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GREEK COINS] These are followed by didrachms of the same and other cities until the time of the Persian War. The result of the unpatriotic policy of Thebes and most of the towns of Boeotia was the degradation of the leading city, and the coins reveal the curious fact that Tanagra for a time became the centre of the League-coinage. We now notice the abandonment of the old incuse reverse and the adoption of regular types, the wheel at Tanagra and the amphora at Thebes. These types increase, and indicate several cities during the short period of Athenian influence (456446 B.C.). The democratic institutions were next over-thrown, and Thebes became again the head of Boeotia, and struck alone and in her own name, not in that of the League. To the earlier part of this period belong splendid didrachms with reverse types chiefly representing Heracies, subsequently varied by heads of Dionysus in a series only less fine. With the peace of Antalcidas (387 B.c.) Thebes lost her power, the League was dissolved, and the other Boeotian cities issued a coinage of some merit. In 379 B.C. Thebes became the chief state in Greece, and the patriotic policy of Pelopidas and Epaminondas is shown in the issue of the Boeotian coins at the great city without any name but that of a magistrate . Among those which occur is EIIAM, or EIIAMI, who can scarcely be any other than the illustrious general (Pl. I. fig. 18). After the battle of Chaeronea (338 B.c.), swiftly followed by the destruction of Thebes, the coinage is comparatively unimportant, save only for the appearance of new league-money of Attic weight, with the head of Zeus and the figure of Poseidon, between 288 and 244 B.C.In Attica the great series of Athens is dominant. Eleusis issued a small bronze coinage of good style in the 4th century. Athens. Oropus and the island of Salamis also had an unim- portant coinage. The Athenian coinage, apparently introduced by Solon, begins with didrachms on the Eubcic standard, which, owing to the fame of the Athenian money, received the name of Attic. The type is an owl, the reverse having only the incuse square. These didrachms were succeeded under Peisistratus by the well-known Attic tetradrachms with head of Athena on the obverse, and owl and olive-spray on the reverse (Pl. I. fig. 20). The change supposed to have been introduced by Hippias (Pseudo-Arist. Oeconz. ii. 4) was merely one of nomenclature; by calling in the coinage and reissuing it at double its old nominal value he only paid back half of what he had received. To what had previously been called didrachms he gave the name of tetradrachms, by which they have since been known. An obol bearing the name of Hippias himself, and types similar to those of Athens, was probably issued by him during his exile . From the time of the Persian wars the helmet of Athena is adorned with three olive-leaves. A rare decadrachm corresponds at Athens to the Demareteia at Syracuse, and was probably issued for similar reasons in commemoration of victory over the barbarians. Otherwise historical events seem to have left little record in the coinage and the Athenians deliberately affected archaism in the style of their coins, which bear no mark of the splendour of Athens as the centre of the sculptor's art. No doubt commercial reasons dictated this conservative policy, which makes the coinage of Athens a disappointment in numismatics. Her money was precious for its purity not only in the Greek world but among distant barbarians, so that imitations reach us from the Punjab and from southern Arabia, and any change would have injured its wide reception. There are many divisions of silver coinage with the types a little varied, and some different ones; and towards the end of the 5th century (probably in 407 B.C.) gold and bronze were introduced. The gold, of good quality and bad style, was never plentiful. The Macedonian empire put an end to the autonomy of Athens, and when the money is again issued it is of a wholly new style and the types are modified. The great series of spread tetradrachms may be dated from about 229 B.C., and lasted probably until the time of Augustus. The obverse type is a head of Athena with a richly-adorned helmet, unquestionably borrowed from the famous statue by Pheidias in ivory and goid, but a poor shadow of that splendid original, and an owl on an amphora within an olive-wreath. The earliest coinsS83 have the monograms of two magistrates, the later the names of two who are annual (although the nature of their offices is not certainpossibly they were Xarovp-ylat), and, during the period 14686, a third name, of the treasurer of the prytany in which the coin was issued. Among the names are those of Antiochus (175 B.C.), afterwards Antiochus IV. of Syria, and of Mithradates the Great (Pl. II. fig. 1) and his creature, Aristion (8786 B.C.); but comparatively few of the coins can be dated exactly. Mithradates issued the only gold staters in this series. The symbols in the field often represent local statues of great interest. The abundance of this money shows the great commercial importance of Athens in these later times. Under the empire Athens issued only quasi-autonomous coins, but these are of great archaeological value as they bear representations of the Acropolis, with the grotto of Pan, the statue of Pallas Promachus, the Parthenon, and the Propylaea, with the steps leading up to the latter; of the theatre of Dionysus, above which are caverns in the rock, and higher still the Parthenon and the Propylaea; and of various statues and groups of sculpture. Megara and other places in Megaris issued a small but interesting coinage. The money of the island of Aegina is of especial interest since with it coinage originated, so far as Greece proper is concerned, probably fairly early in the 7th century B.C. There Aegina is no good evidence for connecting the institution of the coinage with Pheidon, king of Argos, who established a system of measures and weights, known as the Pheidonian. The weight of the coins is of course on the Aeginetic standard. The oldest pieces are very primitive didrachms, bearing on the obverse a sea-tortoise and on the reverse a rude incuse stamp (Pl. II. fig. 2). Afterwards the stamp becomes less rude, and later has a peculiar shape. The sea-tortoise is also replaced by a land-tortoise. There are some coins of the early part of the fine period of excellent work. The great currency was of didrachms. The bronze coins are not remarkable, but some appear to be of an earlier time than most Greek pieces in this metal. The series of Achaea begins under the Achaean League in the time of Epaminondas, with a fine Aeginetic stater and smaller coins in the name of the Achaeans. The later silver coins are either Attic tetrobols or Aeginetic nchaeta hemidrachms. On all but the earliest, i.e. after about 28o B.C., monograms or symbols indicate the cities which were members of the league; on the later bronze coins the names are given in full. The type of the silver is the head of Zeus Homagyrius, the reverse bearing the monogram of the Achaeans in a laurel-wreath. The oldest bronze repeats the silver types; the later bear a standing Zeus and a seated Demeter, with the name of the city at full length. About forty-five cities are represented by this coinage. Corinth is represented by a very large series of coins, the weight of which is always on the Corinthian standard, equivalent to Attic but differently divided,the Corinthian tridrachm, the Corinth. chief coin, corresponding to the Attic didrachm. The oldest pieces, of the 6th century B.C. (some perhaps even earlier), bear on the obverse Pegasus with the letter Q, koppa, the initial of the name of Corinth, and on the reverse an incuse pattern. In course of time (about 50o B.c.) the head of Athena in an incuse square occupies the reverse. The incuse square disappears, as generally elsewhere, in the early period of fine art. Of the age of the excellence and decline of art we find beautiful work, though generally wanting in the severity of the highest Greek art (Pl. II. fig. 3). Pegasus is ordinarily seen galloping, but some-times standing or drinking, the koppa is usually retained, and the helmet of Athena, 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 Bellerophon. In 46 B.C. 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 coins of the " colonies " of Corinth form a long and important series, struck by Acarnanian towns with Corcyra, and in the west by Locri
There are bronze coins of Patrae as an important Roman colonia, and silver and bronze money of Phlius, both of the period of good Patrae, art. The coinage of Sicyon, on the Aeginetic standard Pat rac Bc dominant in the rest of the Peloponnesus, is disappoint- , ing 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. The money of the Eleans is inferior to none in the Greek world in its art, which reaches the highest level of dignified restraint, and in the Elis. 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 Victory, the divinities of the great Panhellenic contest at Olympia, and the coinage is rather the money of Olympia than of the Eleans as a civic community. The prevalent representations are the eagle and the winged thunderbolt of Zeus, the head of Hera and the figure of Victory. The series begins early in the 5th century B.C. with coins, some of which are didrachms (Aeginetic), having as subjects an eagle carrying a serpent or a hare, and on the reverse a thunderbolt or Victory bearing a wreatharchaic 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 Victory (sometimes seated) are both treated with great force and beauty, and the subject of seated Zeus is remarkable for its dignity. The Argive alliance (421400 B.C.) seems marked by the pre-eminence given to Hera, whose head may suggest the famous statue of Polycleitus at Argos. About the same time was issued a didrachm with a noble head of Zeus (Pl. II. fig. 4), which probably recalls, though it is not a copy of, the Zeus of Pheidias. This alliance broken, the old types recur. Magnificent eagles, some admirably designed on a shield, and eagles' heads (see Pl. II. fig. 5), the seated Victory, and fantastically varied thunderbolts mark this age. Among the artists' signatures at this time is AA, which may represent the sculptor Daedalus of Sicyon. In 364 B.C. the coinage is interrupted for a year, the Pisatans, who conducted the festival then, issuing small gold coins; these are immediately followed by Elean money with the heads of Zeus and the nymph Olympia. Aristotimus, who was tyrant in 272 B.C., issued coins with his initials. The coinage 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 Pheidias.Cephallenia gives us the early silver coins of Cranii, the money of Pale, of charming style, with the figure of Cephalus on the reverse, Cephal- and that of Same, all cities of this island. Of the island of len/a, etc Zacynthus there are silver pieces, usually of rather coarse work, but sometimes of the style of the best Cephallenian money. Some struck in 357 bear the name of Dion of Syracuse, who collected the forces for his expedition in this island. The coins of Ithaca are of bronze. They are of interest on account of their common obverse type, which is a head of Odysseus. Returning to the mainland, we first notice the money of Messene, or the Messenians. The earliest coin is a splendid Aeginetic didrachm, Messene. 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. It shows the purer style of Greece, which, copying Syracusan work, raised its character. On the reverse is a figure of Zeus, inspired by the work of Hageladas. The other silver coins are of about the period of the Achaean League. The bronze money is plentiful, but Laconia. not interesting. Lacedaemon, as we might have expected, has no early coins, the silver money being mostly of the age of the Achaean League, but the King Areus (309265 B.C.) and the tyrant Nabis (207192 B.C.) are represented by Attic tetra-drachms. On a tetradrachm of the time of the former is a figure of the Apollo of Amyclae. 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 Argolis begins early in the Argolis. 5th century. The standard is Aeginetic. The first pieces are the drachm and smaller denominations with a wolf, half-wolf or wolf's head on the obverse, and A on the reverse. A rare iron coin was issued with these types. At the end of the 5th century begin the didrachms, which have for the obverse type the head of the Polycleitan Heraa design which is not equal to that of the coins of Elis, the style being either careless or not so simple. The reversetype of the drachm represents Diomedes stealthily advancing with the palladium in his left hand and a short sword in his right. A 4th-century drachm of Epidaurus represents the famous seated figure of Asclepius by Thrasymedes of Paros. Of the money of Arcadia some pieces are doubtless among the most ancient struck by the Greeks; and the types of these and later coins are often connected with the remarkable myths of Arcadia. this primeval 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 50o B.C. with hemidrachms having the type of Zeus Lycaeus 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 very fine coins (issued from Megalopolis) with the head of Zeus, and Pan seated. 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. The silver coins of Mantinea (beginning early in the 5th century) have on the obverse a bear, representing Callisto, the mother of Arcas, 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 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 Arcas. The obverse type is interesting as a copy 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. 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. 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 myth of Telephus and to the story that Athena 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. Iron coins were issued by Tegea, and also perhaps by Heraea.The peculiar position of Crete and her long isolation from the political, artistic and literary movements of Hellas have been already touched on. It is not until the age of Crete. Philip V. that Crete appears in the field of history, and 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. 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, some-times barbarously careless, which lasts until the age of Alexander, when the local currency was probably in great part replaced by Alexandrine coins. At the end of the 3rd century the local coinages are revived until the Roman conquest (67 or 66 B.C.). The chief issue is of silver; bronze is less abundant; and gold is all but unknown. The Cretan types have a markedly local character, yet they copy in some instances other coinages. The chief divinities on the pieces are Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Heracles and Britomartis, and the leading myths are those of Minos, the story of the Minotaur and the labyrinth being prominent, and also that of Europa. There is frequent reference to nature-worship as in Sicily, yet with a distinctive preference for trees, the forms of which, however, lend themselves readily to the free representation of Cretan art, which may in part explain their prominence. The peculiarity of Cretan art lies in its realism. At some places, as Aptera, Polyrrhenium and Cydonia, we find engravers' signatures. The weight is at first Aeginetic of reduced form; and in the resumption of the coinage after Alexander's time it is Attic. Of the island in general there are Roman silver and bronze coins of the earlier emperors, some of which are of fine work for the period. The most interesting types are Dictynna and seated beside a date-palm, placing her right hand on the head of a serpent in reference to the myth of the birth of Zagreus. As usual, the figure is foreshortened. The reverse has a standing figure of Poseidon. Rhaucus has Poseidon beside his horse. The rare didrachms of Sybritia, or Sybrita, may fitly close the series; one, among the most exquisite of Greek coins, has heads of Dionysus and Hermes in high relief (see Pl. II. fig. 7); another has on the obverse a charming subject, Dionysus seated on a running panther, and on the reverse Hermes drawing on his right buskin,a delightful figure. Another beautiful type is a seated Dionysus. Zeus Cretagenes. The autonomous coins are very varied. The obverse of the didrachms of Aptera bears a head of Artemis and the reverse a warrior (Ptolioikos) before a sacred tree. Of Chersonesus, the port of Lyctus, there are didrachms of coarse style, with a head of Artemis Britomartis, who had a temple at the place. The head is copied from Stymphalus, as also is one of the reverse types, Heracles wielding his club. The money of Cnossus is of great interest. The oldest coins may be as early as 480 B.C. They bear the figure of the Minotaur as a bull-headed man, kneeling on one knee, and a maeander-pattern, in one case enclosing a star (the sun), in another a head (Theseus?). Of the period 431350 there are didrachms with the head of Persephone, and the labyrinthine pattern enclosing the sun or the moon or a bull's head for the Minotaur, and at length be-coming a regular maze. To this time belongs the wonderful coin in the Berlin Museum with Minos seated, his name in the field, and the head of Persephone within the maeander-pattern. In the later 4th century a head of Hera (copied without spirit from the coins of Argos) occupies the obverse of didrachms and drachms, and the reverse has a maze through which the way may be clearly traced. This series closes with Alexander's empire, and the native coinage disappears until the league of Cephisodorus revives it with the Athenian tetradrachm of Attic weight, bearing the name of the Cnossians. It is of inferior style, and is followed by base coins with heads of Minos and Apollo, and the Labyrinth, either square as before or in a new circular form, which is interesting as showing it was a mere matter of tradition. There are interesting coins of Cydonia, some of them of beautiful style and work. One bears an engraver's name, Neuantos. The head is that of a Maenad, and the reverse has a figure of the traditional founder Cydon, stringing his bow, who on other didrachms is seen suckled by a bitch. The style is good, but the execution poor. Gortys, or Gortyna, is represented by most remarkable coins, which generally allude to the myth of Europa. Didrachms of archaic style have on the obverse Europa carried by the bull and on the reverse the lion's scalp. These pieces are followed by a remarkably fine class of spread didrachms; the best are of about 400 B.C. They have on the obverse Europa seated in a pensive attitude on the trunk of a tree, doubtless the sacred plane at Gortyna, mentioned by Pliny, which was said never to shed its leaves, and on the reverse a bull suddenly turning his head as if stung by a fly (Pl. II. fig. 6). Nothing in Greek art exceeds the skill and beauty of these designs. The truth with which the tree is sketched, and the graceful position of the forlorn Europa are as much to be admired as the fidelity with which the bull is drawn, even when foreshortened, sharply turning his head, with his tongue out and his tail raised. These designs, beautiful in themselves, are strikingly deficient in fitness, and afford equally strong illustrations of the excellencies and of the one great fault of the art of Cretan coins. Many pieces of the same class are of rude execution. Of Itanus there are remarkable coins, the earlier, some of which are of good style, with the subject of a Tritonian sea-god (Glaucus ?) and two sea-monsters. Lyctus (Lyttus) is represented by strangely rude pieces, with the types of a flying eagle and a boar's head. The coins of Phaestus form a most interesting series. Among the didrachms are some of admirable work, with on the obverse Heracles slaying the Hydra with his club and on the reverse a bull. Others have on the obverse Heracles seated on the ground, resting. Another noticeable obverse type is the beardless Zeus seated in a tree, with his Cretan name, Velchanos. On his knee is a cock crowing, showing that he was a god of the dawn. We also find Talos, the man of brass, said to have been made by Hephaestus or Daedalus, portrayed as a winged youth naked, bearing in each hand a stone, and in a combatant attitude. Apollonius Rhodius (Argonaut. iv. 1638 sqq.) relates that Talos prevented the Argonauts from landing in Crete by hurling stones at them, until he was destroyed by the artifice of Medea. The important town of Polyrrhenium is represented by carefully-executed coins with a head of Zeus and a bull's head. A later piece has a whiskered head of Apollo, probably Philip V. in that character. Priansus shows the remarkable type of Persephone The coinage of Euboea is all on the native standard, of which the Attic was a variety. It includes some of the very earliest Greek money. Carystus begins in the time of the Persian War Euboea. with the type of the cow and calf, as in Corcyra, and its special badge is the cock. In the period 197146 it issued gold drachms. Chalcis, the mother of western colonies, has already in the 6th century, or even earlier, a long series with the wheel-type and an incuse diagonally divided, and later, a nymph's head and an eagle devouring a serpent. Eretria probably begins as early as Chalcis, but the obverse type is the Gorgon's head. This is succeeded by the same type and a panther's or bull's head, and fine late archaic coins bear the cow and the cuttle-fish. Eretria was probably the mint of coins with the head of a nymph and a cow or cow's head struck in the name of Euboeans in the fine period. Of Histiaea the usual type is the head of a Maenad and a female figure seated on the stern of a galley. Among the other islands classed after Euboea, Amorgos must not be passed by, as a bronze coin of Aegiale, one of its towns, presents the curious type of a cupping-glass. To Andros has been Cyclades attributed a group of early coins bearing an amphora. and The silver money of Carthaea, Coressia and lulls in Ceos Sporades. is extremely old, beginning in each case in the 6th century. The weight is Aeginetic, and there are didrachms and smaller coins. The usual types of Carthaea are an amphora and then a bunch of grapes; that of Coressia is a cuttle-fish and. dolphin. The coinage of Delos is insignificant. Melos coined from the early 5th century to imperial times: its chief type is a canting one, the fiXov (pomegranate). Naxos is represented by early Aeginetic didrachms and coins of the fine period, the latter being chiefly bronze pieces of remarkably delicate and good work. The types are Dionysiac. A 7th-century coin with the head of a satyr (one of the earliest representations of the human head on a coin) is probably Naxian. Of Paros there are early Aeginetic didrachms with the type of a kneeling goat and beneath a dolphin. Of the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. there are Attic didrachms with a head, possibly of Artemis, at first of a charming style, and a goat on the reverse. There are very archaic Aeginetic didrachms of Siphnos, which was famous for its gold and silver mines. A late tetradrachm of Syros is interesting as representing the Cabiri. The coinage of Asia begins with that of Asia Minor. It falls into certain great classesfirst, the ancient gold and electrum, Lydian and Greek, in time succeeded by electrum Asia or gold and silver, all struck in the west and mainly minor. on the coast. Then the Persian dominion appears in the silver money of the satraps, circulating with the gold and silver of Persia, and the Greek money is limited to a few cities of the coast, none save the electrum of the great mint of Cyzicus uninterrupted by the barbarian. With the decay of the barbarian empire the renewed life of the Greek cities is witnessed by a beautiful coinage along the coast from the Propontis to Cilicia. On Alexander's conquest autonomy is granted to the much-enduring Hellenic communities, and is . again interrupted, but only partially, by the rule of his successors, for there was no time at which Asia Minor was wholly parcelled out among the kings, Greek or native. The Romans, after the battle of Magnesia (Igo B.c.), repeated Alexander's policy so far as the cities 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 autonomy 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 Aeginetic silver to be the oldest of all money. Probably the two currencies arose at the same period, and by interchange became the recognized currency of the primeval marts; otherwise we can scarcely explain the absence European electrum or gold. The electrum of the coins is goldthe precious metal washed down by the Pactoluswith a native alloy of a varying part of silver. Its durability recommended it to the Lydians, and it had (by convention) the advantage of exchanging decimally with gold, then in the ratio 13.3 to silver. But this commercial advantage 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 classification of the earliest coins is exceedingly obscure; it is hardly possible to say which were struck in Lydia itself, which in the Greek coast cities, such as Miletus; but the majority probably belong to Greek mints. The most primitive in appearance are those in which the obverse is merely marked with lines, corresponding to the original rough surface of the die, while the reverse has three depressions, an oblong one flanked by two squares (Pl. II. fig. 8); there are also various coins of small denomination with a plain convex obverse, and a single rough depression on the reverse, known from the excavations at Ephesus. Both the Babylonian and the Phoenician standards were in use in early times. This double currency, as Head suggests, was probably intended, so far as the Lydians were concerned, 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. Croesus (Pl. II. fig. 9) abandoned electrum, and issued pure gold (on the Babylonic and Old-shekel standards), and pure silver(Babylonic), the silver stater exchanging as the tenth of the Euboic gold stater. These results are explained by the metrological data given earlier in this article. Of the Greek marts of the western coast we have a series of early electrum staters, for the most part on the Phoenician weight. An interesting homogeneous group was issued by the various cities which took part in the Ionian revolt (500494 B.C.). The Euboic weight naturally found its way into the currencies, but was as yet limited to Samos. Phocaea, 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. They alone before Croesus issued gold money, which was superseded at Phocaea 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 (which circulated largely in Asia Minor) 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 autonomous coinages of the cities of Pontus are more Bosporus, numerous, but the only place meriting a special Coklls, notice is Amisus, which almost alone of the cities of Pontus. gold allowed under the empire) is gradually 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 (297 B.C.). 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 Mithras, Amastris, the go Paphla foundress, being seated on the reverse. The silver pieces of Sinope are plentiful. In the 4th century they bear the names of Persian governors. The types are the head of the nymph Sinope and, as at Istrus, an eagle preying on a dolphin. Bithynia is represented by a more important series. Bithynla. The provincial diet issued Roman silver medallions of the weight of cistophori (to be presently described), with Latin inscriptions, and bronze pieces with Greek inscriptions. The ordinary silver coins of Chalcedon strikingly resemble on both sides those of Byzantium, and a monetary convention evidently at times existed between these sister-cities, Of Cius, also called Prusias ad Mare, there are gold staters and smaller imperial silver pieces. Of Heraclea there are silver coins of good style; the most interesting type is a female head wearing a turreted head-dress, one of the earliest representations of a city-goddess (early 4th century). The tyrants of Heraclea, Clearchus, Satyrus, Timotheus and Dionysius are represented by coins. Of the imperial class there is a large series of Nicaea, and many coins of Nicomedia. The series of the Bithynian kings consists of Attic tetradrachms and bronze pieces, issued by Ziaelas, Prusias I. and II., and Nicomedes I. IV. The fine Greek coinage of Asia may be considered to begin with Mysia. Cyzicus is in numismatics a most important city. Its coinage begins in the 6th century; and the famcus electrum Cyzicene staters were struck here for nearly Mysia. a century and a half (c. 500350 B.C.). 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 Aegean; the value at which they were rated was doubtless a matter of convention, and varied from time to time. The actual weight is of the Phocaic standard, just over 248 grains. The divisions were the hecta or sixth, and the twelfth. The extraordinary variety of " types " at Cyzicus is due to the fact that these types are really symbols differentiating the issues, the true badge of the city, the tunny-fish, being relegated to a subordinate position (Pl. II. fig. 11). The reverse invariably has 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. The silver coinage of Cyzicus comprises beautiful tetradrachms of the Rhodian standard, with a head of Persephone 11ITEIPA, veiled and wreathed with ears of corn. 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. Its distinctive type is the forepart of a Pegasus, which occurs on its coins from the 6th century onwards. In the first half of the 4th century it issued splendid gold staters with various types (really, as at Cyzicus, symbols distinguishing the issues) on the obverse and the half-Pegasus on the reverse. The most remarkable type is a bearded head (probably of a Cabirus) with streaming hair in a conical cap, bound with a wreath, singularly pictorial in treatment as well as in expression (Pl. II. fig. 12). In contrast to this is a most carefully executed head of a Maenad with goat's ear; and other types of great interest are the Earth-goddess rising from the earth, and Victory nailing a helmet to a trophy, or sacrificing a ram. The money of the great city of Pergamum is chiefly of a late time. Apart from some rare pieces of gold, the silver coinage is chiefly supplied by the money of the kings of Pergamum and by cistophori. The bronze pieces of the city are numerous, both autonomous and imperial, the two classes overlapping, and there are medallions of the emperors. The local worship of Oldest of Asiatic silver, though it is easy to explain that of colnaze. Pontus seems to have issued autonomous silver money. The common subjects 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 kingdom.; 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 tetradrachms. The portrait on the best of these (see P1. II. fig. 1o) is fine despite its theatrical quality, characteristic of the later schools of Asia Minor. The kings of Bosporus struck a long series of coins for the first three and a half centuries after the Christian era. Their gold money (the only non-imperial Aesculapius is especially promient under the Roman rule. The chief coins of the kings are Attic tetradrachms, with on the obverse a laureate head of Philetaerus, the founder of the state, and on the reverse a seated Athene, the common type of Lysimachus, from whom Philetaerus revolted. Variations from these types are rare,the most important being a coin with the name of Eumenes (II.), representing his portrait and the Dioscuri. Otherwise the inscription is always 4'IAETAIPOY. The cistophorus probably originated at Ephesus towards the end of the 3rd century, but was soon adopted for the Pergamene dominions, and down to imperial times was the only important silver currency in Asia Minor. It acquired its name from its obverse type, the cisla mystic, a basket from which a serpent issues, the whole enclosed in an ivy-wreath. The reverse type represents two serpents, and between them usually a bow-case (Pl. II. fig. 13). The half and the quarter of the cistophorus have on one side a bunch of grapes on a leaf or leaves of the vine, and the club with the lion's skin of Heracles within an ivy-wreath. They were tetradrachms equal in weight to about three Attic drachms or three denarii. These coins became abundant when the kingdom of Pergamum was transformed into the province of Asia, and are struck at its chief cities, as Pergamum, Adramyttium, the Lydian Stratoniceia, Thyatira, Sardis, Smyrna, Ephesus, Tralles, Nysa, Laodicea and Apamea. They have at first the names of Greek magistrates, afterwards coupled with those of Roman proconsuls or propraetors. The silver medallions of Asia, the successors of the cistophori, range from Mark Antony to Hadrian and Sabina. They bear no names of cities, but some may be attributed by their references to local forms of worship. The obverse bears an imperial head, the reverse a type either Greek or Roman. The art is the best of this age, more delicate in design and execution than that of any other pieces, the Roman medallions excepted. One of the most remarkable imperial bronze coins of Pergamum represents the Great Altar (Pl. II. fig. 16). The coinage of the Troad is interesting from its traditional allusions to the Trojan War. Of Abydos there is a fine gold Troas. stater, with the unusual subject of Victory sacrificing a ram, and the eagle, which is the most constant type of the silver money. One of the few imperial coins commemorates the legend of Hero and Leander. The late tetradrachms of Alexandria Troas bear the head of Apollo Smintheus, and on the reverse his figure armed with a bow. There is a long series of the town as a colonia, of extremely poor work. Ilium Novum strikes late Attic tetradrachms with a head of Athene, and on the reverse the same goddess carrying spear and distaff, with the inscription AOHNAE IAIAAOE. On the autonomous and imperial bronze we notice incidents of the tale of Troy, as Hector in his car, or slaying Patroclus, or fighting; and again the flight of Aeneas. The island of Tenedos is represented by very early coins, and others of the fine and late periods. The usual obverse type of all the silver pieces is a Janus-like combination of two heads, presumably some primitive god and his consort; this double type is balanced on the reverse by the double-axe, which played an important part in the primitive cults of Asia Minor and the Aegaean. In Aeolis the most noteworthy coins are the late tetradrachms of Cyme and Myrina, both of the time of decline, yet with a certain strength which relieves them from the general weakness of the work of that age. Cyme has the head of the Amazon Cyme, and a horse within a laurel-wreath; Myrina, a head of the Grynean Apollo and his figure with lustral branch and patera. Lesbos is remarkable for having coined in base as well as pure silver, its early billon coins being peculiar to the island. This base coinage, which was probably common to Mytilene and Methymna, ceases about 450 B.C., when the Mytilenaean silver begins. Methymna has very interesting archaic silver coins, with the boar and the head of Athene. But the most important coinage of Lesbos is the beautiful electrum coinage (a unique stater, P1. II. fig. 14, and innumerable sixths) which was issued from about 48o to 350. Phocaea in Ionia issued similar coins, distinguished by a seal (the badge of the city), and a convention regulating the weight and quality of the two coinages, andarranging for the two mints to work in alternate years, is still extant. The types vary accordingly, as at Cyzicus and Lampsacus. There is a long and important series of Mytilene of the imperial time, including very interesting commemorative coins, some of persons of remote history, as Pittacus and Sappho,, others of benefactors of the city, as Theophanes the friend of Pompey, from whom he obtained for this his native place the privileges of a free city. The usual style for these persons is hero or heroine, but Theophanes is called a god, and Archedamis, probably his wife, a goddess. The money of Ionia is abundant and beautiful. For the first century and a half (c. 700-545) the chief coinage is of electrum. To the 7th century belongs the remarkable coin in- Ionia. scribed 4 AENOE EMI EHMA (" I am the badge of the Bright One " or " of Phanes "), with a stag, which was perhaps issued at Ephesus. From 545 to the Ionic revolt (494) there is considerable diminution in the coinage; silver attains more importance. Thenceforward, the course of the coinage is fairly uniform until the period 301-190, when there is a general cessation of autonomous issues. After the battle of Magnesia there is a great revival, tetradrachms of Alexandrine and also of local types being issued in vast numbers. After the constitution of the Roman province of Asia (133), the cistophori supply the silver coinage. The imperial bronze coinage is numerous, with many interesting local types. Of the coins of the various cities the following demand mention. At Clazomenae in the 4th century there are splendid coins, having for types the head of Apollo, three-quarter face, and a swan. The chief pieces, the gold drachm and a half or octobol, and the silver stater or tetradrachm present two types of the head of Apollo, very grand on the gold and the silver, with the signature of Theodotus, the only known Asiatic engraver, and richly beautiful on the other silver piece. These coins are marked by the intense expression of the school of western Asia Minor. Colophon. has fine severe coins of the 5th century with the head of Apollo and the lyre. The money of Ephesus is historically interesting, but very disappointing in its art, which is limited by the small range of subjects and their lack of beauty. The leading type Ephesus. is the bee; later the stag and the head of Artemis appear. Thus the subjects relate to the worship of the famous shrine. The oldest coins are electrum and silver, both on the Phoenician standard. The type is a bee and the reverse is incuse. The silver coinage continues with the same types, unbroken by the Persian dominion, until in 394 B. c. a remarkable new coin appears. When Conon and Pharnabazus defeated the Lacedaemonian fleet and liberated the Greek cities of Asia from Spartan tryanny a federal coinage was issued by Rhodes, Cnidus, Samos, Ephesus, Iasus and Byzantium with their proper types on the reverse, but on the obverse the infant Heracles strangling two serpents; these are Rhodian tridrachms. About this time the Rhodian standard was introduced, and a series of tetradrachms began with the bee, having for reverse the forepart of a stag looking back, and behind him a date-palm. The head of Artemis as a Greek goddess begins to appear in the 3rd century. Other series of coins follow with types associated with Artemis, Rhodian and Attic standards alternating; there are also Alexandrine tetradrachms and of course cistophori. The connexion of the city with Lysimachus, who called it Arsinoe, after his wife, is commemorated by coins inscribed APEI. The Ephesian form of Artemis, as the cultus figure of a nature-goddess, first appears as a symbol on the cistophori, and then on gold coins struck during the revolt of 87-84, when Ephesus took the side of Mithradates. The imperial money provides many representations of the temples of the city, including that of the famous shrine of Artemis, which shows the bands of sculpture on the columns, as well as many other remarkable subjects, particularly the Zeus of rain seated on Mount Pelion, a shower falling from his left hand, while below are seen the temple of Artemis and the river-god Cayster; on another coin the strange Asiatic figure of the goddess, frequent in this series, stands between the personified rivers Cayster and Cenchrius. The money of the Ionian Magnesia begins with the issue of Themistocles, when he was dynast under Persian protection. The ordinary silver coins (350-190 B.C.) representing a cavalryman and the river-god Maeander as a bull are common. After rqo B.c. we have 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 maeander and leaning against a lofty tripod, the whole in a Mlletus. laurel-wreath. The great city of Miletus is disappointing 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 and the sun of Apollo Didymeus. In the early 4th century the Carian dynasts issued coins from Ephesus. To about 350 B.C. belong the beautiful coins bearing the head of Apollo facing and the lion looking back at a sun, with the inscription El' AIAYMf1N IEPH (scil. Spaxil), showing that this was the " sacred " money of the famous temple at Didyma. The types of the head of Apollo in profile and the lion with the sun continue through a series of various standards with very rare Attic gold staters of the early and century. Phocaea is represented by two very interesting currencies; an electrum series of hectae, characterized by a seal, the badge of the town, beneath the type, struck in convention with Mytilene (see above); 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 conquest. Smyrna Smyrna. issued in the 4th century a very rare coin with the head of Apollo and a lyre, of Colophonian style. Among the earliest coins of New Smyrna are some showing that Lysimachus named it Eurydicea after his daughter. After rqo B.c. it strikes Attic tetradrachms, with the turreted head of Cybele or the city or the Amazon Smyrna (Pl. II. fig. 15), and an oak-wreath sometimes enclosing a lion. A rare silver coin and common bronze coins present on the reverse the seated figure of Homer. A gold coin issued by the Prytaneis of the Smyrnaeans probably belongs to the time of the Mithradatic revolt against Rome (87-84). The imperial coins have numerous types, among others the two Nemeses appearing to Alexander in a vision. Of Teos there are early Aeginetic didrachms, bearing on the one side a seated griffin and on the other a quadripartite incuse square. Thos. These ceased at the moment when the population 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 and Samos, islands of Ionia, are represented by interesting currencies. Chios struck electrum and abundant silver. The type Chios. 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.). The coinage of Samos is artistically disappointing, but as a whole has many claims to interest. The earliest money included electrum. Samos. The silver begins before 494 B.C. The types are the well- known lion's scalp and bull's head. The Athenian con-quest (439 B.C.) is marked by the introduction of the olive-spray as a constant symbol on the reverse and the occasional occurrence of Attic weight. 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 here introduced. The long series of imperial money is not without interesting types. The most remarkable is the 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. The money of Caria does not present any one great series. Autonomous silver coins are not numerous except at Cnidus, Carla. and rarely of good style. Antiochia and Alabanda have tetradrachms in the and century. The imperial coins of Antiochia and of Aphrodisias are worthy of notice. Cnidus is represented at first by archaic coins of Aeginetic weight, some as early as the first half of the 7th century, with a very rude head of Aphrodite. The head of the famous statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles
late silver money of Iasus with the head of Apollo, and a youth swimming beside a dolphin around which his arm is thrown. Idyma has silver pieces of fine style on which the head of Apollo is absolutely facing; the reverse type is a fig-leaf. On imperial coins of Mylasa the figure of the Zeus of Labranda holding double-axe and spear is represented. 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 satraps prove their wealth by their series of silver coins, which bear the names of Hecatomnus, Mausolus, Hidrieus and Pixodarus. The weight is Rhodian; the types are the three-quarter face of Apollo, and Zeus Labrandeus standing, holding the labrys or two-headed axe. Pixodarus also strikes gold of Attic weight. His silver is the best in the series, and clearly shows the Ionian style in its quality of expression. Among the islands of Caria, Calymna begins in the 6th century or earlier with curious archaic Persian didrachms bearing a helmeted male. head and on the reverse a lyre. 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. 'Ihe break so common in the coinage of this coast 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 Asclepius 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 Asclepius. Xenophon's head likewise occurs, and the portrait of Nicias tyrant in Cos (c. 5o B.c.) on his bronze. Imperial money ends the series. The island of Rhodes, great in commerce and art, has a rich series of coins. The want of variety in the typesat the city of Rhodes almost limited to the head of Helios and the Rhodes. roseis disappointing, but happily the principal subject could not fail to illustrate the movements of art, one of which had here its centre. 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, Ialysus and Lindus. The money of Camirus seems to begin in the 6th century B.C. The type is the fig-leaf, the weight Aeginetic, later degraded. The coins of Ialysus, of the 5th century, follow the Phoenician standard. Their types are the forepart of a winged boar and an eagle's head. The money of Lindus, apparently before 480 B.C., is of Phoenician 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; this they retained until the last years of their independent coinage, when they resumed the Attic. The types are the three-quarter face of Helios and the rose. There is a grandeur and noble outlook in the earlier heads 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 (see Pl. II. fig. rq). Towards the end of the 4th century the radiate head is introduced; the Alexandrine tetradrachms, which were issued after the battle of Magnesia, find a place in the Rhodian mintage. During the age after Alexander there is an abundant bronze coinage, with some pieces of unusual size. The series closes with a few imperial coins ranging from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius. The early coinage of Lycia introduces us at once into a region of Asiatic mythology, art and language, raising many questions as yet without an answer. The standard of the oldest Lycia. coins (beginning about 520 B.c.) is low Persic, and it falls perhaps under Athenian influence, until it is often indistinguishable from the Attic. The Lycian character belongs to the primitive alphabets of Asia Minor, which combine with archaic Greek forms others which are unknown to the Greek alphabet, and it expresses a native language as yet but imperfectly understood. The art is stiff and delights in animal forms, Calymna and Cos. sometimes of monstrous types, which recall the designs of Phoenicia and Assyria. The most remarkable symbol is the triskeles or tetraskeles symbol, an object resembling a ring, to which three or four hooks are attached. It is supposed to be a solar symbol like the swastika. The oldest money has a boar or his fore-part and an incuse. This is succeeded by a series with an animal reverse, and then by one in which the hooked ring is the usual reverse type. The fourth series bears Lycian in- scriptions, which give the names of dynasts and places. A fifth the priest-kings of Olba are also full of interest. series is characterized by the type of a lion's scalp. This coinage reaches as late as Alexander's time. It is followed by silver and bronze money of the Lycian League before Augustus and under his reign, but ceasing in that of Claudiusthe usual types of the chief silver piece, a hemidrachm, being the head of Apollo and the lyre. The districts of Cragus and Masicytus have coinages, as well as the individual cities. Besides this general currency there are some special ones of towns not in the League. The imperial money rarely goes beyond the reign of Augustus, and is resumed during that of Gordian III. There is a remarkable coin of Myra of this emperor, showing the goddess of the city, of a type like the Ephesian Artemis, in a tree; two woodcutters, each armed with a double axe, hew at the trunk, from which two serpents rise as if to protect it and aid the goddess. Phaselis is an exceptional town, for it has early Greek coins, the leading type being a galley. The coinage of Pamphylia offers some examples of good art distinctly marked by the Asiatic formality. Aspendus shows a remarkable series of Persic didrachms, extending from ll 1Dp6y- about Soo B.C. to Alexander's time. The oldest coins have the types of a warrior and the triskelion or three legs, more familiarly associated with Sicily; it is probably a solar symbol. These coins are followed by a long series with the types of two wrestlers engaged and a slinger. The main legend is almost always in the Panphylian character and language. There are also very curious imperial types. The money of Perga begins in the and century with Greek types of the Artemis of Perga. Her figure in a remarkable Asiatic form occurs in the long imperial series. Bronze coins earlier in date than the silver money with the Greek types have the Pamphylian title of the goddess, FANAEF,AE IIPEIIAE, " of the Lady of Perga." Side has at first Persic didrachms of about 48o B.C., their types the pomegranate and dolphin and head of Athene; then there are money with an undeciphered Aramaizing inscription of the 4th century and figures of Athene and Apollo, and late Attic tetradrachms, their types being the head of Athene and Victory. These were carried on by Amyntas, king of Galatia, when he made his mint in Side (36 B.C.). The pomegranate (aiSrl) is throughout the badge of the city. The money of Pisidia is chiefly imperial. There is a long series of this class of the colonia Antiochia. The autonomous coins of Selge have the wrestlers and the slinger of Ptsldia. Aspendus in inferior and even barbarous copies. Of Bc. Isauria and Lycaonia a few cities, including Derbe and the colonies of Iconium and Lystra, strike coins, chiefly of imperial time. Cilicia, for the most part a coastland, is numismatically of high interest. To Aphrodisias is assigned an interesting series Cilicia. of archaic coins with a winged figure and a pyramidal fetish-stone; in the 4th century Aphrodite is represented in human form seated between sphinxes; the Parthenos of Pheidias is also represented. Celenderis has a coinage beginning in the 5th century, with a horseman seated sideways on the obverse, and on the reverse a goat kneeling on one knee. Mallus has a most interesting series of silver coins, some with curious Asiatic types. Of Nagidus there are Persic didrachms of good style, one interesting type being Aphrodite seated, before whom Eros flies crowning her, with, on the other side, a standing Dionysus. Soli has silver coins of the same weight, the types being an archer or the head of Athene, one variety imitated from remote Velia, and a bunch of grapes. The coinage of Tarsus begins in the 5th century with Persic staters representing a Cilician king on horseback, and a hoplite kneeling. In the 4th century it was the mint of a large series of satrapal coins, issued by Pharnabazus, Mazaeus and other governors (Issus, Mallus and Soli also sharing the cost of minting). The chief type is the Baal of Tarsus. The autonomous bronze of the Seleucid age shows the remarkable subject of the pyre of Sandan, the local form of Heracles; and there is a long and curious imperial series. The coinage of Anazarbus (imperial, showing rivalry with Tarsus), Seleucia on the Calycadnus, Mopsus, and The coinage of the great island of Cyprus is, as we might expect from its monuments, almost exclusively non-Hellenic in character. The weight-system, except of gold, which is Attic, is Cyprus. Persic, save only in the later coins of some mints, struck on the reduced Rhodian standard, and a solitary Attic tetradrachm of Paphos. The art is usually very stiff down to about 400 B.C., with types of Egypto-Phoenician or Phoenician or of Greek origin. The inscriptions are in the Cyprian syllabic character and the earliest coins resemble the early Etruscan in being one-sided. The prevalent types are animals or their heads, the chief subjects being the bull, eagle, sheep, lion, the lion seizing the stag, the deer and the mythical sphinx. The divinities we can recognize are Aphrodite, Heracles, Athene, Hermes and Zeus Ammon. But the most curious mythological types are a goddess carried by a bull or by a ram, in both cases probably Astarte, the Phoenician Aphrodite. The most remarkable symbol is the well-known Egyptian sign of life. The coins appear to have been struck by kings until before the age of Alexander, when civic money appears. The mints to which coins are ascribed with certainty are Salamis, Paphos, Marium, Idalium and Citium. The coins of the Salaminian line are in silver and gold. The earlier, beginning with Evelthon about 56o B.C., have Cyprian, the later Greek inscriptions, the types generally being native, though after a time under Hellenic influence. They are of Evagoras I., Nicocles, Evagoras II., Pnytagoras and Nicocreon, and the coinage is closed by Menelaus, brother of Ptolemy I. The Phoenician kings of Citium, from about 50o to 312, strike silver and in one case gold, their general types being Heracles and the lion seizing the stag. Bronze begins soon after 400 B.C., and of the same age there are autonomous pieces in silver and bronze. There is Greek imperial money from Augustus to Caracalla (chiefly issued by the Koi.v6s). The most remarkable type is the temple at Paphos, represented as a structure of two storeys with wings. Within the central portion is the sacred stone, in front a semicircular court. The earliest coinage of Lydia is no doubt that of the kings, already described. The next currency must have been of Persian darics (gold) and drachms (sit ver), followed by that of Alexander, Lydia. the Seleucids, and the Attalids of Pergamum, and then by the cistophori of the province of Asia. There is an abundant bronze coinage of the cities, autonomous from the formation of the province, and of imperial time, but mostly of the imperial class. The largest currencies are of Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira and Tralles. The art is not remarkable, though good for the period, and the types are mostly Greek. The coinage of Phrygia has the same general characteristics as that of Lydia, but the workmanship is poorer. Among noteworthy types must be noticed Men or Lunus, the Phrygian moon- Phrygia. god. There are curious types of Apamea, surnamed Kibotos or the Ark, and more anciently Celaenae. One of Severus represents the legend of the invention of the double pipe, a type already described. Of the same and later emperors are coins bearing the famous type of the ark of Noah and the name NILE. The town of Cibyra is remarkable for a silver coinage of the 1st century B.c., of which the large pieces have the weight of cistophori. Galatia has little to offer of interest. Trajan issued bronze imperial coins for the province, and there is imperial money of Ancyra, Pessinus and Tavium. The only remarkable regal issue Galatia. is that of Amyntas, Strabo's contemporary, who struck tetradrachms at Side in Pamphylia. With the coinage of Cappadocia we bid farewell to Greek art and enter on the domain of Oriental conventionalism, succeeded by inferior Roman design coarsely executed. There is one largeimperial imperial series, that of Caesarea, intended for general dada, Bc. circulation in the province. The issues range from Tiberius to Gordian III., and are in silver and. bronze. The most common type is the sacred Mount Argaeus, on which a statue is sometimes seena remarkable type curiously varied. There are scanty issues of a few other towns. There is an interesting series of coins of the kings of Cappadocia, beginning with Ariarathes I. (c. 332322 B.C.), who struck Persic drachms at Sinope and Gaziura, and continuing with other kings, called usually Ariarathes or Ariobarzanes, who struck Attic drachms and occasionally tetradrachms. The rare tetradrachms of Orophernes, a successful usurper (158157 B.C.), bear a fine portrait. The coins of Archelaus, the last king set up by Antony (36 B.C.A.D. 17), have a good head on the obverse. Of Armenia there are a few silver and bronze coins of late sovereigns. The great series of Syrian money begins with the coinage of the Seleucid kings. of Syria, only rivalled for length and abundance by that of the Ptolemies, which it excels in its series of portraits, though it is far inferior in its gold money Syria and wants the large and well-executed bronze pieces which make the Egyptian currency complete. The gold of the Seleucids is scarce, and their main coinage is a splendid series of tetradrachms bearing the portraits of the successive sovereigns. The reverse types are varied for the class of regal money. The execution of the portraits is good, and forms the best continuous history of portraiture for the third and second centuries before our era. The reverses are far less careful. The weight is Attic, but the cities of Phoenicia were ultimately allowed to strike on their own standard. Many of the coins of the earlier kings were issued in their Bactrian or Indian dominions. Seleucus I. (312280 B.C.) began by striking gold staters and tetradrachms with the types of Alexander the Great. The same king, like his contemporaries, then took his own types: for gold staters, his head with a bull's horn, and on the reverse a horse's head with bull's horns; for tetradrachms, his own head in a helmet of hide with bull's horn and lion's skin, and Victory crowning a trophy, or the head of Zeus, and Athene fighting in a car drawn by four or two elephants with bull's horns. Antiochus I. (293261), like his father, first struck tetradrachms with Alexandrine types, and then with his own head, Apollo on the`omphalos occupying the reverse. The portrait of Antiochus has a characteristic realism. Antiochus III. (222187) is represented by a fine and interesting series with a vigorous portrait. He alone of the Seleucids seems to have struck the great octadrachm in gold in rivalry of the Ptolemies. Coins dated by the Seleucid era (312 B.C.) first appear in his reign. The portrait of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (175164) is extremely characteristic, marked by the mad obstinacy which is the key to the tyrant's history. The most remarkable coin is a tetradrachm with the head of Antiochus in the character of Zeus. In his time mints became numerous in the bronze coinage, and there is a remarkable series in that metal with Ptolemaic types, marking his short-lived usurpation in Egypt. From the time of Demetrius I. (162150) the silver tetradrachms bear both mints and dates. In one type the heads of Demetrius and Queen Laodice occur side by side. With Alexander I. Balas (152144), Tyre and Sidon begin to strike royal tetradrachms on their own Phoenician weight. Tarsus also first strikes coins for him with the type of the pyre of Sandan. The money of young Antiochus VI. presents the most carefully executed portrait in the whole series, which, despite its weakness, has a certain charm of sweetness that marks it as a new type in art. The same artist's hand seems apparent in the fine portrait of the cruel usurper Tryphon, and also in the picturesque spiked Macedonian helmet with a goat's horn and cheek-piece which occupies the reverse. Antiochus VII. (138129) continues the series with, amongst other coins, the solitary bronze piece of Jerusalem, bearing the lily and the Seleucid anchor. Alexander II. Zebina (128123) is represented by a unique gold coin (P1. II. fig. 18), as well as by silver and bronze. The empire closes with the money of the Armenian Tigranes (8369), bearing his portrait with the lofty native tiara, and for reverse Antioch seated, the Orontes swimming at her feet (a copy of the famous group by Eutychides). There is a copper coinage of the Syrian koinon under Trajan; also of the cities of Commagene, Samosata and Zeugma, and less important mints. The money of the kings of Commagene is in bronze (c. 140 B.C. to A.D. 72). Cyrrhestica has bronze coins of a few cities, nearly all imperial, Cyrrhes- the chief mints being Cyrrhus and Hieropolis. Hieropolis ma in the time of Alexander the Great issued some remark- able silver coins in the name of Abd-Hadad and Alexander himself, with figures of the Syrian goddess Atergatis, who also appears on its imperial coins. Of Chalcidene there are bronze coins of Chalcis and of the tetrarchs, Chalci- and Palmyrene shows only the small bronze pieces of dens, etc Palmyra, the money of Zenobia and the family of Odenathus being found in the series of Alexandria. In Seleucis and Pieria. the four cities of Antioch, Apamea, Laodicea ad Mare and Seleucia Pieria issued a joint coinage inscribed AAEA4'flN AHMSlN about the middle of the 2nd Antioch. century B.c. But the bulk of the money of this territory is of the great city of Antioch en the Orontes. The coinage is bothautonomous bronze beforeand of Roman times, and imperial silver, base metal and bronze. Other mints (as Tyre and Sidon) in this same province issued silver of the same class as Antioch, with different symbols. A large series of coins was issued bearing on the reverse the letters S.C. (Senatus consulto), showing that the coinage was under the control of the Roman senate. Both Latin and Greek inscriptions are used until the reign of Trajan. The city is first called a colony on the coins of Elagabalus. The earliest coins are dated by various eras (Seleucid, Caesarian, Actian) ; later the emperor's consulships are used to date the silver. The leading types are the figure of Antioch seated, the river Orontes swimming at her feet, from the famous statue by Eutychides, and the eagle on a thunderbolt, a palm in front. Under Hadrian the eagle is represented carrying an ox's leg, a reference to the story of the foundation of the city when an eagle carried off part of the sacrifice and deposited it on the site which was consequently chosen. There are few other types. The series (which, strictly speaking, was not the local coinage of Antioch, but an imperial coinage for the province) is very full and includes money of the Syrian emperor Sulpicius Uranius Antoninus (who also struck bronze at Emesa and gold of the Roman imperial class). It ends with Valerian, though it begins anew in the Roman provincial money of the reform of Diocletian, to be noticed later. Of the other cities of this district, Emisa presents the type of the sacred stone of Elagabal. The imperial money of Gabala shows the veiled cultus-statue of a goddess flanked by sphinxes. Laodicea has an important series. It begins with bronze money of the later Seleucids. The autonomous tetra- drachms of the 1st century B.C. have a turreted and veiled female bust of the city, a favourite Syrian and Phoenician type. From 47 B.C. its title is Julia Laodicea; from Caracalla downwards it is a colonia; the inscriptions become Latin; then, very strangely, Greek on the obverse of the coins and Latin on the reverse. Seleucia has a similar regal autonomous and imperial currency, but does not become a colonia. A shrine containing the sacred stone of Zeus Casius, and the thunderbolt of Zeus Keraunius resting on a throne, are among the types. In Coele-Syria, Damascus issues coins from the 3rd century B.C. (beginning with Alexandrine tetradrachms) onwards; the city becomes a colonia under Philip I. The imperial money of Heliopolis (Baalbek), a colonia, shows a great temple (of syr~a, etc. the Zeus of Heliopolis) in perspective, another temple containing an ear of corn as the central object of worship, and a view of the Acropolis with the great temple upon it, and steps leading up the rock. The coinage of Phoenicia is a large and highly interesting series. The autonomous money is here important, and indicates the ancient wealth of the great marts of the coast. The Paoenkia. earliest coins were struck about the middle of the 5th century and usually bear Phoenician inscriptions. The coinage falls into three main periods; the first pre-Alexandrine; the second, that of Alexandrine, Ptolemaic and Seleucid rule; the third, that of the empire. In the first period Aradus strikes silver, usually on the Babylonian standard, staters with a head of Melkarth and a galley, and smaller denominations. All the other cities use the Phoenician standard. The regal silver coins of Byblus have a galley as obverse type; on the reverse, a vulture standing on a ram, or a lion devouring a bull Here and at Sidon and Tyre portions of the types are represented incuse. Sidon has a large and important series of silver octadrachms and smaller denominations; on the obverse is a galley (at first with sails set, then without sails, first lying before a fortress, afterwards alone). On the reverse is the king of Persia in a chariot, or slaying a lion. These coins were issued by the kings such as Strato I. and II. and Tennes, and by the satrap Mazaeus. The early silver of Tyre has as reverse type an owl with a crook and flail over its shoulder; on the obverse a dolphin, or Melkarth riding on a sea-horse; a common symbol is the purple-shell (Pl. II. fig. 20) . In the second period, besides Alexandrine silver and regal coins of the Ptolemies and Seleucidae, there are certain large and important issues of autonomous or semi-autonomous silver tetradrachms and smaller denominations, as at Aradus (head of the City, and Victory; also drachms with types copied from Ephesus: obv., bee, rev., stag and date-palm), Marathus (head of the City, and nude figure at Marathus seated on a pile of shields), Sidon (head of the City, and eagle), Tripolis (busts of the Dioscuri, and figure of the City holding cornucopiae) and Tyre (head of the Tyrian Heracles, Melkarth, and eagle). Tyre also issued a gold decadrachm with the head of the City, and a double cornucopiae. On these and other coins Sidon and Tyre claim the rights of asylum. Berytus first Comma-gene. Apamea, etc. coins in this period, sometimes under the name of Laodicea in Canaan. Ace-Ptolemais (Acre) was an important mint under the Ptolemies; for a time, under the Seleucidae, it was called Antiochia in Ptolemais. Besides the Seleucid era autonomous eras are in use at some of the cities, as at Aradus (259 B.C.), Sidon (II B.C.) and Tyre (126 B.C.). Under the empire there are some very large coinages of bronze, besides a certain amount of silver resembling that of Antioch. The quasi-autonomous silver of Tyre was also issued as late as A.D. S7. Berytus (a colonia) has types relating to the cults of Astarte and Poseidon; Astarte is also prominent at Sidon (a colonia from Elagabalus onwards; a common type represents the wheeled shrine of the goddess) and Tripolis. At Byblus a temple is represented with a conical fetish. Tyre has many interesting types: Dido building Carthage; the Ambrosial Rocks; Cadmus fighting the serpent or founding Thebes, &c. Ptolemais issued coins as a colony from Claudius onwards. In Trachonitis, the only city of importance is Caesarea Panias, with a famous grotto of Pan, perhaps represented on an imperial coin. Several cities in Decapolis issued imperial coins, Palestine. among them Gadara and Gerasa. In Galilee the coins struck at Tiberias by its founder, Herod Antipas, may be mentioned. Samaria has money of Caesarea, both autonomous and imperial, the last for the most part colonial, and also imperial of Neapolis, among the types of which occurs the interesting subject of Mount Gerizim surmounted by the Samaritan temple. The coinage of Judaea is an interesting series. The money of Jerusalem is of high interest, and more extensive than appears at first sight. Here was struck the coin of Antiochus VII., with the native lily as a type, the series of the Maccabaean princes, that of the Roman procurators, and the bronze coins countermarked by the tenth legion, quartered by Titus in the ruins of the city. One of these bears the remarkable symbol of a pig. After the reduction of Judaea in the reign of Hadrian, Jerusalem was rebuilt as a colonia with the name Aelia Capitolina. The earliest coin commemorates the foundation. The coinage lasts as late as Valerian. Ascalon strikes autonomous silver and bronze, including remarkable tetradrachms with the portraits of Ptolemy Auletes, of his elder son Ptolemy XIV., and of his daughter Cleopatra (see Pl. II. fig. 21). There is also money of Gaza of some importance; the earliest coins are Attic drachms, &c., of barbarous style, inspired by Greek, especially Athenian models; on its imperial coins the god Marna, and Minos and Io are named. The independent Jewish coinage begins with the famous shekels. They have been assigned to various periods, but the preponderance of evidence would class them to Simon Jewish Maccabaeus, to whom the right of coining was granted coinage. by Antiochus VII. The series is of shekels and half- shekels, of the weight of Phoenician tetradrachms and di-drachms. The obverse of the shekel bears the inscription " the shekel of Israel ," and for type a sacred vessel of the temple, above which (after year 1) is the letter indicating the year of issue and the initial of the word year. The reverse reads " Jerusalem the Holy," and the type is a flowering branch (Pl. II. fig. 19). The half-shekel differs in having the inscription " half-shekel " on the obverse. The types are markedly peculiar; the obverse inscription is equally so, for the regular formula of the neighbouring cities would give nothing but the name of the city; but the reverse inscription is like that of Tyre and Sidon, for instance, " of Tyre sacred and inviolable." This agreement is confirmatory of the assignment to Simon Maccabaeus. This coinage bears the dates of years 1, 2, 3, 4 (rare), and 5 (very rare). There has been much discussion as to the date. It is best reckoned from the decree of Antiochus VII. granting the right of coinage to Simon (139-138 B.c.). The coins of the fifth year were then struck by John Hyrcanus. The certain coins of the successors of Simon are small bronze pieces of John Hyrcanus (135-104), of Judas Aristobulus (104-103), of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76), who strikes bilingual Hebrew and Greek and also Hebrew coins, showing his native name to have been Jonathan, and of Antigonus (40-37)., who has the Hebrew. name.Mattathiah. The types represent only Inanimate objects. The Maccabaean coinage is followed by that of the Herodian family, equally of bronze, the two most important issues being those of Herod the Great and Agrippa II. The silver coinage under the early empire was chiefly supplied by the issues of Antioch and Roman denarii; the " penny " with Caesar's image and superscription was such a denarius. The money of the procurators of Judaea, in part parallel with the Herodian, is of small bronze coins, struck between A.D. 6-7 and A.D. 58-59, the latest period of their administration being as yet unrepresented. These are followed by two classes, the money of the first revolt (A.D. 66-70) and that of the second (suppressed A.D. 135). Both risings caused the issue of native coinage, some of which may be assigned with certainty to each. Of the first revolt are bronze pieces of years 2, 3 and 4. Of the second revolt are restruck Antiochene tetradrachms and Roman denarii, usually with the name of Simon, which appears to have been that of the leader surnamed Bar Cochebas. The obverse type of the tetradrachms or shekels is the portico of the temple; on the reverse are a bundle of branches and a citron, symbols of the feast of tabernacles. Besides this native currency there are coins struck in Palestine by Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. Of Roman Arabia there are bronze imperial coins of Bostra and less important mints; the kings of Nabataea also issued silver and bronze coins from Aretas III. (c. 87-62 B.c.) to Rabbel H. Arable, (A.D. 75-101). From S. Arabia comes a remarkable silver coinage issued by the Himyarites, beginning in the 4thMeso- century B.C., and imitated originally from Attic tetra-drachms ptemla, (both of the old and new style). In Mesopotamia BabyIonta the colonia of Carrhae deserves notice, and the city of Edessa, which issues imperial money as a colonia, and has a series of coins of its kings, striking with Roman emperors in silver and bronze. Curiously, this and the colonial issue are long contemporary. The colonial coinages of Nisibis and of Resaena, which became a colonia, close the group. Babylon was probably a mint of Alexander the Great and of many of the Seleucid kings, certainly of the usurpers Molon (222-220) and Timarchus (162 B.c.). Africa. The coins of Africa are far less numerous then those of the other two continents, as Greek, Phoenician and Roman civilization never penetrated beyond Egypt and the northern Egypt coast to the west. The series of Egypt is first in geographical order. As yet no coins have been here assigned of a date anterior to Alexander. The old Egyptians kept their gold, electrum and silver in rings, and weighed them to ascertain the value. During the Persian rule the Persian money must have been current, and the satrap Aryandes is said to have issued a coinage of silver under Darius I. With Alexander a regular Greek coinage must have begun, and some of his coins are of Egyptian mints. A rare bronze coin was struck at Naucratis, probably during his lifetime. With Ptolemy I. the great Ptolemaic currency begins, which lasted for three centuries. The characteristics of this coinage are its splendid series of gold pieces and the size of the bronze money. The execution of the earlier heads is good; afterwards they become coarse and careless. At first the fine pieces were issued by the Phoenician, Cyprian and other foreign mints, the Egyptian work being usually inferior. While the Seleucids were still striking good coins, the Ptolemies allowed their money to fall into barbarism in Egypt and even in Cyprus. The obverse type is a royal head, that of Ptolemy I. being the ordinary silver type (see Pl. II. fig. 22), while that of Arsinoe II. was long but not uninterruptedly continued on the gold. The head of Zeus Ammon is most usual 0n the bronze coinage. A type once adopted was usually retained. Thus Ptolemy I., Arsinoe II., Ptolemy IV., Cleopatra I., have a kind of commemoration in the coinage on the analogy of the priesthoods established in honour of each royal pair. The almost universal type of reverse of all metals is the PtoIemaic badge, the eagle on the thunderbolt, which, in spite of variety, is always heraldic. For art and iconography this series is far inferior to that of the Seleucids. The weight after the earlier part of the reign of Ptolemy I. (who experimented with the Attic and Rhodian standards) is Phoenician for gold and silver.; the_..metrology of .the bronze is obscure. The chief coins are octadrachms in gold and tetradrachms in silver, besides the abundant bronze money. Ptolemy I. appears to have issued his money while regent for Philip Arrhidaeus (323-318); it only differs in the royal name from that of Alexander. He then struck money for Alexander IV. (317-311) on the Attic standard with the head of Alexander the Great, with the horn of Ammon in the elephant's skin and Alexander's reverse. He soon adopted a new reverse, that of Athene Promachos. This money he continued to strike after the young king's death until he himself (305) took the royal title, when he issued his own money, his portrait on the one side and the eagle and thunderbolt with his name as king on the other. This type in silver, with the inscription " Ptolemy the king," is thenceforward the regular currency. He also issued gold staters (reverse, Alexander the Great in an elephant-car). Ptolemy II. (Philadelphus, 285-247), the richest of the family, continued his father's coinage. Philadelphus also began (after the death and deification of Arsinoe II., about 271 B.C.), the issue of the gold octadrachms with the busts of Ptolemy I. and Berenice I., Ptolemy II. and Arsinoe IL, and certainly struck beautiful octadrachms in gold and decadrachms in silver of Arsinoe II., the gold being long afterwards continued. Philadelphus also began the great bronze issues of the system. Ptolemy III. (Euergetes I. c. 247-222) struck gold octadrachms with his own portrait, wearing a crown of rays. His queen Berenice II., striking in her own right as heiress of the Cyrenaica and also as consort, issued a showy currency with her portrait, both octadrachms and decadrachms like those of Arsinoe, and a coinage for the Cyrenaica of peculiar divisions. Under Ptolemy IV. (Philopator, 222-205) the gold octadrachms are continued with his portrait and that of Arsinoe III. Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes, 205-181) still strikes octadrachms with his portrait and with that of Arsinoe, and begins the continuous series of the tetradrachms of the three great cities of Cyprus. The coinage henceforward steadily degenerates in style and eventually also in metal. In the latest series, the money of the famous Cleopatra VII., it is interesting to note the Egyptian variety of her head, also occurring on Greek imperial money and on that of Ascalon. Under the Roman rule the imperial money of Alexandria, the coinage of the imperial province of Egypt, is the most remarkable in its class for its extent and the interest and variety of its types. It begins under Augustus and ends with the usurper or patriot Achilleus, called on his money Domitius Domitianus, overthrown by Diocletian (A.D. 297), thus lasting longer than Greek imperial money elsewhere. In the earlier period there are base silver coins continuing the base tetradrachms struck by Auletes, and bronze money of several sizes. Most of the coins are dated by the regnal years of the emperors, the letter L being used for " year." The types are very various, and may be broadly divided into Greek, Graeco-Roman and Graeco-Egyptian. The Graeco-Roman types have the closest analogy to those of Rome herself; the Graeco-Egyptian are of high interest as a special class illustrative of the latest phase of Egyptian mythology. These native types, at first uncommon, from the time of Domitian are of great frequency. The money of Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius is abundant and interesting. A coin of Antoninus, dated in his sixth year, records the beginning of a new Sothiac cycle of 146o years, which happened in the emperor's second year (A.D. 139). The reverse type is a crested crane, the Egyptian bennu or phoenix, with a kind of radiate nimbus round its head, and the inscription AIf1N. Under Claudius II. (Gothicus) and thenceforward there is but a single kind of coin of bronze washed with silver. In this series we note the money of Zenobia, and of her son Vabalathus. Coins bearing the names and local types of the nomes of Egypt were struck by a few emperors at the Alexandrian mint. Their metal is bronze, and they are of different sizes. Passing by the unimportant coinage of the Libyans, we reach the interesting series of the Cyrenaica, the only truly Greek currency of Africa. It begins under the line of Battus about the middle of the 7th century, and reathes to the Roman rule asfar as the reign of Augustus. The coins were issued at Cyrene, Barca, Euesperides and smaller towns. The weight of the gold always, and of the silver until some date not long after 450 B.C., is Euboic; afterwards it is Phoenician. The ruling types are the silphium plant and its fruit, and the head of Zeus Ammon, first bearded (Pl. II. fig. 23) then beardless. The art is vigorous, and in the transitional and fine period has the best Greek qualities. It is clearly an outlying branch of the school of central Greece. The oldest coins are uninscribed, so that it cannot always be said at which mint they were struck. The money with the name of Cyrene comprises a fine series of gold Attic staters and silver tetradrachms. It was an important mint of the Ptolemies. Barca has a smaller coinage then Cyrene. It comprises a wonderful tetradrachm (Phoenician), with the head of Ammon bearded, boldly represented, absolutely full face, and three silphiums joined, between their heads an owl, a chameleon and a jerboa. The money of Euesperides is less important. Syrtica and Byzacena offer little of interest. Their coins are late bronze, first with Punic inscriptions, then in imperial times with Latin and Punic or Latin. Latin and Greek are used in the same coins at Leptis Minor in Byzacena. In Zeugitana the great currency of Carthage is the last representative of Greek money, for, despite its Orientalism, its origin is Hellenic, and of this origin it is at first not unworthy. Its Carthage. range in time is from about 410 B.C., when the Cartha- ginians invaded Sicily, to the fall of Carthage in 146 B.C. The earliest coins are Attic tetradrachms of the class usually called Siculo-Punic. These, and certain gold coins with similar types, were issued in Sicily down to about 310 B.c. The types owe much to the coinage of Sicilian cities, especially Syracuse; but they show also distinct Punic motives, such as a lion before a palm-tree, or a head of a Punic queen. The Punic inscriptions enable some to be attributed to mints such as Motya, Solus, Eryx; others name " Carthage," " the Camp," " the Paymasters," many, inscribed Ziz, were issued from Panormus. The coinage from about 340 to 242 B.C., perhaps all issued at Carthage itself, is scanty; the types, head of Persephone and a horse, or horse and palm-tree, now come in, and prevail to the end of the independent coinage. The acquisition of the Spanish mines about 241 caused the issue of a large coinage, but the gold and silver soon degenerate into electrum and potin. The metrology of the various series (excepting the Siculo-Punic) is obscure, but the standard seems to be Phoenician. The late silver 12-drachm pieces and some of the bronzes are among the heaviest struck coins of the ancients. The art of the earlier coins is sometimes purely Greek of Sicilian style. There is even in the best class a curious tendency to exaggeration, which gradually develops itself and finally becomes very barbarous. Roman Carthage has a bronze coinage which is in-significant. There are a few other towns which issued money with Roman legends, such as Utica. The denarii of Clodius Macer, who revolted in A.D. 68, are curiously illustrative of his policy, which was to restore the Roman republic. The cities of Numidia and Mauretania have a late bronze coinage; but an interesting series of silver and bronze coins is attributed with more or less certainty to the Numidian kings from 1Yumldta, Massinissa (202-148), to Juba I. (6o-46 B.c.), and to the A:fnm Mauretanian kings from Syphax (213-202 B.c.), to Juba manta II. (who also struck coins with his consort Cleopatra, daughter of Mark Antony and the famous Egyptian queen) and Ptolemy their son, the last of the great family of the kings of Egypt (A.D. 23-40). II. ROMAN COINS The Roman coinage is of two great classes, the republican and the imperial; the first lasted from the origin of money at Rome to the reform of Augustus in 16 B.C., and the second from this date to the fall of the Western empire in A.D. 476. The evidence of the coins themselves as to the origin of the republican coinage is at variance with that of the ancient writers; but the general principles of criticism must be maintained here as in other matters of early Roman story. The tradition which ascribed the introduction of coins bearing types to Servius Tullius must be unhesitatingly rejected. The style and types of the earliest Roman coins point clearly to a date not earlier than the middle of the 4th century. The native copper which the Italians used from primitive times as a sort of medium of exchange, in amorphous blocks (aes rude) was probably not a state-currency, being produced by private enter-prise. It was not until Rome unified Latium and Campania under her rule that central Italy acquired a true coinage. This must have been about 338 B.c. The history of the republican coinage from 338 to 16 B.C. falls into two great periodsthe second being marked by the introduction of the denarius system in 269. From 338 to 269 three minor periods may be distinguished, indicating in a striking way the growth of the Roman organization of central Italy. In the period 338312 Rome consolidated her dominion in Latium and Campania as against her rivals the Samnites. In the second period (312 to c. 290) she finally subdued the Samnites. The system of her coinage is from the beginning based on a double mint, one in Rome and one in Capua (perhaps also she struck in some other cities in south Italy). The weight-units with which she starts are, for bronze, the Osco-Latin pound of 273 grammes, for silver the didrachm of 7.58 grammes (the latter being - of the former and more or less coincident with the Phocaic-Campanian didrachm current in Campania). The relation between silver and bronze was as 1 : 120 or I : 125. The bronze unit was the as of i pound weight, which was divided into 12 unciae. The reverse type of all bronze denominations was a prow, which alluded to the establishment of Roman sea-power (in 348 she concluded her treaty with Carthage, in 338 she subjugated Antium, her chief rival on the Latin coast, and set up the beaks of the Antiate ships in her forum). The denominations are marked by I (the as), S (semis= 1 as) and for the smaller de-nominations a number of pellets indicating the value in unciae. On the obverses appear the heads of deities: Janus on the as (see Plate), Jupiter on the semis, Minerva on the triens (4 unciae), Hercules on the quadrans (3 unciae), Mercury on the sextans (2 unciae) and Bellona on the uncia. These heavy coins were all cast at Rome. The Roman mint at Capua, on the other hand, produced a series of silver coins (chiefly didrachms) and small struck bronze change with the inscription ROMANO (see Pl. II. fig. 24). In the second period (312 to c. 290) the mint at Rome continues to issue cast bronze of the same weights and types. But at Capua the mint becomes much more active, being opened for cast bronze as well as struck silver. The Osco-Latin silver standard is superseded by the Roman scruple-standard (I scruple of 1.137 grammes= 1-+v of the pound of 273 grammes). Silver being to bronze as I : 120, 2 scruples of silver were equivalent to r bronze as of 273 grammes. The first issue of silver in this period consisted of didrachms (six-scruple pieces) with a head of Roma in a Phrygian helmet (alluding to her Trojan foundation), the inscription is ROMANO. Parallel with this is a Capuan issue of libral cast bronze (aes grave) for the use of the Latin territory; the 3-asses (tressis), 2-asses (dupondius) and as all have the head of Roma as on the didrachm, and the reverse type of all denominations is a wheel. (This wheel probably alludes to the completion of the internal routes of communication in Roman territory, especially of the via Appia, which was finished in 312). Finally, to this first issue is attributed one of the quadrilateral ingots generally known as aes signatum ; its types are the Roman eagle on a thunderbolt, and a Pegasus with the inscription ROMANOM. These ingots, according to a plausible but not quite convincing conjecture, were probably not used as money, but only in sacral and legal ceremoniessuch as dedication to the gods, venditio per aes et libram, &c.in which the use of aes rude was traditional. But from this time onward each issue of silver and aes grave from the Capuan mint was, it is supposed, accompanied by a new ingot of this kind. Three further issues of silver from the Capuan mint took place in this period, each accompanied by its corresponding aes grave series and ingot. These heavy bronze pieces are all uninscribed; on the silver and small struck bronze ROMA replaces ROMANO. The evidence of.hoards shows that in this period there must have been some sort of convention between Rome and the autonomous mints of her allies, permitting the circulation, throughout the bronze-using district under Roman control, of all the coins issued from Rome and Capua, on the one hand, and, on the other, all the aes grave issued by the autonomous mints. In the third sub-period (c. 290269) the silver coinage of the Capuan mint becomes thoroughly Romanized; its inscription is, of course, ROMA; its types are the typically Reiman ones of the youthful head of Janus and Jupiter in his quadriga (these are the nummi quadrigati). There is also a series of struck bronze inscribed ROMA issued from the same mint. The important feature of this period is that bronze is no longer regarded as the most important element in the currency, but is subordinated to silver; the result is that we have what is called the semi-libral reduction, the weight of the as issued from the Roman mint being half the pound. But opinions vary as to whether the pound of which the as represented the half in this period was the old one of 273 grammes or the new Roman pound of 327.45 grammes. As the latter was certainly used for a special series of aes grave issued from the Roman mint for the Latins (see below), we may assume that it was also used for the regular Roman coinage. Now since the a lb as (163'72 grammes) was equated to 1 scruple of silver (1137 grammes), we get a forced relation of silver to copper of r : 144. The as being regarded merely as representing so much silver (r scruple), so Iong as the state guaranteed the cover, there was no reason . why the as, being merely token money, should not fall in weight; and that it does, sinking by the end of this or beginning of the next period to the weight of of the Oscan ors (sextans) of the new Roman pound. We may note the occurrence in this series of the decussis or ro-as piece. Of the two series of aes grave issued in this period for the benefit of the Latin district, both are heavier than in the preceding period; the new Roman pound of 327'45 grammes is used for a series issued from the mint of Rome; a still higher weight (perhaps of 341 grammes) for a series issued from Capua. The relation between silver and copper involved in this standard is not quite clear. In this period also we have ingots corresponding according to the theory above mentioned, to the various series of aes grave; one, with a pair of chickens feeding and a pair of rostra, refers to the augury taken by the Roman imperator before battle. Two other ingots commemorate historical events; one, with a Samnite bull on each side, the subjugation of Rome's great rival; the other, with an elephant and a pig, the alleged rout of Pyrrhus's elephants by the grunting of swine at Asculum in 278. After the introduction in 269 B.C. of the silver denarius (piece of ro asses, marked X, Pl. II. fig. 25) with its half (the quinarius, V) and its quarter (the sestertius, IIS), no changes of obviously great economic importance take place in the coinage until near the close of the republican period. Although it is not true, as is sometimes stated, that the coinage of silver at all local ;Hints in south Italy, except the Bruttian, came to a close with the introduction of the denarius, yet the new Roman coin entirely dominated the currency from the first. Many mints, however, continued to issue bronze coinage down to 89 B.C., and a Roman coinage in various metals is also attributed to certain local mints, such as Croton and Hatria; not to mention the Roman issues which still continued to be made from Capua, though in a less degree than before. At Rome itself the mint was now localized in the temple of Juno Moneta, who probably received her surname from, rather than gave it to, motley. The denarius, being equivalent to 10 asses, and weighing 4.55 grammes, would at the rate of I : 120 (which was now restored) be equivalent to 546 grammes of bronze. The as of the time must therefore have been the one weighing S46 grammes, that is -- of the Oscan pound cf 273 grammes, ors (sextans) of the Attic-Roman pound of 327'45 grammes. In other words, the legally recognized as of this period was the as of the sextantal reduction. The bronze coins of this reduction are, like the silver, struck, not cast; the process of striking had already .been introduced for the lower denominations of bronze in the previous period. About 241 B.C. the weight of the denarius, having sunk under the stress of the first Punic war, was fixed at 3.90 grammes. Possibly the reduction of the as to the weight of an uncia, which Pliny attributes to the time of the Hannibalian crisis, may really have taken place at the same time. In 228 B.C. (some critics prefer to say nearly forty years earlier) a new silver extra-Roman coin, the victoriatus, was introduced. It replaced the old Campanian drachm and, wherever it may have been minted, was meant for circulation outside Rome. The quinarius and sestertius at the same time disappeared from the regular coinage, but the sesterce remained the unit of account. Marks of value occur on all the coins from 269 B.C. for some time onward, except on the smallest bronze and the victoriatus. After the reduction of the bronze had been carried far, it became possible to issue large denominations of a circular form; thus circular bronze decusses (equal each to i denarius) are known of various periods, weighing from over 'too to 65o grammes. Gold was not regularly coined by the Romans until the close of the republic; but certain exceptional issues must be noticed. The earliest (some time during the first Punic War) consisted of pieces of 6o (Pl. II. fig. 26), 40 and 20 sestertii; they were issued both from Rome and from some external mint or mints. To the crisis of the second Punic War may be assigned certain electrum coins of 11 scruple weight (types: janiform female head, and Jupiter in quadriga). It is to this time that Pliny attributes the fixing of the as at the weight of an uncia, and the valuation of the denarius at 16 instead of 10 asses (although in estimating the pay of soldiers the denarius continued to be given for to asses). Finally there is some probability in the attribution to the year 20g of the well-known gold coins of 6 and 3 scruples which have on the obverse a head of the young Janus, and on the reverse two soldiers taking an oath of alliance over the carcass of a pigin allusion to the loyalty to Rome of her Latin colonies (Livy xxvii. 9, so). Without following the fortunes of the various denominations, we may note that in 89 B.C. the lex Papiria suppressed all local mints throughout Italy, ordered the reissue of the silver sestertius, and introduced the semuncial (2 ounce) standard for bronze. This was just after the close of the Social War, which had been signalized by the issue, on the part of the revolted allies, of an interesting series of coins (denarii andmost treasonable of alla gold piece) chiefly from Italia, as they called Corfinium. These coins bear in Oscan letters the names of the Italian military leaders, such as C. Papius Mutilus. In Sr B.C. the regular bronze coinage came to an end, and the denarius remained for a long time the only coin issued by the Roman mint. Roman generals sometimes, however, issued exceptional coins in their own names, such as " bronze sesterces." We have already dealt with the earliest gold money of the republic. Another exceptional issue was the gold coin bearing the name of T. Quinctius Flamininus, the liberator of Hellas (struck between rg8 and Igo B.C.); but it was minted in Greece and conformed to Greek standards. The earliest Roman aurei proper (those of Sulla) were also struck outside Rome. They weigh , or '6- of a Roman pound. The aurei of Pompeius were 1s-, those of Julius Caesar gib, of the pound. After Caesar's time the weight of the aureus fell to lb, under Augustus. Of the administrative side of the Roman system of coinage little is known but what the coins reveal. The earliest indication of monetary magistrates is found in symbols, which occur on the coins before the close of the first Punic War. Then the names begin to appear, at first abbreviated, then at length. Probably the right of coinage was in the -beginning vested in the consuls, but it would seem that about the time of the second Punic War it was transferred to a special board of magistrates, the tresviri acre argento aura flando feriundo. Whether they were appointed every year, or only when need arose, we do not know; but it is improbable that there was an annual board until the beginning of the 1st century, if then; and even when annually appointed, they cannot all have exercised their right. On the other hand, there were in some years, as 92 B.C., no less than five moneyers; in c. 86 B.c. there were four, two being aediles exercising a specially conferred right. Exceptional issues of this kind were often authorized by the senate, and bear inscriptions indicating the fact, such as P.E.S.C. (Publice ex Senatus consulto). An issue for the purpose of the Apollinarian games, defrayed out of a special treasury, bears the inscription S.C.D(e) T(hesauro). Julius Caesar added a fourth moneyer to the board. The first issue of gold by such a board took place in 43 B.c. ; all previous issues of gold had been made, so far as we know, in virtue of military imperium (in 44 B.C. by the praetors). Augustus, after the troublous period 4127 was over, returned to the triumviral system; after his reform of 15 B.c. the bronze coinage which he introduced in that year is signed by the triumvirs, although the gold and silver bears no such names. Shortly afterwards, however, he organized the system which will be dealt with under the empire. The types of the Roman republican coins are of great interest, although their art never rises above mediocrity. The chief typesof the period before 269 have already been mentioned. The earliest.denarii, quinarii and sestertii bear a head of the goddess Roma, helmeted, and the Dioscuri charging on horseback, as they appeared at Lake Regillus. The victoriatus has a head of Jupiter and a figure of Victory crowning a trophy. The types of the bronze coins are practically the same as in the earlier period. About Igo B.C. the goddess Diana in her chariot begins to appear on the reverses of some of the denarii. Later, other types gradually encroach on the reverses; first, Victory in a chariot; still later such types as the Juno of Lanuvium in a chariot drawn by goats. This and other types which now begin to relieve the monotony of the series usually have a personal allusion to the moneyer, or to his family history. Thus, on a denarius of Sex. Pompeius Fostlus is seen the shepherd Faustulus discovering Romulus and Remus suckled by the she-wolf. Imaginary or more or less authentic portraits of ancestors, such as Numa, L. Junius Brutus or M. Claudius Marcellus, belong to the same category. An elephant's head on a Macedonian shield, on a coin of M. Caecilius 1Vletellus ((a 94 B.C.), alludes to victories won by Caecilii at Panormus (in 251, over Punic elephants) and in Macedonia (in 148). The cult of Venus by the Julian family is illustrated by a denarius of L. Julius Caesar (c. 90 B.C.) with a head of Mars and a figure of Venus in a car drawn by two Cupids. The surrender of Jugurtha by Bocchus to Sulla is represented on a denarius of Sulia's son Faustus (62 B.c., Pl. II. fig. 2}). The type is probably a copy of the design which we know the dictator used for his signet-ring. M. Aemilius Lepidus (TVTOR REGis) crowning Ptolemy Epiphanes, or Paullus Aemilius erecting a trophy, while King Perseus and his two children, stand before him, are other historical types. A contemporary event is commemorated on a special issue in-scribed AD FRV(mentum) EMV(ndum) EX S(enatus) C(onsulto), coined by L. Calpurnius Piso and Q. Servilius Caepio in 100 B.C. Caepio, quaestor in that year, defeated the proposal of Saturninus to sell corn publicly at a nominal price; but the senate voted a special issue of money to meet the strain of the market. On the obverse is a head of Saturn, from whose treasury the funds for the issue were drawn; on the reverse are Caepio and Piso on their official seat, and two ears of corn. Perhaps the most graphic allusion to a contemporary event to be found on any coin is furnished by the cap of liberty with two daggers and the inscription EID(ibus) MAR(tiis) on coins of Brutus. Representations of a less obviously historical character, as personifications of countries or places (Hispania, Alexandria) or qualities (Honos and Virtus) or mythological figures (Scylla), are all, it would seem, inspired by some personal interest. Many types will only be explained when more light is thrown on the obscure corners of Roman mythology and ritual; but they will all probably be found to have some personal reference to the moneyer. Roman types of the later republic, therefore, though they may be classified externally as " religious," " historical," " canting," &c., are all inspired by some personal motive, The inevitable outcome of this character was that, when once contemporary portraiture was regarded as legitimate on the coins, it speedily became its most important feature. The portrait of Flamininus on his gold coin struck in Greece long remained without a Roman analogy. In 44 B.C., by order of the senate, the head of Julius Caesar was placed on the silver coins (Pl. III. fig. 1; the gold coin bearing his portrait is of doubtful authenticity). After Caesar's death portraits occur on coins issued by men of all shades of political opinion, showing that portraiture on the coins was not then regarded as the monarchical prerogative, which it became from A.D. 6 onwards, when it was limited to members of the imperial family. The history of the imperial coinage is full of metrological difficulties. These arise from the conditions fixed by Augustus (1615 B.c.), by which the emperor alone coined gold Augustus. and silver, the senate alone bronze. Consequently the senate was wholly at the mercy of the emperor. Augustus struck the aureus at 42 to the pound, equal to 25 denarii at 84 to the pound (Pl. III. fig. 3). He introduced a new coinage in two metals, the sestertius of 4 asses and dupondius of 2, both in fine yellow brass (orichalcum), and the as semis and quadrans in common red copper. This distinction of metals, however, was sometimes ignored, as in the time of Nero,when we have sestertius (PI. III. fig. 2), dupondius and as, all in brass, and of three different sizes. The as is usually nearly equal in size and weight to the dupondius, but is distinguished by its metal and inferior fabric. All this brass and copper coinage bears the letters S.C., senatus consulto. Emperors not acknowledged by the senate are without such money; thus we have no specimens of Otho or Pescennius Niger. Nero reduced the denarius to -hth of the pound, and alloyed its silver with from 5 to to % of base metal. Henceforward the quality of the denarius gradually sank, until under Sept. Severus under later the proportion of alloy was from 5o to 6o%. Caracalla emperors. also issued lead plated with silver and, among his aurei, copper plated with gold. He also introduced a new coin, called after him the argenteus Antoninianus. It was struck at o ,th to 84th of the pound, and seems to have been originally a double denarius struck on a lower standard. The characteristic of this coin is that the head of the emperor is radiate as Sol (Pl. III. fig. 4), that of the empress on a crescent as Luna. Towards the end of Caracalla's reign the weight of the aureus had fallen to is lb. Under Elagabalus the taxes were paid in gold alone; this was ruinous, for the treasury paid in debased silver at nominal value, which had to be used to purchase gold by the taxpayer at real value. Under Gordian III. the silver contained 67 % of alloy; and eventually under Gallienus the " argenteus " frequently contained no silver whatever. Aurelian (A.D. 270275) attempted a reform of the coinage by which the previous coin was reduced from its nominal to its intrinsic value. The coins were now of bronze with a wash of silver, and we now find them marked with their value as two denarii. These coins replace at once the base silver and the bronze, which now disappear. The moneying right of the senate had become illusory by the depreciation of silver, which had ceased to have any real value. Aurelian entirely suppressed this right; Tacitus and Florian restored it for a few years, after which the S.C. disappears from the coinage. The reform of Aurelian caused a serious outbreak at Rome, but was maintained by him and by Tacitus. Aurelian also suppressed all local mints but Alexandria. It was the work of Diocletian to restore the issue of relatively pure money in the three metals. He made no less than four unsuccessful attempts to regulate the weight of gold. Not later than 290 he restored a pure silver coinage with a piece of lb. His reformed bronze coins are the follis, marked XX, XXI., K, KA, &c. (all meaning " 2 denarii=the unit ") and the half-denarius of centenionalis. Constantine, probably in A.D. 312 (though some critics attribute the reform to Constantius Chlorus) desiring to rectify the gold coinage, which had long been quite irregular in weight, reduced the chief gold piece to ;12 of the pound, and issued the solidus (Pl. III. fig. 5) , a piece destined to play a great part in commercial history. It was never lowered in weight, though many centuries later it was debased, long after it had become the parent of the gold coinages of Westerns and Easterns alike throughout the civilized world. The letters OB, which are commonly found in the exergue of gold coins from the 4th century onwards mean Obryzum (refined gold), and the letters PS, found on silver coins Pustulatum (refined silver). Under Constantius II. (A.D. 36o) and Julian the silver coin of D}8 lb was suppressed, and the siliqua of ii.tth of the pound (which had already been issued in small quantities before) took its place. From about 36o there was a system of 4 bronze coins (follis, denarius, centenionalis and a centenionalis). The last soon disappeared, and under Honorius (395) only the centenionalis remained. Honorius and his successors issued the silver decargyrus (= to denarii). The bronze coinage of this time was small and mean. It will be seen that a fuller system of bronze was originated by Anastasius, the Byzantine emperor. Under Augustus the Roman monetary system became the official standard of the empire, and no local mint could exist without the imperial licence. Thus the Greek imperial money is strictly Roman money coined in the provinces, with the legends and types of the towns. Many cities were allowed to strike bronze, several silver. The kings of the Cimmerian Bosporus enjoyed the exceptional privilege of striking gold, which, however, became rapidly debased. The silver becomes limited about Nero's time, but lasts under the Antonines, and is also found under Caracalla and Macrinus. It is chiefly supplied by the mints of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Antioch and subsidiary mints in Syria, and Alexandria in Egypt. None of these were strictly city-mints, but served the purposes of the provincial government. The bronze increased in mints and quantity in the 2nd century, but, through the debasement of the Roman silver, one city after another ceased to strike about the middle of the 3rd. The provincial mint of Alexandria, however, continued to strikeuntil the end of the century. From the coins of the ordinary Greek and other cities under the empire must be distinguished the issues of the Roman colonies. In the west these practically ceased in Nero's time; in the east they lasted as long as the other Greek coinage. Purely Roman gold and silver was coined in certain of the provinces, in Spain and Gaul, and at the cities of Antioch and Ephesus. When the base silver had driven the Greek imperial bronze out of circulation, Gallienus established local mints which struck pure Roman types. Diocletian in-creased the number of these mints, which lasted until the fall of the empire of the West, and in the East longer. These mints were (with others added later), Londinium (or Augusta), Camulodunum, Treviri, Lugdunum, Arelate (or Constantina), Ambianum, Tarraco, Carthago, Roma, Ostia, Ravenna, Aquileia, Mediolanum, Siscia, Serdica,' Sirmium, Thessalonica, Constantinopolis, Heraclea, Nicomedia, Cyzicus, Antiochia (ultimately Theupolis) and Alexandria. A few were speedily abandoned. As regards the internal organization of the mints under the empire, we know that, although the names of the triumviri monetales do not occur on the coins after 15 n.c., they continued to exist (with the title Illviri acre argento auro flando feriundo, although their competence was restricted to the first metal) until probably the time of Aurelian, who withdrew the right of coinage from the senate. Officials of the imperial treasury superintended the gold and silver coinage; Trajan placed a procurator monetae Augusti of equestrian rank at the head of the whole system, subject to the emperor's rationales (the chief official of the treasury). The system of procurators was extended and regularized by Diocletian. In the Roman colonies (which were only allowed to issue bronze) the formula D.D. or EX D.D. (ex decurionum decreto) often occurs, corresponding to the S.C. of the Roman mint. At many colonies, especially in the west, the monetary duumviri sign the coins. At Rome the imperial mint itself was situated behind the Colosseum, near the Caelian hill, the senate retaining its mint on the Capitol probably until the time of Trajan. The three monetae (of the three metals) appear together on medallions for the first time under Hadrian, and probably indicate the organization of the mints for the three metals in one place. From the middle of the 3rd century mint-marks begin to occur on the coins, indicating the various mints, the officinae in each mint, &c. Sometimes these marks form " secret combinations "; thus the letters I, 0 and BI found on three different coins of Diocletian (struck at three different officinae), and the letters HP, KOY and AI on three corresponding coins of Maximian, combine into Greek words representing the genitives of the Latin titles lovius and Herculius assumed by these two emperors. The obverse type of the imperial coins is the portrait of an imperial personage, emperor, empress or Caesar. The type only varies in the treatment of the head or bustif male, laureate, radiate or bare; if female, sometimes Inscr Typesipandveiled, but usually bare. The reverse types of the flans. pagan period are mythological of divinities, allegorical of personifications, historical of the acts of the emperors. Thus the coins of Hadrian, besides bearing the figures of the chief divinities of Rome, commemorate by allegorical representations of countries or cities the emperor's progresses, and by actual representations his architectural works. Types often occur purely personal to the emperor, such as the sphinx which Augustus used as his signet, or the capricorn, his natal sign. The most remarkable feature of imperial types is the increase of personifications, such as Abundantia, Concordia, Liberalitas, Pudicitiafor the most part drearily conventional. The inscriptions are either simply descriptive, such as the emperor's names and titles in the nominative on the obverse, or partly on the obverse and partly on the reverse, and the name of the subject on the reverse; or else they are dedicatory, the imperial names and titles being given on the obverse in the dative and the name of the type on the reverse. Sometimes the reverse bears a directly dedicatory inscription to the emperor. The inscriptions on the earlier imperial coins from Tiberius to Severus Alexander are generally chronological, usually giving the current or last consulship of the emperor and his tribunitian year. It must be noted that Christian symbols first made their appearance on coins in an unsystematic, almost accidental way. The earliest instance is at the mint of Tarraco in A.D. 314, when a cross occurs as a symbol on the reverse. In A.D. 320 the Christian monogram is found as a detail in the field at several mints. But the types still remain pagan; these symbols are not introduced by order, although the officials who introduced them doubtless knew they could do so with impurity. As times goes on the Christian emblems become more popular; on a coin of Constantius II. we find Victory crowning the emperor, who holds the standard of the cross; the inscription is HOC SIGNO VICTOR ERIS. Another type of the same reign is the Christian monogram flanked by alpha and omega. Under Julian there is a temporary recrudescence of pagan types; with the revival of Christianity monotony of type sets in. The art of Roman imperial coins, although far inferior to that of Greek, is well worthy of study in its best ages, for its intrinsic merit, for its illustration of contemporary sculpture, and on account of the influence it exercised on medieval and modern art. On t |
