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Italo-Greek Coins of Southern Italy

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Italo-Greek Coins of Southern Italy ITALO-GREEK COINS SOUTHERN ITALY ITALO-GREEK COINS OF SOUTHERN ITALY BY THE REV. A. W. HANDS RECTOR OF NEVEN'DOy, ESSEX THEOL. ASSOC. KING's COLLEGE, LONDON FELLOW OF THE ROY.\L NUMISM.^TIC SOCIETY, LONDON " AUTHOR OF " COiM.MON GREEK COINS AND " COINS OF .MAGNA GRAECIA " LONDON SPINK ik SON Ltd 17 & 18' Piccadilly, London, W. 1912 1^:J ^/7 him INTRODUCTION One of the great advantages offered by the study of this series of Itahan coins is the attainment of a clear perception of tlie relation- ship of the Roman coinage to that of ancient Greece. Many students of Roman coins neglect the literature connected with Greek coinage and thus miss the pleasure of tracing the steps by which the Roman coinage was evolved from that of the more ancient and artistic civilization of Greece. In this somewhat neglected corner of the numismatic field the student will not only find problems still unsolved but also many side lights which help to make more clear a somewhat dark and difficult page of historv. To students and collectors whose means are limited this series offers the further advantage of a large number of coins which cost little money, and are easily obtained ; moreover it is in connection with the types of the common coins that some of these interesting problems arise, and the relation between the Greek and Roman series may best be illustrated. This series of coins throws much light on the deeply interesting subject of the gradual manner in which the Romans were brought into contact with the Greeks through their wars with the races ot Southern Italv. The chapters concerning the weight standards of ancient Italy are compiled from the works of D"" Haeberlin, of Frankfort, to whom I am greatly indebted for several valuable letters concerning the arrangement of the information here given. 1685008 VI It is with tlie hope that the work will prove interesting, not only to students and collectors of the coins of Southern Italy, but also to readers of Livy and the other authors, who record the wars of the Romans with these tribes, that these chapters are now published in book form. ITALO-GREEK COINS OF SOUTHERN ITALY THE OSCAN ALPHABET ON THE COIN LEGENDS. In order that the student of this series may read the legends on the coins it will be necessary to learn the forms ot the letters adopted by the Oscan citizens of Southern Campania and by the Sabine citizens of the northern parts. The most striking in their pecularity are the letters for a, d, r, and ph, N ^ < and 8. The following alphabet will be found useful. a. — 1 — The points or dots in some examples of the letters V, as in the name Hyria, suggest that the pronunciation of the first syllable was like that of U with an O sound, for Strabo calls that city Oup sicv, and the dot over I may have signified a sound intermediate between I and E. This Oscan alphabet was also used by the Italian mints during the Social war. Some legends are partly written in Oscan and partly in Greek letters, as for instance NEOPOUTE^, and others all in Greek, as YPINA. The people who used this form of alphabet were a native Italian race called by Strabo and other Greek wTiters the "O~iv.oi, and by the Latin writers Opici. The original form is preserved by Ennius who called them Opsci. They dwelt on the western side of the Appenines, in the country bounded on the South by the CEnotrian territory, and on the North by that of the Samnites. Their language was closely related to the Latin, of w'hich it is an older and less mixed form. The ablative termination " d ", seen on the coin legends, is also found in the Duilian and other old Latin inscriptions. The Samnites or Sabines or Sabellians, who conquered and mixed with the Oscans, adopted their speech, as we see in the story told by Livy (X, 20), of how Volumnius overcame a victorious army of Samnites on the banks of the Vulturnus when laden with spoils of Campania. He sent spies who could speak the Oscan language into their camp to learn their proposed move- ments. The Samnites were of Sabine origin, as the Greek form of their name ^xjvX-cc. implies, the letter b in the word Sabine being changed into v, Savnii^e or Safnitie. The coinage of the Sabine cities bears witness to their readiness to receive Greek traditions and art. Livy records their love ot decorated weapons and bright uniforms for their armies. They were not simple mountaineers conquered by the armies of a cultured city, but rather they themselves were the cultured luxurious citizens conquered by the more simple and warUke Romans. As early as the year 400 B.C., or about that time, the Samnites had already settled in Cuma; and Palaeopolis, the old part of Neapolis, and issued didrachms, wrought by Greek craftsmen ; whereas the Romans did not issue silver coins until the year 268 B.C. LIST OF THE CAMPANIAN CITIES WHICH ISSUED COINS. N. JK. JE. 1 Campanos 400-380 B.C. — 2 Acerra; y;- Aurunca — 270-250 B.C. — — 3 M. ; plains, or that commercial relations with that race were common in early days. Diodorus of Sicily says, when, about 445 B.C. the Opici or Oscans conquered the former inhabitants they called the country Campania from their word for a plain, Campus. — (XII, xxxi) " When Theodorus was Archon of Athens the Romans nominated Marcus Genucius and Agrippa Curtius Chilon as Consuls. In this year there appeared in Italy the nation of the Campanians, so called on account of the fertility of the neighbour- ing plains ". A later inroad of the same race from the mountains of Samnium took place according to Livy in 423 B.C. and three years later Cum^ fell into their hands. (IV, 37) " Vulturnum, a city of the Etrurians, which is now Capua, was taken by the Samnites and was called Capua from their leader Capys, or what is more " probable, from its fertile plains. Doubts as to the accuracy of the histories of Livy and Diodorus have been expressed by Mommsen, Pais, Sambon and others, because the defeats and checks which the Romans evidently suffered are not mentioned, and the submissions of the Capuans and others are recorded at a date long before that submission appears probable from the evidence of the coinage. The treaty concluded with Neapolis in 326 B.C. appears to have been correct^ dated, and the abundance of the coins of that city shew how greatly the citizens advanced in commercial prosperity under their conquerors. The influence of Neapolis in the Campanian cities was naturally great, for its port brought together merchants from Syracuse, Rhodes and Alexandria. The Campanian cities of the plains found there an outlet for the produce of the rich soil Capua, Calatia, Atella and Compulteria sent their produce to that port, while Nuceria, Alfaterna, Nola and Acerr^e used the little port of Pompei. These cities all used the Oscan letters in the legends of their coins, but all shewed in their types the influence of Greek artists. It is probable that traces of monetary conventions may be seen in the types of two series of coins ; one, bearing on the Obverse a head of Pallas and on the Reverse a cock, was used on the trade routes of Campania, Latium and Samnium, while another series, bearing on the Obverse a head of Apollo, and on the Reverse a man-headed bull, was used by the cities connected with Neapolis. Probably about the year 400 B.C. the Samnites became strong enough to unite in a confederacy which was known as that of the Ka[xxavoi. The didrachms which bear the legend KAMPANOM are probably evidence of such a confederation of Samnites settled in the plains near Neapolis. From their style and fabric they must have been issued between 400 and 380 B.C. from the mints of either Cumas or Neapolis, for their types are copied from those of these cities. No names of leaders or rulers of these early Samnites — — 5 are recorded, and probably no one man was sufficiently powerful to make for himself a name in history. Formerly it used to be thought that Capua was the city from which these didrachms were issued, and this was the opinion of Pellerin, Eckhel, Raoul Rochette, D"" Head and Millingen, but that Cuma; or Neapolis issued these coins is now the opinion of Avcllino, Imhoof-Blumer, A. Sambon, De Petra, and others. As these didrachms are generally found in a much worn condi- tion it is probable that they were in circulation for a much longer period than the twenty years between 400 and 380 B.C. They were being issued at an eventful period, for in the year 400 B.C. the Ten Thousand returned from Asia, and Socrates died in the year following. In 395 B.C. Plato returned to Athens, and Xenophon was at Scillus composing his works from about 393. In 384 Aristotle was born, and two years afterwards Demosthenes. In 380 B.C. Isocrates wrote his Panegyricus. During this period from 397 B.C. Dionysius was waging war with the Carthaginians, and the Lucanians were advancing against the Greek colonial cities of the South of Italy in alliance with that Tyrant, who died in 367 B.C. After 380 B.C. as the coins bearing KAMPANOM seem to have been no longer issued, it is probable that the confederacy was no longer a power, qnd the cities of Campania began to issue their own special coinage.
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