an Ionic column, as on coins of Catana. A beautiful tetradrachm
represents the city goddess (Sosipolis) placing a wreath on the head
of the monstrous river-god. A little later is a tetradrachm which has
types of the head of the Gelas as a young man horned, surrounded
by three fishes, and on the reverse Victory in a biga with a wreath
above. Small gold coins, and a didrachm representing a Geloan
cavalryman spearing an Athenian hoplite, are among the coins issued
shortly before the fall of Gela in 405. The money of Himera is of
great interest. The oldest didrachms of Himera, which probably
began in the 6th century B.C., bear on the obverse a cock and on the
reverse an incuse pattern; later, a hen. During the time that Thero
of Agrigentum held the city (before 480 to 472), the crab of
Agrigentum appears on the didrachms. The transitional tetradrachms
bear on the one side a victorious quadriga and on the other a
nymph sacrificing, near whom a little Silenus stands under the stream
of a fountain issuing from a lion’s head in a wall. Leontini is represented
by tetradrachms with the head of Apollo and the victorious
car, which gives place to a lion’s head. The series of Messene begins,
when the town was called Zancle, or, as it is written upon the coins,
Dancle, with early drachms or smaller pieces of the Aeginetan weight,
and of very archaic work. On the obverse is a dolphin, and around
it a sickle; on the reverse the earliest pieces repeat the same design
incuse (as in the earliest coinage of S. Italy), but later we find a shell
in the midst of an incuse pattern. The place is said to have received
its name on account of the resemblance of the harbour to a sickle
(ζάγκλον or ζάγκλη). Next to these first coins of Zancle may be
placed, as the oldest piece of the Attic weight, a tetradrachm with
the Samian types, a lion’s scalp on one side and on the other the
head of a calf, and bearing the inscription ΜΕΣΣΕΝΙΟΝ. This
coin was doubtless struck during the rule of the Samians, who
took the place about 494 B.C., at the instigation of Anaxilaus, tyrant
of Rhegium, by whom they were subsequently expelled (Thucyd.
vi. 4). The next pieces are the earliest of those which have on the
obverse the mule-car and on the reverse a running hare, like the
contemporary coins of Rhegium, with the same devices and equally
of the rule of Anaxilaus. These types cease at Rhegium, though
they continue at Messene, some of the tetradrachms bearing them
being of the age of fine art. About 450 there must have been a
temporary restoration of the Zancleans, who struck a tetradrachm
with Poseidon and the dolphin as types. A fine piece of rather later
date represents Pan caressing a hare. When the town had been seized
(287 B.C.) by the Mamertini, money was struck with their name.
Naxos is represented by early Aeginetic drachms with an archaic
head of Dionysus. Immediately after the year of liberation (461) it
produced a tetradrachm with a head of Dionysus and, on the reverse,
a squatting Silenus, remarkable for the study of anatomical detail
(see Pl. I. fig. 11). These types are repeated in a less severe style some
fifty years later, when also an engraver Procles signs some pretty
didrachms. Segesta is represented by coins from about 480 B.C.
We first notice the head of the nymph Segesta and a hound, probably
the river-god Crimisus; then the same type for reverse associated
with a young hunter accompanied by two hounds—a charming
composition. Another interesting type is a victorious car driven by
Persephone, who carries ears of corn.
In the series of the city of Selinus the first coins are didrachms, bearing on the obverse a leaf and on the reverse an incuse square. The city and the river of the same name no doubt derived their name from the plant σέλινον (probably wild celery, Apium graveolens), the leaf of which must be here intended. Tetradrachms and didrachms of transitional and of good art have devices of more than usual interest. The obverse exhibits a river-god, sometimes the Selinus, sometimes the Hypsas, sacrificing at an altar to the god of healing, while on the didrachm a wading-bird is sometimes seen behind him, as if departing. The obverse of the didrachms shows Heracles subduing the bull, and the reverse of the tetradrachms generally shows a quadriga in which Apollo stands drawing his bow, while Artemis is charioteer. The reference in all these cases must be to the driving away of the pestilence from the neighbourhood of Selinus by the draining of the marshes.
The Siculo-Punic coins, that is, those actually struck by the Carthaginians in Sicily, will best be dealt with under Carthage, below.
The islands of Melita, Gaulos and Cossura near Sicily issued late coins which belong to the African series, showing a curious mixture of Phoenician and Egyptian elements in some of their types. Of Lipara there is heavy bronze money on the Sicilian system, having on the obverse a head of Hephaestus, or sometimes a figure of the same divinity seated, holding a hammer and a vase, which he seems to have just formed.
In the Tauric Chersonese there are interesting coins, in the three metals, of the city of Panticapaeum, the modern Kertch. Their obverse usually bears the head of Pan and their reverse a griffin and other subjects; some are of fine Greek style. The gold is of higher weight than usual, owing to the cheapness of the metal at this place. The Tauric Chersonese, &c. The money of Sarmatia, of Dacia, and of upper and lower Moesia, is chiefly bronze of the Graeco-Roman class. In Sarmatia we may notice the autonomous and imperial pieces of Olbia, which alone amongst Greek cities produced a series of cast bronze coins, and in Dacia the series bearing the name of the province. The Roman colonia Viminacium in upper Moesia is represented by numerous coins of a late time. Of Istrus, in lower Moesia, there are drachms having a strange type on the obverse, representing two beardless heads, side by side, the one upright and the other upside down; on the reverse is an eagle devouring a fish. The style of these coins is in general fair, though it sometimes approaches to barbarism. Apollonia Pontica produced fine silver coins with a head of Apollo and an anchor. There are abundant Greek imperial coins of Marcianopolis and Nicopolis, while Tomi is represented in this class as well as by autonomous money.
The coins of Thrace are of high interest. Here and in Macedonia we observe the early efforts of barbarous tribes to coin the produce of their silver mines, and the splendid issues of the Greek colonies; and we see in the weights the influence of the Asiatic Greeks and the Athenians. The oldest coins are of the early 5th century B.C., and there are Thrace. others of all subsequent times, both while the country was independent and while it was subject to the Romans, until the cessation of Greek coinage. Some of the best period are of the highest artistic merit. So long as they maintain any general distinctive peculiarities of fabric and design, that is, from their commencement until the age of Philip, the Thracian coins resemble those of Macedonia. The money of Abdera comprises tetradrachms and smaller coins of the periods of archaic and fine art, all but the latest of the Phoenician standard, ultimately superseded by the Persic. The principal type is a seated griffin, copied from its mother-city, Teos. The reverse type, an incuse square, has at first four divisions, but in the age of the finest art contains a variety of beautiful subjects, the signets of the magistrates. Aenus is remarkable for the great beauty of some of its coins. These are tetradrachms of Attic weight, of the late archaic and best ages. The interesting turning-point from growth to maturity is seen in a vigorous head of Hermes in profile, wearing the petasus. A little later is the splendid series of facing heads, the broad, severe, and sculptural treatment of which is truly admirable, and far superior to the more showy handling of the same subject in later drachms. A goat is the reverse type of the larger coins. The money of the city of Byzantium begins with coins on the Persic standard of good style, having on the obverse a bull above a dolphin and on the reverse an incuse square of four divisions, and closes with the series of bronze coins issued under the empire. The star and crescent type first appears in the Roman period. Of Maronea, anciently famous for its wine, there is an interesting series, among which we notice fine tetradrachms of Phoenician weight, having on the obverse a prancing horse and on the reverse a vine within a square. The standard changes to Persic, of which there is a beautiful series of didrachms. Then the series is interrupted by the rule of the Macedonian kings, and resumed in a barbarous coinage of the native Thracians, issued in the second and first centuries before the Christian era, consisting of spread Attic tetradrachms with the types of the head of beardless Dionysus crowned with ivy and on the other side his figure. The Greek imperial coins of Pautalia and Perinthus are worthy of notice. Among those of the latter town we may mention fine pieces of Antoninus Pius and Severus, and large coins, commonly called medallions, of Caracalla and other emperors. The money of the imperial class issued by Philippopolis, Serdica and Trajanopolis should also be noticed. In the Thracian Chersonese the most important series is one of small autonomous silver pieces, probably of the town of Cardia. There is a limited but highly interesting group of coins of Thracian kings and dynasts. The earliest are of kings of the Odrysae, including Sparadocus and Seuthes I., who began to reign in 424 B.C., and whose money bears the two remarkable inscriptions ΣΕΥΘΑ ΚΟΜΜΑ and ΣΕΥΘΑ ΑΡΓΥΡΙΟΝ. It closes with the issues of Roman vassals, such as Cotys IV. (A.D. 12–19). Lysimachus, commonly classed as king of Thrace, belongs to the group of
