Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/701

Rh PELOPONNESUS.] lence and decline of art we find beautiful work, though generally wanting in the severity of the highest Greek art. Pegasus is ordi narily seen galloping, but sometimes standing or drinking, the koppa is usually retained, and the helmet of Athene, 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 Bel lerophon. Under the Romans this city was made a colonia ; and we have a large and interesting series of the bronze coins struck by it as such, including the remarkable type of the tomb of Lais. The colonies of Corinth form a long and important series, struck by Acarnanian towns with Corcyra, and in the west by Locri Epizephyrii in Italy and Syracuse. They range from the time of Timoleon, about 340 B.C., to the age of the earlier successors of Alexander, perhaps having ended in the time of Pyrrhus, probably shortly after 295 B. c. The colonies broke loose from Corinth and struck their own money, retaining the old types for commercial purposes, and Syracuse and Locri found it advisable to follow the same course, which in the case of Syracuse was not uninfluenced by gratitude to the mother-city and her noble citizen Timoleon. The coins are distinguished by the absence of the koppa and bear the names or monograms of the cities. There are bronze coins of Patrse as an important Roman colonia, and silver and bronze money of Phlius, both of the period of good art. The coinage of Sicyon, on the ^Eginetic standard dominant in the rest of the Peloponnesus, is disappointing for a famous artistic centre. It begins shortly before the period of fine art ; in that age the silver is abundant and well executed, but the leading types, the Chimaera and the flying dove within an olive- wreath, are wearying in their repetition, and good work could not make the Chimaera an agreeable subject. Small coins with types of Apollo are the only subjects which suggest the designs of the great school of Sicyon. Elis. The money of Elis, or the Eleans, is inferior to none in the Greek world in its art, which reaches the highest level of dignified restraint, and in the variety of its types, which are suggested by a few subjects. The leading types are connected, as we might expect, with the worship of Zeus and Hera and Nice, the divinities of the great Panhellenic contest at Olympia. The prevalent repre sentations are the eagle and the winged thunderbolt of Zeus, the head of Hera, and the figure of Nice. The series begins early in the 5th century B.C. with coins, some of which are didrachms (^ginetic), having as subjects an eagle carrying a serpent or a hare and on the reverse a thunderbolt or Nice bearing a wreath, archaic types which in their vigour promise the excellence of later days. From 471 to 421 B.C., while Elis was allied with the Spartans, such types continue ; the eagle and Nice (sometimes seated) are both treated with great force and beauty, and the subject of seated Zeus is re markable for its dignity. The Argive alliance (421-400 B.C.) seems marked by the pre-eminence given to Hera, whose head may suggest the famous statue of Polyclitus at Argos. This alliance broken, the old types recur. Magnificent eagles, some admirably designed on a shield, and eagles heads, the seated Nice, and fantastically varied thunderbolts mark this age. The types of an eagle straggling with a serpent and an eagle s head are marked with the letters AA. Professor Gardner has conjectured that they may be the work of the great sculptor Daedalus of Sicyon, who at this very time produced a trophy for the Eleans at Olympia. The political events of the age do not seem any longer to affect the coinage. Thus the return of the heads of Hera has no historical significance that we can trace. They are remarkable for their beauty, which is still severe, while around there are marks of the luxurious style of decline, and here the eagle-types have lost their vigour. The age of Philip is soon reached, and shows a marked decline in the coinage. It closes with imperial money, some types of which have a local interest, notably two of Hadrian bearing the head and figure of Zeus, copied from the famous statue by Phidias, of which the earlier currency appears to present no reflexion. 1 Cephal- Cephallenia gives us the early silver coins of Cranii, the money of Leuia, &c. Pale, of charming style, with the figure of Cephalus on the reverse, and that of Same, all cities of this island. Of the island of Zacyn- thus there are silver pieces, usually of rather coarse work, but sometimes of the style of the best Cephallenian money. The coins of Ithaca are of bronze. They are of interest on account of their common obverse type, which is a head of Ulysses. Messene. Returning to the mainland, we first notice the money of Messene, or the Messenians. The earliest coin is a splendid JEgiuetic didrachm having on the obverse a head of Persephone, and excels in design the similar subjects on the money of Syracuse, from which it must have been copied, for it is of about the time of Epaminondas. Still more than the Locrian type this shows the purer style of Greece, which, copying Syracusan work, raised its character. On the See Professor Gardner s Elis, on the whole subject. 643 reverse is a figure of Zeus Ithomatas. The other silver coins are of about the period of the Achaean League. The bronze money is plentiful, but not interesting. Lacedaimon, as we might have ex pected, has no early coins, the silver money being, like so much of that of the Greek cities, of the age of the Achaean League. Among the types of the autonomous bronze pieces may be noticed the head of the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus, with his name. The series of Argos in Argohs begins with coins of an early period. The standard is .ffiginetic. The first pieces are the drachm with a wolf on the obverse, and on the reverse A, the initial letter of the name of the people, in an incuse square ; the hemidrachm, with the forepart of a wolf ; and the diobolon, with a wolfs head. Among coins of the period of good art we must especially notice those which have for the obverse type the head of Hera wearing a Stephanos, a design which is not equal to that of the coins of Elis, the style being either careless or not so simple. The reverse type of one of these coins, a drachm, represents Diomedes stealthily advancing with the palladium in his left hand and a short sword in his right. Of the town of Trcezen there are silver coins of the best period of art. Of the money of Arcadia some pieces are doubtless among Arcadia. the most ancient struck by the Greeks ; and the types of these and later coins are often connected with the remarkable myths of this primaeval part of Hellas, showing particularly the remains of its old nature-worship. The first series to be noticed is that of the Arcadian League ; it begins about 500 B.C. with hemidrachms having the type of Zeus Lycneus seated, the eagle represented as if flying from his hand, and a female head. Of a later time, from the age of Epaminondas, there are coins with the head of Zeus, and Pan seated on the Arcadian Olympus, a series of which the didrachms are very fine. The coins of Heraea begin deep in the 6th century B.C. The earliest have for obverse type the veiled head of Hera, and on the reverse the beginning of the name of the town, sometimes between wavy ornaments. The antiquity of Man tinea is in like manner attested by its money. The silver coins of a very early time have on the obverse a bear, representing Callisto the mother of Areas, who was worshipped here, and on the reverse the letters MA, or three acorns, in an incuse square. Later coins, especially the bronze, have subjects connected with the worship of Poseidon at this inland town. The silver money of Megalopolis is important for art, as we know the city to have been founded in 370 B.C. The types are the same as those of the Arcadians of the same period, the heads of Zeus and of Pan. The silver coins of Pheneus must be noticed as being of fine work. The didrachms of the age of Epaminondas have a head of Persephone, and Hermes carrying the child Areas. The obverse type is interesting as a copy, improved on the original, of the Syracusan subject, as in Locris and Messene. As in Locris, the merit is in the greater force and simplicity of the face, here most successful, the hair being treated more after the Syracusan manner than after that of the Messenians, who simplified the whole subject. The finest coin attributed to Stymphalus is a magnificent didrachm of the age of Epaminondas, with a head of the local Artemis laureate, and Heracles striking with his club, no doubt a subject connected with the Stymphalian birds. The smaller silver coins have on the one side a head of Heracles and on the other the head and neck of a Stymphalian bird, most resembling those of a vulture. There were representations of these birds in the temple of Artemis. The series of Tegea is not important, but two of the reverse types of its bronze coins are interesting as relating to the story that Athene gave a jar containing the hair of Medusa to her priestess Sterope, daughter of Cepheus, in order that she might terrify the Argives should they attack Tegea in the absence of Cepheus, when Heracles desired his aid in an expedition against Sparta. The peculiar position of Crete and her long isolation from the Crete political, artistic, and literary movements of Hellas have been already touched on. It is not until the age when the Macedonians and the Achaean League are striving for the leadership of Hellas that Crete appears in the field of history, but then only as the battle-ground of rival powers. The most remarkable influence of this age was when Athens, by the diplomacy of Cephisodorus, succeeded about 200 B.C. in drawing the Cretans into a great league against Philip V. of Macedon. That this project took actual shape is proved by the issue at all the chief mints of the island of tetradrachms with the well- known types of Athens, to be distinguished from the Atticizing types of other cities at this time. In the meanwhile the inborn love of adventure in her youth had been satisfied by hired service to the surrounding kingdoms, and hence grew a piratical instinct which ultimately cost the Cretans their freedom at the hand of Rome. The oldest coins are probably of about 500 B.C., but few cities seem to have issued many until a hundred years later. Then there is a great outburst of coinage, sometimes beautiful, sometimes barbarously careless, which lasts until Alexander s commercial policy is seen in the appearance of his money with Cretan symbols in lieu of the old autonomous money. As Alexander s successors grew weak and no one of them could control Crete, the old rights were restored and the Cretan cities again coin their own types until the Roman conquest (67 or 66 B.C.). The chief issue is of silver ; bronze is less abundant ; and gold is unknown. The Cretan types