CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE CJ129 .IWiT 6 " Un,VerS ' ty Ubrary Coln iiifflilBSwliiii t i!ii?iii l ii..?. r, l fl in and development olin 3 1924 029 831 785 a Cornell University P Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924029831785 COIN TYPES THEIR ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT PUBLISHED BY JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW $ ttb lie hers to the an it) its it g. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. New York, • The Macmillan Co. London., Simfikin, Hamilton and Co. Cambridge, - * Macmillan and Bowes, Edinburgh^ ■ Douglas and Foulis. Sydney, Angus and Robertson. MCMV. COIN TYPES THEIR ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT BEING THE RHIND LECTURES FOR 1904 BY GEORGE MACDONALD, M.A., LL.D. HONORARY CURATOR OF THE HUNTERIAN COIN CABINET UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW WITH NUMEROUS PLATES GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY 1905 CLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. PREFACE These lectures, delivered on the invitation of the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, were addressed to a general audience. In compliance with a wish to which strong expression was given at the conclusion of the course, they are now printed just as they were originally written. The book is thus meant primarily for the ordinary cultivated reader. In the circumstances, it would be idle to pretend that it is exhaustive. At the same time, as the first system- atic attempt to marshal the main facts, it may fairly claim the attention of numismatists. It will, I believe, be found that the results are to some extent fresh. I have faithfully tried to acknowledge my obliga- tions to earlier writers. But the footnotes hardly mention the work that has been most constantly beside me — the indispensable Historia Numorum. It should perhaps be added that my interest in this particular branch of the subject is due in no small measure to The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards, So conscious am I of its stimulating influence that I almost feel as if I owed its distinguished author an apology for being unable to accept his views. Yet, if I be a heretic, surely heresy may look hopefully for absolution to Professor Ridgeway. VI PREFACE Mr. Warwick Wroth and Mr. G. F. Hill, of the British Museum, who were good enough to read the proof-sheets, have been generous in helpful suggestion and encouragement. The task of preparing the illus- trations has also been greatly lightened by their co-operation. I have not thought it necessary to indicate in detail the sources whence the coins shown on the Plates have been drawn. But I may say generally that the majority belong to the British Museum, while the great bulk of the remainder come from the Hunterian Collection. In the case of a few very rare or unique pieces, I have had to tres- pass on the kindness of others, notably the curators of the national collections at Berlin and Paris. Three of the cuts that appear in the text (Figs. 5-7) have been reproduced from the Bulletin de Cor- respondance Hellenique. Permission to use already existing blocks has been courteously granted by the Trustees of the British Museum (Figs. 3, 4, 8-1 r, and 13-17), Messrs. Macmillan & Co. (Figs. 1 and 18), and the Council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (Fig. 12). GEORGE MACDONALD. November, 1905. CONTENTS PAGE I Lecture L, Lecture II. , - - - - 43 Lecture III., 9 1 Lecture IV., - T 34 Lecture V. 5 ------ 177 Lecture VI., - - 2I 9 General Index, ------ 260 Index of Inscriptions, - - - 2 73 LIST OF PLATES PAGE Plate I., - - 16 Plate II., - - - 48 Plate III,, - - 80 Plate IV., 96 Plate V., - 128 Plate VI., - - - 160 Plate VII., - 176 Plate VIII., - 208 Plate IX., - - 224 Plate X., - - 256 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Fig. 1. — Paestum : Bronze, 4 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 ■Central Italy : Bronze, 28 — Central Italy : Bronze, - 29 — Central Italy : Bronze, - 31 — City- Arms of Cleitor, 67 — City-Arms of Lampsacus, - 69 x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Fig. 7. — City- Arms of Syracuse, - 70 Fig. 8. — Central Italy : Bronze, - 75 Fig. 9. — Central Italy : Bronze, - 77 Fig. 10. — Central Italy : Bronze, - - 78 Fig. 11. — Cumae : Silver, - 79 Fig. 12. — Sealing from Zakro, - 79 Fig. 13. — Segesta : Silver, - 93 Fig, 14, — Panticapaeum : Gold, - 105 Fig. 15. — Himera : Silver, - - - 113 Fig. i6, — Himera: Silver, - 114. Fig. 17. — Zancle : Silver, - - 143 Fig. 18. — Apameia : Bronze, - 174 Fig. 19. — Rome: As, - - - - - 180 Fig. 20. — Rome : Semis, - - - - 182 ERRATUM AND ADDENDUM Yzge 53, L z~,fir iii read ii. Page 186, 1. 21, add footnote^ The coin figured on the Plate is not the actual piece mentioned in the text, but a very si mi lar one struck some 15 years later by a son of the moneyer who first used the design. LECTURE I. A conviction that the aim of any such course as this is, ought to be not merely exposition but enquiry, not merely the statement of results already arrived at by others but an endeavour to reach fresh results for oneself, has rendered it imperative to narrow consider- ably the scope of the subject originally proposed to me by the Trustees. Interpreted broadly, ' The His- tory of Coins ' would have opened up a vista so extensive that only the barest outline would have been possible. By taking proper account of an ele- mentary distinction the difficulty can be reduced to less formidable dimensions. ' Money ' and fc coin ' are not interchangeable terms. As soon as man passed beyond the stage of simple barter, as soon as he began to employ a medium of any sort to make exchange easier, so soon did money come into existence. The oxen, in terms of which values are reckoned in Homer, were money, just as much as were the "four hundred shekels of silver current with the merchant " that Abra- ham paid for the cave of Machpelah. But the shekels were not coins any more than were the oxen. The 2 COIN TYPES purchase was not concluded until Abraham had u weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth." And, where metals are the medium of exchange, such weighing is always liable to be required, unless each separate piece bears upon its face some easily recognized mark, impressed by a responsible authority and serving as a guarantee at once of weight and of quality. It is the presence of such a mark that constitutes a coin. This rough-and-readv definition is not scientifically complete. But it is accurate enough and comprehens- ive enough to enable us to mark out certain limits for our subject. It justifies us in regarding as irrelev- ant any discussion of the history that attaches to coins in virtue of their character as money, and so frees us from all necessity of grappling with the problems of metrology or of economics. I propose also to take it as excluding from our purview such currencies as the spade-money and knife-money of China, or the fish-hook money and spear-money of other countries. We can thus concentrate our attention on a point that merits closer study than it has hitherto received. There is room for a systematic effort to investigate the origin and to trace the development of what has been indicated as the essential characteristic of all coins, — the easily recognized mark that serves as a guarantee of weight and of quality. Even when we have imposed upon ourselves such a limitation, we cannot hope to make our enquiry exhaustive and final. We shall have to deal with a great mass of material, produced in different ages and by different peoples. If we are to escape INTRODUCTORY 3 being overwhelmed by a weight of detail, we shall have to confine ourselves to an endeavour to arrive at a few broad general principles. The mark whose presence constitutes a coin is spoken of by numismatists as a e type,* while the word f symbol ' is used to denote any secondary device which may appear side by side with the main type without being linked to it by any organic connection. The oldest coins of all have but a single type. At a very early period, however, it became customary to have two types, one upon each side of the coin. We are thus called upon to distinguish between 'obverse' and * reverse.' With every desire to avoid techni- calities, it will be necessary to employ these terms freely. It will, therefore, be convenient to begin by getting a clear understanding as to their significance. Literally, the c obverse ' of a coin is the side that is turned towards one, that is, the side that one naturally regards as the front. In other words, it is the side on which the principal type appears. The * reverse' is what presents itself when the coin is turned round. These definitions cover ancient and modern coins alike. But those who have handled ancient coins are familiar with a further distinction. No classical or post-classical author has preserved for us any account of the manner in which types were origin- ally impressed upon coins. A Pompeian wall-painting uncovered a few years ago has been with some probability interpreted as a representation of the various operations carried on in a mint. And the subject was occasionally dealt with on coins. Thus, a 4 COIN TYPES Roman denarius (Plate vii. 12) preserves for us a pic- ture of the chief implements employed, and a bronze piece of Paestum (Fig. 1) gives us a rude sketch of Fig. i. — Paestum : Bronze. the very process. Painting and coins alike, however, are some six or seven centuries later than the invention of the art. Consequently, for really reliable evidence, we have to fall back upon the actual specimens of ancient coins that have survived the wreck of ages. Some interesting questions await solution at the hands of the first competent technologist who makes a full and thorough study of this branch of numis- matics. But certain fundamental facts are already clear. If we leave aside the early bronze currency of Italy, we shall find that practically all Greek and Roman coins were struck, not cast. Thus the method was, in prin- ciple, identical with that which is employed to this day, although it goes without saying that the mechanical means available were much more rudimentary. A lump of metal that had previously been adjusted to the proper weight, was heated and then reduced by means of a mould to a form that was approximately round or oblong. While still hot, it was placed upon an anvil and held firmly in position by a punch, the upper end of which was struck sharply several times with a hammer. On or in the anvil there had previously been laid or embedded a die, that is, a piece of cold metal with a device of some kind cut upon it in OBVERSE AND REVERSE 5 intaglio. The result of the striking was to produce upon the heated metal a corresponding impression in relief, and so to provide the coin with a type upon its lower side. If there were a device in intaglio on the lower end of the punch, then the coin received a type upon its upper side as well. In the case of the great majority of very archaic coins it was only on the lower side that any type appeared. It was, therefore, but natural that, when two types became customary, this side should be reserved for the more important, — should be, in fact, the obverse. Now, where early coins are concerned, it is usually easy to decide at a glance which has been the upper side, and which the lower, during the process of striking. The upper side, as being more directly exposed to the force of the hammer, tended to become concave. The lower side or obverse showed a corre- sponding convexity. On archaic coins the concavity of the reverse is often very marked, the end of the punch having had a smaller surface area than the heated metal on which it was placed. The impression produced under these circumstances is said to be ' incuse.' Such incuse reverses furnish one of the most obvious marks of antiquity 1 (see Plate i. 1-5). 1 The view expressed in the preceding paragraphs is not universally- accepted. It has been suggested that the obverse was always the uppermost side, i.e. that the original die was on the punch, the ' incuse' being produced by a projection on the anvil (Blumner, TechnoL, iv. p. 261, note 1). It is difficult to reconcile this sug- gestion with the appearance presented by the 'incuse' on many archaic coins. On the other hand it seems certain that during the Roman Republican period the obverse die was usually placed above and the reverse die beneath (Bahrfeldt, Antike Miinztechnik, p. 9). 6 COIN TYPES Coins, it should be observed, are not so antique as might on a priori grounds be expected. It may be taken as a well-ascertained fact that their invention dates from about 700 b.c. Among the ancients them- selves there was a difference of opinion as to where the first coins were struck. 1 In the light of the evidence furnished by the constant provenance of the most primitive specimens of the art, modern research has no hesitation in deciding in favour of Western Asia Minor. This was the view of Herodotus. " So far as I know," he says, " the Lydians were the first people to strike and use gold and silver coins." 2 There are some who would claim the honour for the Ionian Greeks. And it has been argued that the words of Herodotus are not unequivocal ; they refer only to gold and silver, whereas the oldest coins of all were minted in electrum, a natural alloy of the two more familiar precious metals. It might be replied that to Herodotus electrum was nothing but a variety of gold ; he calls it Aewco? xpva-6?. Interesting as it is, this question need not detain us. It is sufficient for us to be certain that, if coins were not invented by the Lydians, they were invented by some of their imme- diate neighbours. We may wonder that neither Assyrians nor Babylonians nor Egyptians should have hit upon so simple and obvious a contrivance. Pro- bably the explanation lies, to some extent at least, in the fact that in these cases there were no abundant 1 For example, Pollux, ix. 83. Tbv ml t£ vofjuo-fiart Xoyov €7rt^Tetv, etTe $eftW 7r/30)TOS 6 'Apyetos e/co^c vo/uay/.a, etre k.t.X. 2 7rpwT0t av&puttrw rtov 07/Aets tBfxev vo/ua-jua xpvo-ov nal dpyvpov KOij/dfievot e\prj(ravTO (i. 94). INVENTION OF COINS 7 natural supplies of precious metal which could have been exploited for the benefit of the central govern- ment 1 And it must be borne in mind that the practical inconveniences were possibly much less serious than we are apt to imagine. We know from the cuneiform inscriptions that the system of letters of credit was highly developed among the Babylonians. Bars and rings of specified weight also helped to simplify the problem. Even bracelets and personal ornaments seem to have been employed as an auxiliary currency. In this connection, the long period that elapsed before coinage was introduced at Carthage, is exceedingly significant. It is certain that the Cartha- ginians did not begin to mint for themselves until three or four hundred years later than their Greek neighbours. 2 The situation and circumstances of Lydia were entirely favourable for the invention and use of coins. It was the connecting link between the rich interior of Asia Minor and the flourishing Greek towns on the east of the Aegean. No small part of its own wealth consisted of the precious metals. Electrum was found in abundance in the beds of its streams, and was more easily wrought than either of its com- 1 See Th. Reinach, VHistoire par les Monnaies, p. 31, for the importance of this condition. The whole lecture is a luminous and instructive contribution to the discussion on the origin of coinage. 2 For special reasons why the Phoenician peoples were slow to adopt the invention, see Lenormant, La monnaie dans Fantiqutte, i. p. 123 f., and G. Radet, Lydie au temps des Mermnades, p. 156. 8 COIN TYPES ponents. It thus presented itself as a ready medium for business purposes. The electrum currency, how- ever, was of comparatively short duration, It was soon abandoned by the Lydians in favour of a double system, gold and silver. The name of Croesus is usually associated with this change. Its motive was probably a desire to steady the royal credit, for the intrinsic value of an electrum coin depended ultimately on the relative proportions of gold and silver that it might happen to contain, and analysis indicates that there was enormous variation. 1 However that may be, the very fact that such a step was called for shows how rapidly the importance of the new medium of exchange was realised. It is not difficult to trace the lines along which a knowledge of the invention radiated. The double system of Lydia was adopted by the Persian monarchy in the course of the sixth century b.c, and thence- forward gold darics and silver shekels were minted in vast quantities. Even before this, coins had reached European Greece. The Greeks on the coast of Asia Minor began to strike electrum so early that, as we have seen, there are some who incline to think that they even anticipated the Lydians. Their kinsmen in the islands were quick to imitate them, and to transmit the practice across the seas. There appear to have been two main routes by which coins made their way to Europe, — a northerly route by Euboea to Athens and Corinth, and a more southerly one, direct through the Archipelago to Aegina. Very ancient *See Head, Num. Ckron., 1887, pp. 277 ff., and B.M.C, Lydia 9 p. xxi. SPREAD OF INVENTION 9 coins of Cyrene prove that the Greek settlers in Northern Africa must have begun to mint almost as soon as their European brethren. They doubtless received their knowledge of the invention in the same way, — by commercial intercourse with the west coast of Asia Minor. From different centres in Greece Proper the torch was carried west and north until, by the beginning of the fifth century B.C., coins had become familiar objects throughout almost the whole civilized world. If we leave out of account the iron money of the Peloponnesus and of Byzantium, the facts regarding which are exceedingly obscure, we find that for nearly two hundred years the Greeks of Europe minted in silver only. Until about 350 B.C., when Philip of Macedon began to develop the gold mines of Thrace, the supplies of the more precious metal were apparently too limited to justify any European state in making it the basis of its currency. Gold and electuum coins were indeed freely used in commerce. But they were coins that had been minted in Asia, and they circulated only as bullion. If gold was struck, it was either at some moment of exceptional prosperity, as at Syracuse after the great siege, or under pressure of dire necessity, as at Athens during the latter part of the Peloponnesian war. And in such cases the issue was so small as not to affect the truth of our general proposition. The Macedonian supremacy changed all that. Alexander's conquest of Persia involved an economic as well as a political revolution. Having abundant supplies both of gold and of silver at his command, he did not hesitate to follow the example of the Persian monarchs io COIN TYPES and make his currency bimetallic. 1 Under his sway and that of his successors the area of mintage was widened considerably. Greek coins were struck as far east as India, while Egypt for the first time began to contribute her quota to the stream. A third metal had in the meantime come to be largely used. Copper had been the monetary standard in Italy and Sicily prior to the arrival of the Greek colonists. It long maintained its position, notably at Rome ; but it does not appear to have been employed anywhere for coinage purposes until towards the close of the fifth century b.c. During the next hundred years its popularity grew rapidly. Its value for an auxiliary or token currency was recognized almost everywhere, and copper or, more strictly, bronze coins are plentiful from circa 350 b.c. onwards. It seems probable that from the earliest period the right of striking money was vested in the state, although a monarch or a sovereign people might on occasion delegate the privilege to governors of distant provinces or to generals engaged on a campaign. It certainly came very soon to be looked upon as an indispensable attribute of political independence. Hence the remarkable variety of the Hellenic coinage, for in Hellas each city was a separate political entity, and its money was a visible token of its autonomy. It was essential that there should be no risk of confusion with the money of its neighbours. In other words, so soon as the custom of striking money was fairly 1 See Th. Reinach, De la valeur proportionelie de For et de V argent dans Pantiquite grecque {Rev. Num., 1893 and 1902: reprinted in VHistoire par les Monnaies, pp. 41 f£). VARIETY OF DEVICES n established, the use of a distinctive type (or its equivalent 1 ) for each minting centre became imperative. The variety is so great that on first acquaintance it is bewildering. With a little experience, however, one learns to detect affinities between the issues of cities that lay within a given geographical area. The homogeneity now in question is something different from the direct imitation that will demand attention at a later stage ; it depends upon subtler influences. Sometimes it betrays itself in fabric. Thus, at a particular epoch, the coins of Thrace and Macedon display a peculiar reticulation of surface, showing that the artificers in these districts were in the habit of striking the blank while it was still very hot. Again, after the defeat of Antiochus III. by the Romans, there was a great outburst of minting activity among the more prominent cities of Asia Minor. Under the rule of the Seleucid Kings their privileges had been in abeyance. Now that they were again in some measure independent, they began to strike silver money once more. Differences of type notwithstanding, the trained eye has no difficulty in singling out the pieces that belong to this period. They are large tetradrachms of a peculiarly thin spread fabric, which it is impossible to mistake. These issues were not called into being by any political union, nor sanctioned by any formal convention. The similarity between them is more or less fortuitous, being due to the coincidence that the mints concerned were near enough to be influenced 1 Occasionally {e.g. in the case of the electrum coinage of Mytilene) there is no distinctive type. Probably the peculiar fabric and the weight were regarded as adequate marks of origin. 12 COIN TYPES by each other and that all began to strike silver at about the same time. In this instance we have to do with historical circumstances that are fairly well ascertained. We may use the analogy to explain a kindred phenomenon, the historical setting of which is shrouded in obscurity. During the sixth century b.c. the Greek cities of Southern Italy produced a series of silver coins that stand quite by themselves in point of fabric (see Plate i. 1 6 and 17, Plate iii. 7, Plate iv. 1, and Plate v. 11). Their date is fixed by the fact that among the mints were Siris and Sybaris, both of which were destroyed before 500 b.c. The obverse type is in relief as usual, but the reverse type is, so to say, in intaglio, and is generally, though not invariably, a mere repetition of the device that figures on the other side. The coins, it should be added, are very thin. Their peculiar characteristics have attracted much notice. Lenormant read in them the evidence of a great political confederation, at which history does little more than hint, but which embraced not only Achaean colonies like Croton and Sybaris, but also the Dorian Tarentum and the Chalcldian Rhegium. 1 Such a league would indeed be remarkable at so early a period, and Lenormant attributed its creation to the genius of Pythagoras. The suggestion was tempting, and it has found a good deal of acceptance. Even writers who are sceptical about the intervention of 1 Since Lenormant wrote, Zancle has been added to the list of cities using this peculiar fabric (A. J. Evans in Num. Chron., 1896, pp. 101 ff.) — an addition that is of itself almost sufficient to negative all idea of a political alliance. < ACHAEAN CONFEDERATION' 13 Pythagoras, are apt to refer to the South Italian or Achaean Monetary Confederation as an institution of whose existence there can be no manner of doubt. But is the hypothesis either justifiable or necessary ? It is open to at least three Serious objections. To begin with, the group is unusually rich in alliance coins, that is, in pieces which bear the names and even the types of two different cities, and which were evidently issued under joint authority. Such, for instance, are the tetradrachms struck by Croton and Sybaris (Plate i. 1 7), by Croton and Temesa, and by Siris and Pyxus. There would have been no room for such special alliances if all alike were members of a great confederation whose solidarity was symbolized in the uniform fabric of the coinage. In the second place it is in the fabric alone that there is any resem- blance ; in the types there is absolute variety. Now, identity of type is characteristic of practically all other coinages that we know with certainty to have been federal, — that is, to have been based upon a political union. The issues of the Achaean League and the Chalcidian League will suggest themselves at once. If it be urged that both of these belong to a much later age, one might reply by pointing to the Boeotian shield, which is the obverse type of the coins of all the cities of Boeotia from about 550 B.C., and which clearly marks their coinage as a federal one. Even if the two objections already stated could be over- come, there remains a much more serious difficulty. For a federal coinage uniformity in weight would have been of vastly greater importance than similarity of fabric. Yet, of the cities concerned, Rhegium and i 4 COIN TYPES Zancle used one system, Poseidonia used another, while the whole of the rest followed a third. Such variation would be hardly conceivable, if the peculiarity of fabric had been the result of a monetary conven- tion, the purpose of which was to facilitate exchange. Conventions of the kind did, of course, exist. We possess, though unfortunately in a mutilated form, the actual text of an agreement made about 400 b.c. between Mytilene in Lesbos and Phocaea in Ionia. Its object was to arrange for the issue by the two states, in alternate years, of a uniform electrum currency, and the most stringent precautions were taken to secure that the coins of both cities should maintain the same level of purity. 1 The natural con- clusion that the weights were identical is completely borne out by the specimens that survive. This objec- tion to Lenormant's view of the Italian coins is, indeed, so obvious that it is not necessary to enlarge upon it. But all difficulty regarding them disappears, if we are content with the prosaic view that they are merely one more instance of the homogeneity that frequently attaches to the money of particular districts. It seems not impossible that the peculiar fabric was originally adopted because it had a practical advantage to recom- mend it. The coins could be more easily packed and stored. 2 There is no such special explanation of the 1 Any responsible official charged with debasing the quality of the metal was to be tried within six months by a board drawn from the magistrates of both cities. The penalty was death. The inscription was published, with a commentary, by Sir C. T. Newton in 1866 {Trans, of the Royal Society of Literature, second series, vol. viii. p. 549), and it has often been discussed since. 2 See Hill, Handbook, p. 152. LOCAL HOMOGENEITY 15 smooth reverses that characterize the silver coins of Etruria and of Cyprus. There, at least, we have clear examples of local fashion. But it is not in fabric merely that the principle of local homogeneity manifests itself. Often it is the type that is affected. The Sicilian Greeks, as is well known, had a special fondness for representing river-gods and chariot-races on their coins. The orgiastic designs characteristic of the early money of Thasos are found on the coins of other states of north-eastern Greece, but they are found no- where else. The flat octadrachms struck in the Macedonian district about the beginning of the fifth century B.C. bear the names of different tribes and dynasts. The type attaching to each group is different. But in the general scheme there is a strong family resemblance, — a man riding or guiding one or, more frequently, two draught animals. Cretan coins, again, as has often been pointed out, 1 possess certain strongly marked artistic qualities that we do not find elsewhere in the Greek world. These illustrations, selected at random, will suffice to show that we have here a principle which we cannot afford to lose sight of in any effort to determine the origin of coin-types. We may take it that, as a rule, even where no resemblance appears upon the surface, there is always a certain degree of homogeneity be- tween the types employed in a given district at a given time. In these circumstances there must be a strong 1 Eckhel, Doctrina, ii. 300; R. S. Poole, Num. Chron., 1864, pp. 24.0 ff . ; Gardner, Types, pp. 160 ff. ; Wroth, B.M.C., Crete, etc., pp. xxi. f. 1 6 COIN TYPES presumption that the general motive underlying their adoption has been in every case the same. We cannot, therefore, — without very special reason shown — accept as satisfactory for any particular type an explanation that is obviously inapplicable to other types belonging to what we may call the same group. Bearing this in mind, we may proceed to a brief statement and examin- ation of the two main theories of origin that have up till now been put forward. They are most con- veniently described as the religious theory and the commercial theory. That the influence of religion is to be traced in the types of Greek and Roman coins has long been re- cognized as an indisputable fact. But the first to propound the religious theory in its extreme form was Thomas Burgon, one of the staff of the British Museum, who published in the earliest volume of the Numismatic Journal (1837) a very suggestive paper entitled " Representations on Ancient Money." 1 In this paper Burgon discussed numerous examples, and endeavoured to make good the conclusion " that from the first striking of money, down to the extinction of the Byzantine Empire, religion was the sole motive of the types on coins ; and that this is the invariable principle which is to guide our search in endeavouring to explain them." His proof reduces itself to the argument from analogy. In an immense number of cases (he says in effect) the significance of the type is undoubtedly religious ; in many more it is probably 1 Its scope is more clearly shown by the full title — " An Inquiry into the Motives which influenced the Ancients, in their Choice of the various Representations which we find stamped on their Money." PLATE I. , SEE PAGES . i. Asia Mitiot (circa 700 B.C.) : electrum, - ,,J • $> 4& 2. Cnidus (circa 6003.0): silver, g -. ,- y,r ^ -^5, 117 3. Asia Minor (circa 650 B.C.) : electrum, ' 5> 5 1 4. Asia Minor (circa 600 B.C.) ^ electrum, * j - ^'i 1 -^---' 5, Si 5. Phocaea («>rtf (joo B.C. )\ electrum, - y 5, 41, 5° 6. Cyzicus_(before 500 B.C.) : electrum, - - 25, 40 7. Cyzicus (4^0-400 B.C.) : electrum, - ll 40 8. Cyzicus (450-400 -B\c )-: electrum* P- - gg 15. Abdera (430-408 B.C.) : silver, In a 1 ': "i 39 16. Metapontum (before 500 B.C.) : silver, - 12, 36, 65 17. Croton and Sybaris (before 510 B.C.): silve^r, 12, 13,^36^ PLATE 1 **#" 4W #% 10 THE RELIGIOUS THEORY 17 so ; we are therefore justified in concluding that it is so always. Burgon's attitude has the merit of being consistent and thorough-going. Its chief weakness is its failure to take full account of the relative ages of coins. Archaic types are unhesitatingly explained by the analogy of those of a later epoch, whereas any satisfactory solution of the question of origins must have careful regard to chronological sequence, and must be applicable in the first instance to the phenomena associated with the earliest specimens. Burgon admits that there are many devices that are puzzling, and he is alive to the fact that the majority of these occur on the oldest coins. But he believes that the task of explaining them will be simplified if we postulate that all of them have necessarily a religious meaning. He accordingly classifies them indiscriminately as " sym- bolical representations of divinities," a group which thus assumes a singularly miscellaneous character. The best illustration of the difficulties that are involved in such a proceeding, is supplied by the case of types parlants or c canting badges/ — that is, devices that contain a punning allusion to the name of the issuing city or state. Consistency compels Burgon to regard even these as u religious symbols." Thus, the familiar rose (poSov) on Rhodian coins is not to be "looked upon as indicative of the name of the island " ; rather, we are to suppose " that the natural and uniform motive of religious belief influenced the choice of the rose, as the symbol of Venus." So with the leaf of wild celery (o-e\ivov) at Selinus, the pomegranate (p-lSy) at Side, the apple faqkov) at Melos, and the seal (rfx&Ktj) at Phocaea, — " concerning which we would not be 1 8 COIN TYPES supposed rigidly to assert, that there was absolutely on no occasion any allusion whatever to the name of the place ; but the object I have in view, is, to shoy? that even this allusion, if it exist, must.still be viewed as connected with some unapparent or lost religious tradition or motive ; the elucidation of which must be left to future researches." This practically amounts to a denial of the existence of types parlants in the proper sense of the word. But the evidence on the other side is too strong to be gainsaid. The number of examples that can be culled from various periods of Greek history is sufficiently large to place it beyond doubt that, when a convenient occasion arose, the tendency to indulge in pictorial puns upon proper names had quite as free play among the Greeks as we shall find that it had later on among the Romans and among dignitaries and states in the Middle Ages. The instances cited from Burgon are all earlier than 400 b.c. Here are a few additional ones, some comparatively old, others more recent. Rhodes was not the only city that used the rose as a coin-type ; we have it also on the money of Rhoda, a Greek settlement in Spain. Then there is a goat (aig) or a goat's head at each of the four cities called Aegae, and also at Aegira, Aegosthena, and Aegos- potami ; a fox (aAwxj^) at Alopeconnesus ; an anchor (Sytcupa) at Ancyra ; a crayfish (curraKoi) at Astacus ; an elbow (ajKwv) at Ancona ; a horn of plenty at Copia ; a barleycorn (jcpiOri) at Crithote ; a two-handled vessel (/cuxL-eX?;) at Cypsela ; a lion (XeW) at Leontini ; a bee (fieXirra) at Melitaea ; the mid-day sun (/act? ypepa) at Mesembria ; a head of Pan at Panticapaeum ; THE PUNNING PRINCIPLE 19 the prow or stern of a galley (dpayi8a (fyvkdrreiv rov irpadevros SaKTvXiov (Diog. Laert. i. 57). The phraseology shows that the Greeks, unlike the Babylonians, attached the seal to the finger ring. SEALS AND COINS 45 by direct force exerted from above, — we cannot fail to draw the inference that there is a very close connec- tion between sealing and the striking of money, that, in fact, the one was directly suggested by the other. The conclusion just arrived at, was reached long ago by Burgon. He started from somewhat different premises, and he continued the argument along a line where we cannot follow him. But, granted his point of view, his statement of the case is so admirable that it deserves to be quoted at length: "As the act of impressing a seal or signet was an understood sign of solemn compact from the most early periods ; and as engraved seals and signets were undoubtedly in general use long anterior to the invention of coining, it appears highly probable that the original idea of impressing a stamp on the uncoined lumps of gold or silver, was most probably derived from the common application of a seal to wax. The earliest coins may therefore be looked upon as pieces of sealed metal y which in fact, they are ; it being well known that, at first, coins were impressed only on one side. No device that could be imagined, was so well adapted to the peculiar necessity of the case, or so likely to satisfy the public mind, as the impress, by public authority, of the symbol of the tutelar divinity of the city." 1 The whole of this argument, and more particularly the last sentence, is of course an endeavour to discover a logical basis for the religious theory of types. Into that we need not enter further at this stage. It is more important to deal with a technical difficulty. | It has been already explained that by the 'obverse* of 1 Burgon, Numismatic Journal, vol. i. p. 1 18. 48 COIN TYPES These jars were apparently made to regulation sizes, and customers seem to have insisted on having an official guarantee of their capacity. Accordingly, while they may or may not bear the maker's name, they always carry that of a magistrate, accompanied usually by an official stamp. At Rhodes this official stamp is either the facing head of Helios, or a half-blown rose, obviously the badges of the city, as they occur constantly on its coinage. Elsewhere the device on the stamp varies with the name of the magistrate, and must, therefore, be regarded as his private signet. 1 If we apply this analogy to coins, we shall see that the question as to which seal it was appropriate to use might have been answered in different ways in different parts of the Greek, world. And so I believe it was. I believe, further, that a proper apprehension of this would simplify the solution of some of the problems that surround the attribution of the early electrum of Asia Minor. In Lydia, just as afterwards in Persia, the question we have been discussing did not really arise. These were monarchies, and the emblem used must be a royal emblem. In Lydia it was the lion, in Persia a 1 A mass of evidence regarding the marks on this class of pottery will be found in Albert Dumont's Inscriptions ceramiques de Grice (Paris, 1872). In the case of the Black Sea jars the private signets are beyond all doubt those of the magistrates, not of the makers ; see the lists given by Brandis, Z.f.N. y i. pp. 51 ff. I agree with Brandis (to whose article I would here acknowledge obligations) in thinking it demonstrable that the same rule holds good at Cnidus and Thasos, and also (in the exceptional instances in which a private signet is used) at Rhodes. But this last point is not really material to the argument. PLATE II. . n SEE PAGES 1. Athens (before 500 B.C.) : silver, 86 2. Athens (450 B.C. or later) : silver, -^ s~.\ ~ .'^ 3. Athens (second century B.C.) : silver, -' - 53^ '86 4. Himyarite King {circa roo Bjc. } : silver, -••. " - aT 86 5. Athens (befor)s 1 75 B. c ) : silver, - > . -, i r„ , r , - 55 , 6. Athens (circa 88 B.C.) : silver, - . - - .55 7. Athens {circa : J?;82-^ PLATE -11. ELECTRUM OF ASIA MINOR 49 figure of the Great King himself speeding through his dominions with spear and bow (Plate vi. 6). In the case of the free Greek cities on the coast there was room for doubt, and there, just as in the case of the jars, there appears to have been variation in practice. We have seen that at Cyzicus and at Phocaea respectively the earliest types were a tunny- fish and a seal, but that the use of these was presently abandoned in favour of a system of changing devices. The same thing appears to have happened at Lamp- sacus, although there the changing devices were not introduced until the city began to strike gold staters somewhere about 400 b.c. If we set aside the electrum coinage of these three cities, and also that of Mytilene, which attaches itself readily to the later Phocaean series, and if we further leave out of account the pieces with the forepart or the head of a lion, as being most probably Lydian, we find that the rest of the electrum money of Asia Minor supplies us with a most miscellaneous array of types. Formerly it was the custom to assign each type to a different town, with the result that even such distant centres as Eretria, Athens, and Aegina were believed to have minted in electrum. Observations as to weight, provenance, and fabric have rendered this position untenable, and of late years numismatists have tended more and more to the view that the primitive electrum currency was all produced within a comparatively limited area. A good deal that is puzzling would be made plain if we could suppose that in the early days of the art, when mints were few in number, there was a period SO UU1JN TYFIiS during which the magistrate's signet was systematically- employed. Cyzicus and Phocaea, which started on the opposite principle, presently came round to this one. It is not unreasonable to suppose that in so doing they were conforming to a general practice. Subsequently the minting of silver and the spread of coinage towards the west brought about a general reversion to the policy they had abandoned. But to the end the old tradition of changing types clung to the direct descendants of the primitive staters : witness the fourth century electrum coins of Cyzicus, of Mytilene, and of Phocaea, the last representatives of the original currency. And it was probably this tradition that affected both the gold of Lampsacus and the silver of Abdera. Lampsacus and Cyzicus lay not far from one another on the coast of the Propontis, and Ionian influences were strong at Abdera, which had been colonized from Clazomenae and recolonized from Teos. The hypothesis just put forward accords perfectly with the scanty evidence that can be gleaned from inscriptions. For the most part the electrum coinage is uninscribed, and of the few legends that do occur there are perhaps not more than two that can be interpreted with any approach to certainty. On the oldest coins of Phocaea (Plate i. 5) the seal is accompanied by the letter 0, a very archaic form of <£. This is the initial letter of the city's name, and — in the light of later usage — it is clear that it is employed here to interpret or explain the device. It says in effect, * This is the badge of Phocaea/ The second inscription to which I have alluded has given much EARLIEST INSCRIPTIONS 51 occasion for discussion (Plate i. 3). It runs round the figure of a grazing stag, and the forms of the letters are extremely early. There is some doubt about the reading of the first of the three words of which it consists. But the differences of opinion are not material to our point, and we may safely adopt Head's version, 1 which is AM^IM^OW^A®. Passing from right to left, we get <&aevo$ i/ml aevo$ is obviously a genitive. What is its nominative ? Sir Charles Newton, in first publish- ing the coin 2 (which is, by the way, unique), suggested <£aevw, a possible epithet of Artemis, c the bright one,' whose association with the deer is well known. Frankel has also argued in favour of this view, basing his opinion on etymological grounds. 3 The majority, however, suppose that an ordinary human being is meant, and say that he must have been a potentate or ' tyrant ' either at Halicarnassus or at Ephesus, the coin having been found at Halicarnassus and the stag being a common type at Ephesus in later times. In view of the parallel that can be quoted from an archaic engraved gem, Qipcrtos el fit cra/*a, w fxe avoLye, < I am the signet of Thersis ; open me not,' * we must (I think) agree that he was a man. But the inference as to his position is hardly justifiable. If our hypothesis regarding the character of many of 1 B.M.C, Ionia, p. 47. 2 Num. Chron., 1870, p. 237. 3 Arch, Zeit.y 1879, PP* 2 7 & 4 0. Rossbach, Arch. Zeit., 1883, p. 337, PI. xvi. fig. 19. VV/±1^ the types on the early electrum be accepted, Phanes — if that be the proper form of his name — takes his place quite naturally as an ordinary magistrate. The presence of the name beside the badge is certainly exceptional, but so was the presence of the name beside the town- arms at Phocaea. An incidental consequence of the conclusion reached is that the attribution to Ephesus is rendered quite doubtful. If the stag is a personal signet, its interpretation as a type of that town becomes inadmissible. Originally, then, coins were simply pieces of sealed metal impressed with the emblem either of the issuing city or of the responsible magistrate. Whatever special influences may have come into play subsequently, types were at the outset no more than signets. In their essence they were heraldic rather than religious. Heraldry, it must be remembered, is far older than the Middle Ages. The warriors in the Seven Against Thebes carry shields with devices every whit as elaborate as those that figure in the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche. Sometimes these devices were hereditary, like a mediaeval or modern crest. Pau- sanias says that on the grave of Epaminondas there " stands a pillar bearing a shield on which is wrought in relief a dragon. The dragon is meant to signify that Epaminondas was of the race called the Sparti." l On the other hand, an individual might choose a special emblem. The Gorgon on the shield of Lamachus in the Acharnians looks like something of the kind, and Plutarch explicitly tells us that Alcibiades discarded anything approaching a family coat-of-arms, 1 viii. n, 8. ANCIENT HERALDRY 53 and placed upon his shield instead a figure of Eros hurling a thunderbolt. 1 In the case of magistrates we have no means of knowing for certain that the devices used on shields were identical with those employed for public purposes as signets. There is, however, a strong presumption that they were so sometimes. Interesting evidence to that effect can be gathered from the Tabulae Hera- cleenses. Before the name of each of the magistrates mentioned on these Tables there occur one or more letters denoting his tribe and also a word descriptive of the object that served as his official symbol — a flower, a caduceus, a bunch of grapes, a ship's beak, and so on. A comparison shows that the official symbol is often common to members of a tribe. 2 Again, on the Euxine pottery which was referred to earlier in the lecture, the occasional addition of a patronymic to the name of the aa-Two/mos enables us to see that the right to use a signet might be trans- mitted from father to son. There are several instances where the same device is employed by both. 3 It is therefore quite probable that some of the magistrates' symbols which we meet with on coins may be hereditary crests. It can, however, be shown positively that they were frequently of the nature of specially selected emblems. The later series of Ath- enian tetradrachms (Plate "ni^Nos. 3, 5, 6, and 7), " which we have already found helpful in another con- nection, is particularly valuable for the light it throws 1 ao-7rtSos re 8ia)(pv(rov iroiryrw ovSev €irta"qfjiov twv irarp'uDV Ixowrav, aAA' "E/>coTa K€pavvo6pov (Alcibiades, xvi.). 2 See Brandis, Z/.N. i., pp. 45 f. * Ibid., pp. 53 f. 54 COIN TYPES upon this question. The obverse type of these coins is a head of Athena Parthenos, copied from the famous chrys- elephantine statue by Pheidias. On the reverse a wreath of olive encloses an owl perched upon an overturned amphora, the blank parts of the field being occupied by the magistrates' names l and by a symbol. The magi- strates' names are never less than two in number. Often we find three. The connection between the first two magistrates and the symbol is so clearly established by their * concomitant variations ' that no one has ventured to question it for a moment. But when we come to enquire to which of these two the symbol really belongs, we find considerable difference of opinion. Beule, Brandis, and Lenormant give their voices in favour of the second. Cavedoni, Grotefend, Head and Kohler have all pronounced for the first. There need be no hesitation in associating ourselves with the latter view. So far as the argument from joint variation is concerned, the weight of evidence is about equally bal- anced, 2 and any difficulty in the way of either hypothesis can readily be got over by assuming the possibility of re-election — a possibility which is demonstrated for the first magistrate by the series with AIOKAHS, AIOKAHS TO AEY, and AIOKAHS TO TPI. The really decisive thing is that, wherever a relation between symbol and name can be traced, it is always with the first name that the 1 It should be noted that it is quite doubtful what the nature of this magistracy was. Mr. Hill has suggested to me that the names may record a Xecrovpyta. If this view could be substantiated, it would remove several difficulties that have always beset the discussion of these coins. 2 See Hill, Handbook,^ 122 f. SYMBOLS AT ATHENS 55 association exists. Two or three examples of this are familiar to numismatists, and I think we may be able to point to others that are fresher. A review of the cir- cumstances will be helpful, if it enables us to determine the motives by which the selection of an emblem for the purpose was determined, for the selection of types was in all probability regulated by the same general principles. It will be simplest to begin with the three best known cases of association. On the series in which Antiochus Epiphanes appears as first magistrate the symbol is the Seleucid elephant (Plate ii. 5). 1 Similarly in 87-86 B.C. when Athens espoused the cause of Mithradates the Great, the name of Mithradates stands first upon the coins and the symbol shown is a sun with crescents, 2 a combination that at once recalls the sun and crescent on the money of the king himself. Lastly, on a series that must belong to the same period, in all probability to the year immediately preceding, the first magistrate is Aristion, known to history as one of the doughtiest champions of the Pontic monarch, while the symbol is a figure of Pegasus drinking (Plate ii. 6), familiar as a favourite coin-type of Mithradates. 3 Aristion's choice of a symbol was obviously dictated by political considerations. With a more intimate knowledge of the history of the period, we might find 1 It will be convenient to refer to the various series by the numbers prefixed to them in Head's conspectus (B.M.C. Attica, pp. xxxviii. ffi). I need hardly say that this admirable summary has been of the greatest service. The series with the name of Antiochus is No. xxviii. 2 Series No. xcv. 3 Series No. lvi. 58 UU1JN TYfJib goddess ; that on the former is her head-dress. Par- ticular interest in this respect attaches to Series lxxx.-bcxxiii., all of which bear the name Diodes as that of first magistrate. The Diodes of the first three is certainly one and the same individual, seeing that, as we have mentioned, to 8ev. is appended to his name on the second series, and to rpi on the third. Good cause has been shown for identifying him with Diodes (Cephisieus), father of a son of the same name whom we know from epigraphic evidence to have been archon in 58-57 b.c, and to have held the priesthood of Asclepios and Hygieia. 1 There is no difficulty in our supposing that the priesthood was hereditary, as so many priesthoods were. If we do so, the motives that prompted the father's choice of symbols for the tetradrachms are thrown into clear relief. His first series has a figure of Asclepios. His second has a figure of Hygieia. We have still to speak of Series lxxxiii. The Diodes mentioned there is quite a different personage. On the coins he is distinguished by the epithet MEAI, which indicates his deme. He is Diodes (Meliteus) a member of a family from which the ranks of the monetary magistrates were more than once recruited, and regarding the genealogy of which we are fully informed by Plutarch. 2 This Diodes 1 CJ.A., ii. 630, and 489^, p. 420. See Head, Attica, pp. I. f. Kohler (Z.f.N. f xii. 106 ff.) assigned the coins to the younger Diodes, an attribution that would remove all shadow of doubt as to the meaning of the symbols. 2 Fit. decern Orat., 843 B. For a table see Head, Attica, p. Ii. Kohler (I.e.) would attribute the coins, not to this Diodes, but to his son, who presumably inherited from his mother the priesthood she had held. TWO KINDS OF SYMBOL 59 married Philippe, priestess of Athena. The symbol on his coins is the statue of Athena Parthenos. The example just cited would of itself have sufficed to show that the symbols were not always hereditary crests. And almost the whole of the rest of the evidence points in the same direction. Indeed, where re-election was possible, and where (as we know to have been the case at Athens) the monetary magistracy was apt to run in families, a system of special devices was demanded by the circumstances, if the various issues were to be kept heraldically distinct. A desire for such distinction would naturally spring up wherever the symbols formed a prominent part of the decorative scheme of the coin. It would, there- fore, be reasonable to suppose that the types of the Cyzicene electrum were specially chosen, and that is precisely what we should infer from their character. Many of them are obvious adaptations of the coin- types of other towns. On the other hand, at some other cities, such as Dyrrhachium, the symbol is much less conspicuous than the name, and there it is not uncommon to find the same device repeated in associa- tion with different names — a repetition that is explained at once if we interpret the emblem as a family crest. 1 It would seem, then, that there are two possible kinds of symbol — the family crest and the specially selected device. It is important to note that the only real difference between them is that in the case of the latter the man does for himself what in the case of the former was done for him by an ancestor. This means that the ultimate motives of choice are identical 1 See Brandis, .Zf.N., i. pp. 59 ff. 6o COIN TYPES in tendency. What the Athenian symbols have taught us in regard to motives is therefore capable of universal application. Such is a brief summary of the leading truths that have emerged from our survey of magis- trates' symbols. If the analogy insisted on at the close of last lecture is to hold good, they ought to provide us with a solid basis for investigating the nature of types. To begin with, we should expect to find that some types are heraldic in character, the part of the family crest being played by the town-arms. I may say at once that I look upon this as by far the most likely explanation of all those archaic types that are not the symbols of individual magistrates. The causes that encouraged magistrates to seek for special devices would not be operative where a city seal was con- cerned. Is it possible to confirm such a view by reference to actual cases where coin-types are identical with the badges or emblems employed by cities upon other occasions ? Athens may, I think, be taken as a first example. An owl forms the usual reverse type of her silver coins. There are clear indications that an owl was also the device upon the city-seal. It occurs as a stamp on many of the dicast's tickets that have been brought to light. Again, according to Aelian and Photius, 1 the Athenians during the Samian war branded their prisoners with the mark of an owl, while their enemies branded theirs with the mark of a galley. In Plu- 1 Aelian, F.H., ii. 9, and Photius, fr. 59 (Frag. Hist. Graec, ii. p. 483). HERALDIC TYPES 61 tarch's account 1 the symbols are reversed, which makes the story unintelligible, for the galley was a Samian coin-type, just as the owl was an Athenian one. The real significance of the anecdote is revealed by a casual remark of Xenophon, who tells us, in quite another connection, that public slaves were usually branded with the impress of the public seal. 2 The Athenians and the Samians on this occasion did not sell their captives ; they kept them for the public service. We are directly indebted to Xenophon for two further illustrations. His narrative of the stratagem practised by the Argives on the Corinthians makes it clear that the Sicyonian soldiers had a large 2 blazoned on their shields. 3 Among the earliest coins of Sicyon are drachms whose reverse shows nothing but a large 2. Similarly we learn from another passage that the device which the Theban hoplites bore upon their shields was a club, 4 while contemporary silver staters of Thebes have the Boeotian shield on their obverses decorated with a club. Less certain, but still suffi- ciently likely, is the suggestion that the cuttle-fish, which occupies the reverse of fifth century Eretrian tetradrachms, was the town-arms of Eretria. We find Themistocles, at the momentous council of war that preceded Salamis, silencing a protest of the Eretrian admiral by the sneer that the Eretrians were veritable cuttle-fish — they had a sword to strike but no heart to use it, 5 — a gibe, the sting of which can only have 1 Pericles, xxvi. 2 a-ecrrjfiaa-fxkva tQ fyjioarttp o-rjfidvTpo) (De Vectigaltbus % iv. 2l), 3 Hellenic^ iv. 4, 10. 4 0/>. «/., vii. 5, 20. 5 Plutarch, Themistocles, xi. 62 COIN TYPES lain in some special and well-understood connection between Eretria and the cuttle-fish. Nor would it be reasonable to seek an explanation in the coin-type, for the tetradrachms that have the cuttle-fish as a device are later than the Persian wars. The dialogue in which Plutarch discusses the question as to why the Pythian priestess had ceased to give responses in verse contains a passage that will further illustrate our point. 1 In the Treasury of the Corinthians at Delphi the hand of the spoiler had spared but a single votive offering. The solitary survivor was a bronze palm, round the root of which, frogs and watersnakes were wrought in relief. The group was doubtless symbolical of Delos, where Leto had given birth to Apollo, otvtKos pa&tvrjs ^epcriv e<£a^a/iev?7, dOavartov k&Wuttov, Irrt TpO)(0€tSec XifLvy. This simple interpretation did not occur to the speakers. It is incredible that they should have forgotten the Delian palm. But they evidently did not remember what the poets almost always couple with the palm — the Delian lake, Xifjivav €i\iv(rovcrav v8(op KVKV€LOV, €v6a KVKVOS //cA^SoS Moi'cras Oepairevet. They were therefore quite at a loss to account for the frogs and snakes. The palm, they argued, was not a water-plant, and so why should it be associated with water-animals ? Again, the presence of swans, wolves, hawks, or any of the other creatures specially 1 De Pythiae Oraculis, xii. DEDICATION OF CITY-ARMS 63 favoured by the god would have been intelligible, but who ever heard of frogs being sacred to Apollo ? 1 What particularly interests us is the third possibility, which is mentioned only to be set aside. "Frogs have no special connection with Corinth such as would render the figures appropriate as the emblem or arms (avufiokov % irapaa-ti^ov) of the city, as the Selinuntines are said to have once upon a time dedicated a golden selinon plant (or leaf), and the people of Tenedos the axe, from the crabs that have their habitat at a place in the island called Asterion, these crabs being unique in having a mark like an axe upon their shells." The Greek is awkward. 2 But the general drift, I think, is clear. Plutarch indicates that the selinon plant (or leaf) and the axe were the irapdarrjfxa or arms of Selinus and of Tenedos respectively. That he was right as to Tenedos we shall be able to prove presently on other grounds. And there is no good reason for hesitating to accept his first example. The Selinuntines could not have found a more appropriate device. The l A bronze frog in the Berlin Museum bears the inscription "Afioyv ^(dvoov Boao-ovi. It was found in the Peloponnesus, and Fr'ankel (Jrch. Jahrb., i. 50 fF.) connects it with the passage of Plutarch now under discussion and interprets Boacrwv as a name of Apollo. This is accepted by Wernicke in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyci. (ii. 45) where Bochtwv duly makes its appearance among the fully accredited e7rt/cA^o"ets ! 2 Plutarch, De Pythiae Oraculis, xii., oiiVe KoptvOiots n fi&Tpayoi TTpOO-rjKOVO-LV) W(TT€ (TVfJijSoXoV ?} 7Tapa(TY)fXOV €tVS' W(T7r€p dfieXet SeAtvowTiot 7tot£ \pvo-ovv uattro and Cinque-Cento Italian artists." 1 We shall limit ourselves to three examples. The type of the cow suckling her calf, which we heard of in connection with the commercial theory, 2 and which occurs not only at Corcyra and her colonies, but also in Euboea and elsewhere, is an exact reproduction of a design that can boast an antiquity far greater than the invention of coinage. Gems bearing it have been unearthed on Mycenean sites, and it is found on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments as well as in Persia, Lycia, and Phoenicia. From a kindred source comes the type of a lion leaping on a bull. This was peculiarly appropriate on the coins of Acanthus. We know from Herodotus that lions abounded in that region as late 1 Num. Ckron., 1899, pp. 364 f. 2 See supra, p. 28. PLATE III. 1. Syracuse («Vra 400 B.C.) : silver, 2. Larissa {circa 400 B.C.) : silver, 3. Syracuse {circa 400 B.C. ) : silver, .. - 4. Catana (before 476 B.C.) : silver, - 5. Segesta (415-409 B.C. ) : silver, 6. Aetna (476-461 B.C.): silver; - 7. Caulonia (before 500 B.q.).: silver, 8. Tarentum (420-380 B.C.) : silver, 9. Larissa (480-436 B.C. 1 }'* silver, -t^ 1 - 10. Larissa, {circa 400. B.C.) :. silyet,; ,- (J - 11. Syracuse (before 500 B.C.) : silver, 12. Sjn-acnse' (500-478 B.C.) Tsilvet; 13. Syracuse {circa 479 B.C-) : silver, 14. Syracuse («>ra 400 B.C.) : silver, our ( .see; p^opft- , ■ ;j - ,-.w '?il ifi & . [ .%2 ;&i «3» J ' ' ■ • ■- fi . _ "u^CK lr , 1-73. 4 ;»' t; ,- c 93. ■ - id IOI, ■ 99 I2 9, is 3 roi, 136' OVi a ■k iP9> *3° hi a ' r A " IOI w PLATE HI . THE IMITATIVE INFLUENCE 81 as the first half of the fifth century b.c, for they played havoc with the transport animals attached to the army of Xerxes. 1 The picture itself, however, was an old one. It figures, for instance, on gems from Mycenae and on an ivory tablet from Spata. 2 Our last example is a remarkable electrum stater in the British Museum (Plate i. 4). The obverse shows a heraldic arrangement of two lions, opposed, but with heads reverted, standing on their hind-legs as supporters to a pillar. The motive is a familiar one, particularly of course from its occurrence on the ' Lion-gate ' at Mycenae. Such transferences of designs from gems to coins might equally well have been classed as manifestations of the imitative instinct. But it seemed preferable to reserve that head rather for the discussion of a class of types where not merely the imitations but also the objects imitated were coins. In some cases the imitation was undertaken for what we may call decorative reasons. That is, a type was copied because it was recognized as being beautiful. Nothing shows more conclusively the widespread admiration that the Syracusan coins com- manded in the ancient world than the extent to which imitations of their types appear on the money of other cities and states. Two in particular were extra- ordinarily popular — the facing head of Arethusa by the engraver Cimon (Plate iii. 1 ), and the head of Persephone in profile by his contemporary Euainetus (Plate ii. 13). That the coinages of Sicily itself and of Italy should furnish examples of copies from these 1 Hdt., vii. 125. 2 Figured in A. S. Murray's History of Greek Sculpture, i. p. 31. 82 COIN TYPES splendid models is not surprising. But it is remarkable to find the Arethusa head as far north as Eurea and Larissa in Thessaly (Plate iii. 2), and as far east as Tarsus in Cilicia. The influence of the Persephone of Euainetus was even more far-reaching. It affected the drachms of Massalia in Gaul and of Rhoda and Emporiae in Spain. The Opuntian Locrians copied it closely on the very first money they struck (Plate ii. 14). The corresponding reverse is likewise imitated from a Syracusan coin, and there is considerable probability in the suggestion that these pieces were directly imitated from Syracusan money brought home to Locris by men who had served as mercenaries in the armies of Dionysius. A similar theory would account for the appearance of the head on coins of Pheneus in Arcadia, seeing that in the fourth century Arcadia was a favourite recruiting ground for soldiers of fortune. The Carthaginians, as we have had occasion to remark, issued no money of their own until a comparatively late period, not indeed until their second great invasion of Sicily in the end of the fifth century b.c. Their earliest coins were minted in that island, and were intended (as the legends show) to supply the needs of the armies in the field. The most usual obverse type is a slavish imitation of the Persephone head (Plate ii. 15). In course of time coins began to be struck in the Carthaginian capital, and thither the head of Persephone was at once transferred and used on the obverse of coins in all metals. Nor was it ever displaced. Though ultimately sadly degraded, it retained its position until Carthage herself was destroyed. INTELLIGENT IMITATION 83 But it was not always an appreciation of beauty that roused the imitative impulse. More frequently it was called into play by considerations of commercial convenience. A conspicuous example is the coinage of the Corinthian * colonies,' as they are conveniently, if rather erroneously, called. Corinth commanded a wide range of markets in the north-western portion of Greece Proper. Her staters, with the figure of Pegasus on one side and the head of Athena on the other, are found in Acarnania, Epirus, and Illyricum, and even as far west as Sicily and Southern Italy. They must have been practically an international currency. In course of time the cities that used them most freely in this way, began to strike coins that are indistinguishable from the true Corinthian pieces except in respect of the dis- tinguishing letter or monogram or legend that they bear. In types, weight, and general appearance they are identical. During the fourth and third centuries B.C. at least twenty different states and cities were issuing these Pegasus staters more or less abundantly, in some cases side by side with a currency on which their own peculiar types were stamped. One class of coins was for home trade, the other for circulation abroad. In the same category we may place the silver tetradrachms with the name and types of Alexander the Great which were minted by many cities in Asia Minor. These continued to be struck, not only long after Alexander himself was dead, but long after his empire had crumbled into fragments. There are many specimens which cannot be earlier than the second century b.c. Similar considerations may have prompted the sudden appearance of Athenian types in Crete about 84 COIN TYPES 200 B.C., when six of the principal cities in the island abandoned their own types, even Cnossus giving up the labyrinth or, rather, suffering it to sink to the level of a symbol. Instead, there were struck coins that, but for the ethnic and the absence of magistrates' names, are practically the same as Athenian tetradrachms of the * new style.' So far we have been speaking of imitation that was more or less intelligent. But, if civilized states were prone to imitation, much more so were those barbarians who became acquainted with coins and realized their practical convenience, but lacked the originality and the technical skill to produce types of their own. Such peoples employed as a currency, in the first instance, the actual coins that came into their hands through the medium of the civilized nations with whom they did business. In all probability they learned to attach an almost superstitious reverence to the types most familiar to them ; there are instructive modern parallels, such as the popularity of the Maria Theresa silver dollar in Abyssinia. And, when the stock of coins received was inadequate to meet their requirements, they did their best to turn out a home product that should resemble them. There is good reason to believe that ' barbarous imitation ' is almost as old as the first invention of coined money. Head has pointed out that, among the early pieces of electrum with Lydian types, there are a few which are marked off from the whole of the rest by a striking peculiarity of style. 1 The type is shown in outline only, with no attempt at relief. This outlining, 1 Head, B.M.C., Lydia, p. xx. BARBAROUS IMITATION 85 as he points out, " is not characteristic of early coin art, but seems rather to be the crude attempt of some unskilled barbarian engraver to copy the current coin." If this be so, he is doubtless right in connecting the pieces in question with the great Cimmerian invasion of Asia Minor, one of the earliest national migrations of which we have any historical record, when a host of * mighty men ' from the north-east swept over the land as far west as Lydia, ' eating up the flocks and herds, eating up the vines and fig-trees and beating down the fenced cities with the sword.' They captured Sardis about 650 B.C., and it is therefore to that epoch that the earliest ' barbarous imitations ' are to be assigned. In this instance the imitation was brought about by the fact that the barbarians had penetrated to the centre of civilization. After a thousand years the same pheno- menon was repeated on a vastly larger and more endur- ing scale. We shall have to deal with that by and by. Just now we are concerned with barbarous imitations that resulted from movements of a different kind. Coins travelled from the centres of civilization across its frontiers into the barbarism that lay beyond. There, as has been indicated, they were first accepted and then imitated. There were various pieces that enjoyed a popularity of this sort, but the two most conspicuous were the silver tetradrachm of Athens and the gold stater of Philip II. of Macedon. The popularity of these was not due to their artistic beauty, but to the high reputation in which they were held as money. As Aristophanes tells us, the exceptional quality of the Athenian tetradrachm was universally recognized, ev re rolg'EWtja'i teal rotg /3ap/3dpot(ri iravra-^ov ( Frogs , 726). 86 COIN TYPES The effect upon the types was curious. From the days of Hippias till the Macedonian conquest they remained practically unchanged. The coins of the fifth century betray no sign of the extraordinary development of art, no token that they were struck in the city of Pheidiasand his school. The sole transition discernible is that from the truly archaic (Plate ii. i) to the archaistic (Plate ii. 2). The explanation of this ' arrest ' has often been stated. The Athenians were fully sensible of the commercial advantage of having so ready a market for the output of their silver mines. They were sensible also of the conservative spirit in which barbarians (and barbarians were among their best customers) are apt to regard the outward appear- ance of the unit of currency, and of the suspicion with which they are inclined to look upon a change. And so they refrained, as far as possible, from making any alteration in their coins. They would not risk the chance of their rejection. It is true that there is a very marked difference between the c old style ' and the fc new style ' of Athenian tetradrachm (Plate ii. 2 and 3). But it must be remembered that they were separated by the gap of a century during which the mint was practically, if not entirely, idle. No doubt it is to this interval that a considerable number of the eastern imitations belong. But the coins of the fc new style ' found their imitators too. Very interest- ing copies of both old and new come from the Himyarite kingdom in Southern Arabia (Plate ii. 4), some of the later Himyarite pieces showing a curious intermixture of Roman influence. The fortunes of the gold c Philippus,' as it ^as GAUL AND BRITAIN 87 called, have a peculiar interest for ourselves. It was the first gold coin minted in any considerable quantities in Europe, its types being a laureate head of Apollo on the obverse, and a two-horse racing chariot on the reverse (Plate ii. 11). In the ordinary course of commerce it reached the interior of Gaul either by way of the Greek colony of Massalia, the modern Marseilles, or, more probably, overland along the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine. Whatever the route may have been, it was through international trade that the natives were initiated into the use of coined money in general, and in particular came to be familiar with the Philippus. The country, it must be remembered, was not wholly given over to bar- barism, as we understand the term. Caesar's story of his conquests shows plainly that, in some districts at least, there existed in his time a fairly advanced form of political and social organization. As early as the third century b.c the people began to strike money of their own. Their oldest coins were of gold, and were direct imitations of the gold coin they knew best, the Macedonian Philippus. As Britain and Gaul were in constant communication with one another in those far-off days, it was but natural that our own forefathers should in due course follow the example of their continental neighbours. The first specimens of British coinage can hardly be later than circa 150 b.c, and like their Gaulish prototypes they are descendants of the Philippus (Plate ii. 12). More than forty years ago the coins of the ancient Britons were made the subject of a masterly study COIN TYPES )ir John Evans. 1 His book placed this branch umismatics once for all on a scientific basis. It not a little new light on the unwritten history xr island — the tribal divisions, the districts in which )us chiefs had held sway. But, more than this, orked out independently, in the sphere of art, a >sophy that was strikingly consistent with the •gical theory through which Darwin revolutionized modes of human thought. The story of the lopment, or rather the degeneration, of the :ate head and of the chariot is full of interest, only on its own account, but also as establishing principles by which barbarous imitation is regulated tie world over. It is clear that before very long British engravers lost all idea of the meaning of objects they were attempting to reproduce. The ires of Apollo are gradually edged entirely off flan of the coin, while the chariot and horses lately become a mere unintelligible arrangement nes and pellets. And yet in the midst of this adation the decorative instinct was active. Where ing is left of the obverse type save an exaggerated :1 wreath, which leaves room for little except a curved lines representing locks of hair, there is snce of an effort to arrange the whole so that it Id form a definite and symmetrical pattern. r hether the Philippus was the sole ancestor of the ■ British coinage is matter of considerable doubt, [ohn Evans has modified the pronounced opinion )nce held upon the point. But it is at least in that some of the gold coins of Gaul present indent British Coins, London, 1864. Supplement, 1890. VARIETIES OF IMITATION 89 traces of other influences. Copies of Tarentine staters, for example, have recently been identified. 1 Speaking generally, one may say that there were two distinct classes of coins that were apt to be made the subject of barbarous imitation— those which were so popular among civilized peoples that they might fairly take rank as an international currency, and those which were struck by states in close contact with semi-civi- lized peoples. None of the former class travelled so far as did the gold Philippi and the Athenian tetradrachms, although the silver coins of Philip were largely imitated in Central Europe, and those of Alexander were copied both there and in the East. Obvious examples of the latter class are the silver drachms of Massalia and of Rhoda, and the tetra- drachms of Thasos and of Audoleon, king of Paeon ia. Intermediate between the two chief kinds of imitation — the direct but more or less intelligent, and the purely barbarous, — there are many varieties which it is not possible to separate by nice distinctions either from them or from one another. Some of the cases of local homo- geneity discussed in the opening lecture were nothing but particular manifestations of the activity of the imitative instinct, working in a manner that was only half conscious. And local limits were merely accidental, and were often transcended. It would, indeed, be difficult to overestimate the extent of the influence that imitation in some form or other has exercised on the coinages of the world. Before the close of the course x See Blanchet, Monnaies gauloises (1905), pp. 188 f., and also Anatole de Barth£lemy, Rev. Num. 1883, pp. jj. PI. i, f 1 f. 9° COIN TYPES we shall have occasion to notice the importance to which it attained in the West in the centuries that succeeded the fall of the Roman Empire. In the East it was equally potent, controlling the whole process by which the currencies of Parthia, Bactria and India developed out of the coinages of Alexander the Great and his successors. 1 1 For details see Mr. C. F. Keary's illuminating monograph on "The Morphology of Coins" (Num. Chron., 1885 and 1886), where all the main facts are recorded. LECTURE III. In the preceding lecture it was found that the analogy between types and symbols indicated that both alike were heraldic in their origin, and the invention of coined money was shown to be merely a special applica- tion of the practice of sealing. Judging by what happened in the case of other official documents, we concluded that coins might have been impressed either with the signet of the state itself or with that of the magistrate most directly responsible for their issue. This con- clusion enabled us to put forward an explanation of some of the peculiar difficulties associated with the electrum coinage of Asia Minor. It was further shown that magistrates' signets might be either family crests or specially selected devices, and that there was every reason to think that a similar distinction would apply to coin-types. This distinction, however, did not affect the question of the ultimate motives determining a choice. It was accordingly disregarded, and the possible motives were grouped under four main heads. Two of these heads were dealt with briefly. We have now to take some account of the third and fourth. 92 COIN TYPES "What I have ventured to term the commemorative influence lies at the root of an immense variety of types. Interpreted widely, it may be defined as the tendency to employ devices closely associated with particular features of a city or with particular events in its history, the object being to secure something that would serve as a shorthand sign for the place itself and that could hardly fail to be so understood by those into whose hands coins bearing it might come. This broad definition would include types parlants or "speaking types.' What- ever other significance they may have had, we cannot doubt but that they were intended to recall the name of the city on whose money they occur. Beside them may be placed types alluding to sites or to local characteristics. These were far less common on auto- nomous Greek coins than they were destined to become in the imperial age. Still a considerable number of examples can be cited. The majority of them are from Sicily and the West. Thus the type of the oldest coins of Zancle, the modern Messina, is a dolphin lying within a curved line (Plate v. 1 1). The line is a conventional representation of the sickle-shaped mole that enclosed her famous harbour, and the dolphin is intended to convey the idea of water. A very similar device was used a century or two later at Baletium in Calabria, no doubt with a similar significance. At Himera a gushing fountain is often introduced as part of the general scheme of the coin-types. This is a pointed allusion to the medicinal springs of the neigh- bourhood. Over and over again, more especially in Sicily and Acarnania, we meet with rivers as types. It is true that in such cases it is not the river itself that is THE COMMEMORATIVE INFLUENCE 93 pictured. It is the god of the river. But it does not therefore follow that the types are religious. Selinos, Gelas, Crimisus, Achelous and the rest are employed in this way, not because they are gods, but because they water particular districts. So far as the coinage is concerned, their importance lies in their being local landmarks rather than in their being divinities. If they appear in human or in animal form, that is only because symbolism was the means of representation most open to the artists. It is difficult, indeed, to see what other course they could have taken. The obverse of one of the earliest coins of Catana may be cited as a picturesque example (Plate iii. 4). The river Amenanus is shown as a man-headed bull, one of the most usual of the forms that river-gods are made to assume. His right foreleg is bent as if he were in the act of swimming. Above him is a water- fowl and beneath him a fish, suggestive respectively of the surface of the stream and of its depths. Another Fig. 13.— Segesta: Silver. interesting instance is the treatment of the river Crimisus on coins of Segesta. According to local legend, it was in the shape of a dog that the river-god had wooed and won the Trojan maiden whose name was given to the town by its founder Egestus, the offspring of their union. On the earliest coins ( Fi g- I 3) the obverse showed the head of Segesta 94 COIN TYPES and the reverse the figure of a dog, a clear embodi- ment of the tradition just quoted. On later issues, when art was more advanced, simplicity gave way to elaboration. The beautiful tetradrachms struck towards the close of the fifth century b.c. present us with the river-god inhuman form (Plate iii. 5). A young huntsman, with conical cap slung over his shoulders, stands in an attitude of easy watchfulness with one foot resting on a rock. At his side are his two dogs. In front is a terminal figure, the usual symbol of a boundary, indicating apparently that in this admirable composition the river is brought before us as the guardian of the frontier. As a still more notable illustration of the com- memoration upon a coin of the natural features of a locality we may take a unique Sicilian tetradrachm now in Brussels (Plate iii. 6). 1 In 476 b.c. Hieron of Syracuse cleared Catana of its inhabitants, to make way for a c plantation ' of his own adherents. At the same time he changed the name of the city, calling it Aetna after the great mountain at whose foot it nestled. To the period of fifteen years during which it remained in the possession of the Syracusan colonists the tetra- drachm about to be described must certainly be assigned. On the reverse is a divinity enthroned. In his left hand he grasps a thunderbolt, while his right rests on a knotted staff of what seems to be vine-wood. In front of him is a pine-tree, on the highest point of which an eagle is perched. The figure is without doubt that of Zeus. But it is hardly as a god who vouches for the currency that he is here represented. 1 See Head in Num. Ckron., 1883, pp. 171 ff. LOCAL PLANTS AND ANIMALS 95 It is rather as the god of the mountain, the Zev? AiTPctiog whose favour is invoked on behalf of the city in one of Pindar's most majestic passages. 1 The vine- staff and the pine-tree are vivid touches of local colour. The obverse is almost equally full of meaning. The type is an ivy-wreathed head of Silenus, and there was a tradition which made Silenus dwell in the caves of Aetna as the slave of Polyphemus. 2 That it is to his local connection that he owes his position on the coin is made plain by a gigantic Aetnaean beetle which is placed just beneath his neck. In this example the local plants and the local animal appear as adjuncts only. Occasionally, however, they are employed as the leading types. So it is, for example, with the bee at Hybla, the goose at Eion, the wood-pigeon at Sicyon, the swan at Clazomenae, the boar in Lycia, and the dog among the Molossians. And it is perhaps here that we should class the mussel at Cumae, the crab at Acragas, and the tortoise at Aegina. In some of these instances, no doubt, a theory of religious symbolism would be quite admissible. But it is not necessary to have recourse to such an explana- tion in cases where we know, either from ancient writers or from modern travellers, that the animal used as a type was a conspicuous feature of the locality on whose coins it is found. Much the same may be said of the plants that are made to do duty as badges. We have spoken of the leaf of wild celery at Selinus and of the single ear of barley at Metapontum. An illustration that is perhaps better than either is the silphium of Cyrene (Plate iv. 3). Again, Homer 1 Pythia, i. 56 ff. 2 Euripides, Cyclops, 23 ff. 96 COIN TYPES applies to Histiaea the epithet 7ro\vo-Ta Pyrrhus (295-2^2 B.c*-)': silver, ■ ^ Si'4'.ft - ' r "'-"'- *" io^i'' 3. Cyrene {circa 509 B.C.): silver, ^j- tQ -;,,, - fU 95, 107 , , 4. Mende (500-450 B.C.) : silver, - 108 5. Mende (450-424 B.C.)*: silver, '-■'' - '*- v -' r 10S ' 6. Mende (450-424 B.C.) : silver,^ -. ; ; ot'W'i -*°^ pf 7. Selinus (czVra 500 B.C.) : silver," - - 64,124 8. Selinus (466-415 B.C.) 1 : silver,-' ,;L .') - ai - { *'~-c :i x iio, f 24 ' 9. Selinus (466-415 B.c;.,):,^lver,_- \\:,s £ -• 1 ' ' - '.;iKQihK4 rO 10. Demetrius Poliorcetes (306-283 B.-.C.) :. silver, t- - ill 1 11. Samos (row and blowing a long trumpet (Plate iv. 10). This latter type, it may be added, is identical in its general scheme with the commemorative statue erected at the same time in Samothrace. 1 The federal coinage of the Aetolians provides a parallel instance. The reverse of gold and silver alike shows at one period a figure of Aetolia, armed with sword and spear, seated on a pile of Gaulish and Macedonian shields. Sometimes there is a Gaulish war-trumpet under her feet. The whole pose suggests a statue, and we need not hesitate to agree with Millingen 2 in recognizing a reproduction of the thank- offering which Pausanias saw at Delphi — " an image of an armed woman, Aetolia no doubt " — dedicated, along with a trophy, by the Aetolians after they had driven back the Gaulish invaders. 3 1 See Th. Reinach, UHistoire par les Monnaies, pp. 1 2 f. 2 Ricueil de quelques Midatlles grecques, p. 39. 3 Pausanias x. 18, 7. ioo COIN TYPES It is sometimes said that the bull-fight has a religious significance on coins, inasmuch as performances of the kind were given at games held in honour of Poseidon Tavpeos. But at the best this would be a strangely indirect way of appealing to the god to bear witness to the soundness of the currency. And in any case the inference could hardly be admitted unless it were proved that it was only on the occasion of the games that the coins were minted. There is no evidence to support such a view. Under the empire it was certainly the custom in the provincial centres to signalize the periodical celebrations of great games by the issue of bronze coins, the types and inscriptions of which often alluded directly to the festival. That something of the same sort did occasionally happen in earlier times can also be proved. The inscription AXEAOIO AE0AON on a fifth century silver coin of Metapontum points to games in honour of the river god Achelous. Similarly, there is an early stater, having the ordinary types of Elis but reading simply OAYMPIKON, which may well have been struck by the Eleians in anticipation of an Olympic celebration. The whole of the money of Eleusis, too, is probably festival money, and good grounds have been advanced for holding that the splendid Syracusan medallions were struck — in the first instance, at anyrate, — in connection with the games held to celebrate the Athenian discomfiture. 1 Even in such cases, however, the motives for the issue must have been mixed. On the one hand, there would be a desire to meet the convenience of the crowds who flocked in from neighbouring districts ; on the other, there 1 A. J. Evans, Num. Chron^ 1 891, pp. 214 f. CHARIOT RACING 101 would be a wish to provide some memorial of the occasion. Best known of all the ' agonistic ' types, as they are called, are the chariots which were so popular on Sicilian coins and which also occur elsewhere,— at Cyrene, for instance, and on the gold staters of Philip of Macedon. It is quite certain that these are meant to allude directly to the sport of chariot-racing. It is difficult, perhaps, to associate the idea of rapid move- ment with the earliest examples (Plate iii. n). But that is merely because at the beginning of the fifth century b.c. the die-engraver was not yet fully master of his craft. The first indication of the real nature of the type is the appearance, before 480 b.c, of a flying Victory placing a wreath on the heads of the horses (Plate iii. 12). Very soon technical difficulties are overcome, and then we get the horses in full career (Plate iii. 14), Occasionally during the period of finest art the representations are positively sensational, the broken wheel and the trailing rein conveying a vivid suggestion of catastrophe befallen or impending. On their largest coins Cimon and Euainetus show us what was the prize of victory at Syracuse. In the exergue, — that is, the small segment of the coin-surface that is cut off by the line on which the main type rests, — we have a complete suit of armour, with the legend A0AA (Plate ii. 13 and Plate iii. 14). The meaning of the chariot type being absolutely clear, it is worth while asking what was the feeling that prompted its selection. Was it chosen because games were religious celebrations, or because chariot-racing was a favourite form of sport in the regions where the 102 COIN TYPES coins were minted ? All the evidence points to the latter alternative. It is very significant that we find the type, not at the great centres of the Panhellenic celebrations, but in the countries whence successful competitors in the chariot contests were most largely drawn. Fifteen of the surviving odes of Pindar are in honour of victories with the chariot. In eleven instances the winners come from Sicily and in two instances from Cyrene, while Athens and Thebes can claim but one triumph each, — a distribution of honours out of all proportion to that found in connection with, say, wrestling and boxing. Chariot-racing was a princely sport. It required a lavish expenditure of money. This was no doubt one main reason why it flourished among the Sicilian rvpawoi and the wealthy oligarchs of Cyrene. But, at Cyrene at least, it sur- vived the establishment of a democratic form of govern- ment. Indeed, it was probably not until after the overthrow of the Battiadae that coins with agonistic types were struck in Cyrene at all. The beautiful gold staters with the chariot were issued soon after 400 B.C. We have still to speak of Philip of Macedon. His devotion to the sport is well known. Tidings of a victory gained by one of his teams at Olympia is said to have reached him on the very day on which his son Alexander was born. 1 Even more distinctly commemorative are the types that bear directly on the origin of a city or a dynasty. A colony, for example, sometimes adopted as its 1 It has often been suggested that the chariot on Philip's gold staters and the horseman on his silver tetradrachms may conceal an allusion to his name <&i\t7riro$, * lover of horses.' ALLUSIONS TO ORIGIN 103 own the type of its mother-city. There being no political connection, such an act could only be a tribute inspired by sentiment. Thus Abdera, which ■was founded in 544 b.c. by refugees from Teos, placed upon its very earliest coins a seated griffin, the type employed at Teos in the sixth century B.C. The analogy with Apellicon's symbol - 1 is remarkable. Similarly Olynthus borrowed from Chalcis a flying eagle, and Dicaea from Eretria the figure of a cow scratching herself. In this form of reminiscence it was not necessary that the type should be an exact copy. The Ionian Magnesia was said to have been founded by Magnetes from Thessaly, and one of its coin-types is a Thessalian horseman. An analogous impulse can be traced in the coin-types of Thurii, the great colony founded under Athenian leadership on the ruins of ■Syt>aris. The obverse of the first coinage shows the head of Athena, patron goddess of the city whence the colonists went forth ; the reverse has the figure of a bull, a revival of the characteristic type of the city they were to rebuild. Again, when Thurii in her turn sent ■out colonists, and joined with Tarentum to found Heracleia, the union of Ionian and Dorian was suitably commemorated on the money of the new city. The obverse type was the head of Athena, exactly as she appeared on contemporary Thurian coins, while on the reverse was the Dorian hero Heracles, wrestling with the Nemean lion. The type just mentioned suggests a reference to yet another aspect of the commemorative influence, — the tendency to make allusion to the founder of the city 1 See supra, p. 56. io 4 COIN TYPES or to some legendary hero or heroine with whose adventures it Was closely connected. Here again there is risk of confusion. We may be sure that in all such cases divine honours were paid to the indivi- duals in question. But their use as types is not due to their divinity, but to their intimate association with the city or district concerned. The west, to which we are already largely indebted for illustrations, fur- nishes many examples. None is better known than Taras (or Phalanthus) founder of Tarentum, whom we find riding over the waves on his dolphin as early as the sixth century b.c. (Plate iv. i). At Croton, rather more than two hundred years later, we get the seated Heracles, accompanied by the legend OIKISTAZ or 'the founder.' About the same time we have the hero Pheraemon at Messana, and his counterpart Leucaspis at Syracuse, both represented in much the same attitude, — as armed warriors, charging with spear and shield. Rather later there appears at Metapontum the head of Leucippus, leader of the band who first formed the settlement. Contemporary coins of the same town display the head of another local hero, Tharragoras, while from Syracuse there come bronze coins with the head of the oekist, Archias. It was in the same spirit that Pyrrhus of Epirus struck coins having Achilles and Thetis as types (Plate iv. 2). We know on other grounds that it was from them that he claimed to be descended. Naturally we find the heroes of the Trojan cycle on the coins of the cities with which they were most closely associated — Odysseus at Ithaca, Ajax son of Oileus in Locris, Diomede at Argos. More remarkable MYTHS AND LEGENDS 105 than any of these is Aeneas carrying off Anchises on a sixth century tetradrachm of Aeneia in Macedonia. Crete can boast of a rich series of mythological types. The coins of Phaestus alone provide us with Europa riding on the bull, with Heracles slaying the hydra, with the giant Talos hurling stones, as well as with other groups representing subjects less familiar. Nor was the association always a personal one. The gold staters of Panticapaeum (Fig. 14) have as their obverse type a head of Pan ; on the reverse is one of the gold-guarding griffins who were fabled to keep watch Fig. 14.— Panticapaeum : Gold. over the precious stores whence the Greeks on the north of the Euxine derived so much of their wealth. An interesting group of fourth century Arcadian coins deserves a passing notice. It is a curious example of local fashion in types. At Methydrium, and also at Orchomenus, we see the nymph Callisto falling in her death agony, pierced by the shaft of Artemis. At Tegea we have the young priestess Sterope holding out an amphora into which Athena lays the hair of the Gorgon Medusa, which was to protect the city from capture for all time to come. On the contemporary silver coins of Pheneus Hermes is shown rescuing Areas, child of Callisto, from the fate that had overtaken his mother. Some of the corresponding bronze pieces have on the obverse a 106 COIN TYPES head of Artemis and on the reverse a horse feeding. The clue in this, as in so many other cases, is given by Pausanias. 1 Odysseus lost his mares and searched vainly for them up and down Greece. At last he re- covered them in the territory of Pheneus. Recognizing to whom he owed his good fortune, he founded a sanctuary of Artemis, whom he surnamed c Heurippe ' — ' finder of steeds.' At the same time he resolved to make the land of Pheneus a feeding ground for horses. Pausanias actually saw an inscription which purported to embody the instructions given by Odysseus to the herdsmen told off to superintend the grazing ! At Thelpusa, again, the usual fourth century reverse type is a galloping horse, whose identity is explained by the legend EPIHN. It is u divine Arion, the swift steed of Adrastus," the off- spring of Poseidon and of the nymph from whom Thelpusa took its name. Once more, a tempting conjecture has recognized on drachms of Mantineia a representation of the fufilment of the injunctions laid upon Odysseus by Teiresias. 2 The hero, bearded and wearing a conical cap, has reached the land where " men know not the sea nor season their food with salt when they eat." He is shown in the act of fixing his oar in the ground before offering " goodly sacrifices to Poseidon the King." On the other side of the coins is the altar of the god. The interest of this particular group lies in the tend- ency it displays to choose subjects that are mytho- logical rather than purely religious. There is not one 1 viii. 14, 4 ff. 2 Svoronos, Etudes Arch, ei Num., i. (Paris, 1889). MYTHS AND LEGENDS 107 of them but suggests a story. The tendency is excep- tional, but it was not new. An archaic tetradrachm of Cyrene, now in the Paris collection, has as one of its types the silphium, the familiar badge of the city, and, as the other, Heracles in the garden of the Hes- perides (Plate iv. 3). The hero is standing with club and lion's skin, looking towards the tree with its load of golden fruit. Beyond the tree, facing him, is one of the nymphs who guarded the apples. The whole picture is so obvious that no one could fail to recognize what it represents. But it should be observed that it is intelligible only because we happen to know the story. Is it not possible that some of the more puzzling of the other early types may also be mytho- logical, and may illustrate local legends of which no literary record has survived ? Dr. Imhoof-Blumer has employed this principle to throw light on certain of the types in use at Etenna in Pisidia. 1 And there are other coins to which we can easily conceive that it might be applicable. The curious designs so prevalent on the archaic issues of Thasos and the mainland opposite — centaurs or satyrs carrying off nymphs, and the like — may well have a more definite reference than it is now possible to dis- cover. It must not be forgotten that several of the Arcadian types that were mentioned would have seemed every whit as meaningless but for the happy accident that we possess an early traveller's gossiping impressions of his journey through the Peloponnesus. Moreover, the connection with the lore recorded by Pausanias would not always have been obvious 1 Kleinas. Miinzen, pp. 370 ff. 108 COIN TYPES without the aid of the descriptive titles that the engravers sometimes added. Such descriptive titles are hardly to be looked for before the fifth century. Even then they occur very sparingly. Not until the fourth century do they become really common, their increased use being closely connected with the increase in the variety of devices adopted by one and the same town. Some lost legend must, I think, lie behind the strange types that occur at Mende in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The central figure is an ass. If he had always been alone, as he occasionally is, we might have accepted him as a symbol of Silenus. Silenus and the ass are often associated. But at Mende there are variations that point clearly to a mysterious connection with a crow, the crow being usually seated on the ass's back pecking at his tail (Plate iv. 4). The action is not so common as to render it a fit subject for a genre picture. That it is an illustration or epitome of a story is made probable by the fact that the relationship is maintained even when circumstances alter. There is a set of tetrobols which show on the obverse Silenus standing holding his ass by the ears, and on the reverse a crow (Plate iv. 6). The corre- sponding set of tetradrachms has a vine on the reverse, while the obverse type is very elaborate (Plate iv. 5). Silenus, to all appearance *■ tolerably drunk,' reclines on the ass's back, waving a wine-cup in his hand. On the ground, between the ass's legs, is a dog, and in front grows a tree, on the topmost branch of which is seated our crow. The whole arrangement strongly suggests that there must be a clue if only we could find it. It HISTORICAL REFERENCES 109 may have been the tale told to Pausanias by the people of Nauplia when they explained why they had the figure of an ass carved on a rock. Unfortunately he did not think it interesting. "The story," he says, " is not worth repeating, so I omit it." l As time goes on, we begin to meet, not merely with mythological, but with historical references on coins. The custom of minting money to celebrate particular events, much in the spirit in which medals are struck nowadays, does not appear to have been very prevalent among the Greeks. One of the most famous and best authenticated instances is the issue of the " Damareteion," — the earliest Syracusan dekadrachm — minted after the great victory won over the Cartha- ginians at Himera in 480 b.c. (Plate iii. 13). The cir- cumstances are related by Diodorus. 2 We need not dwell on them, however, because the types have not been influenced by the occasion, — unless, indeed, as has often been suggested, the crouching lion in the exergue of the obverse may fairly be taken as a symbol of defeated Africa. But there are cases, even in the fifth century, where the types actually give us a direct reflection of a historical incident. There is, for example, no good reason to doubt the truth of Aristotle's statement — preserved for us by Pollux-^-that the reason why Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, introduced a mule-car as a coin-type was because he wished to signalize the victory he had won at Olympia in the race for mule-cars. Very interesting are the tetradrachms and didrachms of Selinus which bear witness of the salvation brought 1 ii- 38, 3. 2 xi. 26. no COIN TYPES to the city by Empedocles when he delivered it from the scourge of pestilence, Diogenes Laertius x relates that it was by connecting the channels of two streams that the philosopher cleared away the stagnant waters where the germs of the plague had bred. The whole anecdote is admirably illustrated by the coins. The obverse of the larger pieces (Plate iv. 8) shows a chariot in which Apollo and Artemis are standing side by side. The former is in the act of discharging an arrow, directed, no doubt, against the powers of evil. The latter symbolizes the relief conveyed to women labouring of child, for Diogenes tells us that on all such the scourge fell with special severity. The reverse is more striking still. The river-god Selinos, holding a lustral branch in his hand, is offering sacrifice, possibly to Asclepios, god of healing. The didrachms form an appropriate pendant (Plate iv. 9). The reverse is almost identical, except that here it is the second river, the Hypsas, that is sacrificing. The obverse is quite different. The type is Heracles struggling with the bull. The analogy of the tetradrachms justifies us in concluding that the group is symbolical in this particular connection. At the same time it must have been familiar to every Selinuntine, seeing that it forms the subject of one of the most recently discovered of the metopes that once decorated the great temples of the town. In the fourth century, commemorative types that allude directly to historical occurrences tend to become more common. The gold and silver pieces struck by Agathocles after he had defeated the Carthaginians on 1 viii. 2, 70. HISTORICAL REFERENCES in their own ground, make obvious reference to his cam- paign. In the critical moments that preceded the opening of the decisive battle, he is said to have let loose a number of owls which flew through the ranks of his soldiers and, perching on their shields and helmets, gave them confidence that Athena was on their side. The gold staters have as a reverse type an armed figure of Athena with an owl at her feet. On the reverse of the silver tetradrachms is a representation of Victory erecting a trophy. Similarly, when Demetrius Polior- cetes, acting as the admiral of his father Antigonus, inflicted a crushing defeat on the fleet of Ptolemy (306 b.c.) he struck coins having on the reverse a figure of Poseidon, and on the obverse Victory standing on a f>row and blowing a long trumpet (Plate iv. 10). This latter type, it may be added, is identical in its general scheme with the commemorative statue erected at the same time in Samothrace. 1 The federal coinage of the Aetolians provides a parallel instance. The reverse of gold and silver alike shows at one period a figure of Aetolia, armed with sword and spear, seated on a pile of Gaulish and Macedonian shields. Sometimes there is a Gaulish war-trumpet under her feet. The whole pose suggests a statue, and we need not hesitate to agree with Millingen 2 in recognizing a reproduction of the thank- offering which Pausanias saw at Delphi — " an image of an armed woman, Aetolia no doubt " — dedicated, along with a trophy, by the Aetolians after they had driven back the Gaulish invaders. 3 1 See Th. Reinach, VHistoire par les Monnaies, pp. r 2 f. 2 Ricueil de quelques Midailles grecques, p. 39. 3 Pausanias x, 18, J. ii2 COIN TYPES Nor was it war-like triumphs alone that were cele- brated thus. We have similar records of political friendships. About 280 B.C. the Epizephyrian Locrians, who had been forced into alliance with Pyrrhus, suc- ceeded in freeing themselves and joined the Romans. During the vicissitudes that followed they struck coins having on the reverse a seated figure of Roma being crowned by Loyalty. Each of the two has her name attached, PflMA and TTIITII, so that there is no question as to the correctness of the interpretation. The personifications are interesting as anticipating a variety of type that we shall afterwards find very frequent on Roman coins proper. More symbolically expressed are the allusions on Sicilian coins to the expedition of Timoleon. The success of his mission was marked by the appearance, all over the island, of types that were evidently regarded as the badges of liberty — the head of Zeus the Deliverer, and the free horse. We are entitled to conclude that the cities where these types came into use made common cause with Timoleon against the Carthaginian oppressors. Even more noteworthy is the numismatic memorial that constitutes almost the only record of what must have been an anti-Spartan confederation formed about 394 B.C. 1 The * allies,' whom the result of the Pelo- ponnesian war had transformed into a Spartan 'empire/ were not long in shaking off the yoke. With the aid of Conon, the Athenian admiral, the oppressors were driven out of most of the cities on the coast of Asia Minor. So much we know from history, Ephesus and Samos being specifically mentioned. Other prominent 1 Waddington, Melanges de Num., ii. pp. 7 ff. POLITICAL COMBINATIONS 113 members of the league must have been Rhodes, Cnidus, Byzantium, and Iasus. For just about this time, all the six cities mentioned issued silver coins having on the reverse the name and the characteristic type of the place of issue, and on the obverse the letters IYN, for SYMMAXIKON or 'federal money/ written round a representation of the infant Heracles strangling two serpents (Plate iv. 11). The symbolism of this subject is easy of interpretation. It is interest- ing to note that it must have been borrowed from the money of Thebes, where, however, it had no special significance, but was merely one of a series portraying the national hero in various attitudes. We find it again at Croton, and there, as in Asia, it was probably symbolical, seeing that it made its appearance at the very time when the Italian Greeks were defending themselves desperately against the aggression of Dionysius. In the illustrations just discussed we have been deal- ing with types deliberately chosen to convey a particular Fig. 15.— Himera : Silver. meaning. Where the event to be commemorated was a political union, there was a simpler way of proceeding. The union might be expressed by merely combining the ordinary badges of the states concerned. We know, for instance, that in 482 b.c. Theron of Acragas extended his sway over Himera. The types previously in use at that city had been a cock (Fig. 15) or a ii4 COIN TYPES cock and a hen. The coins that belong to the period of Theron's domination have the cock of Himera on the obverse and the crab of Acragas on the reverse (Fig. 1 6). It is in all probability to a union of a more voluntary and more temporary sort that we owe a remarkable tetradrachm of Cyrene now in the British Museum (Plate iv. 12). On the obverse, side by side with the silphium plant and certainly not less prominent than it is, we get a lion's head with open jaws. This second device might refer to any one of several cities. But it would appear to be Lindus in the island of Fig. 16. — Himera : Silver. Rhodes that is really intended, since the reverse shows the badge of another Rhodian town, the eagle's head of Ialysus. Of the particular circumstances attending the issue of the coin in question we know nothing. And there are other cases equally obscure. Why, for example, should Metellus Creticus have used the Ephesian Artemis as a type at Gortyna ? Sometimes, however, history helps us. Thus, the oldest coins of Poseidonia have for their type, as we already know, Poseidon brandishing his trident. Their fabric is that described in the first lecture as character- istic of the 'South Italian Monetary Confederation.' In weight they do not agree with the issues of the other Achaean colonies, such as Sybaris. Instead, they follow the Campanian standard, employed by their neighbours POLITICAL COMBINATIONS 115 of Velia. About the beginning of the fifth century B.C. there occurs a sudden change by which fabric, weight, and type are all alike affected (Plate iv. 13). The coins become smaller in diameter and thicker ; there is a type in relief on both sides ; and the weight is now Achaean. The alteration in fabric calls for no remark ; it is in sympathy with what was taking place elsewhere. But that in type was, I think, due to a discoverable cause. The new device was a bull, and the current view is that it appears here as a symbol of the worship of Poseidon. The bull, however, was the coin-type of Sybaris. When Sybaris was destroyed in 510 B.C., its surviving inhabitants fled to other towns in Magna Graecia. It is highly probable that Poseidonia was one of these cities of refuge. I would suggest that the numbers that went thither were large enough to make the settlement something like a avvoncio-fjLos, and that it was their arrival that occasioned the introduction of the new type and also, by opening up fresh commercial connec- tions, led to the adoption of the Achaean system of weight. This conjecture is strongly confirmed by the fact that fifty years later Poseidonia was used as a base for an attempt to rebuild Sybaris. The restored city struck coins during the five years of its brief existence. The types employed on these are the bull and Poseidon with his trident. The type of Poseidon at Poseidonia furnishes an exact parallel to the use of the figure of Dionysus as a symbol by the Athenian magistrate Dionysius. It shows how inextricably the commemorative and the religious influences might be united. It was inevitable n6 COIN TYPES that it should be so. It could not but happen that the most striking characteristic of a city, that by which she was most anxious to be known among her neighbours, was often an intimate connection with a divinity. Whether we believe with some that Athena was called after the town she loved so well, or hold with others that the Scujulovlov irrokUdpov took its name from its protectress, we cannot but recognize it as appropriate that the Athenians should use as a device on their public seal the owl which, as the favourite bird of the goddess, would serve as a perpetual reminder of the relation in which she stood to their city. The point in regard to which their coins differ markedly from earlier pieces struck elsewhere, is that (so far as we can judge) they were the first to bear a well-marked type on each side. "While the irapaa-yifxov is placed on the reverse, the obverse is occupied by the head of the goddess for whom, after all, the Trapaa-rnxov was but a shorthand sign. As the many examples that could be cited from later periods clearly prove, such a connection between obverse type and reverse type appealed to the Greeks as a natural one. Zeus and his thunderbolt, Apollo and his lyre, Heracles and his club are among the com- monest combinations. And it seems simplest to seek in this principle the key to the types on the money of Tenedos. There the reverse type is the double-axe, which was also, as we saw, the city-arms or -rrapaa-np-ov of the island, just as the owl was at Athens. The association of the double-axe with religion is clearly proved by the fifth century pieces on which it figures as a cultus-object. It is natural to infer from the analogy of Athens that it was the emblem of the divinity whose THE RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE 117 janiform head is used as the type of the obverse (Plate i. n). The owl and the double-axe are only two out of a number of devices that must have been chosen as -wapao-rifAa on religious grounds, that is, because they formed a convenient shorthand sign for the patron god or goddess of the town. The bee and the stag on early coins of Ephesus speak unmistakably of the great goddess whom all Asia and the world worshipped. Later representations show her cultus-image standing between two stags, and Pausanias tells us that her priests were called ' King Bees.' 1 One great reason for the use of such emblems lies, of course, in the limita- tions of the older artists. At Larissa, for instance, it was obviously a far easier thing for the engraver to draw a sandal than it would have been for him to draw a head or a full figure that would have suggested Jason anything like so readily as the sandal must have done to all who handled the coins, for all who handled the coins would know the legend. The first attempt to represent the human head on a coin was made, in all probability at Cnidus in Caria, as early as circa 700 B.C. (Plate i. 2). Fully two centuries elapsed before such types became common. Some study of the process by which they acquired their ultimate pre-eminence will, I think, show that the religious element in coin-types did not spring full-grown into being. Nor did it originate in any feeling as to the sacrosanct nature of the art of minting money. Rather, it was through the promptings of the commemorative instinct that religious types first found a place upon coins. In the course of centuries 1 'E(to-^v€s (Paus., viii. 13, 1). n8 COIN TYPES the commemorative influence, where it survived at all, sank to a level of secondary importance, and for a time religion held undisputed sway as the most potent factor in determining the character of the devices that cities, states, and princes were to use upon their money. Let us begin by glancing at a group which is beyond all question religious, but which still remains in a certain sense commemorative. It is typical of many others. Collectors of Sicilian coins are familiar with the electrum series of Syracuse. The three highest denominations are pieces of ioo, 50, and 25 litrae respectively, and their types are as follows : Obverse. Reverse. Head of Apollo Head of Artemis Head of Apollo Tripod Head of Apollo Lyre As this is the earliest appearance of Apollo or his emblems on Syracusan money, it can hardly be as a local deity that he is invoked. When we realize this, we are struck by the suddenness of the invasion and the completeness of the conquest. The style of the coins points to the middle of the fourth century B.C., and the series has usually been attributed to Timoleon {circa 345 b.c). This attribution throws no light upon the types. On the other hand, all is satisfactorily explained if we accept the view (which has been advocated by Reinach and Holm) that the electrum coinage was issued by Dion, who in 357 b.c. drove out the younger Dionysius and subsequently himself assumed the role of tyrant. The island of Zacynthus was the THE SYRACUSAN ELECTRUM 119 rendezvous where Dion mustered the seven or eight hundred men who formed his expeditionary force. There Apollo was the chief local god. His temple, as we learn from Plutarch's narrative, was the scene of a splendid sacrifice which Dion offered prior to embarka- tion, marching to the sanctuary with all his retainers in full armour. The sacrifice was followed by a no less splendid feast, marked by a most profuse display of wealth. 1 Possibly we ought to connect with this very festival certain silver staters of Zacynthus on which the name of Dion actually occurs (Plate iv. 15) and which, be it noted, are identical in their types with the 50 litrae piece of Syracuse (Plate iv. 14). But the main point is that the { liberator,' when he started on his enterprise, evidently placed himself and his companions under the protection of Apollo. If the types of the coins issued after he had gained his end were to be religious, as established custom demanded that they should be, it was only natural that they should be connected with the worship of the god to whose favour he must have ascribed some share of his success. It is not, however, the obviously commemorative character of the group that is of importance for us at present. It is the suggestion conveyed as to an established custom,— as to a well-understood connection between religion and the minting of money. This suggestion is fully borne out by a wider survey. At Populonia in Etruria, for instance, we find the following bronze pieces issued within a very short time of one another. 1 Plutarch, Dion, xxiii. 120 COIN TYPES Obverse. Head of Athena Head of Hermes Head of Heracles Head of Hephaestus Reverse. Owl Two caducei Club, bow and arrow Hammer and tongs At the Bruttian town of Vibo Valentia practically the whole Olympian pantheon was drawn upon. Here is a list of the types used on the various denominations during the second century B.C., each denomination being, as it were, reserved for a particular divinity. Obverse. * Head of Zeus Head of Hera Head of Athena Head of Demeter Head of Heracles Head of Apollo Head of Artemis Head of Hermes Reverse. Thunderbolt Double cornucopiae Owl Cornucopiae Two clubs Lyre Hunting dog Caduceus Or take the bronze coins issued at Centuripae in Sicily after circa 241 B.C. Obverse. Head of Zeus Head of Apollo Head of Artemis Head of Demeter Head of Heracles Head of Apollo In such cases as these there can be no question of commemoration. The only conceivable motive is the Reverse. Winged thunderbolt Lyre Tripod Plough Club Laurel-branch RELIGIOUS SERIES 121 religious one. It looks as if there had been a desire to honour as many as possible of the gods and goddesses by assigning them a niche in the gallery of types. In the same spirit the welcome extended to the worship of Sarapis and Isis in Sicily is reflected in the appearance of these deities as coin-types at Catana and Syracuse. It is worth our while to note in passing how admirably the lists given above serve to illustrate the principle we found operative on the archaic tetradrachms of Athens, — the obverse of a coin reserved for a divinity, the reverse occupied by his or her special emblem. And it is curious to observe that, sometimes at all events, the relative value of a coin in a series would seem to have varied with the importance of the deity who supplied the types. We have no other means of gaug- ing the degrees of veneration paid to the different Hellenic gods and goddesses at Vibo Valentia and Centuripae. But it is significant that on the money of both towns Zeus occupies the highest place, while Apollo ranks above his sister Artemis. We are, perhaps, justified in thinking that the others may stand in ' order of merit ' also. Examples such as those that have been cited are more numerous among the bronze series of Italy and Sicily than they are anywhere else. For that there were special reasons which we shall have occasion to refer to by and by. But it may be observed now that the con- venience of varying types to indicate value was recog- nized at an early stage in the history of coins. Although it was not always acted upon, it was the outcome of a tendency which, as has already been stated, must have operated powerfully against the continued use of any 122 COIN TYPES one device or irapacrrifxov as the sole type on the money of a city. At Syracuse, for instance, soon after 500 b.c. the tetradrachm shows a four-horse chariot, the didrachm a horseman leading a spare horse, and the drachm a horseman riding alone. On the gold pieces struck at Pisa in 364 b.c. the thunderbolt marks the obol, while the piece of one and a half obols has three half thunderbolts for its type. At Argos in the fifth century b.c. we get a wolf on the drachm, a half-wolf on the hemidrachm, and the head of a wolf on the obol. It would be easy to multiply examples. Returning to our main argument, we may, I think, regard it as proved that, at least from the fourth century b.c. onwards, there was a more or less close connection between coin-types and religion. The contrast between this later period and the earlier one can best be shown by taking a particular case. The archaic coinage of the Aegean consisted, it will be remembered, of staters of Aeginetic weight, having an incuse square on the reverse. The following are the more important of the obverse types — amphora, cuttle-fish, bunch of grapes, one-handled vase, pomegranate, head of satyr, kantharos, goat kneeling, eagle (or dove) flying. The whole of these pieces are earlier than the invasion of Xerxes. After the Persian defeat the islands passed under the protection of Athens, when all of them except Siphnos underwent an eclipse that involved an almost complete cessation of independent mintage. 1 Even after the overthrow of the Athenian Empire they 1 The view that they were at once deprived of the right of striking coins cannot now be fully maintained. See R. Weil, Das Miinzmonopol Athens im ersten attischen Seehund (Z./.N., xxv. pp. 52 fF.). TWO EPOCHS CONTRASTED 123 struck but little money of their own. About 300 B.C., however, they seem to have recovered a full measure of financial autonomy. If we look at the types that came into vogue then, we can estimate the extent of the change that had taken place in the interval. A few of the earlier devices are still employed, — the grapes at Iulis, the pomegranate at Melos, the kantharos at Naxos, the goat at Paros, — but even these have lost the pre-eminence they once enjoyed. One or two emblems of a similar kind have been introduced, such as the star and the bee at Iulis. But the great majority of the new types are representations of gods and goddesses- — ■ the head of Zeus, the head of Aristaeus, the head of Dionysus, the head of Athena, the head of Artemis, the head of Demeter, Apollo enthroned, Athena fight- ing, Demeter seated. Here the wide gap between two epochs helps to emphasize the difference. But it is almost more in- structive to follow the fortunes of series that are con- tinuous, and in particular to notice what happened at those cities where we have good grounds for recognizing some one type as the town-arms or 7rapark (Plate hi. 12 f.). The most interesting feature, wever, so far as our present purpose is concerned, is it the inscription is moved from obverse to reverse. this case there can have been no question of conven- n. It was too early for that yet. Besides, when the ad was transferred to the obverse — as, for reasons eady explained, 1 it speedily was — the inscription rompanied it (Plate ii. 13). Thenceforward, until 2 time of Timoleon, it is usually with the head that ; ethnic is associated. How is this to be accounted • ? I would suggest the following explanation. When 1 Syracusans first began to mint money, they selected 1 four-horse chariot as their distinguishing device. The :>e quickly caught the popular fancy in other Sicilian ies. Gela and Leontini, we know, imitated it almost mediately. It could no longer, therefore, be regarded characteristically Syracusan. What was originally a ondary device, the head, was accordingly promoted the first place, and to it — irrespective of the side of : coin on which it might be placed — the inscription s naturally attached. When the union between the 3 was dissolved, its real meaning had been forgotten, I the inscription had come to be looked on as belong- ;, not to the -Trapao-^jULov merely, but to the whole coin. It must be frankly admitted that suggestions such that now put forward are somewhat tentative in 1 See supra, pp. 1 2 5 f. ANOMALIES EXPLAINED 131 character. It could not be otherwise when we are seeking to explain phenomena that were the result of a variety of motives the nature and force of which we can do little more than guess at. But, before leaving this part of our subject, I am tempted to point out one or two anomalies that would be rendered more intelli- gible by an acceptance of the theory on which we have been proceeding, — the theory, I mean, that coin-inscrip- tions originally belonged to the type. On the staters of the ' South Italian Monetary Confederation/ — the title is so convenient that it is difficult to abandon it, — the type is, as we are aware, repeated on the reverse, and it is not at all uncommon to find the inscription repeated there too. At Poseidonia such repetition is the rule. Elsewhere it is not carried out so systematically. At Laus, however, two stages are observable. During the later the first three letters of the ethnic are placed both on obverse and on reverse, exactly as at Poseidonia. During the earlier the ethnic is written in full, the first three letters being placed on the obverse and the last three on the reverse. The survey of the coin is thus incomplete until both sides have been looked at. Similar divisions of an inscrip- tion occur elsewhere. In some instances, as on the litrae of Abacaenum in Sicily, the division is probably due to lack of space. But when we find, as we occasionally do (Plate v. 9), early tetradrachms of Acragas having AKPA on the obverse beside the eagle, and TAS on the reverse beside the crab, in both cases with a wide expanse of blank field, we cannot help thinking that the engraver may have been prompted by the same impulse that led the artist of the famous 132 COIN TYPES dekadrachm to place both crab and eagle as symbols on the obverse of his masterpiece, as if the two together were required for the full expression of the emblem of the town. As a last example, I would take the mysterious type of Caulonia. We know next to nothing of the history of this city, except that it was one of the oldest Achaean settlements in Southern Italy, that it became a pro- sperous and populous centre, and that it was destroyed by Dionysius of Syracuse in 388 b.c. During the sixth century b.c. it struck coins marked by the usual local peculiarities (Plate iii. 7). The type may be described as follows : c Naked male figure, standing with one foot planted in advance of the other ; hair bound with diadem and falling in ringlets ; in raised right hand a branch ; on left arm, which is outstretched, a small figure running forward with head turned back, holding a branch in each hand ; in front, stag standing on basis, with head reverted.' Behind the large figure is the ethnic in a more or less contracted form. I have already suggested that the type may be modelled on a statue, and I have no further conjecture to offer as to its meaning. My point now is that the stag is not an integral part of the whole, and that there appears to be an intimate connection between it and the name of the town. It rests upon a basis apart, and is not so definitely attached to the divinity as are, say, the stags that stand beside the statue of Artemis on Ephesian coins. At Caulonia, of course, the type is at first repeated incuse on the reverse. Repetition of the inscription is, however, not very usual here. About 500 b.c. the peculiar fabric falls out of fashion, just as at CAULONIA 133 the neighbouring cities, and an independent type is placed on the reverse. This second type at Caulonia is a stag, and from the first moment of its appearance the ethnic is seen beside it. But it is no ordinary case of transference, because for a time the original legend and the original stag are still retained on the obverse. Pre- sently both disappear, and leave the main figure in solitude (Plate v. 10). It cannot perhaps be said that their disappearance is absolutely simultaneous. But it is certainly true that, where one is wanting, the other is usually wanting too. 1 It looks as if a stag had been (for what reason we know not — quite possibly through some connection with the c Apollo ') the town-arms or irapaa-rifiov of Caulonia, and as if it had originally been employed on the coinage as the symbol of the town, the statue being a specially selected device. This would be interesting as giving us an example of a Trapa.o-rifj.ov that developed out of a mere symbol into an independent type, a process which would be the reverse of the ordinary one, but for which something of a parallel could be got on the coins of Leontini. 2 It would also furnish an apt explanation of the double inscription, — a very unusual feature of Greek coins of any period. 1 There are doubtless some exceptions, but there is a very strong body of evidence in favour of the view here suggested. The whole of the Cauloniate coins in the Hunter Cabinet, for instance, conform to the * rule,' and so do nearly all of those in the British Museum, as I have ascertained by personal examination. 2 See supra, pp. 1 24 f. LECTURE IV. Towards the close of last lecture so many incidental points of interest emerged that we were compelled to turn aside somewhat from the main line of argument. Probably, therefore, it will conduce to clearness, if I begin to-day with a brief re-statement of the general position I am anxious to make good. The distinctively religious character which was practically universal among coin-types from the fourth century B.C. onwards was not due to any quality inherent in the nature of coined money as such. Rather, it represented an en- croachment on the earlier practice of employing as a type either the ordinary town-arms or else a specially chosen device that would easily be recognized as a shorthand sign for the city. The original types may often have been, in the nature of things, religious. But subsequently a specifically religious influence made itself felt. As this gathered strength, the earlier devices tended to disappear, or at least to be over- shadowed in importance by the head or figure of a divinity that had been given them as a companion. In the end there was established between coins and religion HEADS AS TYPES 135 an association so intimate that, before the close of the Hellenic period, it had come to be regarded as a matter of course that the types of coins should be religious in subject. The change was due to a combination of causes. It has already been pointed out that the inscription served practically the same purpose as the original type, that it was more generally intelligible, and that at the same time the suitability of any mere single device must have been considerably impaired by the growing need for a variety of types such as would suffice to prevent con- fusion between the increasing number of denominations that were being struck. All this helped to accelerate the movement. But there must have been other forces at work determining its direction. It would be hope- less to try and distinguish these clearly at this distance of time. We shall not be mistaken, however, if we accord some weight to the operation of the imitative influence. As we saw, it was probably at Cnidus that the head of a divinity was first used as a type. 1 This was exceptionally early. In the course of the sixth century B.C., however, we get a very archaic head at Calymna in Cos, and another at the Sicilian Naxos, while the satyr's head from the Santorin find can also lay ■claim to a remote antiquity. Then there are the Athenian tetradrachms, which are certainly among the very earliest pieces to have a type on both sides. The set of coins last mentioned had an extraordinarily wide circulation ; specimens are found, both in east and in west, far away from the country of origin. And there were two features that were bound to strike those who 1 See supra, p. 117. 136 COIN TYPES saw them for the first time, — the simplicity and obvious- ness of the relation between the head of Athena on the obverse and her owl on the reverse, and the peculiar fitness of a head for use as a type in a circular setting. Under these circumstances it is quite conceiv- able that they may have exercised a considerable effect in helping to introduce a fashion which, once intro- duced, could hardly fail to grow rapidly in popularity. Sometimes, as at Metapontum, there is an inter- mediate stage, where the full figure rather than the head of a divinity was in favour (Plate v. 7 f.). But sooner or later the head wins its way to the first place. At Cumae the decorative obverse of the oldest coins is abandoned to make room for the head of Athena or of a nymph. Throughout Thessaly the bull-fighter with his bull disappears, leaving his horse unattended on the reverse (Plate iii. 2). In many other cases, as at Syracuse, Corinth, Argos, Sinope, and Siphnos, the head succeeds to a place that was vacant, only a single type having been in use there previously. The earliest money of Elis has an eagle, a thunderbolt, a figure of Victory with a wreath in her hand, and similar reminis- cences of the connection between the district and the worship of Zeus, or his festival. By and by the head of Zeus becomes the most usual obverse type, the corresponding reverse being either a thunderbolt or an eagle. This illustrates what will be found to be a fairly general rule, — that, if the oldest type (or Ttapaa-rjfj.ov) of any city has been chosen because it is the symbol of a particular divinity, then, when a head is adopted as an obverse type, it usually proves to be the head of the divinity in question. On the other hand, HEADS OF DIVINITIES 137 we may perhaps infer that a irapacr^fxov has no well- marked religious significance when we find it combined not with one head, but with a variety. Thus, had the ear of corn at Metapontum been simply the emblem of Demeter, we should have expected her head to become its constant accompaniment. As a matter of fact, the earliest divinities with which it is associated are the River Achelous, Apollo, and Heracles. After 400 b.c. the head of Demeter does indeed occur as an obverse type. But this is only when the religious influence has attained full development, and even so Demeter is but one out of a number. While the popularity of the head as a type may have been, to some extent, the result of imitation, coupled of course with its extreme fitness for the purpose, this popularity was an effect no less than a cause of the growing influence of religion in guiding the choice of coin-types. It was not only that the type on which the artist bestowed most care would naturally tend to attract the largest share of public esteem. The very fact that coins were looked upon as works of art, and that consequently die-engraving could engage the attention of men who were real artists, was sufficient to give a religious bias to the selection of types. In the Greece of the historical period, just as in mediaeval Italy, the bond between art and religion was exceed- ingly close. So far, at all events, as sculpture was con- cerned — and it was to sculpture that die-cutting and gem-engraving were most nearly allied, — the activity of the earlier artists was mainly directed into what may fairly be called . religious channels. The temples were the great storehouses of art treasures. Their decoration 138 COIN TYPES absorbed the energies of the most gifted sculptors, and the subjects of sculpture were therefore drawn chiefly from the legends of gods and heroes. Not perhaps until the fourth century B.C. do we find any large proportion of attention being devoted to secular art- representations of every-day life. Accordingly, ..when the fifth century engravers were not dealing with purely ornamental designs, they were usually working in an atmosphere coloured by the reflected glories of religious sculpture, a circumstance that cannot but have told upon themselves and that must also have affected the manner in which their con- temporaries regarded the outcome of their handiwork. Above all must this have been so when, as with coins, their activities were exercised in the service of the state. Dignity of subject was then essential, and nowhere could that be more readily found than in the forms which the genius of great sculptors had invested with a majesty more than human. This means that the decorative influence and the religious influence joined hands. The effects of that union can be traced at many points. As a conspicuous instance, one might refer to the facing head of Hera Lacinia in Southern Italy, — a type, by the way, that occurs at several neighbouring cities and thus also provides an illustra- tion of the working of the imitative influence. Why not, it may be asked, of the commemorative influence too ? And the question would be fully justified, for it is impossible to keep the four apart. Yet it must be clear that there is a real difference between the facing head of Hera and such types as the statue of Hermes at Aenus or that of Aphrodite Aineias at Leucas. It TEMPLES AS MINTS 139 will hardly be argued that it was for their beauty's sake that these latter were reproduced. Passing from this, we may recall the fact that in our opening lecture we refused to accept the view of Curtius that coinage was intrinsically a sacred institution and that it owed its invention to the priesthood. Such a refusal did not amount to a denial of all connec- tion between temples and minting. And to this point I would now return. It seems to be certain that the mint at Athens was located in the shrine of the hero Stephanephoros, who was probably identical with Theseus. But we have no means of knowing whether or not this was its original home. The establishment of the Roman mint in the temple of Juno Moneta, the 'goddess of good counsel/ dates from 268 B.C., when silver was first struck in Rome. In other words, it belongs to an epoch when the religious influence already controlled the choice of types, and that was why we declined to admit it as evidence in regard to the question of origins. At the same time the coincidence that both at Athens and at Rome the mint was in a temple is too remarkable to be set aside as meaningless. It is symptomatic of a practice that was possibly widespread and the motive of which can hardly be misunderstood. According to a tradition preserved by Suidas, the connection between Juno Moneta and the minting of money (to which she has given her name) was more or less of an accident. The Romans, he relates, in their war against Pyrrhus and the Tarentines, found them- selves sadly hampered for lack of funds. They asked advice of the goddess of good counsel, who told them Ho COIN TYPES that money would be plentiful enough, if only they wielded their arms with justice. The advice was followed, and it brought fulfilment of the promise. In their gratitude the Romans registered a vow to make the seat of their mint in the temple of their 'Adviser.' 1 Whether this legend contains any sub- stratum of truth, it is impossible to say. But it is not unlikely that it may be correct in so far as it represents the transfer to a temple as a secondary stage. The principles of political economy are not arrived at by intuitive methods, and it may be doubted whether the full significance of the invention of coins was appreciated by those who first struck them. But it cannot have been long before people realized the vital importance of maintaining the integrity of the state issues. And the greater the magnitude of the commercial interests involved, the more strongly would this be brought home to men of all parties. In the Greek cities civil strife was apt to run to great, sometimes to violent, extremes. But there is no evidence that the public credit was allowed to suffer even in the bitterest of struggles. The existence of plated coins, — that is, coins consisting of a copper core covered with a thin skin of silver, — might be quoted as arguing the prevalence of a certain amount of duplicity. On the other hand, the facts show that the issue of such pieces was part of the recognized system, and that the number minted at one time was never so large as to have an adverse effect on the currency as a whole. It is with the names of autocratic rulers that the great monetary frauds and depreciations of history 1 Suidas, s.v. Mopqra. DATE OF CHANGE 141 or tradition are connected, — Polycrates of Samos, Hippias of Athens, Dionysius of Syracuse, Mark Antony, and, of course, certain of the Roman Emperors. It looks as if the public conscience had been sound on the question of tampering with the coinage, which is only another way of saying that men were alive to the dangers involved in such a proceeding and therefore took the necessary precautions against it. It will be recollected that the convention between Phocaea and Mytilene prescribed the death penalty for any magistrate convicted of debasing the quality of the electrum money which the cities were to issue in turn. 1 When that was the spirit that prevailed, it is quite likely that the mint and the standards may often have been entrusted, by common consent, to divine protection, a move that, in its turn, would undoubtedly encourage the tendency to use religious types. How far can we determine the date at which the change we have been discussing took place ? It may be at once admitted that no approach to precise accuracy is possible. Still the chronology of the more important series of Greek coins has been sufficiently well ascertained to make it worth while trying to draw some broad conclusions. As we have seen, human heads and figures were excessively rare in the sixth century B.C. On the other hand, the close of that century and the commencement of the one next follow- ing mark a distinct epoch. It was about then that the head of Athena began to be placed on the reverse of the Pegasus staters at Corinth. It was about then, too, that a head was introduced as a type at Tarentum, 1 See supra, p. 14. 142 COIN TYPES to be banished soon afterwards probably as the result of a democratic revolution. This last example is interesting as one of the very few cases where a head, once introduced, failed to take a permanent hold. It was succeeded by a seated figure, sometimes supposed to be a representation of the Tarentine democracy. Presently the ' horseman ' appeared as a variant, and ere long it entirely displaced the c seated Demos/ main- taining its position as the obverse type of the ordinary Tarentine didrachms for fully two hundred years. It is only from these, however, that the head is con- spicuously absent. On the smaller denominations of silver a head is frequent. On the gold coins and on the 'Campano-Tarentine* didrachms — two classes which do not begin to be issued till after 350 b.c. — it is absolutely regular. Tarentum, then, was slow to adopt the head. Another notable exception was Acragas. Elsewhere in the west, heads or figures of divinities gain a firm footing, as a rule, in the course of the fifth century B.C. In some cities, such as Naxos, Segesta^ and Terina, heads appear even on the earliest coins. Others, like Camarina, begin with the figure of a god or goddess. More usually, as at Metapontum, Himera, and Croton, the original type is an animal or an inanimate object. Always, however, the general trend is towards the introduction of the head, which ultimately became the conventional obverse type. Occasionally the changes seem to take place gradually as at Syracuse. But often the stages can be dated by a political revolution, as at Himera (472 B.C.), Aetna (476 b.c), Sybaris (443 B.C.), and Camarina (461 B.C.). The coinage of Zancle ZANCLE 143 furnishes an interesting and instructive illustration of the process. The oldest type at that city was, it will be remem- bered, a dolphin lying within the sickle-shaped harbour (Plate v. 11). The first independent device to be placed on the reverse was a scallop shell (Fig. 17). All of the pieces bearing these types are earlier than 493 B.C., when the city was treacherously seized by the Samian and Milesian allies of Anaxilas of Rhegium. As a result of its capture, its name was changed to Messene, Fig. 17.— Zancle: Silver. and a complete transformation of its monetary system was effected. First of all, Samian types were employed and then types specially associated with Anaxilas him- self. The series of the latter is broken by a very remarkable coin that, from its style, must have been struck about 450 b.c. It is a tetradrachm (Plate v. 12), having on the obverse a figure of Poseidon, standing in front of an altar brandishing a thunderbolt in his right hand. The reverse shows the inscription DAN KM I ON, and has for type a dolphin in the attitude in which it appears on the oldest coins. There is no attempt to represent the harbour, but beneath the dolphin is a scallop-shell. Mr. A. J. Evans was the first to point out the historical importance of this piece. It indicates H4 COIN TYPES that, about the middle of the fifth century, the Zan- claean elements in the population succeeded for a brief period in regaining their predominance, and that they took advantage of the situation to restore the former name of the town. 1 Naturally, the old coin-types were revived also, but with a significant difference. Dolphin and scallop-shell are placed together on the reverse, leaving the obverse clear for the figure of a divinity. In the central and eastern parts of Hellas the process of development followed the same lines as in the west, although the rate of advance was perhaps a little more leisurely. In the series of the Macedonian kings, for instance, heads do not become common until the reign of Archelaus I. (413-399 B.C.), although at least one definitely ' religious coin ' was struck by his predecessor Perdiccas II., — a diobol with the head of Heracles on the one side and his club and bow on the other. In Thessaly the ravpoKaQa->\na yields its place to a head about 400 B.C., and it is about 400 that the beautiful head of Hera is substituted for the wolf at Argos (Plate ii. 9), and that the heads of Zeus and Hera appear at Elis. In Crete a well-marked change is observable very much about the same period, heads — and especially the heads of Olympian deities — becoming popular at the expense of the earlier mythological subjects. In Asia Minor, too, 400 b.c. may be roughly fixed as an approximate date for the transition. Fifty years later the supremacy of the religious type was an accomplished fact through- out practically the whole Hellenic world. There is something to be learned from the sharp contrast which the types of Jewish coins present, when 1 Num. Chron., 1896, pp. 109 ff. JEWISH COINS 145 compared with the products of neighbouring mints. Israel and Judah had been carried into captivity before the practice of striking coins had reached the east of the Levant. After the remnant returned from exile, their poverty was great and their commercial enterprise correspondingly small. Besides, they were dependent on Persia, and could not have struck money without the consent of their suzerain. The same conditions prevailed after Alexander's conquest and under the earlier Seleucid kings. Until the reign of Antiochus VII. (Sidetes) they were content to make use of the currency issued by their neighbours. Under the Maccabees, however, national aspirations awoke once more, and a new order of things was inaugurated. Simon obtained from Antiochus the right to coin money with his own dies. He probably struck shekels and half shekels in silver, as well as a token currency of bronze. His successors were restricted to bronze. All the remaining silver coins were minted on one or other of the two occasions when Judaea made her desperate efforts to throw off the yoke of Rome. 1 It is characteristic of the whole Jewish series that its types include no representations of animals. Human heads, so common on coins elsewhere, are unknown until the time of the Herods, some of whom place the imperial likeness on their money. Even the Roman procurators who took over the administration of the country after the banishment of Archelaus, refrained from using the portraits of the emperors, — a striking exception to what was customary in the provinces, and 1 See Th. Reinach's highly interesting general sketch, Jewish Coins, (London, 1903). 146 COIN TYPES one that is best explained as the manifestation of a desire to respect a national prejudice. Coin-types of the usual kind would have been regarded as c graven images,' and the making of them would have meant a breach of the Mosaic Law as interpreted by Pharisaic orthodoxy and by its official exponents, the scribes. We touch here on one of the most difficult questions of Old Testament history. How is the existence of the Second Commandment to be reconciled with such facts as the Brazen Serpent and Jeroboam's Golden Calves ? Would no place have been found in the Temple of the Restoration for Solomon's Molten Sea, which rested upon twelve brazen oxen and had the borders between the ledges of its bases decorated with oxen and lions and cherubim, or for the Cherubim that stood within the Holy of Holies and ' spread forth their wings over the Ark ' ? And what of the figures on the base of the Golden Candlestick as shown on the Arch of Titus? Or of the lion of the tribe of Judah sculptured on the fa9ades of Galilean synagogues ? Such questions make one doubt whether, so far as coin-types are concerned, the prejudice would have operated as powerfully as it actually did, had there not been some special reason why human and animal figures upon coins were looked on as idolatrous. And a special reason lay ready to* hand. Long before the rise of the Maccabees the religious character of coin-types had been definitely established. In beginning to strike money the Jews had to take special precautions to guard themselves against the suspicion of idolatry. Hence their rigorous avoidance of all representations that might have fallen under the ban of the Second JEWISH COINS 147 Commandment. The types they chose were com- paratively colourless, and were sometimes borrowed from the coins issued by their neighbours. It is, how- ever, exceedingly interesting to notice that, after all, even on Jewish coins the religious influence is brought into play, and that through the action of the very cause to which we have conjectured that its first connection with coin-types was due. During the great Revolts national feeling was at fever heat, and national emblems were sometimes placed upon the coins. In Judaea national emblems could not fail to be, to some extent, religious. Accordingly, among the types of the coins of the Revolts we get the Temple, the citron and the two bundles of twigs carried in the Feast of Taber- nacles, and the two trumpets that are seen beside the Candlestick on the Arch of Titus, — devices that cannot be called idolatrous and that yet allude in the most pointed manner to the ceremonial of the national religion. Coming back now to our sketch of the general development of types, we may note that the period to which we assigned the supremacy of the religious influence is also one that marks a momentous epoch in the history of the world. In 350 b.c. the Hellenic period was almost at an end, and Greece was on the threshold of the Hellenistic age. Philip of Macedon was maturing his plans, but he was still north of Thermopylae. The day of the city-state was not yet over, and every state that was free was busy exercising the freemen's privilege of minting money. Types were more varied than they had ever been, although the variety was so far unified by the religious influence 148 COIN TYPES and by the conventions to which the development of that influence gave rise. At the same time the very- spirit of Greek religion was itself undergoing a change. 1 There were already signs of the near approach of a day when mortal men would be accorded seats in Olympus even in their life-time. Some forty years before this the Thasians had offered to make a god of the stout old Spartan Agesilaus, only to be contemptuously told that, if they wanted him to consider the proposal, they had better begin by making gods of themselves. 2 All Spartans, however, had not been so scrupulous. It is said that, after the overthrow of Athens, Lysander accepted divine honours at the hands of the Samians and other Greeks of Asia Minor. 3 If the story is authentic, it provides us with the earliest recorded example of the deification of a living man among the Greeks, a practice by which the religious concep- tions of Hellenism were destined to be profoundly affected. It had long been customary to offer sacrifice to departed heroes. This was possibly nothing more than an outcrop of the primitive stratum that underlay the whole mass of Greek ritual and religion. At all events the worship of the dead became the foundation on which the worship of the living was built up. The marvellous success of Alexander the Great's career was 1 On the whole question now to be discussed I have learned much from E. Kornemann's Zur Geschichte der antiken Herrscherkulte (Beitr. z. alien GescL, i. 51 ff.) — a very important contribution to the subject. 2 Plutarch, Apophthegm. Laced. Ages., xxv. 3 Plutarch, Lysander, xviii. DEIFICATION OF KINGS 149 responsible for much. There is no evidence that his own acceptance of divine honours in his life-time was ever more than half-serious. After his death, how- ever, he became first a hero and then a god, his successors warmly approving. Ptolemy more parti- cularly, with characteristic prudence, did all in his power to encourage the new cult, and greatly strengthened his own position by securing the body of Alexander and converting Alexandria into a sort of Hellenistic Mecca. The only one who stood aside was Antipater, whose share of the Macedonian heritage included no Oriental subjects. He flatly declined to recognize the dead Alexander as a god, on the ground that such a proceeding would amount to impiety. 1 Elsewhere events took the course that might have been foreseen. From consecration of a monarch just dead to consecration of his living successor was little more than a step. Demetrius Poliorcetes and Ptolemy were among the earliest to be hailed as gods by cities they had benefited. But it was not until the next generation that the worship of the reigning monarch was formally established as the state religion. This was done almost simultaneously in Syria by Antiochus II. and in Egypt by Ptolemy II. 2 In the interval there would seem to have been a transition period, during which some at least of the kings had given a certain amount of official sanction to their own investment with heroic or even divine attributes. The chief evidence for this is furnished by their coins. 1 Mdvos Se twv StaSd^tov debv KaXecrat 'AXe^avBpov ov% et'Aero, daefih tovto Kptvas (Suidas s.v. 'AvTLirarpos). 2 Kornemann, /.c. s pp. 70 ff, and 78 ff. iSo COIN TYPES It may, I think, be safely said that almost till the close of the fourth century b.c. portraits are practically unknown upon money. 1 From the sixth century onwards the standard type of the Persian darics had been the figure of the King of Persia, hastening through his dominions with spear and bow, and the same type is repeated on other coins struck within the immediate range of Persian influence. At Tarsus, Mallus, and Soli in Cilicia, and even at Cyzicus and Lampsacus in Mysia, we find the head or seated figure of a Persian satrap before 350 B.C. All such devices are symbolical of Persian rule. In the great majority of cases the heads and figures are certainly conventional, and it is very doubtful whether there is in any of them a suggestion of a real portrait. 2 The daric type, for example, remained absolutely unaltered for centuries (Plate vi. 6). On the money issued by the kings of the dynasty that ruled in Sidon before Alexander's invasion, the royal person is also employed as a type, and here there are variations that may contain direct allusions to the triumphs of individual monarchs over particular enemies. ,Even here, however, it is the majesty of the royal house, not the person of the ruler, that is made the subject of display, and there is no attempt at portraiture. Again, if we turn from the east and glance at the kingdoms that drew their inspir- ation more directly from Hellas, we find no sign of any types that represent the living ruler. The coins of 1 The only exception I can recall is the curious head on a Cyzicene stater, which Six would identify with Timotheus (N.C., 1898, pp. 197 ff.; B.M.C., Mysia, PI. viii. 9). 2 See Imhoof-Blumer, Kkinas. Munzen, pp. 470 f. PORTRAITS ON COINS 151 the early Macedonian kings, of the kings of Cyprus, of the dynasts of Caria, of the monarchs of Epirus, of the Syracusan tyrants down to Agathocles do not give us a single example of a portrait. Heroes we do find as commemorative types on the issues of cities with which they were connected. But heroes were held as half-divine, so that their appearance was in no way inconsistent with the growing demands of religion. The first historical personage whose portrait can be recognized on coins with absolute certainty is Alexander the Great. This is exactly what we should expect, in view of the fact that he was the first of the Hellenic kings to be deified. He was not, however, officially deified in his life-time, and it was not till after his death that is portrait was used as a type. The correspondence, itl will be noted, is exact. Tradition, indeed, has it that Alexander's features are to be discerned in the head of Heracles as shown on the obverse of the tetradrachms that he himself was the first to strike, although their issue, as we have seen, continued long after he was dead (Plate v. 13). 1 Even if we grant that this is so, the very circumstance that portraiture was introduced in covert fashion, lurking under the shelter of religion, is highly significant. It is equally significant that the earliest undoubted portraits of the king represent him as divinized. On some of the coins of Ptolemy I. he appears as a sort of Oriental Heracles, the lion's skin being replaced by the skin of an elephant so arranged that the trunk and tusks project above his brow (Plate v. 14). On the money of Lysimachus he figures as the 1 See supra, p. 83. 152 COIN TYPES son of Ammon, wearing the ram's horns as a mark of his divine descent (Plate vi. i). When we come to the portraits of living monarchs, we find all the evidence still pointing in the same direction. The earliest examples occur on the coins of the Ptolemies and of the Seleucid kings, — the two royal houses that most quickly and most decidedly adopted the principle of self-deification. From Seleucus Nicator downwards the series of portraits of the Seleucidae is. practically complete. Nearly all of them can be certainly identified. In some cases, notably that of Seleucus himself, the head is so treated that the intention of deification is unmistakable. The portraits of the Ptolemaic kings and queens are also very numerous,, but owing to special causes their identification is much more difficult. The lead given by Syria and Egypt was quickly followed elsewhere. In all the kingdoms. that grew up under the shadow of the Seleucid monarchy — the Pergamene, the Pontic (Plate vi. 2-4), the Bithynian, the Cappadocian, — as well as in those that were actually its offshoots — like the Parthian and the Bactrian (Plate vi. 5) — a portrait was looked on as the natural obverse type for important coins. As will be seen from the Plate, some of these portraits are astonishingly realistic, contrasting strangely with the fixed conventionality of the daric (Plate vi. 6). Similarly,. Ptolemy found an imitator in Sicily. In 270 b.c. Hieron of Syracuse assumed the tide fiao-ikevg and at the same time began to place his portrait on his coins. How long portraiture and deification went hand in hand it is not possible to say. That the union lasted for a considerable period would seem to be indicated PORTRAITS ON COINS 153 by the phenomena of the Macedonian regal coinage. On some of the pieces struck by Demetrius Poliorcetes. after his great naval victory over Ptolemy in 306 B.C., his own head is used as a type. He is represented with bull's horns as a sign of his divinity, and we are thus reminded that in the year 307 he and his father Antigonus had been hailed by the Athenians as Oeol a-coTtjpe^ and had had a special priest- hood instituted to maintain their cult. 1 With this exception, however, portraiture made headway on the Macedonian coinage much more slowly than it did further east. Nearly a century has to elapse before we find a definite portrait, for Philip V. (220-179 B - c *) was the first king to make 'image' and ' superscription * agree. The attitude of Antipater to the deification of Alexander may well have been characteristic of the European, as contrasted with the Oriental, way of looking at the whole matter. If so, the rarity of portraits on the royal issues of Macedon is easily accounted for. The opposition (if we are right in supposing that it existed) must have been broken down by Philip's time. And it is a remarkable coincidence that it was in his reign and in what had been his dominions that there was struck the first coin that bore the head of a livings Roman. This was a gold stater minted in Greece by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the famous general who shattered Philip's power at Cynoscephalae (Plate vi. 7). On its obverse is the head of Flamininus, and on the reverse a figure of Victory modelled on one of the types of Alexander the Great. Here once more the 1 Plutarch, Demetrius, x. ; Diodorus, xx. 46. 154 COIN TYPES evidence of deification is of the clearest. Plutarch tells, for instance, how the people of Chalcis made a god of the living Flamininus, ranking him with Heracles and Apollo, and appointing a priest to superintend his ritual. He quotes the refrain of an ode chanted at the sacrifices in his honour : juiATreTe Kovpai Zrjva fiiyav 'Fujfxuv re Titov 6' afxa 'Pcoyxatwv re 7r«rrtv. Irjie ILuav, ' ^ 1S - a ifi8 r -" Pn. CaesareaCappadociaetMacrinus)? ^rouze^ instar. . l68 A 13. -.Sagalassus (Claudius II.) : bronze^ - r j. v ;. ,.;;, ^l%y£ ' 13. Apanieia Phrygiae (Sept. Severn's) : ' brbrizei " - ■ 17 1 ' * ^.t^ : Smyrna (PhilSppus Senior^ bronze, a Yj! yg^-'Vt: - * 17*2 tC i S . Uium (Cqmmodu^: bro^.,-^ for ; *i . -*ir r Z ^f ;lft 16. Ilium (Cajacalla) : bronze,' - - - - ' - l 73 ' 17; llmiy'CSe^^erdM^on^HNl/AO-TOV. KAl 1-73'- ' '" Mn ir.f\ T htu> nin PLATE VI EVIDENCE OF INSCRIPTIONS 161 At Diocaesarea-Sepphoris we get an imperial donor, — TPAIANGS AVTOKPATHP EAHKEN. Other interesting facts will probably become apparent when it is possible to make a complete classification and a careful study of the whole body of inscriptions. Thus, the argument for the existence of an imperial commission is greatly strengthened by the remarkable legend POAIOi YTTCP TOON CGBACTCjON on bronze didrachms of Rhodes, with the head of Helios and a figure of Victory as types. Again, it sometimes seems as if the cost of an issue had been divided between a magistrate and the public purse. There are, for instance, coins of Pergamum having on the obverse Augustus in his temple, with the legend SEBAITON AHM04>HN, and on the reverse M. Plautius Silvanus (proconsul of Asia in the year 4-5 a.d.) being crowned by the Demos of Pergamum, the inscription in the latter case being ZIABANON TTEPrAMHNOI. In all like- lihood the verb to be understood is erijULtja-ev in the one case and eri^^av in the other. Do these inscriptions refer to the types ? Or do they imply that Demophon and the Pergamenes contributed jointly to the issue, the former to honour the Emperor, the latter to honour the proconsul ? And there are many other questions that might be asked. Why is IGPA CYTKAHTOC in- variably in the nominative and 060 N or 06AN CYTKAHTON almost as invariably in the accusative, even on contemporary coins of the same town, while 0£A PCOMH and G6AN PCOMHN seem to be used indifferently ? The name attached to the imperial likeness is generally put in the nominative, although the accusative occurs fairly frequently, the dative rarely, 1 62 COIN TYPES and the genitive more rarely still. That such slight variations may have a real significance is plainly shown, I think, by the imperial coinage of Agrippa II., which was struck in three denominations during the reign of Vespasian. 1 The highest denomination has the head of Vespasian himself on the obverse, the inter- mediate denomination has the head of Titus, and the lowest that of Domitian. The Emperor's own name is in the dative, those of his sons are in the nominative. Lastly, there are a great many inscriptions which testify emphatically to the commemorative nature of particular series. Local patriotism leads neighbouring cities to vie with each other in the extravagance of the titles they parade, and one is occasionally irresistibly reminded of the methods of the American advertiser. Anazarbus, for example, describes the games celebrated in honour of Elagabalus as " the biggest show on earth" — TTPflTA THC OIKOYMGNHC, and revels in applying to herself such epithets as Trpdrrj, /j.eyta-rrjj Ka\\leCinN OVTOI NAOI ( c These temples [were erected] in accordance with a decree of the Ephesian Senate '). A great group of architectural representations, which has recendy been made the subject of an illuminating investigation, 2 centres round the provincial worship of the emperors, with special reference to the ' Neocorate/ The coins concerned come entirely from Asia Minor. But the very scanty imperial issues of the Western part of the Empire provide a close parallel in the altar of Roma and Augustus at Lyons. In the case of the 'Neocorate' pieces the city goddess is very frequently shown, seated or standing, with the temple of the emperor in her hand. Personifications of the Tyche or patron divinity of the city are, indeed, among the commonest of imperial types, and it would be difficult to imagine a more obvious local symbol. Such figures are, of course, specially well adapted for " alliance coins,' where cities are shown shaking hands 1 GriecL Miinzen, p. 56 (580). 2 Prof. B. Pick, Die tempeltragenden Gottkeiten und die Darstellung der Neokorie auf den Mttnzen (Jahreskefte des Oesterreichischen Arch. Institutes, Bd. vii. 1904.). ALLUSIONS TO FESTIVALS 165 or offering joint-sacrifice. But their use was by no means limited to alliance coins. It will suffice to recall the extraordinary popularity of the seated Tyche of Antioch, with the river-god Orontes swimming at her feet. This type, which was imitated over and over again elsewhere in the East, was itself a copy of a famous statue by Eutychides of Sicyon, one of the pupils of Lysippus. It is safe to say that many of the other personifications of towns were also modelled on works of sculpture. Occasionally we meet with types that reproduce in the most direct fashion the actual ceremonies at festivals. Sacrifices, for example, occur with great frequency. Again, at Byzantium we have the strange-looking obj ects that were long supposed to be fish-baskets, but are now proved to be huge wicker-torches used in connection with the worship of Artemis Lampadephoros or Hecate. At Cyzicus an interesting type shows us an elaborate bonfire in process of erection. On a coin of Colophon we see, in the upper part of the field, a temple within which is a statue of Apollo, holding a lyre ; beneath it is a bull, advancing towards a flaming altar, plainly symbolical of a sacrifice ; lower down still, in a semi- circle facing the temple, are thirteen female figures, each holding a wreath in her raised hand. The legend TO KOINON IflNflN puts it beyond question that this is a representation of the festival held in honour of Apollo by the thirteen cities of the Ionian League (Plate vi. 8). As we have indicated, games formed an important element in such gatherings. Contrary to what might be expected, attempts to delineate 1 66 COIN TYPES the contests are rare. 1 We get wrestlers sometimes, chariot-races or gladiators hardly ever. The difficulty of subjects of the kind probably acted as a deterrent, for art had by this time sunk to a very low level. At all events, when athletes do appear, they are usually in an attitude where no suggestion of violent activity is required — drawing lots perhaps, or receiving the prizes they have won. A favourite type is an exhibition of the prizes themselves, generally laid out upon a table. Architectural types are not confined to temples. One ambitious engraver, at Bizya in Thrace, presents us with a view of the whole town (Plate viii. io). 2 The leading feature is the city wall with its towers and gates, but in the interior it is possible to discern temples, baths, and statues. There are also coins of Bizya showing simply the principal gate, a variety of device that occurs fairly often in Thrace. It is found in other districts too, and is probably always, as at Bizya, a shorthand sign for the whole city. A good example from Gangra in Paphlagonia has a curiously modern look, although it belongs to the reign of Caracalla (Plate vii. 3). The double gateway is flanked with "? 1 An exception that proves the rule is the curiously unsuccessful representation on a coin of Gallienus struck at Synnada. 2 This piece (now in Berlin) was formerly in the collection of Herr Loebbecke, to whose kindness I am indebted for the cast. He described the type at some length in Z.f.N., xxi. pp. 254 ff. It is interesting to note that the coin, which' is in fine condition, was found near Rome. It thus provides an illustration of the remark made above (p. 160) as to the discovery of such 'medallions at a distance from the city of their origin ; for other examples see Pick, Num. Zest., xxiii. pp. 84 ff. CITIES, RIVERS, MOUNTAINS 167 square towers, each crowned by a row of battlements. Sometimes a characteristic ' bit ' of the interior of a city is chosen for representation — the Acropolis at Athens, the Acrocorinthus at Corinth, or the bridge over the Maeander at Antiochia in Caria, The type last mentioned is particularly interesting (Plate vii. 2). The bridge has six arches, and it is approached by way of a triple gate. While the waters of the river rush tumultuously beneath, the river-god is seen reclining calmly above. The river-god reminds us of the site of the town. This is a form of commemoration which was highly popular in imperial times just as it had been in Sicily in the fifth century B.C. 1 It is very common, for instance, in the same part of Thrace as the city-gate. At Pau- talia we have the Strymon surrounded by four children, BOTPYC, CTAXYC, XPYCOC and APTYPOC — Vine, Corn, Gold, and Silver. At Laodicea in Phrygia the rivers Kapros and Lycos are represented by a boar and a wolf, a rare example of the tendency that had once found expression in types parlants. Mountains, too, occur with great frequency. In some cases the hill itself is pictured — the twin peaks of Mount Gerizim at Neapolis, or (most notable of all) the Mons Argaeus at Caesarea in Cappadocia. More often, however, it is personified, as is Mount Rhodope at Philippopolis, the gender of the name always determining the sex of the personification. 2 One of the quaintest examples is Mount Peion at Ephesus. In the centre of the field of the coin (Plate vi. 9) is a rock, on which sits Zei? 1 See supra, pp. 92 ff. 2 Pick, Die antiken MUnxen Nordgrtechenhnds, I. i. 342, footnote 5. 1 68 COIN TYPES 'Yerios (Jupiter Pluvius) enthroned. He holds a thunderbolt in his left hand, while from his right a shower of rain descends upon the head of the recumbent divinity of the mountain. Here the allusion is, in all probability, more than merely geographical. So complex and uncommon a design looks as if it were meant for a special occasion. Mountains, of course, were often the objects of a regular cult. Argaeus, already referred to, was — in the words of Maximus of Tyre 1 — opos KcnnraSoicats, kol 0eo?, kcu optcos kcu ayaXjuia. And the description is fully borne out by the types of the coins of Caesarea. From these we may conclude that a temple of the god stood at the foot of the moun- tain (Plate vi. 1 1 ). One example shows through the portals of a temple a model of the hill set up as an object of veneration, an idea that is more usually and more simply expressed by the represen- tation of an altar surmounted by such an 'agalma' (Plate vi. 10). It is not, however, in the least necessary to sup- pose that the types where the Mons Argaeus appears, were associated with any special festivals of the god. They occur on the silver coins which, as we shall learn in the course of next lecture, were struck to supplement the ordinary Roman currency of the empire. It is best to regard them as illustrations of that aspect of the commemorative influence to which religion owed its first foothold among coin- types. Like the great mountain itself, which towered above the plain to a height of more than 13,000 1 Diss., viii. 8, COPIES OF STATUES 169 feet, the cult of Argaeus dominated Caesarea in a way that rendered its emblems peculiarly appropriate as local symbols. A similar explanation probably holds good of many other religious types in the imperial series. Cases in point are those which reproduce cultus-statues, like the Artemis Ephesia or the Artemis Pergaia, or fetishes, like the sacred stone of Elagabal at Emisa. The great altar at Amasia, with the tree beside it, is another type which falls into the same category. To return to copies of statues, it will be evident that various motives for their selection are conceiv- able, and that in particular cases we must often be content to remain in doubt as to which of these was really effective. When on a coin of Amastris in Paphlagonia, struck under Antoninus Pius, we get an equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius witfi the inscription M AYPHAION KAICAPA AMACTPIANOI, 1 we are justified in suggesting that the coin bearing it may have been issued in connection with a dedicatory festival. On the other hand, where the same statues are represented repeatedly and at different periods, no such suggestion can possibly be entertained. We must then conclude that their selection, if not due to their association with the leading local divinity, has been determined by their reputation as art treasures or by the fact that they represent local heroes or celebrities. This latter alternative is the one that must, as a rule, be adopted with reference to the reproductions of sculpture on imperial coins struck in Greece Proper. Under the emperors Greece lived largely on her 1 Greek Coins in the Hunterian Collection, vol. ii. Plate xlv., 12. 170 COIN TYPES artistic reputation ; and, where the privilege of striking money was enjoyed, the most ordinary type was some local monument of sculpture or of architecture. In this respect the issues of Corinth and of Athens are most remarkable for their variety, but the same principle was followed by the less important centres. A wealth of detailed illustrations has been gathered by Imhoof and Gardner in their Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias. It is not necessary to enlarge on the value of types of this sort for the history of sculpture. But, as a proof of the universality of the tendency, it may be pointed out that the not very abundant coinage of Sicily in the Roman period has preserved for us at Assorus, Enna, Himera, and Syracuse copies of statues to whose fame Cicero testifies in the Verrine Orations. To the many cases where knowledge derived from literary sources enables us to identify types as copies of statues, we may add a few where, as in the example from Amastris quoted above, the evidence of the inscription is convincing. The most conspicuous of these is AIA IAAION IAI6IC at Ilium. In a much larger number of instances we may argue back to a sculptured original, whether relief or statue, through the pose or grouping of the figures. Amongst these I should be inclined to class a very interesting but somewhat puzzling type which appears at Sagalassus in Pisidia as late as the reign of Claudius II. A horse- man, spear in hand, charges furiously on an infantry soldier who, half turning to fly, seems to raise his hand in vain supplication to a divinity, probably Zeus, who is standing in the background (Plate COPIES OF PAINTINGS 171 vi. 12). A clue to the meaning is given by the legend AA6EANAPOC, for we know that Sagalassus was captured by Alexander the Great. But the exact interpretation is doubtful. The execution is remark- ably good for the period. Even so, however, it is difficult to credit any engraver of the end of the third century a.d. with the creative talent that the whole design implies. Paintings were copied as well as statues. The rescue of Andromeda by Perseus on a coin of Deultum in Thrace has been shown to correspond in detail with a Pompeian fresco, both no doubt being based ulti- mately on a common original. Such a discovery is, of course, exceptional. In the nature of things we are left largely to conjecture in attempting to identify types copied from paintings. We have little to guide us except the character of the subject and the method of treatment. A certain case is a coin of the Phrygian Apameia which represents Athena seated on a rock playing the double-flute, with the astonished Marsyas in the background (Plate vi. 13). At the foot of the rock is a pool in which the head of the goddess is mirrored, a feature that only a painter would, have introduced into a composition. Kindred examples are, at Perinthus and elsewhere, the sleeping Ariadne surprised by Dionysus and his train, — a favourite subject on the wall-paintings at Pompeii ; at Daldis in Lydia, Perseus slaying the three Gorgon sisters as they lie under a tree spell-bound by Sleep, whose winged figure hovers above them in the air in a manner impossible in sculpture ; and, at Smyrna, the dream of Alexander the Great. In the last instance 172 COIN TYPES (Plate vi. 14), Alexander has laid aside his helmet and is reclining in slumber beneath a plane tree, his head resting on his shield ; the two Nemeses can be seen in the background just as they appeared to the king in his vision as described by Pausanias. 1 The story of the dream of Alexander was closely connected with the rebuilding of Smyrna, and we are thus brought back to the local legend, which we found hundreds of years before at Cyrene, 2 and which is exceedingly common in imperial times. Sometimes, even when a name is affixed, we can only guess vaguely at the purport of the representation, the legend it embodies being unknown to us from any other source. In many cases, however, a schoolboy would find him- self at ihome at once. On a coin of Bizya in Thrace Capaneus rushes forward with a scaling ladder to storm the walls of Thebes, while at Anchialus a pendant type shows Zeus defending the city against the impious onset. At Abydus we have Leander battling with the waves of the Hellespont ; Hero stands in her tower holding a lamp over the waters, while a flying Love guides the swimmer with a touch. The same subject occurs also at Sestos. Ilium furnishes a series of quite exceptional interest. Very possibly, as has been suggested, they are the reflection of a group of actual monuments preserved within the city. 3 For the most part, they represent the exploits of the Trojan heroes of the siege, and some are inspired 1 vii. 5, 2 f. The original may, of course, be a relief. 2 See supra, p. 107. 3 Kubitschek, Jakreshefte, i. pp. 184 ff. Cf. Von Fritze in Dorp- feld's Troja und I lion, pp. 533 £ INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE 173 directly by the Iliad, — Hector fighting from his chariot (Plate vi. 15), or dashing forward on foot with a burn- ing brand to fire the Grecian ships (Plate vi. 16). Perhaps the most striking is the type dealing with the death of Patroclus (Plate vi. 17). Hector stands with his left foot planted on the dead man's body, out of which he is drawing his spear. As Head pointed out in publishing the coin, 1 the artist must have had Homer's lines clearly in his mind : ro64B.c): silver, x °9 12. Rome {circa 48 B.C.) : silver, lS 9 13. Julius Caesar (44 B.C.) : silver, I 93 14. Brutus (42 B.C.) : silver, x 99 15. Cassius (42 B.C.) : silver, - x 99 16. Antonius(40B.c): silver, l 9* 17. Sextus Pompeius (38-36 B.C.) : silver, I9» 18. Augustus (27 B.C.— 14 A.D.) : gold, - 20" 19. Augustus (27 B.C.— 14 a.d.) : gold, 201 20. Augustus (16 B.C.) : gold, 20 PLATE VU BRWSfff 1 *'^ 1 ^ 0W A LECTURE V. The Roman coinage was a direct descendant of the Greek. But it rapidly developed such well-marked characteristics of its own that it is advisable to dis- cuss it as a separate entity. The evolution of its types cannot be properly understood without some knowledge of its history. I propose, therefore, to begin by indicating briefly a few of the more important landmarks. In an earlier lecture 1 mention was made of aes rude, the unmarked lumps of copper that formed the oldest metallic medium of exchange among the Romans, and also of aes signatum, the stamped bars that constituted the next stage and that probably continued to be employed for some time after coins proper had been introduced into the national economy. It was about the middle of the fourth century b.c. that this last step was taken. The fact that copper was still the standard led to the minting of coins so large that they had to be cast, not struck. Owing to the operation of various causes they decreased in weight and size until they became sufficiently small 1 See supra , pp. 28 fF. M 178 COIN TYPES to admit of their being produced in the ordinary way. Silver was first issued in 268 B.C., the highest denomination being the denarius, which was equi- valent to 10 copper asses. The story of the various reductions of the standard is too difficult and complex to enter upon here. The cardinal points for us to notice are that after 268 b.c. the minting of silver tended to die out everywhere else in Italy, and that after the passing of the Lex Plautia Papiria in 89 b.c the Italian towns wer^ not permitted to strike even bronze. In 74 b.c. the Roman bronze issues them- selves ceased, and they were not resumed, except very spasmodically, until after the definite establishment of the empire. So far no gold at all had been struck. Hitherto we have been speaking exclusively of the state coinage — money issued in the name of the central authority. This central authority could, however, delegate its functions. The military itnperiutn, which played so important a part in the constitutional development of Rome was, in fact, such a delegation, for amongst other things it transferred to the magis- trate who held it supreme control over the finances of the armies he might raise or might have at his disposal. It naturally followed that he was empowered to strike money in his own right when the exigencies of a campaign should demand it. The gold coin struck by Flamininus in Greece in the beginning of the second century B.C. is an example of this military coinage, for there is no doubt that, although the state restricted itself to silver and copper, there was no such limitation imposed upon an imperator. The stater of Flamininus was on the Attic standard, thus conforming to the THE MONEY OF ROME 179 custom practically universal in the East. More interest- ing economically are the gold pieces struck some twenty years earlier in Southern Italy. They have the legend ROMA, but they are not, therefore, to be looked upon as state issues. They bear marks of value which give an exceptional ratio between gold and silver, indicating that they were minted in a period of financial string- ency, possibly at some crisis in the course of the struggle with Hannibal. 1 It is not, however, until the first century B.C. that we find an imperator exercising his privilege on a really extensive scale. Sulla during his Eastern campaigns issued, through his quaestor Lucullus, large quantities of gold and silver coins for the use of his troops. These, of course, would pass current everywhere, side by side with the regular state issues of silver. During the civil wars out of which the empire was to emerge, Sulla's example was freely followed. Julius Caesar's invasion of Italy resulted in a very curious situation. The properly constituted authorities abandoned the capital, and the senatorial coinage was minted, for the time being, in the East under the protection of Pompeius. Caesar, on the other hand, when he had made himself master of the city, proceeded to exercise his imperium within its walls, striking in Rome itself the gold and silver pieces which, strictly speaking, he was entitled to mint only when outside of the gates. After he had finally defeated Pompeius and had secured 1 Since the above was written, there has appeared a very important article by Dr. E. J. Haeberlin (Zum coitus numorum aeris gravis^ Berlin, 1905), which throws a new light on the place of these gold coins in Roman numismatics. 180 COIN TYPES the submission of the Senate, he placed the silver coinage once more on a constitutional basis, but still retained the issue of gold in his own hands as imperator. This was a transition stage which was not destined to last long. The year after the assassination of Julius gold pieces were, for the first time, struck by the Senate as a regular part of the state coinage. The political confusion of the next few years is faithfully mirrored in the monetary arrangements. Gold and silver money was minted not only by the Senate but by quite a number of the leaders who played a part in the wars for supremacy. The victory of Octavian put an end to administrative as well as to political chaos. His organization of the principate, which covered every department of state, did not leave the mint untouched. His manner of dealing with it was thoroughly characteristic. Reserving to himself the sole right of striking gold and silver coins, he conferred upon the Senate the exclusive privilege of minting bronze and copper, for token money was now a necessity. This was the basis on which the Roman coinage remained for three centuries. It would be beyond our purpose to trace in detail the sorry story of the depreciation and degradation that brought about a collapse. In the end the silver coins came to be so heavily alloyed that they were of little more intrinsic value than the copper, and then the senatorial mint was formally closed. The same reason, it may be added, explains why the Greek Imperial series ceased to be issued. Only in a very few cases did it outlive the reign of Gallienus. Bearing in mind the main facts of this short sketch, EARLY ROMAN BRONZE 181 we may now proceed to consider more specially that aspect of the coinage with which we are directly concerned. The original aes grave was cast in six denominations, the highest being the as. The whole idea of coined money was borrowed by the Romans from their Greek neighbours in Southern Italy, and borrowed too at a time when the religious principle had become universally accepted — -that is, about 350 B.C. The types are exactly what we should look for under such circumstances. Each denomination has as its obverse type the head of a divinity. But there is a further point. For each denomination a special divinity is reserved. The as, for example, has always the head of Janus (Fig. 19), the semis the head of Jupiter (Fig. 20), and so on. We have here a clear testimony to Roman practicality. So long as such a rule was observed, there was no risk of con- fusion. The same tendency shows itself in the placing of a distinct mark of value upon each side. The convenience of these devices was so obvious that it is not surprising that they were largely imitated by smaller towns in Italy and Sicily. It will be remembered that it was from Italy and Sicily that we drew some of the most convincing illustrations of purely religious types. We can see now that the idea of a series of deities was a borrowed one. 1 As for the Roman types themselves, it is worth while pointing out once more that Juno Moneta is conspicuous by her absence. For the rest, the only divinity calling for remark is Janus, who enjoys the position of honour on the highest denomination. 1 See supra, p. 120. 1 82 COIN TYPES Jupiter, whom (on the analogy of other Italian series) we might have expected to find first, comes second. While the others have been selected for reasons not now apparent, the priority of Janus over Jupiter can, I think, be accounted for. His head was no doubt placed upon the first coin of the series on the same principle as that which led to his name being given to the first month of the year : he was regarded by the Romans as the god of all beginnings. 1 Turning to the reverse, we may observe that the type is in- variable. It is always the prow of a ship. We cannot tell what the original significance of this emblem may have been. The enigma is at least as old as Ovid. In the Fasti 2 the poet represents himself as propounding it to the god : ' Mtilta quidetn didici, Sed cur navalis in aere Altera signata est, altera forma biceps?' Janus informs his questioner that the double head is his own. As for the prow, he reminds him that when Saturn reached Italy after his expulsion from heaven, it was by boat that he arrived ; he concludes — c At bona posteritas puppim servavit in aere Hospitis adventum testificata deV This quotation is interesting chiefly because Ft shows how meaningless the type had become even in the days of Ovid. As the prow appears in conjunction with all the divinities impartially, it is probably not a specifically religious symbol. It is more likely to be commemorative. It is found occasionally on other 1 Ad eum dicuntur rerum initia pertinere (Augustine, De Civ. Dei, vii. 7). 2 i. 229 ff. EARLY ROMAN SILVER 183 Italian coins, but its association with the bronze coinage of the Roman Republic was peculiarly close. Down to the cessation of that coinage in 74 B.C. its presence was constant. When the revival took place under Augustus, it failed to regain its old position, and it is practically unknown on the bronze money of the emperors. Yet its memory was long kept fresh in the traditions of the playground. Macrobius, writing in the early part of the fifth century a.d. — five hundred years after the last of the coins with the prow was minted — tells us that even then the boys of Rome, when they 'tossed' denarii, used to call out 'Heads or ship!' 1 The silver coinage of Rome was originally struck in three denominations, the highest of which had precisely the same types as the others, — a notable differ- ence from the plan followed with regard to the baser metal. On the obverse was the head of the goddess Roma, and on the reverse the ' great Twin Brethren ' riding as if to battle (Plate vii. 4). Both types were religious. Both, it may be added, were borrowed from designs already in use on the currency of Southern Italy. And yet both had a reference which it is easy to detect. The eponymous goddess of the city had an appropriateness that scarcely needs to be pointed out. On the other side, Castor and Pollux were the patron divinities of the equites, the class of citizens that represented the capital and the business enterprise of Rome. As Mommsen reminds us, 2 the temple of Castor was a favourite shrine in which to 1 Pueri denarios in sublime jactantes "capita aut naviam* lusu exclamant {Sat,, i. 7). Cf. Aurelius Victor, Orig. Gent. Rom., iii, 2 Histoire de la monnaie romaine, ii. 29. 1 84 COIN TYPES deposit money for safe-keeping. It lay close to Janus Medius, the bourse of Rome. Setting aside the so-called ' Victoriatus,' — a special class of coin which was issued for a limited time and with a definite purpose, and the types of which were conventional and unvarying, — we shall find much of interest in the story of the Republican silver. To begin with the inscription, we may note that its appearance coincided with the first issue of the denarius. Hitherto the emblem of the prow had sufficed to distinguish Roman money as Roman. The heavy copper pieces can have circulated only within a comparatively limited area, and the types were so well marked that there was no risk of confusion with other Italian series of aes grave. The silver coins were meant to travel further. They had a more serious rivalry to encounter and to overcome. Con- sequently, it was important that they should bear the name of the state, just as had been the case with those earlier coins, whether of gold, of silver, or of bronze, that had been minted outside of Rome itself, but in districts under Roman authority. In accord- ance with the now generally accepted convention, the origin of which I have endeavoured to establish, 1 it was on the reverse of the silver that the legend ROMA took its place. After the copper coinage had sunk so much in weight that it came to be struck, not cast, it would naturally pass more readily from hand to hand and so tend to follow in the train of the silver. This is perhaps why the struck bronze is inscribed, the 1 See supra, pp. 1 27 ff. THE LEGEND ROMA 185 word ROMA being engraved beneath the prow. In neither case was the inscription destined to be per- manent. The facts regarding the changes in usage have been noted by Mommsen, 1 but I do not know that any attempt has yet been made to account for them. The name of the city occurs regularly upon the silver money until about 114 b.c. From that date it tends to fall into disuse. After about 84 b.c. it is never employed at all. On the copper it exhibits much more persistence. It occurs on all the asses struck prior to 89 b.c, with a single exception. Thereafter, however, it rapidly disappears. I think these phenomena can be most simply explained if we connect them with that more or less gradual cessation of local issues to which I had occasion to refer in last lecture. The first striking of the denarius had been the signal for an immediate shrinkage in the number of silver-producing mints in Italy. By the end of the second century b.c. the silver money of Rome was in a fair way to become the silver money of the whole world. The distinctive legend was, therefore, no longer so necessary as it had been. The copper coinage was on a different footing, because copper continued to be struck at many towns in Italy and Sicily down to 89 b.c. In that year all rival mints in Italy and Sicily were finally closed by the Lex Plautia Papiria. The need for differentiation was over, and the inscription on the copper went the way of the inscription on the silver. The very remarkable evolution which the types underwent has been so fully traced out by Mommsen, 2 1 Op. cit, ii. pp. 165 ff. 2 Op, cit., ii. pp. 181 ff. 1 86 COIN TYPES Lenormant, 1 and Babelon, 2 that it is only necessary here to recapitulate the results of their researches. For about half a century the original types — the head of Roma, and the Twin Brethren — held their own un- challenged. Then the first symptoms of change be- trayed themselves, the type of Diana and afterwards of Victory, in a two-horse chariot, being occasionally substituted for the Castor and Pollux group. About 134 b.c. we meet with a bold innovation. The monetary magistrates, who had at first kept entirely in the background but had subsequently let their identity be known through the insertion of symbols or of monograms in the field, now venture sometimes to adopt for the reverse a type which is expressly intended to recall the glories of their own family history. This is the religious impulse giving way to the purely commemorative. Thus, about 129 B.C., C. Minucius Augurinus signs a coin on the reverse of which we get an Ionic column, surmounted by a statue, — the monument erected to the decemvir L. Minucius in front of the Porta Trigemina (Plate vii. 5). Its appear- ance corresponds to the descriptions given by Pliny and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and the other details of the picture allude to the incident to which it owed its existence. The ears of corn that spring from the base remind us that it was in connection with the purchase and distribution of corn that Minucius won the gratitude of his countrymen, while the standing figure in * augur's robes refers to his surname of Augurinus. Just about the same period the moneyer 1 La monnaie dans P antiquity ii. pp. 240 ff. 2 Monnaies de la republique romaine, i. pp. xlvi ff. EVOLUTION AT ROME 187 Sextus Pompeius Faustulus issued a denarius which shows on the reverse the shepherd Faustulus in the act of discovering Romulus and Remus being suckled by the wolf underneath the fig-tree (Plate vii. 6). "We have come back, it will be seen, to the condition of things that we found long ago at Abdera and Cyzicus. 1 These reverse types are merely exalted symbols. For some thirty years matters continued in this transition stage, the head of Roma being almost always found on the obverse, and the variations from the tra- ditional reverse type becoming more and more frequent. About 104 B.C. a great change supervenes. Hence- forward Castor and Pollux are but rarely found. Even the head of Roma is often replaced by that of some other divinity or of one of the famous ancestors of the moneyer. The reverses are extraordinarily varied. Sometimes the new types have a local significance. Thus the head of Jupiter Ammon is used on coins struck in Africa by Q. Cornuficius as propraetor (44-42 b.c), and by Pinarius Scarpus as legate of M. Antonius (30-27 b.c). Similarly, when L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus, the consul of 49 b.c, issued denarii at Ephesus, he placed on the obverse the head of Jupiter Pluvius {Zev;,, - , 201 12. Commodus, (192 a.d.) : bronze, ^*- 210 13. Constantino the GreaH-326 a.d.) : bronze, --*'■ - 230 ^■erioJ. On the reverse is ^ ftgw. <■? jiipjser PLATE Vlll THE DATIVE CASE 209 we get the inscription CONSERVATORI PATRIS PATRIAE. In this example it is impossible to establish any connec- tion between the legend of the obverse and that of the reverse. Although both are in the dative, they refer to different personages. Whatever sense we may attribute to the former, we must connect the latter with the type. If we could suppose that the type was a copy of an actual statue, we might fall back upon the view that the dative is descriptive. But the whole group gives the impression of being an imaginary picture. And, if this be so, it can only be the design itself that is dedicated. The point may become clearer if we take another illustration. There are series of coins in all three metals struck to commemorate the journeys of Hadrian to the different provinces of the Empire. They bear on the obverse the Emperor's bust with his name and titles in the nominative, and on the reverse his full-length figure raising a suppliant female from her knees. The suppliant's identity is generally revealed by some characteristic attribute. Africa, for instance, has an elephant's skin as head-dress (Plate viii. 5). In any event, it is always made plain by the accompanying inscription, the normal form of which is RESTITVTORI ACHAIAE, RESTITVTORI AFRICAE, RESTITVTORI ARABIAE, and so on. It is obvious, I think, that the dative signifies here ( in honour of,' and that the place of the accusative is filled by the group or design. What, then, is the nominative ? Not, certainly, the nominative on the obverse, for that refers to the same individual as the dative and cannot be conjoined to it. There is no alternative but to regard the responsible officers of the 210 COIN TYPES mint as the dedicators, and to conclude that they enjoyed considerable liberty in the selection of types. The opportunity thus accorded to flatterers was taken advantage of only too frequently. The lowest depth was touched in the reign of Commodus, when coins were struck in all three metals representing the Emperor as Jupiter or as Hercules. Hercules was the deity with whom he was himself most anxious to be identified. If ancient historians are to be trusted, Commodus was no weakling. He fought with wild beasts at Lanuvium and elsewhere, and performed prodigies of strength and of valour at such contests. Dio Cassius 1 tells of his slaying as many as a hun- dred bears in one day, — a feat demanding some endurance, even ^thotigh the killing was done with javelins from a position of absolute security. The club and the lion's skin were his favourite emblems. They were borne before him when he appeared in the streets, and were placed upon the golden throne during performances in the theatre, whether he himself were present or absent. 2 He went so far as to assume the name of the Roman Hercules as one of his official titles. The truth of Dio's narrative is amply borne out by the coinage. Allusions to Her- cules and representations of the Emperor as Hercules are very common. To take but one example, a bronze c medallion ' shows his head on the obverse wearing the lion's skin, while the corresponding reverse has his full length figure in the pose of the Farnese Hercules (Plate viii. 12). In this particular case an actual statue may be reproduced, for Dio 1 lxxii. 18. 2 Ibid., lxxii. 17. INSTRUMENTS OF FLATTERY 211 mentions that many statues were set up showing him as Hercules. Under the empire, then, the coin-type occasionally degenerated — by a perfectly intelligible process — into a mere instrument of sycophancy. It must be admitted that, in this respect, Rome does not show to advantage as compared with the provinces. The imperial pre- sence must have exercised a baneful influence. It is true that at Cyzicus we have Commodus with his lion's skin and his title of PHMAIOI HP^KAHI. This, however, is exceptional, like the motto from Caesarea quoted in the course of last lecture. As a rule, the Greek Imperial coins show less tendency towards servility than the Roman. The most marked example they present of subserviency to the reigning monarch's whim is perhaps that which is afforded by the numerous pieces struck in honour of Antinous. And here the subserviency seems all the more striking if we remem- ber that Antinous never appears upon Roman coins at all. The explanation of this anomaly probably lies, not in the region of morality as has sometimes been supposed, but simply in the fact that Greek Imperial coins were much more closely and definitely associated with religious celebrations than was the ordinary currency of Rome. The coins with the head of Antinous were almost certainly minted on the occasion of festivals or games held in his honour. The contrast between the capital and the provinces can be brought out most clearly, and at the same time most fairly, by glancing briefly at the imperial coinage of Egypt. When Augustus formally organized 212 COIN TYPES the empire, he was careful to retain the administration of this rich province in his own hands. So strictly did he ban any interference on the part of the Senate that he even forbade senators as individuals to set foot in the country at all. It was placed under the direct control of an imperial procurator. Alexandria was the seat of the government, and it was doubtless there that the huge billon and copper currency was minted. Each coin bears upon its face the regnal year of the emperor under whose authority it was issued, a circumstance which renders scientific classification possible, and enables us to reconstruct the history of the mint in a way that we cannot do anywhere else. Modifications in the inscription or in the treatment of the imperial head, on the obverse, and changes in the general character of the types employed on the reverse often occur at irregular intervals in the course of one and the same reign. 1 Thus, the billon coinage of Nero falls into three quite distinct groups, which correspond to three successive periods of time, and which are differentiated partly by very slight alterations on the obverse and partly by the use of three well-marked varieties of reverse type. During the first period we chiefly find personified qualities such as are common on Roman coins, during the second it is Egyptian mythology and religion that is most largely drawn upon, during the third we get the heads of Greek gods and goddesses. Changes of this sort can have no political significance. Further, they generally 1 See Greek Coins in the Hunterian Collection, Vol. iii. pp. 402- 561, where these modifications and changes are made the basis of classification. ALEXANDRIA 213 occur in the middle of a year. As the year used is the Alexandrian year, which commenced on August 29th, the inference is that they coincide with the beginning of the Roman year or, more strictly, with the date at which a new official would naturally enter on his duties. We may conclude that at Alexandria the tradition of the later Roman Republic was preserved and the moneyers allowed to select their own designs. The peculiarly close relation in which Egypt stood to the emperor justifies us in pointing to this as a confirmation of the deduction we drew from the inscriptions as to the persistence of a similar practice in imperial Rome itself. The Alexandrian types are full of interest, more especially during the first two centuries of the Christian era. After about 200 a.d. there is a noticeable tendency towards monotony. While their detailed study is of high importance to the specialist, they do not illustrate any really new principle. In some respects they are analogous to the types on contemporary Roman coins. There are no portraits save those of members of the imperial house. Hope, Peace, Justice, Concord, Victory and their sisters are great favourites — a circumstance that would of itself have sufficed to suggest that a particularly intimate connection subsisted between Egypt and the centre of the Empire, since, if we except the inevitable Victory, such personifications are comparatively seldom found on ordinary provincial issues. Their frequent occurrence at Alexandria lends a certain distinction to the Egyptian coinage, and marks it as at least a faint shadow of the imperial series proper. For the rest,. 2i 4 COIN TYPES conventionally religious types are exceedingly common. And here we get local colour in abundance. Alongside of the gods of Greece and Rome, we have all the lead- ing Egyptian divinities — Sarapis, Isis, Apis, Harpocrates, and the others. Most characteristic of all, perhaps, is Nilus. Then there are a certain number of notable architectural types. These latter, however, must also be classed as religious. Even the Pharos, which is one of the most frequently employed and most interesting of the whole group, was closely associated with Isis Pharia and, as a matter of fact, generally appears as a mere adjunct, the goddess herself occupying the greater por- tion of the available space. The vitality of the conventionally religious type in Egypt is remarkable. There is no question, it should be remembered, of a connection with special festivals of the divinities represented. The same types are repro- duced reign after reign for centuries. It is difficult to suggest any explanation of this phenomenon ; but the same influence, whatever it may have been, must be held responsible for the rarity of the commemorative form of type, so popular at Rome. We have, indeed, individual emperors sacrificing or riding on horseback or standing on triumphal cars, and latterly we get many obvious allusions to the vota decennalia. But even about these there is a sameness that robs them of individuality. The galley that carried Nero to Greece has more human interest, while the references to Hadrian's visit to Alexandria are as direct and pointed as anything we could find at Rome. But such excep- tions merely deepen the impression of conventionality which a review of the whole series produces. And ALEXANDRIA 215 it is only natural that, as time goes on, this convention- ality should grow more and more pronounced. In the end the reverses are almost monopolized by figures of Victory and by eagles. The eagle at Alexandria, be it noted, is not a religious type but a military one. It is often shown standing between vexilla, and on coins of Carinus and Numerianus {circa 284 a.d.) it is accompanied by the legend A6T B TPAI, indicating the legion that had garrisoned Egypt since the reign of Antoninus Pius, if not of Trajan. Although specifically commemorative types are but little in evidence, it is clear that commemorative issues took place occasionally, and sometimes on a very large scale. There is no other reasonable explanation of the mintage, in particular years, of immense quantities of bronze coins bearing devices of an altogether special character. In the eighth (Alexandrian) year of Anto- ninus Pius, for instance, that is, between August 144 and August 145 a.d., there were struck a number of bronze pieces of large module whose reverses present us with a variety of astronomical pictures — the signs of the Zodiac, Venus in Taurus, Jupiter in Sagittarius, Mars in Scorpio, the Moon in Cancer, Saturn in Aquarius, and so on. That this was not due to the freak of an individual moneyer is proved by the abund- ance of the issue, and also by the fact that the same year produced one of the periodically recurring groups of so-called c nome-coins. 1 The term is applied to bronze pieces which, though minted at Alexandria, had upon their reverses the name of one or other of the < nomes ' or districts into which Egypt was divided for administrative purposes, the type in each case being 216 COIN TYPES also of a distinctively local character. Such groups were issued at least once under Domitian, and on several occasions under Trajan and Hadrian. The view that they are commemorative is fully borne out by the exceptional output of more strictly Alexandrian pieces which invariably accompanied them. The local colour- ing of the types — usually the figure or the symbol of a divinity specially associated with the * nome ' — suggests that they were probably intended for distribution at local festivals held to celebrate the great event that was being commemorated. They and the corresponding Alexandrian coins should thus be compared with some of the series which we discussed under the heading 'Greek Imperial/ although neither types nor inscriptions give any clue to the exact nature of the occurrences to which they owed their existence. Besides Alexandria, the most important subsidiary mints in the Empire during the earlier part of its history were Antioch, Tarsus, and Caesarea in Cappa- docia, — all three, it should be observed, great centres in the thickly populated East. They produced large quantities of silver and billon coins which were ex- changeable at a fixed rate with Roman denarii and would thus form a useful supplement to the regular issues of the capital. The types are, for the most part, rather uninteresting. At Tarsus and at Caesarea they deal to some extent with local subjects. The Mons Argaeus at the latter town we have already heard of, 1 and at Tarsus there was the god Sandan. At Antioch, on the other hand, the one local type of note — the statue of the Tyche of the city by 1 See supra, pp. 167 ff. ANTIOCH 217 Eutychides — is early superseded by an eagle with spread wings which thereupon becomes the practically invariable reverse device not only on the billon coinage of Antioch, but also on that issued by the other chief cities of Syria when, after 214 a.d., they enjoyed for a brief period the privilege of striking money in a metal more valuable than mere bronze. 1 It was not the billon coinage alone that displayed monotony of type at Antioch. There was a senatorial mint there. Such at least is the natural inference from the fact that so many of its bronze coins bear the letters S C, exactly like the bronze issues of the capital. From the time of Augustus to that of Elagabalus, during whose reign the whole system was remodelled as the result of the establishment of a c colonia,' the type of the senatorial coinage of Antioch was uni- form, — nothing but a wreath, with the two letters just mentioned in the middle of it. Such deliberately colourless uniformity cannot be paralleled anywhere else during the imperial age. It would be interesting to know what it signifies, — sheer lack of originality, or conservatism rooted in pride at having been selected as a unique centre, a provincial capital, so to say, or a feeling that, in view of the distance from the real seat of power and the consequent impossibility of keeping in close touch with it, it was prudent to avoid all risk of giving offence either to Senate or to emperor by a choice that might conceivably prove to be ill-timed. The class of types characteristic of Roman ' coloniae ' has still to be mentioned. In some cases the cities 1 See Imhoof-Blumer, Grieck. Milnzen, p. 234 (758). 218 COIN TYPES so designated show a range of devices as richly varied as are to be found anywhere in the whole Greek Imperial series. The issues of Corinth, of Tyre, and of Alexandria Troas, for instance, are all exceptionally interesting from this point of view. But there is a small group of reverses peculiar to such settlements — the founder ploughing out the primigenius sulcus with a team of oxen, the wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, and the statue of c Marsyas,' as it stood in the Roman Forum, the last being regarded as symbolical of the Latin right. As we might expect, too, colonial coins have often a specially military colour, — eagles or standards, bearing in many cases the names and numbers of the legions whence were drawn the veterans whose settlement had been the occasion of the be- stowal of colonial privileges. The types that we can definitely associate with the general idea of a c colonia ' are thus, one and all, obviously commemorative in their nature. With them, therefore, we may fittingly con- clude our review of the Roman coinage, the most striking feature of whose story has been the great development of the commemorative influence. In our next lecture we shall see the commemorative influence, in its turn, give way to the imitative and to an ex- ceedingly curious revival of religion. LECTURE VI. At the close of last lecture we dealt briefly with the more important of the subsidiary mints which, under imperial sanction, succeeded in maintaining a quasi- independent existence for two or three centuries. Ultimately they too, like the ordinary local mints, had to suspend operations and leave unchallenged the monopoly subsequently enjoyed by the regular imperial issues. Alexandria held out longest, doubtless owing to the peculiar advantages open to Egypt as the private domain of the emperor. Even at Alexandria, however, the local coinage came to an end in 296 a.d., the closing of the mint being one of the results of the reforming energy of Diocletian, who made a strenuous effort to bring order out of the chaos into which the currency of Rome was drifting. The kings of the Cimmerian Bosporus had long occupied a privileged position. Although their territory lay within the limits of the Empire, they had been allowed to strike gold ■coins, the usual — and latterly the invariable — types of which had been the imperial portrait on the one side .and the bust of the royal vassal on the other. Their 22o COIN TYPES gold issues gradually deteriorated, first into electrum, next into silver, and then into potin, and finally all attempts to mint anything less ignoble than bronze were given up. Their bronze, however, persisted until the reign of Constantine the Great. Its extinction marks the completion of the triumph won by the Roman coinage over the Greek that had given it birth. Henceforth, as far as the arm of Rome could reach, there was room for Roman money only. Beyond the frontier it was different. In distant regions, like India and Abyssinia, autonomous coin- ages of Greek ancestry flourished uncontrolled and unthreatened. Just across the borders of Roman territory, however, there was an intermediate zone over the money of which the emperors professed to claim a certain limited jurisdiction. Thus the Parthian coinage, a direct descendant of that of the Seleucid kings, had been superseded in the earlier half of the third century a.d. by the issues of the revolting Sassanians. The Sassanidae never submitted to the political tutelage of Rome. And yet, according to Procopius, writing in the days of Justinian, "the king of Persia can strike as much silver money as he pleases ; but neither he nor any barbarian king has the right to place his mark (or his portrait) on any piece of gold, however much gold he may possess, and no piece of the sort could have currency, even among the barbarians." 1 A restriction of this kind could, of course, be effective only in so far as the power to enforce it existed. But it is interesting to l Betf. Goth., iii. 33. THE LATER EMPIRE 221 note that the statement of Procopius is borne out by Zonaras who tells us that Justinian II. , in the end of the seventh century a.d., made it a casus belli with the Arabs that they had paid tribute in coin that bore a new Arabian stamp instead of the imperial one, "for it was not allowed to have any type impressed upon a gold coin save that of the emperor of the Romans." 1 To come back to pre-Byzantine times, it will be well to explain that, even after the coinage of the Empire had become wholly Roman, all Roman coins were not struck in the capital. Considerations of ordinary convenience dictated the establishment of branches of the mint in various centres throughout the provinces. We know of between twenty and thirty cities, including two in Britain, from which Roman imperial coins were at one time or another issued. Minor differences of style, no doubt, there were. But in their general appearance and in the character of their types all these coins resembled each other closely. Without the mint-mark it would almost require the eye of an expert to distinguish the products of London and Colchester from the pieces that had their origin in the very heart of the empire. Even the rise of * usurpers ' like Carausius did not affect the solidarity of the system. And the reason for this is obvious. Whatever the real seat of his power, every claimant of the purple professed to be emperor of Rome. It was under Carausius that London first became a Roman mint. His name inevitably recalls the barbarian invasions, for his recognition as Augustus was associated with the urgent need that was beginning to be felt for 1 Chronicon, xiv. 22. Cf. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. lii. 222 COIN TYPES making use of every available instrument to resist the outside pressure that was ere long to overthrow the Empire. This is, therefore, a suitable point at which to resume consideration of barbarous imitations. And we shall begin with Britain. Gold coins, it will be recol- lected, were not struck at Rome until the end of the Republic. But, long before the restless Helvetii provided Julius Caesar with an excuse for active inter- ference, his countrymen had been pursuing in Gaul a policy of what it is now the fashion to call c pacific penetration/ Where Roman traders went, Roman money became known. The earliest coinage of Gaul and Britain had consisted, as we have already learned, of imitations of the gold Philippus. Now a new native currency grew up, this time of silver, many of the types being directly borrowed from those of Roman denarii. In Britain the movement is most noticeable about the beginning of the Christian era, — we may say, roughly, during the century that preceded the Roman conquest ; and, there at least, it was accompanied by something like an artistic revival. The coins of Cunobelinus, the Cymbeline of Shakespeare, — to take a prominent example — are found in all three metals. 1 The gold pieces are descended from the Philippus. 2 The silver and the bronze are remarkable for the variety of their subjects, which are often borrowed from classical my- thology and can sometimes be traced back to a Roman original. On the whole, their execution is surprisingly good. With the definite consolidation of Roman 1 See Evans, Coins of the Ancient Britons? pp. 284. ff. 2 See supra? pp. 86 ff. THE BARBARIAN INVADERS 223 authority in Gaul and Britain these independent coin- ages naturally came to an end, as the mintage of Spain had done at a much earlier period. In Spain and in Gaul a few privileged ' coloniae ' and ' municipia ' were permitted to strike money under the earlier emperors. Before the middle of the first century a.d. that privilege had been everywhere withdrawn. The West can show nothing to correspond to the so-called 'Greek Imperial' issues of the East. Its money is all purely Roman from the reign of Nero onwards until the day when the barriers of the Empire were finally broken down by the new nationalities who had so long been thundering at its gates. After the Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoths and other ' barbarian ' peoples had fairly established themselves on the territories they chose for permanent settlement, they adopted many of the institutions of Roman government. By this time the practice of minting money was an indispensable element in the organization of every reasonably well-ordered community, and it could not but be continued. As a matter of fact, it was taken over in a particularly whole-hearted fashion. The earliest money of the new nations was entirely composed of direct, and not always very skilful, imitations of the imperial currency. Until after the middle of the fifth century a.d. no coins were struck in Europe bearing the name of a Q barbarian ' ruler. The persistent employment of the imperial types was certainly calculated to secure for the issues that bore them a more general acceptance than would otherwise have been possible. And it must be remembered that many of the c barbarian ' kings and princes maintained the 222 COIN TYPES making use of every available instrument to resist the outside pressure that was ere long to overthrow the Empire. This is, therefore, a suitable point at which to resume consideration of barbarous imitations. And we shall begin with Britain. Gold coins, it will be recol- lected, were not struck at Rome until the end of the Republic. But, long before the restless Helvetii provided Julius Caesar with an excuse for active inter- ference, his countrymen had been pursuing in Gaul a policy of what it is now the fashion to call ' pacific penetration.' Where Roman traders went, Roman money became known. The earliest coinage of Gaul and Britain had consisted, as we have already learned, of imitations of the gold Philippus. Now a new native currency grew up, this time of silver, many of the types being directly borrowed from those of Roman denarii. In Britain the movement is most noticeable about the beginning of the Christian era, — we may say, roughly, during the century that preceded the Roman conquest ; and, there at least, it was accompanied by something like an artistic revival. The coins of Cunobelinus, the Cymbeline of Shakespeare, — to take a prominent example — are found in all three metals. 1 The gold pieces are descended from the Philippus. 2 The silver and the bronze are remarkable for the variety of their subjects, which are often borrowed from classical my- thology and can sometimes be traced back to a Roman original. On the whole, their execution is surprisingly good. With the definite consolidation of Roman 1 See Evans, Coins of the Ancient Britons, pp. 284 if. 2 See supra, pp. 86 ff. THE BARBARIAN INVADERS 223 authority in Gaul and Britain these independent coin- ages naturally came to an end, as the mintage of Spain had done at a much earlier period. In Spain and in Gaul a few privileged ' coloniae ' and ' municipia ' were permitted to strike money under the earlier emperors. Before the middle of the first century a. d. that privilege had been everywhere withdrawn. The West can show nothing to correspond to the so-called 'Greek Imperial' issues of the East. Its money is all purely Roman from the reign of Nero onwards until the day when the barriers of the Empire were finally broken down by the new nationalities who had so long been thundering at its gates. After the Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoths and other ' barbarian ' peoples had fairly established themselves on the territories they chose for permanent settlement, they adopted many of the institutions of Roman government. By this time the practice of minting money was an indispensable element in the organization of every reasonably well-ordered community, and it could not but be continued. As a matter of fact, it was taken over in a particularly whole-hearted fashion. The earliest money of the new nations was entirely composed of direct, and not always very skilful, imitations of the imperial currency. Until after the middle of the fifth century a.d. no coins were struck in Europe bearing the name of a c barbarian ' ruler. The persistent employment of the imperial types was certainly calculated to secure for the issues that bore them a more general acceptance than would otherwise have been possible. And it must be remembered that many of the * barbarian ' kings and princes maintained the 224 COIN TYPES fiction that they were merely the vassals of the emperor. The action of Odoacer, the first of them to place his own name upon his coins, is very significant. 1 When he put an end to the Western Empire in 475 A - D - ^7 deposing Augustulus, Odoacer was taking a step that was nominally in the interests of imperial unity. He sent a deputation of the Roman Senate to Constantinople to lay at the feet of Zeno, the Eastern Emperor, the imperial insignia of the West, and to assure him of the allegiance of the new kingdom of Italy. He struck imperial gold and silver in the mints of Rome, Ravenna, and Milan, while the Roman Senate — reviving the arrangement originally instituted by Augustus — -reverted to the custom of striking bronze with the letters S C in the field. Gold, silver, and bronze alike bore the head and the name of Zeno. Before the end of his reign Odoacer ventured to assume a certain initiative in the matter of money. He issued silver which had the name and portrait of his ' suzerain ' on the obverse and his own monogram on the reverse, and also copper on which his personal responsibility was flaunted, naked and unashamed. It will be noted that even he did not trench on the imperial prerogative so far as to coin gold. This bold innovation was reserved for -the Frankish king Theodebert, the Austrasian, (534-547 a.d.) whose action amounted to an absolute defiance of the authority of Justinian. Yet it was only in the name that any alteration was made. The types on both sides, and also the legend on the reverse, were exact copies of what were to be found on Justinian's own coins. This last feature is typical of the career on 1 See F. Lenormant, La monnaie dans Pantiquite, ii. pp. 442 ff. o£s ..- jovlia : (.a. a StE-J>d£) .1 nuinitnaUV'-.i-. a££ - .,9Sfioid :(.a.A id£-£££) .II aubnBjanoD .£ i£s .asnoid :(.a.A^£-oj£)auiJn3n^M .£ S£S (blog :(.a.A £ift£-ld£) steteoqA^rlJ uajln^ .f ££> -_ -^ - jWoa :(.a.A4,^-^)vIroJ .£ £££ . "- ' ''*• "- ,bIog : (.a. A &Jd-l£d) .II enjtfgnoO .d f£s - \ e bIog : (.a.A o£|.-8oj>) .ll^uhoboadT -X £££. .^ <- t bIog;: ( .a .a ^>-0££) nsb-isM .8 ££*: . - r ' - ,. t bIog : (.a.A Il^gd) .II n&initeu\ .^ i^s ,i3vlia : {.a.A ^oi-s^oi) 2fjrio£monoM 3nbf[Bj2no3 .6T 8££ t 3sno-id : (.a.A iq£I-ij^i) 3ngoiDaBlB c I .V nrio^ .ii_ •i^s -'- t i9vlis : (.q.A a^oi-^doi) .VI ztm&rnq%r .£l~ g££ ,9snoid : (.a.A id£i-^0£i) £K>i3qrn3 ni.fej^I .£i d^s ,bIog :.(.o.A £8si-idsi) augoJoafiUI .IIIV bfidoiK .ju sJf , PLATE IX. SEE PAGES *l. Valentinian I. (364-375 a.d.) : silver, 230 2. Constantius II. (335-361 A.D.) : bronze, 230 3. Magnentius (350-353 A.D.) : bronze, - 231 4. Julian the Apostate (361-363 A.b.) : gold, - 232 5. Leal. (457-474 a. d.): gold, - 233 6. Constans 11.(641-668 A.D.) : gold, 1' 233 j. Theodosius II. (408-450 A.D.) : gold, 234 8. Martian (450-457 A.D.) : gold, - ■ -- 234 9.- Justinian II. (685-711 a.d.) :, gold, 235 ID. Constantine Monomachus (1042- 1054 A.D.) : silver,- 241. n.'jofr&V". Palaeologus (134T-1391 A.D.) : bronze, '■ 238 12. Ronjanns LV. (1067-1070 A.D.) : silver, -. 242 13. Latin Emperors (1204- 1 26 1 A.D.) : bronze,' - 245 1$. Michael VIII. Palaeologus (1261-1282 A.D.) : gold, 2^46 PLATE IX f CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 225 which the coinages of Western Europe generally were about to enter. For centuries the blind, untutored imitative instinct was to exercise practically undisputed sway. In the Eastern Empire the same instinct was by no means inactive; its vitality is always quickened when the creative faculty falls dormant. But the story of Byzantine types has an interest that is all its own. To understand the course of its development, we must go back a little way, and see how a new element had gradually asserted itself. Until the reign of Constantine the principles which we saw in operation under Augustus continued to regulate the choice of types for the imperial money — for the obverse, the portrait and name of the emperor or of some member of his family, and, for the reverse, designs of a commemorative or a conventionally religious character, frequently accompanied by a descriptive legend. I have said * conventionally religious/ because it will hardly be contended that any real sanctity attached to them ; there could be no question of invoking the witness of the gods on some coins, when frankly secular types were freely admitted upon others. The art on the money of Constantine and his colleagues is sadly degenerate. The old skill in portraiture has been almost entirely lost, while the reverse types are far less varied and far less well executed than they once were. Most of them are but dull copies of the designs the engravers had found on earlier pieces. Yet, in spite of their generally monotonous character, they supply us with examples of all the great classes we met with during the epoch 226 COIN TYPES to which the finest imperial pieces belong. Thus, religious types are represented by Jupiter, Hercules, Mars, the Sun, and the goddess Roma ; personifications of qualities by such figures as Valour, Concord, Victory, and Security ; personifications of countries and cities by figures of Africa, Alamannia, Francia, and Constan- tinople ; architectural types by the gate of Treves with the river Moselle flowing in front of it; military types by legionary standards and trophies ; commemora- tive types by representations of the Emperor receiving Victory from the hands of Jupiter ; and so on. It was into this heterogeneous mass that the new element was more or less suddenly projected. Thanks to the full and careful researches of M. Jules Maurice, the study of the numismatics of the Constantinian period has now been placed on a strictly scientific basis. 1 The exact date at which the leaven of Christian symbolism was introduced can therefore be definitely determined. The effects of the change were destined to be very far-reaching. The new religion was to become as prominent a factor in determining the types of Byzan- tine coins as the old religions had been in the case of the money of the Greek cities and states before the Roman supremacy. And yet, in the first instance, the occurrence of Christian emblems on coins was, so to say, almost fortuitous. They were not adopted 1 M. Maurice's results have been published in a series of papers appearing in different periodicals, notably the Numismatic Chronicle and the Revue Numismatique. In the application of exact method to the coins of this period he was so far anticipated by Otto Voetter, "Erste Christliche Zeichen auf romischen Miinzen" (Num. Zeit., 1892). Madden's articles in the Num. Chron. (1877 anc * l8 7 8 )» although now out of date, contain a good deal that is still of interest THE LAB ARUM 227 deliberately as out-and-out rivals to the symbols of the pagan cults. The earliest to make their appearance figure rather as subsidiary devices. The tale of Constantine's vision of the Cross is one of the most familiar in history. Eusebius relates, 1 on the authority of the Emperor himself, how the sacred sign was revealed to him and his army in the noonday sky as they were advancing to the decisive battle with Maxentius. In spite of the words TOYTfll NIKA attached to it, the import of the omen seemed dubious, and Constantine was sorely perturbed until night, when Christ appeared to him in a vision and told him to make a standard in the shape of the sign that had been shown him and to use this as a protection against his enemies. The result was the construction of the famous labarum^ or Standard of the Cross, which Eusebius describes for us from personal observation. 2 It consisted of a long spear covered with gold and transformed into a cross by the addition of a trans- verse bar. It was surmounted by a crown of gold and precious stones, on which was a monogram formed of the first two letters of the name of Christ. The monogram afterwards came to be regarded as emblem- atic of the whole and to be used practically as the imperial crest. We are told that it was painted on the shields of the soldiers, and that the Emperor wore it on the front of his helmet. The defeat of Maxentius took place in the autumn of 312 a.d. It left Constantine master of the West, the control of the East being in the hands of his colleague 1 De Vita Const., i. 28. 2 Op. cit.y i. 30. 228 COIN TYPES Licinius. A war between the two broke out in 314 a.d. Constantine was so far successful, but he did not push matters to extremities. He granted terms to his rival, and lived in peace with him for nine years. In 323 a.d. he attacked and overthrew him, thus gaining the command of the whole Roman world. So long as the relations of the two were friendly, each struck coins in the name of the other at the mints over which he exercised direct control. Coins of Licinius, for instance, were issued at London, j ust as coins of Constantine were issued at Alexandria or at Antioch. The lesser lights of each imperial family are similarly represented. In the case of all alike, the reverse types are, as has been indicated, of the usual traditional character. Sometimes there are clear traces of a tend- ency to associate particular deities with the different personages named on the obverse. 1 But, for our present purpose, it would be idle to attempt to dis- criminate between Constantine's types and those of Licinius. The one set are as frankly ( pagan ' as the other. It was at the mint of Tarraco in Spain that Chris- tian emblems made their appearance soonest. 2 In the year 314 a.d., probably after the outbreak of the first war between the two emperors, coins were struck there having the cross as a symbol in the field of the reverse, the type itself being of the usual pagan character. Maurice reminds us that some twelve months earlier Constantine had accorded certain privileges to the Christians as the result of 1 E.g. Maurice, Num. Chron., 1900, pp. 323 ff. 2 This was first demonstrated by Voetter, op. cit., p. 43. THE CROSS 229 the conference with Licinius at Milan. 1 A more remarkable, because a more widespread, manifestation of a similar sort took place about the year 320 a.d. when the $ monogram was simultaneously employed at Tarraco, Aquileia, Siscia, Thessalonica, and Treves. 2 In most cases it figured as a symbol in the field, but at Siscia we get it on the Emperor's helmet — ■ a mere detail, as it were, of the portrait. Here again, as Maurice has shown, the phenomenon coincided with a distinct accentuation of Constan- tine's pro-Christian policy. 8 Interesting as these facts are, it would be easy to exaggerate their importance. They are, I think, the indirect, rather than the direct, reflection of the state of the imperial mind. We can best account for the curious inconsistencies they involve by supposing that they are the result of a dual control. The general similarity in legend and type between contem- porary issues of the various mints throughout the Empire points to the existence of a central authority. Minor variations indicate that some degree of latitude was allowed to local officials. And it is among minor variations that I would class the earliest Christian emblems. They would hardly have been introduced had those responsible for them not felt secure against imperial displeasure. At the same time, their introduction was not due to imperial orders. Some such hypothesis is necessary for a satisfactory explanation of the frequent blending of Christianity x Rev. Num., 1900, pp. 283 ff. 2 Maurice, Num. C/zron., 1900, pp. 330 f. z Rev. Num., 1900, pp. 296 f. 230 COIN TYPES and paganism ; of the contrast between Tarraco, where Christian emblems are displayed so early, and London, where they are never found at all ; 1 and also of the occasional occurrence — at Constan- tinian mints, of course — of the f monogram on coins struck in the name of the pagan emperor Licinius. 2 After the defeat and death of Licinius, both the % and the cross tend to become increasingly prominent, while types representing heathen deities begin to disappear. In 326 a.d., the year following the Council of Nicaea, a remarkable piece was struck at the mint of Constantinople. 3 The reverse type consists of the labarum itself standing upright, with the monogram on the top, and having its lower end thrust through the body of a serpent (Plate viii. 13). This is an obvious allegory of the triumph of Christianity in the person of Constantine. It recalls a picture which Eusebius describes 4 as hanging in the vestibule of Constantine's palace, the Emperor being shown piercing the serpent that represented the enemy of the human race. Elsewhere the same writer reproduces a letter of Constantine's in which his rival is described as a £ serpent.' 5 This type, however, is quite exceptional. For the most part, the labarum remains what it originally was — an adjunct of the emperor or of his army. Sometimes the emperor is seen holding it in his hand (Plate ix. 1), or again it is planted in the ground between two soldiers. A very interesting coin of Constantius II. (Plate ix. 2) has the former of these 1 Maurice, 'Num. Ckron., 1900, p. 138. 2 Ibid., p. 339. 8 Maurice, Rev. Num., 1901, pp. 183 f, 4 De Vita Constant., iii. 3. 5 Ibid., ii. 46. CHRISTIAN EMBLEMS 231 devices accompanied by a translation in Latin of the Greek motto of the vision, — 'HOC SIGNO VICTOR ERIS,' while a figure of Victory places a wreath on the Emperor's head. Even more striking in its way is a piece of the same ruler on which the f standing alone occupies the centre of the field and is sup- ported to left and to right by the A and CO, the legend being SALVS AVG NOSTRI, fc the health of our Emperor.' This type, with a longer legend, is repeated under Magnentius (Plate ix. 3). It is perhaps worth remarking in passing that the use of the first personal pronoun in these and many similar inscriptions of the later empire points in the same direction as certain uses of the dative case that were discussed in last lecture. Who are the NOS, unless it be the moneyers speaking on behalf of the emperor's subjects ? The significance of the types we have just been describing is unmistakable. Their constantly increas- ing popularity is a testimony to the growing import- ance of Christianity as a social and political force. In the circumstances of the time we must look upon the Christian symbols as party emblems. They were placed upon the coins, not from any feeling that money was a sacred thing, but in very much the same spirit as was displayed by the armies that went into battle with the labarum carried in the van surrounded by a picked bodyguard of fifty men. And yet their use as party emblems could not, of course, divest them of their essentially religious character. We see this most clearly by contrast with the reaction they provoked. The temporary revival of paganism under Julian the Apostate not only caused them to vanish entirely, but 232 COIN TYPES produced a series of types, the religious bearing of which is more clearly marked than that of any group we have encountered for a very long time. The money of Julian shows a certain number of reverse types of the traditionally commemorative character, — the Emperor triumphing over his foes (Plate ix. 4), Victory writing on a shield, and the like. The majority of them, however, are religious, and not merely conventionally religious, for they exhibit repre- sentations of the Egyptian deities who commanded Julian's special reverence. Sarapis, Isis, Osiris, and the bull Apis are particular favourites. Whether this was due to direct imperial command or to a natural desire on the part of the moneyers to gratify their master is a matter of little moment. In either case the new types furnish a counterblast to the Christian symbols of Constantine and his successors. They bear witness to Julian's religious beliefs, not to the sanctity of coins. When Christianity was once more supreme, the Egyptian types disappeared, and there was a return to the devices that had been customary before their intro- duction. So far as the Western Empire is concerned, there is little more to be said. From the death of Julian until the deposition of Augustulus there is hardly any change of importance to be mentioned. The chief features for remark are the gradually increasing monotony of the types, — figures of Victory, and of emperors and empresses predominate, — and the intro- duction of the simple cross as a separate device. But the death of Theodosius I. in 395 a.d. had led to the final division of the Empire, and the types of BYZANTIUM 233 Byzantium call for special attention. At first there is not much to notice. As in the West, we have continuous stylistic degeneration and a growing mono- tony of subject, tendencies which are not checked until the remarkable, if temporary, renaissance which set in about the ninth century. Artistically the most interest- ing point is the transition from profile to full face treatment. The latter method of representation had been employed occasionally at Rome even before the division of the Empire, and it became fairly common there afterwards. At Byzantium we can trace its rapid advance in popularity until the time of Justinian (527- $6$ a.d.), after whose reign it has an almost absolute monopoly. A good seventh century example is the coin of Constans II. figured on Plate ix. 6. So far as subjects are concerned, the types follow the trend that was observable at Rome. Personifications of qualities practically cease. Victory alone maintains her place. Indeed, she does more, often forming one of a group which includes the emperor or members of his family. The cross, too, makes gradual headway, some- times held in the hand of Victory (Plate ix. 5), but ultimately as an independent type, usually, in technical terminology, * a cross potent, upon three degrees ' (Plate ix. 6). A form of reverse that became characteristic of Byzantine copper coins was the simple value-mark, eloquent, like the reverses of our own shilling and sixpence, of the poverty of artistic invention. In the course of the fifth century a.d., however, a note of novelty had been struck in the remarkable piece on which the figure of Christ was for the first time employed as a type. This innovation was prompted 234 COIN TYPES not by a religious, but by a commemorative, motive. The coin is known to us by a single specimen, now in the Hunterian Museum (Plate ix. 8). It is a gold solidus, struck about 450 a.d. on the occasion of the marriage of Pulcheria to the Emperor Marcian. The obverse presents us with a bust of Marcian, helmeted and holding spear and shield. On the reverse are the bride and bridegroom standing with clasped hands. In the background, between them, is the figure of Christ with a hand laid on the shoulder of each. It is the * dextrarum junctioj often represented in antique works of sculpture and on earlier coins, where, however, the place now filled by Christ is occupied by Juno Pronuba, the goddess tc cut vincla jugalia curae" The inscription reads feliciter NVBTUS, which Eckhel, with his never- failing aptness, illustrates by the lines of Juvenal r 1 " Signatae tabulae, dictum feliciter, ingens Coena sedet, gremio jacuit nova nupta mariti" The full meaning of the group on this particular coin was not recognized until a few years ago when a very similar solidus found its way into the Berlin Museum. In publishing the second coin Prof. Dressel was able to throw a striking light upon the first. 2 The Berlin piece (Plate ix. 7), which is in wonder- fully fine preservation, was issued -thirteen years earlier, and commemorates the marriage of Valentinian III. to Eudoxia, daughter of Theodosius II. The obverse has the armed bust of Theodosius, facing. In type and inscription the reverse closely resembles that of the 1 Sat. ii. 119 f. 2 Z./.N., xxi. pp. 247 ff. REPRESENTATIONS OF CHRIST 235 Hunter solidus. But it is not Christ who takes the place of Juno Pronuba. It is Theodosius II., father of the bride and head of the imperial family. A com- parison of the two coins shows that the later is modelled very directly on the earlier. Why, then, the difference in the central figure ? Dressel's answer is convincing. It was symbolical of the nature of the marriage, which, historians tell us, was a spiritual one only. Pulcheria had taken the vow of chastity in her youth. When her brother Theodosius II. died, she was past the prime of life. Upon her as Augusta rested the duty of selecting a colleague to share with herself the burden of imperial responsibility. She chose Marcian, a man of humble birth but sterling qualities. To raise him to rank worthy of the purple, she asked him to be her husband. But, according to Zonaras, this offer of a throne was accompanied by the express stipulation that her youthful vows were to be respected. 1 The significance of the type is plain. This interesting coin apparently stands by itself. For more than two hundred years we meet with nothing like it. Then on the coins of Justinian II. (685-695 a.d. and 705-711 a.d.) we get the bust of Christ as an ordinary reverse type (Plate ix. 9). It is shown with the cross in the background, the gospels being held in the left hand, while the right hand is extended in the act of bestowing a benediction. The accompanying legend is !hS CRISTOS REX REGNANTIVM. The obverse is an appropriate pendant. It shows the bust of the Emperor, facing as is now usual, holding a cross and surrounded by the words DN ivstinianvs 1 Ckronicon, xiii. 24. 236 COIN TYPES SERWS ChmSTl. The appearance of such coins at this precise juncture is exceedingly interesting. It was in the reign of Justinian II. that the Moslems first gained a secure footing in Asia Minor, and thus became a serious menace to the rulers of Constantinople. The antagonism was not merely racial and political. It was also religious. Now, it was Justinian's con- temporary, the caliph Abd-el-Melik, who initiated the Mussulman coinage, the Arabs having hitherto used the Byzantine and the Persian currencies. This step is said by tradition to have been taken in consequence of a threat made by Justinian that he would place upon his coins devices offensive to Islam. The story in this form may or may not be accurate. But that there is solid fact behind it, seems certain from the actual numismatic evidence. The legend on the reverse of the silver coins of Abd-el-Melik reads like a deliberate reply to the challenge conveyed by the bust of Christ and the words 'King of Kings.' It runs : a Mohammed is the apostle of God, who sent him with the guidance and religion of truth, that he might make it triumph over all other religions in spite of the idolaters." The last five words are peculiarly enlightening. Representations of living things were an abomination to all true followers of the Prophet. There is no express prohibition of them in the Koran. But there are several traditional sayings of Mohammed bearing on the point. The best known is the rebuke he administered to his wife Ayesha, who had bought for his use a riding cushion on which pictures were worked. Mohammed said to her, " The people who make these things shall be punished in the day of Resurrection ; it MOSLEMS AND < ICONOCLASTS ' 237 shall be said unto them, Make what you have created live." And he added, " The house in which these drawings are, the angels do not enter." With one or two exceptions (which really belong to the category of barbarous imitations) Mohammedan issues all the world over testify to the respect with which this obiter dictum has been treated by the Faithful. The coins have no types. The decorative instinct has to be satisfied with picturesque arrangements of the inscription or with elaborate mono- grams such as are found to-day on the current money and the postage stamps of the Turkish Empire. The types and legends on the coins of Justinian II. thus furnish clear testimony to the manner in which the Byzantine emperors were becoming identified with the profession — one dare not say with the practice — of Christianity, as opposed to the gathering force of Islam. They have another feature of great interest. The appearance, just at this particular time, of actual repre- sentations of Christ is evidence of the importance to which sacred images had now attained. The Church was on the eve of a tremendous reaction. Justinian II. was put to death in 71 1 a.d. Five years later Leo III., the Isaurian, the first and greatest of the * iconoclasts,' succeeded to the imperial throne. He it was who issued the famous edict against images, and thus pro- duced the convulsion that finally sundered the Greek Church from the Latin. As we should expect, the bust of Christ is not found upon the coins again until the day of the iconoclastic emperors was over. It should be noted, however, that unlike some zealots of a later age, they did not place the cross itself under their ban. It was, in fact, one of their most common coin-types, 2 3 8 COIN TYPES and is often seen surrounded by the inscription ihSVS xristvs NICA — l Jesus Christ is Conqueror.' Just a century after the death of Justinian II. the head of Christ was reintroduced upon the Byzantine coinage by Michael I. (Rhangab6), who was likewise the first emperor to lend renewed countenance to image worship. The revival, however, was only temporary, so far at least as the coins were concerned. It was not until 842 a.d., when Theodora, widow of Theophilus, assumed the regency on behalf of her young son, afterwards Michael the Drunkard, that a Council sitting at Constantinople definitely pro- nounced anathema on the image-breakers. From this date representations of Christ upon coins become more and more numerous and varied. Frequently we get the full figure, — sometimes seated, sometimes stand- ing. About fifty years later we encounter, for the first time, the head of the Virgin as a reverse type. After this we see her pictured in many attitudes. Often she holds a medallion on which is the head of Christ. Occasionally she is seated with the Holy Child upon her knee. One very rare bronze coin represents her thus, with the Magi offering their adoration (Plate ix. 11). In this last case the accompanying legend is " Blessed among women." More usually it is the simple description, " Mother of God." Nor are Christ and the Virgin the only sacred personages who appear. Saints are also very common. The earliest example is probably St. Alexander blessing the Emperor Alexander, son of Basil I. (912-913 a.d.). But it was not until the end of the following century, under Alexius I., that VIRGIN AND SAINTS 239 the practice of introducing saints into coin-types acquired a permanent hold. St. Demetrius, St. George, St. Michael, and St. Theodore were among the most popular. We have now reached a period when the representa- tions on coins have come to be divided fairly equally between imperial portraits and religious types of the nature that has been indicated above. It may be re- peated once more that this extraordinary phenomenon is not a proof of the religious theory of coin-types as such. Devices of precisely the same character occur on contemporary seals. The parallelism between the two is obvious enough on the surface, and detailed study serves only to emphasize it. We may indicate some of the more striking points of resemblance, drawing the materials from Schlumberger's splendid Sigillographie de F Empire Byzantin. Imperial and other portraits are occasionally found on seals. As, however, the great majority of the surviving specimens are the signets of private indivi- duals or of corporations, portraiture is much less common than it is upon coins. A very few show reproductions of buildings, while a small but exceed- ingly remarkable class presents us with heraldic emblems — lions, wolves, griffins, eagles, winged oxen, cocks, and the like. Although there is nothing in Byzantine numismatics to correspond to this last group, the analogy with the primitive currency of Asia Minor is worth drawing attention to. But by far the larger number of the seals are concerned with religious subjects of the very kind that is to be met with so frequently on contemporary coins. The method of 2 4 o * COIN TYPES treatment too is identical. Many have the bust or the full figure of Christ. The Virgin is even more popular, and Schlumberger's collection includes examples of about fifty saints. Under the iconoclastic emperors such representations disappeared from seals just as they disappeared from coins. They were replaced by lengthy inscriptions, by monograms, or by crosses. So much similarity is, of course, the outcome of a general tendency. It implies movement on parallel lines. At the same time, each of the two sets of things must have influenced the other. Of this mutual influence the stronger current must, I think, have been that which issued from the seals. The circumstances were such as to admit of, or even to encourage, a greater degree of inventiveness in seal- engravers. They worked for many masters, and they were required to produce distinctive designs. Grant- ing that they had to keep within conventional limits, we cannot but allow that they had wider scope than the engravers of the mint. As a matter of fact, their devices are much more varied. The heraldic group, for instance, as has been already pointed out, has nothing to correspond to it upon the coins, whereas there is no class of coin-type to which we cannot find a counterpart among the seals. Thus, beside the single type representing the Adoration of the Magi we can set the seals which depict such scenes as the Annunciation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. 1 The conclusion suggested above is fully confirmed by the inscriptions. In the first half of the seventh 1 Schlumberger, op, cit., pp. 24 ff. BYZANTINE SEALS 241 century a.d. the Emperor Heraclius (614-641) had placed the legend devs AD1VTA ROMANIS on the reverse of some of his coins which bear the type of the cross. His successors followed his example, and, had the brief prayer stood alone, we might have regarded it as a sort of national motto or confession of religious faith. By and by, however, we find its place taken by a personal invocation. Thus, Theophilus (829-842 a.d.) and Michael VII. (1071-1078 a.d.) have Kvfoe BOH06I TO) CO) AOYACO ( c Oh Lord, help Thy servant '), while Alexius I. (1081-1118 a.d.) employs CcorEP CVNEPrEI BACIA6I AA6SIC0 ('Saviour, lend Thine aid to King Alexius '). Equally interesting are the appeals to the Virgin. A silver coin of Constantine Mono- machus (1042-1055 a.d.), for example, has on the one side a figure of the Emperor facing, holding a cross and a sword in its sheath, accompanied by the inscription GVCCBH MONOMAXON. On the other side is the Virgin standing with hands raised in the act of benediction, surrounded by the words AecTTOINA COOZOIC (Plate ix. 10). The whole forms a single sentence — 'Oh lady, do thou keep in safety Mono- machus the Pious.' Legends of this kind are new upon coins. On Byzantine seals they are extraordinarily common. Schlumberger estimates 1 that ninety per cent, of the known examples of the latter have personal invoca- tions upon them, and that ninety per cent, of these invocations take the form KvptS or OeoroKG BOH06I TO) CO) AOYACO. About ten per cent, of the seals have inscriptions of quite another sort, — references to the 1 Op. at. } p. 29. Q 242 COIN TYPES purpose which the seal was meant to serve, often couched in the first person like the earliest of all coin inscriptions. 1 A common formula is c I seal the writings of so and so.' Another is ' I am so and so's seal.' But there are many variants. An interesting example in Schlumberger's own collection, for instance, recalls (with a curious difference) the inscription just quoted from a coin of Monomachus. The legend runs: AeCTTOINa CCOZOIC TAC TPA^AC cePyiav* In the case of many private seals the words are arranged so as to form an iambic trimeter, such as OY CPAI~IC 6IMI THN rPAHN OPCON IM06I, — 'Look at the writing and see whose seal I am.' To the latter class of inscriptions the coins, naturally enough perhaps, provide no parallel. On the other hand, they present us with something equally remark- able, — illustrations of the fully developed coin motto. Thus, there are rare gold and silver pieces, anonymous but probably struck by Romanus IV. (1067-1070 a.d.), which read on the obverse OC H ATTI K€ 17 A N TA KATOP0OI round the figure of the Emperor facing, with a cross in his right hand and in his left a globe surmounted by a smaller cross. The reverse shows the Virgin standing holding the infant Christ in her arms, while round about are the words TTAPGGNe CO I TTOAY- AINe (Plate ix. 12). Sabatier 3 treats these as separate legends, beginning with the obverse, and translates : ' §)ui espere en toi> reussit en tout. En ton honneur> Vierge trh-glorieuse] thus giving the second the form of a dedication. Obviously, however, we ought to take 1 See supra, p. 51. 2 Schlumberger, op. cit, p. 43, s Monnaies Byzantines, ii. p. 172. METRICAL INSCRIPTIONS 243 the two sides together, putting the reverse first, for then we get the hexameter line : TLapQtve hammedan money, and it seems quite probable that Mr. Keary is right in de- tecting here the influence of Arabic coins, then very com- mon in north-western Europe. The presence of these Arabic coins in regions so far from the country of their origin used to be attributed to the raids of the Vikings. It now seems much more likely that they travelled in the ordinary course of trade across the Russian steppes from the east of the Caspian. 1 On those Carlovingian pieces where types are used the prominence accorded to the inscription is a new feature. The characteristic 1 See v. Zambaur, Monatsblatt der Numismatiscken Gesellsckaft in Wien, December, 1902. THE NEW DENARIUS 249 devices were few in number, but they had many de- scendants. The emblem of the cross, surrounded by a circular inscription, became the commonest of all reverse types. The bust, sparingly used by the earliest Car- lovingians, was much more popular on some of the coinages they inspired. In England, for example, almost immediately after Pepin's great reform, the lumpy sceatta was replaced by the broad, thin penny, the usual types of the latter being a bust and a cross. The English penny in due course became the model of the first Scottish money — the coins of David I. The remaining Carlovingian devices also gave birth to numerous imita- tions, more particularly in France and in Germany, among the most popular being the monogram con- taining the King's name, and what is usually known as the fc temple type.' Another of considerable interest is the representation of a city gate (Plate x. 6). The sameness that was produced by the course of development indicated, had a certain convenience. Where, as under the feudal regime, it was possible for a fairly large number of mints to be active at the same time within a comparatively narrow area, it was well that the coins issued should resemble one another so closely that they could circulate side by side. But it is doubtful whether any motive of this kind was con- sciously operative. It is much more likely that the real reason lay in the poverty of invention that inevitably resulted from the paralysis under which the fine arts were suffering. It is curious to note that the use of the inscription must have exerted, during the period now under review, an influence of precisely the opposite character to that 250 COIN TYPES which we saw reason to attribute to it in antiquity. 1 When the use of writing became common on Greek coins, it diminished the necessity for each city retaining a type or types peculiar to itself, and rendered it much easier to employ different devices for different denomi- nations. Art was a living thing. The creative impulse was there, and it rejoiced to find an opportunity for exer- tion. But in the dark ages of Western Europe it was quite otherwise. The designers had little originality. Of their defect, however, they were barely sensible. So long as the letters denoting the name of the ruler or the mint were sufficiently large and legible, a characteristic design was not felt to be necessary. Not seldom, it is to be feared, there was a more sinister motive at work in producing the imitation. Chautard has succeeded in clearing the character of some of the princes who were responsible for the e counterfeit sterlings,' or copies of the English penny, which were so extensively struck on the continent during the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies. But he is compelled to admit that in many cases there was a deliberately dishonest intention. 2 The counterfeits were of inferior metal. And, as we know from Chaucer and Langland, the c lussheburghes ' made their way into England in spite of all the royal edicts directing their exclusion. 3 We learned incidentally that, during the supremacy of the system first introduced by Pepin, the West of Europe drew its supplies of gold coin mainly from Byzantium, and that even silver ' bezants ' were 1 See supra, pp. 72 and 126 ff. 2 Imitations des monnaies au type ester/in, p. xix. 3 Chaucer, Monk's Tale, 74 ; Langland, Piers Plowman, c. xviii. 72. BYZANTINE INFLUENCE 251 familiar. We should, therefore, expect to find that in this age of imitation their types were often repro- duced. And this proves to have been the case. We are once more indebted to Mr. Keary for demon- strating the wide extent of the influence of Byzantine types. 1 North of the Alps Byzantine elements are traceable in the coinages of Germany, side by side with elements derived from the types of the Carlovingians. There are even sceattas for which a Byzantine original can be found. To all of these, however, only a secondary interest attaches. With the Italian imita- tions it is different. The designs of the engravers of Byzantium may strike us as stiff and formal. Yet when in the fullness of time they were transplanted to Italian soil, they blossomed and bore fruit. The movement was closely analogous to what took place in regard to painting. Cimabue's Madonnas might almost have been executed for churches in Constantinople. As the cities of Italy grew in wealth and power, and threw off their allegiance to the German Emperor, they began to mint money of their own. For their new types they turned naturally to Byzantium. The first silver ducats of Venice, for example, struck under the doge Enrico Dandolo (1 192-1205), have on the one side the seated figure of Christ and on the other the Doge receiving the gonfalon or banner from the hands of St. Mark (Plate x. 3). How closely the general scheme is modelled on Byzantine originals can be seen by comparison with the gold coins of Leo VI. or of Romanus III. (Plate x. 1). The era of modern coinage may be said to have begun half a century later, 1 Num. Chron., 1886, pp. jj ff. 252 COIN TYPES in 1252 a.d., when the 'fiorino cCoro ' was first struck in Florence, — the * maladetto fiorej as Dante calls it with obvious reference to its type, " which has led the sheep and the lambs astray, since it has made a wolf of the shepherd." 1 This was not the first time that gold had been minted in mediaeval Italy. A hundred years before, Roger II., one of the Norman Dukes of Apulia, had struck gold pieces of Mohammedan style, the idea being in all probability borrowed from the gold coins of the Arabs, with which he had become familiar in Sicily. Much more remarkable was the gold cur- rency of one of the most extraordinary men whom the Middle Ages produced, the Emperor Frederick IL, c The Wonder of the World * (Plate x. 2). Artistically, it is quite exceptional. 2 There is no trace of Byzantine influence, the ecclesiastical trend of which was probably distasteful to the great heretic. Its inspiration is drawn direct from Roman gold, and from Roman gold of the best period. It anticipates by some two hundred years the revival of the art of portraiture upon coins, and is thus an apt illustration of what historians say as to the keenness of Frederick's artistic sympathy and insight. Except possibly at Ragusa, Frederick's coins had no successors. But the striking of the gold florin, two years after his death, was the signal for a general 1 Paradiso, ix. 130 f. 2 The only issue that can be set beside it is the first currency of the Republic of Ragusa, which belongs to the end of the thirteenth century. It is of bronze, but shows the same high relief and good style that are so conspicuous in his money. As it is slightly later, imitation may explain the coincidence. THE DECORATIVE REVIVAL 253 renewal of the mintage of gold throughout Europe. In many cases the actual types were copied. The days of slavish imitation were, however, drawing to an end, and we now begin to find increasing evidence of origin- ality of design. The renewed mintage of gold in- volved changes in the silver currency also ; additional denominations were introduced, affording opportunity for greater variety of type. As art grew to be more and more of a living force, execution improved and coins once again became things of real beauty. The gold pound of Henry VII., for instance, the first ' sovereign ' struck in England, is a magnificent piece of decorative work (Plate x. 11). While it is twice the weight of the present twenty-shilling piece, it is much thinner. It has consequently a larger diameter, — fully an inch and a half, — and a surface area which gave the engraver full scope for the exercise of his talent. The obverse has a figure of the king seated on his throne, with the royal insignia. The fact that he is represented facing is a reminiscence of Byzantine tradition perpetuated through the * sovereign type ' of early English kings like Edward the Confessor. The reverse has a double rose, seen from above, charged with a shield on which are the arms of England and of France in alternate quarters. The richness with which both designs are elaborated shows us one aspect of the decorative influence at its highest, and makes the whole coin a worthy representative of the age and the king to which we owe one of the finest portions of Westminster Abbey. Of the process by which English and other modern coinages lost all artistic distinction and sank to the 254 COIN TYPES dull level of bourgeois respectability on which they now rest so complacently, I do not intend to speak. It belongs to the general history of art. But the gold florin (Plate x. 4) will provide a convenient point from which to review the principles that have determined the choice of mediaeval and modern coin-types. On one side was the full-length figure of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence. This feature was doubt- less borrowed directly from the Byzantine practice spoken of earlier in the lecture. But it is clear that it suited the mediaeval habit of mind. The figure of a patron saint became a very favourite type. On the coins of Italian towns and states alone more than two hundred distinct saints are either represented or named. When it is added that figures of Christ and of the Virgin are also common, the vitality of the Byzantine tradition will be apparent. In England the group of St. Michael piercing the dragon gave a name to one of the best known of English coins — the ' angel/ In Scodand we had St. Andrew on his cross. To-day the sovereign of the United Kingdom has St. George. The coin mottoes of Byzantium also found their counterpart on the coins of the numismatic revival. There was no motto on the fiorino d'oro itself, but the corresponding silver piece had the punning Leonine hexameter : " Det tibi florere Christus, Florentia, vere? 7 Similarly, the Venetian gold sequin (1280 a.d.) read " Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quem tu regis, iste ducatus." More directly reminiscent of the Byzantine legends MEDIAEVAL MOTTOES 255 was the inscription on the gold ' angels * of the English kings — per crvcem tvam salva nos xpe redemptor — " By Thy cross do Thou save us, oh Christ our Redeemer," or the XPC REGNAT XPC vincit XPC IMPERAT, "Christ is King, Christ is Conqueror, Christ is Lord," which is found on the Scottish 'lions' and elsewhere. The < nobles' in England and Scot- land had the quaint legend, ihs AVTEM transiens per MEDIVM ILLORVM IBAT — "But Jesus, passing through the midst of them, went on His way." The utter inappropriateness of this last text (it has no direct connection with the type, which is the figure of the king standing in a ship) indicates that these mottoes were sometimes mere cryptic charms. 1 In England coin mottoes continued to be chiefly, if not wholly, religious down to the close of Elizabeth's reign. With James I. they became more specifically commemorative. On some of the gold coins issued by him in 1604 we get FACIAM EOS IN GENTEM VNAM t the allusion to the Union being much more explicit if regard is had to the whole verse of which these are the first words : " I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them all ; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." 2 On the double crowns of the same year we find HENRICVS ROSAS REGNA IACOBVS, where, by a conceit worthy to have emanated from the King's own brain, the Union of the Crowns 1 See the interesting note on " The First Gold Noble,'' by W. Wroth in Num. Ckron., 1882, pp. 298 f. 2 Ezekiel xxxvii. 22. 2S6 COIN TYPES in the person of James is compared with the union of the Red and White Roses in the person of his ancestor, Henry VII. Such a departure from traditional usage was not altogether an innovation. The texts on the coinage of James's mother are often commemo- rative. The legend, ecce ancilla domini, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord," on one of her earliest gold pieces, is a distinctly personal allusion. The money issued during the period of her union with the Dauphin is also full of signs of the same tendency. The alliance is symbolized in various ways, as, for example, by the combination of a dolphin and a thistle into one and the same group, while the legends are equally pointed in their reference. Returning to the fiorino d'oro, we find its second type illustrative of a tendency that has been long lost sight of. The lily was the emblem of the city of Florence. What is more, the device is a * canting badge ' — fiore. We are back to the days of heraldry in types. The renaissance for which the striking of the gold florin was the signal was marked by the introduc- tion of heraldic devices both in our own island and on the continent. And the number of these grew steadily until the royal coat-of-arms or the national emblem became, as it is now, the commonest of all reverse types. This return to the earliest form of type was due, of course, to the great revival of heraldry itself, and this in turn was connected with the general reawakening of the artistic spirit. But it is interesting on its own account and, in view of some of the points raised in the opening lecture, it is specially so because it provides us with so many examples of the c speaking PLATE X. SEE PAGES 1. Romanus III. (1028-1034 A.D.) : gold, - r 251 2. Frederick II. (1220-1250 a.d.} : gold, 252 3. Venice (1 192-1205 a.d.) : silver, * 251 4. Florence (1252 a.d.) ; gold, 254, 256 5. Charlemagne (768-814 a.d.) : silver, 248 6. Louis le D^bonnaire (814-840. a.d.) : silver,, vu, -. 249 7. Anglo-Saxon (7th or -8th century Ajp.) : silver,. ... 247 8. Anglo-Saxon (7th or 8th century A.D.) : silver, 247 9. Anglo-Saxon (7th or 8th century a.d.) : silver, - 247 10. William the Lion (1165-1214 a.d.) ; silver, ,- p , 257. 11. Henry VII. {1485-1509 a.d.) : gold, 253 12. David II. (1358 a.d.) : gold, '-' 257 13. James V. (1540 a.d.) : gold, - 259 PLATE X THE HERALDIC REVIVAL 257 type ' — the pomegranate at Granada, the bear at Berne, the gate (Janud) at Genoa, the sheep issuing from a house at SchafFhausen, the monk at Munich, the ladder {scald) of the Scaligers at Verona, and many more. Other phenomena of the earlier stages of coinage are similarly, and equally unconsciously, reproduced. Thus Sir Martin Bowes, master of the mint under Henry VIII. and Edward VI. , sometimes placed a bow as a symbol on coins for which he was respon- sible. This was a l canting badge,' but it was not his crest, for he also employed an arrow, a swan, or a rose. The parallel with the Athenian magistrates is very close. 1 The vast change that came over the coinage of Europe within a comparatively brief space of time can be aptly illustrated from our own Scottish money. The earliest pennies belong to the twelfth century. As has been mentioned, they are direct imitations of the contemporary currency of England, which again was framed on the Carlovingian model. The types are of the simplest (Plate x. 10) — a conventional bust on the obverse, crown and sceptre showing that it is a king, and on the reverse the cross, whose ancestry has already been traced to imperial Rome. The execution is so poor that the inscriptions are often unintelligible. The first gold coin issued in Scotland presents a striking contrast. It is the noble of David II., minted in 1358 (Plate x. 12). It too illustrates the imitative tendency, for it is closely copied from a similar piece struck a few years before by Edward III. of England. The obverse type was 1 See supra, pp. 54 ff. R 258 COIN TYPES perhaps commemorative on the original : it is said to have been an allusion to the naval victory won by Edward at Sluys in 1340. Here, however, it is purely decorative,— the king crowned standing to front in a ship. The heraldic element is supplied by the arms of Scotland blazoned on his shield. The richness of the reverse design requires no comment. There remains one other modern type to be discussed — the portrait of a reigning sovereign. In its essence this was a legacy from the Hellenistic age through the medium of the Roman Empire. But all realism, all genuine endeavour to produce a likeness had been abandoned in the course of centuries. The head or bust had become a mere convention. It continued to be so till long after the artistic revival had fairly set in. On English coins, for example, there is no serious attempt at portraiture until the last years of Henry VII.'s reign. When the change did come, it came through the influence of a sister art. The old Roman medallion had been a development of the coin. The Italian medal was originally free from all association of this kind. It was, in the hands of Pisanello for example, the effort of a painter to find a new medium of expression. And it was for por- traiture that it was chiefly employed. From the medal the true portrait made its way back to the coin, with the result that during the best period the perfection of the first and second centuries of the Roman Empire was more than rivalled. It would not be possible, I think, to find a more beautiful illustration of the fully developed modern THE REVIVAL OF PORTRAITURE 259 coin than the € bonnet piece ' of our own king, James V. (Plate x. 13). If we look at it in the light of the story I have endeavoured to trace, we shall find that at every point it suggests some remini- scence of its ancestry. The type of the reverse, the Scottish lion, is heraldic, representing a return to what was probably the original form of type. Round the margin is a good specimen of the coin motto — HONOR REGIS IVDICIVM DILIGIT — -"The king's power loveth judgment/' 1 — serving to recall the money of Byzantium and the influence exercised upon it by the currency of Mohammedan peoples, itself a pro- test against the image-worship of seventh century Christians. The obverse, with the portrait of the king and an inscription recording his name and titles, with the date, takes us back to a Roman original, and to an even more distant past. Although por- traiture on coins is a purely secular thing now, we must not forget that it is a standing record of the deification of living rulers, and of the once all-power- ful influence that religion exercised in determining the selection of coin-types. 1 Psalms xcix. 4. GENERAL INDEX. Abacaenum, divided inscr. at, 131. Abd-el-Melik, coinage of, 236, 244. Abdera, type and symbol at, 38 f., 50; borrowed type at, 103; inscr. at, 127. Abydus, eagle at, 125 ; inscr. at, 128; Hero and Leander at, 172. Acanthus, lion and bull at, 80 ; inscr. at, 127. Acarnania, river-gods in, 92. Acclamatio, 163. Achaean League, coins of, 13. Achelous, games in honour of, 1 00. Achulla, portrait at, 195. Acisculus, symbol of, 188. Acragas, crab at, 95 ; crab of, at Himera, 114; crab and eagle as symbols at, 124, 132 ; divided inscr. at, 131 f . ; heads at, -142. Aegae, type parlant at, 18; Trapd- (TYJfAOV of, 66. Aegean coinage, early types of, 35 f. ; compared with later, 122. Aegina, coinage of, 8, 20, 26 ; tortoise at, 95. Aegira, type parlant at, 18. Aegospotami, type parlant at, 18. Aegosthena, type parlant at, 1 8. Aelian, cited, 60. Aeneia, Aeneas at, 105. Aenus, symbols at, 37 f. ; statue as type at, 138. Aes grave of Rome, types of, 181 ff. Aes rude, 28, 177. Aes signatum, types of, 28 fF., 74 ff. Aeschylus, cited, 52. Aetna, coin of, 94 f. ; change of types at, 142. Aetolia personified, 111. Africa personified, 209, 226. Agathocles, types of, in. Agesilaus refuses deification, 148. Agonistic types, 98 ff., 165 f. Agrippa II., coinage of, 162. Alcibiades, coat-of-arms of, 52. Alexander the Great introduces bi- metallism, 9 ; imitations of his coins, 83, 89 f. ; his deification, 149 ; his portrait on coins, 151 f. ; his monetary policy, 155; his dream as type, 1 7 1 f. Alexandria, coinage of, 212 ff. ; mint closed at, 219. Alexius L, coin of, 241. Alliance coins, 13, 164 f. Alopeconnesus, type parlant at, 18. Amasia, altar at, 169. Amastris, statue at, 169. Amenanus, as type, 93. Anaxilas, types of, at Rhegium, 109 ; at Messana, 143. Anazarbus, inscriptions at, 162, Anchialus, Zeus defending Thebes at, 172. Ancona, type parlant at, 18. Ancyra, type parlant at, 18. 'Angel,' type of, 254; inscr. on, 255. GENERAL INDEX 261 Animal groups as types, 80. Animals, local, as types, 95. Antandrus, irapdo-Tjfiov of, 68. Antigonus deified, 153. Antigonus of Carystus, cited, 65. Antinous, portrait of, 211, Antioch (Caria), bridge at, 167. Antioch (Syria), pseudo-autono- mous coinage of, 159; Tyche of, 165, 216; imperial and senatorial mints at, 216 f. Antiochus II., deified, 149. Antiochus Epiphanes, at Athens, 55- Antipater refuses to deify Alexan- der, 149, i53 ; Apameia Kt/3o>r6s, painting copied at, 171 ; Noah's deluge at, 174. Apellicon, at Athens, 56, 103. Apollonia, decorative type at, 79. Apollonia Pontica, type of, 125; inscr. at, 128. Arabic coins in N.W. Europe, 248. Arcadia, mythological types in, 105 f. Archelaus I., heads on coins of, 144. Architectural types, 96, 163, 166, 202, 214, 226, 246. Aretas, submission of, 188. Arethusa, head of, imitated, 81 f. Argaeus, Mons, 167 fF., 216. Argos, two dolphins at, 74 ; Dio- mede at, 1 04 ; wolf, as type and symbol, at, 1 24 ; types indi- cating value at, 122; head in- troduced at, 136, 144; inscr. at, 127. Aristion, at Athens, 55. Aristophanes, cited, 52, 85. Aristotle, cited, 47, 109. Art treasures as types, 169. Artabanus reverences standards, 196 f. Artemis Pergaia, 169. Artists, signatures of, 73. Asia Minor, * spread ' tetradrachms of, 11, 155 f. ; electrum of, 27; Alexandrine tetradrachms of, 83, 155 ; Greek mints in, 154 f. Aspendus, types of, 98, 124. Assorus, statue at, 1 70. Astacus, type parlant at, 18, Astronomical types, 215, Athenian coins, place of inscr. on, 127; type on both sides of, Athenian types, 54, 61, 167, 170 ; borrowed, 83 £, 103 ; imitated, 85 f, ; 'arrest' in style of, 86; religious significance of, 116; relation between, 116, 136. Athens, gold minted at, 9 ; type and symbol at, 41 ; private seals at, 44 ; public seal of, 47, 60, 116; magistrates' symbols at, 53 fF. ; irapdo-Tjfiov of, 68, J I ; mint in temple at, 139 ; pseudo- autonomous coinage of, 158; Acropolis as type at, 167 ; art treasures as types at, 1 70. Athletes, 98, 166. Attuda, female donor at, 160. Audoleon's coins imitated, 89. Augurinus, coin of, 186. Augustine, cited, 182. Augustulus, deposition of, 224. Augustus, his monetary reforms, 157, 180, 194; visit to Alex- ander's tomb, 192 ; attitude to deification, 195, 197 ; portrait on coins, 194, 198, 206 ; types, 200 f., 206. Aurelius Victor, cited, 183. Axe, as type, see Tenedos ; as symbol, 38, 188. Axes as money, 32. Babylon, seals at, 44. Bactria, coinage of, imitative, 90. Bactrian kings, portraits of, 152. Baletium, harbour of, 92. 262 GENERAL INDEX Barbarian invaders, money of, 223 ff. Barbarous imitation, see Imitation. Barter-units, 24 ; as possible types, 30 ff. Bezants, 243, 250 f. Bimetallism of Alexander, 9 f. ( Bird type ' on sceattas, 247. Bithynian kings, portraits of, 152. Bizya, city of, 166 ; gate of, 166 ; Capaneus as type at, 172. Boeotian League, type of, 13. * Boll,' Scottish, 34. 'Bonnet-piece, 7 259. Bowes, Sir Martin, mint-marks of, Britain, early coinage of, 87 ff., 222 ; Roman mints in, 221. Bronze, as standard, 10, 74; as material for coins, 10 ; cast coins of, 28, 74, 177 ; see also Aes. Brutus, portrait of, 194 ; denarius of, 199. Buildings, see Architectural types. Burgon, his view of types examined, 16 ff. ; on seals, 45. Byzantium, Heracles and serpents at, 113 ; wicker-torches at, 165 ; crescent at, 245 ; imperial coin- age of, 233 ff. : influence in Middle Ages, 251 ff. Caepio and Piso, purchasing corn, 188. Caesar, Julius, his coinage, 179 f. ; portrait on coins, 191, 193 ; deification, 193 ; murder, 199. Caesarea, inscriptions at, 162 f. ; Mons Argaeus at, 1 67 ff. ; im- perial mint at, 216. Calymna, archaic head at, 135. Camarina, change of types at, 142. Canting badges, see Punning prin- ciple. * Capita aut naviamj 183. Cappadocian kings, portraits of, 152. Carausius, 221 f., 243. Carisius, type of, 190. Carlovingian coinage, 248 f. Carthaea, inscr. at, 127. Carthage, minting begins late at, 7, 20 ; types of, 82. Cases used in inscriptions, 161 f., 204 ff Cassius, no portraits of, on coins, 194 ; denarius of, 199. Castor and Pollux, 183 f., 186 f. Catana, river-god at, 93 ; Sarapis and Isis at, 121 ; see also Aetna. Caulonia, coinage of, 36 ; type of, 97, 132 ; wapdo-r)fiov of, 1 33 ; double inscr. at, 132 £ Centuripae, religious types at, 120. Chalcidian League, coins of, 13. Chalcis, eagle at, 103. * Chalder/ Scottish, 34. Chariot- races, as types, 15, 101 f. Chaucer, cited, 250. Chios, type of, 25, 6j, 69, 123 ; inscr. at, 127 ; Trapao-^/Aov of, Christ, representations of, on By- zantine coins, 233 ff., 235, 237 £; on Byzantine seals, 240; on Italian coins, 254. Christian symbols on coins, 226 ff.; blended with pagan, 229 f. ; as party emblems, 231. Cicero, cited, 170. Cimmerian Bosporus, coinage of, 219 f. Cimmerians imitate Lydian coins, 84 f. Cimon, the engraver, 81, 101. Circus Maximus, 202. Cistophoric coinage, 157. Cities, representations of, 1 66, 226. City-arms, see Ilapdcrrjfiov. Cius, inscr. at, 162. GENERAL INDEX 263 Civil wars at Rome, coinage during, 194, 198 ff. Claudius II., coin of, 170 f. Clazomenae, irapdo-Tjfxov of, 66 ; swan at, 95 ; Anaxagoras at, 175. Cleitor, 7rapdo-r}p,ov of, 67. Cnidus, Heracles and serpents at, 113; archaic head at, 1 17, 135. Coin, definition of, 2. Coinage, invention of, 6 ; spread of invention, 8 ; right of coinage, 10, 220 f. ; oldest known coin- age, 46 ; suggested by sealing, 46, 52. Colchester, Roman mint at, 221. Coliseum, 202. * Coloniae,' types of, 217 f. Colony, type of mother-city bor- rowed by, 103. Colophon, armed horseman at, 98 ; lyre at, 125 ; festival at, 165. Commandment, Second, I46f. Commemorative influence, 92 if. ; united with religious, 115; on Greek Imperial coins, 159, 163 ; on Roman, 186 fF., 191, 198, 200, 218 ; on Byzantine, 226. Commemorative issues, 215. Commercial theory, 24 ff! Commodus, as Hercules, 210 f. Comparative method, applied to commercial theory, 35. Confederations, monetary, 12 fF. ; anti-Spartan, 112 f. Constans II., coin of, 233. Constantine, types of, 225 f. Constantine Monomachus, coin of, 241. Constantinople, recovery of, 246. Constantius II., coin of, 230 f. Convention, monetary, 14, 141. Copia, type parlant at, 18. Copper, see Bronze. Corcyra, decorative type at, 79 ; cow and calf at, 27, 80 ; racing- galleys at, 98. Coressia, inscr. at, 127. Corinth, Pegasus at, 125 ; head of Athena at, 125, 136, 141 ; Acro- corinthus at, 167 ; art treasures at, 170 ; inscr. at, 1 27 f. ' Corinthian colonies/ types of, 83 ; inscr. on coins of, 129. Cornuficius, coin of, 187. Cos, crab at, 125, 199 ; portraits at, 175. Counterfeit sterlings, 250. Cow suckling calf, 27, 80. Crannon, ■jrapdxrrjfxov of, 65 ; bull- fight at, 99. Crassipes, symbol of, 188. Crescent, at Byzantium, 245. Cretan coins, style of, 15; mytho- logical types on, 105; heads on, 144. Crete, Athenian types in, 83 f. ; sup- posed primitive currency of, 33 f. Crimisus, on coins, 93 f. Crithote, type parlant at, 18. Croesus, coinage of, 8 ; offering of, 6+. Cross, as symbol, 228 ; as type, 2 30 f. ; under ' Iconoclasts,' 2 3 7 f. ; on Carlovingian and later coins, 249. _ _ Cross, vision of, 227. Croton, tripod at, 12 f., 36, 125; Heracles at, 104 ; Heracles and serpents at, 113; inscr. at, 128; change of types at, 142. Cumae, decorative type at, 79 ; mussel at, 95 ; head at, 136. Cunobelinus, coinage of, 222. Curtius, religious theory of, 19. Cyme, irapda-^fxov of, 71. Cyprus, smooth reverses in, 15; axe-currency in, 32. Cypsela, type parlant at, 18. Cyrene, archaic coinage of, 9 ; silphiumat,95,i 14, 125; chariot- racing at, 101 f. ; Heracles at, 107, 172 ; Rhodian types at, 1 14. 264 GENERAL INDEX Cyzicus, tunny-fish at, 25 ; chang- ing types at, 40, 49 f., 59; satrap's head at, 150 ; festival type at, 165 ; Commodus as Heracles at, 211 ; pseudo-auto- nomous coins of, 158, 159. Daldis, copy of painting at, 171. 'Damareteion,' 109. Dante, cited, 252. Dardanus, two cocks at, j6 ; inscr. at, 127. Daric, see Persian coinage. Dative, significance of, 205 ff". David I., coinage of, 249. David II., ' noble' of, 257. Decorative influence, 72 if. ; com- bined with religious, 138; re- vival of, 253. Dedication of designs, 209. Deification of living men, 148 ff. ; among the Romans, 193 ff". Delos, group representing, 62. Delphi, irapdo-rjfjLov of, 66 \ dedica- tions at, 62 ff. Demeas, at Athens, 57. Demetrius Poliorcetes, his com- memoration of naval victory, 1 1 1 ; deification, 149, 153 por- trait on coins, 153. Denarius, Roman, 178 ff! ; the new, 248 f. Denominations, indicated by types, 121 f. Deultum, copy of painting at, 171. Dextrarum junctio, 234 f. Diana, on Roman coins, 186. Dicaea, borrowed type at, 103. Dido, at Tyre, 173. Die, primitive form of, 4 f. ; upper, more easily broken, 125 f. Dio Cassius, cited, 193, 196, 197, 206, 210. Diocaesarea - Sepphoris, Trajan's gift to, 161. Diodes Cephiseus, at Athens, 58. Diodes Meliteus, at Athens, 58. Diocletian's reform, 219. Diodorus, cited, 109, 153. Diogenes Laertius, cited, 1 10. Dion, at Syracuse and at Zacyn- thus, 118 f. Dionysius, at Athens, 57. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, cited, 186. Dyrrhachium, cow and calf at, 27 ; decorative type at, 79 ; symbols at, 59. Eagle, at Alexandria, 215; at Antioch, 217. Ear of corn, golden, dedicated, 64 ; see also Metapontum. Edward III., 'noble' of, 257 f. Egypt, coins first struck in, 10 ; under the Empire, 2 1 1 ff. Egyptian divinities, 212, 214 ; on Julian's coins, 232. Eion, goose at, 95. Elagabal, sacred stone of, 169. Electrum, earliest coins minted in, 6 ; why abandoned, 8. Electrum coins, archaic, 27, 49, 80 ; later, of Asia Minor, 50 ; of Syracuse, 118. Eleusis, festival coinage of, 100. Elis, festival coin of, 100 ; early types of, 136; heads at, 136, 144. Elyrus, goat at, 65. Emisa, fetish at, 169. Empedocles saves Selinus, 109 f. Emperors, types alluding to, 176, 200, 211. Emperors, worship of, 164, 195 f.^ 203. Emporiae, imitative types at, 82. English coins, 249, 254 ff. Enna, statue at, 170. Epaminondas, crest of, 52. GENERAL INDEX 265 Ephesus, Heracles and serpents at, 112 f . ; bee and stag at, 117; Artemis at, 132, 169, 187 ; four temples at, 164 ; Mt. Peion at, 167; Jupiter Pluvius at, 167 f., 187; Heracleitus at, 175. Ephesus, types of, at Gortyna, 114. Eretria, cow at, 27, 103; cuttle- fish at, 61 f. Etenna, wrestlers at, 98 ; obv. and rev. connected at, 107. Etruria, smooth reverses in, 15. Euainetus, engraver, 81, 101. Euboea, cow and calf in, 80. Eudoxia, marriage of, 234 f. Eurea, facing head at, 82. Euripides, cited, 62, 95, 97. Eusebius, cited, 227, 230. Evans, Sir John, on early British coins, 87 f. Fabric, peculiarities of, 11, 14. Faustulus, type of, 187. Federal coinages, 13. Festival coinage, 21, 100, 159 f., 163 f., 201, 21 1, 216. Fiorino d'oro, 252, 254, 256. Flamininus, gold coin of, 153, 178, 193 ; deification of, 154. Flattery, in types, 211. Florence, see Fiorino d'oro. Florus, type of, 188. Founder, allusions to, 103 f. Frauds, great monetary, 140 f. Frederick II., gold coins of, 252. Games. See Agonistic types, Festival coinage, etc. Gangra, gate at, 1 66 f. Gate, as type, 166 f., 226, 249. Gaul, coinage of, 87 fF., 222 ; its cessation, 223. Gela, river-god at, 93 ; chariot at, 130. Genoa, type parlant at, 257. Gold, struck in Lydia, 8 ; in Europe, 9 f. ; right of minting, restricted, 155 ; monopoly claimed by Roman Emperors, 220 f. ; claim defied by Theo- debert, 224 ; Pepin abandons gold, 243; fiorino d'oro, 252. Gordian III., type of, 208. Gortyna, laws of, 33 ; Artemis- Ephesia at, 1 14. Granada, type parlant at, 257. Greek Imperial coins, 1 57 fF. Greek influence on art of Roman Imperial coins, 201. Hadrian, types of, 203, 209, 214. Halicarnassus, Herodotus, at 175. Head's theory of types, 22. Heads on coins, earliest, 117 ; popularity of, 135 fF. ; date of change, 141 fF. ; facing, 73, 2 33- Hector, types relating to, 173. Hecuba, tomb of, 97. Henry VII., gold sovereign of,. 253. Heracleenses, Tabulae, 53. Heracleia, types of, 57. Heracleia (Italy), combination of types at, 103. Heracleidas, at Athens, 57. Heracles, as founder, 104; strang- ling serpents, 113; in garden of Hesperides, 107; Commodus as, 210 f. Heraclius, coins of, 241. Heraldry, antiquity of, 52; re- vival of, 256 f. Hera Lacinia, head of, 138. Herods, coins of, 145, 162. Herodotus, cited, 6, 44, 64, 80,, 97- Heroes, local, allusions to, 104 f. Hieron, portrait of, 152. n66 GENERAL INDEX Himera, fountain at, 92 ; cock, and hen at, 113 f. ; crab at, 114; cock as symbol at, 124; change of types at, 142 ; statue at, 170, 175. Himyarite coins, 86. Hirtius, cited, 196. Histiaea, vine at, 96. Historical references in types, 109 ff., 188 fF, 202 f., 206. Homer, cited, 1, 32, 95, 106, 173. Homer, popularity of portrait of, 175 ; 'O/wfaetov, 175. Homeric heroes, 104 ff"., 173. Homogeneity, local, II, 15. Horace, cited, 203. Hybla, bee at, 95. Hypsaeus, type of, 188. Iasus, Heracles and serpents at, 113. Ialysus, type of, at Cyrene, 114. * Iconoclasts/ 237, 240 ; anathe- matized, 238. Ilium, inscr. at, 170 ; Trojan heroes at, 172 f. Imitation, from decorative motives, 8 1 f. ; from commercial motives, 83 f. ; barbarous imitation, 84 fF., 222 f., 247 f. ; various de- grees of, 89. Imitative influence, 81 fF., 135. Imperial, Greek, series, 157 ff. Imperium confers right of mintage, 178 f., 193. ''Incuse,' defined, 5. India, coins of, 10, 90. Inscriptions, earliest, 50 fF. ; gener- ally adopted, 126; usually on reverse, 126 f. ; closely associated with irapdo-TjfioVf 127 £; division of, 131 ; doubling of, 133 ; on Greek Imperial series, 160 fF. ; on Roman coins, 184 f., 204 fF. ; on Byzantine coins and seals, 241 fF.; influence of, in Middle Ages, 249 f. Ionian League, at Colophon, 165. Iron money, 9. Italy, mediaeval, types of, 251. Italy, Southern, early coins of, 1 2, 36, 131. Itanus, decorative type at, 74. Ithaca, Odysseus at, 104. Iulis, types of, 123. James I., mottoes of, 255. James V., * bonnet-piece ' of, 259. Janus, head of, 181 f. ; temple of, 203. Jewish coins, types of, 144 fF. John VIII., coin of, 246. Jugurtha, surrender of, 1 89. Julian the Apostate, types of, 232. Juno Moneta, head of, as type, 190; temple of, as mint, 21, i,39 f - Jupiter, head of, at Rome, 181. Jupiter Ammon, head of, 187. Jupiter Pluvius, at Ephesus, 167 f., l8 7/ Justinian, facing heads on coins of, Justinian II., types of, 235 f . ; his quarrel with the Arabs, 221, 236. Juvenal, cited, 234. Kings, deification of, 149 ; portraits of, 1 5 1 ff. Labarum, 227, 230 f. Lampsacus, changing types at, 41, 49 f. ; winged horse at, 69, 125; head of satrap at, 150. Langland, cited, 250. Laodicea (Phrygia), rivers at, 167. Larissa, facing head at, 82 ; bull- fight at, 99 ; sandal of Jason at, Latin Emperors, coins of, 245. Laus, man-headed bull at, 36 ; inscr. divided at, 131. GENERAL INDEX 267 Ae/fyres, 33. Legends, local, 105 ff., 172 fF. Lentulus Crus, coins of, 187. Leo III., types of, 237. Leo VI., coins of, 251. Leonine hexameters, 254, Leontini, lion at, 18, 124 f., 133 ; chariot at, 1 30. Leucas, cukus-statue at, 138. Lex Frumentaria, 188. Lex Plautia Papiria, 1 78, 185, 190. Liberty, symbols of, 112, 199. Licinius, types of, 228 fF. Lindus, type of, at Cyrene, 114. Lion leaping on bull, 80 f. Lions, two, heraldically opposed, 81. * Lions,' Scottish, 255. Local issues under the Empire, 156 ff., 159 fF. Local types, 92 fF., 106 fF., 164 f., 172 fF., i75 ; Locrians, Epizephyrian, alliance with Rome, 112. Locrians, Hesperian, seal of, 47. Locrians, Opuntian, types of, 82, 104. London, as Roman mint, 221, 228, 230. Lucullus mints on behalf of Sulla, 179. 1 Lussheburges,' 250. Lycia, boar in, 26, 95 ; triskeles in, 74 ; mints active under Gordian III., 158. Lydia, coins invented in, 6 £, 20 ; gold and silver struck in, 8 ; mints active under Trajan, 158. Lydian coins, types of, 48 f., 74 ; imitations of, 84. Lysander deified, 148. Lysimachus, coins of, 151 f. Maccabees, coins of, 145. Macedonian coins, early, 11, 15 ; regal, 144, 151, 153 ; under the Romans, 157. Macrobius, cited, 183, Madytus, Hecuba's tomb at, 96 f. Magi, Adoration of, 238. Magistrates, emblems of, 37 ; at Abdera, 38 ; at Cyzicus, etc., 40 fF. ; at Athens, 54 fF. ; at Rome, 186 fF. Magnesia, armed horseman at, 103. Malleolus, symbol of, 188. Mallus, satraps at, 150. Mantineia, acorn at, 96 ; Odysseus at, 106. Marcian, marriage of, 234 f. Marriages, 234 f. Mary of Scotland, coinage of, 256. Massalia, types of, 82 ; imitated, 8 9- . Medallists, Italian, influence of, 2? 8. Melitaea, type parlant at, 18. Melos, type parlant at, 17, 123 ; inscr. at, 127 f. Mende, types of, 108 f. Mentor, at Athens, 56. Mercenaries, influence of, 82. Merovingian coins, 247 f. Mesembria, type parlant at, 18. Messana, Pheraemon at, 104 ; suc- cession of types at, 143 ; see also Zancle-Messana. Metapontine dedication at Delphi, 64. Metapontum, ear of corn at, 26, 36, 65, 95, 125 ; bull's head at, 36 ; statue at, 97 ; heads of heroes at, 1 04 ; first appearance of heads at, 136; head of Deme- ter at, 136 f. ; succession of types at, 142 ; personifications at, 203 ; inscr. at 100, 128. Metellus mints at Gortyna, 114. 268 GENERAL INDEX Methydrium, Callisto at, 105. Methymna, Arion at, 175. Metrical inscriptions, 243, 254. Michael I., types of, 238. Michael VII., inscr. used by, 241. Michael VIIL, coin of, 246. Micion, at Athens, 56. Miletus, sacred coinage at, 20 f. Military types, 215, 218, 226. Minucius, monument of, 186. Mithradates, at Athens, 55 ; his portrait, 152. Mohammed and pictures, 236 £ Mohammedan coins, 236 f., 244 f.; influence of, 248. Molossian dog, 95. Monsters as types, 80. Monuments on coins, 97, 172 f., 186. Mottoes, on coins, 236, 241 ft 7 ., 254 ff., 259 ; on seals, 241 f. Mountains, as types, 95, 167 f., 187 ; worshipped, 168 f. Munich, type par lant at, 257. Musa, type of, 188. Mycenean art, 44, 79, 80. Myrina, amphora at, 124. Mythological types, 104 ff. Mytilene, convention of, with Phocaea, 14, 141 ; calves' heads at, 27 ; changing types at, 41, 49 ; portraits at, 175. Naxos, kantharos at, 123. Naxos (Sicily), archaic head at, Neapolis, Mt. Gerizim at, 167. 'Neocorate' on coins, 164. Nero, types of, 202 f., 206 f. \ at Alexandria, 212, 214. 'New Year' medals, 205. Nicaea, inscr. at, 162 ; empire of, 246. Noah's Deluge, 174. « Nobles,' English, 255, 257 ; Scot- tish, 257. Nome-coins, 215 f. North-Eastern Greece, types of, i5- Obverse, defined, 3 ; coins with striated, 46. Obverse type, connected with re- verse, 99, 116, 121, 206 fF. ; transferred to reverse, 123 ff. Odoacer, money of, 224. Odysseus, 104, 106. Olynthus, borrowed type at, 103. Orchomenus, Callisto at, 105. Origin, types alluding to, 102 if. Ostia, harbour of, 202. Ovid, cited, 182. Ox, as money, 1, 24, 26 ; as type, 27 ff. Paestum, coin-striking at, 4. Paintings, copies of, 171. Pale, fir-cone at, 96. Pansa, type of, 188. Panticapaeum, head of Pan at, 18, 70, 105 ; griffin at, 105 ; irapa- o~r)fxov of, 70. Tlapdo-vjfiov, on coins, 60 ff. ; as votive offering, 63 ; on inscrip- tions, 65 ff. ; generally cor- responds to reverse type, 69, 123 ff. ; sometimes more than one device for, 71 ; reduced from type to symbol, 1 24 ; often has religious reference, 116, 136 f. Paros, goat at, 123. Parthian coinage, 90. Parthian kings, portraits of, 152. Pausanias, cited, 52, 65, 96, 106, 109, in, 117, 172. Pautalia, river-god at, 167 ; inscr. at, 163, 167. Peloponnesus, imperial coinage of, 158. nej/Ta/cocrio/xeSi/Ai/ot, 3 3 . Pepin the Short, 248 f. GENERAL INDEX 269 Perdiccas II., coin of, 144. Pergamene kings, portraits of, 152. Pergamum, coins of, 161, 176. Perinthus, painting copied at, 171. Perrhaebi, type of, 99. Persephone, head of, imitated, 81 f. Persian coinage, 8, 48, 150 ; mone- tary policy, I 54. Personifications, of qualities, 112, 194, 201, 203 £, 212, 213, 226 ; of countries and cities, in, 164 f., 226. Phanes, name of, 52. Pharcadon, bull-fight at, 99. Phaselis, type parlani at, 19. Pheneus, head of Persephone at, 82; Hermes at, 105 ; Artemis Heurippe at, 106. Pherae, bull-fight at, 99. Philip II. develops gold mines, 9 ; his coins imitated, 85 fF., 89, 222; his types, 101 f. Philip V., portrait of, on coins, 153. Philippopolis, Mt. Rhodope at, 167. ^Philippus,' 85 fF., 101 f., 222. Phocaea, convention with Miletus, 14, 141 ; seal at, 17, 41, 50; changing types at, 41, 49 f. ; inscr. at, 5 glorified into types, 38, 40^ 41 ; 'punning, 39, 188 ; varieties of, 59. Syracuse, gold struck at, 9 ; irapd- a-yjfjLOv of, 70, 71, 129 f. ; silver coins of, 70 ; imitations of its types, 8 I f. ; dekadrachms of, 1 00 f., 109 ; heroes at, 104 ; * Dam- areteion ' of, 109; Apolline types at, 1 1 8 f. ; Sarapis and Isis at, 121 ; types indicating value at, 122 ; Corinthian staters of, 129 ; evolution of types at, 1 29 f. ; place of inscr. at, 129, 130; chariot-type at r 100 f,, 130; head at, 129 f. ? 136, 142 ; types of tyrants at ? 151 f. ; statue at, 170. Tabernacles, Feast of, 147. Tacitus, cited, 196. Tarentum, * Taras ' at, 1 2, 36, 104; 'horsemen' of, 97 £, 142 ; head at, 141 f. ; seated figure at, 142 ; Heraclea founded from, 103 ; staters of, imitated in Gaul, 89. Tarraco, Christian emblems at r 228 ff. Tarsus, borrowed type at, 82 ; city walls at, 96; satrap at, 1 50; Sandan at, 216 ; inscr. at, 163 ; imperial mint at, 216. TavpOKa6d\j/ta f 98 f., 144. Tauromenium, type parlant at, 19. Tegea, Sterope at, 105. Teinds, 34. Temesa, early coinage of, 13. Temples, as mints, 19 ff., 139 ff. ; as types, 147, 163 f., 201, 249. Tenedos, double-axe at, 25, 68, Il6; irapdo-qfxov of, 63 f., 68 ; inscr. at, 127. Teos, griffin at, 56, 103, 123. Terina, head at, 142. Thasos, types of, 15, 25 ; imitated, 8 9- Thebes, shield with club at, 61, 6j ; Heracles and serpents at, 113; wapao-rjfjiov of, 6j. Thelpusa, Arion at, 106. Themistocles, as type, 57 ; anec- dote of, 61 f. Theodebert defies Justinian, 224. Theodora, regency of, 238. Theodosius II., coin of, 234 £ Theognis, cited, 62. Theophilus, inscr. of, 241. Theron conquers Himera, 113. Thessalonica, empire of, 246. -272 GENERAL INDEX Thessaly, bull-fight in, 98 f.; heads in, 136, 144. Thracian coins, fabric of, 11. Thurii, bull at, 27, 36, 103 ; head of Athena at, 103. Timaeus, cited, 28, 30. Timoleon's expedition, effects of, 112. Titles, descriptive, 108, 174, 204. Tragilus, rose at, 96. Trajan, Forum of, 202 ; his de- parture from Rome, 203 ; with Jupiter, 208 f. ; inscr. on his coins, 207 f. Trapezus, type par iant at, 19. Trebizond, Empire of, 246. Tricca, bull-fight at, 99. Tpt7ro8es, 33. Triskeles, in Lycia, 74 \ in Sicily, 129. Trojan War, heroes of, 104 ff, 172 f. Types, defined, 1 ; great variety of, 10; incuse, I 2 ; 'speaking,' ijff., 92, 167, 188, 257; true nature of, 43; originally signets, 52; sometimes heraldic, 60 ff. ; usu- ally specially selected, 71 f. ; borrowed from gems, etc., 80 f.; selected by moneyers, 210, 213. Tyre, Dido at, 173. Tyche, personifications of, 164 f., 204. Uranopolis, type parlant at, 19. Valentinian III., marriage of, 234. Valerius Maximus, cited, 189. Value, indicated by types, 121 f. Value-marks as types, 233, Varus, Quintilius, portrait of, 195. Velia, lion at, 125. Venice, ducats of, 2 5 1 ; sequins of, 254. Verona, type parlant at, 257. ViboValentia, religious typesat,i 20. Victory, as type, 184, 186, 203 f., 232 £ Virgil, cited, 173, 234, 243. Virgin, on coins, 238, 241, 242, 254 ; on seals, 240. Western Empire, coinage of, 247. Xenophon, cited, 61. Zacynthus, Apolline types at, 119. Zancle, coins of, 12, 14, 92, 96 ; inscr. at, I 28. Zancle-Messana, coin of, 143 f. Zeno and Odoacer, 224. Zeus AtVvatos, 95, 97. Zevs 'Yenos, see Jupiter Pluvius. Zonaras, cited, 221, 235. INDEX OF INSCRIPTIONS. (a) GREEK. A and CO, 231. AHA IEPA IEBAZMIA, 159. AGE O AHMOI, 127. A0AA, 101. AKPAfAZ, 127, 131. AKTIA TTY0IA, 159. AAEIANAPEIA, 127. AAEIANAPEI02, 127. AACEANAPOC, 171. APFYPOC, 167. AXEAOIO AE0AON, 100. BOTPYC, 167. TETAI HAONEON BAIIAEYI, 127. agcttoina ccozoic evceBH MONOMAXON, 241. AecnoiNA ccozoic tac tpa4>ac cep, 242. AIA IAAION lAieiC, 170. AIOKAHE (TO AEY, TO TPI), 54- AIOKAHI MEAI, 54. AOFMATI CVNKAHTOV e£- CIHN OVTOI NAOI, 164. ET AlAYMflN IEPH, 21. €IC AKONA TOYC KYPIOYC, 163. EPIAN, 106. EYATHN, 39. DANKl^AION, 143. DANKVE, 127. HPA, 57 . 0£A(N) PCOMH(N), 161. OEMIITO, 56. G€ON CY!~KAHTON, 161. GeoroKe BOH0GI TO) CCO AOYACO, 241. 6ep(Ti6$ elfiL cra/Act, fjLrj //.e cb'otye, 51. 06YAIANOC CTPAT AN€- 0HK6 CMYPNAIOIC, 160. I6PA CYI"KAHTOC ? 161. lePCONYMOC AN60HK6 KY- MAI, 160. IOY K KAAYAIANH ANEOH, 160. 274 INDEX OF INSCRIPTIONS KaAA&cm?, 162. KOMOAOY BAIIAEYONTOZ O KOSMOI EYTYXEI, 162. Kvpt£ BOH06I TO) CO) AOYACO, 241. Aer b tpai, 215. M AYPHAION KAICAPA AMA- CTPIANOI, 169. Meyto-TT/, 162. MIKI, 56. MOAPAFOPAZ, 39. NIKA, 98. NIKOSTPATOS, 39. NflE, 174. OIKIITAZ, 104. OAYMPIKON, 100. OCTIAIOC MAPK6AAOC O I6P6VC TOY ANTINOOY TOIC AXAIOIC AN60HKeN, 160. OY C*PAI"IC 6IMI THN TPAHN OPCON NO€l, 242. TTAPA MH NOAOTOY KAI AIAIANHC, 160. TTAPGeNG COI nOAYAING OC HATTIKeTTANTAKATOPOOl, 242. ttiitis, 112. hpcota thc oikoymenhc, 162. Up(OTY} t l62. PPftTHS, 39. PYOflN, 39. POAIOI YTT6P TOON C€BA- CTO)N, 161. PHMA, 112. PflMAIOZ HPAKAHI, 211. I, 61. IEBAITON AHM04>flN, 161. IEYHPOY BASIAEYONTOI O KOSMOI EYTYXEI MAKA- PIOI KIANOI, 162. SIABANON TTEPrAMHNOU 161. IMYPNAIHN KAI E^EXIHN OMONOIA, 159. CTAXVC, 167. SYN, 113. ocotep cvNeprei baciagi AAGSICO, 241. TAPAS, 127. THAEMAXOS, 39. TO KOINON IUNHN, 165. TOYTHI NIKA, 227. TPAIANOC AVTOKPATflP EAHKEN, 161. 0,50- <£aei/09 €fxl o-rjfia t 51, 1 27. i, 229, 231. XPYCOC, 167. ADVENTVS AVG, 203. AVGVSTI PROFECTIO, 203. C HVPSAE COS PRE1VER CAPT, 188. (j8) LATIN. XPC REGNAT XPC VINCIT XPC IMPERAT, 255. CONSECRATIO, 203. CONSERVATORI PATRIS PATRIAE, 209. INDEX OF INSCRIPTIONS 275 Dei tibi florere Ckristus, Florentia, vere, 254. DEVS ADIVTA ROMANIS, 241. DIVVS, 203. DN IVSTINIANVS SERVVS ChRISTI, 235. ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI, 256. EID MAR, 199. EQVESTER ORDO PRINCIPI IVVENT, 207. EXPECTATE VENI, 24.3. FACIAM EOS IN GENTEM VNAM, 255. FELICITER NVBTIIS, 234. HENRICVS ROSAS REGNA IACOBV8, 255. HOC SIGNO VICTOR ERIS, 231. HONOR REGIS IVDICIVM DILIGIT, 259. IHS AVTEM TRANSIENS PER MEDIVM ILLORUM IBAT, 255. IhSCRISTOS REX REGNANTIVM, 235- IhSVS XPISTVS NICA, 238. IOVI(S) STATORI(S), 208. MARS VICTOR, 205. MARS VLTOR, 205. MARTI PACIFERO, 205. MARTI PROPVGNATORI, 205. PACE P R TERRA MARIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT, 203. PER CRVCEM TVAM SALVA NOS XPE REDEMPTOR, 255. QVOD VIAE MVN SVNT, 206. RESTITVTORI ACHAIAE, etc., 209. ROMA, 179, i84f. ROMAE AETERNAE, 205. SALVS AVG NOSTRI, 231. SC, 217, 224. SPQR ANN NFF OPTIMO PRINCIPI, 205. SPQR CAESARI AVGVSTO, 206. SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI, 207. Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quern tu regis, iste ducatus, 254. Glasgow: printed at the university press by Robert maclehose and co. ltd.