Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/703

Rh ASIA MINOR.] NUMISMATICS 645 Bos porus, Colchis, Pontus. Papilla - gonia. of the western coast were concerned, and there is a fresh outburst of coinage, which, in remembrance, follows the well-known types of Alexander. When the province of Asia was constituted and the neighbouring states fell one by one under Roman rule, the auto nomy of the great cities was generally reduced to a shadow. Still the abundant issues of imperial coinage, if devoid of high merit, are the best in style of late Greek coins, and for mythology the richest in illustration. The oldest money is the electrum of Lydia, which spread in very early times along the western coast. This coinage, dating from the 7th century B.C., has an equal claim with the jEginetic silver to be the oldest of all money. Probably the two currencies arose at the same period, and by interchange became the recognized cur rency of the primaival marts ; otherwise we can scarcely explain the absence of Asiatic silver, though it is easy to explain that of European electrum or gold. The electrum of the coins is gold the precious metal washed down by the Pactolus with a native alloy of a fourth part of silver. Its durability recommended it to the Lydians, and it had the advantage of exchanging decimally with gold, then in the ratio 13 3 to silver. But this commercial advan tage allowed the issue of electrum coins on silver standards, while it was natural to coin them on those of gold ; hence a variety of weight-systems perplexing to the metrologist. The first coins were undoubtedly struck by a Lydian king, probably as early as about 700 B.C. They follow the Babylonic silver standard. The ob verse is plain and merely marked with lines, the original rough surface of the die, while the reverse has three depressions, an ob long one flanked by two squares. Later the same people issued money on the Phoenician silver standard. This double currency, as Head suggests, was probably intended for circulation in the interior and in the coast towns to the west, the Babylonic weight being that of the land trade, the Phoenician that of the commerce by sea. Ultimately Crcesus abandoned electrum, and, reducing the Phoenician weight by one -fourth, the proportion of silver in the electrum, he produced a Babylonic gold stater, and again by simi larly reducing the Babylonic weight he obtained a Euboic gold stater. His silver was Babylonic only, the silver stater exchanging as the tenth of the Euboic gold stater. These results are ex plained by the metrological data given earlier in this article. The Greek marts of the western coast were not long in imitating the example of Lydia ; hence a series of early electrum staters, on the Phoenician weight, of Miletus, Ephesus, Cyme, Chios, Clazomense, Lampsacus, Abydos, and Samos, with smaller pieces which add other mints to the list. The Euboic weight naturally found its way into the currencies, but was as yet limited to Samos. Phocsea, Teos, and Cyzicus, with other towns, followed from a very early period the Phocaic standard, which for practical purposes may be called the double of the Euboic. Consequently their stater was twice as heavy as the Euboic gold stater. They alone before Crcesus issued gold money, which was superseded at Phocita and Cyzicus by electrum. This is the main outline of the native coinage of Asia Minor before the Persian conquest. Its later history will appear under the several great towns, the money of Persia being treated in a subsequent place. The first countries of Asia Minor are Bosporus and Colchis, the coins of the cities of which are few and unimportant. The auto nomous coinages of the cities of Pontus are more numerous, but none of them are archaic or deserve to be characterized as fine. There are also imperial pieces. The bronze coins are sometimes large and often thick. The only place meriting a special notice is Amisus, which almost alone of the cities of Pontus seems to have issued autonomous silver money. This is continued under the emperors in the form of Roman denarii and larger pieces. The common sub jects of the bronze money of this place relate to the myth of Perseus and Medusa, a favourite one in this country. The regal coins are of the old kingdoms of Pontus and of the Cimmerian Bosporus, of the two united as the state of Bosporus and Pontus under Mithradates VI. (the Great), and as reconstituted by the Romans when Polemon I. and II. still held the kingdom of Mithradates, which was afterwards divided into the province of Pontus and the kingdom of Bosporus. The early coinage of the kingdom of Bosporus is of little interest. Of that of Pontus there are tetradrachms, two of which, of Mithradates IV. and Pharnaces I., are remarkable for the unflinching realism with which their barbarian type of features is preserved. Mithradates VI., king of Bosporus and Pontus, is represented by gold staters and tetra drachms. The portrait on the best of these is fine despite its dramatic quality, characteristic of the later schools of Asia Minor. The kings of Bosporus struck a long series of coins for the first three centuries after the Christian era. Their gold money is gradu ally depreciated and becomes electrum, and ultimately billon and bronze. They bear the heads of the king and the emperor and are dated by the Pontic era. In Paphlagonia we must specially notice the coins of the cities Amastris and Sinope. The silver pieces of the former place bear a youthful head in a laureate Phrygian cap, probably representing. Men or Lunus, Amastris, the foundress, being seated on the reverse. On the late bronze money the bust of Homer occurs. There are also bronze coins of the imperial class. The silver pieces of Sinope are plentiful. I he types are the head of the nymph Sinope and, as at Istrus, an eagle preying on a dolphin. Bithynia is represented Bitliy- by a more important series. Of the province generally there are nia. Roman silver medallions of the weight of cistophori (to be presently described) with Latin inscriptions, and imperial bronze pieces with Greek inscriptions. There is a long series of imperial bronze of Apamea as a colonia. The ordinary silver coins of Chalcedon strikingly resemble on both sides those of Byzantium, a circum stance confirmatory of the statement that the two cities were colonized at nearly the same time from Megara. Of Cius also called Prusias ad Mare, there are gold staters and smaller imperial silver pieces. Hadriani and Hadrianuthera issued imperial bronze reverse type is a female head wearing a tiara on which are three turrets, probably that of the town personified. Of the tyrants of Heraclea there are silver coins of Clearchus, of Timotheus and Dionysius ruling together, and of Dionysius ruling alone. Of the imperial class there is a large series of Nicaea, and there are many coins of Nicomedia. The series of Bithynia closes with the money of its kings, consisting of Attic tetradrachms and bronze pieces. The tetradrachms bearing the name of Prusias are of Prusias I. and II. The bronze coins with the same name, some of which are fine, cannot be otherwise classed than to Prusias I. or II., since we do not know by which of the two they were issued. Of Nicomedes II. and III. there are only tetradrachms. The fine Greek coinage of Asia may be considered to begin with Cyzicus. Mysia. Cyzicus is in numismatics a most important city. The famous electrum Cyzicene staters were struck here for nearly a cen tury, from 478 to 387 B.C., as Head conclusively argues (Num.. Cliron., 1876, p. 277). During that whole period they were not only the leading gold coinage in Asia Minor but the chief currency in that metal for the cities on both shores of the vEgean ; for it must be remembered that their alloy of silver was not allowed any value. The actual weight is of the Phocaic standard, just over 248 grains, so as to be equivalent to a Babylonic gold stater. The division was the hecta or sixth. The abundance of the staters and hectae and the variety of their types, which usually are common to both denomi nations, led some numismatists to suppose that Cyzicus was a cen tral mint striking for neighbouring cities their own coinage, but our present knowledge of the types of these cities shows that this was not the case. But it is certain that the staters of Cyzicus served as gold for other great marts which struck little or no money in that metal, and contented themselves with issuing the hecta ; hence an instinct that they were striking for the use of others may have led the Cyzicene moneyers to use great freedom in the choice of subjects. Many they invented and some they borrowed, retaining for themselves the distinctive badge of the tunny -fish beneath the type. This type occupied the obverse of the coin, while the reverse was invariably the quadripartite incuse square in four planes of the so-called mill-sail pattern. The coins are very thick and the edges are rude. The art is frequently of great beauty, though sometimes careless. After the earlier examples it shows the dominant influence of painting, being characterized by flowing lines and an intensity of expression in some of the finest examples, and always recalling painting or relief rather than sculpture in the round. The subjects are heads, figures, groups, and animals. The silver coinage of Cyzicus is distinctly local. It comprises beautiful tetradrachms of the Rhodian standard. The obverse bears a head of Persephone with a veil on the back, wound round her head, and a wreath of ears of corn. This is an example of the best Greek art, equally simple, delicate, and graceful, and in the expressive style of the Ionian school. Above the head is the inscription 2J1TEIPA, which may be compared with KOPH 2OTEIPA KYZIKHNflN, on a late copper coin, accompanying a head which is probably that of the younger Faustina in the character of Per sephone. The reverse type of the finest tetradrachms is a lion s head in profile above a fish. Both late autonomous and imperial coins in bronze are well executed and full of interest, the two classes running parallel under the earlier emperors. Lampsacus is represented by a long series of coins. There are Lamp- archaic and fine silver coins with a janiform female head, and on sacus. the reverse that of Athene in a Corinthian helmet, besides a few of other types. Contemporary with the later silver are electrum staters of Rhodian weight with a half- Pegasus and peculiar quad ripartite incuse square. These are succeeded by splendid gold staters with various types of obverse and the half-Pegasus on the reverse. The most remarkable type is a bearded head with streaming hair in a conical cap, bound with a wreath, singularly pictorial in treatment as well as in expression, and roughly executed as if by a great artist unused to medal work. In contrast to this is a most carefully executed head of a Maenad with goat s ear, still markedly in a painter s style. This head is in repose ; that of another Maenad with human ear is marked by its expression of