Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/695

Rh ITALY.] NUMISMATICS 637 The peculiarity of the Italian bronze is that in its oldest cast form it vas of such weight as to show the absence in some parts of the country of silver equivalents. It was long after silver had been introduced everywhere, with struck bronze equivalents, before the heavy coinage (oes grave) went out of circulation. The silver money is at first remarkable for the evidence it affords of its ex traneous character in presenting two standards. Afterwards it be comes equivalent to the bronze, or supplies equivalent pieces, and is quite regular. The original condition of the Italian currencies is best illustrated by the money of Etruria about 300 B.C. Etruria, be it remembered, was an early goal of Oriental commerce by sea. At the great mart of Populonia, and in the country round, we find not only silver coins of two different foreign standards, the Attic and the so-called Persic, but also cast KS grave and later struck bronze pieces issued before the cast money had fallen into disuse. Without discussing the origin of these various currencies it is enough to note that they bear witness to the effects of a widely- spread commerce, and show that here was the meeting -point of the native system and of foreign ones. In Italy the a. s grave long ruled. Originally it was libral, the principal coin being the as, nominally of the weight of a Roman libra or pound. In the coinage of Rome the as does not seem to have ever exceeded the weight of ten ounces, or ten-twelfths of its proper weight. On the other hand, the a?s grave of Etruria is occasionally heavier. The Romans made the quarter denarius, called the sestertius, the silver equivalent of the libral as ; the earliest weight of this coin was about 17 156 grs. ; and, the value of silver to bronze being as 1 to 250, we thus obtain 4290, or about ten libral ounces, as the original weight of the libral as. The suc cessive reductions of the as belong to Roman numismatics, and it is only necessary here to add that they affected the local bronze coinages as Italy fell under the rule of the republic. The silver coinages, on the other hand, survived for a longer time throughout the Greek cities. Their coin corresponding to the sestertius, as the equivalent of the libral as, was the Attic diobolon, which, originally of 22 5 grs., was at once reduced to about 18, and of course reduced the didrachm at the same time, which, really Attic, became appa rently Phoenician ; it was the principal silver coin of the cities of Magna Graecia. The purely Italian currency rules in northern and middle Italy. The great Greek coinages are of the wealthy marts which dotted the coasts of Campania, Calabria, Lucania, and the l&amp;gt;ruttii. Similarly we find Etruscan inscriptions on the coins of Etruria, and Oscan on those of middle and lower Italy, where they are eclipsed in number and style by the Greek issues. Beginning in the north of Italy, the first coins that strike us are those of Populonia in Etruria. The silver money of this place is generally of the peculiar fabric in which the reverse is left perfectly plain. The tes grave of upper and middle Italy is of great import ance. It presents the great oblong masses of uncertain weight, multiples of the as, which wear an aspect of great antiquity, though the elephant on one shows us that they were cast after the wars of Pyrrhus. Latium is particularly rich, even when we exclude the coinage of Rome (to be treated later). Samnium shows us a curious revival of native silver money after the local coinage of the Italian towns had been almost abolished by Rome. It was the result of the Social or Marsic War of the confederate tribes, who struck for Italy against the Roman supremacy during the years between 90 and 88 B.C. The coins present the head of Italia, and reverse types of which the most striking are warriors, varying in number, taking an oath over a sacrificial pig, and a bull for Italy goring the pro strate wolf of Rome. The inscriptions are Oscan or Latin, rreek Certain of the Greek towns of Italy deserve special mention for owns the splendour of their coinage, beautiful in style and delicate in )f Italy, execution. In Campania (leaving the Romano - Campanian for later notice) the two most interesting currencies are of Cumse and Xeapolis, the modern Xaples. dilute presents silver money of the archaic and the early fine style, in which last we first observe the peculiar naivete of western Greek art before it had attained elabora tion. The abundant silver coins of Neapolis are of the early and the late fine periods and of the decline. The types are usually the head of the siren Parthenope, more rarely Hera and Pallas, favourite goddesses of the Greeks of Italy ; the reverse presents the man-headed bull common on Campanian money, here not a river- god as in Sicily, but the tauromorphous Dionysus. The bronze money is of good style, and age has beautified it with the rich blue or green patina due to the sulphurous soil. When we reach Calabria the Greek money startles us in astonishing wealth of beauty in the currency of the opulent and luxurious mart of Tarentum, second only to Syracuse in the whole West, of all the main periods of art, and including in the age of its greatest prosperity and its fall (the time of the contest with Rome) the most abundant gold issues of any Greek city. The gold money of Tarentum is a delight to the eye, with the varied beauty of its gem-like types, which, while they show the gem-engraver s art, prove the medallist s know ledge of the rich but opaque metallic material. Several heads of divinities adorn these coins, and the chief reverse types relate to the legendary founder, Taras, son of Poseidon. Always a youth, he appears as a charioteer, perhaps as a horseman, and ridin&quot; on a dolphin, the familiar Tarentine type. The most remarkable sub ject represents him with outstretched arms running to Poseidon seated on a chair. The silver coinage is chiefly of Attic didrachms, of low weight to admit the interchange of their sixth, the diobol with the Roman libral as. The prevalent type is Taras seated on a dolphin ; in earlier money the type is single, and repeated incuse on the reverse ; afterwards this subject occupies the reverse, and, itself a charming composition, is delightfully varied. On the early fine coins the people or demos, personified generally as a youth, often holding a spindle, occupies the obverse, but gives place to a horse man in various attitudes, giving great scope to the engraver s skill ; probably he is Taras himself, save when he is a full-grown warrior. These representations illustrate the famed horsemanship of the Tar- en tines, and refer to contests and games which were probably local. Heraclea in Lucania shows us didrachins of the fine age, with heads of Pallas and subjects connected with Heracles : the contest with the Nemean lion is most skilfully treated, and the series is very char acteristic of the gem-engraver s art. The powerful city of Meta- pontum begins with early coins having the incuse reverse, and then displays a long series stretching down to the decline of art. The constant type, which recurs with the heraldic instinct of the West, is the ear of bearded wheat, reminding us of the &quot;golden harvest &quot; (xpvffovv Otpos) which the Metapontines dedicated at Delphi. Like the Tarentine badge, it first occupies the obverse, then the reverse, balanced by a charming series of heads of divinities. Persephone is the most appropriate counterpart ; we also note heads of Con- cordia ( Ofj.6vota) and Hygieia, marked by an ingenuous grace peculiar to the early fine work of the Western school, of Leucippus the founder as a helmeted warrior (occurring on a rare tetradrachm and the usual didrachms), and many other types of unusual variety and originality of conception. The ancient Sybaris, famous for her luxury, has left archaic coins ; she was destroyed by Croton in 510 B.C., restored for a time, and then became an Athenian colony, speedily receiving the name of Thurium about 443 B.C. The result of the support of Athens in the days of Pericles was the issue of a splendid series of coins. Not only is the face of the coin occupied by the head of i allas, and the great currency, as at Athens, of tetradraclnns, but the severe beauty of the style points to the direct influence of the art of central Greece. The head of Pallas is covered by a helmet adorned with a splendid figure of the sea-monster Scylla. The reverse shows a bull butting (Gorptoj), in a strikingly ideal form. Probably the obverse type affords the nearest reflexion of the masterpiece of Phidias, or at least the closest following of his style. The finest coins are unsigned tetradraclnns, but didrachms of cognate style give the beginning of the name of the engraver 4&amp;gt;. He reappears at Terina (of which town presently). Velia, the last colony of Phocrea, whose citizens sailed away to the far west rather than submit to the Persian tyrant (544 B.C.), shows coins from its foundation. The pieces of fine work witness to an Asiatic origin in the types of the lion, devouring the stag or as a single device, while the obverse displays the head of Pallas so much in favour in Magna Grfecia. The style, which lacks strength but not beauty, is Italian, and we see no trace of the pictorial qualities of Ionian art, which indeed had not taken its mature form when the exiles left the mother country. The Bruttii are the first native Italians whom we find striking a fair Greek coinage. Their gold and silver is of late style, the gold presenting the head of Poseidon and Amphitrite on a sea-horse, the silver the head of Amphitrite and th&amp;lt;v figure of Poseidon, both with other subjects. Caulonia has early coins running down to the early fine period, mythologically interesting in type, and the later with a beautifully -designed stag on the reverse. For Croton the ruling tj*pe is the tripod. The eagle occurs on the obverse and the tripod on the reverse. The bird of Zeus is inferior to that at Agrigentum, as this again is inferior to the eagle of Elis. We note also beautiful types of Heracles seated, one of marvellously delicate work, on the reverse of which Apollo aims an arrow at the Python from behind his tripod, a remarkable composition. The other Heracles types form a most interesting series of recollections, &quot;memory sketches,&quot; of a famous statue, the pose of which recalls the so-called Theseus of the Parthenon, while the obverse presents the head of the Hera Lacinia worshipped on the promontory close by. The latest coins, like the parallel ones of Metapontum, are weak and pretty. The money of the Locri Epizephyrii affords two curious types of reverse, Eirene seated, of fine style, with the legend EIPHNH AOKPftN, and the later yet more remarkable subject of Roma seated while Pistis crowns her, the legend being PfiMA III2TI2 AOKPfiN. The historical reference is as yet un discovered. There are beautiful coins of the little-known town of Pandosia, bearing the head of the nymph Pandosia(?); the reverse has the river Crathis, a splendid head of the Lacinian Hera, and Fan, being signed by an engraver who may be the same as the 4&amp;gt; of ThuriunCthough the style is different and the execution gem-like. Rhegium was closely connected with Messene in Sicily opposite, and thus the great Sicilian currency of tetradrachms prevails.