Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/705

Rh ASIA MINOK.] NUMISMATICS 647 of the goddess, frequent in this series, stands between the personified rivers Cayster and Cenchrius (see Head s Epliesus}. Erythraj has fine coins, mainly transitional, with a horseman about to mount his steed, and a flower. These are Persic, and after a long pause there is a series of Rhodian weight of about Alexander s age, and later Attic, having types connected with Heracles. The series of autonomous bronze is large. The money of the Ionian Magnesia begins with the issue of Themistocles, when he was dynast under Persian protection. In the decline of the Oriental power the city strikes her own money, with the types of an armed horseman and a humped bull butting, surrounded by the labyrinth pattern which symbolizes the river Maeander. The weight is Persic. After a long pause we observe the currency recommencing with spread tetradrachms of the decline of art, more delicately executed than those of Cyme and Myrina, with a bust of Artemis and a figure of Apollo standing on a mseander and leaning against a lofty tripod, Miletus, the whole in a laurel-wreath. The great city of Miletus is dis appointing in its money. The period of its highest prosperity is too early for an abundant coinage, yet in the oldest electrum issues we see the lion of Miletus. It is not, however, until the confederacy with Athens after the battle of Mycale that there is a common silver coinage, with the lion s head and a star, of Attic weight. Later money with the same types seems to show the influence of the Carian princes. It closes with beautiful coins bearing the head of Apollo facing and the lion looking back at a star, with the inscrip tion EF AlAYMflN IEPH, showing, whatever be the word under stood, that this was the &quot;sacred&quot; money of the famous temple at Didyma. Next come fine coins of about Alexander s time, differing from the last in having the head in profile. The weight is equally Phcenician. The types continue through a series of various stand ards with very rare Attic gold staters. Phocsea is represented by two very interesting currencies : an electrum series of hectse like that of Cyzicus, but of inferior purity, characterized by a seal, the badge of the town, beneath the type ; and also a widespread early silver coinage, apparently common to the Western colonies of the city. The autonomous money is wholly anterior to the Persian Smyrna, conquest. Smyrna first strikes late Attic tetradrachms, with the turreted head of Cybele or the city or the Amazon Smyrna, and an oak-wreath sometimes enclosing a lion. A rare silver coin presents on the reverse the seated figure of Homer, also occurring in the autonomous bronze, of which there is very much, partly of imperial time as well as a long series of imperial bronze. Among the bronze coins we notice those with the head of Mithradates. The earlier imperial coins are of delicate work. Those of the young Vespasian are historically interesting. Teos. Of Teos there are early /Eginetic didrachms, bearing on the one side a seated griflin with curled wings and on the other a quadri partite incuse square. These ceased at the moment when the popu lation left the town, destroyed by the Persians, and fled to Abdera, where we recognize their type on the coinage of the time. There are much later coins of less importance. Chios. Chios and Samos, islands of Ionia, are represented by interesting currencies. Chios struck electrum and abundant silver. The type was a seated sphinx with curled wing, and before it stands an amphora, above which is a bunch of grapes ; the reverse has a quadripartite incuse. The coins begin before the Persian conquest (490 B.C.), and are first archaic and then of fine style. There is apparently a gap in the later Persian period. Afterwards there is a cessation of money until Sulla s time, when silver is again struck and bronze seems to begin. Samos. The coinage of Samos is artistically disappointing, but as a whole has many claims to interest. The earliest money must have in cluded electrum, but we are unable to discriminate between the rival claims of Lesbos and Samos ; some pieces, however, cannot reasonably be doubted to belong to Samos. The silver begins before 494 B.C., when history comes to our aid to make a marked division. The types are the well-known lion s scalp and bull s head, of Oriental origin, both probably connected with the worship of Hera. They are continued in the next period, and the Athenian conquest (439 B.C.) is only marked by the introduction of the olive-spray as a constant symbol on the reverse and the more important change from degraded Phcenician to Attic weight. Notwithstand ing the regularity of their coin type, the Samians, having joined the anti-Laconian alliance after Conon s victory in 394 B.C., struck the coin with Heracles strangling the serpents already noticed under Ephesus ; the Rhodian weight is thus introduced. &quot;We next notice an Alexandrine tetradrachm of the class of those issued after the battle of Magnesia. There is nothing further of interest until the long series of imperial money, which, though wanting in beauty of style, is not without interesting types. Of the mythological subjects the most remarkable is the Asiatic figure of the Samian Hera, which clearly associates her with the group of divinities to which the Ephesian Artemis belongs. Very noticeable also are the representations of Pythagoras, seated or standing, touching a globe with a wand (see Professor Gardner s Samos). Caria. The money of Caria does not present any one great series. Auto nomous silver coins are not numerous except at Cnidus, and rarely of good style. Antiochia has late Attic silver pieces ; as this city was founded by Antiochus I., its coinage is important as fixin- the date of similar money of Miletus. There are imperial coins of this town, and of Aphrodisias, worthy of notice. Cnidus is repre sented at first by archaic coins going down to about 480 B.C. Their weight is ^Egiuetic, and the types are a lion s head and the head of Aphrodite. There are, after a break, coins of Rhodian weight about 400 B.C., others preceding Alexander, and others, a^ain after his age. An imperial coin represents the famous statue of Aphrodite by 1 raxiteles. Of Hahcarnassus there arc small silver pieces of the age of good art, and others of subsequent times, including that of the Carian kings, and the silver money continues after Alexander Among the imperial types the head of Herodotus is noteworthy ihere is late silver money of lasus with the head of Apollo and a youth swimming beside a dolphin around which his arm is thrown. It is interesting to compare this type with the similar subjects of Tarentum. Idyma has silver pieces of fine style on which the head of Apollo is absolutely facing, as sometimes at Catana in Sicily ; the reverse type is a fig-leaf. Myndus on its late silver perhaps shows in the head-dress of Isis a trace of the Ptolemaic occupation. Take has also late silver ; and of Termera we have the rare coin of its tyrant Tymnes, dating about the middle of the 5th century and struck on the Persic system. The Carian kings prove their wealth by their series of coins, which bear the names of Mausolus, Hidrieus, and Pixodarus, Artemisia, the widow of Mausolus, being absent. The weight is Rhodian ; the types are the three-quarter head of Apollo, and Zeus Labrandeus standing, holding the labrys or two-headed axe. Mau solus strikes tetradrachms, Pixodarus gold of Attic weight. His silver is the best in the series, and clearly shows the Ionian style in its quality of expression. Calynma heads the islands of Caria. Its money begins with Calymna curious archaic Persian double drachms bearing a barbarous hel- and Cos. meted male head and on the reverse a lyre incuse. Later there are coins of about 400 B.C. The series of Cos begins with small archaic pieces, the type a crab and the reverse incuse. Next come fine coins of transitional style and Attic weight, with the types of a discobolus before a tripod, and a crab. The wrestlers of Aspendus may be compared with the remarkable obverse type. The common break then interrupts the issue, and a new coinage occurs before the time of Alexander. The weight is Rhodian, the types the head of Heracles and the crab. After Alexander there is another currency which ceases about 200 B.C. It is resumed later with the new types of the head of ^Esculapius and his serpent. This continues in Roman times. The bronze of that age comprises a coin with the head of Hippocrates and on the reverse the staff of j^Esculapius. Xenophon s head likewise occurs, and the portrait of Nicias tyrant in Cos (e. 50 B.C.) on his bronze. Imperial money ends the series. Of the island of Megiste there are charming little silver pieces of about 400 B.C. with Rhodian types, the head of Helios in profile and the rose. The island of Rhodes, great in commerce and art, has a rich Rhodes, series of coins. The want of variety in the types at the city of Rhodes almost limited to the head of Helios and the rose is dis appointing, but happily the principal subject could not fail to illus trate the movements of art, one of which had here its centre, and the continuity of the money affords valuable metrological evidence. The city of Rhodes was founded c. 408 B.C. on the abandonment by their inhabitants of the three chief towns of the island, Camirus, lalysus, and Lindus. The money of Camirus seems to begin before 480 B.C. The type is the fig-leaf, the weight ^Eginetic, later degraded or changed to Persic. , The coins of lalysus, of the 5th century, follow the Rhodian standard. Their types are the forepart of a winged boar and an eagle s head of a vulturine type. The money of Lindus, apparently before 480 B.C., is of Phcenician weight, with the type of a lion s head. The people of the new city of Rhodes adopted another standard, the Attic, and very shortly abandoned it, except for gold money, using instead that peculiar weight which has been called Rhodian but may better be considered to be heavy Phoenician ; this they retained until the last years of their independ ent coinage, when they resumed the Attic. The types are the three- quarter face of Helios and the rose. The first series was issued from the building of Rhodes to 304 B.C., the chief coins being the gold stater and the silver tetradrachm. There is a grandeur and noble outlook in the countenance of Helios which well befits his character, but the pictorial style is evident in the form of the hair and the expression, which, with all its reserve, has a dramatic quality. From 304 to 186 B.C. there is a change of type, and the head of Helios is radiate. The profile head which now also occurs, and the constant pictorial handling of the hair, not, as before, in its outlines only, but also in its masses, show the qualities of Lysippus. It is perplexing to note that the standard of weight is below that of those coins which Ptolemy I. struck for Alexander IV. on the Rhodian weight ; but this difficulty disappears if we regard the standard as Phcenician, and both the Rhodians and Ptolemy as borrowers. The Alexandrine tetradrachms, which were issued after the battle of Magnesia, find a place in the Rhodian mintage.