The Gold Coinage of Asia before Alexander

•/I.

THE BRITISH ACADEMY

?lie

Gold Coinage of Asia before Alexander the Great By

Percy Gardner Fellow of the Academy

[From

the Proceedings

of the British Academy, Vol.

London Published for the British

Academy

By Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press Amen Corner, E.C, Price

Two

Shillings

and Sixpence

net

HI]

THE GOLD COINAGE OF ASIA BEFORE ALEXANDER THE GREAT PERCY GARDNER

By

FELLOW OF THE ACADEMY January 29, 1908 I

in

PROPOSE to give a brief account of the issues of gold money sketch of this

Asia down to the time of Alexander the Great.

kind

have

may

A

numismatists are apt to dwell on small broader aspects of the subject, while the

its uses, since

points, and to neglect historians of Greece have often lacked that close familiarity with

with connecessary before one can use their testimony Coins are of all the materials for the reconstrucsuccess.

coins which fidence

is

and

tion of ancient history the most trustworthy and objective, together with inscriptions, but their testimony must needs be weighed by

a hand used to them before

What

its

value can be fully appreciated.

attempt is a chronological survey of the between the Persian state and the subject countries and and electrum coin. cities, as they are reflected in the issues of gold the view now consider to have we shall so And in doing carefully I

shall especially

relations

of gold coin was the exclusive privilege generally held, that the issue of the Great King, a privilege jealously guarded and enforced. to strike silver coins Satraps of the Persian Empire were allowed and the Greek cities of needs for the expeditions, military freely

But no of the coast struck silver for ordinary purposes of trade. issue of gold coin was allowed, save under exceptional circumstances. generally accepted, yet it is not easy to by quotations from ancient writers. Herodotus seems ' of such a view when he writes,^ Darius wished to the influence under

Although

establish

this view

is

it

leave such a memorial of himself as

no king had ever

left

last degree of purity,

before

:

he issued

therefore, refining his gold to the But this is, of course, no assertion of a principle of state, coins of it.'

Nor

that no one else should issue coin. issue of gold coin

was from the »

first iv.

in fact

is it

likely that the

looked upon as something quite

166.

El

«

!Mtturrni\(;^ or -nil. luiin.-ii Tlu*

oxcYptionnl wu-t

thr

(ii>t

\»sw of pim*

tip»t

p)ltl

prixilr^" of nuthoritv

wa.s

almo>t uiuonHciouNly. ftlowly nntl |Krlu»ps inorv RolitUy

lixttl

rigitUy tlum

ilitl

Thcrv

In,

««>

tliu-

Crocsus, not to

tt»

likely tluit tlu* priiu'iplr thai the isHUi' of ^old roiii

It >et'iii7t

D.-triiiH.

ai Ai)i:\n

and

:

tlu*

onr which

iiuuK-

way

its

ap' to a^» it iM-came maintaijUMl it cvni inorr

I'nuii

Hoinan Kmpirr

of INrsia.

tluit

howrvcr, unothi-r H this apply white to the issues p>ld or electnim, of that mixture of ^old and silver which was in onlinary use for roinaj^e in the earliest period ? ; Cntnlng^n-

of drfik

f'oiiin

Part 1895.

II, vol.

i,

where

in

ffu-

liritixh

Batielon, Tmid diit Moniuiien tjrcrrpuiit ft rotuahiHg, further references. Also Revup NnmiHinntique, 1894 and

Mtutfiivt: lottia, Introduction.

*

ix. 83.

THE GOLD COINAGE OF ASIA

3

Argos, or by the Cymaean Demodice, wife of the Phrygian Midas, who was daughter of Agamemnon, King of Cyme, or ])y the Athenians, Erichthonius and Lycus, or by the Lydians, as Xenophanes asserts, or by the Naxians, according to the view of Aglosthenes."" Some of these views are now out of court, especially those which give the origination of coins to Plieidon of Arcjos or to Athens. It is universally allowed that

But

money

appears on the western coast of Asia

first

may still be doubted whether it originated with the Mermnad kings of Lydia or with Miletus and other Ionian wealthy

Minor.

cities

it

of the coast.

In favour of the Lydians

He

support their claim. tS)v

THJ-^l^

tdixev,

voixiaixa

it

may be urged

that Herodotus seems to

writes of the Lydians,^ TtpQrot avdp(a-n(av, xpvrrov

koi

apyvpov

KO\l/d[X(voi

^xprjcravTO'

There seems to be some connexion

TrpuiTot 8e Koi KctTn/Aot lyivovTo.

between the clauses of the sentence

:

that

is,

the fact that the

Lydians were pedlars or hucksters was the reason for their invention of coin.

And

here

it

may be allowed

that we can cite a parallel

:

the

great extension of the Aeginetan currency is explained by the fact At the that the Aeginetan s were the pedlars of Greece Proper. same time the words of Herodotus are too ambiguous to be pressed.

To

say that the Lydians first struck coins in gold and silver is not the as to say that they first issued money of mixed gold and There is thus some justification for those who or silver electrum.

same thing

have regarded Herodotus as referring to the coins of gold and coins of

we shall presently see, by Croesus. Another ancient authority for the Lydian origin of

silver, issued, as

found

in the phrase of Julius Pollux,"

the same breath with

claries

and

coins has been

who speaks oiYvyahas

staters of Croesus

;

and

xpvcros in

this passage

has been taken as a proof that the early electrum staters were issued by Gyges, To this argument, however, there lies an insuperable objection in the fact that in another passage" Pollux speaks of the

gold of Gyges as notable for purity it could not, then, have been electrum. Gyges, as we are told by Herodotus,- dedicated at Delphi many objects in gold. It was from this that his gold had its reputa;

and Pollux, in bringing it into line with darics and staters ; of Croesus, no doubt mistakes his authorities. Certainly no coins of pure gold of the time of Gyges are known.

tion

The mere fact that Lydia possessed in great abundance the raw material of the electrum coinage can scarcely weigh very heavily, since that material was also easily accessible to the loiiians. The only definite proof of an early issue of coins in Lydia *

i.

94.

-

Onomasticon ,

iii.

87.

^

Ibid., vii.

U8.

is

furnished * i.

14.

hv

tlu" irgt'iul

I'lti-trtim

F A

rt)ii»i,

\FE

I

in anhiiio K'ttrrs

uiu\

h\ M. Six) ou some

(fii-st

To llicse tlmf, vww if

a> thr nnnu' of Kinij Alviittrs of Lvdia.

Mrnntinir it in vU-nr will pnikfutly n-liint. I he that niXYpt M. Six's n^ndini;, nil that it would provr would (ilO r)(ll, uol I.vdiiui tt>ins were isMuni in the nipi of Alvattos n.

coins %»c

(

tlmt coin* tiri^inattxl with thr Ly«iijuis. statiT of clectruni i* the nMuarkahh-

(4)uitc '

.

tm lariy

which

Ihmiph

I*lmnes nn«l whirh was nhnost certainly >trucl\

Ihi'M-

a.s

one of thf

in

toins

name of

thr

cities

lojiia.

f>{

.M«»t nun>iMnatist>, I/cnonnunt, Six, lltad,

and others are

disj)o.sed

to lUvsign the earliest eleetnini coins to early Lydian kinp*, (iy^es and his suiwsstirs. But the most recent writer on the suhject,

M.

H.ilH'lon, is dispostnl, alike

the evidence of extant the

(i reeks

of As i1

the iiuirkH

HUiil>ll

i)f Ivinki-ix,

AlAl)i..\n

or jHissihU of local liimncial

This nistoiu iiii^lit ofKtirs jjUrtnmttfin^ tlu* (juality of tlir roin. well U" tlu' Mlixtiwor of n systi-in of privnt*- coinui,'r. Tcrric'li «lr la ('ou|»tTif ol)M.Tvt>

'

tlmt on i-urlv roins

'The i-xrhan^*

inarkv

iHMiiTs tlu V iiMxl on thrir

rvpons

plaiVN faniiliiN

«»f

("hiim \\v

liiid

iimiiv privafj-

piurallv liiiiittHJ to thr iff^ion of the nrn luv to |»uf lus their nmrk> nanit> of

Ixiiitj i

indix idiiaU, or thinp*.'

In larlv India also

small in^its linulatixl hearini; many n>nnttrniarks, wliieh m/iv have lx"cn slani|K".'' I

examine

(Hiuiot

M.

the theories of

in detail

Hahtloii as to the

whiih the Ionian Iwmkers stampi-d the coin; and in that matter I caraiue

least

I>efore

the types of early coins are Certainty is not to he (piite

j)ossil)le

the rise of tla

that

j)rivate

rei^ular

civic

(xjiniujcs. I^>ng ax^o IVofessor Krnst Cnrtins called attention to the prolwibility that in .some cases, at all events, very early issues of coins

may have taken

place in connexion with the wealthy temples of Ionia, where specie tende.

Numismatic Chronicle, 1875. Revue Xumufmatique, 189-4-5, four papers.

4. foil.

'l\o.

THE GOLD COINAGE OF ASIA

7

but a small proportion of gold. They belong to cities in the neighbourhood of Miletus and Ephesus in the south of Ionia. The only

mint which can be identified with high probability is that of Miletus, to which city we can attribute the coins which bear the type of a lion

recumbent and looking back. The above-mentioned coin of Phanes belongs to this class, but its mint city is not certain it was found at :

To

Halicarnassus.

this class also

belong the numerous electrum coins

found by Mr. Hogarth on the site of the Artemisium at Ephesus. (2) There is a class of coins, also of pale electrum, which follows the Euboic standard (stater, grammes 16-84, grains 260). The types are very rude, and often unintelligible ; but the lion's scalp, the eagle,

and the ram can be made out on some specimens. Mr. Head mentioned some coins of this class but they are best represented by a hoard of electrum, found at Samos ^ in 1894. M. Babelon would attribute the whole of them to Samos but of course this assignment ;

;

is

very uncertain.

There

(3)

is

a somewhat later

of coins, which follow the

class

standard of Phocaea (stater, grammes 16-60, grains 256). These are of darker colour, and contain a larger proportion of gold. Indeed,

Mr. Head has suggested that they were intended to pass

as gold, not

They can be assigned to mints with far greater certainty than the previous coins ; some, indeed, are of certain attribution, such as

as electrum.

:

—

Phocaea. Ohv. O Seal (phoca). Rev. Two square punch-marks. Munich. Weight, 16-50 gr. (PI. I. 3). Rev. Two punchCyzicus. Ohv. Tunny, bound with fillet. marks in one a scorpion. Brit. Museum. Weight, 16-32 gr. ;

(PI. I. 4).

Lampsacus.2

qJ)-^

divided into four

Forepart ;

two

of

winged

Rev.

horse.

divisions deeper struck.

Paris.

Incuse

Weight,

14-99 gr.

There

is

also a stater, with the type of a griffin's

M

I^

head

^

and the

which has been given with great probability Other attributions, of a less convincing kind, to Methymna to Teos. and Mytilene in Lesbos, Smyrna, Cyme, and other cities are proposed inscription

by M. Babelon.

(Ztos

.^),

All of these coins belong, so far as we can judge, Smyrna ; and they may be mostly assigned to

to the cities north of

the period mentioned by Eusebius in bis list of thalassocracies as One the time of the greatest sea-power of Phocaea, b.c. 578-34. *

2

'

Revue Numismatique, 1894^

p.

149, PI. III.

Traite, PI. VIII. 1.

Babelon, Babelon, in Revue Numism., 1895,

p.

18

;

cf.

Head,

Cut.

:

Ionia, p. xxi.

^

of

tlu-

ri.

L\(li

kiii^ at

lu^lu->t

Imvi'

mini

of uiuTilain

Iuks

is

figured,

rapitai of Sunlt> issue, Ix-iiriii^ as

a UoiTs head,'' the nanu- of Kin^ Alyiittrs of Lvdia. h'tters

v\

.Mcnmiud

to aiiv of tlir

a.v«i^'n

\

iiistiiut.'

'llu tla.vsi(iiatioii of iltvtnim iiioiuv to iiuh

TniUvoiN lAMioriiiant

M. Six

tlu-ir

ili-^nt

|M)\M>.vM-).

of the weight of a stater of 10-S9

fractions of a half, a third, a sixth, c oi'

IS tlum, for

iiiui in

!iiip|)lii'?»

born

unrioiil timcN s*)lilior» ii.«»

«liM-u\i>n*ian Empire. HenHlotus - informs u.s, a wealthy Lydinn named I'ythius had

a>

amassetl four millions of darics, lacking seven thousand. The IVi-sian archers, as the darics were called because they bore tin type of the holding the l>ow, were but too well known and too potent in

king

the domestic affairs of Greece.

Alexander at I'xbatana and Susa

The ''

vjusl slore> of them found by imindated the whole (4reck world

with gold, and doubtless formed the material out of which Alexanders own coins were struck.

many of

A

century Jigo the daric was a comparatively rare coin in our museums, the obvious reason Ixjing that those foiuid were concealed finders, and them has appeared

by the

is almost impossible westeni Asia.

at in ;

once melted down.

A

great abundance of

To

determine their find-spots but they certainly range over a great part of recent years.

Can they be classified as regards period I^normant tiied to find on them the portraits of the successive reigning monarchs of Persia. • A close Mr. Head, with his usual sanity and moderation, writes .'

'

:

examination of the gold darics enables us to perceive that, in .spite Some are of their general similarity, there are differences of style. archaic,

and date from the time of Darius and Xerxes, while others

are characterized by more careful work, and these belong to the later ' Anahatvi, i. 7, 18, where the talent of silver (6.000 .si^rli) is equated with ^ Hflt. vii. 28. 300 daric5. ^ At Susa Alexander captured 0,000 talents of darics, besides unmiiited g-old and silver. Diodoru?, xvii. 66. * Lydia and Persia, p. 28.

THE GOLD COINAGE OF ASIA

13

monarchs of the Achaemenian dynasty.' More recently, M. Babelon ^ thinks that he has found a clue in a hoard of 300 darics found in the canal of Xerxes by Mount Athos, which he ventures to divide, on the ground of minute differences in the portrait and beard, between Darius and Xerxes.

For my part

prefer to stop at the point exceptional coin of the British Museum has as type the king not bearded but beardless (Pi. I. 7).^ M. Babelon proposes to attribute it to the younger Cyrus ; but there appears no sufficient reason for

kings came

such assignment.

to the throne young.

coin in question issued by Cyrus,

I

An

marked by Mr. Head.

In fact several of the Persian

And

the extreme rarity of the

a strong reason against supposing that it was who must have used gold coins in great quantities is

to pay his Greek mercenaries, who received a daric or more a month. It is probable that the staters of Croesus and of Persia brought to an end the early electrum issues of Ionia.

some

We

can in the case of

such as Teos and Phocaea give good reason for the complete ceasing of this coinage at a definite date, since these cities were abandoned by their inhabitants through fear of Persian conquest. cities

Probably at other cities at about the same time coinage ceased. The king of Persia was beginning to assert his monopoly of gold coinage, and it is probable that he regarded the issue of electrum as a violation of that monopoly.

The

III.

loiiian Revolt.

We

have next to treat of a well-marked and homogeneous set of electrum coins, struck on the lighter or Milesian standard, and evidently contemporary one with the other, but decidedly later than the early Ionian electrum. These coins have often been discussed,

but numismatists seem to have missed, almost by a hair's breadth, what seems to me their definite chronological attribution. Most of

them have a pronounced cannot be ascertained

:

—

civic character,

though of some the mints

Samos. Ohv. Reii.

Forepart of bull r., looking back. Incuse square divided into four. 14-04 (PI.

I.

British

Museum, weight

10).

Ahydos. Ohv.

Eagle to

Rev.

Similar.

1.,

looking back, standing on hare.

Museum, weight a dolphin in place of the hare.

'

Traite, p. 262.

^

On

British

the reverse of this coin

is

14-09.

Sometimes

a small head incuse, bearded and horned.

u

IMKKM ii)iNli

Museum.

>imilaritv of the>e eoijis one

standard an«l

8).

—

sqimn*, (Uvidcil into four.

l:^!)^ (IM.

r.

mint:

I.

in style

of execution,

long >eon that they nui>t

Ix-

is

wei^r|,t

to another, alike

in

uioneUir\

so great tlmt numismati.sts have

closely connected.

Thev

are even of the

ha.s shown that thev jxissess the same pro30 |)er ((Mit., and several have the leaf or

same colour, and analysis j)ortion of gold, alK)ut

palmettc ornament. The coin of Chios alone

The type

rest.

is

differs

somewhat

in

appearance from the the incuse of ;

rather more archaic in character

the reverse is smaller and deeper. But since the weight and colour of the coin arc just like those of the others and as it contains the same projxirtion of gold, it can .scarcely be doubted tliat it l^elongs to the sanie group.

The

coin

marked with a cock has been given to Dardanus

Tniarl, that with the horse to

Cyme

in Aeolis, that

in the

with the sow to

Lesbos; but none of these attributions can be considerwl more than |x)ssible. Even the attributions to Abvdos and Clazomenae may be called in (juestion. But tlie mints of Chios,

Methymna

in

aiul hence there Samos, and I.Ampsacus .seem firmly established a reasonable probability that the other coins also were issued bv ;

arises cities

of Aeolis or Ionia.

In a paper in the X^imismatic Chronicle '

1890,

p. :^1.5.

'

M. Six maintained that

THE GOLD COINAGE OF ASIA

15

He would identify them with the Chiau pentadrachms which according to Xenophon ^ Callicratidas gave in 406 to the sailors of his fleet. M. Babelon this view he sums as 'ou follows, bien, ces pieces rightly rejects up these coins were all issued from the mint of Chios.

;

a types varies mais de fabrique identique, out etc frappees dans un seul et

de

unique

villes

atelier

ou bien,

ces pieces representent le monnayage vertu d'une alliance monetaire.' In stating,

;

associees en

however, their date as long after the beginning of the M. Babelon brings them down far too late.

fifth

century,

In my opinion the view of Mr. Head as to their date is the only As early as 1887 ^ he accepted for coins of this class admissible one. And in 1892 ^ he the date of the beginning of the fifth century. that to observed be struck before b. c. 500. they probably began

But a series of coins issued by a set of Asiatic cities in conjunction at about the date of 500 surely can be nothing else than the money struck by the revolted cities of Ionia when they rebelled against King Darius b. r. 500-494. The allied cities of Ionia would need

much money

to pay the sailors and soldiers of the fleet ; and being in against the King of Persia they would not hesitate to

full revolt

invade his monopoly of issuing gold coin. The base composition of the coins shows them to be probably money of necessity issued at a time of strain, and their finished execution is just what we should expect from Ionian workmen of the late archaic period. Herodotus ^ gives us the details of the composition of the Ionian

Lade ; it was as follows Miletus 80 ships, Teos 17, Chios 100, Erythrae 8, Phocaea 3, Lesbos 70, Samos 60. It would not be a matter of surprise if the

fleet

at the battle of

My us

Priene 12,

:

3,

fit in with the account of the historian. Yet some respects they agree perfectly. Chios appears in Herodotus as furnishing the most numerous and determined of the contingents and the weight and chai'actei' of the coins are so clearly Chian, that M. Six, as we have seen, regarded them as all struck in the island. Samos and Lesbos are represented alike in the fleet and in the coins. Lampsacus, Abydos, and Dardanus joined the revolt, but were reduced

coins failed perfectly to in

;

by the Persian Daurises, son-in-law of Darius'^; while Artaphernes and Otanes captured Cyme and Clazomenae ^ before the battle of Lade.

Thus every one of the

cities

money of Miletus

is

coinage of Miletus 1

*

Hellen.

Cat. Ionia

i.

;

6, 12.

But the fact is that the electrum known to us. It is probable

unfortunate.

is

is known to have That we have no revolt-

suggested by the coins

l)een in revolt against the Persian yoke.

as yet imperfectly

"

-

Traite,

Introd. p. xxv.

^

ii.

1, 198.

vi. 8.

« .

A'vni. Chron., 1887, p. 281.

Hdt.

v. 117.

'^

Hdt.

v.

12-3.

rii(u

16

or

ni\c.>

i.i

riir.

nuinot with cvrtaintv (U-tinpnHh to ltH»k for as

hv no

iuivihn

Milt^sinn.

Milt-siiii) iiiuoii^ iiii|K>s.Hil)li


flic

(\/.iiviii'H Inking

r»(H)

liilcst

li^O.

diitr in

n-^anlftl hh the

of j^old coin l)v I'hilip of M/iriHhm. Ktntors of Cv/icus is ii n)iii puhlislud

tlif

thr iiiMriplioii

Ix-rtriiii;

i»f

\(

EAEYOEIMA,

whith

hius

l»v

Invn

It is, rvpinktl ii-s ft n-finiitx' to AK-xiuulrr's victory at the (? raninis. however, more than doiihtfiil wlicthcr the people of Cy/icus, wlio had alnvidv enjovi'tl freei

KH)

n. «.

\*r

ijinnot

morv I'xnrt kin>«lof Hut wr must not forpi-t Ihr tvlchritv o( thr

a

tlio

of the ritv on the I'lopoiitis

|M>Hiti«tn

AthfiUHU 1 1

HMii S|wirLiin

ot

toinN*-

than thirtv-HCVcn) indiratrs a

nuniUr of »

t

withdut

Irll

liiNtoiv ot'

tin-

I

he til\.

wiiir of the diHlricI, nnr

the .stations nt the

lu-nr

wliirh nii^ht jinxliuvu

tltt't>.

naturiil to think tliat Hu-

is

\f\ni;MN'

in{iriii

riir.

wi(

oninurcijil as

tli
ons and to hayc Inrn subject to the kin/.^,

sometimes thcv wen-

in tlu-

hands of revolted

.satraps, sonu-times

they

The fiu'ls ap|x*ar to have enjoyed almost complete independence. are only to l)e occasionally pithered from slis.

the stater, dnuhnj, iind

i»re

They

I'.jilu'siis,'

eonten»|) that tht'sc

IVrsin anil

thi* iviur ('oiitiiiuiMl l)v

xcxdi.mn

attrihufini^

to

tlu*

tinu-

wrien of doulilc daricM (IM

wen*

firhl iitsiuil

AlfxandiT and

n\>c thcv Jxliinjj to the time of transition.

Ufon-

i\\v fall

his ^rnt'rals.

Hnt the darir

In

of II,

of

/mv

itstlf canii'

to lui rn«l. Iking sniKMM-tKtl hy [\\v nhnndant p)ls of Ah-xandtT, which wrn- issncd in many parts of his

va.st

dominions

in

l'',uro[H'

and Asia. And with tht- daric the and other cities also came to hii

rlix'tnim coiiis of Cv/irns IMicx-ara,

end,

ivs

well as the gold coins of I^mjpsncns.

Thus

end.s the first chapter of the history of imperiid loinage. Tlu* stvoinl chapter had M-anxdy iM'ifun, when the death of Alexjinder thrvw everything into confusion. When the dynasties of the Diadochi wen." estahlishwl, es|)oeiftllv the Selcucid/ie in Syria and tht IMolemies in

Kgypt, we

ftre

presente