Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/487

 Medal Engraving. 463 Fic. 227. — Silver ^iglM- BAKCLAV liEAU, C«' ifge, Fkite I. Fig. 27. difTerence between the several types is in the style, which, in the later pieces, betrays a surer and more skilful hand. The hollow square, too, as a rule^ is more regular (Fig. 228) ; but, curiously enough, a number of double gold darics, with Greek letters, and consequently issued after the break up of the empire, still preserve the rude incuse square of earlier days on the reverse (Fig. 229). We have no criterion, therefore, to guide us in classifying these coins in a con- tinuous series. The archaic appearance of the coins in question, upon which the devices adopted at the outset appear to the last day of their issue, was intentional, and not the result of ignorance or inability to do better. Nothing would have been easier for the Persians than to require engravers to renew their matrices, so as to bring them in harmony with the rapid progress obser- vable in every other department during the fifth century b.c. If they abstained, it was because prudence counselled them not to perplex their ordinary customers, their sub- jects and neighbours, who were accustomed to the coinage, and whose Suspicions would have been aroused had any alteration been made in its appearance. We know that this was the guiding motive which caused the monetary magis- trates at Athens, under whose supervision the tetradrachms were minted, to adhere to the archaic types and style in an age close upon Phidias. The device which occurs on the face or obverse of the siglos, whether struck by the royal otiicers or in the cities and by the dynasts subject to Persia, is that of the king under various aspects, whilst the type on the reverse, being the special mark of the people or the local dynast (by whom it was issued), changes in different localities. The devices exhibited on the double siglos, of which the largest issues seem to have been made, are figured below (Fig. 230). The relative position of the king in his chariot with his Jehu, seen on the obverse, is identical with that of the signet of Darius. Here, however, the monarch is not engaged in the chase of the king of beasts ; the horses are at walking pace. Fig. aaS.— Silver siglos. jM., Fig. 38. Fig. 220. — Double duic. JM., Fig. a». UoM.