Money in Antiquity, vol. I: Origins and History of Coinage — 1878

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CURRENCY

IN ANTIQUITY

CURRENCY

IN ANTIQUITY

LESSONS TEACHED

IN THE CHAIR OF ARCHEOLOGY

NEAR THE NATIONAL LIBRARY

FRANCIS LENORMANT

NEW EDITION

TOME IPHEMIER

PARIS H. WELTER, BOOKSTORE-PUBLISHER

59. RUE BONAPARTE, 59

1897 LEIPZIG: H. WELTER, 8ALOMONSTBASS, Itf

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.Lws

TO MR. LE BARON DE WITTE

TRIBUTE OF DEEP AFFECTION

AND RESPECTFUL

1.

PREFACE

Since the publication of the Doctrina numorum ■veterum of Eckhel, at the end of the last century, none no comprehensive work has been published on numisma- tick, and yet, like all branches of scholarly studies, the science of medals has carried out in the course of our century of immense progress. The modest and profound Viennese left and will remain always the legislator. The principles he established remain steadfast; the method he invented gured or at least conducted to its point of perfection tion, and of which he left a model impossible to to surpass, is the true one, the one from which it is not permitted

iv PREFACE

to deviate, and it is by conforming to it, it is by song in the footsteps of Eckhel that the great numis- matists of the 19th century, Raoul Rochette, Millingen, the Duke of Luynes, Ch.Lenormant, Borghesi,Cavedoni, — ■ to cite only the names of those to the glory of whom death gave the last consecration, — ■ made advance science well beyond the point where he had scope.

It is, in fact, above all, scientific studies how should Lucretius' beautiful comparison apply:

And quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.

The torch that the genius once lit remains inextinguishable; it is transmitted from hand to hand, in a constant succession of efforts and generations, to the emulators and disciples of him who knew the first first to collect the sacred spark, and all, armed with this torch, advance with a rapid step towards the goal ardently pursued: the knowledge of the truth. For a runner who succumbs in the middle of the car- behind, ten new ones present themselves, collecting pre- honor their heritage 5 their strengths and successes are unequal; but each of them, carrying a little more far away the light, illuminates a new part of the road. Meanwhile, the goal seems constantly received-

PREFACE v

1st, because it is in infinity, and it will never be com- completely achieved. This is the very condition of progress of human science, that it is always in a perpetual becoming, and that, if it manages to increase lie your treasure by conquering some news particles of truth, the fullness of the truth on a any subject can never be reached down here.

It is given to the genius of man to create the instrument ment, but not to absolutely carry out the work 5 it can acquire and perfect the method which reveal the secrets of nature or those of the past humanity 5 but when it comes to knowing these secrets, he only succeeds incompletely. There is always something that escapes him; at each not that he makes forward, new problems, which were not suspected the day before, stand before him. In this eager pursuit of the unknown, they are always unforeseen horizons opening up ahead his looks and which he must reach, and when there has arrived, he recognizes that his task begins again, that he must go through a new stage, at the end of which another will come. Science progresses incessantly 5 every day, she knows a a little more and a little better; but every progress makes her feel more than she knows is

vi PREFACE

very little compared to what she doesn't know not.

Yet these continued efforts, in which generations succeed generations, are not sterile. If science loses all force of life and well- soon recedes, the day she lets herself go to the deceiver illusion of having reached the goal, the day she believes herself definitively fixed and where it forgets the law of sandstone and incessant transformation to which it is submissive, in its restless march each of his steps are fruitful. Every step of the way remains conquered, and the point of arrival of the day is the point starting point for the next day's progress. The treasure of knowledge is never complete; but each generation, each worker enriches it, and the feeling greater conquests that remain to be realized reading should not make us forget the value and importance of those that are accomplished. Don't believe us superior to the masters who created Bcience whose we have been the subject of our studies, because, having come later we know more than them; let's not forget never this pie we owe them, and know how to have for their works a respect and admiration which are not as justice. But this respect and this admiration for- could in turn become a sort of fetishism! imprison us in a Chinese immobility, if it

PREFACE seen

we sometimes believe that it is enough to repeat: Magister dixit, if we did not understand that the best way to honor the memory of the masters is to go further than them and to work to enrich it, by developing it loping to the extent of our strength, the domain that they left to us.

But if it is not lawful for anyone to feed the gold- guileful hope of saying the last word of a science and to summarize it in a definitive way, it is useful, it is even necessary to stop from time to time to take a look back at the road already gone- run and to clarify the point where they are starting studies come. A general picture of the state of notions, results achieved and gaps that remain still trying to fill, is never idle work, because it provides effective help to beginners who approach the career, it interests the public in science, and even, for special scholars, a similar recapitulation of what has already been done can be useful to prepare for further progress. It's like a inventory of the treasure amassed by a long succession of efforts, essential inventory to be renewed in- terval in interval to realize this who makes up this treasure and also what is missing.

More than three quarters of a century away from the publication of the last volume of the great work

wine PREFACE

by Eckhel, a summary of the state of science of mon- antique objects has become necessary. Without doubt, by a very rare privilege, the great Austrian numismatist dog was gifted with such sure erudition, with a penetrating such a happy trance, both prudent and bold, of a scientific tact so exquisite that very few of his judges ments need to be reformed; its classification, in particular link, remains the best that has been designed, the one that everyone had to adopt and who will now remain use as long as you form museums of medals. s if the corrections & made to the Doctrine are

few in number, subsequent work revealed a multitude of additions to y the area. Eckhel treated magis-

tramenl all the questions he took care of. 'h if] there are many others he didn't talk about, t he couldn't speak, because they weren't still in its time, and which is now elucidated and resolved

Since the publication of the Doctrine, the number of oumismatic monuments of antiquity that el

ornai not known, described and figured, SUT which must the stars of science, almost quintu-

ple; l<- xiptions have acquired a character of ex unknown precision in ancient works instead of the shapeless figures with which we were satisfied in the past, we saw! ivers Meet me

PREFACE ix

ancient coins as they are, with their true style of art, and, in recent years, The use of photographic processes has come to per- put a reproduction fidelity which leaves nothing to be desired. He who talks about a piece of which he does not he was not given to see the original is no longer obliged to rely on a more or less intelligent description gente or the always questionable interpretation of a designer- it is the monument itself which is now placed before his eyes in the helio-image typical. As for the authenticity of the monuments, ments, their criticism, still in childhood at the end of the last century, — because we are sometimes surprised when we see in ancient medals- links, such as that of Florence, certain currencies that Eckhel himself could accept as anti- ques, — their criticism was able to acquire a certainty that it is now very rare to find fault. By force of having to fight against the ever-increasing skill forgers, curators of public collections ques, the big traders in the medicine trade dailles, who are often scientists themselves (he suffice to mention the names of MM. Feuardent and Lambros), finally the private connoisseurs, took an experience and a truly marvelous finesse of glance- not only could the frauds of the past not be able to

PREFACE

no longer fool anyone, but it's not a lie

of today, much differently skilled however, (July not quickly come to light. This criticism

intrins The Qumismatic monuments have landed

cleared the ground of a good number of pieces to which our piV'il rs had given place in their- 011-

vraj -. On which they discussed, while

I didn't have to occupy science for a single moment. being only the product of daring falsifications. From this way, in memory that the number “the objects of study increased in such strong proportions -. he purified himself through the progressive exclusion of everything suspected mixture and capable of d - t.

In this respect there were infinitely small

project the detail, which covered all the '''ries and who ended up exerting influence on Bscience more general than one could have imagined at first. M is, next to partial conquests], s, ôri-

meticulous fications, the scope of which is very far to be exhausted, uts of our sii - joust

in the field of provincial numismatics thirds, which, for Eckhel and contemporary people, were

absolutely unknown lands. I.'' fruitful chance a finds, the extension of the European conquest regular scientific explorations in regions m >u\ searches there are no

PREFACE xi

another century, finally, in the very countries where scholarly culture had flourished since the Renaissance, the careful observation of an ever-increasing number great number of modest and patient workers, revealed monetary series of which the author of the Doctrine does not did not even suspect the existence and of which we do not know what you should admire most, wealth or im- historical significance. That we only wish take a look at what the continuation of the coins of the Greek and barbarian kingdoms of Bactria and India, of which Eckhel does not know knows that two coins, and that of numismatics indicate gene of the Gauls until their organization by Augustus, and you will be able to get an idea of the results produced by both. causes that I have just indicated.

The ancient coins of Asia with legends Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Pehlevies, Cy- priotes, etc., etc., are today a whole world the main parts of which have been explored with success, the ranking of which is established in a manner safe in all its essential lines, and whose still doubtful problems are growing every day restrictive. What was known about it in Eckhel's time? The first decipherments of Pehlevi inscriptions on the coins of the Sassanicle kings by Sylvestre de Sacy, who opened a new era to science and

xii PREFACE

inaugurated the methods of explaining the scriptures unknown and lost languages, sources of so many wonderful conquests of scholarship in our century, were only published after the app- publication of the Doctrine. At the time she was written, all the baggage of this type was reduced to Bayer's work on the Hebrew centuries and to what extent what happy readings of Phoenician legends by Abbot Barthélémy, readings to which Eckhel, rendered skeptical by oxtrascientitic fantasies to whom oriental epigraphy had too often given rise, made the mistake of not attributing the value they had really.

It’s still Abbot Barthélémy, this original genius and penetrating, that the worldly life of the eighteenth century and the devotion to his noble protectors have too often disputed and. torn from science, it is still the abbot Barthélémy who first conceived the idea of what he called numismatic paleography, that is to say beyond determination of the historical eras of m na\ autonomous Greeks according to the development <\*'+ p ' • manufacturing techniques, car theory of art style and the paleography of legends In this regard, Eckhel limited himself to: < recording the data from the memoirs of the French scholar; there is nothing added person m determination of times

PREFACE xni

issue of Greek autonomous companies, linked with the major phases of general history, do not apply doesn't even appear in the beginning in his book. Indeed, Winckelmann had only just discovered that there was a history of art, something of which we had not yet say not doubted before him, and this new science, which was only beginning to be born, could not yet be of no help to numismatics. He is no longer the same today; it is now founded from a unshakable manner and provides the safest indications tions to fix the date of the coins. At the same time, the study of inscriptions, developing and by regularizing itself, gave the criteria its own- palaeographic certainty and precision that could not be attributed to them in the past.

Eckhel had carried out the study and classification so before historical version of the coins of the Roman emperors, that, in this respect, his successors have hardly exceeded. But, with him, the republican series, that of documents so improperly called consular, remain there would be real chaos, roughly distributed by families and almost of no value to the story. It is only by creating on its true foundations the science of Latin epigraphy and the history of the Roman administration drawn from the inscriptions, that Borghesi began to shed light on the numis-

PREFACE

wise republicans, at the same time

•neither found in the analysis at: burials an inestimable help p blur the chaos. The chrono classification of

this vast monetary series thus became the,

still many improvements i y in ilnire, many problems of detail to elucidate, the

•n are I g the great eras of course mined.

Let us again mention the questions, which were not - still covered in Eckhel's time, on 1 - lies the Doctrine is silent, and which in our days has been taken so much importance, relative to the study nu-

: new numismatics considered at the point “the metrology, the history of development] - monetary terns, reciprocal value precious metals and their effective power, the price of circulation of species 3, n a word of i I \ la currency in the economic and social life of civilians sations of antiquity. Here again, it remains imm< oenl to be silent, ri i«»ut does not have an equal value in the.- name- many works including CCS problems have milked the object, sur- everything for twenty-five years. You have to write off one large part of dubious conjectures; it is important to untie mirages to which the game of numbers does not - ready that too easily, puts it.

PREFACE xv

political nomy as well as in statistics. But, even by dismissing with severe criticism everything that is not sufficiently certain, modern research latest studies on these matters have produced a large contin- people of positive and capital facts which contribute in a considerable measure to the advancement of numis- matic, and of which it is no longer permitted in the general history ral and economic science not to take into account. All these advances, which have so greatly enlarged the field of studies and partly renewed the face of the science, were operated, as always happens, by a fragmentary manner, in works which have focused on special and determined points. No work has not come so far to coordinate and summarize them in an overview. Monographs have been published phies carefully studied on this or that series numismatics, on this or that particular question, descriptions of public or private collections, and above all an almost infinite number of dissertations in journals specially devoted to the study of medals, in those whose framework embraces all the branches of archaeology, and in the various collections academics of Europe. This is where you have to look- dear the new facts which have enriched science and its present state. But the number, the variety, the extent publications to consult make research

xvi PREFACE

painful even for special scientists, who on each that subject always have to fear that some memory important ended up escaping them. They become- much more difficult for beginners, who rightly complain about not having at their disposal tiona treatise setting out the principles and facts i Basics of numismatics, in accordance with the current state of knowledge. And stronger reason the results now assured to the Bcienoe of antique medals remain in these conditions a arcane ii< ible for the general public, for those

who do not indulge in it in a complete way. He

es! always bad that a science tends to become a sort of exclusive property in the hands of

special men; she therefore lacks a

part of its mission. And the BSl thing even more la- expensive when it comes to a science whose pitfall^ — etc. This is what establishes a singular analogy between numismatics and some of the natural sciences] such as entomology, conchology and botany that, — whose collection is precisely the ease a

which, failing to attach general ideas to it, it

would be reduced to the sterile collection of a multitude of little milks deprived of m.', thus falling into the curio- childishness. How many amateurs, <[iii collect

ancient coins with* a zeal worthy of praise

PREFACE xvii

but insufficiently lit, do not even suspect of the greater scientific interest that they could connect to their curious tastes, and that for lack of a book who awakened their ideas on this subject! At the same time, for my part, I was often surprised at the lack of party that historians and economists draw from rials piled up by numisrnatists, materials in which they would find so much wealth implement, so much information including the abs- sence leaves in their writings notable and annoying gaps. But I was obliged afterwards, when I tried to understand the causes of the ignorance rancid in which the public remains regarding one of the the most important and attractive branches of the science of antiquities, to recognize that the fault was especially with the numismatists, who for a long time for a long time have not paid enough attention to put their studies within the reach of laymen, no more than to give a synthesis which could easily benefit those who need to request the numis- matic some of its results, without however have the time or the possibility to give it a special way.

It is the absence of any general treatise on numisma- tick summarizing the progress made since Eckhel, and the feeling of the practical usefulness that would present

xvii: PREFACE

such a book, however imperfect the production, who emboldened me to publish the lessons only for two successive years I had devoted to the study of medals in the chair of archeology near the Library national library. I was, moreover, encouraged by the kind advice of friends whose opinion is me the highest authority, especially by those of the distinguished scholar whose name I wrote on the

first page of this book. By giving the form of a writing definitively stopped in the notes of my

course, and revising them one last law before

deliver them to print, I endeavored to (area of my best. Yet I must declare it here, I know as much as anyone, everything that is missing from this work el I have the deep feeling of insufficiency with the- what I completed The program that I had Ira But s at least that, such as eU

lessons, for lack of a better book, could be of some use.

The very quality of the company will also be able to their, in my own right, serve as an example to me

if I showed myself too inferior. This is the first time that numismatics was the subject of a public course blic. Ki even. When I started my LessonSj one who today hold the first rank ts this study expressed doubts to me about the possibility

PREFACE

x:x

ability to bring back to the forms of professional teaching fessoral a science where the multitude and variety of facts to observe sometimes seem to defy temptations tives of synthesis, where the tact and finesse of the appreciation personal relations hold such a considerable place. Without doubt, it would have been childish to pretend to form by lessons of this kind from practical numismatists cjues. It's neither the books nor the teachers, it's direct study and prolonged handling of monuments ments, developing certain natural abilities, which can only learn to discern at a glance sure a truly ancient coin from a falsifica- modern tion. There are particular faculties that develops the familiar practice of original antiques, and which are the most necessary of all in archaeology. ogy, whatever branch one undertakes to cultivate. It is an education of the eye that nothing replaces and which one must strive to acquire oneself, by using major collections, by looking often the monuments they contain, ma- able to grasp the smallest details, by practicing to this careful analysis which alone allows us to understand take the general character, comparing them between them and by extending each day the circle of its relationships closely. It is only in this way that numisma- tist, at the same time as he acquires critical sense

i.

xi PREFACE

of the authenticity of the medals, achieves this degree of precision in Bes appreciations of which it cannot be pass and which allows him, upon examination of a new piece new and still unknown, that it is about classics determine the age and homeland based on the style and brick, without needing any other testimony. A similar gymnastics of the eye and tact "which

forms the practical connoisseur who must be doubled any scholar truly worthy of the name in matters of monetary archaeology, and what she learns could not be taught by any teacher, either than by any book.

But what we have the right to ask of the child teaching and books, these are the fundamental principles scientific interpretation method monuments that practical observation alone places able to know. It is also the synthesis of the facts observed so far, reduced to notions neral; these are the main points of the overall picture seems to emerge from the rapprochement of this multi- study of facts, and, if we can! thus speaking, the laws which arise from it. It is finally reported that numismatics that is in a position to do now to the com- among the sciences of erudition. This is what I tried to expose in my lessons and what makes me hope that they will be able, as best they can, to partially fill

PREFACE xxi

the gap that I pointed out, the lack of a treaty overview on the study of ancient medals according to his latest progress.

The very conditions of public education thus led me to occupy myself, as I wanted, moreover, indicate it in the title of this work, of money considered from a general point of view among the Greeks and the Romans, rather than ancient coins considered in their infinite va- riity. From there the framework which was almost necessarily imposed rement for this synthetic summary essay.

I have divided my study into eight books, including each a more or less large number of chapters; but these books are grouped naturally, five of one side and three on the other, in two larger divisions sions, which correspond to the two successive years of the course. These are, as the Germans would say, the systematic part and historical part.

In the first part, I took reading as a guide. minor distinction borrowed by Isidore de Séyille(l) to the Roman jurisconsults: “There are three essential things tial in money, matter, law, form; in the absence of one of them, there is no longer, proper- speaking, of money. » After a quick

(1) Orig. XV!, 17.

xxii PREFACE

eye devoted to a few preliminary questions, such as the definition of special classes of monu- numismatic ments that we had to leave behind side in this study, as not being mon- naies, the generic names of currency among the an- ciens and the origins of its use, I successively examine- the monetary species of the ancient world in three constituent elements of matter, of law and the elm, embracing them in a bird's-eye view seems among all the peoples who have struck it, since the memo invention of money until the moment when the kings of the Barbarians, established in the West following invasions, repudiated, on the coins they issued were, every trace of imperial supremacy. Because this his! the two milks which delimit in time the ancient numismatics, which I alone had to study here. Beyond that of the middle ty begins

The material is the metals used in the us

monetary, their respective values and their allies] that we gave them to make them more suitable for traffic; these are also the substances of value intrinsic corresponding to the nominal value that

assigned to it, which were used for certain eras to make “purely fiduciaii currencies real assignats; finally, these are the material processes riels of the manufacture of metallic species by the

PREFACE xxiii.

means of striking or melting. The law in currencies understands above all the rules of law public which, at various times and in different country, have determined the possession and exercise of the privilege of monetary issue by such and such form of public power. It's still the cons- title of the different magistracy to which been handed over the direction and control of operations monetary, one of the most essential attributes of sovereignty and one of those at the same time that it matters most which are wisely regulated, put to shelter from the fantasies of the arbitrary and the bad faith. And to this part of the subject was naturally connected- ment, in such a way that it could not have been separated without disadvantage, everything relating to the organization of monetary workshops as well as the condition of the workers and coin engravers in the Greek world first, then in the Roman world. The vast question tion of monetary systems also falls within the scope of maine of the law. But I had to save it for the se- conde part of the work, because it is only at the point from a historical point of view and in the successive sequence periods that it can be usefully examined. As for the form of coins, it consists above all of two main elements- paux, of which we have tried to define the conditions

xxiv PREFACE

general, history and developments, types and the legends. Overstrikes, counter-marks and other facts of the same kind were natural ment in the particularities* of the form, and we have also had to make a separate place for plagiarism, imitations by civilized or barbarian peoples of coins which found a Drinker’s price with the trade, because of the very-OODside- development reassured that these imitations, of a mediocre nature loyal, held in the coinage of antiquity known in the Middle Ages. He cheerfully seemed useful, because of the novelty of the subject and “the the absence of any manual where medal lovers could find the data grouped together essential on this subject, to devote a special book to one of the particular questions that arise relate from the point of view of form, I mean to monetary paleography itself. The reader will find summaries of the facts of the history of writings Greek and Latin whose knowledge is qôc --aire to the Uumismatists, then the other oriental alphabets and Westerners used in monetary legends re the values of their signs and examples which allow you to practice reading.

We see, this first part, systematic, it is other than the Prolegomena generalia of Eckhel,

PREFACE xxv

expanded, developed and made available as much as possible level of the current state of science. What we do let us consider, these are the facts of a fundamental character- mental and universal, which constitute the very essence of money in the multiform variety of its species these, instead of the differences which distinguish each of these. So when it comes to types, what we had to search, this is not to give a idea of their almost infinite variation, of the details which differentiate them, it is on the contrary to reduce them to a certain number of large classes, to identify the rules gles of aesthetic convenience which directed the artists: in their composition, and to determine the orders of ideas in which we generally have them chosen, their above all religious character, as well as the progress of the trend which then led to make it historical, allusive to contemporary events porains, a trend which only became predominant under the Roman emperors. We were even brought, speaks force of things, to give in our observations legal and economic facts, who owns especially the character of generality, a development greater than purely numismatic facts, where The varieties of detail are especially notable.

For the second, historical part, I had two models that I should strive to imitate and follow,

xxv: PREFACE

The History of Roman Coinage by Mr. Mommsen

J. Brandis' book on monetary systems from earlier Asia until the reign of Alexander the Big. What these two scientists did so well on

- limited topics and serial dates, I have i

to generalize it and extend it to the entire world n,i\ | atic. It only took me, by Buite widening the framework to be filled, adopting a form more summarized, confine myself more to the broad strokes and give less space to details. In this part therefore, instead of taking ancient currency in Good set to study each of them separately constituent elements, I proceed by eras and by

s, striving to determine the story, sucks s- si«>n and the vicissitudes of the different mo systems silences which reigned in antiquity, and I consecrate a quick review of the numismatic series which represent feel the application of c - systems. The divisions are given here by the chronology and the g.[«read. In the autonomous coinage of the oriental world and distinguishes three major periods which occupy me pent successively, of the invention of money Darius son of Hys l, from Darius to Philip Alexander of Macedon, finally from Alexander to the con- Roman quest, and in each of these periods Be studies distribute graphically by regions.

PREFACE xxvir

Revenant ensuite aux origines pour pénétrer dans le domaine à part du monnayage italiote et romain, je retrace la formation du système de Yaes grave en Sicile et en Italie, et les principes nouveaux auxquels donne lieu la combinaison de la monnaie d'argent d'origine grecque avec l'usage indigène d'employer le cuivre pris au poids comme instrument des échan- ges. J'examine après cela les débuts du monnayage de l'argent à Rome, où il s'introduit plus tard que partout ailleurs, et je suis les développements de la monnaie romaine au fur et à mesure de l'extension de la puissance de la cité-reine, qui absorbe graduelle- ment l'universalité du monde antique en le courbant below the level of domination. This historical study rique de la monnaie romaine, où mon premier guide a été naturellement M. Mommsen, embrasse la série de la République et celle de l'Empire, jusqu'à l'éman- cipation définitive, monétaire comme politique,, des barbarian kings of the West. Here again, these are the grands événements de l'histoire qui me fournissent les divisions, par l'influence qu'ils exercent sur le coinage. Cash mined outside the system tème monétaire romain, conformément aux données des anciens systèmes de drachmes grecques, soit dans les provinces directement soumises à Rome, soit dans les royaumes simplement vassaux, sont groupées à la

xiviii PREFACE

suite du monnayage proprement romain SOUS la rubri- que des diverses époques, à titre de monnaies provin- ciales frappées sous le contrôle et la direction des magistrates of the people-king; and connected to the currency romaine par des tarifs officiels «[ni exercent une in- decisive influence on their sizes. And even, from l'Empire, Faction de la monnaie romaine devient telle et si marquée sur les monnaies des pays qui échappenl à la suzeraineté de Rome, qui se maintien- nent en étal d'antagonisme ouvert avec la romanUé^ qu'il devient impossible de séparer le tableau de ces derniers monnayages de celui du monnayage impé- rial, to which it forms a natural appendage.

Ce que j'ai tenté esl donc, en même temps qu'une sorte de sommaire des principaux laits d'une des branches spéciales de l'archéologie, un chapitre de l'histoire économique, administrative et commerciale ancient societies. Also this Book is aimed «Mi même temps à deux classes différentes de lecteurs:

d'une pari, aux amateurs et aux curieux de médailles

antiques, qu'il pourra conduire a rattacher, plus qu'ils ne le font d'ordinaire, Les objets de Leur goût et de Leurs études pratiques, à <\ii< notions générales, a des consi- derations of a broader interest; on the other, to the economies mistes et à ceux qui, scrutant l'histoire des civilisations passées, éprouveront le désir dese rendre compte de

PREFACE xxix

ce qu'ont été dans l'antiquité la monnaie et son rôle social. L'économie politique, en particulier, peut trou- ver dans ces questions de la numismatique autre chose than the attraction of simple curiosity; there is for her des enseignements à puiser, des arguments à mettre en œuvre dans l'expérience des siècles antiques. Because tous les problèmes monétaires des sociétés modernes ont été déjà soulevés dans l'antiquité 5 on peut y voir à l'œuvre les diverses solutions qui en ont été propo- sées, et nulle part les conséquences funestes qu'en- traînent fatalement certaines erreurs économiques ne sont écrites d'une manière plus éclatante que dans l'histoire numismatique de la Grèce et surtout de Rome.

Je me suis efforcé de faire en sorte de pouvoir être lu et compris par les deux catégories de lecteurs que I just indicated. Consequently, wishing not to write pour les seuls numismatistes, ai-je évité, autant qu'il était en mon pouvoir, de déployer dans les notes et dans les citations un trop grand appareil d'érudition. Mes citations, restreintes aux limites les plus étroites et qu'il m'eût été facile de multiplier énormément si je l'eusse voulu, ne sont en réalité que des références, renvoyant le lecteur aux ouvrages principaux dans les- quels ont été traitées avec plus de détail les questions que je ne puis qu'esquisser sommairement, ou bien

xxx PREFACE

to (Complete inscriptions of the currencies which serve starting point and justification for my assertions. As much as I can, I refer to the latter to the works that are in everyone's hands and con- constitute the first and essential fund of the library of a numismatist: for mon- Roman nais of the republican and elite suite imperial, to the two books of Mr. Cohen, so precious by the accuracy and precision of the descriptions, as well as that by the rigor with which they were eliminated all false documents, although in other respects DS ports don't hold up as much as you could have check in the current state of studies; for the gn - ques, to the great work of Mionnet, which still remains so useful, despite incorrect readings, inaccuracies attitudes in the statement of types and attributions doubtful of which it unfortunately contains too much large number, despite the considerable gaps that it present and which were inevitable at this date. It remains, moreover, until now our most extensive repertoire, the only one even of this kind that exists, because no one has still had the courage to undertake to do it again; ei a description of the ancient coins of

Greek and oriental suites, a corpus given with the s<>iu and the criticism which contributed to making those

Greek and Latin inscriptions -. so much

PREFACE xxxi

the first desideratum of numismatic science. She cannot do without it from now on, and if, what is likely, the stain is now above the forces of a single man, she would have enough to try the Academies.

References to Mionnet's work return so often in the notes of my book, that I believed be able to dispense with designating it otherwise than by the name of its author, just as I limit myself to follow the name of Mr. Cohen with the letters MC and MI by citing his two works of Description of coins of the Roman Republic or medals consular and coins of the Roman Empire. I also cite in abbreviation three other books to which I also have the opportunity to refer almost every page, Eckhel's Doctrina numorum veterum [ON), Das Mûnz-Mass-und Gewichtswesen in Vor- derasien bis auf Alexander den Grossen by J. Bran- dis (indicated by the name of the author alone), finally V His- tory of Roman coinage by M. Mommsen (MR\ For this last work, my citations refer to the French translation by the Duke of Blacas; the corrections tions that the author himself introduced, the sa- boasts notes attached by the translator and by Mr. Baron de Witte, actually make this translation a revised and improved edition, in progress on the

harm PREFACE

original German publication. Besides, when we writes “iu French, we can hope to find above all

g readers in France, and I had to think of those numismatic enthusiasts of our country who are not

not able to be referred directly to an or« German vrage, when there exists of this work a version in our language.

PLAN OF THE WORK

Book I. — Prolegomena.

Chapter ior. — Numismatic monuments which are not coins.

§ J. Roman medallions of gold, silver and copper. § 2. Pieces made especially for religious offerings gious. § 3. Imitations of coins made for jewelry. § 4. Talismanic medals. § 5. The devotional medals of the first Christians. § 6. Contorniate medallions. § T. Theatrical tesserae. § 8. Miscellaneous tokens.

Chapter n. — Generic names of money among the ancients.

Chapter m. — Origin and spread of Image of money in the ancient mande,

§ 1. Metal circulation before the invention of money.

ii- PLAN OF THE WORK

- inventors of the m Q . DitTus: we say the uj has currency.

Liviit 11. — The m MihHL I \n- UBB ■ KKAIia INT1( Chaplin I. — The* ÎTOÙ monetary metals c HCM*#.

^ 1 Breport of gold values. silver and copper.

2 Variations in the choice of the standard mixture to the di\

| $, ;. Monetafa metal alloys

Chapter ii. — I soft intrinsic value

1. Coins of lead, tin, earth CI

. So-called iron and leather coins. '. - four coins* -.

:. - - :.. : -

Chapter m. — Proft ' xbrication among the former<

onaiee rrmj; i.

\ -J. Cast coins.

appearance of: try as

l isi.i III. — The front page in my mail - a

Cha| - Mature tlu (Ir •tnic éOU lanti'ju

coinage rights in the mon than the Roman conquest.

: leemonnau • . Monn; he - Repul; ie Roman.

L I pi nceaaoua the J empire.

, My

. i have money, public romaii

1 î. Roman imperial coinage.

PLAN OF THE WORK m*

Chapter n. — A look at the monetary doctrine and its consequences practices in antiquity. § 1. The Greeks, v m §2. The Romans.

Chapter nr. — Monetary magistrates in antiquity.

§ 1. The monetary magistrates among the Greeks. § 2. The monetary magistrates among the Romans.

Chapter iv. — The organization of monetary workshops, engravers and workers in antiquity.

§ 1. Among the Greeks. S § 2. Among the Romans.

Book IV. — The form in ancient coins.

Chapter I. — Monetary types in antiquity.

§ 1. The obverse and reverse in coins.

§ 2. Mainly religious character of the types of currencies Greeks. 3. Architectural types and those which reproduce works famous works of sculpture.

§ 4. Royal effigies on Greek coins.

§ 5. Development of historical types and indications of value on currencies among the Italiote peoples.

§ 6. Types of coins of the Roman Republic.

§ 7. Types of Roman imperial coins.

§ 8. Introduction of Christian types.

§ 9. Outline of the relationships of the phases of the history of art with the development of monetary types.

Chapter II — Monetary legends in antiquity.

§ 1. Gradual development of complication and tension

monetary inscriptions. § 2. Forms of the main legends on ancient coins. § 3. Mentions of magistrates in the legends.

PLAN OF I/OUlf

B explanatory of t\ . I D the indicative values:

. Shapes of dates inscribed on coins. B nci-

blades to which they relate.

be III. — The little guys, and the monograms

the field of currencies.

1. Small accessory types.

2. Abbreviated names and monogram-.

Chapter iv. — Types and laws related to these public games.

§ I. Main rules of these types and island of these legends I | 2. Games mentioned on ancient coins.

Chapter \. - Some incidental features in the currencies* ticks.

§ I. Countermarks. § 2. Overstrikes. § 3. Hybrid parts. I 1. Inscriptions traced in graffitiO. . Cut coins.

Chapter VI. — The, currencies

Chapter VII. — ■ Imitation coins in antiquity.

§ 1. Monetary imitation against civilized peoples. _'. Monetary imitation < hes the Hari .ires.

Lrvai V. — Bsquisi o'uxi palboguaphii moxitaib

Chapter 1 r. — Paleography of the alphabet gn.

i. The origins of Greek writing.

_. Ancient alphabets up to the archontit of EocUde.

I, Main paleographic milks after the areli d Buclid.

. - Pal,,, spelling of the Lalin alphabet.

g l. Origin al main modifications until the Empire.

PLAN OF THE WORK v*

§ 2. Period after Augustus.

§ 3. Use of the Latin and Greek alphabets on Gallic coins. § 4. Combinations of the Latin alphabet with runic elements on the coins of the barbarian royalties of the West.

Chapter ni. — Semitic writings.

§ 1. The Phoenician alphabet and its main types.

§ 2. Néopunique.

§ 3. Primitive Hebrew.

§ 4. The ancient Aramaic alphabets.

§ 5. Syriac estranghelo.

§ 6. Sabien or Mendaite.

§ 7. Nabataean.

§ 8. Sabean or Himyari tick.

§ 9. Ethiopian or ghez.

Chapter iv. — Writings from Asia Minor.

§ J. Cypriot.

§ 2. Phrygian and Carian.

§ 3. Lycian.

§ 4. Pamphylian.

Chapter v. — Italic alphabets.

§ 1. Etruscan. § 2. North Etruscan. § 3. Umbrian. § 4. Oscus.

Chapter vi. — Alphabets of Spain. § 1. Iberian. § 2. Turditain. § 3. Bastulo-Phoenician.

Chapter seen. — Alphabets of Iranian countries and India. § 1. Pehlevi and its various varieties. § 2. Ariadne's alphabet. § 3. The ancient Devanagari alphabets.

vr PLAN OF THE OUVRAI

I IVBB VI. HlST >IBE DBS BTSTÈMBfl lf< NBTAI1B8 Dl I MfTIQI m UBNTALI AND GBECQUB.

Chapter rr. — Principles and general observations.

Chapter II. — Asian origin of the world's main monetary systems Greek.

\ I. A numeration and the weights and measures of Babylon. g_. Weight systems from that of Babylon. -dull eginetics and its independence.

Chapter you. — Coinage of Asia and Greece until the Guei I ques.

\ 1. Asia Minor.

D northern Greece. Greece. I. Cyreoalque.

Chapter IF. — Coinage of II Greece and Asia since Darius (Ut d '///,">- iêtpt until Alexander the Great. \ I. Greece. . 1. Empire of the Àchéméûldi l<

:. Greek towns on the coast of Asia Minor and neighboring islands, §\. Cyrenaicrae.

Paya .m northern Sri . Lee coins of intoxication.

Chapter v. — Greek coinage issued to Alexander on t,r

m aarchie iaaoeed of the empire of Alexander.

?: !!. Cattle of Upper Asia.

Parthian Empire. 5] Ria and Arabia.

. Autonomous coinage in Aefc Minor. ^ 7. (,r.

• t, || itre H. — Monetary system of the Lagides in Egypt.

PLAN OF THE WORK seen*

Chapter seen. — Western-style monetary systems.

§ 1. Carthage.

§ 2. Greek cities of Spain and Gaul.

Wine chapter. — Coinage of the Barbarians of the North and the West.

§ 1. Countries around the Black Sea. § 2. Danubian countries. § 3. Germania and Rhaetia. § 4. Gaul and Brittany.

Chapter ix. — Main species of Greek coins mentioned in the authors and in the inscriptions.

Book VII. — History of monetary systems of antiquity italic and Roman.

Chapter 1. — Greco-Italic monetary system.

§ 1. Sicily.

§ 2. Southern Italy.

o

Chapter h. — Severe AES system.

§ 1. Vaes rudeel the first aes signatunt.

§ 2. Etruscan grave vaes.

§ 3. The Roman grave aes.

§ 4. Laes grave of other parts of Italy.

§ 5. The triental aes.

Chapter m. — Monetary system of the Roman Republic.

§ 1. Roman-Campanian coins.

§ 2. Beginnings of silver coinage in Rome.

$ 3. Successive reductions of the denarius.

§ 4. The victorious.

§ 5. Regime of the Plautia-Papiria law.

§ 6. Caesar and the Triumvirate.

§ 7. Provincial coins under the Republic.

PLAN' l)L OPENED IT

iv. — Monetary system of i! Roman.

§ 1. From Augustus to Caracalla.

b monetary of the th century. :. Dioclet's attempt at monetary reform. ;. My;; - worse.

- - the l*Bm|

itn v. — Coinage of countries foreign to the Empire, eUti

. . x -- :.

-.

Roman city {>ar

\i. — S.'

if l. Reform monr One.

antin. . ' . » barbarian kings established in the *Em|

. . Imitated. dwarf out of PEi

Limil \ 111. — .M'Nv\n.> DAJIfl THE CIVII

it's unique. — Monetary origins

.1.1 I -

BOOK FIRST

PROLEGOMENA

I.

CHAPTER ONE

NUMISMATIC MONUMENTS THAT ARE NOT

COINS

g 1 . — ROMAN GOLD AND SILVER MEDALLIONS AND COPPER.

1. Eckhel, beginning his immortal Doctrine, was still obliged, by the state of science of its time, to devote a chapter to the examination of the question to know if the monuments that numismatics studies were or not real currencies, if they had been used to traffic or had simply been hit commemorative title. We are no longer there. What the vast majority or better said almost all ancient monetary coins that have come down to us composed of currencies formerly circulating, this is what no one can doubt today and does not doubt more. On the contrary, we must now ask the question reverse. At the beginning of a book specially devoted to the study of money strictly speaking, we must ask ourselves der si, among the monuments within the purview of numisma- tick, there are not a few classes, few names, breous and clearly determined, which go beyond the subject from such a book, some groups of pieces produced by i. 1.

4 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

leg |,r, - ,1c monetary manufacturing and which nevertheless have never been currencies. are even distinguished from that.—»i with complete certainty. (- clasa - particu- lines of numismatic monuments exist in fact, although that they are as little as a number next to "the real currencies, that they only hold an infinite place minimally on the very considerable mass of the parts where the numismatist must have Bea carried out investigations. The mo- harm: in question are distinguished by characteristics tain-

And first, did the ancients have. next to their currencies, as a distinct thing, this (pie us let's call medals '•'

The word medal, absolutely unknown in antiquity, was borrowed from us in the 16th century from the Italian medaglia. This last expression, originally, was not for Italians that a synonym of obole <>u of half-denier (1); The equivalent of the low Latin word medallia, of which our stitch was, ;i Good turn, the contraction conforms to the laws of formation of our own idiom. Ita-knits links or medaglie being \ s obsolete ' • . we don't gave this name more than to the old pieces which had not now only an interest of curiosil. I'm in the- write- vain of \v Biëcle that the word appears b - in Italy, b at the same time Philippe de Commynes B'en

I the first ehe/QOUS, speaking of the mid-collections

i i uiTinsi allort le medaglie in Firenze, che!•' due vatarano uno danaio piccolo: Novtllt unit

PROLEGOMENA 5

mismatics of Pierre de Medici. The medaglia or medal having thus become, in the habits of language, a monetary coin foreign to circulation, envisaged only from the point of view of art or curiosity, the the same words naturally took on a new meaning; they applied, in opposition to the term currencies, to pieces that began precisely in the 15th century to get into the habit of making (as we continued since then, but as the Middle Ages did not do) under a form analogous to that of currencies and with the same processes, as ornamental objects or as a means of perpetuate the memory of the events, but without the des- tiner to circulate with legal value. It is in this meaning that I take the word when I ask the question to know if the ancients, alongside their current currency, had medals without a strictly monetary character.

2. If antiquity knew the use of medals in the sense that I have just indicated, there were at least very few developments, since neither the Greeks nor the Komains felt the need to possess in their language, for designate, a term different from those by which we name- but the currency. And yet the Romans had adopted a special expression, that of nomisinata, for the desi- gnation of ancient currencies collected as objects of curiosity, for collection medals (see. ch. it, 4).

It is true to note that ancient societies did not should not have felt to the same degree as ours the need to have commemorative medals specially struck moratives with the sole intention of preserving through them the

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

Bouvenir of major events?. This was due to the way of which they had designed the types of currencies,

to the character and variety that they admitted for ees types. Also, when we wanted to devote it to events a metallic souvenir, there was no need to resort to the manufacture of a medal intended outside

of the circulation of cash. It's by the currency itself that we ensured the memory of the fact, by placing a type there allusive. The Swiss Confederation does the same again our days. To each of the major federal shots which are for (real national shootings, instead of a medal useless, she would strike a 5 franc coin with new corners, including !• I the inscriptions recall

the circumstance. optional which produced the manufacture cation. This part enters circulation same title (pie Similar monetary as

title and weight, and bearing the same mark of va- their ; in 4-step menu, you can enter it COmn come. It is both a currency and a commemorative medal. moral. De menu-, in Belgium, his- Léopoldl*, during of the marriage of the Duke of Brabant, today king, we struck a “20 fr” coin, bearing the effigy of this prince, intended both to circulate as to coin the memory of the event.

The G. at the time of their independence, never

known other way of proceeding. USAJ medals

directly told them has always been strange r; same goal

their- currencies they- only admitted late the allusifa types to events, and always in a fairly specific manner. tour VOy. book IV, chapter 1".

No doubt, certain Greek silver coins or

of gold seem at first glance, by their dimensions

PROLEGOMENA 7

exceptional, respond to what are in our ideas the appearance and proportions of a medal rather than those of a currency. But this impression is inaccurate. It is easy to see by positive evidence that the largest gold and silver coins of the Greeks, instead of being medals, represent common monetary sizes currently used in the practice of circulation in moment when they were hit.

Thus, the great silver coins of Syracuse from weight of 10 drachmas (which is sometimes called abusively) sive medallions) were circulating species, designated according to their value by the name of penteconta- litron, which were manufactured in large quantities for monetary usage in two different eras, from the time of Gélon I and under the power of Dionysius the Younger (book VI, chap. seen, at the word Démarétion, and book VII, chap. I, § 1). The large gold coins of the Lagids of Egypt and the Seleu- cides of Syria, the module of silver tetradrachms and of double weight, were also currencies of use usual, currency which was given the name of mnaieion, expressing their value of a mine or 100 silver drachmas (book VI, chap. vi, g 1). We can therefore compare them to the 100 franc gold coins that are minted from time to time at the Monnaie de Paris.

Seule dans toutes les séries grecques l'énorme pièce d'or d'Eucratide, roi de Bactriane (1 ), dont le Cabinet de France possède l'unique exemplaire connu, semble présenter, par ses dimensions supérieures aux données normales des tailles usitées dans la circulation monétaire, le caractère exceptionnel d'une médaille frappée seulement pour com-

(1) Numismatic Review, 1867, pi. XI ï.

8 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

remember a big event. The fact that BOU cor- weight respond à une valeur exacte dans la monnaie circulante de l'époque (20 statères d'or ou 500 drachmes d'argent n'est pas une raison déterminante pour l'envisager autre- ment, car nous allons constater le même fait pour ceux des médaillons d'or romains qui le plus positivement n'ont never been currency. As for the type, the Dioseur< cheval, s'il est le plus habituel dans le monnayage pro- prement dit du même roi, on ne saurait méconnaître l'allu- sion manifeste qu'il renferme au fait culminant de l'histoire d'Eucratide, au combat de cavalerie dontl'issue inattendue le rendit maître d'une grand»1 partie de l'Inde au moment même où il paraissait prêt à perdre sa couronne (1). He semble donc que la grande pièce d'or ait été une médaille fabriquée à la suite de ce combat extraordinaire, peut- être avec le butin qui y avait été conquis, et peur en per- pétuer le Bouvenir (2), et que ce soit sur cette médaille qu'ait été adopté pour la première fois le type allusif que le monarch reads next | on the currency.

.'). On the other hand, in the Roman imperial series, we We encounter coins of gold, silver and copper, generally recognizable by their dimensions

(I) Justin. XI. I.6.

B] it even seems that this medal must have been made only deui "H bantillona, if not the only one that has reached us. Well indeed,

it was easy to see, according to the locidenta of the Burfaœ of this example to please, that this the (rapping, and oeU after having I barely served, It awakens during the course of the typing of the | even that we had, which we had to necessarily anneal several times to arrive at a perfect book result. cfa ip« m, ^ I) •

PROLEGOMENA 9

exceptional, which have never been currencies and which, although manufactured by the same processes as these, had another use, another destination. These are those that in numismatics we have become accustomed to designating, according to their proportions, by the name of medallions, the Italian medaglione, a big medal.

The medallions themselves — because it is important to exclusively reserve this expression for parts which could not have had the character of coins, — the metals Daillons only begin with the reign of Trajan. Those gold only multiplied under the emperors of the 111th century. Indeed, it is necessary to subtract from the number of monuments of this class the so-called gold medallion of Augustus discovers green at Herculaneum (1) and that of Domitian (2), who dis- published from the collections of the Cabinet de France following the theft from 1831; these are big coins, coins of four auras, called quaterniones, the largest size monetary used in the circulation of the time of the reurs (see book VII, chap. IV, g 1).

Following Eckhel's judicious remark (3), the types imperial medallions of the three metals are very rare has a historical character that can be reported to a specific event, and thereby they differ completely- ment of our medals commemorated! ves. The types of current coins of the same emperors are generally much more historical; it is on these that we placed the allusions to the facts of which we wanted to preserve the me- moire in numismatic form.

(1) Cohen. Imperial medals, Octave Auguste, n° 3G.

(2) Cohen, M I, Domitian, n°:>.

(3) DN, i. I.p. xvi.

10 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

it is important, moreover, (to re-establish a distinction between imperial laillons according to the material from which they Boni for- for the search for their original destination.

h. The gold and silver medallions thunder a group to leaves.

They always have an exact monetary weight 1, which

does not take place, of the rea surprise, while admitting

that they were not circulating legally. In the

habits of the court of Byzantium, the golden bubbles were appi was suitable as l< - at the bottom of certain aet< S parti- especially mei anels must have been of a regular weight

two, three, four solidi on plus:> . N -same 1. we generally take care to give our gold medals or of money an exact value, appreciable in a certain sum- finished* of currency.

'"But if the gold medallions in particular have always an exact monetary weight, we drool on the other hand that the common currency of the Roman Empire never admitted of sizes greater than three and four aura, to what we called the lernio and the juatemio (see book VII, eh. iv, \\ . It is easy to discern from their dimensions and their weight - of gold, and also those of silver, which have never had the character of currencies and have always were real medals.

Lampride recounts, in the life of Alexandre Séi that Elagabalus, in a wild fantasy, had

1 sec. \timperials, see. my job dam

1.” linen n, munit* 1887, ; I -'7 I.; I.

1 DêCêirm, m/. Ofsanl, il, (8, p. 689, Bonn ed.

PROLEGOMENA 11

has coins minted, to distribute to his familiars of gold, some of which went up to two pounds. Sound austere successor, by ascending the throne, melted them for the benefit of the treasure (1) -, and this is how no sample has not reached us.

According to this example and after a few others of which he would be possible to corroborate it, we are entitled, I believe, to assert that the gold and silver medallions were fa- bricked especially to be distributed to characters of the most mark in military donativa and in all other occasions of public largesse, official events, such as those which took place on the kalends in January or at the Saturnalia. We can even add that the gold medallions were perhaps given as gifts by the emperors, and those of silver by the consuls entering into exercise (2).

Indeed, if there were a fixed rule of this kind for the distinction between the use of the two metals in largesse official, this is what we learn in a positive way tive by the precept relating to the nature of the missilia, that is- that is to say small coins that we threw at the

(1) Formas binarias ternarias et quatemarias et denarias etiam usque ad bilibres quoque <*i centenarias, quas Heliogabalus invenerat, resolvi praecepit neque in usu cuuntam versari; atque ex eo his mater iae nomen inditum est: Lamprid. Sev. Alex. 39.

However, in his turn, Alexander Severus had a few medallions struck of gold that we possess, but of a much lower value.

(2) It can, however, be objected that the legend MON ETA AVG, accompanies showing the type of the three currencies on almost all of the medallions of silver later than the Antonines, would rather seem to imply that these pieces were rather intended to be used for directly impor- rials, but made to people of a lower rank than those to whom gold medallions were reserved.

I.A CURRENCY IN I. ANTIQUITY

people in solemn pomp. Justinian the i again in these terms, in his VI Novelle:< A. the only au- imperial rite belongs to the privilege of spreading the the people, because it is up to them alone to despise the most high form of larich — .As for money, who i [u'il

there is more precious after gold, it is appropriate that “consuls in fass< nor their larj. »

It is true that the writers of the Merovingian era] show us Clovis, at the pomp of his proclamation as null homelands, making the people throw rubbish

gold plates f\) of which some samples are perhaps " reached us. There I was, as we see, a real usurpation of imperial rights, also linked Was it not an ordinary consul that the terrible one: Franks. Too happy to see him have the insignia of the consulate, which constituted a real recognition of assembly, the emperor of Constantinople was not

aure asked him - explanations on irregularities laril bdes encroachments of this genn

Given in the circumstances I have just indicated,

most 'gold medallions were worn around the neck as thus i imperial favor. On 1- with frequem-

still equipped with the bail which was used to hang them, surrounded by gold frames which completed

make jewelry of great luxury, (in this form that they should be generally given, especially from from a certain era.

Indeed, the addition of the b bond] especially constant but the medallions "the- emperors after (lonstanl at the same time that these m dalls usually reach

I. I Wtl /"■ ru li

PROLEGOMENA 13

dimensions and weights unknown in earlier times ancient. We have some of the Emperor Constantius weighing 56 solidi (i), with weight values of 15, 40, 48 and 90 solidi (2), finally of Justinian whose weight equals 36 times this monetary unit (3) (on the solidus, see book VII, chap. vi, § 1). These enormous gold medallions have never been discovered only in countries occupied by barbarians at the time they were made. Those of the Imperial Cabinet rial and royal of Vienna, the largest known, come from Hungary and Transylvania. We made, in fact, to send them as a present to those leaders of barbarian peoples who recognized the su- nominal premacy of the Empire, at the same time as they are awarded these court titles which flattered their vanity.

This is how Gregory of Tours (4) relates that the king Chilpéric one day showed him the imperial gifts he had just received from Constantinople. “He also showed me “gold medals weighing one pound each (72 solidi) “which the emperor had sent him. On the one hand, they carry "were the effigy of the emperor, with this inscription to “surrounding: Tiberii Constantiniperpelui Augusti; on the other, “a quadriga and its driver, with this inscription: “Gloria Romanorum. He showed me several more “precious objects offered to him by the ambassadors. »

(1) Arneth. Gold and Silver Monuments of the K. K. Museums and Antiquities Cabinetten in Wien, pi. XV, No. 4; Cohen, M I, Constance II, n° 21.

(2) Arneth, pi. XVI, nos 1 and 5j pi. XVII, n0$ 1 and 3; Cohen, M/, Vblens, nos. 1, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10. — See. Steinbiïchel, Notice on medals Roman gold coins from the Imperial and Royal Museum in Vienna, 1826.

(3) Pinder and Friedlander, Die Miinzen Justuiians, pi. II. (i) Hist. Franc. VI. 2.

]1 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

It should be noted here that the legend GLORIA ROMANO- RVM, affirmation of Roman supremacy, is effective- the one that is almost always read, with di-

-, on the reverse of the enormous gold medallions destiny* present at the barbai s.

Some medallions of superior metals, gold or silver gent, at the time of the Late Empire, exceptionally more historical types, Be relating in a way directly to events, but in no way excluding, Link on the contrary, the idea that the pieces in question have made for (imperial or consular presents to

renements. This is the little medallion silver coin of Constantine, commemorative of the foundation I nstantinople, which presents on the reverse the figure of the For- tune of the new city (1. There are several i Kemplaires, which show one of the corners of this me- daillon were implemented simultaneously in the ten workshops of the mint (QStantinople, poul- ies inaugurate. The various copies offer among themselves

very large variations in weight.

:>. The bronze medallions are distinguished from the mon- made of the same metal by an absolutely pi and certain, which does not allow us to maintain any doubt about their monetary nature: it is the absence of- letters S c.

atus consulte, The presence of these letters- was, in fact, of a rigorous necessity Bur the copper coin j give him free movement throughout the empire. She was there the indispensable mark of the authority of the senate, to which Auguste had left the direction, supervision and

l) Friedlsender, 2 ili '.-. 'i W m imatil t. in, p, i_

PROLEGOMENA 15

responsibility for the coinage of this metal (see book III, chap. I, g 7, and book YII, chap. iv, g 1).

Only a few copper coins, intended exclusively ively to the needs of local traffic of a pro- vince, are not marked with the letters S C, because they were not manufactured by the senatorial authority (1), but by virtue of a special permission from the emperor. Such are the plays of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero, to the type of the altar of Eome and Au- high taste in Lyon above the confluence of the Khône and of the Saône. They came out of the Lugdunum workshop to circulate only in the three Gauls, Aquitaine, Celtic and Belgium, whose deputies met in this city (see book III, chap. i, § 3; book VII, chap. iv, $k ', but the numerous countermarks of which they are fingerprints show that they could not be accepted in outside the three provinces indicated only after receiving a stamp which allowed its use elsewhere. So, for be received indifferently throughout the empire, it was necessary that they had been overstruck in countermark of the letters IMP or AVG, initials of the words imperaior or augustus, of which affixing them transformed them from local currencies into mon- births of empire. For their circulation in the province alone of Narbonnaise, permission was required from the proconsul of this province, indicated by the countermark P P, permissu proconsulis. Even so that they were only received on the restricted territory of the colony of Vienna, so neighboring of Lugdunum, but belonging to the Xarbonnaise. a

(1) Outside Rome itself, there was only one senatorial workshop, that of Antioch of Syria, whose products were also marked with letters S C.

16 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

authorization from the colonial magistrates was necessary and had to be mentioned by a special stamp on letter.- D D, decurionum decreta (see book IV, chap. v, g 1: book Vll.eliap. îv, \ I .

Provincial coins of this type are few in number and all well known. Besides, a little used to it, it is easy to distinguish them by the style and the manufacture of truly Roman corner pieces. Among the latter, it is the absence of the letters S C which must be taken as the absolute character, and to the witness- irrefragable nage, distinguishing the bronze medallions, which did not have the monetary destination, currencies

real ones of the same metal. Anyone who would like to be guided here only according to the dimension would not arrive at any scientifically acceptable result and would necessarily leads to serious errors. There are, in fact, some

non-monetary medallions which do not exceed the module of what is commonly called bronze t/rund. By against, certain currencies intended for common circulation rant, and as such marked with the letters S C, reach ordinary dimensions of the medallions. These are the copper quinars of Trajan \)ccc 1) and Herennia Etruscilla (2) [see. book VU, chap, iv, , 2.

The medallions are also generally distinguished from the contemporary currencies through more careful work, more precious, by a marked superiority of manufacturing and style. 1 ins were engraved with less haste and more

research; the hatch is more regular, more careful

ti\i' e1 r ualways more successful< . I Bont d( has products more

1 1) ( ib< m i/ / i

(ï) < oin-n M l. fctru» i le n I

PROLEGOMENA 17

perfect of the coin mechanism industry, which was able to devote more time and more care, work with peace of mind, without being pressed by the needs of public use, and, by further, give it more of the character of a real work of art.

If the diameter dimensions do not exceed all cases those of the strongest currencies, the metal blank- The liqueur of the medallions is always noticeably thicker. The thickness also varies in a very sensitive manner. from one copy to another of the same medallion, and it is clear that no importance was attached to giving a more or less exact equality of weight in the different examples please. Finally, we sometimes notice in the preparation ration of the blank of these pieces of singular research and expensive that we could not have afforded by manufacturing real currencies, because they required labor costs work which would have produced significant losses for the public finances. I want to talk about the medallions that one bizarre fantasy made it strike on a blank of two metals, formed of a bronze disc of a certain alloy and a certain color, set in the middle of a bronze circle of another composition and other color, the imprint of types of the matrix corner extending over the entirety of both surfaces formed in this way on both sides of the room.

6. Imperial bronze medallions meet trent frequently embedded in a broad border of the same metal, melted and chiseled, which increases very much strongly the width and received a decoration more or

less rich. Most often, the border is very simple, i. 2

18 THERE CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

presenting only a few circular moldings, way to bring out through contrast the elegance and richness of the types of the piece placed in the center.

Le Beau and Abbot Barthélémy very ingeniously conjectured (1) that the medallions "the bronze thus embedded had to be attached to military ensigns to show the image of the sovereign, object of public worship. 11 there is no need to accumulate passes here _ - which, at ancient authors, prove that imperial loans made the main decoration - igneous legion -

naries. Suetonius (2) relates that Artaban, king of the Parti having crossed the Euphrates to negotiate peace, worshiped the- eagle- Romans and the images< - Caesars who were there attached s. ! read these images whose appearance aroused I the people of Jerusalem when Pontius Pilatus had made enter Roman dam (S). It is also

what in the age of | utions, cost the lives of so many Christians who, for this reason, refused to enter into the militia or to render to the ensigns a cult that their reli- region forbade them. Whenever the legions tired of an emperor, they tore his portrait from their standards to replace that of the new master that they chose. Tacitus, Suetonius, Eerodien and the* writers of Auguste History provide a quantity examples, and that is why the sign holders were Bouvent described as image carriers -. imagi- nant or imaginifen | i.

(1) J/f'/w. ' I Ar<: p, i. XXXV, p. -

! Cûi i i

(3) Joseph. Bell. Mr. he (4)Veget. he. 7.

PROLEGOMENA 19

The numerous representations of Roman signs that the sculptures of different monuments offer us, in particular those of the triumphal arches, do not let •of doubt about what the imperial images that were there were attached. They always appear there in the form of me- medallions having exactly the appearance of our medallions of bronze recessed; almost never do you see a single one sign, but two, three or even four superimposed to each other, and sometimes applied, sometimes suspended by chains along the upper part of the shaft, immediately below the eagle which surmounted it. Often the embedded bronze medallions that we see against in the collections present, at the upper part or lower than the circumference of their border, the traces incontestable of the metal tenon which was used to fix them one above the other.

The shape of the ensigns of the auxiliary corps was more variable than that of the legionary ensigns; we left there ^more career at the whim of corps commanders. But the imperial image, surrounded by a cult, was always an essential element, and it still appeared there in the form a medallion of very large dimensions, like our embedded bronze medallions. It is, for example, easy to recognize the place where the lost images were embedded and the shape they had in one of these places. auxiliary signs which was discovered in Greece (1).

The opinion of Le Beau and Barthélémy on the destiny bronze medallions bearing the effigy of the emperors, equipped with large frames, therefore appears well demonstrated, and it has received the support of the majority of scholars. We don't

(1) The Bottom, Journey to Greece, Figurative Monuments, pi. CIX.

I.2.

20 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

must not object, in fact, that sometimes it is not the head of the reigning emperor, but that of his wife or of some other member of his family who is represented on these monuments. The honor of the image applied to military ensigns were not limited. in fact, only

august; it extended to the Caesars and even to others members of the imperial family. The portrait of Drusus was on the ensigns of the army of Germany, and it is this image venerated for the Bouvenir of so many glorious exploits that Good son Germanicus addresses. in Tacitus (1), to calm the mutiny of the soldiers. L - > believed

pay their court to Tiberius, placing on their signs The image of the ambitious Sejanus, whom he had made his son-in-law. Tiberius suffered it with his usual dissimulation; m united bre defeated Sejanus, he rewarded the legions of

Syria, because they were the only ones who had not paid this honor to his perfidious favorite (2).

7. However the majority of bronze medallions

imperial do not BODt recessed in the borders of the

like “those which made them suitable for being fixed on along the signs, and have certainly never i It is therefore necessary that we have made more of them,

for another use. This is, moreover, a use for which we used the monetary aon medallions, and not

the destination for which they were struck. In in fact, they were sometimes substituted in this use

monetary bronze coins, marked on the reverse with the Letters

I Read.” I.I

| - , :i. /i\

PROLEGOMENA 21

S C, which ensured their circulation, when the module of these parts made them suitable for such use. We meet some against, in fact, who were provided with the supervision of images of signs (1), exactly like medallions, and whose application to this use cannot therefore be subject to of a doubt.

What was the intention with which we made non-monetary bronze medallions? These parts are of a metal too vile to have been used for presents imperial or consular, such as gold medallions and money. On the other hand, the work was too careful, manufacturing too expensive, for us to be able to admit that they were simple tesserae distributed to the people as tickets participating in the distribution in the con- giaries, frumentations and other analogous circumstances logs.

But, just as the material of the gold medallions and of silver provides a very sure clue to recognize the destination, it seems that in the material of the medallions of bronze we can find a light on the authority which had them made. They were executed by the same officials ers and in the same workshops as the coins of copper; the likelihood is therefore that the order of their manufacture cation must have been given by the authority which directed these workshops, that is to say by the Senate, master of the minting of copper as the emperor was of that of gold or r money. The intentional and constant omission of letters SC has, in fact, nothing contrary to this idea of a senatorial origin; in fact, if we had placed these letters

(1) See. among other examples the pieces of the Cabinet of France engraved in Cohen, M I, t. II, pi. II, no. 342, and pi. VIII.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

but the pieces - d question, their inscription would have given

ipso facto the character of current currency, what we wanted to avoid. Biles should therefore in no case appear on medals distinct from the currency, when It was even the Senate which had the medals made. The most probable judgment on the origin and The majority of the bronze medals, the one which seems the best founded always remains that of Eckhel 1. I don't think I'm wrong, he said, in reporting their originally manufactured following. < ■ owed i

made by the authority of the S fil expressed wishes

public for the emperor in such circumstances that an adventus arrival, a departure (profectio), a triumph- phe, or every year on the kalcndes of January, or well still in some religious solemnity* Issued in stances of b t spread in the public

for you to preserve the memory, we explain the care everything particular contribution to their work. We also understand how they were made of bronze, since the Senate had no dmit that Bur this metal, and how the mark S C y s removed to prevent their confusion with currency Examination of the types found on medallions of imperial bronze "the Roman corner fully confirms

2. ('es1:i circumstances of the kind of those listed by Eckhel as their types relate, although more than specific events. Those to'advtnhu

- [Ue les - :it a character

I D A.! I.p. WII.

I) ] • - rotn tin i

British .1 (re-emmenl the subject of a splendid publication 101 fraii of this great scientific establishment: Renan me initions m th- [iritish Museum, I • n 1res l87o in >

PROLEGOMENA 23

historical; the greatest number are of a reli- gious which naturally connects them to wishes public. Particularly interesting and informative is the small medallion of Hadrian, struck on the occasion of wishes of the kalends of January, which has the legend on the reverse Se- natus Populus Que Rosemaries kimum Novum Faustum ?eli- cem HADRIANO AVGusto Patri Patriae{\

8. From Kome, the use of bronze medals is not monetary exchange passed into the eastern provinces around the time of Hadrian. It is from the reign of this prince until around the end of the 3rd century that he gave birth to the great medallions, similar to those of the Roman coin and always in bronze, with the heads of the emperors, which the cities emit of Asia Minor and Thrace on the occasion of these games periodic and solemn events which then held so much space in the life of the degenerate Greeks and by which they con- were desperate for lost freedom.

These medallions from the Eastern provinces, sometimes of dimensions wider than those of Roman corner, but on the flan generally less thick, are distinguishable from the first glance by a much less careful work, by a more bad style, as well as by the nature of the types of reverse, almost all agonistic, by the language of legends, which is constantly Greek, and by the inscription of the names cities that caused them to be struck. These parts are located described with the coins in the great work of Mionnet and in the main collections catalogs numismatics. No special study has been devoted to them.

(1) Cohen, M I, Adrien, n° 574.

94 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

cial since Buonarroti's book, published at the end of the wir century (-1), and it would be very desirable that some Dumismatist gave a complete monograph. The subject is well worth it.

The [Rendes traced on the reverse of the bronze medallions Greek cities under imperial domination indi- clearly show the origin and destination. Almost always Thursday whose celebration they commemorated

are mentioned there, and this with back formulas all aul than those of the mentions of games which Be frequently found at the same time but the currencies themselves I citei temple the inscription which reads Bur

several medallions struck in Philippopolis of Thrace in time of Emperor Caracalla (2): KOINON opakcon

AAGZANAPeiA nYGIA GN OIAITTTTOnOAei: Community Thracians. Aloeandrean Pylhian Games in Philippopolis. On a currency intended for legal circulation, the games could be mentioned, but the name of the city rule expressed by the ethnic adjective an genitive plural, olAinnonOAGUcoN, car< put a currency people of Philippopolis, to which the municipal authority would give his guarantee ] •• island. The use of F

pressure - . to Philipj polis, -'applying to

games themselves, is characteristic of a medal not monetary, intended only to preserve the livelihood of

the t ■ oistiqu

\j The Boni medallions were struck in the name of

- delegates from cities of the same province by the names of conventus or commune, in

(1)0 I alruni MedêgliorÙ nnlirht, Home. I

Mionn.a. t. I, p. 117.i

PROLEGOMENA 25

Greek >cowov, which, under the supervision of ro-governors hands, met to deliberate on certain interests common financial funds or to administer certain cults and certain games (1). Part of those of these /.oivà whose names are read on the medallions do not appear not also on currencies; this is the clue that the com- communities who find themselves in this situation could do well manufacture medals that are not legal tender, but do not did not therefore have the right to collective coinage. We can cite in this genre the community of thirteen cities of Ionia, KOINON IflNflN, KOINON IT nOAEHN lONON, and that of the cities of Thrace, KOINON 0PAKON.

We also notice on the medallions the multiplication dedication formulas expressed by the verb oveQwxe. It is true that similar formulas are also found sometimes at the same time and in the same regions on real currencies, where they seem to indicate the generosity of some rich individual who would have taken charge to provide for his city with the costs of monetary manufacturing silence (2) (see book IV, chap. n). But we must remark- check that on the coins the inscription of dedication, com- posed from the name of an individual followed by the verb, is placed usually after the mention of the inhabitants of the city in genitive of possession: (Currency) of the people of such a place; so and so dedicated. The formula which puts the ethnic adjective dative after the verb of dedication — So and so dedicated to the people of such a place — can be considered almost ab- decidedly characteristic of a medal instead of a

(1) See. Eckhel, D N, t. IV, p. 430 et seq.; Tittmann, Griech. Staats- verfassungen, p. 7i(J and s.

(2) Eckhel, D N, t. IV, p. 3G8ets.

26 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

currency. The .-eus of these dedication inscriptions and the commemorative character of the coins which bear them, even when they could be admitted into local circulation, r especially characterized by those that P. Claudiua A t talus, son of the famous Polemon and sophist like him. reads knock, in the modules of the medallions and a large bronze^ in Laodicea of Phrj. os the reign of Mark- Auivlc and with the head of this emperor (1). One of them

bears in legend n ka attaaoc eniNiKiON ANeoHKG aaOaikgojn, P. Claudine Attalus dedicated as a monument commemorative of his victory [agonistic]* (Currency of people of Laodi

In the series improperly qualified as impe-

rial one in the .-series of Roman euin, The em-

use of an extraordinary module and superior to that of biggest usual currencies is not strictly

read to recognize a non-monetary coin. Next to the medallions whose dimensions make them distinct war at first glance, there are small medals

a careful study of which leads to discerning the true

nature. Thus, I believe I can affirm that none of the number a in the cities [ues a

the head of AntinOUS had the character of a circular currency culante, although we have as much in the proportions of the large bronze or even medium bronze that in the medallions, I commemorative medals in

the honor of the new god that the shameful caprice created of Hadrian, made at the time of recovery of Good worship to perpetuate the Bouvenir. Many made come together to prove it. We have these [deaths in

il) Bckhtl, D .V t. lll, p, 16 •

PROLEGOMENA 27

cities for which there are no contemporary currencies or at least no coins of the same module, therefore in towns that did not have permission to coinage or who only had a restricted one. They have Greek legends in Roman colonies including coins always have their legends in Latin, which shows a very clear intention to prevent by this particularity even that they are not confused with the mon- nae intended for circulation - Finally, it is on the reverse of the pieces with the head of Antinous, which we encounter most often wind the dedication formula that we were talking about just now time. The priest, instituted to serve the worship of the god new creation in the name of a province or a city, dedicates the medal struck in his honor to the people of the province or city gathered at his feast. This is how is expressed in the legends of pieces of this genre a named Hostilius Marcellus, established in Corinth priest of An- tinous for the province of Achaia: OCT1AIOC MAPKGAAOC O lePCYC TOY ANTINOOY KOPINOIHN ANGGHKe (1), Hostilius Marcellus, the priest cV Antinous for the Corinthians thiens,adédié,o\\\nzrï:OQT\k\OC MAPKGAAOC O IGPCYC TOY ANTINOOY AXAIOIC ANGOHKG (2), Hostilius Mar- cellus, the priest of Antinous, dedicated to the Ackeans. That of Smyrna written on a piece of the ordinary module of coins, on the reverse of the head of his god, CMYPNAIGUN thePOJNYMOC ANGGHKe (3), Smyrna yens; Hiero- nyme dedicated, and the city strategist on several me-

(1) Monnet, vol. II, p. 180, no. 239.

(2) Mionnet, t. II, p. 160, nos. 97 and 98.

(3) Mionnet, t. III, p. 229, number 1287.

28 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

ilaillons. nOAGMON ANGOHKG CMYPNAIOIC I . Pole- my dedicated to the

BGTOYPIOC TOIC APKACI (2 . Veturius at the .{rendions.

1. — LE8 Fold CB8 1 kl lLEMENT EN \ DE

OF ILELIGIOUS OFFERINGS

1. The medals with the image of deified Antinous, Burtout when their m dule Be approaches that of* mo-

habitual netaires, were able in certain places Ê frap] i - for an object of worship and offering as well only with the intention of simple commemoration. In Indeed, it is positive that in antiquity the monastic workshops taires "ut manufactured parts exclusively intended - h to serve in religious offerings, and not to circulate as ordinary currency,

It was a very widespread usage among the ancients that to offer money to the divinities. In some

sanctuaries, similar offering had the vault of a

ritual prescription. .. The surface area of the agora of Pli (of Achaia), says Pausanias 5), is considerable, as in- the oldest localities. In the middle B raises a marble figure of bearded Hermes. The god is standing, the body in sheath and square shape, without base and adherent to the Bowl even of the place. The inscription that< statue,

i M: «met, i. in. d 1279-ltt I MK Doet, t. II. p 19-21

\ll 22 |

PROLEGOMENA 29

whose size is mediocre, says that it was dedicated by the Messenian Simylos. Pharoe's Hermes is given the nickname of Agorœos, and he is consulted as an oracle. A marble altar is placed in front of the statue, and lamps of bronze, soldered with lead, hang along the altar. Whoever wants to consult the god goes in the evening to the place, and, after burning incense on the altar and poured oil into the lamps, he lit them and placed a chalque of the country's currency on the altar, to the right of the statue. Then he confides in the ear of the god the question that he wants to address to her, and walks away, covering his ears. Barely has he left the place when he removes his hands from his ears, and the first voice he hears becomes for him the oracle of the god. »

Clement of Alexandria (1), in his eloquent invectives against paganism, accuses the pilgrims of Paphos of give Aphrodite a coin as a courtesan. Letronne (2) took ingenious advantage of a passage from Aristophanes (3) to demonstrate that the mon- berries offered to the gods were often placed in the hand extended in front of their statues.

It is especially in the worship of fountains and rivers that the use of coin offerings appears to have been the more constant. We know of so many discoveries of numismatic monuments made in the Cer- some thermal springs, such as those of Aquae Apolli- Iliares, near Rome (4), Arles, in the Pyrenees-Orient-

(1) Protrept. p. 13, ed. Potter.

(2) Ann. of lînst. arch. t. VI. p. 217.

(3) Schools. 777 et seq.

(4) Marchi. The stipe tributata wing Acque Apollinari, Rome, 18o2. in-i°.

30 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

pillowcases I), and Bourbonne-les-Bains (2), where these rooms currency had and - by the same mala pre-

feel the local nymph; this was what we called eu latin stipensjacere. Similar findings, relating to a habit of offerings years -, took place, particular- lly in our country, on certain points of the course rivers - - huge masses of Lille pieces

and Roman- have xeinple, taken from the bed of the

Mayenne, at the Saint-Léonard ford 3. as well as that de la Vilaine, in Rennes (4), and all the Parisian amateurs know how many gold coins of the ancient Parisii are retii each dredging of the middle of the sands on a point strong point of the confluence of the Seine and the Marne 11 is

good to also remember the number of antique pieces qu1 ren read in the daylight the depths of the Soing pond, of the sea Flines and Lake Grandlieu 5.

These examples show that the currencies offered to gods were not crazy like those we deposited in the trunks of . with a view to enriching the

fund of the sanctuary and to help with the expenses of worship. We also dedicated as objects intended to be in their very form, as an inviolable ex-voto

l | figs $ ur Ut w/e,

P-

uetique of the province of Lan p 4461

— We must also recall the discoveries made by - I iFont-

» mow, near Saintes.

■ iv. ter. t. XII. |

. i ilmouch \ Fouilla

Bur i "cei islands finds of coins in large quantities <' rivers and lakes of Gaul, see. Saulcy, Mêlanget 4% numismatics,

1

PROLEGOMENA 31

Thus, the epigraphic inventories of the treasures of the ples of Athens they mention several times, as being kept there, dedicated currencies by units or in very small number (even in a case with this indication that they were false currencies), and such mention is followed by the name of the dedicator (see chap. seen from book VI).

2. But in such a case one must fear that an impious theft not put the coins thus consecrated back into circulation. No class of offerings could with more ease disappear without leaving any traces that allow them to be found following a fraudulent kidnapping. We were therefore led to look for ways that make it possible to prevent sacrilege by returning the coin impossible to receive in traffic once it had been dedicated as an offering. The simplest and most rude consisted of obliterating it, on one of its sides or on both, with a cut of the shears which made him lose its legal character. This is how they were treated all the staters of the Parisii who meet in bed of the Seine, at the consecrated place.

Among the Greeks, we sometimes resorted to a pro- more delicate and more ingenious. 11 consisted, when the currency was of fairly considerable size to offer a field which would allow this to be done, to be engraved there points, more or less deeply, a small inscription dedication option. An incuse silver coin from Crotone, kept in the Cabinet of France, thus received, on the side of its reverse, in fairly deeply engraved letters, the in-

33 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

scription Ictobv rotî \-w; Aovoc, devotes to [potion (l).In the same collection, a silver octadrachm of the queen of Egypt Àrsinoé Philadelphe p>rte incised at the point y\y.y.rjy àv[aôyj[itf, offering to Macedos (2). Other mon- ancient naies offered in graffito the inscriptions Eapo7r[iô\J Kv[ûcôïîpt], Awv[vi * 11 /:\ . Frequently, on Greek coins, we con- state The subsequent addition of the letters anao, an, or simply A, initials of the word x»c offering^ trai

at the tip (see book [V, chap. \ . \ 3).

3. Finally, in certain circumstances, it is i special which must here, although very rare, attract principally mainly our attention, we decided, for more safety again, to manufacture particular currencies

Lusciously intended to be used for religious offerings gious, without being able to circulate otherwise, although they lu— «mu cut on the weight of monetary species habitually tuelles. It would be enough to attribute a similar origin has the drachma to the types of Miletus which bears the nde AND aiatmon IEPH. currency) its the />/-

dymes I. ! _ iide by which this pi -• implementation direct connection with the cult of Apollo Branchidian in Didvmes, in the vicinity of Mil L (during it

Mini, General Clauet, p. 17; tfionnet, Suppl. t. I. p|. I\ I 2 Sicily (1, 18)

ijet, see my special work in .i last* delivery of numitmatics of I v

im uni ouinst p, 70

PROLEGOMENA 33

not possible to make a definitive statement on a similar conclusion, because sometimes, for example in Asia Minor, at Alexandria Troas and Ilium, the inscriptions of current currency designate it as issued in the name of the city's protective deity, instead to be in the name of the fvoy political authorities. book III, chap. I, § 2, 4; book IV, chap. n).

On the other hand, we have a certain example in these

curious coins struck with the dies of colonial aces

of Nemausus on copper blanks in the shape of a ham

equipped with the pig's foot (1). We never met them

than in the basin of the fountain of Nîmes, where they had

were thrown as offerings. These are certainly

ex-voto which were manufactured to be such and which have not

never circulated as coins, But the types which

decorate on both sides were struck with the corners

same from there. ordinary currency, and, in a more

sought after, they represented the traditional offering

of a coin of the usual cash to the divinity of the fountain

sacred.

4. It is important to relate to this usage the fact that some coins were specially minted under the direction and on the initiative of the priestly authorities tales to be given as prizes in games celebrated in the honor of the gods (2). Mr. Ernest Curtius (3) admits a

(1) La Saussaye, Numismatics of Narbonne Gaul, pi. XX, no. 36; Ch. Robert, Numismatics of the province of Languedoc, pi. IV, No. 12.

(2) On the general subject of currencies in relation to public games, see. Eckhel, DNt t. IV, p. 421-434.

(3) In the Monatsberichte of the Berlin Academy, 1869, p. 468.

i. 3

34 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

quite a big development in the monetary emissions data special documents intended to provide the prices of the games, which, in some cases. were made of silver 1. or to provide for expenses of their celebration, which, in the most elders, were in charge of the temple coffers, because the agonistic solemnities had among the Greeks a characteristic religious and sacred territory. El) toul -. QOUS in one

positive example: it is the silver drachm of Metaponto, where the figure of the river god Acheloiis is accompanied by the legend 'kyekfyw «ÔAov, at the price of Àchelous 1. This registration cannot leave a d<>ure on the original destination. ginary of the coin, struck for a public games prize. The example is all the more curious as it dates back to a very high date, which precedes by several

issues of copper coins on the occasion of games, let's have >i large number by the 'c ~. GOAL

in Asia Minor, at the time of the Coman emperors (see. book 111, chap. 1, g i; book IV, chap. iv; book \'ll, chap. iv, ^4).

g 3. — Imitations of COINS MADE BY POUB DE8 JEWELRY,

I. ("i if in imitation of the ancients that back jeweler Bont put into jewelry antique medals. (tom oriental women of the past, those of Greece and

(1) On oel a •! particular

prices were always in 'I m perier, Rtv. numisw^,

I 1870, p. 31 (roiv.

2 Ifillingen, A m ûu, pi. I, n 21, and p. if; D. deLuynes, Met*-

pl, î.i, i.;. (i. John, An km I /< il 1862, p. --i.

PROLEGOMENA 35

Rome liked to find elements in coins for their adornments. We have a large number of antique jewelry of all kinds, mainly necklaces and bracelets, where the gold coins of time enter to a large part. Nothing is more common than meeting Roman aurci from the imperial period equipped with a bail or mounted in chiseled frames and cut out, often extremely elegant, which trans- formed into necklace pendants. The poorest even appeared as silver coins. Those who served for such use are pierced with a hole to thread them into necklace and pendants. There is no one who has handled a certain number of antique pieces which has not had the opportunity to noticed under these conditions. We even see vases of precious metals, such as the famous gold peg found in Rennes and kept in the Paris Medal Cabinet (1), which offer as a decorative motif rows of pieces coins embedded in the metal. The jurisconsult Pomponien, in the Digest, speaks of “old medals gold and silver that we use in jewelry in the fashion gems (2). d

One of these applications of coins to ornamentation jewelry seems to have had some time in Rome a official character. Pliny relates that the freedmen of Claude had established the custom of not allowing anyone to carry

d) Miilin, Unpublished Monuments, t. I, pi. XXIV-XXVI; Chabouillet, Catalog of cameos, etc. from the Cabinet of Medals, n° 2537.

In each cell where a gold coin was inserted, we indicated advance, by a dotted inscription which the currency then covered green, of which emperor or empress it must have been.

(2) Nomismata aurea vel argentea velera quibus pro gcmmis uii be: Digebt. VII? 1, 28.

i. 3.

36 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUJ

f effigy of the emperor in gold to their ring only to those who obtained permission for admission to him; the ring av< fct 2 s therefore constituted for them as

a sort of sign of recognition and rt to

the entrance to the palace. V< spasian abolishes * allows

everyone the imperial image (1). As remai said M. de Longpérier *2N, this is obviously about rings of which we \ some samples, where the kitten is wearing

a golden quinary whose right, with the I the en.; 3l only apparent.

2. The habit we speak of led the industry jtHv juter imitations of single currencies

to place them in jewelry. We ra. bous

Blagab, 7alerius Poetus, having executed •1^ pleasure in gold 0 traits were I was con-

damned to death as having usurped a sovereign right, although he proved to have destiny simply jewelry for his mistresses 3, The crime who cost him his life was a traitor having usurped

it (V monetary effigy, usive attribute of power

imperial see. book 111. chap. [, g 8). M even shows that it was read as an act put

ibrication of copies of monna to be part

I read it. tribute I Itws

m hf> ni gui inem prit

riminum oceatumt: qurn as talmtarit exortut \ - even-

•- Plin., // 1 N

(3) 1 XXIX, i

PROLEGOMENA 37

jewelry, without doubt on the condition of using a process different from that of minting monetary species kept quiet, so that confusion would not be possible.

Furthermore, it is quite obvious that, to make the act lawful and indifferent, you had to not copy the coins current of the moment, whether we manufacture or parts entirely fancy or imitations of old ones coins that have long been out of circulation. It's thus was formed a bracelet that I had acquired in Greece in 1866 (1) and which has since passed into the hands of the late Baron Seillière. This bracelet did not date from a time higher than the Roman imperial era, and it was composed of imitations of hectes (or sixths of stater) in Mitylene electrum, such as were minted in this island between the Peloponnesian War and the reign of Alexander the Great (2) (see book VI, chap. iv, g 3). The parts that which had been copied there were therefore currencies which had ceased to be in use for five or six centuries, real medals from antique collections. The manufacturer does not had, moreover, been obliged neither to give strictly the same weight of all the parts, nor to reproduce with any pre- decision that of the ancient currencies, of which he copied only ment the outward appearance. Additionally, instead of hitting them per, like the original Mitylene hectés and in general he had cast all the ancient coins.

3. Often what was introduced into the composition

(1) Gazelle, fine arts, t. XXI, p. 120.

(2) These pieces had as types, on one side a head of a Nymph, of the other a zither with seven strings in a square formed by four lines.

38 THE DAN8 CURRENCY ANTIQUITY

from it!) bijnu, it was a stamping taken from a coin contemporary and formed of gold leaf more or more thick. Two gold tiaras found in one of the tone royal bodies of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and preserved at the Mu the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg 1, offer to their environment, as ornament, stamping taken Burlafaa medal- Well-known Roman corner bronze coins, one with the effi- gy of Marcus Aurelius, the other with the two killed busts of Commodus and his concubine Marcia, the latter dressed in amazon. The so-called gold medallion of Tetricus, a. in the French Cabinet in 183J (2. was not another CFA that a relatively very thick bract, but stamped in the same way on an original which remains unknown to us known; a rich border of gold surrounded it and completed the jewel.

D( - gold leaf much more mined-, is a] 1 1 - on i\i*> pieces of a smaller module, were also used in

me glitter on grown-up clothes

luxury, at least among Asians and the half barl

hellenized 8.LeCabin medals of Paris have a

the bracteates are found all together

: offering the imprint of the auret face of Cara-

eall.i and de .luiia M;iln;e | | . ])':i tltTC8, plus aneicillie- and

probably even earlier than Alexander, have >u-

i am prefa of Kerch, in the famous mound of the Koul-

(1) AntiqwUi i I /•' . mr. q«i. v\ l\ d I

(2) Mem. - l \ i / d i msrr. .m,-, s.'t. i. XXVI, p | p. 904;

I'h'n. M/. I.V, p|, M, |

See. the article Bml/M in the Diclionmin was taken <\-

MM I • • (>t H

(4) lliillrlin urr ÏAthcnœum French

PROLEGOMENA 39

Oba(l). They are stamped on pieces of Panticapaea, of Athens and other Greek cities, and on their circumference ence we see the holes where the wires which fixed them passed on the fabric.

§ 4. — Talismanic medals.

1. Certain coins and medals were worn in jewelry, not only as simple ornaments, but title of protective talismans. We even made some especially for this destination.

A talismanic idea of this kind was attached to the effigy of Alexander the Great in the Roman Empire, in the 3rd century of the Christian era. The deified Macedonian conqueror, and still in great veneration among the Orientals since his death, had an extraordinary popularity at that time among all the inhabitants of the empire, and in Kome itself, as protective hero. They made him a true god who repelled all evils and all harmful influences, ktaÇlxaxoç, as his ancestor had already been nicknamed for a long time mythical Hercules. This was the result of both the verification table invasion of oriental superstitions, with their procession beliefs and magical rites, which coincided in Kome with the advent of the family of Septimius Severus, and also of the fashion of imitation of Alexander which so greatly preoccupied ment the spirit of Caracalla and Alexander Severus, fantasy strange in the first, more reasoned tendency in the second. Julia Mamaea's son, born in the temple

(1) Antiquities of the Cimmerian Bosporus, pi. XXI, nos. 2-9.

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of Alexander the ( riand, naturally considered him as his boss, and moreover he made the name of the winner last Darius as a symbol of the civil struggle Westernization against Pera. who was the _ concern and political thought of his i

We have numismatic monuments of< fashion in the numerous issues of copper coins from the middle bronze module, which the Roman authority reads hit in the province of Mine for traffic

( alla ou s us J s ndi the effigy and name of Alexander the Great I. .V the same time, we began to make medals No-

taries, of a cara< nanic, with the same *2).

(Mi claims, says Trebellius Pollion, that those who carry o the effigy of Alexander in gold or silver Boni • in all the acts of their life '-> . [1 watch su-

persistence particularly developed for several erations - tns the d* family bit the usur-

ur Uacrien, lists the different obligations

usually placed the effigy of the hero my link and we learned that they wore it in their jewelry

as well as men dan- theira ornaments. At the time where he wrote, that is to say in the first century, the same use continued, el Trebellius Pollion cites the coat hook with portrait of Alexander whom I'm friend (ornelius Ma'r. The

i R khel, DNt t. he. p. he" 64 i.; M «met, t. I;

if .m name

«the A!- I Mumn.'i, t. I. p, .*.:...;. : |«;, Uiel,

he said. p, 106; bm small ptèoed'orau: o d'01ym|

Sm. i III p.

\) Dietmtt ■ rvi - vu mmi net* i Irum txprtsnim vtfmri

gestttant vcl aryci, I I". Irig. fur, II.

PROLEGOMENA 41

the most natural way to reproduce this pro- protector to embed it in jewelry or in pieces goldsmith's work was the form of medals of the type of those which Lampride tells us to have been manufactured by the order by Alexander Severus. “He had many medals made a with the figure of Alexander, some in electrum, “but the greatest number in gold (1^.”

A few years ago, we discovered in Tarsus, with a a number of Roman gold coins descending until the reign of Gordian III, a group of jewels an- ticks and four gold medallions, one of Alexander Severus, the other three corresponding in a very remarkable manner quable to the indications of the passage of Lampride (2). These three medallions, which are now part of the collections from the Cabinet of Medals, are 67 to 70 centimeters wide diameter, and the edges were thinned with a hammer to enter a crimp more easily; their weights are not equal to each other and do not represent values their exact currencies. The work is that of the th century, but very careful. Everyone wears a different head, Her- cule, Philip, Alexander, who were to be united in the same adornment as a sort of heroic triad ma- Cedonian. On the reverse of all three, we read the same legend in the name of King Alexander, BACIAeYC AAGIANAPOC; on the two medallions with the heads of Hercules and Alexander, the type on the reverse represents the fight of the son of Philippe, mounted on horseback, against a lion, imitation of another group fa-

(1) Alexandri habitu nummos plurimos appearing: et qnidem eleclreos ali- quantum s-ed plurimos tamen aureos: Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 25.

(2) A. de Longpérier, Trésor de Tarsus, in the Rev. num. 18GS, p. '.\0\)~ 336, pi. X-XUL

19 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

mr. rui of Lysippus dedicated to Delphi pari I: on

i ;i the head of Philippe, * Victory in a qua- drig( - .

M. d< I gpérier considers Ions of gold dutr -

of Tan me having been d shitspha-

a military for the men of the neo-ma legions -

donians of Alexander v era. However, he continues

same tin< of the l>ij<>ux:.■

They were found to have a talismanic character. very pronounced manic: he therefore admits who* one ]>ui>pre-

r hold the medallions themselves even having

Bervi of amulets p. ornaments

ter happiness, rather than official rewards at . That, for my part, is the opinion

I lean the most, and it even seems difficult to me

that Alexandi S i himself, undergoing the in- fluence ei time, attached in a retainer measures a notion, from nre to one's own medals by Mae< doine.

rd, Saint John (!hr rebuked me ment the Christians of his time] irla supers

[ue who made them i will attach their i to their

... amulet copper medals from Alexan-

dre Some medals

i Evil • A

a modification; she etl then

BACIACCOC AAGZANAPOT ' 'r the t\pi BphisA tender

lai-mém il \ • . Ueiai Ire.

M J • • ttn. catffhum H>null. He,

PROLEGOMENA 43

auxquelles fait allusion l'éloquent Père de l'Eglise sont parvenues jusqu'à nous en original et présentent un bien bizarre mélange de représentations païennes et chré- yours (1). C'est d'abord un médaillon eontorniate (voy. plus loin le g 6 de ce chapitre) où l'on voit d'un côté la tête d'Alexandre coiffée de la peau de lion d'Hercule, comme sur ses tétradrachmes, de l'autre le monogramme du Christ. Ce sont ensuite de petites médailles de cuivre avec l'effigie d'Alexandre, représentée de même et accompagnée du nom ALEXANDRI, le revers montrant l'ânesse avec son poulain qui, d'après les Evangiles, porta le Sauveur à son triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On one of the varieties, this type est accompagné de l'inscription D N IHV XPS DEI FILIVS, Do?ninus noster Jésus Christus Dei plius. The style of these singular? monuments of superstition indicates them comme environ contemporains de l'empereur Honorius (2), et en effet il existe une petite médaille talismanique du même genre qui a sur une de ses faces l'effigie de cet em- pereur, avec son nom, sur l'autre le type de l'ânesse et de the donkey, with the legend ASINA.

3. Is there even a dan? the bronze medallion series impériaux de coin romain, dès le IIe siècle, quelques pièces auxquelles on doit attribuer une origine et une destination talismaniques, dont par conséquent la fabrication a dû

(1) Vettori, Dissertatio apologetica de quibusdam Akxandri Severi numis- matibus, Rome. 1749; Eckhel. D K, t. VIII, p. 173 et seq. ; Cavedoni, Rev numism. 1857, p. 309-3 14, pi. VIII.

(2) The idea of association of Christ and Alexander dates back, moreover, higher; it appears for the first time, a circumstance well worthy of note, in the larary of Alexander Severus.

H CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

having an i deprives you instead of emanating from i

of the Senate. I will limit myself to citing a single example, which

du: tain.

In 1777, we discovered in Borne, in Les ruine- d’une private house, a mural divided into two sections

,ux and quite singular 1. For the first time

dtion, d ntlestrs a t those of the impera-

tria Lucille, wife of Lucius Verus, have at

middle of a garden on the edge of a pond; we gave him

attitude and attire usual to Vei nitrix.

His right hand. reed, grabs the branch of a tree - with the | -; an altar. Three Childish and Winged Loves i nor shoot. One falls head first, rushed

the tree in the * aux; another, standing on the altar, appears willing to follow him; the third, on the other

marks of a deep desi s] ir, On >nnu -

(United these three Loves the three

coins with the Legend FECVNDITAS *2 attribute to Lu- cille tin no longer survived when, upon the death of L i ius \ i rus, she was remarried to Pompeianus; ir mother

he tram has 7enus, this tra lies for them

flowed naturally from this. From then on, like Ottfried Müller distinguished it a. uu-

I ition takes a fairly clear Bens, i I allusive to the I

the one of these children died first in

and what precipitated Love represents. The other painting There it is done and it is treated with some equipment

►ire and magic by which the empress - the

I l iminalemcolUm i

Ottfr. Mr. thread. Knajf. t. 1. | i XXIV d 117.

: Col m M I i i

PROLEGOMENA 45

death of the first of his children, had believed he could ensure the existence of the two survivors. Lucille, still in Ve- naked, sits on a rock at the edge of a river, where the whole composition leads us to recognize the Styx. Only two Loves accompany him this time. A next kneeling plunges one of them into the waters of the infernal river to make him invulnerable like the young Achilles; the other prepares to jump in in turn.

However, among the bronze medallions bearing the effigy of Lucille, there is one, extremely rare, whose reverse side groups in a single table all the essential elements of these two allegorical paintings (1). The first composition, that which relates to the death of the child, remains intact; the second is reduced to three figures placed on the first plan, to the right of the • spectator • but it is enough to indicate the meaning. The two Cupids personifying the surviving children come out of the regenerating bath in the Styx, indicated here by the waters on the front (2); the follow- vante, who has just plunged them into it, is still kneeling on the edge of this water; she fills a vase for them rites of atonement. So here is a medallion whose type relates in the most direct way, and by an allusion transparent, to a propitiatory and magical ceremony which could not have an official and public character. The fact is particularly remarkable with the high date of the room.

(1) Cohen, MI, Lucille, n° 39.

(2, 11 it is very natural that the Love which dies was at the same time re- presented precipitated into this river of Hell. If some find the preservation, the others are swallowed up.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

g:;. — The devotional medals of the premiebs< iikun ss.

1. It is a source of talismanic medals pagans that the Christians of the first centuries to make the medals of i n which they hung

at their collar and. whose use is (: i r innate up to our

days.

In the Life of Miinte Geneviève, written from the earliest Merovingian times, it is said that when the young ber- manages had been pronounced in the hands of Saint Germain, [ne of Auxerre, the consecration of Ba virginil ■ i God, the bishop gave him a medal of drunkenness marked with the sign of the cross to wear it on his collar and

1 profession n ligi which she came from! .

Three; will go to the Tr de saint /

nie of Verona, also seem to allude to a similar medal given to neophytes theirs

baptism 2). Mr. J.-B. deBossia unarti a

capital importance to the monuments, which have reached us and prior to the \ of, of this usa gone

of devotion, much older ch< than we

was not dis] ment to believe it 3). (he all-

enjoy s medals of drunkenness, whose types

have not been hit by the strike

l igion m Uqut ut perj

mkêtrtrti iadixii i; '. i, l jtnuar, | I I

I i I. tract, 14, i; I. II.

iliojUa, 1869, p.

PROLEGOMENA 47

monétaire, mais incisés dans le métal ou imprimés en creux au marteau par le moyen d'un poinçon en relief et ensuite retouched with a burin; we have to go back to the 6th century to rencontrer, et cela seulement en Orient, des médailles de dévotion chrétienne frappées avec des coins semblables à those of currencies (1). Each is provided at the top with a anneau de suspension ou percée d'un trou pour y passer a cord.

2. La plus ancienne connue n'a de sujet que d'un côté et représente le Pasteur divin veillant sur son troupeau, scène tout empreinte de l'esprit de la discipline du secret, de règle au temps des persécutions, La composition, très- gracieuse, est tout à fait conforme à celles que l'on voit sur les sarcophages du IIIe siècle, et c'est à cette date que the monument must be reported. We then see, dans les siècles postérieurs, la plupart des sujets habituels dans les peintures des catacombes, dans les mosaïques des églises et dans les bas-reliefs des sarcophages, se montrer sur les médailles de cette classe, par exemple encore le Pasteur autrement représenté, l'orante, la scène du sacri- fice d'Abraham ou bien celle de l'adoration des Mages, le monogram of Christ, etc.

Parmi ces représentations, il en est que M. de Kossi pense très-judicieusement de nature à caractériser les médailles qui les portent comme ayant été des médailles

(1) Telle est la médaille de pèlerinage du Saint-Sépulcre de Jérusalem, rangée bien à tort par Eckhel (0 IV, t. VII, p. 2,vil) parmi les monnaies de l'empereur Jean Zimiscès, car elle est fort antérieure : De Ilossi, /. c, p. 58.

THE lIONN YEARS ANTIQUITY

The sums are those of which Saint Zeno speaks. These are iux qui font allusion au troupeau chrétien dan- lequel entre le catéchumène, la scène du Cl ciiî two main a] I Paul, put

so much first the book of the law. or the

Iterating in r s waters, following

the words of the Psaimist.

D ■ - médailles sont manifestement des souvenir* pèlerir ux tombeaux des martyrs, des sign< »n-

ratioD to the worship of this or that saint. J

mple celle qui montre d'un côté le martyre «le saint Lawrence.

complaint SVCCESSA VIVAS. wish for wife (pii la médaille était donnée. Une autre retrace la scène de la présentation d*un entant du nom de GAVDENTIA- nvs, pé par un d parents au sépulcre d'un

martyr.

\ from the moment < nt, for the rest as book IV, chap. i , où la croix s'implanta définitive- ment as main type purpose one of a good | artie des monnaies irai péea pour la circulation, number of Christians, instead of cherefa mr. '■ | spécialement de dévotion, prirent comme telles - de monnaie marquées du Bigi sous la protection duquel ils se plaçaient, I Furent donc des monnaies au type d ois qu'ils suspendirent à leur col ou cousurent a leurs vêtements, après l< - avoir perfor Quelques détails du récit relatif à sainte Geneviève et à Bail ' G emblent indiquer la pièce donnée

PROLEGOMENA 49

by the bishop to be carried by the virgin like a real currency rather than a specially made medal with pious intention. It was like this throughout the duration of barbaric times. It's only with the pro- sandstone from the arts of the Middle Ages as the manufacture of medals of devotion, first in lead, resumed a development at first comparable and soon very superior to that which it had had in the primitive Church, from the 111th to the 7th century.

g 6. — Contorniate medallions.

1. Under this name of contorniate medallions, we designate flat medals, of copper whose color and the alloy varies, from a particular factory, and from a work and an often imperfect style, the types of which have in generally little relief. The modulus is approximately equal to that of the imperial bronze medallions, but their weight is lower, the blank having less thickness. These me- tags almost all bear on both sides a perfectly regular circle, traced hollowly using the tower; sometimes also the edges of the slice are a slightly raised, in order to prevent friction of the types in relief (1). The hollow circle, to which these pieces must their name (from the Italian contorno), is not exclusive to them- clean; we also find it on some medallions

(1) On the contorniates, see mainly: Havercamp, De numis contorniatis, Leiden, 1722; Eckhel. D N. t. VIII, p. 277-314; Sabatier, General description of contorniate medallions, Paris, 1860; Cavedoni, Osservazioni critiche sopra (jli antichi medaglioni conlorniati . dans le Bullet. archeol. ital. 18G2, p. 33-38 and 49-56.

i. 4

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

proper emperors] -bullfighting 1.

Mr. , which clearly distinguishes the conformates, in their giving a particular aspect to which it is not possible of Be mistakenf it is only in immense maj. at the Uh from being hit with a hammer, they are sunk, u without

with a chisel. Qned< ipée ordinarily by a head

or a bust, and the majority of subjects

The dreams will be reminiscent of the oriental games of the circus or the amphitheater. theater; some are borrowed from traditions mythological, and we find them in this type of fort curious; curious; others, finally, reproduce with more or less of fidelity, and quite often in a servile manner, types copied but those of old imperial coins The heads - of Bont law are very varied. -: here we are < first emperors but most, s Islands of .V of Trajan, in the simple Le m'ni as well

that of the princes of the Lower Empire, of Alexander' men celèfc inrs, p

of Greece and Etante. Other faiths. from beyond

i agilatores of the circus, holding Their horse by the

bridle, or else right

it instead «: riales or sonnag portraits. L

deities are very rare on these pin u'yrel

of Ju]pis, of Minerva, of Mercury, the

from the Pale of the Sun, Rome and Hercul

i v... in Cohen, M J. t. vi. p. 581 $83, »

ni r i wii. d" i.

Wlll, d 12, el \i\ ii ■ l. This boq! I

. 'U\.

PROLEGOMENA 51

2. We have long discussed the time when were made the contorniate medallions. Ducange and Haver- camp still believed that those where you see the heads of sovereigns of the High Empire dated from their time. Eckhel showed to what extent the characteristics of art and style reflect held such an impossible-to-maintain opinion. The ancient emperors appear there only as men commemorative mage, and often in the legends which designate they are given titles that they never took, which were even still unknown in their time. He is now indisputable that it was in the times of the Late Empire that the contorniates were made. Eckhel made them leave of Constantine; Mr. Sabatier, on the contrary, wanted to re- span manufacturing between the reigns of Valens and An- themius (1), and it is indeed the date that their comparison with the coins, in relation to the style, assigned to the greater number. However, as wisely remarked M. Ch. Kobert (2), “there are some, even among those manufactured with the most imperfect means, which denote by the width and movement of the figures an era before later than the second half of the fourth century, which characterized already in the East and West the king of and elongated forms of the Byzantine school. » Eckhel's judgment therefore appears more likely; I will even add as an argument his favor that it is precisely under Constantine, Constant and Constance that the imperial bronze medallions pre- sometimes feel the circle executed in the turn which becomes then one of the most constant traits of the contorniates.

(1) Anthemius is, in fact, the last emperor whose effigy stands be on the contorniates: Sabatier, pi. XII, No. II.

(2) Rev.num. 1868, p. 219.

i. 4.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

[A first observation is to be made as a preliminary

any research on the origin and the d 'ion

conformat medallions. (' if; * all incon-

• clearly of Western manufacture, even those whose

g inscriptions are written- m Greek. None present

the head of one of the emperors who reigned only over

the East; none offers in his work 1 » 3 of

Btyle who already distinguished in a certain way, at the

n and in the 5th century, the art of Byzantium of that of the }

Latins.

At the same time, it is impossible

close relationship that exists between 1 games

and - the circus, which held a

place in the lives of B hands in the centuries when you made b numismatic monuments. The vast majority of their rev< I there for it sometimes views of the Circus Maximus in Rome, tau

borrowed from ilecursiones or horses

tanks, including le- divei. the

white alba), red [rustata, blue 1) and

green prasina), bet the population the last two Burton, the importai 'politic parties- ticks, ;n; Unions or fight

animals, athletes' wrestling, I

bfttonists 1 and music >uw. In other

1, e1 '' uvent, q1 the portraits of- 6n races, horses or coaches of their nameS| What does one OR the other show in the room? 1.s

\w\ theological themselves are frequently lit

I) Self - N"^ • CI

i 251 el mir.

PROLEGOMENA 53

responsible for the founding of the most famous games; for example, that of Hercules seated on the Aventine, having next to him his woman Roma, daughter of Evanndre (1), relates to the Safe Games laries, commemorating the founding of Rome; the one of Hypsipyle and Archeniore (2) recalls the origin of the Games Nerueans.

It is like protectors and creators of the pleasures of circus that ancient emperors have their effigies placed on these parts. We thus remember what they had done to develop entertainment also cbers. Two heads especially recur very usually, those of Nero and Trajan, a bizarre association in a popular posthumous identity of the most odious monster and the best emperor who exercised power, but which is explained in that the first had instituted the Quinquennial Games and in that the second had considerably enlarged the circus, as well as by the memory of the Parthian Games or Triumphal, celebrated with extraordinary splendor in his honor, during his lifetime or after his death. It is not necessary forget, moreover, that the memory of Nero did not awaken in the people of Rome the feeling of execration which would have been legitimate. He was, on the contrary, very popular, especially in the world that lived from the circus or the amphitheater, and was passionate about their shows. It was the emperor sportsman par excellence, the one who was most interested ressed to the splendor of the games, the first who had taken part himself as an actor. And this strange popularity grew bigger as we moved away from him. We have a monument of it, contemporary with the manufacture

(1) Sabatier, pi. XIII, n°5; de Witte, Rev. num. 1861, p. 245. ("2)Rev. num. 1868, pi. VII, n° 4.

MONEY IN ANTIQUITY

tion di I -rniates and a style of art just the same (

a cameo from Cabinet de France (1), where Nero is seen, the tel i bound, standing in a quadriga, holding 1 pter and the înnjipa circens< he was the first to give the

Bignal of the start of the games. Author is the inscription NGPON ATOTCTe, \r&n Auguste. ( invocation; parricide ended up becoming a h nistic.

I - contorniated medallions have ibriqti

not circus games. I fcainem

- coins; this i I not n n fold medals

commemorative ones like the ones that strike the gourds

nements. This does not come from any public authority and portenl lus manifi le fabri

private donations<

A. Pinkerton 2 imitated the conjecture niâtes had been tickets distributed for

give entry into the circus. This inter] ible

admissible for a small part of them I those who have old coins; u ï ne

could hardly Bervir as they threw him.

Two others. the head of Nero, it seems, according to the types of their s, not having to be d< if 'to give

right to a share in a public distribution of neck

i l . ReemiJ fTfiififiitfrff, t. l. ft. LXXXVI, I; Tickled,

mè-

rk

I vx-iy im m I >i.

PROLEGOMENA 55

tibles (1) . The same explanation of origin and destination would fit very well with the one which, relating to the law head of Emperor Placidus Valentinianus, shown at reverse PETRONIVS MAXSVMVS Vir Clarissimus COnSul sitting on his consular seat and presiding over the games (2).

However, it should be noted that on the contorniates we never comes across figures indicating this or that cavea, of this or that row of places, as on the true theatrical or agonal tesserae. On the contrary, these figures are not missing in any known example on the monuments of the latter species, and, in fact, indications seat reservations were required on tickets that gave entry into the theater, the circus and the amphitheater.

Moreover, it would be difficult to grant the theory of Pinkerton with the wish VINCAS, in Greek NIKA, addressed most often in the legends of contorniates to such or like favorites, horses or coachmen, whose image they offer, sometimes with the indication of his faction, when the inscription ption refers to Yagitator, DOMNINVS IN VENETO(3), EVSTORGIVS IN PRASINO (4). The magistrate who gave the games by an obligation of his office, could not have take sides in such a public way for this or that like runners vying for the prize, on the tickets same distributed at the entrance.

(1) Sabdtier, pi. XIX, no. 4, and Cohen, M I, t. VI, pi. XX. No. 7i. The first shows on the reverse a series of fish sought after by gourmets food; the second a knife, a loaf of bread, a ham and a pig's head.

(2) Sabatier, pi. XVI, No. G.

(3) Sabatier, pi. III, No. 10; IV, No. 2.

(4) Sabatier, pi. III, n° '•).

. CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

The to admit, to] Pinkerton,

who [ues-una conformates were able to play the role of

• ss muant acoes to games -theory does not -'applies-

would only be a very small part of their numerous whole. For the vast majority, you have to look for an air another destination.

5, P or ma; art, I am especially struck by the character obvious talismanic on one hand

a pie s.

The head that appears there most frequently is the one

of Alexander ad, and the figure of the Macedonian hero

n'. -t not m. 'in- multiplied on the revt now in a very pp way what idea was

atta sti ls magic and talismaniqui

the image of Alexandrn. higher. § 4, I). The que

name plus 1. it2, with Alexan's head

and the monogram of Christ, tplication no

given by a | .n Chr

is attached i ement;: series I -

:interior and pure the n. ition;

surely belongs to the number of these have been- manufactured qués for 1"b circus games, the effect, in

the head of Philippe's son, a symbol,

Qtorniates, qu- M. Ch. Bol : : .i re- found, daj monuments of autn s, printed on

the c horses, and that he <•■ seems very in

ment as having been the mark of a famous stable of the

mus 1).

i ier. I \\\he.

PROLEGOMENA 57

The choice of most figured mythological subjects on the reverse of the contorniates is quite remarkable on the point of view that I indicate. It’s Hecate surrounded by ser- pents, Hecate the goddess of enchantments, whose figure decorates so many amulets, especially so many of these stones engraved, for the most part magical, that we dispense with too often to study by throwing them pell-mell into the class of abraœas or so-called gnostic stones; these are the gods specially qualified as Aeçocaxot, those who re- push evils and harmful influences, Apollo killing the snake Python, Hercules and his various labors. However, these exploits of the son of Alcinene, we see in the Late Empire the doctors themselves, like Alexandre de Tralles, prescribe to engrave them on certain gems to make them amulets that will bring healing to this or that disease (1). Let us now, among the scenes borrowed- linked to heroic history, the exploits of Theseus, parallel to those of Hercules, to whom the same ideas were attached, the same power was attributed; Ulysses escaping perils of Scylla, to those of the lair of Polyphemus, or else foiling Circe's enchantments; the perfidy of Dirce chastised by Amphion and Zetus; Aeneas saving his father and emerging safe and sound from the fire of Troy, Aeneas that certain- some legends of the late period, which were born then, re- present as particularly versed and powerful in the magical arts. These are clearly subjects all intended to bring good luck, to ward off danger, to repel a curse.

It should even be noted that when the traditions relating to the foundation of famous games would have called the representation

(1) See. Ch. Lenorraant, Rev. archaeol. t. III, p. 510 et seq.

58 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

tation of a Boènefunestej that one could have considered a

of an unfortunate omen, the artist author of the contorniate did not hesitated to show unfaithful to the donn fues |

create a favorable image. In this regard, the pi who represented Hypsipyle (TYinYAH av-hémore I

particularly curious. The artist could not - decide ;' represent the son of Lycurgw suffocated by the Berpent; it would have been a harmful image. He's got it, as hell milk, the winner of the m< who keeps it in tradition poetic, and for inspiration he borrowed the figure habitual of Hercules in the cradle, smothering the serpenta em ar the jealousy of Juno. If we don't recognize him the intention that we attribute to it, we should attribute to it a very improbable degree of ignorance, to have known fade two representations >i op]

As for the famous writers whose effigies Boni r* senl atorniates, they Boni en i al ch<

among those who were beginning to form, Empire, a reputation “the m prolon

in the Middle Ages. Such is the case with Homer's P.

\. Illustrate, which we do not meet on uu-

ments, at . that the miracle worker Apnll»»niu- of 1;.

and that Apuleius, already accused of being alive even

who offer | personality traits or could only be

upant 1 ititious and bizarre who made