CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library CJ 237.H64 A handbook of Greek and Roman coins. 3 1924 021 438 399 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021438399 f^antilioofcs of glrcfjaeologj) anU Antiquities A HANDBOOK OF GREEK AND ROMAN COINS A HANDBOOK OF GREEK AND ROMAN COINS G. F. HILL, M.A. OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COINS AND MEDALS IN' THE bRITISH MUSEUM WITH FIFTEEN COLLOTYPE PLATES Hon&on MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY l8 99 \_All rights reserved'] ©jcforb HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY PREFACE The attempt has often been made to condense into a small volume all that is necessary for a beginner in numismatics or a young collector of coins. But success has been less frequent, because the knowledge of coins is essentially a knowledge of details, and small treatises are apt to be un- readable when they contain too many references to particular coins, and unprofltably vague when such references are avoided. I cannot hope that I have passed safely between these two dangers ; indeed, my desire has been to avoid the second at all risk of encountering the former. At the same time it may be said that this book is not meant for the collector who desires only to identify the coins which he happens to possess, while caring little for the wider problems of history, art, mythology, and religion, to which coins sometimes furnish the only key. It is meant chiefly as a guide to put students of antiquity in the way of bringing numismatics to bear on their difficulties. No attempt, therefore, has been made to avoid controversy where any profitable stimulus seems likely to be provided by the discussion of doubtful questions. The comparatively full references and the bibliography are also added with the aim of making the book an introduction to more advanced works, rather than a more or less self- contained statement of the elements. ; VI PREFACE Since the publication of Francois Lenormant's La Monnaie dans VAntiquite—the last considerable work undertaking to cover the whole ground of ancient numismatics—the number of works of a general and special nature which cannot be neglected by the student has at least been doubled. Fresh catalogues of great collections, public and private, appear in rapid succession ; a new quarterly, devoted entirely to Greek numismatic archaeology, has been established within the last year ; and, above all, the Prussian Academy has begun to issue its Corpus of the coins of Northern Greece, which, it is to be hoped, will in time grow into a Corpus of Greek coins. Mommsen has said that he was driven to write his numismatic work because he felt that the help to history which he sought in coins ' was not to be found in a literature which, after Eckhel, has been left mostly to dilettanti and shopmen.' The publications of recent years show that his reproach is no longer so true as it was. It is now not too much to expect that all archaeologists should have at least some first-hand acquaintance with coins. If coins do not, like some other antiquities, throw much light on private life, their importance as public and official documents is inesti- mable. And it must not be forgotten that the number of coins of which the condition is practically perfect, and the authenticity beyond suspicion, is greater than we can find in any other series of antiquities : Le temps passe. Tout meurt. Le marbre mSme s'use. Agrigente n'est plus qu'une ombre, et Syracuse Dort sous le bleu linceul de son ciel indulgent Et seul le dur metal que 1'amour fit docile Garde encore en sa fleur, aux mgdailles d'argent, L'immortelle beauty des vierges de Sicile. As regards the illustrations in the text, most of the blocks have been made from line-drawings by Mr. F. Anderson. This draughtsman, to whom students of classical antiquity owe so much, has made the drawings over enlarged photo- graphs, adding nothing to what exists on the original. For PREFACE Vll permission to use one of the drawings (Fig. 31), I have to thank the Council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. Except in a few cases, duly noted, the coins illustrated, both in text and plates, are all in the British Museum. The collotype plates have been executed by the Clarendon Press. My indebtedness to the authorities, from whose works this volume is nothing more than a distillation, can be fairly well gauged by means of the footnotes, although it has been impossible to give chapter and verse for every statement not my own. These footnotes, as might be expected, show my deep obligations to the works of Head, Imhoof-Blumer, and Mommsen, as well as of the editor of this series of hand- books, Professor Percy Gardner. To the last indeed, both as writer and as teacher, I am under peculiar obligations, since to him I owe my introduction to the study of numismatics. Mr. Warwick Wroth has had the kindness to read the proof- sheets, and to make many valuable suggestions, and I have to thank Mr. H. A. Grueber also for similar assistance. G. P. HILL. British Museum, July, 1899. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. General Sketch or the History of Coinage in Greece and Rome. PAGE § i. Early Stages of Exchange ...... i 2 u. Scope op Classical Numismatics . ... 3. The Metallic Unit generally adopted ..... 4 4. The Invention or Coinage 6 5. The Spread of Coinage to European Greece .... 8 6. The Extension of Coinage to Western Greece ... 8 7. Coinage adopted by the 'Barbarians' . .... 9 . -8. The Regal Period 10 9. Revival of the Coinage of the Cities 11 10. Beginning of the Influence of Rome 11 11. Coinage under the Roman Empire 12 BOOK I. CHAPTEK I. The Metals. § 1. Quality of the Metals used for Coinage 13 2. Minor Metals and Alloys 16 3. The Sources of the Metals 18 4. The Testing of Metals in Antiquity 23 5. Oxide and Patina ..... 25 CONTENTS CHAPTER II. The Coin as a Medium of Exchange. Origin, Distribution, and Relation of Coin-Standards. § I. Theories of the Origin of Coin-Standards CONTENTS XI PAGE § 7. The Eastern Provinces under the Empire .... 89 8. Eoman Colonies 92 9. Delegated Coinage : the Satraps 95 10. Military Coinage in the West 97 11. Roman Military Coinage 98 12. Combined Coinages : Real and Complimentary Alliances . 102 13. Commercial Unions 103 14. Political Unions 106 15. Other Alliances 114 16. Greek Colonies 116 17. Religious Combinations 117 CHAPTER V. Monetary Officials. A. Among the Greeks. i 1. Magistrates' Signatures and Symbols 119 2. The Athenian Monetary Officials . .121 3. The Ofjtce of the Moneyer ....... 124 4. Magistrates in Imperial Times ..... 126 5. The Greek Mint 129 B. Among the Romans. 6. Roman Monetary Magistrates 131 7. Monetary Officials of Roman Colonies 136 8. Roman Governors 138 9. The Roman Mint 139 BOOK II. CHAPTER VI. Fabric and Style. § 1. Struck Coins 143 2. Ancient Dies . 149 3. The Development of Form of Struck Coins .... 151 4. Cast Coins 155 5. The Composition of the Type 158 6. Development of Style 160 Xll CONTENTS CHAPTEE VII. The Meaning and Classification op Coin-Ttpes. PAGE § I. The Religious Theory and the Commercial Theory . i6S* ^. Relioious Types ......... 169/ 3. Types representing the Issuing Authority .... 171 4. Types representing Local Features ...... 173 5. Types representing Monuments ....... 174-' 6. Historical Types 175 7. Canting Types ......... 176 8. Ornamental Types 177"* 9. Imitative Types .......... 177 10. Classification op Symbols 178' CHAPTER VIII. Coin-Insceiptions. 1. Inscriptions naming the i Issuing Authority .... 180 2. Varieties of Titulature . .181 3. Inscriptions naming the Type 185 4. Inscriptions giving the Reason of Issue ..... 189 5. Mist-mares and Artists' Signatures 194 6. Names and Values op Coins .... 196 7. Dates . Ig6 8. Graffiti '97 9. Abbreviations .......... 197 CHAPTER IX. The Dating op Coins. § 1. Dating by the Evidence of History , . IQQ 2. Coins bearing Dates ...... 3. Dating by Style and Fabric . 4. Weight and Quality ^ ^ ....••••.. 204 5- T™3 . 205 6. Epigraphy . 207 Gkeek .208 Roman . 7- F'nds . 2I? CONTENTS Xlll APPENDICES. PAGE I. ANCIENT STANDARDS 222 II. Equivalents in Teot Grains of Weights mentioned in the Text 226 III. EOMAN MlNT-MARKS 228 IV. The Imperial Families . 230 V. Select Bibliography 242 Key to the Plates 256 Index of Subjects 273 Index of Greek Words 289 Index of Latin Words .... ... 293 Plates I-XV at end XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT PAG Fig. i. Bronze Coin (?) of Olbia (Sarmatia) 2. the Colony of Nemausus ,, ,, of .... 3. "Weighing Rings of Precious Metal (Egyptian Painting) 4. Gaulish Imitation of Gold Stater of Philip II 5. Iron Coin of Argos . .1 6. Babylonian Bronze Weight of 5 manahs ... 2I 7. Half-shekel of Jewish First Revolt 3' 8. Athenian Chalcus ......... 3 9. Aes rude from Caere ........ 4' 10. Reverse of Italian aes signatum ...... 4: 11. Roman as of 10J oz. ........ 41 12. As of 1 J oz. .4! 13. As of Augustus 51 14. Semis of Lamia, Silius, and Annius ..... 51 15. Follis of Anastasiua I ........ 5: 16. Reverse of Nummus of Anastasius I ..... 5; 17. As of Hatria .......... 51 18. Reverse of as of Commodus (Rome as a Colony) ... 9. 19. Reverse of ' Alliance-Coin' of Side and Delphi .