Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/465

] power. The colony of Massilia was a centre from which the Greek culture passed through Gaul, and ultimately made itself felt even in the remote parts of Britain, attracted by the tin mines, and possibly also the gold, silver, and iron mentioned by Strabo and Cæsar. The existence of a Greek commerce is proved by the designs on the first coins which appear in Britain, modelled upon Greek originals, and shown by the researches of Mr. Evans to be, for the most part, imitations of those of Philip of Macedon. In his masterly work on ancient British coins he has traced them through Gaul into Britain. They were not imported directly, but were copied over and over again by the tribes who used them, becoming more illegible the farther they were re- moved from the Greek influence. This process went on until the inscription and the figures are represented by imitations so barbarous, that they would not have been recognised had it not been for the whole series showing the intermediate changes.

The gold staters of Philip of Macedon (B.C. 360) were highly esteemed by the neighbouring peoples, and passed into circulation far away from the limits of Greece, and were looked upon among the outer barbarians of Gaul, Germany, and Britain as a medium of exchange like the Maria Theresa dollars among the Abyssinians. As these coins passed northwards, they departed more and more from the original types. In Gaul the head of Apollo on the Philippus came to be represented by fragments, among which the laurel crown is most prominent, while on the reverse a rudely-stamped horse and wheel stood for Victory in her chariot. In one Gaulish imitation