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GREEK COINS] These are followed by didrachms of the same and other cities until the time of the Persian War. The result of the unpatriotic policy of Thebes and most of the towns of Boeotia was the degradation of the leading city, and the coins reveal the curious fact that Tanagra for a time became the centre of the League-coinage. We now notice the abandonment of the old incuse reverse and the adoption of regular types, the wheel at Tanagra and the amphora at Thebes. These types increase, and indicate several cities during the short period of Athenian influence (456–446 ). The democratic institutions were next overthrown, and Thebes became again the head of Boeotia, and struck alone and in her own name, not in that of the League. To the earlier part of this period belong splendid didrachms with reverse types chiefly representing Heracles, subsequently varied by heads of Dionysus in a series only less fine. With the peace of Antalcidas (387 ) Thebes lost her power, the League was dissolved, and the other Boeotian cities issued a coinage of some merit. In 379 Thebes became the chief state in Greece, and the patriotic policy of Pelopidas and Epaminondas is shown in the issue of the Boeotian coins at the great city without any name but that of a magistrate. Among those which occur is ', or ', who can scarcely be any other than the illustrious general (Pl. I. fig. 18). After the battle of Chaeronea (338 ), swiftly followed by the destruction of Thebes, the coinage is comparatively unimportant, save only for the appearance of new league-money of Attic weight, with the head of Zeus and the figure of Poseidon, between 288 and 244

In Attica the great series of Athens is dominant. Eleusis issued a small bronze coinage of good style in the 4th century. Oropus and the island of Salamis also had an unimportant coinage. The Athenian coinage, apparently introduced by Solon, begins with didrachms on the Euboic standard, which, owing to the fame of the Athenian money,

received the name of Attic. The type is an owl, the reverse having only the incuse square. These didrachms were succeeded under Peisistratus by the well-known Attic tetradrachms with head of Athena on the obverse, and owl and olive-spray on the reverse (Pl. I. fig. 20). The change supposed to have been introduced by Hippias (Pseudo-Arist. Oecon. ii. 4) was merely one of nomenclature; by calling in the coinage and reissuing it at double its old nominal value he only paid back half of what he had received. To what had previously been called didrachms he gave the name of tetradrachms, by which they have since been known. An obol bearing the name of Hippias himself, and types similar to those of Athens, was probably issued by him during his exile. From the time of the Persian wars the helmet of Athena is adorned with three olive-leaves. A rare decadrachm corresponds at Athens to the Demareteia at Syracuse, and was probably issued for similar reasons in commemoration of victory over the barbarians. Otherwise historical events seem to have left little record in the coinage and the Athenians deliberately affected archaism in the style of their coins, which bear no mark of the splendour of Athens as the centre of the sculptor’s art. No doubt commercial reasons dictated this conservative policy, which makes the coinage of Athens a disappointment in numismatics. Her money was precious for its purity not only in the Greek world but among distant barbarians, so that imitations reach us from the Punjab and from southern Arabia, and any change would have injured its wide reception. There are many divisions of silver coinage with the types a little varied, and some different ones; and towards the end of the 5th century (probably in 407 ) gold and bronze were introduced. The gold, of good quality and bad style, was never plentiful. The Macedonian empire put an end to the autonomy of Athens, and when the money is again issued it is of a wholly new style and the types are modified. The great series of spread tetradrachms may be dated from about 229 , and lasted probably until the time of Augustus. The obverse type is a head of Athena with a richly-adorned helmet, unquestionably borrowed from the famous statue by Pheidias in ivory and gold, but a poor shadow of that splendid original, and an owl on an amphora within an olive-wreath. The earliest coins

have the monograms of two magistrates, the later the names of two who are annual (although the nature of their offices is not certain—possibly they were  ), and, during the period 146–86, a third name, of the treasurer of the prytany in which the coin was issued. Among the names are those of Antiochus (175 ), afterwards Antiochus IV. of Syria, and of Mithradates the Great (Pl. II. fig. 1) and his creature, Aristion (87–86 ); but comparatively few of the coins can be dated exactly. Mithradates issued the only gold staters in this series. The symbols in the field often represent local statues of great interest. The abundance of this money shows the great commercial importance of Athens in these later times. Under the empire Athens issued only quasi-autonomous coins, but these are of great archaeological value as they bear representations of the Acropolis, with the grotto of Pan, the statue of Pallas Promachus, the Parthenon, and the Propylaea, with the steps leading up to the latter; of the theatre of Dionysus, above which are caverns in the rock, and higher still the Parthenon and the Propylaea; and of various statues and groups of sculpture. Megara and other places in Megaris issued a small but interesting coinage.

The money of the island of Aegina is of especial interest since with it coinage originated, so far as Greece proper is concerned, probably fairly early in the 7th century There is no good evidence for connecting the institution of the coinage with Pheidon, king of Argos, who established a system of measures and weights, known as the Pheidonian.

The weight of the coins is of course on the Aeginetic standard. The oldest pieces are very primitive didrachms, bearing on the obverse a sea-tortoise and on the reverse a rude incuse stamp (Pl. II. fig. 2). Afterwards the stamp becomes less rude, and later has a peculiar shape. The sea-tortoise is also replaced by a land-tortoise. There are some coins of the early part of the fine period of excellent work. The great currency was of didrachms. The bronze coins are not remarkable, but some appear to be of an earlier time than most Greek pieces in this metal.

The series of Achaea begins under the Achaean League in the time of Epaminondas, with a fine Aeginetic stater and smaller coins in the name of the Achaeans. The later silver coins are either Attic tetrobols or Aeginetic hemidrachms. On all but the earliest, i.e. after about 280 , monograms or symbols indicate the cities which were members

of the league; on the later bronze coins the names are given in full. The type of the silver is the head of Zeus Homagyrius, the reverse bearing the monogram of the Achaeans in a laurel-wreath. The oldest bronze repeats the silver types; the later bear a standing Zeus and a seated Demeter, with the name of the city at full length. About forty-five cities are represented by this coinage.

Corinth is represented by a very large series of coins, the weight of which is always on the Corinthian standard, equivalent to Attic but differently divided,—the Corinthian tridrachm, the chief coin, corresponding to the Attic didrachm. The oldest pieces, of the 6th century (some perhaps even earlier), bear on the obverse Pegasus with the letter, koppa, the initial

of the name of Corinth, and on the reverse an incuse pattern. In course of time (about 500 ) the head of Athena in an incuse square occupies the reverse. The incuse square disappears, as generally elsewhere, in the early period of fine art. Of the age of the excellence and decline of art we find beautiful work, though generally wanting in the severity of the highest Greek art (Pl. II. fig. 3). Pegasus is ordinarily seen galloping, but sometimes standing or drinking, the koppa is usually retained, and the helmet of Athena, always Corinthian, is sometimes bound with an olive-wreath. The smaller coins have the same reverse, but on the obverse a charming series of types, principally female heads, mostly representing Aphrodite. There are some drachms with Bellerophon in a combatant attitude mounted on Pegasus on the one side and the Chimaera on the other. The autonomous bronze money is poor, but often of fair work, and interesting, especially when the type relates to the myth of Bellerophon. In 46 this city was made a colonia; and we have a large and interesting series of the bronze coins struck by it as such,