Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/923

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GREEK COINS]
NUMISMATICS
 889

sometimes of monstrous types, which recall the designs of Phoenicia and Assyria. The most remarkable symbol is the triskeles or tetraskeles symbol, an object resembling a ring, to which three or four hooks are attached. It is supposed to be a solar symbol like the swastika. The oldest money has a boar or his fore-part and an incuse. This is succeeded by a series with an animal reverse, and then by one in which the hooked ring is the usual reverse type. The fourth series bears Lycian inscriptions, which give the names of dynasts and places. A fifth series is characterized by the type of a lion’s scalp. This coinage reaches as late as Alexander’s time. It is followed by silver and bronze money of the Lycian League before Augustus and under his reign, but ceasing in that of Claudius—the usual types of the chief silver piece, a hemidrachm, being the head of Apollo and the lyre. The districts of Cragus and Masicytus have coinages, as well as the individual cities. Besides this general currency there are some special ones of towns not in the League. The imperial money rarely goes beyond the reign of Augustus, and is resumed during that of Gordian III. There is a remarkable coin of Myra of this emperor, showing the goddess of the city, of a type like the Ephesian Artemis, in a tree; two woodcutters, each armed with a double axe, hew at the trunk, from which two serpents rise as if to protect it and aid the goddess. Phaselis is an exceptional town, for it has early Greek coins, the leading type being a galley.

The coinage of Pamphylia offers some examples of good art distinctly marked by the Asiatic formality. Aspendus shows a remarkable series of Persic didrachms, extending from about 500 B.C. to Alexander’s time. The oldest coins have the types of a warrior and the triskelion or three legs, more familiarly associated with Sicily; it is probably a Pamphylia. solar symbol. These coins are followed by a long series with the types of two wrestlers engaged and a slinger. The main legend is almost always in the Panphylian character and language. There are also very curious imperial types. The money of Perga begins in the 2nd century with Greek types of the Artemis of Perga. Her figure in a remarkable Asiatic form occurs in the long imperial series. Bronze coins earlier in date than the silver money with the Greek types have the Pamphylian title of the goddess, ϜΑΝΑΣΣΑΣ ΠΡΕIIΑΣ, “of the Lady of Perga.” Side has at first Persic didrachms of about 480 B.C., their types the pomegranate and dolphin and head of Athene; then there are money with an undeciphered Aramaizing inscription of the 4th century and figures of Athene and Apollo, and late Attic tetradrachms their types being the head of Athene and Victory. These were carried on by Amyntas, king of Galatia, when he made his mint in Side (36 B.C.). The pomegranate (σίδη) is throughout the badge of the city.

The money of Pisidia is chiefly imperial. There is a long series of this class of the colonia Antiochia. The autonomous coins of Selge have the wrestlers and the slinger of Aspendus in inferior and even barbarous copies. Of Isauria and Lycaonia a few cities, including Derbe and the colonies of Iconium and Lystra, strike coins, chiefly of Pisidia, &c. imperial time.

Cilicia, for the most part a coastland, is numismatically of high interest. To Aphrodisias is assigned an interesting series of archaic coins with a winged figure and a pyramidal fetish-stone; in the 4th century Aphrodite is represented in human form seated between sphinxes; the Parthenos of Pheidias is also represented. Celenderis has a coinage Cilicia. beginning in the 5th century, with a horseman seated sideways on the obverse, and on the reverse a goat kneeling on one knee. Mallus has a most interesting series of silver coins, some with curious Asiatic types. Of Nagidus there are Persic didrachms of good style, one interesting type being Aphrodite seated, before whom Eros flies crowning her, with, on the other side, a standing Dionysus. Soli has silver coins of the same weight, the types being an archer or the head of Athene, one variety imitated from remote Velia, and a bunch of grapes. The coinage of Tarsus begins in the 5th century with Persic staters representing a Cilician king on horseback, and a hoplite kneeling. In the 4th century it was the mint of a large series of satrapal coins, issued by Pharnabazus, Mazaeus and other governors (Issus, Mallus and Soli also sharing the cost of minting). The chief type is the Baal of Tarsus. The autonomous bronze of the Seleucid age shows the remarkable subject of the pyre of Sandan, the local form of Heracles; and there is a long and curious imperial series. The coinage of Anazarbus (imperial, showing rivalry with Tarsus), Seleucia on the Calycadnus, Mopsus, and the priest-kings of Olba are also full of interest.

The coinage of the great island of Cyprus is, as we might expect from its monuments, almost exclusively non-Hellenic in character. The weight-system, except of gold, which is Attic, is Persic, save only in the later coins of some mints, struck on the reduced Rhodian standard, and a solitary Attic tetradrachm of Paphos. The art is usually very stiff down to about 400 B.C., with Cyprus. types of Egypto-Phoenician or Phoenician or of Greek origin. The inscriptions are in the Cyprian syllabic character and the earliest coins resemble the early Etruscan in being one-sided. The prevalent types are animals or their heads, the chief subjects being the bull, eagle, sheep, lion, the lion seizing the stag, the deer and the mythical sphinx. The divinities we can recognize are Aphrodite, Heracles, Athene, Hermes and Zeus Ammon. But the most curious mythological types are a goddess carried by a bull or by a ram, in both cases probably Astarte, the Phoenician Aphrodite. The most remarkable symbol is the well-known Egyptian sign of life. The coins appear to have been struck by kings until before the age of Alexander, when civic money appears. The mints to which coins are ascribed with certainty are Salamis, Paphos, Marium, Idalium and Citium. The coins of the Salaminian line are in silver and gold. The earlier, beginning with Evelthon about 560 B.C., have Cyprian, the later Greek inscriptions, the types generally being native, though after a time under Hellenic influence. They are of Evagoras I., Nicocles, Evagoras II., Pnytagoras and Nicocreon, and the coinage is closed by Menelaus, brother of Ptolemy I. The Phoenician kings of Citium, from about 500 to 312, strike silver and in one case gold, their general types being Heracles and the lion seizing the stag. Bronze begins soon after 400 B.C., and of the same age there are autonomous pieces in silver and bronze. There is Greek imperial money from Augustus to Caracalla (chiefly issued by the Κοινόν). The most remarkable type is the temple at Paphos, represented as a structure of two storeys with wings. Within the central portion is the sacred stone, in front a semicircular court.

The earliest coinage of Lydia is no doubt that of the kings, already described. The next currency must have been of Persian darics (gold) and drachms (silver), followed by that of Alexander, the Seleucids, and the Attalids of Pergamum, and then by the cistophori of the province of Asia. There is an abundant bronze coinage of the cities, autonomous from the formation of the province, Lydia. and of imperial time, but mostly of the imperial class. The largest currencies are of Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira and Tralles. The art is not remarkable, though good for the period, and the types are mostly Greek.

The coinage of Phrygia has the same general characteristics as that of Lydia, but the workmanship is poorer. Among noteworthy types must be noticed Men or Lunus, the Phrygian moon-god. There are curious types of Apamea, surnamed Kibotos or the Ark, and more anciently Celaenae. One of Severus represents the legend of the invention of the double pipe, a type Phrygia. already described. Of the same and later emperors are coins bearing the famous type of the ark of Noah and the name ΝΩΕ. The town of Cibyra is remarkable for a silver coinage of the 1st century B.C., of which the large pieces have the weight of cistophori.

Galatia has little to offer of interest. Trajan issued bronze imperial coins for the province, and there is imperial money of Ancyra, Pessinus and Tavium. The only remarkable regal issue is that of Amyntas, Strabo’s contemporary, who struck tetradrachms at Side in Pamphylia.Galatia.

With the coinage of Cappadocia we bid farewell to Greek art and enter on the domain of Oriental conventionalism, succeeded by inferior Roman design coarsely executed. There is one large imperial series, that of Caesarea, intended for general circulation in the province. The issues range from Cappadocia, &c. Tiberius to Gordian III., and are in silver and bronze. The most common type is the sacred Mount Argaeus, on which a statue is sometimes seen—a remarkable type curiously varied. There are scanty issues of a few other towns. There is an interesting series of coins of the kings of Cappadocia, beginning with Ariarathes I. (c. 332–322 B.C.), who struck Persic drachms at Sinope and Gaziura, and continuing with other kings, called usually Ariarathes or Ariobarzanes, who struck Attic drachms and occasionally tetradrachms. The rare tetradrachms of Orophernes, a successful usurper (158–157 B.C.), bear a fine portrait. The coins of Archelaus, the last king set up by Antony (36 B.C.A.D. 17), have a good head on the obverse. Of Armenia there are a few silver and bronze coins of late sovereigns.

The great series of Syrian money begins with the coinage of the Seleucid kings of Syria, only rivalled for length and