THE
NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE
AND
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
PRINTED IN ENGLAND
AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY FREDERICK HALL
/THE)
NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE
/// AND
JOURNAL
OF THE
ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
EDITED BY
G. F. HILL, M.A.
KEEPER OF COINS, BRITISH MUSEUM
OLIVER CODRINGTON, M.D., F.S.A., M.R.A.S.
AND
G. C. BROOKE, B.A.
FOURTH SERIES— VOL. XV
Factum abiit— monumeuta manent.— Ov. Fast.
LONDON : BERNARD QUARITCH, 11 GRAFTON ST., W.
PARIS :
MM. ROLLIN ET FEU ARDENT, PLACE LOUVOIS, No. 4 1915
Nlo s»or. l
v.13
CONTENTS.
ANCIENT NUMISMATICS.
PAGE
Ciccio (Mons. G. de). — Notice sur un tetradrachme de Catane, avec la signature TTPOKAHZ ; et d'un autre de Syra- cuse, avec >| , probablement signature de Kirnon . . 356
EVANS (Sir Arthur).— Notes on the Coinage and Silver Currency in Roman Britain from Valentinian I to Constantine III (Plate XX) 433
GKOSE (S. W.).— Croton (Plate VIII) 179
MAVROGORDATO (J.). — A Chronological Arrangement of the
Coins of Chios (Plates I, II, XVIII, XIX) , . 1,361
NEWELL (E. T.). — Some Cypriote 'Alexanders' (Plates
XI1-XV) 294
ROBINSON (E. S. G.).— Quaestiones Cyrenaicae (Plates I1I-V1)
53, 137, 249
THOMAS (S. Pantzerhielm).— A Coin of M. Aemilius Lepidus 520
WALTERS (Frederick A.). — Coin of Carausius overstruck upon
an Antoninianus of Philip Senior ..... 135
- Some Rare and Unpublished Roman Coins in my Collection (Plate XVI) 323
WEBB (Percy H.).— Helena N.F 132
— Overstrikes of Carausius . . 135
ii CONTENTS.
MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN NUMISMATICS.
PAGE
BROOKE ^G. C.).— Some Irregular Coinages of the Reign of
Stephen (Plate VII) .105
HILL (G. P.).— The Technique of Simon Van de Passe
(Plates X, XI) 230
LOCKETT (R. Cyril). — Hoard of Nine Anglo-Saxon Pennies
found in Dorsetshire (Plate XVII) 336
SYMONDS (Henry).— Alexandre de Bruchsella . . .133
- The Irish Coinages of Henry VIII and Edward VI (Plate IX) 192
- The Pyx Trials of the Commonwealth, Charles II,
and James II . . 345
ORIENTAL NUMISMATICS.
RABINO (H. L.).- Coins of the Shahs of Persia (continued and
concluded) 243, 351
RAMSDEN (H. A.).— The Ancient Coins of Lin-Tzu . . 121
INDEX 521
CONTENTS.
Ill
LIST OF PLATES CONTAINED IN VOL. XV.
PLATES
I. Chios. Periods I, II. II. „ Periods III, IV. III. Coins of Cyrenaica. Periods I, IT. IV, V. „ Period III.
VI. „ Periods IV, V.
VII. Irregular Coins of the Reign of Stephen. VIII. Coins of Croton.
IX. Irish Coins of Henry VIII and Edward VI. X, XI. The Technique of Simon Van de Passe.
XII. Cypriote Alexanders. Kition. XIII, XIV. ,. Salamis.
XV. .. Salamis, Paphos, Marion.
XVI. Some Rare Roman Coins. XVII. An Early Anglo-Saxon Find. XVIII. Chios. Periods V, VI. XIX. „ Periods VI, VII. XX. Londinium-Augusta.
I.
A CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE
COINS OF CHIOS.
(SEE PLATES I, II.)
" Videntur vero ex una parte Civitatis insignia, Sphinx scilicet tricorpor; . . . Ghiorum itaque insigne sed magis praecipuum Sphinx fuit. . . ."—Leonis Allatii de Patria Homeri.
INTRODUCTORY. I.
THE coinage of Chios in ancient times deserves a more detailed study than has hitherto been given to it. The issues of the island-mint extended almost without a break over the whole period during which autono- mous Greek coins were struck. And, through the accident of its so-called alliance with Rome after the Mithradatic wars, Chios shared the privilege, accorded to Athens, and to so many towns in Asia Minor, of striking bronze in her own name when all the rest of the civilized world was acknowledging the imperial supremacy on its coinage. In the case of Athens, how- ever, the mint there seems to have been closed from the time of Sulla to that of Hadrian, while the various free cities of Asia Minor were of comparatively late foundation. From the point of view of duration, therefore, the Chian series is an important one. As the coinage of what was at one time the principal commercial state of eastern Hellas it is also worthy of study. There can be no doubt that the constancy
NUMISM. CHBO.X., VOL. XV, SERIES IV. B
O J. MAVROGORDATO.
with which its main monetary type was preserved must have been due, as it was at Athens, to the popularity enjoyed abroad by the issues of its mint. The problems afforded by its electrum staters, and the well-known references by Thucydides and Xenophon to its fifth-century silver tetradrachms, provide further points of interest ; while the bronze issues of imperial times bearing names of value yield a whole series of denominations that were probably of general use in Asia Minor and the islands of the coast during this period, but of which we have no other similar source of information.
On the other hand, the general effect of the Chiaii series is monotonous when compared with the almost infinite variety of types produced by states like Syracuse, and Tarentum, Elis, and Cyzicus. In fact, the comparative neglect of Chios at the hands of numismatists may well be due to the dullness and lack of artistic interest inherent in its coins. Then, again, there have been very few finds recorded in which the island has figured with any prominence. There is a great want of those fixed points to which one looks for help in endeavouring to join up the links of the long chain. Even the boasted autonomy of Chios during imperial times becomes a source of diffi- culty owing to the absence of the Emperors' names on the coins, and conjecture has to take the place of what might be certainty. The student, in short, has to rely mainly on his observation of small technical <1< tails, and on the evolution of style.
Since the great work of Mionnet, who, in the course of his comprehensive survey of Greek numismatics, recorded some hundred varieties of Chian coins, there
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. O
has only been one attempt, so far as I know, to make a complete list of the published types. I refer to a little-known treatise by one Joh. Kofod Whitte of Copenhagen.1 To a compilation of all the historical loci classici relating to Chios the author has added an alphabetical catalogue of the various coins known to him through publications or personal research. His total number of types amounts to 248, which is a great many for the period at which he wrote. I draw attention to this little book because of its remarkable accuracy, and because of the interest that an early work of this character cannot fail to arouse among numismatists. As is to be expected there is not much attempt in it at a scientific arrangement of the coins enumerated, but they are divided into eleven classes which, in their main lines, come very near to the results yielded by our far more voluminous material and consequently wider perspective.
In the following pages I shall try to supplement le work of Kofod Whitte with as many of the facts
it have come to light since his day as I have been able to collect. I cannot pretend to have ransacked every possible source of information ; but I have :udied most of the big collections, and have done my best not to neglect any minor opportunities that have offered themselves in the course of my quest.
There is no need to discuss the significance of the main type 011 Chian money. When Leo Allatius wrote his famous description of the bronze coin with the figure of Homer on the reverse, the Sphinx was almost as unintelligible to him as were its riddles to the
1 De Rebus Chioruni publicis ante Dominationem Romanomtn. Hauniae, MDCCCXXXVIII.
B 2
4 J. MAVROGORDATO.
contemporaries of Oedipus. It has for long been accepted, however, as the emblem of Dionysus, and was probably distinct both from 77 pailra>8b$ KVODV of Sophocles,- and from the Ea-Harmachis of the Egyptians. Nor would it be profitable to open once more the question as to the relative merits of the theories regarding the religious or commercial origin of coin-types. As a matter of fact the Chian Sphinx seems to offer a compromise between the two. In its earlier days, at any rate, the city's badge partakes of a religious nature. Whether we look upon the Sphinx, especially in its hieratic attitude with one forepaw raised, as an attribute of Dionysus enjoining silence in respect of his mysteries, or as a guardian of the temple's treasures, there is nothing of the com- mercial element about it. But later on when first the amphora, and then the bunch of grapes were added to the type, the business interests of an essentially mercantile community were clearly being brought into notice.
This slow merging of a mystical aspect into a practical one is also suggested by the curious orna- ment which is to be observed on the head of the primitive Sphinx, but which is discarded with one exception a soon after the middle of the sixth century. This ornament, like the Sphinx itself, undoubtedly hails from the East, though both had apparently long been domiciled in the Aegean area.4 Like so many
1 Oed. Rex, 391.
3 Electrum Stater struck at time of Ionian Revolt when religious Toolings must have been in the ascendant. P. Gardner, in J. H. S., 1911, p. 151, and PI. vii. 1, though the particular coin selected for illustration is probably a forgery.
Hogarth. Ionia ami the E«st, Lecture iii.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. O
other elements in Hellenic art and culture we are driven to connect them with the recently discovered pre-Hellenic civilization/"' "We see the spiral ornament on the heads both of Sphinxes and Griffins, on the ivories from Spata, and from a tomb at Knossos, on a terra-cotta plaque from Praesos, and on some of the gold plaques from the foundation deposit of the great temple at Ephesus. It has been called by various names by those who have tried to account for its occurrence on coins bearing a Sphinx. To one it has sug- gested a vine- tendril,0 to others a feather or " plumes ".7 and to another again "the lock of immortality".8 This last theory is by far the most convincing. In discussing the Persephone relief in the National Museum at Athens, M. Svoronos draws attention to the separate lock of long hair on the head of Tri- ptolemus, and traces its origin back to Egypt. It was an emblem of immortality there, and, being specially characteristic of chthonic deities, it was used also in representations of their attributes. Sirens, Sphinxes, and rrifnns. The lotus-flower had a similar significance, id is sometimes seen grasped in the monster's up- used paws [PL I. 8], M. Svoronos thinks that the )iral ornament in question was a conventionalized lock of hair assuming a tendril-like form under the in- luence of the lotus-flower so often associated with it. Though we may be inclined to praise the Chians for
8 See Sir A. J. Evans, J.H.S., 1912, p. 277. fi Babelon, Traite, part i, pp. 190-1.
7 Dressel, ZeitscltriftfurNum., 1900, vol. xxii, pp. 238-41. Canon Greenwell, Num. Chron., 1890, pp. 4-5, and Sir H. Weber, Num. Chron., 1899, pp. 276-8.
8 Svoronos, J. Int. cVArcli. Num., 1913, p. 228, and note referring reader to Das AtJtener National-Museum,^? J. Svoronos, pp. 113-14.
6 J MAVROGORDATO.
the constancy which they showed to their national emblem on their coins, and for the sobriety with which it was invariably represented, we must not forget that the Sphinx was by no means the peculiar possession of the island-state. It has even been sug- gested 9 that the uplifted paw with which the Sphinx is shown on certain archaic silver coins ought to make one pause before attributing such coins unhesitatingly to Chios. In all the late bronze issues of the island, however, this position is the rule. Some of the early electrum10 too, about which no doubt has ever been raised, also shows the Sphinx with one uplifted fore- paw [PI. I. 8 and PI. II. 10], as well as the late electrum stater [PI. III. 9]. There seems 110 reason therefore to hesitate about the attribution of these early silver pieces, especially as their weight and fabric agree with those recognized as being peculiar to Chios. On the analogy of the Griffins of Teos alone we may assume that it was customary to represent these and similar monsters with one forepaw raised, and it is most likely that there were familiar statues at Chios of Sphinxes in this attitude, though no mention of such has come down to us. Additional support is lent to this by the fact mentioned above that the raised fore- paw is a constant feature of the Sphinx on the Imperial bronze coinage, since we know that die-engravers at that time drew their inspiration largely from the statuary around them.
9 Dr. Dressel, op. <-it.
10 In .Y»/>». Chroti., 1911, "Some unpublished Greek Coins," 1». 89, 1 quoted an electrum twelfth from the Cabinet cles Medailles, Paris, as affording further confirmation of this. This coin can no longer be taken as trustworthy evidence. See below, note 28, for further remarks.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OP CHIOS. 7
Nevertheless, it is well to remind ourselves, when studying anepigraphic coins, that many peoples besides the Chians used the Sphinx as a badge. Among others Gergis in the Troad, Caunus in Caria, Perga in Pam- phylia, Aphrodisias in Cilicia, Idalium in Cyprus, and last, though not least, Asoros or Gasoros in Mace- donia,11 all struck coins bearing a Sphinx as one of their types, if not the main one. And this use of the Sphinx, it must be remembered, was quite independent on the part of these smaller states. There was no alliance or obligation between them and Chios, still less any degree of relationship like that which induced the Teian colony of Abdera to use a Griffin as its
It is not difficult as a rule to identify coins exhibiting a Sphinx alone, although a few aliens have crept into the Chian series in most of the national cabinets,12 since, in addition to peculiarities of style, both the flan and the incuse square had a character of their own at Chios. But when one meets with coins bearing double types, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to decide whether they should be attributed to one or other of these rival claimants, or looked upon as alliance pieces between Chios and one of her neigh- bours on the mainland.13
11 With regard to this hitherto unknown city, see Svoronos, Jour. Int. d'Arch. Num., 1913, p. 224.
12 An instance from the B. M. Coll. is No. 39, Cat. Ionia, under Chios, an ancient forgery. On this piece the Sphinx is depicted to r., an arrangement never found at Chios on silver till the first century B.C., when it appears on one or two of the Attic drachms then struck. The whole style of the coin, besides, is totally unlike any Chian issue.
13 See Num. Chron., 1913, pp. 427-8.
8 J. MAVROGORDATO.
Placed as she was athwart two of the principal highways of commerce in ancient times, it is not surprising that Chios became one of the earliest users of coined money among the Greek states. A large portion of the trade from the Far East that was borne along the Eoyal road14 between Ephesus and Susa via Sardis,' must have passed by Chios on its way to Hellas and the West. With it in due course came the new invention of coinage, Miletus and other cities of the coast following the lead of Lydia, and Samos, Chios, and the rest carrying on the torch after a short interval. And less interesting from a purely numis- matic point of view, though equally important as a source of wealth, is the fact that Chios lay in the direct path of that other great trade-route which connected Egypt and Syria with the ports and wheat-fields of the Euxine.
The people of Chios had always been traders.15 The produce of the island was not sufficient to support them, as is shown by their constant agitation for the peraea of Atarneus. But, in order to deal with the problem of population and food supply, they seem at an early age to have had recourse to commerce rather than to the primitive expedient of colonization which prevailed in the eighth and seventh centuries. They had trading stations no doubt in plenty, but they ap- parently never drove out whole swarms from their midst with the object of founding cities at a distance.16
14 H.-rodotus v. 52-4.
16 Aristotle, Politics, iv. 4.
18 Fustel de Coulanges, Mtmoiw. *><>• Vile de Chio, pp. 265-6, a work to which I am much indebted. There are records of a town called Chios in Egypt, which we may suppose to have been more trading station than colony, since it was most unusual among Greek states »ur the metropolis to give its own name to the latter.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 9
Like those of the Aeginetans 17 in the west of the Aegean, the commercial operations of the Chians radi- ated from Ionia in all directions, and even imposed their monetary standard on some of their customers. The importance of the Chian standard, which has lately been so ably demonstrated,18 made it the principal rival of the Aeginetic and the Euboic-Attic systems in the East up to the time of Alexander the Great. A little speculation as to its origin would perhaps not be misplaced before entering upon a detailed description of the coins themselves.
All early traditions concur in describing the pre- historic inhabitants of Chios as the Carians, Leleges, or Pelasgians, who occupied all the islands and coasts of Asia Minor prior to the Ionian immigration.19 Now that all myths are treated with respect until they are definitely proved to be worthless, there is satisfaction in finding confirmation of the above in some of the land place-names. The word Chios itself is probably ian, there was a town of the name on the Triopian promontory,'20 and it certainly has 110 meaning in Greek. Of the same origin are also the village-names brantion and Bolissos (a name that still survives changed, at least in its written form), and the bour called Kaukasa. Kardamyle, another village, ,nd still surviving like Bolissos, is a link with the leges, and their similarly named town in Messenia. inally, the mount Pelinaion recalls the Pelasgo-
isla: Car
17 See Head, B. M. Cat., Attica, Introduction, p. Ixv.
18 See P. Gardner, "Coinage of the Athenian Empire," J. H. S., 1913, p. 147, and ff.
19 See Strabo, xiii. 621; xiv. 632; Pausanias, vii. 2 and 4; Herodotus, i. 171.
20 Stephanus Byzantius, sub voce.
IQ J. MAVROGORDATO.
Thessalian town Pelinna.21 But the most important tradition that has come down to us is that which con- nects Chios with the Minoan thalassocracy.22 Oenopion, grandson or nephew of Minos, is supposed to have settled in the island, and reigned there as king, intro- ducing the cultivation of the vine, and destroying monsters in the approved heroic fashion. There must have been considerable affinity between the Minoans and the local peoples, and the rule of Oenopion and his sons seems to have been a success. Pausanias relates 2:5 that the tomb of Oenopion was venerated at Chios even in his day, and was one of the principal objects of interest there. Now, all this may be taken to show that Minoan influence was strong in the island during the second millennium B. c. We may assume that the Minoan civilization prevailed there. What then more likely than that weights and measures in use in Minoan Crete should have been introduced into prehistoric Chios with the vine and other advantages ? It must surely be generally admitted by this time that the so-called Phoenician weight standard was used in Crete at a period long anterior to the true Phoenicians and their wanderings.'24 The characteristic Chian standard has always been looked upon as a derivative of the Phoenician, so, now that we venture
ai See Fick, Voiyriechittche Ortsnamen, pp. 60-2.
12 Pausanias, vii. \ and 5.
Pausanias, vii. 5. It is surprising that Pausanias does not refer to the other myth that makes Oenopion the son of Dionysus. The connexion between the two, especially at Chios, is so obvious that the myth cannot fail to have existed there from the earliest times.
14 See Sir A. J. Evans, "Minoan Weights and Currency," in Corolla Numismnt'tcu, particularly the "silver dump" figured on P 363.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 11
to substitute Minoaii for Phoenician, it is, to say the least, encouraging to find an independent tradition supporting the establishment of Minoaii culture in Chios. Positive evidence as to this is lacking up to the present. There are no remains such as Melos, Thera, and even Delos have provided in such abun- dance. But there are " pelasgic walls " near the village of Myrmiki (MvpjjLrjKt) in the S.E. of the island that invite the spade of the excavator.
In the meantime, since the continuity of a weight- standard over such a long period of time cannot be proved, it seems better to use the term Graeco-Asiatic to describe the stater of the average weight of 225-6 grains (14-616 grammes).25
II.
On the analogy of the evidence left by all the sur- rounding states, the earliest coins of Chios were presumably of electrum dating from the latter part of the seventh century B.C. But a difficulty con- nts us here at the outset. None of the extant lectrum pieces are as rude in style as some of the ilver didrachms that formed part of the Sakha hoard, d of another similar find in Lower Egypt 2G [PL 1. 3], not to mention the doubtful pieces belonging to the Aeginetic standard27 [PL I. 1 and 2]. We have, besides,
25 In doing this I am following the late Dr. Head in his Coins of Ephesus, and Prof. P. Gardner in his Samos and Samian Coins.
26 Num. Chron., 1890, p. 4, PL i. 16; Num. Chron., 1899, pp. 276-7, PL xvi. 2 ; and Zeitsdirift fur Num., 1900, pp. 238-41 , No. 30, PL viii. 6.
27 Num. Chron., 1890, p. 18, PL ii. 15. With regard to the general question of early Ionian silver see B. M. Cat., Ionia , Introd., pp. xxxii-iv.
!•_> j. MAVROGORDATO.
no electrum coin with a Sphinx of so primitive a type as that conjecturally attributed to Samos (B. M. Cat., Ionia,
PI. iii. 20-2).
We are driven to conclude, therefore, either that the first Chian issues in electrum have not come down to us, or that the island struck silver a little before it began to use electrum. We must also allow, if the above-mentioned attribution to Samos be correct, that coinage did not begin in Chios quite as early as it did in Samos.
With that caution, then, we can proceed to examine the surviving coins. It is opportune to remark here that the first thing that strikes one on inquiring closely into any series of ancient coins is the immense amount of material to be dealt with, but after a very little shuffling and sifting it soon becomes evident that only comparatively few of the original issues are available for our study.
To illustrate this let us confine ourselves for the moment to the electrum coins. In addition to the fact already mentioned that no really primitive specimens of coins in this metal exist, it is worthy of note that we have no divisional pieces that can with certainty be attributed to Chios.28 Considering the numbers
- M . Babelon, in Part i, p. 191, No. 335 of his Tralte, and PL viii. 7, includes a twelfth-stater from the Cabinet de France in his Chian series. This coin, however, ought to be given to Teos, or perhaps more correctly to Phocaea. It most certainly does not belong to Chios, as the animal depicted on it is a Griffin. This was first pointi-d out to me by Miss A. Baldwin, and I have since been able to verify her opinion by personal observation. There is a small electrum piece with a Sphinx of archaic style r. in the Cabinet de France, but it is too heavy for Chios besides being quite unlike any •>f h.-r issues in style. It weighs 40 grains (2-59 grammes) ; clearly a Phocaic sixth.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 13
and varieties of these little coins that were struck by the states using them, it is curious that none should have survived if they were ever made. We know of at least six different issues of electrum staters pre- sumably belonging to Chios, but none of the thirds or sixths which the practice of other Asiatic mints would have led us to expect. We are almost justified in classing them, with the unknown staters of Phocaea, among those things that we may expect to find some day. On the other hand, if, as already suggested, there were no electrum current in Chios before the intro- duction of silver, the lack of small electrum pieces might straightway be accounted for, since fractions of the stater would have been more conveniently made in silver.
The monetary standards employed at Chios must now be briefly considered, although the main facts concerning them are perfectly well known.
In the case of the early electrum coinage the
standard followed was the Graeco- Asiatic, or an adap-
ition of it, in which the stater weighed about
519-5 grains (14-18-14-24 grammes) at Miletus. At
lios the weight does not seem to have exceeded
8 grains (14-14 grammes).
In the case of silver the statement cannot be made [uite so simply. As will appear below, the earliest
sues seem to have followed various systems, as if the sers were feeling their way until the Chian standard >roper was finally established. The same phenomenon lay be observed in the early silver coinage of Erythrae, Miletus, and Samos. It is not intended to number
long these different systems the peculiar Aeginetic staters [PI. 1. 1 and 2] with a crouching Sphinx, as they
14 J. MAVROGORDATO.
fall into quite a different category, and cannot be claimed as genuine products of the Chiaii mint. But, independently of them, we seem to find three different standards in the two small groups of coins that stand at the head of the true Chian issues. Though it may be urged that two or three isolated pieces make a slender foundation on which to build up a somewhat elaborate theory, the extreme rarity of the coins must be their excuse.
They will be found described under Period I, but at present we are only concerned with their weights, which are as follows:
10,") -10 grains (6-81 grammes), PI. I. 5 ; 113-6 grains (7-36 grammes), PI. I. 5 ; 120-0 grains (7-76 grammes), PI. I. 3 j and 129-9 grains (8-42 grammes), PI. I. 3.
N«>\v, though these coins are divisible, by their style, into two separate groups, there cannot have been any material lapse of time between their respective dates of issue. On the other hand, the variations in their weights are too great to be accidental, and the weights represent, besides, three well-known monetary systems. The first mentioned belongs clearly to the modified Oraeco-Asiatic or Phoenician system, the second and third to the Chian, and the fourth to the Euboic.
The Euboic standard is known to have been used in coining early Asiatic silver (B. M. Cat., Ionia, Introd. p. xxxvi, and PI. xxxiv. 3, 4, and 6). Though the pieces referred to are of doubtful attribution they serve to exemplify the close connexion that had always existed between the opposite shores of the Aegean, and may even be taken as proof of the Asiatic origin of the Kuboic monetary system. It may safely be assumed (hat Chios had a share in whatever commercial trans-
*
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 15
actions took place over the area in question, and coins struck by Chios on the standard prevailing in Euboea and elsewhere would, no doubt, have facilitated her operations.
The modified G-raeco- Asiatic system was indigenous to the whole district of Ionia, and one would naturally expect to find it current in one of the principal Ionian states. In fact, these silver didrachms, weighing about 108 grains (7-00 grammes), or possibly a little more, may have been issued in connexion with some of the early electrum coins for the purposes of eastern trade. As will appear below, they are probably contemporary with what I take to be the earliest extant electrum. staters.
Twenty of such didrachms would have been equiva- lent in value to one electrum stater of 217 grains (14-14 grammes) max., at the conventional ratio of 10:1 then ruling. Considering that the metal used or these electrum pieces was a natural alloy, it seems
work of supererogation to try to arrive at the true proportionate values of silver and electrum coins by imating the actual amount of gold and silver con-
ined in the latter. The ratio must have been a
nventional one, and, as M. Th. Reinach has pointed
t,29 it was probably maintained at 10:1 until the end the fifth century B. c. It fell to 9 : 1 in sympathy
ith the reduction that subsequently took place in the ue of gold, and later still, towards 330 B. c., to 7J :1, r which electrum ceased to be used for coinage. These equations can all be proved from actual facts, as the learned author proves them at length in the
9 " De la valeur proportionnelle de Tor et de 1'argent dans 1'antiquite grecque," Rev. Xttm., 1893 and 1902.
16 J. MAVKOGORDATO.
treatise quoted, and there is no need to call in the question of alloy in any of the cases he gives. The fourth-century electrum issues of Syracuse and Carthage were of quite a different order, for there the gold used was deliberately and even fraudulently alloyed.
The Chian standard, which regulated the bulk of the island's silver issues for more than 250 years, seems, on the evidence of these early coins, to have been employed there at least as soon as the Euboic and before the Graeco- Asiatic.
The coin illustrated, PL I. 3, is the earliest known representative of the system, though it is contemporary with the similar coin struck on the Euboic standard as detailed below. They are undoubtedly the earliest coins of Chios that we possess ; and, on grounds of style, may safely be assigned, like the Aeginetic staters, to the end of the seventh century B. c.
The Aeginetic system had already a fairly wide range at this time. As is shown by the staters with the crouching Sphinx, and others of various types that have been found with them, some sort of monetary union existed between Aegina, several of the Cyclades, and certain coast towns and islands of Asia Minor.30 There must have been a tendency among other small neighbouring states either to use the same standard or to adapt their own to it as the system best suited to the interests of their trade. At Teos the Aeginetic standard was taken over bodily, but Chios seems to have had sufficient independence to frame a standard of her own.
Though it must remain nothing but a theory, by far
'M .\<i,ii. Cin-on., 1884, p. 269, and 1890, p. 13.
;
a
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 17
the most likely way to account for the rise of the charac- teristic Chian standard is to regard it as an adjustment between the Graeco-Asiatic and the Aeginetic systems.31 This was effected by raising the weight of the Graeco- Asiatic didrachm from 108 grains (7-00 grammes) to 123 grains (7-97 grammes) max., which is almost exactly f of the Aeginetic stater weighing 196 grains (12-60 grammes). In other words, eight of the new didrachms would exchange against five of the latter without the necessity of any calculation or weighing.
PERIOD I. 625-575 B.C. (?).
It will of course be understood that the limits assigned to this period are only approximate. It is impossible to say exactly when coinage began in Chios, nor is there any historical event, between the dates suggested, of a nature likely to have left its mark on ,ypes or standard.
It was in the latter days of the Ionian League, and an oligarchical government held sway in Chios. There were occasional wars between the island and Erythrae towards the end of the seventh century, and before the turn of the sixth Chios sent troops to the assistance of Miletus when the latter was fighting against Alyattes of Lydia. In effect the relations between Chios and Miletus seem to have been intimate at this time. The Milesians, aided by contingents from the most enter- prising states of the coast and islands, had founded Naukratis in Lower Egypt early in the seventh century. In the great temple there, called the Hellenion, the names of all the peoples who contributed to its
31 G. F. Hill, Handbook of Greek and Roman Coins, p. 39.
NUMISM. CHROK., VOL. XV, SERIES IV. C
18 J. MAVROGORDATO.
erection were recorded, and that of the Chians stood at the head of the list. Constant communication must have been maintained between Egypt and Chios, for commercial activities were growing fast. It is not surprising, then, that, as stated above, some of the island's earliest coins should have been found in Lower Egypt. In fact, up to the present, the site of Naukratis has, so far as we know, been the only source of supply for the early silver didrachms.
As regards artistic development it is well known how advanced Chios had already become. The seventh century saw the rise there of a whole school of early sculpture. The names of Malas, Mikkiades, and Archermus, members of a single family of sculptors who followed each other in direct line, have been pre- served for us by Pliny.32 Glaucus, the metal-worker, who was patronized by Alyattes, was also a native of the island. It is tempting to think that some of these men, whom we associate with the dawn of art in the Greek world, may have influenced the die-cutters of the first Chian coins.
The coins which I would assign to this period are the following, and I should like to remark here once for all that the lists of the various types given below do not aim at being exhaustive.
When a type is rare I have recorded particulars of every specimen known to me either through publi- cations or through having been able to examine the collections containing them.
32 Hist. Nat., xxxvi. 11. Commenting on Jex-Blake's translation, Dr. H. L. Urlichs remarks that Malas was not the great-grand- father of the sons of Archermus, mentioned later, but the point ia only of secondaiy importance here.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 19
In the case of common varieties I have been content to cite three specimens only, so as to give the extreme variations of weight, &c., with the addition of a quali- fying note such as not rare, common, and so on.
1. Obv. — Sphinx of rude style crouching 1. on plain exergual line ; wing curled ; and long hair gathered into rough knot on nape of neck. Before it indistinguishable object or objects.
Rev. — Incuse square roughly divided into four unequal parts, and small countermark similarly but more evenly divided. Both punch-struck.
JR. 17 • mm. 188 grains (12-18 grammes). Aegi- neticjstater. Coll. Sir H. Weber.
- mm. 187 grains (12-12 grammes). Aegi- lo-OO
netic stater. Sotheby's Sale Cat. Warren Coll., 1905, No. 31.
— mm. 184-75 grains (11-97 grammes). io-00
Aeginetic stater. Coll. B. Yakountchikoff ex Coll. Prince Chakhouskoy. Egger's Sale Cat, 1908, No. 547. [PI. I. 1.]
21-00
— mm. 187 grains (12-12 grammes). Aegi- lo-OO
netic stater. Sotheby's Cat. Sherman Benson Coll., 1909, No. 695.
— — - mm. 192 grains (12-44 grammes). Cab. de France, ex Taranto find. [PI. I. 2.]
- mm. 190-75 grains (12-36 grammes). Mus. 19-00
of Fine ''Arts, Boston, Mass., U.S.A., ex C. P. Perkins's Coll., No. 492 of Cat.
This very rare and primitive coin was first published by Canon Greenwell in Num. Chron., 1890, p. 18, PI. ii. 15, while describing a hoard that contained three specimens of the type, one of which, now in Sir H. Weber's collection, is given above.
c 2
20 J. MAVROGOEDATO.
As already suggested, this coin cannot be unhesi- tatingly attributed to Chios, although it has been associated with the island for so long by numismatists that it would be presumptuous to omit it here. It is so totally different in style, however, from the usual products of the Chian mint that one is almost driven to prefer some other source of origin. On the other hand it would be difficult to conceive of a more fitting prototype for the well-known fifth-century didrachm of Chios than the coin next to be described, PI. I. 3. Practically every step in the development from one to the other can be traced. But the Aeginetic staters are altogether foreign to the series. As Canon Greenwell pointed out, the appearance of the Sphinx upon them partakes more of animal than of human characteristics. The work is different in many ways from that of No. 2, although the two coins are in all probability roughly contemporary, the prominence of the chin in No. 1 being especially remarkable. The object or objects in front of the Sphinx have been called by various names, but on no specimen known to me are they sufficiently clear to warrant a guess as to their nature. The association with Chios of course suggests an amphora, but I can see no justification for it, still less for a vine branch. There are at least two distinct dies to be recognized, both obverse and reverse, but the differences between them are of no importance. The countermarking of the coins seems to have partially obliterated the symbol in most speci- mens. I illustrate two in order to show that the smaller of the two incuse squares is really a counter- mark, and not part of the main punch mark as has been suggested. A reference to the plate will show
CHKONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 21
that these coins are from the same reverse die, yet the small incuse occupies a relatively different position on each.
It is the same countermark as occurs on the coin attributed to Cos in B.M.Cat., Caria, PL xxx. 1, to Cnidus, do. do., PL xiii. 7, and to Delos, Num. Chron., 1890, PL ii. 11; also possibly on the gold stater of Phocaea, Num. Chron., 1875, PL x. 6.
The globular, or bean-shaped, flan, the punch- striking of the reverse, and the small countermark of this coin are all Ionic in character, and quite dis- tinct from the typical Aeginetic incuse and anvil method of striking which mark the western group of coins so closely connected with it.33
It seems evident, therefore, that we have here an issue of some Ionian state in temporary league with Aegina and other cities, though there is nothing to show to what particular state it should be attributed.
We come now to what may be considered to be the first genuine Chian issues, beginning with the earlier of the two groups of coins showing varying standards.
2. Obv. — Sphinx of rude style seated 1. on roughly dotted exergual line ; forelegs united and straddled ; wing curled ; hair long with a separate lock descending from crown of head and curling upwards at tip. In field 1. a rosette.
Rev. — Roughly quartered incuse square ; punch-struck. JR. 16-25 mm. 120 grains (7-76 grammes). Chian didrachm. Berlin Cab. ex Sakha hoard.
[PI. I. 3.]
16-75 mm. 129-9 grains (8-424 grammes). Euboic didrachm. Brit. Mus.
33 See illustrations accompanying the late Mr. W. Wroth's description -of the famous Santorin hoard, Num. Chron., 1884, PI. xii, and Canon Greenwell's account of a similar find, Num. Chron., 1890, PI. ii. 9-16.
22 J. MAVROGORDATO.
These two coins, which, to the best of my belief, are the only known specimens of their type, were probably struck from the same obverse die, and certainly from the same reverse one, the British Museum specimen being the earlier.
The Berlin specimen was published by Dr. Dressel in the Zeitschrift fur Numismatik, 1900, pp. 238-41, No. 30, and in the Numismatic Chronicle for 1911, pp. 85-93, I drew attention to the one in the British Museum. :J4
Several points in connexion with these interest- ing coins have already been touched upon above. Attention may be drawn in passing to their very early style betrayed by the grotesque profile and the large head. They can safely be assigned to the end of the seventh century B.C., and are at least as old as the Aeginetic staters.
It is interesting to note that the quartered incuse square already appears at this early date, and must necessarily be placed before the plain incuse of coins such as Nos. 4 and 5, although, in the absence of other evidence, the latter form is generally regarded as the more primitive of the two.
With regard to the rosette in the field it is con- ceivable that it may commemorate some fleeting alliance with Erythrae. But I do not feel inclined to support the idea, the two states having been almost constantly at variance. Besides, a more plausible explanation of the symbol is to be found in the solar
$4 In the course of ray remarks on that occasion I was wrong to place these coins in the same class as the didrachm published by Canon Greenwell in Num. Citron., 1890, p. 4, since the latter belongs to the group next to be described.
CHKONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 23
emblem on certain coins of Paeonia and Macedonia.35 At first sight this may not appear quite obvious to those who have been accustomed to regard the Sphinx as a peculiarly Dionysiac attribute.
M. Svoronos has shown us, however, in his most interesting paper, that both Sphinxes and Griffins figured in the imagery of the sun-worship that pre- vailed throughout nearly the whole district between the river Axius and the Rhodope mountains. This cult had its centre on the summit of Mount Pangaeum, and it can be traced from the Derronians in the west to the Sagraeans in the east, from the Laeaeans in the north to the island of Peparethus in the south through the prevalence on their coins of the solar emblem of a rosette of pellets in various forms. For details I must refer the reader to M. Svoronos's learned article.
On the other hand, to the immediate north of Mount Pangaeum extended the land of the Edones, and to the east of it that of the Dionysians, where the worship of Dionysus had flourished from time immemorial. In fact the two cults seem to have overlapped both in their symbolism and in their geographical distribution.
fie votaries of Dionysus adopted the KVK\OS 'HXt'ov, d those of Zeus the Sphinx and the Griffin. Among the Edones, who, as we have seen, were wor- snippers of Dionysus, was a city called Asoros or Gasoros, to which reference has been made above. This city ruck coins over a considerable time, for specimens are known representing the archaic, the transitional, and the fine periods of art, with a Sphinx to r. On a transitional piece, now in the Vienna cabinet, the
33 J. N. Svoronos in Journal Int. tiArch. Num., 1913, pp. 193-280.
24: J. MAVKOGORDATO.
solar emblem, of a form very similar to that on this archaic coin of Chios, is to be seen in front of the Sphinx.
It seems highly probable that the Pangaean country- side may be the original home of the Chian Sphinx, and fresh force is thereby added to the supposition that the type under consideration may represent the first monetary issue made by Chios. The Sphinx in combination with the solar emblem was at home on the Thracian border of Macedonia, and was no doubt taken over with the new religion on its introduction into the Ionian island. The symbol then ceased to have any meaning in its new surroundings, and was forthwith discarded. In any case it never appears again on the coinage.
The second group of coins exhibiting varying standards, which is the next to be examined, includes the earliest type of electrum stater that has come down to us. Judging by style alone, I venture to suggest that the staters described below were struck during the first quarter of the sixth century. This theory is supported by their similarity to the silver didrachms that accompany them here. These latter, as already observed, come sufficiently near to No. 2 in general appearance to show that no great interval of time can have separated them.
Taking the electrum staters first, we have :
3. Obv. — Sphinx of rude archaic style seated r. on exergual line, consisting of two parallel lines with dots between. She has wing slightly curled ; hair lying in a thick mass on nape of neck, with a separate lock rising from crown of head and ending in a spiral curl ; and round ear-ring. Further foreleg shows behind nearer.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 25
Rev. — Deep incuse square divided into four parts, and punch-struck.
21-00
El. mm. 218 grains (14-14 grammes). Mile-
19*00
sian stater. Cabinet de France. [PL I. 4.] . 216-2 grains (14-01 grammes). Mile-
sian stater. Cabinet de France.
These two coins are Nos. 331-2 of M. Babelon's Traite, vol. ii. The former was first published by Ch. Lenormant in Rev. Num., 1856, p. 12, PI. ii. 1, where he alludes to it as of tres ancien style. The second is a variety of it, and is the only other specimen of the type known to me. They differ mainly in the form of the exergual line, which, in the case of the latter, seems to consist of a row of dots only, but both are struck from the same reverse die.
It will be noticed that the style of these coins is much better than that of No. 2, and the whole aspect of the Sphinx is more like what it assumed in later times, but the sloping forehead and coarse features typical of primitive work are still there.
4. Obv.— Sphinx of rude archaic style seated 1. on plain exergual line ; wing curled ; hair in uniform mass like an Egyptian wig, with long separate lock rising from crown of head and projecting backwards ; forelegs separate, but not drawn in perspective. Rev. — Plain incuse square, punch-struck.
JR. 15-00 mm. 116-8 grains (7-57 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Berlin Cab. ex C. K. Fox Coll.,
Coll., 1873. [PL I. 5.] 16-50 mm. 105-1 grains (6-81 grammes). Graeco-
Asiatic didrachm. Coll. Sir H. Weber, from
find in the Delta, 1890. 15-00 mm. 11 3-6 grains (7-36 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Coll. Sir H. Weber, from Sakha
hoard, 1899.
26 J- MAVROGORDATO.
This type, which is clearly a direct descendant of No. 2, was first published by Canon Greenwell in Num. Chron., 1890, p. 4.
The Berlin specimen and Sir H. Weber's < didrachm are from the same obverse die, while Sir H. Weber's Graeco-Asiatic didrachm is from the same reverse die as the Berlin coin.
These didrachms must be considered earlier on the whole than the electrum stater No. 3, though the differences to be observed maybe partly due to careless execution. It is worthy of note that the dies for electrum coins seem, as a rule, to have been more elaborately prepared than those for silver ones. Another small point, illustrating this time the conscientiousness of archaic art, is that, throughout the sixth century, the forelegs of the Sphinx are almost invariably drawn so that both should be seen. And it may be broadly stated that, after the period when one foreleg is represented raised, the earlier coins have the legs further apart than those which succeed them.
The paucity of dies, to which attention has been drawn, in all the coins hitherto described, shows that they cannot have been struck in large quantities. This is only what one would expect from such early issues, and helps to confirm their attribution to the dates suggested.
PERIOD II. 575(?)-545 B.C.
The early portion of this period is more remarkable in the history of Chios for the aesthetic and commercial progress made by her people than for any important political event. In 550 B. c., however, Croesus overthrew the Ionian League, though he refrained from subju-
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 27
gating the two island states of Chios and Samos. The oligarchic or aristocratic form of government continued at Chios down to the time of the final extinction of the League by Harpagus in 545 B.C.
Since all autonomous coining of electrum must have ceased with the imposition of Persian rule under Cyrus, as Prof. P. Gardner has conclusively shown,36 the task of fixing the date of the remaining Chian issues in this metal is considerably simplified. Three at least of the known types still unrecorded here must, in consequence of the above, fall automatically into the present period. They are none of them so old in style as the type last quoted, No. 3, nor are they yet suitable for inclusion among the coins of the Ionian Revolt, about which there will be more to say later on.
As regards their individual arrangement it is of course impossible to be positive, and the order in which they are placed below is only intended to be mjectural. Still, by comparing these three widely livergent types with the more or less contemporary diver didrachms, which afford a far less broken scheme >f development, I hope to be able to show that the classes mutually support each other without neces- irily having been issued together. It is possible of >urse that some of the didrachms described under 'eriod III may belong here, but in the present state )f our knowledge anything more definite than what am already proposing would be the merest guess- work.
There is certainly no lack of material from this time
36 "The Coinage of the Ionian Revolt," J. H. S., 1911, p. 156.
28 J. MAVROGORDATO.
onward, and it is clear from the variety of types how intense "was the artistic life of the time. The sculptor Archermus, the third of his line, was flourishing, of whom it has been said that he was the first to give wings to Nike. One is irresistibly reminded of this phrase by the beautifully finished stater [PI. I. 8], and what I like to look upon as its contemporary didrachm [PL I. 14], in which the Sphinx's two wings are shown in a fine perspective. This arrangement was never attempted again until the beginning of the Roman period.
The following are the electrum coins referred to above :
5. Obv. — Sphinx of archaic style seated r. without exergual line ; wing curled ; hair in dense mass like an Egyptian wig ; only one foreleg showing.
Rev.— Plain incuse square ; punch-struck.
18-75 El. j^^ mm. 216-97 grains (14-06 grammes).
Milesian stater. Br. Mus. ex Bank Coll.
[PL I. 6.]
216 grains (14-00 grammes). Mile-
sian stater. Berlin Cabinet.
6. Obi-.— Sphinx of archaic style seated r. without exergual line ; wing slightly curled ; hair in long straight ringlets ; only one foreleg showing.
Rev.— Plain incuse square : punch-struck. (The absence of quartering cross in this type may possibly be due to wear.)
El. 19-00 mm. 217-75 grains (14-11 grammes).
Milesian stater. Coll. B. Yakountehikoff ex
Rothschild Coll. No. 370, Cat. 1900. 20-75 l&OO mm* 216'35 grains (14>02 grammes).
Milesian stater. Coll. R. Jameson, Cat.
No. 1519, from Vourla find, 1911. [PI. I. 7.]
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 29
7. O&y. — Sphinx of refined archaic style, wearing round earring, and seated 1. without exergual line ; both wings showing, curled at tips ; hair long ; further forepaw raised and holding lotus flower.
Rev. — Incuse square somewhat roughly divided into four parts ; punch-struck.
19-00
El. mm. 216-5 grains (14-03 grammes).
1 7 '00
Milesian stater. Coll. B. Yakountchikoff ex Montagu Coll., No. 589, Sotheby's Cat, 1896.
20-00
— — • mm. 217-9 grains (14-12 grammes). lo-oO
Milesian stater. Coll. K. Jameson, Cat. No. 1520, ex Philipsen Coll., No. 2241. Hirsch's Cat., 1909. [PI. I. 8.J
21-00
- mm. 217-13 grains (14-07 grammes). 17-75
Milesian stater. Cabinet de France ; No. 335
of Babelon's Traite, vol. ii. 20-00 mm. 218-2 grains (14-14 grammes).
Milesian stater. No. 1087, Cat. Egger, xlvi.
1914.
The only point that these three staters have in common is the absence both of the exergual line and of the separate lock of hair.
No. 5 is well known to all students of the National Collection, and was published in the catalogue for Ionia, p. 7, and PL i. 19. It was chosen by Prof. P. Gardner to illustrate his paper on the Gold Coinage of Asia in the Proceedings of the British Academy, 1908, when he first propounded his theory about the coinage of the Ionian Revolt, but rejected later (J. H. S., 1911, p. 154, note 11) as being of too early style.
No. 6 was published by M. E-. Jameson in his description of the Vourla find (Rev. Num., 1911, pp. 60-8), when, without knowing of Prof. Gardner's
30 J. MAVROGORDATO.
paper, he came to the same conclusion about the probable issue of a federal coinage at the time of the Ionian Eevolt. The author there recognized that this particular coin is older than the majority of those composing the hoard to which the date of 500 B.C. is roughly assigned.
This coin is of later style than No. 5, though it has a similar plain incuse. It is possible that the absence of the crossed lines in this case may be due to wear, since traces of what might have been quartering^ are to be detected in the square, whereas the reverse of No. 5 shows no signs of them at all.
Both the coins here described are from the same dies.
No. 7. So far as I am aware this beautiful stater has never been the subject of any special reference. It is an example of all that is finest in archaic art, and a proof of the high level reached by craftsmen in Chios at this period. Unfortunately none of the specimens that I have come across is in really good condition, M. B,. Jameson's coin being quite the finest of the four. This prevents any comparison of dies in the case of the obverses, but for the reverses two are recognizable, one between M. Yakountchikoff's and the Egger Cat. specimens, and the other between M. Jameson's and the French Cabinet's coins.
This type affords the only instance of an electrum coin at Chios, with the exception of the fifth-century stater, in which the Sphinx is depicted to left.
The silver didrachms that I suggest for this period are the following :
8. Obv.— Sphinx of archaic style seated 1. on plain exergual line ; wing curled ; hair in dense mass like an Egyptian wig ; both forelegs showing, but not dcaWQ in perspective.
CHRONOLOGY OF T.HE COINS OF CHIOS. 31
Eev. — Plain incuse square ; punch-struck.
M. 17-00 mm. 120-2 grains (7-79 grammes). Chian didrachm. Berlin Cabinet ex Imhoof-Blumer Coll. 1900. [PL I. 9.]
9. Olv. — Sphinx of archaic style seated 1. on dotted exer- gual line ; wing slightly curled ; hair long, with separate lock hanging from crown of head and ending in a spiral curl ; further forepaw raised holding a lotus-flower ; between fore and hind legs a cock's head 1. Circle of dots.
Eev.— Quartered incuse square ; punch-struck.
M. mm. 121-3 grains(7-86 grammes). Chian
lO-UU
didrachm. Berlin Cabinet, from Sakha hoard, 1899. [PL I. 10.] ?mm. 1204 grains (7-80 grammes). Chian didrachm. Berlin Cabinet, from recent find in Egypt, 1914.
1 K 00
— mm. 119-75 grains (7- 76 grammes). Chian lo-OO
didrachm. Coll. J. K. McClean, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. [PL I. 11.]
10. Variety of preceding in which the Sphinx does not hold
lotus-flower in upraised forepaw.
18-00
M. - —mm. 111-9 grains (7-244 grammes). Chian lo-oO
didrachm, from Sakha hoard. Num. Chron., 1899, p. 277, No. 16.
——mm. 121-8grains(7-895grammes). Chian 1J-75
didrachm. My collection ex Philipsen Coll., No. 2242, Hirsch's Cat., 1909.
11. Obv.— Sphinx 1. like No. 9, except that the exergual
line is plain, and that there is a lotus-flower between Sphinx's fore and -hind legs in place of the cock's head.
Eev. — Quartered incuse square of larger size than any hitherto described ; punch-struck.
32 J. MAVROGOKDATO.
17-00
JR. - —mm. 1204 grains(7-80 grammes). Chian lo-oO
didrachm. Coll. B.. Yakountchikoff ex O'Hagan Coll., No. 587 (part of) Sotheby's Cat., 1908. [PL I. 12.]
Broken didrachm known to Dr. Dressel of Berlin.
12. Obv. — Sphinx 1. like No. 9, but of somewhat later style
and without either exergual line or lotus-flower in upraised forepaw. The separate lock on head is also doubtful.
Rev. — Quartered incuse square of earlier type than No. 11 ; punch-struck.
JR. mm. 115-5 grains (748 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Coll. Sir H. Weber from Sakha hoard, Num. Chron., 1899, p. 277, No. 15. 17-00 mm. 119.75 grains (7-76 grammes). Chian didrachm. Coll. B. Yakountchikoff, No. 368, Hirsch's Cat.,vii. 1902. [PI. 1. 13.]
13. 01)V. — Sphinx of refined archaic style seated 1. on plain
exergual line ; she wears round ear-ring ; both wings show in perspective curled at tips ; hair long with conventionalized lock of tendril-like form projecting from back of head ; further foreleg shows behind nearer.
Rev. — Quartered incuse square of similar type to No. 11 ;
punch-struck.
JR. 16-25 mm. 121 -6 grains (7-88grammes). Chian didrachm. Coll. B. Yakountchikoff ex Sher- man Benson Coll., No. 696, Sotheby's Cat., 1909. [PI. I. 14.]
No. 8. This coin is unique in my experience, and, although in bad condition, may be seen to have points of resemblance, especially about the head, with the first electrum stater of this period, No. 5. The manner in which the forelegs are drawn and the plain incuse square connect it with the silver didrachm, No. 4.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 33
This is the last time that the plain incuse appears in the series, and there is no sign here whatever of the punch having originally been quartered but worn smooth by use.
Nos. 9-12. These types were first published by Sir Hermann Weber and Dr. Dressel in their descrip- tions of the Sakha hoard (see note 7 above). Judging from the varieties to be noted among them, their issue, taken as a whole, seems to have been a more plentiful one than any of its predecessors. I illustrate two coins of type No. 9 [PL I. 10 and 11] so as to show the cock's head and peculiar exergual line clearly.
There must have been some little interval between No. 8 and the present group, which is distinguished from all other silver issues of Chios, previous to the Roman period, by the Sphinx's upraised forepaw. The design has suddenly become more ornate, and the dotted border, very finely executed on some specimens, is a novel and unusual feature for the period. Still, the large head and straightly falling mass of hair are typical of archaic art, and connect the group intimately, although the type is so different in other respects, with the electrum stater No. 6. The peculiar shape of the Sphinx's wing also does this, for no wing quite like it is seen again on the sixth-century didrachms, though it had already occurred on the earlier electrum [PI. 1. 4]. The upraised forepaw is, of course, a link with the electrum stater No. 7, which, as we have seen, may on general grounds of style be placed later than No. 6.
No. 12, in spite of its older reverse, is, I think, a little later than the rest of these coins with the dotted border, because of the smaller head and the attempt made to
NUMISM. CHKON., VOL. XV, SERIES IV. D
34 J. MAVROGORDATO.
show its shape beneath the hair." The flan is also less bullet-shaped. The two coins representing this type, which is the rarest of the group; are struck from the same dies, both obverse and reverse. Otherwise I have observed no community of dies between this and the other members of the group.
With regard to the cock's head and lotus-flower symbols, it is difficult to say whether they should be regarded as magistrates' signets, or simply as adjuncts peculiar to the Sphinx. The former would not be inconsistent with the oligarchic government in power at the time, especially as just such a use was then being made of symbols at Teos.38 But if the practice had ever been adopted, it is hard to see why it should have been abandoned before the coming of the tyrants. And yet we have the evidence of No. 12 to show that this must have taken place even within the limits of this particular group.
The facts necessary for the settlement of the question are very incomplete, of course ; but until the sands of Egypt reveal more specimens I prefer to consider these symbols as mere accessories to the design of the coins.
The lotus-flower, as we have seen, was associated with the Sphinx in its role as a chthonic deity, and the cock had a similar significance.39
87 When publishing this coin in Num. Chron., 1899, p. 277, Sir II. Weber placed it earlier than the type here called No. 10, but the dotted circle is not visible on his specimen.
Jh B. M. Cat., Ionia, pp. 309-10, and PI. xxx. 2, 3, 4, and 5.
39 See D'A. W. Thompson's Glossary of Greek Birds, sub voce aAe*- rpvutv, p. 24. It appears as an offering to the dead on some of the archaic Spartan bas-reliefs ; see the summary account of these monuments in Tod and Wace, Catalogue of the Sparta Museum (1906), pp. 102 ff.
CHKONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 35
No. 13. This charming coin has never been published, and is unique to the best of my belief. No one can fail to recognize its close resemblance to the electrum stater No. 7. In fact, it might be the work of the same artist. Though this resemblance naturally confines it to the limits of the present period, it comes much nearer in general appearance to the more familiar types next to follow than to anything that has preceded it in the course of this review. It seems, in a word, to stand on the boundary between the rare coins that we have just studied somewhat minutely and the compara- tively common types of the later archaic period.
It will have been noticed that all the coins just described, representing types 8-13, belong unequivo- cally to the local standard of Chios. The only piece about which a doubt might be raised is the former of the two specimens under No. 10, weighing 111-9 grains (7-244 grammes). But since it is well in excess of the maximum attained by the Graeco- Asiatic standard, it seems fair to regard it as a light specimen of the Chian system. In fact, from the beginning of this period till the middle of the fourth century or there- abouts, there is no reason to suppose that any other standard for silver but the local one was used at Chios.
PERIOD III. 545-500 B.C.
It has already been observed that the coinage of electrum must have ceased under the Persian rule that now controlled the affairs of Chios. On the other hand, there can be no doubt but that the coinage of silver largely increased from this time onwards. Not only is there a great variety of types, but the coins them- selves are no longer so rare as previously.
D2
36 J. MAVROGORDATO.
The chief characteristics to be noted are the occa- sional use of a wreath round the type, and the gradual evolution of the amphora in front of the Sphinx. Two contemporary artists are worthy of mention. These were Bupalus and Athenis, the sons of Archermus, and enough is known about them to show that they worthily carried on the traditions of their family.
The growth of trade in spite of foreign rule, that we may deduce from the more plentiful coinage, may possibly be connected with the acquisition by the Chians at this time of the territory of Atarneus. We are told that they owed this grant of fertile land to the generosity of Cyrus in return for treacherously giving up to him a Lydian called Pactyas, who had taken sanctuary at the temple of Athena Poliouchos in the island.40
"Whatever the truth of the story may be, the Chians benefited much from their new possessions, which contained silver mines and hot springs, as well as the direct means of increasing their food supply.
Under the influence of the Persians a new party arose in the state that led to the overthrow of the oligarchy and the establishment of a tyranny. As in all the other cities of the League now subject to Persia, the tyrants in Chios were natives of the island, and one of them, named Strattis, has acquired a certain notoriety.
It was he who supported Histiaeus, tyrant of Miletus, in selfishly refusing to destroy the bridge over the Ister, and so ruin the Persians under Darius in Scythia. Histiaeus was rewarded for his services, but led the
49 Herodotus viii. 106, and Pausanias iv. 35.
w
ti
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 37
revolt nevertheless. Strattis, who seems to have remained faithful to Darius during the early stages of the revolt, was deposed, and the aristocratic govern- ment was re-established in Chios.
This rapid review of events between the fall of the Ionian League and the famous Revolt is sufficient for numismatic purposes, as we have no means of knowing whether or not the main political events of the day found an echo in Chios, and, if so, were accompanied by any particular issue of money.
It would be of supreme interest if we could trace signs of the impression made on the vassal state by the death of Cyrus, for instance ; by the victories of Cambyses in Egypt, not at all an unlikely cause of celebration : or by the accession of Darius. We find coins with a wreath around the type, we note the introduction of a new symbol, and of an important alteration in the type, but we have no hint as to what brought about the changes. "We do not even know in what order the various issues, that inevitably fall into this period, followed one another. In attempting their arrangement I have adopted an order that is purely arbitrary, but at least has the merit of being systematic.
Assuming that the amphora, when once introduced, was not again omitted from the type, it follows that coins without an amphora must come first. Then it will be noticed that the amphora takes different forms, which may be supposed to have preceded the time when its shape and position became fixed as we know them on the fifth-century didrachms.
The development of the incuse square 011 the reverses will be found to confirm this arrangement on the whole,
38 J. MAVROGORDATO.
the punch-mark becoming shallower and the dividing lines broader as we approach the end of the group.
There are still one or two other varieties which might have been mentioned, but the differences that distin- guish them from those given below are so slight that it is not worth while to include them as separate types. A case in point is referred to in note 41. The general characteristics of the period are the long hair of the Sphinx and the small size and irregular position of the amphora.
The most important of the known types to be noted in this period are as follows :
14. Obr. — Sphinx of refined archaic style seated 1. ; body
lean ; wing curled ; hair in queue ; further foreleg showing well in front of nearer in rough perspective. Around wreath of olive (?).
/.Vr. — Quartered incuse square divided by narrow bars into deep compartments ; punch-struck.
M. - ^Amm- 122-3 grains (7-93 grammes). Chian 14 '00
didrachm. No. 678, Ward Coll., Municipal Museum, New York. [PI. II. 1.]
19-00
rAmm. 121-8 grains(7-90 grammes). Chian 14-oU
didrachm. Cabinet de France. _emm. 1 18-8 grains(7-70 grammes). Chian
lo'/O
didrachm. My collection. Not rare.
15. Obv. — Sphinx of archaic style seated 1. ; coarse work ;
wing curled ; hair apparently in long ringlets; further foreleg outlined behind nearer.
//' >: — Quartered incuse square divided by moderately narrow bars into shallowish compartments; punch-struck.
CHRONOLOGY OP THE COINS OF CHIOS. 39
M. 17-50 mm. 121-2 grains (7-86 grammes). Chian didrachm. Athens Cabinet. [PI. II. 2.]
. 119-6 grains (7-75 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Cabinet de France, No. 4969.
16. Obv. — Sphinx of unusually large size and refined archaic
style seated 1. on plain exergual line ; wing slightly curled ; hair long ; further foreleg outlined behind nearer ; before its feet vase without handles on first specimen, and squat amphora on second.
Rev. — Quartered incuse square divided by narrow bars into deep compartments ; punch-struck.
17-25
M. mm. 119-45grains(7-74grammes). Chian
lo-o(J
didrachm. Berlin Cabinet ex Coll. Philipsen. No. 2243 Hirsch's Cat., 1909. [PL II. 3.]
— mm. 1 18-65 grains(7-69grammes). Chian lo-Uu
didrachm. Cabinet de France, No. 4968a.
17. Obv. — Sphinx of refined archaic style seated 1. on plain
exergual line ; wing curled in naturalistic manner ; hair long ; further foreleg outlined behind nearer. In field 1. small amphora with ball at point.
JKev. — Quartered incuse square divided by narrow bars into three very deep and one shallow com- partment ; punch-struck.
M. 17-00 mm. 122-4 grains (7-94 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Brit. Mus., No. 2, Cat. Ionia,
Chios. [PL II. 4.] 17-25 mm. 121-8grains(7-90 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Cabinet de France ex Coll.Luynes,
No. 4966. 17-00 mm. 121-8 grains(7-90 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Athens Cabinet. Common.
L8. Obv.— Sphinx of refined archaic style seated 1. on thick exergual line ; wing curled ; hair in queue ; further foreleg showing behind nearer in good
40 J. MAVROGORDATO.
perspective. In field 1. small amphora with rounded handles, and ball at point. The whole on circular raised' shield with olive (?) wreath around.
Hw. — Quartered incuse square divided by narrow bars into deep compartments ; punch-struck.
Ai . !Z^?mm. 120 grains (7-78 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Coll. J. R. McClean, Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge. [PI. II. 5.] 17-50 mm. 1 18-8 grains(7-70 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Cabinet de France, No. 4963. 17-50 mm. 121-8 grains (7 -90 grammes). Chian
didrachm. My collection. Fairly common.
19. Obv.— Sphinx of refined archaic style seated 1. on plain exergtial line, wearing stephane and hair long ; wing curled in naturalistic manner ; further foreleg outlined behind nearer. Before its feet small amphora with ball at point.
Rev. — Quartered incuse square divided by broadish bars into irregularly shaped and moderately deep compartments ; punch-struck.
21-75 JR.. mm. 122-25grains(7-93grammes). Chian
lo-OU
didrachm. Coll. R. Jameson, Cat. No. 1521, ex Delbeke Coll., No. 195 ; Sotheby's Cat., 1907. [PI. II. 6.]
19-00
j _mm. 119- 4 grains (7-74 grammes). Chian
didrachm. Municipal Museum, New York, No. 679, Ward Coll.
mm. 121-35grains(7-87grammes). Chian
didrachm. My collection. Common.
20. Obv.— Sphinx of refined archaic style seated 1. on plain exergual line ; wing curled in naturalistic manner ; hair long ; further foreleg showing almost fully behind nearer. In field 1. amphora with ball at point. The whole in vine-wreath.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 41
Rev. — Quartered incuse square divided by moderately narrow bars into compartments of irregular depth ; punch-struck. In the three deepest depressions the letters XIO.
19-00 M. - — mm. 121-8grains(7-90grammes). Chian
lo'OO
didrachm. Cabinet de France, No. 4962. [PL II. 7.]
17-00 mm. 120 grains (7-78 grammes). Chian didrachm. Coll. K. Jameson ex Taranto find, Eev. Num., 1912, PI. iii. 7. [PL II. 8.J
21. Obv. — Sphinx of small size and refined archaic style seated 1. on plain exergual line ; wing curled ; hair in queue ; further foreleg outlined behind nearer. Before it amphora on ground line with ball at point, and lines forming handles turned back over mouth.
Rev. — Quartered incuse square divided by moderately narrow bars into shallow compartments ; punch-struck.
M. 16-25 mm. 119-75grains(7-76grammes). Chian didrachm. Berlin Cabinet ex Coll. C. R. Fox, 1873. [PL II. 9.]
16-00 mm. 118-8 grains (7- 70, grammes). Chian didrachm. Athens Cabinet.
17-00 mm. 122-2 grains(7-79 grammes). Chian didrachm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., U.S.A., ex Warren Coll., No. 1139 of Regling's Cat.
Eare.
Obv. — Sphinx as preceding, but type arranged on raised circular shield.
Rev. — Quartered incuse square divided by broad bars into roughly shaped shallow compartments ; punch-struck.
M. 16-50 mm. 11 8-5 grains (7-68 grammes). Chian didrachm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., U. S. A. From Naukratis, through Egyptian Exploration Fund.
42 J. MAVROGORDATO.
No. 14. It is not absolutely certain whether there is an amphora or not before the Sphinx on coins of this type, although there is no sign of it on any of the three pieces here described. The question must be considered to be still subjudice, however, as indications are to be observed on two specimens at Berlin that suggest an amphora.
In any case I think that it is as well to place the type at the beginning of this group on account of the resemblance it bears to No. 13, although inferior as a work of art. The same trick of representing the Sphinx with its hind legs half bent, as if in the act of rising, may be noticed in both. It is also, on the whole, the most archaic looking of all the types assembled under this period. It is difficult, too, to be positive about the composition of the wreath. Ivy or vine-leaves were certainly to have been expected, but there may have been some reason for using an olive-wreath which the design suggests more than anything else.
No. 15. This seems to be a rare type, and the two coins cited are the only specimens I have seen. They are both from the same dies. The type is remarkable for its unusually rough execution, although it shows the earliest signs of that massiveness in the bodily forms of the Sphinx which characterizes many of the subsequent issues.
There is no doubt here about the absence of any amphora.
No. 16 is a very difficult coin to attribute. The style and execution are good, and the weight being Chian there seems no reason to discredit its right to a place among the island's issues. But the vase-shaped
r.
n
CHKONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 43
vessel in place of an amphora is enough to have raised doubts as to this among some authorities. The absence of handles, in my opinion, is most likely due to careless engraving or a damaged die, as the Paris specimen, while certainly belonging to the same issue, though from a different obverse die, shows a similarly shaped vessel with handles.
This type also seems rare, and has never been published.
No. 17 is probably the most familiar of these sixth- century types. Apart from the doubtful case presented by No. 1 4, it may be said to record the earliest appear- ance of the real amphora on coins of Chios. The specimen from Athens also seems to furnish us with the first instance of the letters Xlo£ in the depression of the incuse square. The undoubted occurrence of these letters on later issues will be found referred to below. Although a transient feature of the coinage, it is a fact that has not hitherto been established.
No. 18 seems to be modelled upon No. 14, although clearly of slightly later date. It is interesting as being the first issue to show the raised circular shield, as a background for the type, which later became an unfailing feature of the island's money. This convex field may not have been intentional at first, although it certainly became so afterwards, but its appearance here is an instance of the fact that what are so often taken for innovations in coins are frequently only revivals.
Another well-known instance of this is the crescent n the reverse of Athenian tetradrachms, supposed at one time to have been first used on coins of the third period according to the British Museum Catalogue (see
44 J. MAVROGORDATO.
Attica, PI. iii. 3-5), but now known from the Taranto find to have originated much earlier (Rev. Num., June 1911, Nos. 14 and 15, PI. i. 11 and 12).
No. 19. This is another common type. The issue is noticeable for its oval flans, and for the rough form of incuse. The quartering lines or bars become really broad now for the first time.
No. 20. This highly finished type has been brought into prominence by M. Babelon's description of the Taranto find (Rev. Num., June 1911, PI. iii. 7), and pro- vides us with one of the few fixed points that we possess for the dating of Chian coins. The evidence of the hoard indicates that none of the coins contained in it were struck later than 510 B.C. This issue may, therefore, be safely assigned to a period some ten or twelve years prior to the Ionian Eevolt. On grounds of style it may confidently be placed later than the five types already described here, and for reasons given below the two succeeding ones, Nos. 21 and 22 must probably have followed it.
On account of the interest and rarity of the type I am illustrating both the specimens described. They are the only ones known to me, and moreover they supplement one another in their details. It will be noted that the obverse dies are different, but the same reverse die has been used for both pieces. The Bib- liotheque specimen is probably the later of the two as the letters in the depressions of the incuse, which are undoubted on this case, are more difficult to dis- tinguish than on M. Jameson's coin. At no time do they show up well on being reproduced.
No. 21. We have now reached a stage in the evolu- tion of the Chian didrachm that approximates very
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 45
closely to the fully developed fifth-century type. "While still showing unmistakable signs of the archaic period of art in the treatment of the features of the Sphinx, and in its long hair, this coin will at once be recognized as the most advanced of those so far described.
It presents, moreover, an apparently unimportant point of resemblance to the fifth-century coins that constitutes a certain link with them. I refer to the fact that the lines composing the handles of the amphora are continued after touching the lip and bent back in opposite directions over the mouth of the vessel. This I take to be a rough method of repre- senting an amphora closed with a stopper, which is the way in which the amphora is invariably repre- sented during the period of early fine art, and was only relinquished when more careless work was introduced just before the opening of the Peloponnesian war.
It is mainly owing to this small detail that I venture
assign this and the succeeding type to the period stween circa 512 B.C., marked by the unstoppered
iphora-type No. 20, and the Ionian Revolt.
No. 22 is a unique variety of the last in which the lised circular shield appears again. The reverse of the type is indistinguishable from those seen on the L- century coins, thus bringing the development ill one step nearer to that oft-mentioned goal.41
11 There is an archaic didrachm in Sir H. Weber's collection of similar style to the later coins of this group, but with an amphora stoppered as on the fifth-century pieces. It may be a little later than No. 22, and again it may be another case where a feature, common in later times, has appeared once and then been discarded for a period. See remarks under No. 18, above.
4:6 J. MAVROGORDATO.
Before leaving this period it will be as well just to mention the small pieces bearing a Sphinx in various positions on the obverse, and different types on the reverse, which, from their style, may all be said to belong to the sixth century. M. Babelon has suggested (Traite,voiL ii, p. 1134) that these coins may be alliance pieces between Chios and some of the neighbouring cities. If we could be sure of this the coins in question ought to find their place here, but considering the uncertainty that attends the question of these double- typed coins, I prefer not to go into it any further.42
None of the coins are of the Chian standard, and the style of all, with the exception of one bearing a Gorgoiieion on the reverse (Num. Chron., 1913, p. 268, PI. xiii. 9), is very unlike that of any known Chian issue.
PERIOD IV. 500-478 B.C.
With the outbreak of the revolt, as mentioned above, the tyrant Strattis was deposed, and the oligarchy was restored in Chios under magistrates called o-rparr^yoi. It is in the highest degree probable that this revival of the civic power was signalized in all the states of the League by fresh issues of electrum coins.
The staters of various types, but similar fabric, to which Head first drew attention (Num. Chron., 1887, p. 281), are now generally recognized as the coinage of the Ionian Revolt. The papers already referred to by Prof. P. Gardner and M. E. Jameson independently pointed to this event as the most likely source of the
42 See above, p. 7, where attention is drawn to a note under "Miscellanea" in Num. Chron., 1913, giving all the facts relating to these doubtful coins.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 47
issue. It is a highly plausible theory, and as satis- factory as such things well can be. The chief point of interest for the present inquiry is the share that Chios may have had in this federal coinage.
All the coins forming the group in question have one feature in common, to wit, the type of their reverse. This consists of a shallow incuse square neatly quartered by fine lines, and anvil-struck.43
The stater attributed by M. Jameson to Priene (Trouvaille de Vourla, PI. i. 4) differs from the rest in having no cross-lines in the incuse square, but this may be due, as he suggests, to a damaged die. Then the specimen with the Free Horse, attributed to Cyme (No. 7 of Prof. Gardner's list, Journ. Hellen. Studies, 1911), seems also to be an exception on account of its punch-striking. But it can, I think, be shown to be too old for the period suggested, like its Chian com- tion. In her "Electrum Coinage of Lampsakos", Miss L. Baldwin illustrates a more probable candidate with te characteristic reverse, which quite satisfies the mditions. It will also be seen from this paper that [iss Baldwin, who gives the whole history of the question, pp. 27-32, agrees with M. Jameson's choice )f the coin to be ascribed to Chios at this juncture.
In his description of the Vourla find (Rev. Num., HI, pp. 67-8) M. Jameson pointed out that a Chian
iter showing this reverse had appeared at the sale of the Lambros collection (No. 701, Hirsch's Cat., 1910), and he subsequently assigned it to the date 500 B. c. (Cat. Jameson, No. 1520a).
43 See Earle-Fox, "Early Coinage of European Greece," Corolla Numismatica, p. 34.
48 J. MAVROGORDATO.
Not only does this type justify its attribution from all points of view connected with style and fabric, but it is the only extant type to do so in my opinion. The stater described above under No. 5, which was selected by Prof. Gardner for this purpose in his " Gold Coinage of Asia", has since been rejected by him as of too early ^ate. Then the coin which he chose to take its place in his subsequent paper, " The Coinage of the Ionian Eevolt," is most probably a forgery, and I have purposely refrained from publishing it here. And finally, the only Chian stater in the Vourla find (type No. 6 of the present arrangement), which consisted, otherwise, of coins now regarded as contemporaneous with the Ionian Revolt, is also acknowledged by M. R. Jameson to belong to an earlier issue.
A point to which, I think, hardly enough attention has been given is this very question of the reverse employed for the issue under discussion. All writers on the subject agree that the various members of this coin-group exhibit the same reverse, and the apparent exceptions to this have already been examined above.
Though the suggestion put forward by Six (Num. Chron., 1890, p. 219) that Chios was the place of mintage of all these coins need no longer be seriously entertained, there is no denying the fact that they bear a strong family resemblance to one another both in style, fabric, and gold contents.
But the fabric is not that of the Chian mint. I would go further and say that, if a common mint be postulated, then it must be some other city of the League and not Chios. The probability, however, is that each member struck its own share of the issue
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 49
after agreeing to follow some general rule for the preservation of uniformity.
If so, then Chios departed, for the time being and so far as regards the reverse, from the hitherto un- broken tradition of her mint. It will be noticed from the foregoing descriptions that all the island's coins, from the earliest times to the date at which we have now arrived, are what is known as punch- struck.
This, judging from the very earliest electrum pieces, seems to have been the original method of coinage. But, at a comparatively early date, the rival method of anvil- striking, of which the Aeginetic coinage is the most familar type, came into use as well, and the two were pursued concurrently in different states. For instance, in the case of electrum previous to 550 B.C., coins attributed to Ephesus, Erythrae, Miletus, Samos, and Chios, show the punch- striking method. There are some that do not, but they are of doubtful origin. For silver previous to and shortly after 500 B.C. Miletus and Chios are alone among the Ionian states in em- ploying punch-striking. In other words they were more conservative. The coins of all the rest, Clazo- menae, Colophon, Ephesus, Erythrae, Phocaea, Teos, and Samos, are invariably anvil-struck.44
It is clear then that, though Miletus and Chios were the leading states in the Revolt, and set the weight- standard for the federal coinage, some other city or cities provided the model.
44 Brit.Mus. Cat., Ionia, PL vi, viii, ix, xv, xxiii, xxx, and xxxiv. It will be noticed that when once the method of striking was changed, as in the case of Ephesus, Erythrae, and Samos, it was applied generally to all subsequent issues, at any rate until a reverse type was introduced. After that the question is more difficult to decide.
NUM1SM. CHRON., VOL. XV, SERIES IV. E
50 J. MAVKOGORDATO.
On this ground alone the issue of Chios next to be described stands out among all her other electrum coins as an unusual product of her mint, and helps to prove that the coinage of which it evidently formed part was the outcome of peculiar circumstances.
So far there has been no evidence of any silver issue that could be looked upon as contemporary with the Chian Revolt staters. The Vourla find seems to have proved that Clazomenae issued divisional pieces in silver to accompany her staters, and it has been shown that Lampsacus at least among the other cities did the same.45 On the other hand the tetrobols, that Prof. Gardner suggests for Chios, are unquestionably of later date.
The electrum stater proposed for the period of the Ionian Revolt is the following :
23. Obv. — Sphinx of strong archaic style seated r. ; wing curled in naturalistic manner; she wears stephane, round ear-ring, and hair long on neck with a separate conventionalized lock rising from crown of head and terminating in a tendril-like spiral ; the further forepaw is raised and grasps a lotus-flower (?). The tail bears a tuft.
Rev. — Quartered incuse square divided by fine bars into shallow compartments ; anvil-struck.
El. - —mm. 217-3 grains(14-08 grammes). Mile-
J.O'50
sian stater. Coll. R. Jameson, Cat. No. 1520a, ex Lambros Coll., No. 701, Hirsch's Cat., 1910. [PL II. 10.]
19-00 mm. 215-9 grains (13-99 grammes). Mi- lesian stater. Boston Museum, Regling, Sammlung Warren, No. 1736, Taf. xxxvii.
19-50 mm. 214-5 grains (13-90 grammes). Mi- lesian stater. Munich Cabinet.
45 P. Gardner, " Coinage of Ionian Revolt," J. If. S., 1911, p. 11 and Miss Baldwin, op. cit., p. 19.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COINS OF CHIOS. 51
It will be observed that, in addition to the unusual reverse, this coin has a much flatter flan than any other electrum stater of Chios. The work is archaistic ; and the revival of the conventionalized lock of hair at this moment of national crisis is most interesting, this being its last appearance on the coinage. On the other hand the treatment of the wing betrays the freer style that art had attained by this date, and connects the coin with didrachms Nos. 19-20. The stephane also had not been seen on anything earlier than the former of these two coins. The lotus-flower is not quite distinct, but it seems a more likely object — judging from this stater's predecessors — than the "little club ", by which term it is customary to describe it.
It is unnecessary to recapitulate here the well-known story of the Eevolt, and the prominent part played in it by Chios, but the events subsequent to the terrible vengeance wreaked upon the island by Persia after the battle of Lade are not quite so familiar.
There seems to be no doubt but that the population was swept together as in a net,46 and deported whole- | sale, leaving nothing behind but ruined temples and ravaged vineyards. This took place about one year after the battle of Lade, say in 493 B. c. But the exile did not last long, for in this same year Artaphernes granted a constitution to the loniaiis, and the inhabi- tants of Chios began to return. An opportunity was soon found for the restoration of their old tyrant Strattis,47 under whom the island remained faithful to Persia longer than some of its neighbours, and actually sided with Xerxes against Greece.
The battle of Sal amis caused the national or aristo- cratic party to revive, and an attempt was made to
4ci Herodotus vi. 31. "7 Ibid. viii. 132.
E 2
assassin.,!.' Strains. Though this failed, ii was the i,,,liivi •! i -a use of the expedition of Leotychides and t he battle of Myi-nle. That echo from Plataea effectually strengthened the liands of I ho oligarchy, and Strait is disappears from history for the last time.
It has been suggested that the destruction caused l.v the Persians' raid must have been so groat, that, Chics c.in have been in no condition to coin money lor a rousiderable time. This barren period has generally been held to extend over the fifteen years between the battles of Lade and Myoale. But the fact that the inhabitants came back so soon after their exile has, I think, been overlooked. Strattis and his Me,li/ing party seem to have had nearly the whole of the above-mentioned period in which to rebuild the fortunes of the state. And though they may not have done much, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that some coins were struck as .-> mark of their return to power.
So far. however, it must be admitted that we cannot assign any particular issue to this period. It may be that types approximating to Nos. 21 and 22, perhaps even No. M\! itself, belong hero, or that the earliest coins with a In i uoh of grapes above the amphora were now struck tor the first time. But it is too line a point to bo settled by anything other than a luckily constituted tind. It is safest, on the whole, to leave all coins with an amphora only, as has been done here, to the period before the Ionian Revolt; and to assume that the bunch of Crapes was not introduced till after
the battle of M vcale.
.1. MAN ROQORDATO,
('/'o Ac
II.
QUAESTIONES OYRENAICAE.
III-VI.)
TM K numismatics of the Cyrenaica1 have been ex- haustively treated by L. Miiller in the first volume of liis groat Aru/it/*ii/(t//(jue de rancienne Afrique? and any l;it,<;i- study of UH: siiino field must necessarily base itself upon his results, which in their broad outline remain unshaken. Sinco he wrote, however, fresh material has rapidly accumulated, and I think it is now possible l.o dofine the chronological limits of tlio various issues more cL >soly , and in some cases to clear up their historical relations. The coinage falls naturally into five periods. Th<; iirst period (<-. 570 r. 480) comprises a number of
1 1 desire here to express my thanks, for their kind provision of
Or of her iiiform;it ion, to the following; sehol,u>: : the Directors ;ni'l hill' id' I. IK: ( ';i,l)i in',1 .,: of Paris, I Ii'ir.-.scl:-:, l!*-rliii, (/'ojuMiluijfen, At. IK-MS, <i<-lli,i, K.irl Milic, <il;i L;OW (I IK: II mil cri;ui Museum),
Cambridge (UK- Kit /will him Museum;, Uoston (U.S.A.); also to Sir llcrmii.MM Wrlxjr, Dr. F. Imhoof-Blumer, Messrs. <*i«;Kcc.kc, • JwiiiMci-, I1]. T. Newell, ;UK! l5;i,ldwiM ; ;i,n<l eipeciallj f,o f.hc Keeper of i, IK- Department of Coins ;m<l McdnJ.s in t,hc lirilish Museum,
liolli foi- his c(;M:;l;inf lidp in disciisKi'M^ poinj,s as they ;i,roso, ;UK! lor In .;c,;ir<- in seeing this ;i.rlicl<: l.lirou^li UK- ])rcss. I'l'lic IvIiloi'K 6 to ;n-knowlc(|M-c 1.1 K- kiml ;i ;i hnn-.i- ol' !)r. (icoi-;n- Mii.i-.donald in ri-iidin^ UK: pi-oof;-; of Iliix n.rl.iclc, wliicli Mr. li'.ohinson has boen uiiiililc l,o revise owin^' lo In:, ;i hscnee on militiiry scrvif:'-. |
'•' <'itf,<l licnci'foil h ;i : M . i, wifli Supplement ;is Snppl. ; indi vidmi,! Coin! puhli lie«l l»y him are filed under UK- numliers he -_'i\ cs them, t.g. M. i, r,2, A:c.
54 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
types of great variety and interest. In the second period, which lasts till a few years after the fall of the Battiads (c. 480-c. 435), the types have become fixed, the head of Ammon and the silphium plant appearing on almost every coin. The third period (c. 435-c. 308) is marked by the completion of a change in weight-standard already begun in the sixth century, and, in a little while, by a plentiful gold coinage. The fourth period embraces the series struck in dependence, real or nominal, on the Ptolemies. Lastly, into the fifth period fall the coins issued under Roman suzerainty or jurisdiction.
FIRST PERIOD.
For the first period we have what is practically a Corpus in Babelon's Traite des monnaies grecques et romaines, 2ifeme partie, T. i, pp. 1336-1363.3 With one exception4 no inscriptions have hitherto been noted on coins of this period, and attribution to the various cities, when it has been attempted, has been based on the vague indication of types. There are, however, apart from the coins of Euesperides5— of which the earliest, inscribed EYE$, falls at the end of this period — at least three archaic tetradrachms bearing inscriptions.
1. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and three umbels, one springing on either side from the bases of the lower whorl, and the third crowning the stem; [on either side, silphium fruit?].
8 Cited as 2V., individual coins cited under their numbers, e.g. 2V. 2012, &c. 4 No. 1, below. These are discussed below, Nos. 23-8.
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 55
Rev. — Gazelle standing on dotted line 1. ; in field above, silphium plant in pericarp, with button in cleft, point upwards; to L, silphium plant with one pair of leaves and one umbel, above which, K ; beneath gazelle's belly, K ; all in incuse square.
Ai. 0-9. Wt. 2644 grs. B. M. Num. Chr., 1861, p. 201.
1 A. Obv. — Similar; arrangement of whorls varied; on either side of base, a silphium fruit.
Rev. — Similar, but silphium plant has two whorls and two umbels exactly as on obverse ; beneath gazelle's belly, ^.
JR. 0-9. Wt. 259-3 grs. Paris = Tr. 2012, PI. Ixiv. 11 = M. i. 24.
The latter coin has already been published by Babelon in his Traite. There the letter beneath the belly of the gazelle is called (following Muller) "objet incertain ". A comparison with the coin in the British Museum, however, suffices to show that though lying on its back6 it is the same letter as appears on No. 1.
rhether there was a second K on the reverse of No. 1 A is uncertain ; certainly there would not be room for it in the same place as on No. l,for the silphium on the reverse of No. 1 A is much taller, reaching right up to the cliin of the gazelle. There would, however, possibly be just space for it in the right-hand top corner, which is off the coin — an unfortunate accident, as the inscription is very puzzling. The two letters cannot both form part of the same word, and it is impossible not to recognize one or other as the initial letter of Kvpavatov. Poole, who
6 Cp. the somewhat later drachm of Euesperides in the Paris Collection, No. 25, below, where the inscription EV on the rever&e appears upside down.
;,(•> E. s. (•. KOHIXSON.
published the B.M. coin, 7 suggested K(oivbv)K(vpavatov)t which has little to recommend it. It is true that Hero- dotus speaks of the KOLVOV TO>V 'Id>va>v, but Ionia was not a city. In this, as in later times (KOLVOV T&V V^O-LWT&V, KOLVOV KprjT&v), the name implies a larger unity than the city state. "Would the inhabitants of Barce and Euesperides have been content to be named Kvpri- VCLLOL? Even granting the existence at this date of such a KOLVOV embracing the other cities, such an abbre- viation as K K which occurs on the Cretan copper of Hadrian and Antoninus (B. M. C. : Crete, pp. 5, Nos. 30 seqq.) seems incredible. A similar objection applies to the amplification K(vpavaia>y) K(6////a),on the analogy of SevOa KOLLfia, even although the contemporary support from Crete of Toprvvos or <Pai<TTi'a)v TO iraiLia 8 might be adduced. That the second K might be a " mint mark " is not probable on so early a coin, but that it is possible is shown by the contemporary tetradrachms of Messene in Sicily.0 On the whole, seeing that both letters are kappas and that one of them is probably want- ing on the Paris specimen, perhaps the most satisfactory solution is to take loth as the initial of Kvpavaiov, re- garding the repetition as simply a device to fill up the empty field according to the custom of early art. The very decorative nature of the letter lends colour to this theory, which would also explain the absence of a second letter on the Paris coin where the space is occupied by an extra pair of silphium leaves.
Ml*. Chron., 1861, p. 201.
8 Head, in*t. .Venn.2, pp. 465 and 472. The numismatic connexion lictween Crete and Gyrene is often very close.
9 Hill in .VMM. Chron., 1913, pp. 100-1. On. also coins of Barce, below, Nos. 19, 20.
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 57
2. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and three
umbels, arranged as on No. 1 ; in field to 1. and r. a silphium fruit in pericarp with a button in the cleft and one at the point ; around ^t* [YJ
P [A?]
A [VI?]
Rev. — Two dolphins heraldically opposed downwards ; between them, silphium fruit in pericarp with point downwards, one button at the point and one in the cleft, from which springs a fleuron ; all in incuse square.
Berlin. B. M. AL 0-8. Wt. 260 grs. (Cp. Tr., 2002, PI. Ixiv. 1.)
On the Berlin specimen the inscription, as far as the left side is concerned, is quite plain ; probably having regard to the symmetrical disposition of the first letters it is to be completed in full as above — though it is very long for so early a coin. The inscription renders certain the attribution to Gyrene, made by Miiller 10 on the strength of the passage in Strabo,11 describing (after Eratosthenes) the stelae set up by the Cyrenaean envoys to Ammon.
3. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five umbels,
a pair springing from the base of each pair of leaves and one crowning the plant ; in field, to 1. and r. , silphium fruit.
Rev. — Bull standing r. ; behind, palm-tree ; in lower right-hand corner, 8 ; all in incuse square.
M. 0-9. Wt. 262-3 grs. B. M. (also Coll. Jameson, No. 1347, PI. Ixix, and Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge).
10 i, p. 17.
11 Strabo (Teubner) i. 49 mil eVi orriAiSiW ava^ladai de\<j>has emypaxprju, e'xovras Kvprjvaivv dea>pS>v. It can hardly be meant — though it has generally been so understood (e.g. by Miiller, I.e., and Babelon, Tr., p. 1351) — that this is the actual inscription. At least we should have expected the Doric form
58 E. Sc G. ROBINSON.
There is no reason why the 8 (which unfortunately does not appear on the Jameson specimen) should not be the first letter of BAPKAION. The coin would then be parallel with No. 1, which also shows the initial only, and that likewise on the reverse, not the obverse. This would then be the earliest coin attributable to Barce. The type is interesting as well for its own sake,— it does not occur otherwise in the Cyrenaic series, — as for the anticipation of the design of later Carthaginian coins. The attribution of this coin with the bull to Barce raises the further question whether the following coin should not be assigned to the same city.
4. Obv. — Silphium fruit in pericarp ; in the cleft and at
the point, a button.
Eev. — Bull's head facing.
, Attic hemidrachm. Paris, wt. 32 grs., and Berlin (29-3 grs.). M. 0-5. (Tr. 2006, PI. Ixiv. 5.)
5. Obv. — Silphium with three whorls and five umbels,
a pair springing from the bases of the two lower whorls and a single one crowning the plant ; in field r., above, lion's head 1. with open jaws and dotted truncation, and below, silphium seed with point upwards.
Rev.— Eagle's head r. with dotted truncation, holding snake in beak ; in r. top corner, floral volute ; all in dotted square ; incuse square.
B. M. A\. 0-9. Wt. 2654 grs. (= Tr. 2005.)
This coin has been often published, but in view of the historical references which have been read into it, it may be worth while attempting to define its date more accurately. Babelon,1- maintaining that the lion's
12 Babelon, Tr., p. 1354 (following Head, Hist. Num.* p. 727); //• ' .V//w/., 1894, pp. 274 seqq.
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 59
head is similar to that on coins of Samos, and the reverse type to the coins of lalysus, brings the piece into relation with the expedition which Arcesilas III launched from Samos towards 528 to recover his kingdom, and assumes that R/hodes as well as Samos was his recruiting ground.13 The lion's scalp facing is certainly a distinctively Samian type, but the lion's head in profile suggests south-western Asia Minor, and the style of the two coins bearing it, figured in the Traite, PL xi. 26 and 27 u as Samian, should surely lead us with Six 15 to place them in that district. Why too should the engraver, if he wished to refer to Samos, choose a type which, even granting that the coins just referred to are Samian, is quite isolated in that series, instead of the familiar facing lion's scalp with which the series 1G begins and continues. Head 17 has already suggested that the lion's head is borrowed from Lindus. We know that a contingent of Lindians under the sons of Panchis took part in the second colonization of Gyrene under Battus II shortly before 570,18 and this lends added weight to Head's suggestion. At any rate all connexion with Samos vanishes, and there is no mention of any place save Samos in Herodotus's account of the return of Arcesilas.19
13 Ibid., p. 290, " Rhodes et Samos, les deux iles ou Arcesilas recruta son armee."
14 = B. M. C., p. 352, Nos. 23 and 27.
15 Num. Chron., 1890, p. 240.
16 The fact that the earliest coins with lion's scalp (Traite, ibid., pp. 443 seqq.) are earlier than the two coins in question makes their isolation more prominent.
17 Num. Chron., 1891, p. 4, followed by Ch. Blinkenberg, " La Chronique du Temple Lindien," p. 439.
18 Inscriptions in Blinkenberg, op. cit., p. 329, xvii, and his comments, p. 353.
19 iv. 162, 163.
60 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
A stylistic comparison shows that the lion's head on the coin of Gyrene is later than the staters of Lindus of the first period. It offers perhaps most analogy to the tetrobols of the second period (after :>00 B.C.), for example B.M.C.: Caria, p. 229, Nos. 9 and 10, with the dotted truncation at the neck, and a very similar treatment of the "ruff". Again, the coins of lalysus which suggested the reverse type20 are later than the earliest coins of the other cities of Rhodes which have a type on only one side. They cannot be put much before the beginning of the fifth century, to which period they are assigned by Head (B.M.C.: Caria, p. 226), for Babeloii's earlier date (c. 530) rests ultimately on the assumption that our Xo. 5 was struck by Arcesilas III. Thus the arguments from style and from origin of types both alike com- pel us to place this coin after 500, and so reinforce the other arguments against its connexion with Arcesilas III and his expedition, c. 530.
Traces of Rhodian influence are also visible on the following piece.
6. Obi". — Head of lioness facing; above, silphium fruit,
point upwards ; dotted border.
Jicr.— Head of griffin r. in dotted square ; incuse square.
B. M. M. 0-05. Wt. 60-8 grs. (2V. 2008.)
In connexion with this coin may be considered two coins of Camirus.
7. ol.r. —Fig-leaf.
li'i'i-.— [Head of griffin 1. in incuse square.]
2n On the staters the eagle has no snake in his beak ; this feature, however, appears on the hemidrachm. Traite, ibid., p. 467, No. 765, PI. xx. 11. Cf. Jin\ X,,m.. 1*94, pp. 274 seqq.
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 61
El. 0-3. Wt. 84 grs. (B. M. C. : Car la, p. 223, No. 1, where the rev. is described as "incuse square within which a deeper small incuse depression".) On a specimen in Sir Her- mann Weber's collection the griffin's head is quite plain.
8. Olv.— Kose.
Rev. — KA ; griffin's head 1.
A\. 04. Wt. 18-3 grs. [B. M. C. : Hid., 13.]
No. 8 has been attributed by Imhoof to Karpathos or Kasos,21 because neither obverse nor reverse type was known at Camirus ; but the reverse of No. 7 deprives this argument of its force.
On a general review of the first period it will be noted that the coins fall into two classes, the one without, the other with a type in the incuse of the reverse ; further, that in the first class the standard used for all denominations is the Attic, while in the second another standard giving a drachm of 53-4 grs. is employed for smaller denominations, side by side with the Attic, which it gradually displaces.22 The nature of this new standard is puzzling ; in its later embodiments it has been lightly called "Asiatic" or Phoenician, which is obviously unsatisfactory. Regling23 avoids the difficulty by describing the later coins as " Tetradrachmen eigenen Systems? ".
It is not here proposed to discuss the origin of the new standard, but it is worth while roughly
21 Monnaies grecques, p. 321.
23 In the second period Attic subdivisions of the tetradrachm are practically non-existent (a didrachm in the British Museum, and an obol in Paris, both of Gyrene, are the only ones known to me). In the third period the tetradrachm itself is supplanted.
23 Sammluny Warren, p. 213 ; though he calls the earlier drachms of the same standard Phoenician.
62 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
to determine the date of its introduction if we can. The same standard appears at two other places, Samos u and Ephesus. At Samos it is an innovation of the beginning of the fifth century, and is accompanied by a further innovation in the form of a reverse type.25 The earliest coins which can with certainty be assigned to this island have no reverse type and are of a different standard.2'3 At Ephesus, if we accept the attribution of the pieces with a crawling bee seen in profile,27 the standard appears towards the end of the second half of the sixth century, under Persian rule ; if we reject it, the first coins of such a weight are those with the usual Ephesian types given to the opening years of the fifth century.28 "We shall not be far wrong, then, if we place the first appear- ance in S.W. Asia Minor of this standard (whatever its origin) in the last years of the sixth century, and in view of the close connexion of this district (and especially Samos) with Gyrene we may infer that the same years saw its first appearance in Africa as well. This brings us to another question, the approximate date of the introduction of a reverse type into the incuse of the earliest coins. Of the districts connected
24 Where in later times its tetradrachms were so thoroughly established as to have acquired the name of oran/p Trar/no? (Hist. \iini-, p. 683, and reference there given).
•• T,;iM, #*»"• partie, I. p. 283, No. 449 seqq. The style of these coins and the fact of their having a reverse type seems to preclude Babelon's attribution of them to Polycrates.
-" I hit?., p. 278, No. 443 seqq. These cannot be much earlier than t In- hist quarter of the sixth century.
" Ibid., p. 274, Nos. 435. 436 bis. Imhoof would give these to Anaphe.
•'" I hi, 1.. pp. 1:J7 seqq. and the tetradrachm B. M. C. : Ion ia, p. 49, No. 205, whose date has been corrected in Hist Xum 2 p. 572.
QUAESTIONES CYREXAICAE. 63
with Gyrene, Ionia does not take this step till the fifth century, for the coins of the Ionian revolt have still the plain incuse. In Caria, on the other hand, the change seems to take place earlier ; at Cnidus, for example, the head of Aphrodite begins about 550,29 i. e. about the same time as the appearance of a reverse type at Athens. On the other hand the cities of Rhodes, with which Cyrene stood in such near relations, are little if at all earlier in making the change than those of Ionia.30 We ought not to be surprised, then, if the reverse type were introduced somewhat later in Cyrene than is generally acknowledged. The closing years of the sixth century may be indicated as the date of this innovation.
A further argument may be drawn from another consideration. We have seen that the introduction of the new standard took place not earlier than the last years of the sixth century, say 525. No coins with a plain incuse are of the new standard ; 31 but the earliest coins of the new standard have very simple types, — one or two silphium seeds on the obverse, and a seed in a square incuse on the reverse. This suggests that the new standard was introduced not long after the reverse type. The evidence from finds is not at all conclusive, but does not contradict
29 Ibid., p. 427, No. 699 ; the initial dating of these coins (650)
B. M. C. : Caria and Hist. Num. seems too early.
?0 See above, p. 60.
u The coin published by Sir Hermann Weber in Num. Chron., 1899, p. 286, No. 26, is only an apparent exception. The weight of this piece is 55-5 (i.e. above the maximum of the new standard); it is in bad condition and has been re-struck, both of which cir- cumstances would account for some loss of weight, while others of the same class (Traite, No. 1980) are obviously of the Attic standard.
64 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
such a dating. The find of Myt-Rahineh consisted of archaic coins of the sixth and early fifth centuries, including two Cyrenaic tetradrachms with incuse reverses. Longperier32 who published it dated its burial c. 525, during the Persian invasion of Egypt. It could not be earlier. The Taranto find :53 contained two Cyrenaic tetradrachms also with incuse reverses. The latest datable coins in the find were a tetradrachm of Chalcis with a Boeotian type (c. 510-507 B. c.), one of Eretria with the gorgoneion and lion's scalp in incuse square (530-480), and one of Peparethus with the grapes and the dolphin rider (c. 480). Thus in two finds buried, say between 525 and 480, no Cyrenaic tetradrachms with reverse types appear. On the other hand, in the goldsmith's hoard from Naucratis,"4 of which the latest coin is a Samian tetradrachm, struck after the Athenian conquest of 437, we have two Cyrenaic tetradrachms with reverse types, and none without.
If the beginning of the second class of the first period, containing coins with a type on the reverse, is to be placed in the last quarter of the sixth century, when did the first class begin? This class consists of some ten varieties, the earliest of which, in the French collection,35 is of very rough work. The style of the coin will not let us place it later than the first half of the sixth century. If on the other hand we refer it to the end of the seventh century, we are left with a very small number of pieces to fill the gap of a century or more before the appearance of the later
82 Rev. Nwn., 1861, p. 425. " Rev. Num., 1912, p. 21. 3< JVinn. Chron., 1886, p. '.'. 85 Twite, No. 1973.
QUAESTIONES CYEENAICAE. 65
coins. Though founded traditionally in 630, Gyrene can have been of little importance historically and economi- cally speaking till the great influx of settlers summoned by Battus II coupled with the growing friendship with Egypt under Amasis, raised the city to the first rank in wealth and splendour. Such an outburst of prosperity (c. 570) is just the occasion we should seek for the inauguration of the Cyrenaic coinage.
SECOND PERIOD.
The connecting links between the first and second periods are the coins bearing on the reverse the head of Zeus Ammon,36 and those mentioned above bearing inscriptions, which now become universal.37 The tetradrachms of the second period fall into three groups, as the art develops from archaic to transi- tional style. In the first the eye is represented in full, almond-shaped, and very large ; the hair is simply arranged — it is smooth on the crown of the head, but along the temples, round which is bound a plait, appear three rows of tight curls. Both hair and beard are indicated in the most formal manner by nearly straight strokes, the truncation of the neck is left plain, and the whole is enclosed in a circular, not a square, incuse. Two good examples of the Attic tetradrachm of this first group are to be found in the Warren and Jameson Collections.38 A didrachm also exists in the British Museum, the last Attic didrachm to appear in the Cyrenaic series for more than a century. The Attic standard is not, however, the only
36 Traite, Nos. 2016, 2017, 2020, &c.
7 Not till the third period do we meet anepigraphic coins again. 38 Regling, Samml. Warren, Nos. 1340-1 ; Jameson, PI. Ixix. 1349.
NUMISM. CHRON., VOL. XV, SERIES IV. P
<•><•> , E. S. G. ROBINSON.
one to be employed at this period, even for tetra- drachms, as the following coin witnesses.
9. QiVt — Silphium with two whorls and five umbels.
Rev.— Head of Animon r., bearded, with ram's horn (details as described above) ; inscr. K VPA 5 outwards ; dotted border.
B. M. JR. 1. Wt. 193-3 grs. (restruck ?). Though the restriking may account for some slight loss, the weight of this coin is certainly not Attic. It might be Aeginetic or Samian. The first alterna- tive is possible in view of the connexion with the Aegean, and especially with Crete, for which there is much evidence, and we have a later example at Cyrene of the employment of what seems to be the Cretan- Aeginetic standard.39 But the weight though low is not too low for the Samian standard,40 the use of which becomes general in the next period, and it is easier to regard the coin as an interesting anticipation of this later development. Of the same group and standard is a hemidrachm in the Ward Collection,41 and to that must be added the following three coins with a different reverse type.
10. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and three umbels; in field 1., seed.
Rev. — Head of the nymph Cyrene r., the hair bound with a pearl diadem and caught up behind en chignon ; incuse square, in the top corners of which K V [; bottom corners obscure].
A\. Wt. 49 grs. Brussels (Coll. Hirsch).
See below, Silver Coinage of Fourth Period.
0 Though the normal weight of the Samian tetradrachm is 200-206 grains, we have early examples from Samos weighing as little as 188-3 and even 183 (B. M. C. : Ionia, p. 351 Nos. 19 and 22).
41 Ward Coll., No. 904.
QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 67
11. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and three
umbels ; in field 1. a seed with its pericarp, around, four dots placed • • • •
Rev. — Head of Gyrene 1. as above, but of different style ; in front KVPA, behind N A ^> outwards ; dotted border ; circular incuse. JR. 0-6. Wt. 51 grs. Copenhagen (M. i. 116).
12. Obv. — Similar, but without seed.
Rev. — Head of Gyrene, of style similar to No. 11, but more advanced ; in dotted circle ; in incuse square, in the corners of which K V
V d
M. 0-55. Wt. 51-9 grs. B. M. = M. i. 115.
The head on No. 12 has been described by Miiller as Apollo,42 but there seems no reason to consider it as different from that on No. 11, the inscription KVPANA on which, it may be suggested, refers to the type as well as to the city. Parallel with these coins, and linking up with the next group, is the series of drachms and hemidrachms bearing the types of the liead of Ammon and silphium.
13. Obv. — Silphium plant.
Rev. — Head of bearded Ammon r. in dotted circle in incuse square, in corners of which K V
B. M. /K. 0-6. Wt. 50 grs. V d
The general arrangement of the hair is like that of the similar heads in the first group, and the eye though not so pronounced is still almost entirely full. On the other hand, the truncation of the neck is dotted. As a rule the silphium has no pair of umbels springing on either side above the highest whorl. The absence of these is a sign of early date, though the contrary does not hold.
42 i. 115.
F 2
68 E. S. G. KOBINSON.
Two early varieties may be mentioned here.
14. Obv.— Silphium plant with two whorls and three
umbels.
Rev. _ Head of Ammon as on No. 13 ; but inside the dotted circle to 1. and r. of head K V m incuse square. A '
•B. M. M. 0-6. Wt. 50-7 grs.
15. Ob v.— Silphium plant as above.
Eev. — Head of Ammon as on No. 13, but 1. ; the hair is allowed to hang down as far as the nape of the neck, in the fringe appears the uraeus ; all in dotted circle in incuse square, in the corners of which V I >l
Paris. M. 0-6. Wt. 53 grs.
The interest of No. 15, which is one of the earliest of its class, lies in the presentation of the head of Ammon. It gives the only example I know of at Gyrene of the wig-like Egyptian treatment of the back hair, which is so noticeable a feature of the con- temporary coins assigned to Golgoi with the types obv. Hermes, rev. Head of Ammon.43 This is the first appearance too of the uraeus, which does not occur again for more than half a century.
From this time the coins of Barce and Euesperides are exactly like those of Gyrene, and can only be distinguished by the legends. The puzzling letters T and A, which appear on some of the drachms of Barce, will be discussed later.44
This series of drachms leads into and overlaps with the second group of tetradrachms of the period.
43 B. M. C. : Cyprus, p. 70. <4 See p. 78.
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 69
16. Obv. — Silphium with two whorls, five umbels, and root.
fteVt — Head of Zeus Ammon r. (fine archaic style) ; in front, BAP } ; thick dotted border in circular incuse.
Attic tetradrachm (Hunter Coll. (Barce). M. 1-35. Wt. 266-5 = Macdonald, iii, p. 578, No. 1). Also Samian drachm, B. M. (Gyrene. M. 0 55. Wt. 53-8), and hemidrachm, B. M. (Gyrene. M. 04. Wt. 24-8 grs.).
The style of this head (which occurs both at Barce and at Gyrene) is more advanced than that of No. 9 and the two coins in the Warren and Jameson Collections, and the hair is differently arranged. The plait coiled round just above the nape of the neck remains, and the fringe of curls above the forehead ; but the hair on the crown and back of the head gives the impression of being waved and crimped. Only one corner of the eye is now seen, and on well-preserved specimens the eyelash is clearly visible ; the truncation of the neck is dotted. Corresponding to the tetradrachm are a drachm and hemidrachm of similar treatment, the head on the reverse being in a dotted square in place of the usual circle.
The third and last group in the second period provides us with several interesting pieces, and some puzzles. It is the most numerous of the three, and consists largely of tetradrachms.
Gyrene.
Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five umbels in field to 1. and r. M 3
[E V]
Rev. — Head of bearded Ammon r., the eye about three- quarter face, the hair arranged as on No. 9 ; in front, KVPA ) outwards ; dotted border.
Berlin (M. Suppl. 121 A). M. 14. Wt. 244 grs. (corroded).
70 E. S. G. KOBINSON.
18. Obv. — Silphium plant, as on No. 17; to 1. and r. of
base [E] V
Eev. — Head of bearded Ammon r., with the hair arranged as on No. 16, but the beard breaking into loose curls and the eye more in profile ; in front KVPA 3 Berlin. JR. 1-05.
Another example in Copenhagen completes, and is in turn completed by, No. 18. The obverse of the Copenhagen specimen seems to be from the same die, and reads E to 1. of the base of the silphium, the space for the V being off the coin. The reverse, though from a different die, is very close in style to No. 18; un- fortunately, the space in front of the face is badly corroded, and this renders the inscription illegible, but presumably it also was KVPA.
Barce.
19. Olv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five
umbels.
Rev. — Head of bearded Ammon r., with the hair and beard treated as on No. 18 ; in front >ISA8 } outwards ; behind, T.
Berlin. JR. 1-05. Gwinner (same dies).
20. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five
umbels (the base of the stalk off the coin).
Rev. — Head of bearded Ammon r., the hair in rows of tight curls, the beard curling freely in triple border ; in front of the nose and encroaching on to the border, T ; all in incuse square, in the corners of which B A
M Tdl
B. M. Attic tetradrachm. JR. 1. Wt. 2494 ere. (20 a).
On another coin (20b) from the same dies in the Hirsch Collection at Brussels, the silphium plant is struck
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 71
higher up on the flan, revealing on either side of the base of the stalk a letter, of which a corner may be seen on the Museum specimen. These letters, though largely formed, are straggling and very uncertain: they seem to resemble T E, but the lowest bar of the E and part of the T are off the coin. In connexion with this piece another coin may be studied.
21. Ob v. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five
umbels ; at base of stalk to 1. and r., 3 T.
Rev. — Head of Ammon r., style advanced towards transitional, the beard slightly curling; in
front of face, Sk; all in dotted circle, in circular incuse.
Paris (Samian drachm). Wt. 50-6 grs. =M. Suppl. 331 A. Bompois, PI. I. 10.
22. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five
umbels ; to 1. and r. of base of stalk K V ; in field r. A. ? (the last letter doubtful).
Rev. — Head of Zeus Ammon r., of coarse type, the hair and beard treated as in No. 20 ; in front
B
of the face A ; all in incuse square. P
B. M. M. 145 (Attic tetradrachm). Wt. 2484 grs.
Gyrene — Euesperides.
In connexion with Nos. 17 and 18, on which the name of Euesperides has already been recognized by Muller,45 it is necessary to go closely into the history and early numismatics of that city.
The earliest coins attributable to this, the western- most of all the cities of Cyrenaica, are the following : —
45 Muller, Suppl., p. 8, Nos. 121, 121 A, and note.
72 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
23. Obv.— Silphium with two whorls and three umbels;
to 1. and r. of base of stalk, E $. Rev.— Dolphin 1. ; beneath, EY ; above to 1. and r., a dot;
incuse square.
B. M. M. 0-45. Samian drachm. Wt. 48-6 grs. (very rough style).
24. Obv.— Silphium with two whorls and five(?) umbels.
Rev. — Dolphin to r. diagonally downwards; beneath, cloven hoof (of a gazelle?) ; above, EV ; all in incuse square.
Warren Collection.46 M. 0-55. Samian drachm. Wt. 53-5 grs.
Two varieties of this coin, which have given rise to some confusion by their imperfect condition, are worthy of mention.
25. Obv.— Similar to No. 24 (? trace of letter E to 1. of base
of stalk, the larger part being off the coin).
Rev.— Similar to No. 24, but above tA (sic). Paris. M. 0-6. Samian drachm.
26. Obv. — Similar to No. 24 (again trace of E ?).
Rev. — Similar, but dolphin to 1. , diagonally upwards ; beneath, in 1. bottom corner of the incuse square, V.
Brussels (Coll. Hirsch). M. 0-6. Wt. 41 grs. (worn). Samian drachm.
27. Obv. —Similar to No. 24 (again traces of letters?).
Rev. — Dolphin r., beneath a crab's claw, above EV ; circular incuse.
Brussels (Coll. Hirsch). M. 0-5. Wt. 45 grs. (worn). Samian drachm.
28. Obv.— Silphium as on No. 13.
Rev.— Head of bearded Ammon r. as on No. 13, but E V
46 Regling, Samml. Warren, p. 214, No. 1367.
QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 73
B. M. M. 0-65. Wt. 47-3 grs. Also Samian drachms and hemidrachms (B. M. M. 0-55. Wt. 19-7 grs.)
Of Nos. 25, 26, and 27, either the reverses are much corroded or the lower part of the field is off the coin, but on all there are traces of letters as indicated, — on No. 25 what might clearly be the top bar of an E. With No. 23 before us, it may be suggested that all these obverses should be read E £. The reverse in- scription of No. 25 has been read as F V,47 and referred to a town Hydrax, a reading superficially supported by the fact that on No. 26 V appears apparently alone. But (1) Hydrax is a place unknown save for Ptolemy and Synesius, and therefore not a priori likely to have been a mint in the archaic period ; (2) on No. 26, though no letter is visible save V, the whole length of the field above the dolphin's back, where there would be room for the letter E, is off the coin; (3)No. 24 incontestably reads EV, and is so closely bound by style, type, and fabric to Nos. 25 and 26 that it must surely issue from the same mint. All these considerations render it almost certain that Nos. 24-6 belong to Euesperides, a con- clusion that would be confirmed if the reading on the obverse of these coins turns out, as is here suggested, to be ES.
Nos. 23 and 27 are certainly, to judge by style, earlier than No. 28. If we may admit the argument from the succession of types at Gyrene and Barce, where the various animal and general types appear first, to be ousted by Zeus Ammon, Nos. 24-6 are also earlier, though stylistically there is little difference.
47 Hist. Num.'1, p. 873, note.
74 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
Now No. 28 is one of the large series of drachms and hemidrachms, issued equally at Gyrene and at Barce,to which reference has been made above. That series overlaps and so connects the first and second groups of this period, i. e. its date is c. 480-460. Nos. 23-7, or at least Nos. 23 and 27, are therefore not later than c. 480. But here we are faced with a historical diffi- culty, since the accepted date of the foundation of Euesperides is c. 460.48
Most of our information about the early history of Euesperides is contained in Pindar, Pythian V, and the Scholiast's notes thereto. The relevant passage runs as follows: — TavTa Sk Tnorourcu [6 AiSvpos] TrapaTiOt- ra GtorifJLov €K TOV TrpcoTOV Trepl Kvprji>r)$ <E\OVTCL SiaTTiTTTOva-ai' 8t rrjv irpagiv a/0-#o/ze*>oy 'ApK€(riXaos Kal /3oiA6/^ej>oy 81' avTov ray '.Eo-Trep^ay oiKicrai 7re//7ret IJL\V e/9 ray TravrjyvpeLS ITTTTOVS a^X^cro^ray Ev(f>r]fjLov ayovTa, viKrja-as Se ra IlvOia Kal TTJV kavrov irarptSa €o-T€(/)dva)o-€ Kal enoiKovs e/y ray 'Eo-Trep^ay crvveXeyev. \v ovv €T€\€VTa' KdppcoTos #e rfjs 'ApK€(ri\dov
6 roivvv TlivSapos roi)y eraipov y KaQo[JLi\£>v TO Karanpa- X0\v T<i>Ev<t>rifj.(t> ra> Kappa>Ta> Trpoo-^x/re' povov yap Karop- Oaxrai (f)rj(nv avrov ayayovra TO o-TpaTLcoTLKov.^
This passage has been taken to prove that Euesperides was founded by Arcesilas IV to secure his uncertain throne.50 But surely this is not the natural interpretation of the passage : in such a case we should have expected
! / /.s/ . X,t m.\ p. 873, Euesperides, and Pauly-Wissowa (where .o account of the city itself is given), s.v. Hesperiden, "Die nach , der Uberliefemng 460 gegrtindete Stadt Euesperides " Find., Schol. (Teubner), pp. 175-6. " Urn sein wankendes Regiment zu stutzen." Busolt ii.2 535.
QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 75
npa-yfj-ara for Trpagii/, which must mean either " good success" or "the business" generally, and is not used with the political significance of irpaypa. The passage here quoted is taken out of its context ; I would suggest that 7rpa£is refers not to the fortunes of Arcesilas, but to the previous plantation (or plantations) of Euesperides. Such an explanation would also give point to the Si' avrov of the next phrase. The whole sentence would then run : " Arcesilas saw the business was falling through (imperfect), and wished to colonize Hesperides on his own account, so he sent," &c. Like Hiero of Syracuse, Arcesilas wishes to make a display of his wealth and power, and Euesperides is colonized like another Catana-Aetna. That, like Hiero again, Arcesilas had the intention of providing himself with a retreat in case of need, is made probable by the fact that he fled there on the revolution at Cyrene only to meet his death.51 Theotimus, however, does not say so.
That Euesperides existed previous to 460 is also shown by a passage of Herodotus, referring to the Persian expedition in the closing years of the sixth century: ouro? 6 Ueptrecof crrparoy rfjs Ai,(3vr]$ e/caoraro) es Eveo-jrepiSas rjXde.52 Finally, we have the literary evidence confirmed by the coins Nos. 23-8 described above, of which all, judging by style and by com- parison with the issues of Barce and Cyrene, should be earlier than 460, and some earlier than 480.
That Euesperides cannot have been in a flourishing way, probably because of the attacks of Libyans, to
51 Heraclides, Pol. iv. 4, who calls him " Battus ".
52 Herodotus iv. 204. In this passage EjWTrepi'Sas has been taken to mean the name of the district and not the town, but only because it was supposed that the town did not then exist.
7G E. S. G. KOBINSON.
which its exposed position rendered it particularly liable, is suggested by the fact that from the period before 460 no coins larger than the drachm have come down to us.
It is difficult to resist the conclusion that ourNos. 17 and 18 were struck in direct connexion with Arcesilas's attempt to revive Euesperides for his own benefit, possibly even for the pay of the o-TpaTicoTiKov, which the eclat of his Pythian victory enabled him to enroll in Greece. In this connexion it is interesting to note that the style of No. 17 is quite different from that of the other Cyrenaic heads of Ammon, and rather recalls the art of Greece Proper. Now Arcesilas's Pythian victory was won in 462. Our Nos. 17 and 18, therefore, or at least No. 17, which seems to be the earlier, were struck in that year or the year following— "alliance" coins of Gyrene and Euesperides. Even if we may not take for granted that these coins were issued on the immediate occasion of Arcesilas's planta- tion, we may at least assume that they were issued between that event and the tyrant's downfall, i. e. 462 and c. 450.
Barce—Teucheira.
At Barce, in the third group of the second period, we get an exactly similar phenomenon, though the readings are not always so clear, and there is a greater element of doubt about the explanation of some features. It is best perhaps to begin from the clearest and work towards the more uncertain.
Our No. 21 was described originally by Bompois,53
Bompois, Medailles grecques frappdes dans la Cyrenat'que, p. 53,
QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 77
and then published by Muller in his Supplement.54 Both authors, however, miss the significance of the inscription on the obverse, and take the retrograde 9 (which the engraver has placed so that the dotted circle encroaches upon its upright stroke) for a symbol, " possibly the half of a grain of silphium." The /?55 then becomes the beginning of a name, for Bompois that of a town, Darnis or Ardanixis, for Muller that of a magistrate. The shape of the B is very similar to that on Nos. 3 and 22. Once the first letter is recognized as a B we cannot resist recognizing the whole as the beginning of the ethnic BAPKAION, so that, if TE represents Teucheira, the piece falls into line with the contemporary alliance pieces of Gyrene and Euesperides. Such a connexion would be amply confirmed by what we know of the history of Barce and Teucheira. Teucheira was a port which served the inland city of Barce. It was close to it geographically, and was politically subordinate. Herodotus calls it iro\iv rr
54 p. 15.
55 The occurrence of a monogram so early is rather surprising ; but not much later, in the next period at Gyrene, on one of the earliest coins of the magistrate NiW, we find the O and N of the ethnic ligatured.
56 iv. 171. In Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. Barke, it is stated that Euespe- rides was also at some time part of the domain of Barce, but the only reference given in support of this statement rather points to the opposite, The passage is in Diodorus, xviii. 20. 3, and is perhaps worth giving to correct the error. Thimbron having overawed the Cyrenaeans 8ie7rpe<r/3ev(raTO de KOI Trpbs ras «XXay iroXeis a£t£)v <rvp.- fiax^v a>? fjieXXovTOs avrov TTJV 7r\rj(n6x<i)pov \L^V
Gyrene revolts . . . T&V 5e Bap/cauoj/ Knl T&V eEcr7repiTa>i> TO> Qiftpwvi Kvpijvaloi . . fTropOovv rf]v TO>V atrrvvofuov x<u>pav. This is confirmed for an earlier period by the language of Herodotus in the passage quoted above. 'Ao-ftvcrTcwv fie e \ovrat TO irpbs c<nrcpi)s i" OITOL vrrep EupKrjs otKe'overt, Kari]Kovres eirl ddXaanrav (ear'
78 E. S. G. KOBINSON.
On No. 20, as has been mentioned, the letters are not so clear, but the reading T E (from the Hirsch specimen) seems the most likely, besides being along the line of least resistance. The inscription, whatever it is, is bound to be either an ethnic or what is termed for con- venience' sake a moneyer's name or mint letter. The first alternative is most likely, because (1) it is in the place regularly employed for the ethnic, both in this period (when the inscription appears on the obverse at all) and in the next, and (2) if a conclusion to be reached later is correct, the T on the reverse is to be regarded as a mint letter, and we should not expect another on the same coin. Granted that it is an ethnic, it might be a continuation of the inscription begun on the obverse,57 but no possible ingenuity can read the letters as A I , which is what in that case they would have to be. Nor again are they KV or EV, the only other alternatives that we have reason to expect. This tetradrachm then should be placed side by side with the drachm No. 21, which it resembles in the freer treatment of the beard and eye.
The letter T which occurs on the reverse raises a very difficult question, to which it is not possible to give a satisfactory answer. This letter occurs only on coins of Barce, and its occurrence there seems to be arbitrary : for example, we find it in varying positions on the regular series of drachms mentioned above linking the first and second groups; we find it also on a tetradrachm of the third group (here No. 19)
Ev«nr«ptdar. Aw^'O"*^" ft* Kara p.t<rov T/}? %<*>pi]S OLK^OIXTL I' (dvos, KaTrjKOVTfs f TTi 6a\a<T<Tav Kara Tai'^ei/ja Tro'Xii/ 7779 Hap/cai'^9. The language implies that Euesperides was not a rroXt? rf/? 'BnpKu ' ('p. the coin figured in Coll. Jameson, PI. xcvi. 1343 B.
QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 79
which, though the beard is more freely treated, recalls in style the weaker coins of the second group. It is often inserted upside down, sometimes encroached on by the border in such a way as to leave its real nature open to doubt, and is always on the reverse. Miiller, who first noted it, suggests that it may be the initial letter of Teucheira,53 but there are two reasons against this. First, on certain other coins the letter A (and possibly the letter A)59 occurs in exactly the same circumstances, and no explanation can be admitted which does not equally cover all cases. Supposing, as is likely, that A is a misreading for A , we have to find another city beginning with A with which Barce is to be in alliance. The only possibility is Darnis, that last resort of all who are puzzled by A in the Cyrenaic series. Darnis was the most easterly city of Cyrenaica, just on the borders of Marmarica, and therefore the most unlikely place to hold close relations with Barce. Ptolemy is the first witness to its existence as a town at all, and it does not become of importance till late imperial times. If the reading A is to stand as well, the difficulty becomes hopeless. The second reason why T can- not be the initial of an ethnic is, that on our No. 20, where it occurs on the reverse, we already have on the obverse letters which must represent an ethnic, whether of Teucheira or no is immaterial for the moment. To have three ethnics on one coin would be almost in-
58 i, p. 85.
59 A is alleged to occur on a coin quoted from Pellerin by Miiller, which, he says, is not in the Paris Collection. Now there is in the Paris Collection a piece reading A with a little stroke on one side which might have been taken for A, and this is possibly the coin referred to. Dr. Iinhoof-Blumer tells us that he has never met with A.
80 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
conceivable. We must fall back, then, upon the conclu- sion that both T and A (and A if it exists) are simply " mint letters ", though the practice of putting magis- trates' names on coins does not begin in the Cyrenaica for another half-century. It must be confessed that it would be surprising to find such a use (it did not become a general custom) so early, although in view of the contemporary or even earlier practice at Messene quoted above60 it is not impossible.
Barce — Cyrene.
The interesting piece, No. 22, remains. Of the letters on the obverse, the K and V are quite plain though carelessly formed ; the P is not so certain : if it is accepted, the inscription ran in a circle outwards. Though the style of this coin is coarse, it is more advanced in such details as the eye and beard than are any of the other alliance coins. The type of Ammon, much nearer the ram than the ideal presentations of the second group, recalls the brute nature which comes out so strongly in the heads of the next period. "We shall not be far wrong in putting it towards the very end of the second period, to which it clearly belongs. Even if the third letter of the in- scription be not regarded as proven, it is incontestably an " alliance " coin of Barce and Cyrene. These two cities, rivals for the hegemony of Cyrenaica, were more often at enmity than friendship. The issue of " alliance " coins of Barce-Teucheira looks like a direct answer to the menace implied in the " alliance " coins, Cyrene-Euesperides. What can have been the occasion of the issue of alliance coins of Barce-Cyrene ?
60 See p. 56, note, and cp. No. 1.
QUAEST JONES CYRENAICAE. 81
The coins of Cyrene-Euesperides, according to the theories here advanced, were issued by Arcesilas after B. c. 462. Herodotus's account of Cyrenaic history, though he makes no direct mention of such an event, implies the previous fall of the kingly house. The famous oracle cannot but be, as Busolt points out, a vati- cinium post eventum. Herodotus's account is worked up from material gathered during a visit which probably took place about 443.G1 Allowing time for the oracle to establish itself in circulation, the fall of Arcesilas cannot have occurred much later than 445 ; for other reasons it is probably not much earlier than 450. Arcesilas had made himself hated : there were many powerful exiles. Is it not likely that the exiles retired on Barce, the natural enemy of their own city, and thence plotted the tyrant's downfall? Barce would naturally be willing to do all in her power to harm the government of her rival. If, as has been suggested on the poor authority of Polyaenus,62 Barce was already a republic, the likelihood is increased. May we not see in this coin the recognition of help aiforded in the successful attempt of the Cyrenaeans to expel their king? Such help would be very needful to the new government of Gyrene. Arcesilaus still lived ; at first
01 Jacoby in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Herodotus, p. 254.
52 Polyaen. vii. 28, describing the siege of Barce by Arsames, presumably c. 483, speaks of ot apxovres as being sent by the besieged city to treat for terms. This has been taken to show that Barce had already ejected her kingly house : but (1) Busolt and Meyer regard the incident as a duplication of the Aryandes- Barce story ; (2) if, as is very possible, it does refer to a second siege, Polyaenus is very likely to have written the story in accord- ance with his own ideas of what an ancient Greek city was like, and to have been mistaken in mentioning the apxovrfs who (3) may anyhow quite well have co-existed with a king; see p. 73, note 47.
NCMIS&I. CHRON., VOL. XV, SERIES IV. Q.
82 K. s. G. ROBINSON.
he had fled to his stronghold Euesperides, where later he was to meet his death. The city would be full of disaffection, dissatisfied revolutionaries or adherents of the old regime— equally a menace to the new government. Friendly and close relations with Barer would be for the moment essential.
With £he "alliance" coins Gyrene -Euesperides, Barce- Cyrene, the name of Gyrene ceases to appear till well on into the next period when the transitional style is almost over. There is no such gap in the Barcaean series. Its style develops continuously into the third period, whose beginning we may define arbitrarily, though with convenience, by the final supersession of the Attic by the Samian weight standard. At least two coins of Attic weight seem to have been struck at Barce after the issue of the Barce-Cyreiie " alliance " coin.
29. Obv. — Head of bearded Ammon r., the eye three-
quarter face, the beard and the hair realisti- cally treated though not curled ; in front, BAP 3; triple dotted border.
Her.— Silphium with two whorls (three visible leaves) and seven umbels ; in incuse square.
Paris. M. M. Attic tetradrachm. Wt. 263 grs.
30. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls (three visible
leaves) and seven umbels ; traces of root to r.
Rev. — Head of bearded Ammon r., the horn curling above, not round ; the ear, the beard, and hair realistically treated, the latter breaking into loose curls all over the head ; dotted circle, round the outside of which BAP]KAIO[N O, circular incuse.
B. M. A\. 1. Attic tetradrachm. Wt. 258-1 grs. Ward Coll., No. 903 (differentdies), 259-5 grs.
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE.
83
Nos. 29 and 30 stand close together, (1) by reason of the treatment of the hair which, though differently conceived in the two cases, in both is freer than any- thing which has preceded, (2) in the representation of the silphium. Here for the first time we find — what is comparatively common on later coins — a whorl con- ceived as having two pairs of leaves at right angles to each other, instead of a simple pair in a straight line. Of course only three leaves would be visible, the other being at the back. To correspond to this extra pair of leaves (of which one only is visible) we have an extra umbel; presumably there would be another umbel at the back to correspond to the other (invisible) leaf. In fact every subsidiary umbel G3 corresponds to a leaf above which it rises. The result is that, in the new presentation of the whorl, two leaves and two umbels appear seen from the side, one leaf and one umbel seen from the front. No. 29 is further remark- able for the use of the obverse for the head, here an isolated example of the practice which becomes general after the turn of the century. No. 30 shows equally convincingly that it stands on the threshold of the next period ; besides the general freedom of style and the type of silphium, referred to above, one particular feature, the rather weak variation of the ram's horn, is repeated on three occasions in the third period.64 A striking similarity in the conception of the head, though the style is a little more developed, occurs later, as on the drachm No. 38, published below. With these two coins the series of Attic tetradrachms ends.
83 i. e. all except the main flower on top.
64 See below, Nos. 34-6; on No. 34 we have also the same circular arrangement of the legend.
G2
84 E. S. G. ROBIXSOX.
What was the date of the final victory of the Samian standard which marks the beginning of the third period? It is generally supposed 65 that the change took place as a result of the expulsion of the Battiads, which (as we have seen above) can be dated with some certainty to the years 455-445 ; but if our explanation of the Barce-Cyrene alliance coin is correct, the Attic standard must still have been in use in the Cyrenaica after the revolution, a conclusion which is supported by the developed style of Nos. 29 and 30. The principal mint from which tetradrachms of Samian weight had hither- to been issued was Samos. Now in 439 that island revolted, and after a protracted siege was reduced by the Athenians. Though it has been generally assumed that the mint began to work again immediately after the capitulation, such a concession would seem to be at variance with the general practice of Athens in the matter of the rights of coinage, about which she was particularly jealous towards her subject allies. Further, the obvious change in style between the pieces of the earlier period (B. M. <?.: Ionia, p. 353, Nos. 28-41), and of the series supposed to begin in 439 (ibid., pp. 357 if., Nos. 82-99), seems to demand a chronological explana- tion.66 If we may assume that the Samian mint ceased operations for some years after the reduction of the city, the resulting shortage of tetradrachms of Samos which
M Miiller, passim, and Hist. Num.2, p. 868, where the date of this event is given as 431, which must be too late.
66 If, with Professor Gardner ("Samos and Samian Coins," Xunt. Chron., 1882, p. 244), we could place in the gap the Samian coins of Attic weight (B. M. C.: Ionia, p. 361, Nos. 126-8) all would be simple. But the square shape of the lion's scalp, the tilt of the bull's neck, his decoration, the presence of symbol or monogram all point to these rare coins falling after the dated series.
QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE.
85
(to judge by the issue of drachms of Samian weight at Gyrene must have been very popular in Cyrenaic ex- change) would give us an excellent reason for the issue of Cyrenaic tetradrachms on that standard. This would be not so much a strikingly new departure as the consummation of a change begun the best part of a century before by the introduction of Samian drachms, and at least anticipated by the tetradrachm No. 9 described above.
It may be worth while here to note two pieces of negative evidence which throw some light on con- temporary history. First, according to one account,67 Barce was subjected to a second siege by the Persians just before Xerxes' invasion of Greece, and was reduced and heavily punished. Events of such a nature would explain the entire absence at Barce of coins of the first group of the second period, corresponding to No. 9 above of Gyrene, an absence which is remarkable in view of the fact that the last issues of the first period and the second group of the second are represented. Secondly, it has been hinted above that Gyrene after the expulsion of the Battiads was in a weak condition, and this is confirmed by the alliance coin No. 22, Barce- Cyrene. We even get an indication from the disposition of the two ethnics on this coin that Barce may have been the predominant partner. On all the other "alliance" coins published above — Cyrene-Euesperides, Barce-Teucheira — the name of the predominant state
c7 Polyaen. vii. 28. See above, p. 81, note 62. If, as Meyer and Busolt suppose, this is a duplication of the earlier siege it is a veiy circumstantial one. But why should it be a duplication? Polyaenus knows of the other siege as well, and if we must have duplication, it is easier to grant duplication of particulars than of the whole.
SI) E. S. G. ROIUXSOX.
(Gyrene or Barce as the case may be) appears on the reverse beside the head of Ammon, the name of the dependant on the obverse with the silphium ; now in the Barce-Cyrene " alliance " coin, the name of Barce appears on the reverse, that of Gyrene on the obverse. Further, as has been observed above, there are no coins of Attic weight at Gyrene later than the Cyrene-Eue- sperides '; alliance " pieces, to correspond to our Nos. £1), 30 at Barce. Once more, to anticipate somewhat, after the beginning of the next period there is still nothing to correspond to the Barcaean transitional tetradrachms of the new weight ; when the Cyrenaean tetradrachms do begin again, they are often of poor and coarse work. Only on some hypothesis of temporary weakness can we explain this apparent cessation of the tetradrachm coinage at Gyrene for something like twenty years.
Finally, towards the end of the second period I would place the following coin ; from which town of the Pentapolis it issued, the absence of inscription prevents our even guessing.
31. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five umbels, and with root.
Rev. — Head of bearded Ammon r. ; dotted circle in circular incuse.
Paris. ,Y. 0-5. Wt. 53 grs. Samian drachm.
This very interesting piece is the first of the Cyrenaic gold issues. The head recalls, in the arrangement and treatment of the hair, the second group of the second period (No. 16) ; the eye is not yet seen in profile. It is interesting to note that the same standard is '•niployed for the gold as for the silver drachms.
QUAESTIONES CYKEXAICAE. 87
THIRD PERIOD.
The third period begins and ends with a change in the silver weight standard. The beginning is marked, as we have seen above, by the introduction (c. 435) of the Samian standard for tetradrachms, the end by the introduction of the Rhodian standard after 308. The latter date we can fix with some precision. Since Alexander the fortunes of Gyrene had become in- volved for better for worse with those of Egypt ; after a short period of revolt under Ophelias, Magas was sent in 308 to recover the cities for his stepfather, a task which he successfully accomplished. From that date down to Magas's rebellion the district was Egyptian. Now c. 305 Ptolemy changed the standard of his satrapal coins from Attic to Rhodian. It is a safe deduction that the issue of the Cyrenaean coins of Rhodian weight followed that change.
Within this period (435-305) a continuous develop- ment may be observed. Towards the close of the fifth century magistrates' names begin to appear freely on the coins, and the head is moved from the obverse to the reverse. Early in the fourth century a plentiful coinage in gold, and on a new standard, the Attic, begins ; half a century or so later the Samian silver standard is superseded once more by the Attic, didrachms taking the place of tetradrachms. The obverse type shows much variety ; instead of the ever- lasting bearded Ammoii we find Eros, Dionysus, and the beardless Ammoii. Towards the close of the century a bronze coinage is introduced.
As in the last period, the issues of Barce and Gyrene run closely parallel in style to each other. But it is
88 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
remarkable that whereas the early years of the period, say down to about 420, seem to be empty at Gyrene and full at Barce, after the end of the century the positions are reversed. There are very few coins of Barce that we can put later than c. 390, nor does the city share in the plentiful gold issue of the fourth century. Some pieces have no ethnic, and in such cases it is almost impossible to decide by style to which city they belong, unless they bear an already familiar magistrate's name. The omission of the ethnic is curious, and seems to be quite arbitrary. Throughout the previous period its presence on all tetradrachms and almost all subdivisions is constant.
In the earlier part of this period (say down to c. 390) small denominations are much rarer than in the latter.68 In addition to the drachm, the hemidrachm, and the obol, we find a coin of about 15 grs., presum- ably a trihemiobol (see below, p. 95).
Barce.
32. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and seven umbels.
Rev.— Head of bearded Ammon laureate r.; IAMSAQ }. B. M. jR. 1. Wt. 195-7. Samian tetradrachm.
The severity of the treatment, the formality of the. hair and beard, mark this coin as transitional. It forms with another in the British Museum and a coin (from the same die) in Paris a group which must stand at the head of the series of tetradrachms of Samian weight.
Another group may also be mentioned which looks
18 This is even more the case at Gyrene than at Barce.
QUAESTIONES CYEENAICAE. 89
back to the last coins of the previous period, especially No. 30.
33. Obv. — Silphium plant with three whorls and seven
umbels.
Eev. — Head of bearded Ammon 1., laureate (hair and beard still formal); BAPKAION O ; circular incuse.
Paris. Ai. 1-1. Wt. 205 grs. Samian tetra- drachm.
34. Olv. — Head of bearded Ammon 1., diademed, the hair
and beard more freely treated, the horn curling above the ear; B]APKA[ION P.
Eev. — Silphium plant with four whorls and nine umbels ; circular incuse.
Paris. M. 1-1. Wt. 203 grs. Samian tetra- drachm.
The circular arrangement of the legend, the head turned to the left, contrary to the usual practice, and the peculiarity of the horn (on No. 34) link up these two coins with No. 30. On No. 34 the head appears on the obverse, a feature it has in common with No. 29 of the last period. By this too, as well as by other peculiarities, No. 34 is linked up with two other coins which may be mentioned here.
35. Olv. — Head of bearded Ammon 1., laureate, hair
treated very much as in 34, the horn curling above the ear.
Rev. — Silphium with three whorls and seven umbels ; in field 1., owl ; B A : circular incuse. P K
B. M. M. 1. Wt. 198-5 grs. Samian tetra- drachm.
36. Obv. — Head of bearded Ammon r., laureate ; freer
style, the horn still curved above the ear ; in front, traces of letters (inn?).
90 E. S. G. KOBINSOX.
Her. — Silphium with three whorls and seven umbels; B A
P K ; circular incuse. A I
B. M. Al. 1. Wt 202.7 grs. Samian tetm- drachm.
No. 35 illustrates a practice far commoner at Barce than at Gyrene, the addition to the main type of sym- bols in the shape of animals or plants. The letters on the obverse of No. 36 can only refer to a magistrate. The style of this coin is not early ; it is the only one with a magistrate's name on which the head is on the obverse, but the points noted (the curl of the horn, &c.) bring it into close connexion with coins, e. g. No. 35, which do not bear a magistrate's name, and which yet themselves, as far as style goes, would naturally be classed after coins of the earliest magistrates. It seems to follow inevitably that magistrates' names do not appear on this series at a definite point once for all, but that anonymous coins were still intercalated for some time between the signed issues. It is worth noting, however, that oil the later unsigned issues, e. g. Nos. 35 and 43, there is a symbol, though it must be confessed that on No. 35 this seems to be more an adjunct to the type than a symbol strictly so called.
37. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls (showing three leaves) and seven umbels ; on either side of the stalk springs a similar silphium plant in miniature ; B A
P K
A I
Itec. — Head of bearded Ammon r.
B. M. M. 1. Wt. 199-3 grs. Samian tetra- drachm.
QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 91
No. 37 belongs to another anonymous group, examples of which are probably the commonest coins of Barce. The style of the head of Ammon is coarse, the hair and beard freely treated in luxuriant curls, the eye heavy, with the pupil strongly marked. The head is still on the reverse. The whorls of the silphium are of the kind already noted under Nos. 29 and 30. The style is freer than on No. 32, though not so good ; the inscription has followed the silphium plant on to the obverse. Coins of this class lead into and doubtless overlap the series bearing magistrates' names, which we may now discuss.
The magistrates already recognized at Barce are 4>AIN- •-, KAINin, KYYEAH Til OlAnN(O^), and AKE£IO£, to these I would add the uncertain name flfl ? on No. 36 above, and AAAI .
The earliest magistrate seems to be <I>AIN — . With this name we have one tetradrachm at Paris (Muller, i. 317), and the following drachm.
88. Obv. — Silphium with two whorls (of three leaves), seven umbels, and root ; V\ <l> I A
Eev.~ Head of bearded Ammon r., transitional style, hair loose ; in front SAB } • dotted circle ; circular incuse.
B. M. M. -75. Wt. 50-2 grs. Samian drachm (misnumbered 36 on Plate IV).
The style of the head of Ammon recalls No. 30 of the last period, though it has not the same peculiar treatment of the horn. To these two coins I would add the following tetradrachm from Parma.
39. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and seven umbels, at the base of which a recumbent gazelle: in field 1. upwards. MIO.
E. S. G. ROBINSON.
Rev.— Head of bearded Ammon r., laureate (?), the hair and beard rather formal ; in front !) ; circular incuse.
Parma. Al. 1. Wt. 197-5 grs.
The style of the reverse of this coin recalls the group to which No. 32 belongs. Imhoof, who has published it,09 apparently regards it as being a variety of No. 322 in Miiller's work, in which case it would correct Miiller' s reading. Muller's reading of his No. 322, however, seems to be right, and we are still left with the - N IO - on the present coin. It is part of a word of which the rest is off the coin ; the ethnic is already accounted for, so it must be a magistrate. Of the magistrates at Barce, always supposing it to be one of those known already, <t>AIN and KAINIH present themselves as possi- bilities. As a completion of the first, 0AINIO5 (the local dialect genitive of a nominative $alvis) may be suggested ; from the distribution of the extant legend we should expect three or four more letters, which is what is required. If KAINIH is preferred we must suppose either that O is written for H (which is not the case on any other coins of this magistrate) or that the name is in the nominative KAINIO5, which would be exceptional though not unparalleled.70 On the whole, though it must always remain a conjecture that <t>AIN — should be completed $ao>ios-, I incline to the first alternative, because (1) a genitive is much more usual than a nominative, (2) <I>AIN - - - seems an earlier magistrate than KAINIfl, for, besides the style of the tetradrachm (and drachm No. 38 above) the ethnic of the latter is on the head side. Now the coin under
Z.f. N., Bd. vii, p. 30, No. 2.
69
70 At Gyrene we find NIKIS as well as NIKIOS .
QUAESTIOSES CYRENAICAE. 93
discussion seems earlier than the KAINIfl group, for it also has the ethnic on the head side, and its style suggests that of the group to which No. 32 belongs. Against this argument must be put the fact that the gazelle of the obverse occurs (in a different position) on a coin with KAINIH.71
Next in order seems to come KAINIfl ; of this magis- trate we have two tetradrachms in Paris,71 and the following smaller denominations.
40. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five
umbels ; dotted circle.
Rev. — Head of bearded Ammon r., hair and beard free; in front. KAINIft, 3 outwards; clotted circle.
B. M. A\. 045. Wt, 25-2 grs. Samian hemi- drachm.
41. Obv. — "Triple silphium," consisting of three sprouts
of silphium, each with one whorl and three umbels springing from a central pellet ; linear circle.
Eev. — Head of bearded Ammon r., hair and beard rather formal (as on M. i. 322) ; in front KAI }; dotted circle.
B. M. M. 0-4. Wt. 15 grs. Samian trihemiobol.
The triple silphium is a type which here appears for the first time.
Of KYYEAn Til <!>IAnN(OS) we have a tetra- drachm at Vienna.72 The fact that the ethnic is on the head side would a priori make us put this coin earlier, but the style does not seem specially early, though of course the head is still on the reverse, and the older position of the ethnic may be explained by the length
71 M. i. 322, 323. 72 M. i. 324.
94 E. S. G. KOBIXSON.
of the magistrate's name which would require more room than was available round the head. To the Vienna coin I would add the following :
42. Obi\— Triple silphium ; linear circle.
y,v,. —Head of young Ammon r., beardless and horned ;
in front, KYfEAfl. 3; dotted border. " B. M. M. 04. Wt. 11-3 grs. Samian trihemi- obol(?).
Of AKE3IOS, so far as I know, only tetradrachms exist.T:>' The facing head on some of his coins would presumably date them to the turn of the century when the enterprise of the Syracusan engravers had brought this position into popularity.
Lastly, I would assign the following coin to Barce :
43. Olv.— Triple silphium; dotted border.
ftcv> — Head of young Ammon r. ; behind neck C AAA ;
in front, I outwards ; dotted border. B. M. A\. 0-35. Wt. 12-7 grs. Samian trihemi- obol(?).
There are two reasons for assigning this coin to Barce. Most of the other coins with the types of the head of Ammon, and the triple silphium, can be defi- nitely connected with this city, either by the ethnic
or by a magistrate ; and the name AAAI at once
suggests 'AXageip, which is a good Barcaean name, as- sociated in a previous generation with the royal house.74
The denomination of these little pieces with the triple silphium is puzzling ; the type itself is unusual. occurring only twice apart from this group — on an isolated
73 M. i. 318-21.
74 Herodotus iv. 164. The restoration of the name is indeed practically certain, for there seems to be no other proper name in Greek beginning with the same four letters.
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 95
tetradrachm of AKE£IO$ at Barce,7:> and 011 the series of fourth-century gold triobols at Gyrene. Its use on triobols suggests that it has a practical significance. Besides the weights of those here published, 15, 12-7, 11-3, others weigh 13-5, 13-2, 15-3, and 14.70 The lowest weight 11-3 (our No. 4.2) can be partially explained by the fact that the coin is restruck. Now an obol of the Samian drachm of 53 grs. would weigh 8-8, and a trihemiobol consequently 13-2, which is the central point round which the weights of these coins gravitate. If we can assume them to be trihemiobols we have an explanation of the type such as may be offered in the case of the gold triobols — the denomination is indicated thereby as the triple of the unit.
Here the series of Barce practically ends, save for unimportant copper. Only a very few silver coins can be dated later than c. 390. Among them may be noted the following.
44. Olv. — Head of bearded Ammon r., laureate, hair and beard free ; behind the neck, ear of corn ; linear border.
Rev. — Silphium with two whorls and five umbels ; to r., BAP } ; triple circle border.
B.M. JR. 1. Wt. 194-9 grs. Samian tetra- drachm.
This coin cannot be much earlier than the middle of the fourth century ; the style is comparatively weak, and linear borders are found at Cyrene on coins of that period, — those of the magistrates 0EY<1>EIAEY$ and IA£ONO£. The peculiar coin at Berlin (from the Fox collection) 7T is best mentioned later.78 Gold coins
75 M. i. 321. 7G M. i. 45, 46, 328, and Brit. Mus.
77 M., Suppl., 325 A. 78 See below, No. 68.
9(> E. S. G. ROBINSON".
which may be assigned to Barce will be considered in discussing the early anepigraphic gold.
Cyrene : the silver coinage down to c. 390.
At Cyrene the history of the early coinage of the third period, say down to 390, is practically the same as at Barce, with the important exception (noted above), that though there are plenty of coins of rude workman- ship there are none of the severe transitional style with the ethnic on the head side, such as begin the series at Barce. The earliest pieces are those without magistrates' names, corresponding to the Barcaean group to which No. 37 belongs. The style of these coins is often very rough indeed, sometimes recalling the more barbarous products of Cretan mints. That of most coins of the earliest magistrate NIKI3 is exactly similar, which points to overlapping, though so far I have not been able to establish this by community of dies. In this group, apparently, the head is never on the obverse. The anepigraphic silver tetradrachms will be discussed later.
On signed coins down to c. 390 we find two names, NIKIOS and APISTOMHAEOS, less than half the number occurring at Barce, though the coins of either of these magistrates are far commoner than any of those at Barce. This looks as if they covered approximately the same period of time, the magistrates at Barce holding a shorter tenure of office than those at Cyrene, though style would indicate that the earliest magistrate at Barce $ab(io$), Nos. 38 and 39 above, is earlier than NIKI?. In the time of Nikis the head is moved from the reverse to the obverse of the coin, though this change does not seem to have been made then once
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 97
for all, for under APISTOMHAEO5 we get one example with the head on the reverse (No. 47 infra), while some of Nikis's coins with the head on the reverse seem more advanced in style than others with the head on the obverse. For instance, the coin in Miiller (i. 37) seems later than the following.
45. Ob v. — Head of bearded Arnmon r., laureate and dia-
demed (the tie showing in heart-shaped knot at the back), the hair and beard curling free, the eye three-quarter face, pupil and lashes strongly marked ; in front, in straggling letters MIKIS } outwards.
Rev. — Silphium with two whorls (of three leaves) and five umbels ; on either side of stalk, a shoot.
B. M. M. 1-1. Wt. 201-8. Samian tetradrachm.
This coin, apart from its exotic style, is remarkable for the case of the proper name. The nominative is practically unknown at Gyrene. A certain number of tetradrachms with NIKIOS have no ethnic, but, even if the community of name were not sufficient to give these to Gyrene, we have at least one which shares an obverse die with a coin inscribed KYPA. The following coin of Nikis, which will be useful later, may be here described.
46. Obv. — Head of bearded Ammon r., hair and beard
free ; in front, NIKI^ } outwards.
Rev. — Silphium with two whorls and five umbels ; K Y
A (the die pitted with rust). N A
B. M. M. M. Wt. 198-5 grs. Samian tetra- drachm. Also Paris, with the obv. inscrip- tion clearer.
NUHISM. CHROK., VOL. XV, SERIES IV. H
<)8 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
Most of the coins of API5TOMHAEO5 are well known ; they are of fine style as a rule. Apart from the one with facing head (No. 47) there appear to be three signed obverse dies of this magistrate to six reverses. The following piece has been published be- fore,79 but in view of its importance may be described again here.
47. Olv.— Silphium with two whorls (three leaves) and seven umbels ; in front rv a gazelle standing on its hind legs and browsing off the highest leaves; around, APISTOMHAEOS Q.
Rev. — Head of bearded Ammon, directly facing, with hair and beard in heavy curls, wearing diadem from the centre of which rises uraeus ; beneath, KYP ANA o- outwards; dotted border.
Karlsruhe, 1-05. Wt. 206-5 grs. Samian tetra- drachm.
This coin has many points of interest. The uraeus on the diadem does not often occur; the obverse type with the gazelle reminds one of Barce rather than of Gyrene ; the head on the reverse shows that the change introduced in this respect under Nikis was not final ; lastly, the facing head itself is a remark- able achievement, and leads on to one still more remarkable. The great impetus to the representation of the facing head came from the famous Syracusan dies of Euclidas and Cimon, which date from the years immediately preceding the close of the fifth century. We have noticed a similar and contemporary innova- tion (of very wooden style) at Barce under the later magistrate AKE3IOS. Given the date of the Syracusan
Z.f. N., vii, p. 29.
QUAESTIONES CYRENAICAE. 99
pieces, the appearance of the facing head at Gyrene may be dated round the year 400. It may be interest- ing to collect the various examples of this rare type. Besides the one mentioned above, we have these three.
48. Obv. — Head of bearded Ammon facing, laureate, slightly
turned towards the r., the beard hanging in curls, the hnir not so free as on No. 46.
Rev. — Silphium with two whorls and five umbels ; K V P A N A
Collection of Herr Giesecke. M. 0-95. Wt. 203 grs. Samian tetrad rachm.
49. Obv. —Head of bearded Ammon facing, slightly turned
to the 1., hair and beard freely curling, wearing diadem with uraeus ; around, laurel wreath.
Rev. — Silphium with two whorls (of three leaves) and five umbels : V N P A A H
B. M. A\. 14. Wt. 203-8 grs. Samian tetra- drachm = M. Suppl. 141 A.
50. Obv. — Head of bearded Ammon facing, slightly turned
to the 1. ; no wreath or diadem, hair and beard as on last.
Rev. — Silphium with two whorls (of three leaves) and five umbels ; KVPANAIOS O retrograde out- wards.
Copenhagen. M. 145. Wt. 205 grs. = M. Suppl. 141 B.
It is puzzling that of all the coins with facing heads only one bears the name of a magistrate. No. 48 is struck from the same reverse die as No. 46, which bears the name NIKI3, and when employed for No. 46 (the die had rusted. No. 48 therefore is earlier than po. 46, and was presumably struck under the same
H2
100 E. S. G. ROBINSON.
magistrate. A similar argument can be applied to No. 49 ; the reverse die was used in conjunction with a die of APlSTOMHAEO *, and, judging by its state, this use took place at a later date. No. 49 was therefore almost as certainly struck under API3TOMHAEO5 as was No. 48 under NIKI3. As regards No. 50 we have no linking of dies to go upon, but the head is much simpler than that on Nos. 47 and 49, while the silphium of the reverse resembles in style that on the coins of NIKI5.
During this period smaller denominations are even rarer than at Barce; besides the very uncommon drachm of usual types (the head still on the reverse), the following coin may be mentioned :
51. Olv.— Triple silphium ; across field AS-YX ; dotted border.
Rev. — Head of Gyrene facing, turned slightly to r. with diadem, under which the hair is gathered in loops along the forehead ; around, traces of letters ?
B. M. JR. 04. Wt. 14-5 grs. Samian triobol.
This piece is of the same denomination as those of Barce described above, Nos. 40-42 ; the head is pre- sumably that of Gyrene, and so far as one can judge must represent the same conception, full-face, as appears a little later on the small gold coins in profile. For a somewhat similar treatment at Lesbos, cp. B. M. C. : Troas, &c., p. 160, No. 49.
A word may be said about the anepigraphic tetra- drachms of this period, which in themselves have rather an anomalous appearance. They may be divided into two classes, those with a magistrate's name but no
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 101
ethnic, and those with neither magistrate's name nor ethnic. I am inclined to think that many coins which at first sight seem to fall into [one or other of these classes, especially the second, do so only through their condition ; in fact, I can find no tetradrachm of which it can be definitely stated that it has no inscription on either side. Of three in the British Museum which seem to be such, the first is in very worn condition, and the other two (the heads on which greatly resemble some of those on coins of Nikis) are so badly struck that though there is no ethnic the place where we should expect the magistrate's name is off the coin. Of those with a magistrate's name, but no ethnic, we may reasonably assume that when the name occurs also defi- nitely at Gyrene or at Barce the coin may be assigned to that place. When the name does not occur else- where, the question becomes practically insoluble: of such coins three are worthy of discussion.
52. Obv. — Silphium plant with two whorls and five umbels.
Rev. — Head of Zeus Ammon r. (very rough work) ; behind A ; circular incuse.
n
B. M. (double-struck.) JR. 0-95. Wt. 205-2 grs. Samian tetradrachm.
This piece has already been published by Miiller,80 who regarded the inscription on the reverse as being
ui, and therefore assigned the coin to the Macae, a
Libyan tribe. But a closer examination shows that the lower letter is really a double struck T (retrograde), and with that vital letter gone Miiller's construction
80 M. i. 344.
102 E. S. G. EOBINSON.
falls to the ground. Bompois81 had already seen, though on faulty grounds, the inherent improbability of Mliller's attribution. He brought the coin into con- nexion with one in his own collection reading KVPANA, and behind the head A. This he regarded as the same as the upper letter on our No. 52, and took both to be the initial of a magistrate's name, perhaps AIBY3TPATO5. Not recognizing Miiller's " mem " as being really a T, he had to explain it as a letter inserted to give the coin currency in Carthaginian dominions. But we may doubt very much whether Bompois' coin ever read A on the reverse at all. There is a coin in Berlin which as far as one can judge from Bompois' engraving, is from the same dies, and the " A " behind the head on this seems to be simply a curl exaggerated by a slight flaw in the die. If we recognize the second letter as a H on our No. 52, the first letter cannot be a consonant, and therefore it must be A. the only
vowel whose shape makes it a possibility. AP
then is almost certainly a magistrate ; the rough, almost barbarous, style of the coin might lead us to give the coin to Gyrene rather than to Barce, but such an attribution can be only tentative.
Besides this coin there is the very fine stater bear- ing on the reverse the name AIBY5TPATO3.82 All the specimens of it I have seen come from one obverse and two reverse dies. Miiller (I. c.) suggests the attribution to Barce for three reasons, — (1) the presence of the uraeus, (2) the symbol on the obverse and the magistrate's name on the reverse, which he compares with the coin of KYYEAfl TH <l>IAnN
81 Op. cit., pp. 77 seqq.
82 M. i. 41.
QUAESTIONES CYKENAICAE. 103
(Muller, i. 324), and (3) the two shoots which occur on either side of the silphium plant, — remarking that there is no coin at Gyrene which offers these criteria. But (1) the uraeus occurs as often at Cyrene as at Barce (e.g. under Nikis and Aristomedes) ; (2) though the symbol on the obverse is a Barcaean touch, the magistrate's name round the silphium occurs under Aristomedes at Cyrene (on No. 46) ; (3) This form of silphium is really commoner at Cyrene than at Barce. The style of the head and the treatment of the silphium suggest the finer issues of API3TOMHAEO& On the other hand, the symbol (spray of laurel) on the obverse is rather a Barcaean feature, and the name itself would perhaps suggest Barce, where the population was to a much greater degree mixed with the indigenous stock. The uraeus which is worn has a curious peculi- arity; it seemingly does not rise from a diadem, but appears to be fixed in the middle of something more rigid (rather like a stephane), which encircles the brow but not the back of the head. The following coin may also possibly belong to AIBYSTPATOS.
53. Obv. — Head of bearded Ammon 1., of rather similar style, without diadem or uraeus : symbol behind head (?).
Rev. — Silphium with two whorls and five umbels ; in front r., upwards, SAT .
E. T. Newell. JR. 1-05. Wt. 178 grs. (cleaned). Samian tetradrachm.
Unfortunately, the necessary cleaning of this coin has reduced it considerably in weight; at the same time most of the surface is gone, so that it is impossible to make out what the reverse inscription was, or whether the remains behind the neck on the obverse
104
E. S. G. ROBINSON.
are really traces of a symbol. If they are. it must be just such another symbol as on the coin above, while the remains of the reverse inscription suggest [AIBVST]SAT[O3J. Since the above was in type, however, Mr. Newell informs me that, having re- examined the coin, he thinks the letters are more probably OAT.
E. S. G. ROBINSON.
(To be continued.)
III.
SOME IRREGULAR COINAGES OF THE REIGN OF STEPHEN.
I. COINS STRUCK FROM ERASED OBVERSE DlES.
(PLATE VII. 1-6.)
IN the Silver Coins of England, Hawkins assigns these coins to partisans of the Empress " who wished to use Stephen's dies, but not to acknowledge Stephen's title ", and this view is now, I believe, prevalent ; in his account of the Sheldon Find (Brit. Num. Journ., vol. vii, pp. 59 ff.) Mr. Andrew goes further, and sees in the various countermarking crosses personal badges or devices, attributing coins of various mints to various magnates, those of Nottingham to Peverel, those of Thetford to Bigod, &c.
The obverse dies from which these coins were struck were countermarked in various ways : by a network of cuts [PL VII. l] ; by a cross cut, or perhaps punched, on the die [PI. VII. 2, 3, 5] ; by an incision and a small cross [pi. VII. 4] ; or by two lines cut across the die [PI. VII. 6] ; by whom or for what purpose this erasure was made is very difficult to understand. The attri- bution to barons hostile to Stephen not only assumes their usurpation of the privilege of coining, which is an assumption justified by contemporary documents, but attributes to them so keen a desire to publish their
KM; o. a BROOKE.
disregard o!' Stephen's claim to the throne t hat, having
MUM -how come into possession ol' royal dies and thereby
..I'ji safe innansof making-considerable profit, by coinage,
they ha/.anled the possibility of passing their (joins
into currency for the sake of issuing a manifesto
i nst Stephen's sovereignty. Tho Kmpress certainly
had de.Votors who fought seriously Ibr the Angevin
cause, but. they were few and were mostly magnates of the western counties, such as Robert of Gloucester. Brian Fitz Count, &c., whereas thoso oountermarked
coins seem I.. li;ive been issued mostly ill the eastern ennui ies (at Not I Migham, Norwich, Thet ford, Stamford ; Bristol is an exception), where the barons were for t lie most part, if not loyal to Stephen, either supporters of the party from time to time favoured by fortune, or fighting for their own personal profit. Peverel,1 for instance, the owner of Nottingham (<astle, seems to
liave been originally on the side of the Empress, and to have come over to Stephen about the time of the ratification of the treaty with Henry of Huntingdon
at NuM ingham ; hence Robert's attack on Nottingham mlllOat Ralph Parallel's instigation. In 1141 IVverel \\as one of the prisoners taken at tho battle of Lincoln,
and handed over his castle to the Kmpress to redeem
his person. Geoffrey of Mandeville is, of course, an extreme case of tho time-server, but no doubt many of the barons acted on the same principles though less successfully. 'fh.>ii:;li m.t impossible, if seems to me unlikely that dies captured by barons such as these would have been so countermarked for manifesto
i.'ini .i\. Foundations of England, vol. ii, pp. ;>T;>. :!'.'!, -101,
'i.| ii'lrrriii'rs thriv ;M\CII.
n;m<;<;t!hAK COINA<JI<;S OF STUIMIHN'S TIME. 107
purposes as to risk the acceptance in general currency of coins which, if struck from the dies uncouiitermarked, would certainly pass unquestioned.
The assumption that the countermarking of the coins liad for its object the obliteration of the king's figure < -an not be accepted without question. That it effects Hi is purpose is certainly true in some cases: on the I Bristol coins [PI. VII. l] nearly the whole obverse is obliterated ; on the Norwich and Thetford coins [Pi. VII. 2, 6] the king's figure is thoroughly obscured ; on tho Nottingham coins [PL VII. 3] partly; at Stamford [PI. VII. 4], from which mint we have coins struck from the same obverse die prior to the counter- marking, the countermarks do not obliterate the king's image at all. The York coin [PI. VII. 6] must, I think, be considered as coming in a separate category, as the dies are extremely coarse, and may have been con- temporary forgeries.
Tim weight of these countermarked coins varies; the two known coins of Bristol weigh 23-2 and 20-2 grains ; of Norwich I have tho weight of three coins only (many specimens are known), and these weigh 17-5, 19-5, and 21»1 grains ; the Nottingham coins seem always to be light, and vary between 14 and 17 grains; one of the two known Stamford coins weighs 14-8, the other is a t weighing 13-8 grains ; two coins struck from same obverse die before it was countermarked weigh J 7- 7 and 1 5-ti grains. A Thetford coin in the Museum weighs 15-7 grains; I do not know the weight <>l'tlie specimen lignred in tho accompanying plate (Sothoby sale, 26. vii. 11, lot 553). Tho coins lia\e |)(M>n found in the Nottingham, Dartford, and Sheldon hoards, that is to say, they are doubtless con-
108 G. C. BROOKE.
temporary with the uncountermarked coins of the same type — the first of Stephen.
It seems to me not unnatural to attribute this countermarking, or erasure, of obverse dies to an intention to put the die out of action, in just the same way as dies at the present day, if kept, are obliterated by some mark in order to prevent them being used tor forgery. I am inclined, therefore, to assign the countermarking of these dies, not to an enemy who had obtained possession of them, but to the original and lawful holder of them, that is to say, to assume that the monetariw or custos cuneorum in this way rendered his dies unfit for further service in fear of their capture by the king's enemies. By the oblitera- tion of the obverse, or standard, dies the reverse, or trussel, dies would be rendered useless, and so the enemy would not, if he captured the mint, have easy means at his disposal of imitating the king's coinage. One can well imagine occasions among the many raids and sieges of this period (such, for instance, as Gloucester's attack on Nottingham in 1140) when such a danger may have been imminent. Whether it would have been easier in an emergency of this sort to destroy the dies completely, I am not prepared to say ; if so, the method of obliteration may perhaps have been pre- ferred in order to retain the alternative of using the erased dies again in case they were not seized by the enemy or of denouncing the currency of the countermarked money in case of their capture. How- ever this may be, it is evident that, if my suggestion is right, these dies were put to use after the erasure was made, whether on behalf of the king or his enemies it is impossible to say ; in some cases the good weight
IRREGULAR COINAGES OF STEPHEN^ TIME. 109
and good metal of the coins point rather to the king's moneyers as the makers, while other coins, notably those of Nottingham, show the low standard of weight that is more consistent with a baronial coinage.
II. — COINS WITH INSCRIPTION PERERIC. &c. ( PLATE VII. 7, 8.)
The original attribution of these coins by Mr. Rashleigh (Xum. Chron., 1850, pp. 165 ff.) to the Earl of Warwick was shown to be untenable by Mr. Packe (Xum. Chron., 1896, p. 64), who offered an alternative baron as the issuer of this coinage.
In Brit. Num. Journ., vol.vii, pp. 81 ff, Mr. Andrew asserts that Stephen himself and the Empress Matilda were the only persons who could have issued so wide- spread a coinage. Stephen he rules out as impossible, "for his name and title have no break in their se- quence,"2 and so by a process of elimination he arrives at the conclusion that Matilda struck these coins. From the coins he reaches the same conclusion by an in- terpretation of PERERIC and PERERICM as a mutilated form of Impe rat rids. I am unable to feel convinced by this ingenious interpretation of the legend; and, while I agree with Mr. Andrew's proposition that no other person than Stephen or the Empress can have issued this coinage, I cannot accept the Empress as a possible candidate for this distinction. Her movements during the brief period of her success are well known : her movement from Gloucester, where she received Stephen as prisoner, to Cirencester on Feb. 13, 1141, and her negotiations there three days later with the
2 Apetitio principii, for this is the subject of the inquiry.
HO G. C. BROOKE.
Legate ; her conference with the Legate on March 2 at Wherwell, near Andover, and arrangement of terms for securing the throne ; her arrival at Winchester the following day, her hallowing there as "Lady and Queen" of England; her delay at Oxford, Eeading andSt. Albans, while the Londoners are persuaded to accept her; the final consent of the Londoners a few days before June 24, and her admission to Westminster ; the disgust of the Londoners at her demand of a subsidy, refusal to grant the good laws of the Confessor, &c. ; the arrival of Queen Matilda and William of Ypres with an army raised in Kent, and their admission on June 24 by the Londoners; the flight of the Empress; her siege of Winchester on July 31, and her own defeat by the army of William of Ypres and escape (Sept. 14) through Ludgershall and Devizes to Gloucester ; the capture of Robert of Gloucester and his exchange for Stephen ; the stay of the Empress at Oxford for the winter of 1141-2, and her move to Devizes in March, and the sending of an embassy to urge her husband to come over; the arrival of Duke Henry at Bristol in late autumn ; the siege of the Empress in Oxford by Stephen from September to December 1142, and her flight at Christmas to Abingdon and thence to Wallingford, which practically closes her active career in the war, which at this period commences to be fought on behalf of her son's claim to the throne instead of her own.
The coins are known of the Bristol, Canterbury, Lincoln, London, Stamford, and perhaps Winchester, mints. At Winchester coins might have been issued in the name of the Empress after her hallowing as Lady and Queen on March 3, 1141. She was at London only a few days ; but it is perhaps not impossible for
IRREGULAR COINAGES OF STEPHEN'S TIME. Ill
dies to have been made for her in that short time. So far as we know, the Empress was never at Canterbury, Lincoln or Stamford, and never in a position to employ these mints. Canterbury castle was in the hands of Eobert of Gloucester's men in 1135, and refused ad- mission to Stephen ; but the mint was evidently in his hands at this period, since Canterbury coins of his first type are not uncommon, and there is no reason to suppose that it ever fell into the hands of the Empress. She did not go there, and it was in this part of the country that troops were raised by Stephen's queen and William of Ypres. Lincoln castle was in the hands of Ralph of Chester; it was seized by him in 1140, and remained intact through the sacking of the town after the battle of Lincoln ; Ralph surrendered it to Stephen in 1146. Stamford was apparently always in the king's hands until it surrendered to Henry in 1153.
The coins are of good weight, varying from 19 to 23 grains, and apparently of good quality. Their style is quite regular, and cannot be distinguished from that of the ordinary coins of the reign. They are made with the usual punches of the period, and by the money ers whose names appear at these mints on Stephen's coins. Their strong contrast with the coins of the Empress may be seen by comparing on the plate these coins [PL VII. 7, 8] with those of Matilda [PL VII. 9, 10].3
Hence the following dilemma arises : if they are to be attributed to the Empress they are either earlier or later than her named coinages, which are coarse and rough in workmanship. Therefore, they either
3 With regard to the reverse of the coin figured as PI. VII. 10, see below, p. 114.
112 G. C. BROOKE.
show, if earlier, that Matilda's coinage is at the same time progressive in orthography and retrogressive in style, or, if later, that it is progressive in style while retrogressive in orthography.
It seems, then, that these coins, from their style and quality and their places of mintage, must be regarded as, for a period, the regular coinage of the realm, that is to say, the coinage issued by the authorities of the king's mints. At the time of Stephen's captivity, the anarchical condition and the uncertainty of events, which gave many barons the opportunity to sell their allegiance at a high price, caused some at least of the ecclesiastics, so William of Malmesbury tells us, to attach themselves to the Empress's side after obtaining Stephen's permission to temporize. The position of the mint officials, we may well suppose, was a most difficult one. The coins which they issued, bearing as they did the names of the money ers, must in future time be positive evidence of their loyalty or disloyalty at this crisis. If, as seemed probable, the Empress were to obtain the throne, the issue of coins in Stephen's name would convict the moneyers, and with them the other officials, of active sympathy with the deposed king; on the other hand, should Stephen regain the throne afterwards, their loyalty to Matilda during the period of her ascendancy would, if they struck coins in her name, presumably be properly punished on his return. I am therefore disposed to believe that the mint officials, like the clergy, temporized, and that they put on the obverse of their coins an inscription which was as unintelligible to contemporaries as it is to students of the present day. It would thus at least be possible to prove to both the king and the Empress
IKREGULAR COINAGES OP STEPHEN'S TIME. 118
that they did not at this time issue a coinage in the name of the other, and at the same time the quality and good appearance of their coinage would prevent it being questioned by a public which was then for the most part illiterate. The dependence of the pro- vincial mints upon the central authority at London, whether they received their dies from London or only received instruments and orders from there at this period, would account for the uniformity of this in- scription at mints so far distant from each other, a peculiarity for which I am at a loss to account if the inscription is to be considered as even a stereotyped blunder of Imperatricis. (It always occurs as PERERIC or PERERICM; Mr. Andrew gives also PERERIC I, which I believe to be a misreading of a coin from the same die as others which read clearly PERERICM.) I venture to think that a parallel for this temporizing use of a meaningless inscription may be found in the Danish coinage of 1144-7, the period of the struggle of Magnus and Swein ; some coins of this period are figured and described by Hauberg (Myntforhold og Udmyntninger i DanmarJc, p. 49, and PI. viii. 1-7) which bear the unintelligible name IOANST with the title REX.
III. — COINAGE OF THE EMPRESS MATILDA.
(PLATE VII. 9, 10.)
I have introduced this coinage here chiefly with | a view to showing its contrast with the PERERIC coinage, and its connexion with that bearing the name | of Henry of Anjou.
The Empress's coins are all of poor, clumsy work, [the dies being evidently engraved without the assis-
KUMISM. CHRON., VOL. XV, SERIES IV. I
G. C. BROOKE.
tance of the usual punches, with the exception of the reverse of her Oxford coins, one of which is figured on PI. VII. 10. The reverses of these Oxford coins 4 are the only specimens of Matilda's coinage that I have seen which have the least resemblance in style to the regular coins of Stephen, and in this isolated case the resemblance is so striking, and the evidence of the use of regular punches in the making of the dies is so strong, that I am disposed to believe that at some time the mint establishment at Oxford with its officials and instruments fell into the Empress's hands. This is most likely to have happened at Easter 1141, when Eobert d'Oilly surrendered his castle to her, and she remained for a time at Oxford before proceeding to Reading and St. Albans. Other occasions on which she might have struck coins at Oxford are after her flight from London in June 1141, or when she was besieged there by Stephen from September to December of the following year ; but the occasion of her triumphal progress to London, and the surrender of the castle of Oxford to her, seems the most probable.
Other mints that can be discerned with some certainty are Bristol and Wareham, neither of which affords any evidence of the date of her issues, as both places were in her hands during the greater part of the civil war, though Wareham fell into Stephen's hands for short periods in 1138-9 and 1142. The mint-
4 Two specimens are known, one in British Museum (the specimen here figured), the other in Mr. H. M. Reynolds's collection (Rashleigh sale, lot 630) ; these coins are struck by the same moneyer, Sweting. who also struck coins of Stephen's first issue, and are from different dies ; in both cases the obverse is of the usual coarse work of the Empress's coins and the reverse of the normal punched ! work of Stephen's regular coins.
IRREGULAR COINAGES OF STEPHEN'S TIME. 115
reading C A — is open to many interpretations.5 I have already said that Canterbury does not seem to be a possible mint for the Empress to have used. I am inclined to attribute this reading to the borough of Calne in Wiltshire.
The coins are usually of low weight : those of which I have obtained the weight vary from 15 J to 18-| grains. The obverse inscriptions are more or less abbreviated forms of Matildis Comitissae, Imperatricis or Matildis Impemtricis.
The coinage of the Empress may be assumed to have commenced any time after her arrival in the autumn of 1139. As the later limit of its issue I suggest the second half of the year 1142 : my reasons for this I can better explain when I deal with the coinage of her son.
IV. — COINAGE OF HENRY OF ANJOU.
(PLATE VII. 11-16.)
A coinage by Henry of Anjou, which was known as *' the Duke's money ", is mentioned by Roger of Hoveden in the following passage :
"Anno gratiae MCXLIX, qui est xiin regni regis Stephani,Henricus duxNormannorum venit in Angliam cum magno exercitu, et reddita sunt ei castella multa et munitiones quarnplures; et fecit monetam novam, quam vocabant monetam ducis ; et non tantum ipse, sed omnes potentes, tarn episcopi quam comites et | barones, suam faciebant monetam. Sed ex quo dux ille venit, plurimorum monetam cassavit."
5 The Canterbury coins of the PERER 1C issue read + PILLEM: ON: CANP: which does not, I think, admit of more than one interpretation.
12
116 G. C. BROOKE.
In his introduction to Hoveden's Chronicle (Rolls Series, No. 51, p. Z), Stubbs says of this passage, which appears to be an original statement, and not, like most of the period 1148-69, copied from the Melrose Chronicle :— " The notices of the years 1148 to 1169 which are neither taken directly from the chronicle of Melrose, nor connected closely with the Becket context, are very few, and some of them, I think, of very questionable authenticity ... Of the striking of money by Henry in 1149, called ' the duke's money ', and of the appointment of Henry as justiciar to Stephen in 1153, it is impossible to say that they are false, but equally impossible to say that they are in the least degree probable."
However, it has since become possible to attribute some coins, I think with certainty, to the Duke Henry. They have at one time been attributed to King Henry I, an attribution inconsistent with finds of these coins and their style, &c.; at another time to Henry, Earl of Northumberland, who could not have struck coins at Bristol and Hereford, at which mints some of these coins were certainly struck; but their attribution to Henry of Anjou is now generally accepted.
These coins are always of low weight, varying from 12^ to 17^, usually 15 or 16, grains, and of coarse work, though usually of better execution than those of his mother, the Empress. They may be roughly divided into two issues, (I) with profile bust, (II) with bust full- face ; these being subdivided into I a with reverse of Stephen's first type [PI. VII. 11], I b similar reverse, but variant with voided cross moline and annulets inserted [Pl.VII. 12], I c with reverse similar to Henry I's last type [PI. VII. 13] : the form of bust, and espe-
IRREGULAR COINAGES OF STEPHEN'S TIME. 117
cially the shape of the crown, frequently varies on this type ; II a with reverse as I c but pellets in place of fleurs on limbs of cross and angles of quadrilateral [PI. VII. 14, 15] — there are again varieties in style of bust — II b similar to preceding, but cross on reverse voided. The mints possible of interpretation are: — Of type I a Hereford, of I b Gloucester, of I c CRST, for which I suggest Cirencester in preference to Christchurch, which was at this time, I think, the name of the monastery only, the place being still called Twynham : of II a Bristol, where the same moneyer's name, Arefin, occurs on both the Empress's and the Duke's coins, Sherborne (?), "Wiveliscombe (?).
Henry of Anj ou visited England on four occasions during Stephen's reign :
(1) Late in 1142, sent by his father to Bristol, where he stayed four years, returning to Normandy in 1146.
(2) Spring, 1147, with a small band of adventurers. Failing in his attacks on both Cricklade and Bourton (Gloucestershire?), he returned in May of the same year.
(3) Early 1149, apparently to be knighted by King David. He landed at Wareham, was at Devizes on April 13, and was knighted on May 22 at Carlisle. "We know nothing of the rest of his movements till his return in January 1150.
(4) January 1153, with a force said to consist of 150 men-at-arms and 3,000 foot-soldiers. Eeduced keep of Malmesbury, and raised siege of Wallingford (the object of his expedition), visited Bristol, and made an armed progress through the Midlands. After the death of Eustace, the son of Stephen, in August 1153, nego- tiations were begun and culminated in the Treaty of Wallingford, ratified at Winchester onNovember 6, 1153.
118 G. C. BROOKE.
To return then to Roger of Hoveden : the statement that there was a coinage of Henry of Anjou is obviously true. At the same time, it is equally obvious that the whole of the phrase which I quoted above is confused in respect of chronology: it was not in 1149, but in 1153 that the Duke came with a large army and reduced several castles. Similarly, too, if Henry issued his coinage during the visit of 1149, i.e. between early 1149 and January 1150, and if all the magnates, earls, barons and bishops alike were making their own coinages, it could not have been during the same period, 1149-50, that he suppressed their issues. Hoveden has evidently no clear knowledge of the four several visits of Henry, and has apparently, after confusing the last two visits, made a perfectly true statement, that there was a coinage in Henry's name, and also irregular coinages of various magnates which Henry (presumably at a later visit) suppressed.
Mr. Andrew, Brit. Num. Journ., vol. vi, pp. 365-6, has assigned the profile types of Henry to the visit of 1149, and the full-face types to that of 1153; but, in spite of the statement in Roger of Hoveden, I should move the whole of the Duke's coinage to an earlier date. His use of the type of the first issue of Stephen is probably due to the use of that type by his mother, and I think that the coinage of the Empress and Henry form a more or less continuous currency in the Angevin part of the country. Matilda probably continued to issue coins in her own name until the second half of 1142, when her claim to the throne was abandoned on behalf of her son. This change in the object of the Angevin party is pointed out by Round (Geoffrey of Mandeville, pp. 184-6), who notices the
IRREGULAR COINAGES OF STEPHEN'S TIME. 119
important guarantee in the charter of the Empress to Aubrey de Vere, not later than June 1142, that she would obtain her son's ratification ; and this ratification was given in Henry's confirmation in a charter which is attri- buted to July-November 1142. It is clear that, about the time of Henry's first visit to England, the Empress abandoned her own claim to the throne, which was evidently hopeless, and from this time played an inconspicuous part while her party was held together not by, but in the name of, the young Duke Henry.
It is to this period that I should assign the earliest issue in the Duke's name. Were this issue so late as 1149 I think it unlikely that it would