.
According to Greek source, the original name of the Lydian kingdom was
Maionia (Μαιονία), or Maeonia:
Homer
(Iliad
ii. 865; v. 43, xi. 431) refers to the inhabitants of Lydia as Maiones (Μαίονες).
Homer describes their capital not as Sardis but as Hyde (Iliad xx.
385); Hyde may have been the name of the district in which Sardis was located.
Later, Herodotus
(Histories
i. 7) adds that the “Meiones” were renamed Lydians after their king
Lydus
(Λυδός), son of
Atys
, during the mythical epoch that preceded
the Heracleid dynasty. This
etiological
eponym
served to account for the
Greek
ethnic name Lydoi (Λυδοί). The
Hebrew
term for Lydians, , as found in the
Book of Jeremiah
(46.9), has been similarly
considered, beginning with
Flavius Josephus
, to be derived from
Lud son of Shem
; however
Hippolytus of Rome
(AD 234) offered an
alternative opinion that the Lydians were descended from Ludim, son of
Mizraim
. During Biblical times, the Lydian
warriors were famous archers. Some Maeones still existed during historical times
in the upland interior along the
River Hermus
, where a town named Maeonia
existed, according to
Pliny the Elder
(Natural History book
v:30) and
Hierocles
(author of Synecdemus).
Lydia in Greek
mythology
Lydian mythology is virtually unknown, and their literature and rituals lost,
in the absence of any monuments or archaeological finds with extensive
inscriptions; therefore myths involving Lydia are mainly from
Greek mythology
.
For the Greeks,
Tantalus
was a primordial ruler of mythic
Lydia, and Niobe
his proud daughter; her husband
Zethos
associated Lydia with
Thebes
in Greece, and through
Pelops
the line of Tantalus was part of the
founding myths
of
Mycenae
‘s second dynasty. (In reference to the
myth of Bellerophon
, Karl Kerenyi remarked, in The
Heroes of The Greeks 1959, p. 83. “As
Lykia
was thus connected with
Crete
, and as the person of
Pelops
, the hero of Olympia, connected Lydia
with the Peloponnesos, so Bellerophontes connected another Asian country, or
rather two, Lykia and Karia
, with the kingdom of
Argos
“.)
In Greek myth, Lydia was also the origin-place of the double-axe, the
labrys
.
Omphale
, daughter of the river Iardanos, was a
ruler of Lydia, whom
Heracles
was required to serve for a time. His
adventures in Lydia are the adventures of a Greek hero in a peripheral and
foreign land: during his stay, Heracles enslaved the Itones, killed Syleus who
forced passers-by to hoe his vineyard; slew the
serpent
of the river Sangarios (which appears
in the heavens as the constellation
Ophiucus
) and captured the simian
tricksters, the Cercopes
. Accounts tell of at least one son
born to Omphale and Heracles:
Diodorus Siculus
(4.31.8) and
Ovid (Heroides 9.54) mention a son Lamos, while pseudo-Apollodorus
(Bibliotheke
2.7.8) gives the name Agelaus, and
Pausanias
(2.21.3) names Tyrsenus son of
Heracles by “the Lydian woman.”
All three heroic ancestors indicate a Lydian dynasty claiming Heracles as
their ancestor. Herodotus (1.7) refers to a Heraclid dynasty of kings who ruled
Lydia, yet were perhaps not descended from Omphale. He also mentions (1.94) the
recurring legend that the
Etruscan civilization
was founded by colonists
from Lydia led by
Tyrrhenus
, brother of Lydus. However,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
was skeptical of
this story, indicating that the
Etruscan language
and customs were known to be
totally dissimilar to those of the Lydians. Later chronographers also ignored
Herodotus’s statement that
Agron
was the first to be a king, and included
Alcaeus
,
Belus
, and
Ninus
in their list of kings of Lydia. Strabo
(5.2.2) makes Atys, father of Lydus and Tyrrhenus, to be a descendant of
Heracles and Omphale. All other accounts name Atys, Lydus, and Tyrrhenus as
being among the pre-Heraclid kings of Lydia. The gold deposits in the river
Pactolus
that were the source of the proverbial
wealth of Croesus
(Lydia’s last king) were said to have
been left there when the legendary king
Midas
of
Phrygia
washed away the “Midas touch” in its
waters. In Euripides’ tragedy The Bacchae, Dionysus declares his country to be
Lydia.
First coinage
Early 6th-century BC one-third stater coin
According to
Herodotus
, the Lydians were the first people to
use gold and silver coins
and the first to establish retail shops
in permanent locations. It is not known, however, whether Herodotus meant that
the Lydians were the first to use coins of pure gold and pure silver or the
first precious metal coins in general. Despite this ambiguity, this statement of
Herodotus is one of the pieces of evidence often cited in behalf of the argument
that Lydians invented coinage, at least in the West, even though the first coins
were neither gold nor silver but an alloy of the two.
The dating of these first stamped coins is one of the most frequently debated
topics of ancient numismatics, with dates ranging from 700 BC to 550 BC, but the
most common opinion is that they were minted at or near the beginning of the
reign of King Alyattes (sometimes referred to incorrectly as
Alyattes II
), who ruled Lydia c. 610-550 BC.
The first coins were made of
electrum
, an
alloy
of gold and silver that occurs naturally
but that was further debased by the Lydians with added silver and copper.
The largest of these coins are commonly referred to as a 1/3
stater
(trite) denomination, weighing
around 4.7 grams, though no full staters of this type have ever been found, and
the 1/3 stater probably should be referred to more correctly as a stater, after
a type of a transversely held scale, the weights used in such a scale (from
ancient Greek ίστημι=to stand), which also means “standard.” These coins were
stamped with a lion’s head adorned with what is likely a sunburst, which was the
king’s symbol. To complement the largest denomination, fractions were made,
including a hekte (sixth), hemihekte (twelfth), and so forth down
to a 96th, with the 1/96 stater weighing only about 0.15 grams. There is
disagreement, however, over whether the fractions below the twelfth are actually
Lydian.
Alyattes’ son was Croesus, who became associated with great wealth. Sardis
was renowned as a beautiful city. Around 550 BC, near the beginning of his
reign, Croesus paid for the construction of the
temple
of
Artemis
at
Ephesus
, which became one of the
Seven Wonders of the ancient world
. Croesus was
defeated in battle by
Cyrus II
of Persia
in 546 BC, with the Lydian kingdom
losing its autonomy and becoming a Persian
satrapy
.
Autochthonous
Dynasties
Map of the Lydian Empire in its final period of sovereignty under
Croesus
, c. 547 BC.
(7th-century BC boundary in red)
Lydia was ruled by three dynasties:
Atyads (1300 BC or earlier) – Heraclids (Tylonids) (to 687 BC)
According to Herodotus
the Heraclids ruled for 22
generations during the period from 1185 BC, lasting for 505 years). Alyattes was
the king of Lydia in 776 BC. The last king of this dynasty was Myrsilos or
Candaules.
- Candaules
– After ruling for seventeen
years he was assassinated by his former friend Gyges, who succeeded him on
the throne of Lydia.
Mermnads
-
Gyges
, called Gugu of Luddu in
Assyrian inscriptions (687-652 BC or 690-657 BC) – Once established on the
throne, Gyges devoted himself to consolidating his kingdom and making it a
military power. The capital was relocated from Hyde to Sardis. Barbarian
Cimmerians
sacked many Lydian cities,
except for Sardis. Gyges was the son of Dascylus, who, when recalled from
banishment in Cappadocia by the Lydian king Mursylos—called Candaules “the
Dog-strangler” (a title of the Lydian Hermes) by the Greeks—sent his son
back to Lydia instead of himself. Gyges turned to Egypt, sending his
faithful Carian troops along with Ionian mercenaries to assist Psammetichus
in ending Assyrian domination. Some Bible scholars believe that Gyges of
Lydia was the Biblical character
Gog
, ruler of Magog, who is mentioned in
the Book of Ezekiel and the
Book of Revelation
.
- Sadyattes
(621-609 BC) or (624-610 BC) –
Herodotus wrote (in his Inquiries) that he fought with
Cyaxares
, the descendant of Deioces, and
with the Medes
, drove out the
Cimmerians
from Asia, captured
Smyrna
, which had been founded by colonists
from Colophon, and invaded the city-states
Clazomenae
and
Miletus
.
-
Alyattes II
(609 or 619-560 BC) – one of
the greatest kings of Lydia. When Cyaxares attacked Lydia, the kings of
Cilicia
and
Babylon
intervened and negotiated a peace
in 585 BC, whereby the River
Halys
was established as the Medes’
frontier with Lydia. Herodotus writes:
- “On the refusal of Alyattes to give up his supplicants when Cyaxares
sent to demand them of him, war broke out between the Lydians and the Medes,
and continued for five years, with various success. In the course of it the
Medes gained many victories over the Lydians, and the Lydians also gained
many victories over the Medes.”
The
Battle of the Eclipse
was the final battle in a
five year war between Alyattes II of Lydia and Cyaxares of the Medes. It took
place on May 28, 585 BC, and ended abruptly due to a total solar eclipse.
- Croesus
(560-546 BC) – the expression “rich
as Croesus” refers to this king. The Lydian Empire ended when Croesus
attacked the Persian Empire of
Cyrus II
and was defeated in 546 BC.
Persian Empire
In 547 BC, the Lydian king
Croesus
besieged and captured the Persian city
of Pteria in Cappadocia and enslaved its inhabitants. The Persian king
Cyrus The Great
marched with his army against
the Lydians. The
Battle of Pteria
resulted in a stalemate, thus
forcing the Lydians to retreat to their capital city of Sardis. Some months
later the Persian and Lydian kings met at the
Battle of Thymbra
. Cyrus won and captured the
capital city of Sardis.
Hellenistic Empire
Lydia remained a satrapy after Persia’s conquest by the Macedonian king
Alexander III
(the Great) of
Macedon
. When Alexander’s empire ended after
his death, Lydia was possessed by the major Asian diadoch dynasty, the
Seleucids
, and when it was unable to maintain
its territory in Asia Minor, Lydia was acquired by the
Attalid
dynasty of
Pergamum
. Its last king avoided the spoils and
ravage of a Roman war of conquest by leaving the realm by testament to the
Roman Empire
.
Roman province of Asia
When the Romans entered the capital Sardis in 133 BC, Lydia, as the other
western parts of the Attalid legacy, became part of the
province of Asia
, a very rich
Roman province
, worthy of a governor with the
high rank of proconsul
. The whole west of Asia Minor had
Jewish
colonies very early, and Christianity
was also soon present there.
Acts of the Apostles
16:14-15 mentions the
baptism of a merchant woman called “Lydia” from
Thyatira
, known as
Lydia of Thyatira
, in what had once been the
satrapy of Lydia. Christianity spread rapidly during the 3rd century AD, based
on the nearby Exarchate of Ephesus.
Lydia had numerous Christian communities, and after Christianity became the
official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century became one of the
provinces of the diocese of Asia in the patriarchate of Constantinople. The
ecclesiastical province of Lydia had a metropolitan diocese at
Sardis
and suffragan dioceses for
Philadelphia
,
Thyatira
,
Tripolis
,
Settae
,
Gordus
,
Tralles
,
Silandus
,
Maeonia
,
Apollonos Hierum
,
Mostene
,
Apollonias
,
Attalia
,
Hyrcania
, Bage,
Balandus
,
Hermocapella
,
Hierocaesarea
,
Acrassus
,
Dalda
,
Stratonicia
,
Cerasa
,
Gabala
,
Satala
,
Aureliopolis
and
Hellenopolis
. Bishops from the various dioceses
of Lydia were well represented at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and at the later
ecumenical councils.
Roman province of
Lydia
Under the tetrarchy
reform of Emperor
Diocletian
in 296 AD, Lydia was revived as the
name of a separate Roman province, much smaller than the former satrapy, with
its capital at Sardis. Together with the provinces of Caria, Hellespontus, Lycia,
Pamphylia, Phrygia prima and secunda, Pisidia and the Insulae (Ionian islands),
it formed the diocese
(under a
vicarius
) of Asiana, which was part of the
praetorian prefecture
of Oriens, together with
the dioceses Pontiana (most of the rest of Asia Minor), Oriens proper (mainly
Syria), Aegyptus and Thraciae (on the Balkans, roughly Bulgaria). Under the
Byzantine emperor Heraclius (610-641), Lydia became part of
Anatolikon
, one of the original
themata
, and later of
Thrakesion
. Although the
Seljuk Turks
conquered most of the rest of
Anatolia, forming the Sultanate of Ikonion, Lydia remained part of the Byzantine
Empire. During the occupation of Constantinople in the
Fourth Crusade
, Lydia continued to be a part of
the Byzantine orthodox ‘Greek Empire’ based at
Nicaea
.
Under Turkish rule
Lydia was captured finally by Turkish
beyliks
, which were all absorbed by the
Ottoman state in 1390. The area became part of the Ottoman
Aydın Province
(vilayet),
and is now the westernmost part of the modern republic of
Turkey
.
The history of
Ancient Greek
coinage can be divided (along
with most other Greek art forms) into four periods, the
Archaic
, the
Classical
, the
Hellenistic
and the
Roman
. The Archaic period extends from the
introduction of coinage to the Greek world during the
7th century BC
until the
Persian Wars
in about 480 BC. The Classical
period then began, and lasted until the conquests of
Alexander the Great
in about 330 BC, which
began the Hellenistic period, extending until the
Roman
absorption of the Greek world in the 1st
century BC. The Greek cities continued to produce their own coins for several
more centuries under Roman rule. The coins produced during this period are
called
Roman provincial coins
or Greek Imperial Coins.
Ancient Greek coins of all four periods span over a period of more than ten
centuries.
Weight
standards and denominations
Above: Six rod-shaped obeloi (oboloi) displayed at the
Numismatic Museum of Athens
,
discovered at
Heraion of Argos
. Below: grasp[1]
of six oboloi forming one drachma
Electrum
coin from
Ephesus
, 620-600 BC, known as
Phanes’ coin
. Obverse:
Stag
grazing, ΦΑΝΕΩΣ (retrograde).
Reverse: Two incuse punches.
The basic standards of the Ancient Greek monetary system were the
Attic
standard, based on the Athenian
drachma
of 4.3 grams of silver and the
Corinthian
standard based on the
stater
of 8.6 grams of silver, that was
subdivided into three silver drachmas of 2.9 grams. The word
drachm
(a) means “a handful”, literally “a
grasp”. Drachmae were divided into six
obols
(from the Greek word for a
spit
), and six spits made a “handful”. This
suggests that before coinage came to be used in Greece, spits in
prehistoric times
were used as measures of
daily transaction. In archaic/pre-numismatic times iron was valued for making
durable tools and weapons, and its casting in spit form may have actually
represented a form of transportable
bullion
, which eventually became bulky and
inconvenient after the adoption of precious metals. Because of this very aspect,
Spartan
legislation famously forbade issuance
of Spartan coin, and enforced the continued use of iron spits so as to
discourage avarice and the hoarding of wealth. In addition to its original
meaning (which also gave the
euphemistic
diminutive
“obelisk“,
“little spit”), the word obol (ὀβολός, obolós, or ὀβελός,
obelós) was retained as a Greek word for coins of small value, still used as
such in Modern Greek
slang (όβολα, óvola,
“monies”).
The obol was further subdivided into tetartemorioi (singular
tetartemorion) which represented 1/4 of an obol, or 1/24 of a drachm. This
coin (which was known to have been struck in
Athens
,
Colophon
, and several other cities) is
mentioned by Aristotle
as the smallest silver coin.:237
Various multiples of this denomination were also struck, including the
trihemitetartemorion (literally three half-tetartemorioi) valued at 3/8 of
an obol.:
| Denominations of silver drachma |
| Image |
Denomination |
Value |
Weight |
|
|
Dekadrachm |
10 drachmas |
43 grams |
|
|
Tetradrachm |
4 drachmas |
17.2 grams |
|
|
Didrachm |
2 drachmas |
8.6 grams |
|
|
Drachma |
6 obols |
4.3 grams |
|
|
Tetrobol |
4 obols |
2.85 grams |
|
|
Triobol (hemidrachm) |
3 obols |
2.15 grams |
|
|
Diobol |
2 obols |
1.43 grams |
|
|
Obol |
4 tetartemorions |
0.72 grams |
|
|
Tritartemorion |
3 tetartemorions |
0.54 grams |
|
|
Hemiobol |
2 tetartemorions |
0.36 grams |
|
|
Trihemitartemorion |
3/2 tetartemorions |
0.27 grams |
|
|
Tetartemorion |
|
0.18 grams |
|
|
Hemitartemorion |
½ tetartemorion |
0.09 grams |
Archaic period
Archaic coinage
Uninscribed
electrum
coin from
Lydia
, 6th century BCE.
Obverse: lion head and sunburst Reverse: plain square
imprints, probably used to standardise weight
Electrum
coin from
Ephesus
, 620-600 BC. Obverse:
Forepart of stag. Reverse: Square incuse punch.
The first coins were issued in either Lydia or Ionia in Asia Minor at some
time before 600 BC, either by the non-Greek Lydians for their own use or perhaps
because Greek mercenaries wanted to be paid in precious metal at the conclusion
of their time of service, and wanted to have their payments marked in a way that
would authenticate them. These coins were made of
electrum
, an alloy of gold and silver that was
highly prized and abundant in that area. By the middle of the 6th century BC,
technology had advanced, making the production of pure gold and silver coins
simpler. Accordingly, King
Croesus
introduced a bi-metallic standard that
allowed for coins of pure gold and pure silver to be struck and traded in the
marketplace.
Coins of Aegina
Silver
stater
of Aegina, 550-530 BC.
Obv.
Sea turtle
with large pellets
down center. Rev. incuse square with eight sections. After the
end of the
Peloponnesian War
, 404 BC, Sea
turtle was replaced by the land
tortoise
.
Silver
drachma
of Aegina, 404-340 BC.
Obverse: Land
tortoise
. Reverse: inscription
AΙΓ[INAΤΟΝ] ([of the] Aeg[inetans]) “Aegina” and dolphin.
The Greek world was divided into more than two thousand self-governing
city-states (in
Greek
, poleis), and more than half of
them issued their own coins. Some coins circulated widely beyond their polis,
indicating that they were being used in inter-city trade; the first example
appears to have been the silver stater or didrachm of
Aegina
that regularly turns up in hoards in
Egypt
and the
Levant
, places which were deficient in silver
supply. As such coins circulated more widely, other cities began to mint coins
to this “Aeginetan” weight standard of (6.1 grams to the drachm), other cities
included their own symbols on the coins. This is not unlike present day
Euro coins, which are recognisably from a particular country, but
usable all over the
Euro zone
.
Athenian coins, however, were struck on the “Attic” standard, with a drachm
equaling 4.3 grams of silver. Over time, Athens’ plentiful supply of silver from
the mines at
Laurion
and its increasing dominance in trade
made this the pre-eminent standard. These coins, known as “owls” because of
their central design feature, were also minted to an extremely tight standard of
purity and weight. This contributed to their success as the premier trade coin
of their era. Tetradrachms on this weight standard continued to be a widely used
coin (often the most widely used) through the classical period. By the time of
Alexander the Great
and his
Hellenistic successors
, this large denomination
was being regularly used to make large payments, or was often saved for
hoarding.
Classical period
A
Syracusan
tetradrachm
(c. 415–405
BC)
Obverse: head of the
nymph
Arethusa
, surrounded by
four swimming
dolphins
and a
rudder
Reverse: a racing
quadriga
, its
charioteer
crowned by the
goddess
Victory
in flight.
Tetradrachm of Athens, (5th century BC)
Obverse: a portrait of
Athena
, patron goddess of
the city, in
helmet
Reverse: the owl of Athens, with an
olive
sprig and the
inscription “ΑΘΕ”, short for ΑΘΕΝΑΙΟΝ, “of the
Athenians
“
The
Classical period
saw Greek coinage reach a high
level of technical and aesthetic quality. Larger cities now produced a range of
fine silver and gold coins, most bearing a portrait of their patron god or
goddess or a legendary hero on one side, and a symbol of the city on the other.
Some coins employed a visual pun: some coins from
Rhodes
featured a
rose, since the Greek word for rose is rhodon. The use of
inscriptions on coins also began, usually the name of the issuing city.
The wealthy cities of Sicily produced some especially fine coins. The large
silver decadrachm (10-drachm) coin from
Syracuse
is regarded by many collectors as the
finest coin produced in the ancient world, perhaps ever. Syracusan issues were
rather standard in their imprints, one side bearing the head of the nymph
Arethusa
and the other usually a victorious
quadriga
. The
tyrants of Syracuse
were fabulously rich, and
part of their
public relations
policy was to fund
quadrigas
for the
Olympic chariot race
, a very expensive
undertaking. As they were often able to finance more than one quadriga at a
time, they were frequent victors in this highly prestigious event.
Syracuse was one of the epicenters of numismatic art during the classical
period. Led by the engravers Kimon and Euainetos, Syracuse produced some of the
finest coin designs of antiquity.
Hellenistic period
Gold 20-stater
of
Eucratides I
, the largest gold coin
ever minted in Antiquity.
Drachma of
Alexandria
, 222-235 AD. Obverse:
Laureate head of
Alexander Severus
, KAI(ΣΑΡ) MAP(ΚΟΣ)
AYP(ΗΛΙΟΣ) ΣЄY(ΑΣΤΟΣ) AΛЄΞANΔPOΣ ЄYΣЄ(ΒΗΣ). Reverse: Bust of
Asclepius
.
The Hellenistic period was characterized by the spread of Greek
culture across a large part of the known world. Greek-speaking kingdoms were
established in Egypt
and
Syria
, and for a time also in
Iran and as far east as what is now
Afghanistan
and northwestern
India
. Greek traders spread Greek coins across
this vast area, and the new kingdoms soon began to produce their own coins.
Because these kingdoms were much larger and wealthier than the Greek city states
of the classical period, their coins tended to be more mass-produced, as well as
larger, and more frequently in gold. They often lacked the aesthetic delicacy of
coins of the earlier period.
Still, some of the
Greco-Bactrian
coins, and those of their
successors in India, the
Indo-Greeks
, are considered the finest examples
of
Greek numismatic art
with “a nice blend of
realism and idealization”, including the largest coins to be minted in the
Hellenistic world: the largest gold coin was minted by
Eucratides
(reigned 171–145 BC), the largest
silver coin by the Indo-Greek king
Amyntas Nikator
(reigned c. 95–90 BC). The
portraits “show a degree of individuality never matched by the often bland
depictions of their royal contemporaries further West” (Roger Ling, “Greece and
the Hellenistic World”).
The most striking new feature of Hellenistic coins was the use of portraits
of living people, namely of the kings themselves. This practice had begun in
Sicily, but was disapproved of by other Greeks as showing
hubris
(arrogance). But the kings of
Ptolemaic Egypt
and
Seleucid Syria
had no such scruples: having
already awarded themselves with “divine” status, they issued magnificent gold
coins adorned with their own portraits, with the symbols of their state on the
reverse. The names of the kings were frequently inscribed on the coin as well.
This established a pattern for coins which has persisted ever since: a portrait
of the king, usually in profile and striking a heroic pose, on the obverse, with
his name beside him, and a coat of arms or other symbol of state on the reverse.
Minting
All Greek coins were
handmade
, rather than machined as modern coins
are. The design for the obverse was carved (in
incuso
) into a block of bronze or possibly
iron, called a
die
. The design of the reverse was carved into
a similar punch. A blank disk of gold, silver, or electrum was cast in a mold
and then, placed between these two and the punch struck hard with a hammer,
raising the design on both sides of the coin.
Coins as
a symbol of the city-state
Coins of Greek city-states depicted a unique
symbol
or feature, an early form of
emblem
, also known as
badge
in numismatics, that represented their
city and promoted the prestige of their state. Corinthian stater for example
depicted pegasus
the mythological winged stallion, tamed
by their hero
Bellerophon
. Coins of
Ephesus
depicted the
bee
sacred to
Artemis
. Drachmas of Athens depicted the
owl of Athena
. Drachmas of
Aegina
depicted a
chelone
. Coins of
Selinunte
depicted a “selinon” (σέλινον
– celery
). Coins of
Heraclea
depicted
Heracles
. Coins of
Gela depicted a man-headed bull, the personification of the river
Gela
. Coins of
Rhodes
depicted a “rhodon” (ῥόδον[8]
– rose
). Coins of
Knossos
depicted the
labyrinth
or the mythical creature
minotaur
, a symbol of the
Minoan Crete
. Coins of
Melos
depicted a “mēlon” (μήλον –
apple
). Coins of
Thebes
depicted a Boeotian shield.
Corinthian stater with
pegasus
Coin of
Rhodes
with a
rose
Didrachm of
Selinunte
with a
celery
Coin of
Ephesus
with a
bee
Stater of
Olympia
depicting
Nike
Coin of
Melos
with an
apple
Obolus from
Stymphalia
with a
Stymphalian bird
Coin of
Thebes
with a Boeotian shield
Coin of Gela
with a man-headed bull,
the personification of the river
Gela
Didrachm of
Knossos
depicting the
Minotaur
Commemorative coins
Dekadrachm
of
Syracuse
[disambiguation
needed]. Head of Arethusa or queen
Demarete. ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΟΝ (of the Syracusians), around four dolphins
The use of
commemorative coins
to celebrate a victory or
an achievement of the state was a Greek invention. Coins are valuable, durable
and pass through many hands. In an age without newspapers or other mass media,
they were an ideal way of disseminating a political message. The first such coin
was a commemorative decadrachm issued by
Athens
following the Greek victory in the
Persian Wars
. On these coins that were struck
around 480 BC, the owl
of Athens, the goddess
Athena
‘s sacred bird, was depicted facing the
viewer with wings outstretched, holding a spray of olive leaves, the
olive tree
being Athena’s sacred plant and also
a symbol of peace and prosperity. The message was that Athens was powerful and
victorious, but also peace-loving. Another commemorative coin, a silver
dekadrachm known as ” Demareteion”, was minted at
Syracuse
at approximately the same time to
celebrate the defeat of the
Carthaginians
. On the obverse it bears a
portrait of
Arethusa
or queen Demarete.
Ancient Greek coins
today
Collections of Ancient Greek coins are held by museums around the world, of
which the collections of the
British Museum
, the
American Numismatic Society
, and the
Danish National Museum
are considered to be the
finest. The American Numismatic Society collection comprises some 100,000
ancient Greek coins from many regions and mints, from Spain and North Africa to
Afghanistan. To varying degrees, these coins are available for study by
academics and researchers.
There is also an active collector market for Greek coins. Several auction
houses in Europe and the United States specialize in ancient coins (including
Greek) and there is also a large on-line market for such coins.
Hoards of Greek coins are still being found in Europe, Middle East, and North
Africa, and some of the coins in these hoards find their way onto the market.
Coins are the only art form from the Ancient world which is common enough and
durable enough to be within the reach of ordinary collectors.
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