m \ > i * * t tat* I > §J» 'J^h-^ 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://archive.org/details/cu31924080135878 " LIBRARY CORNELL UNIVERSITY 878 3 1924 080 135 COINS OF MAGNA GRv£CIA THE COINAGE OF THE GREEK COLONIES OF SOUTHERN ITALY BY THE REV. A. W. HANDS THEOL. ASSOC. KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY, LONDON. AUTHOR OF " COMMON GREEK COINS ". LONDON SPINK & SON Ltd 17 & 18 Piccadilly, London, W. 1909 COINS OF MAGNA GR^CIA (FRANCE) PROTAT BROTHERS, PRINTERS, MACON - Pan6rmus J *K*» rx^flw ill - : ;.- f'irtw/sun wromenium ** / COINS OF MAGNA GR^CIA THE COINAGE OF THE GREEK COLONIES OF SOUTHERN ITALY BY THE REV. A. W. HANDS THEOL. ASSOC. KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY, LONDON. AUTHOR OF " COMMON GREEK COINS ". LONDON SPINK & SON Ltd 17 & 18 Piccadilly, London, W. 1909 \ O U3 V i3lW INTRODUCTION The works hitherto published on Greek Coins have been written by experts, and therefore it may seem fitting that some apology should be offered by one who, not being of that number, yet ventures to publish a work on this subject. The author offers this volume in the hope of supplying those who have but few books and little knowledge of the Classics with some help in the study of the Hellenic art and thought connected with coin-types. The coins issued from the Greek cities of Southern Italy may be used as a means of introducing some readers to a new world full of life, beauty, and suggestive thought, — the realm of Greek imagination. A coin may mean more, and suggest more to us, than can be expressed in a simple description of its types, its date, or its weight, and those who try to see more than is given by the description in a catalogue will look kindly on this attempt to aid them. It is too often forgotten that when these coins were being modelled, more than two thousand years ago, the artists were still making use of forms and ideas belonging to the childhood of the race. When an ancient Greek spoke of a mountain torrent as a rushing bull, and drew the bull to express the idea in his mind, he was nc more confused intellectually than the child who cries out in his play 'Urn a wolf" or "I'm a bear". It is necessary to the understanding of our children and of the childhood of the race that we should be not unmindful of our own childhood. A coin may thus become not only a bridge across the chasm of the ages by which we are enabled to touch and handle the work of men who lived in cities long destroyed, but also a key, which, VI cunningly used, will unlock the doors closed by ignorance and in- difference, and open to us the fairy-land of Greek imagination. Take a common coin of Neapolis which need not cost more than four or five shillings, and, when you have entered into the meaning of the types, read the Bacchae of Euripides, and you will recognize the help given by the little silver coin with its bull type. Imaginative powers however are so versatile, and vary so greatly in different ages and climes, that we cannot do without the help of Greek writers if we would unravel the clues to their myths. For that reason it has been thought necessary to the object of this work to give many passages from Greek authors in an English dress, instead of merely giving the references to books not likely to be found in the homes of the readers. When a translation of a well- known scholar was available it has been used ; for instance the rendering of Pindar's Odes is that of F. A. Paley, that of the passages from Pausanias is by Mr. Frazer. There are many collectors and students of Greek coins who are not classical scholars but who are nevertheless keenly interested in the myths and folklore of the ancients, and for such the present work is intended. Those who wish for more perfect and full descriptions of the coins will find all they desire in " Les Monnaies antiques de I'ltalie ", by M. Arthur Sambon. If any reader knowing nothing of the history of Magna Graecia desires to read quickly and in English a sketch of the main events, he will find much help in Grote's History of Greece, chapter xxn, and in Thirlwall's, History of Greece, chapter xn. Those who read " French will find the work of M. F. Lenormant "La Grande Grece most interesting and suggestive. The mints of the cities of Southern Italy present us with speci- mens of the most beautiful work produced by the Greek coin- engravers, and also with a number of interesting designs illustrating the local legends and myths of Magna Graecia. The wonderful degree of excellence in artistic workmanship attained by these colonists of Italy is not commonly realized, but when we have examined some of their coins we shall more readily understand the VII significance of Plato's words, in the Protagoras (318), concerning Zeuxippus of Heracleia, an artist who was visiting Athens, and is spoken of as capable of making his pupils good artists. This passage illustrates the influence of Magna Graecia upon Athens, the centre of Hellenic culture. When we compare the coins of these colonial towns with those of the mother cities we see that their artists frequently surpassed in skill and delicacy of work those of the old country, and we no longer wonder that the importance of the artists of Magna Graecia was great enough to give them a privilege rarely elsewhere accorded, that of placing their names on the coins they designed and executed. The information here given concerning the artists is chiefly derived from the interesting work by Mr. L. Forrer, " Notes sur les signatures sur les monnales grecques ", 1905. Those who wish to picture to themselves the art schools of the Greeks will find much of interest in the work of Mr. Kenneth J. Freeman " The Schools of Hellas ". The training of the Epheboi whose figures appear on so many of the coins of Tarentum is also described in that work. The government of these cities, and the changes from the kingly rule to that of the aristocracies, the usurpations of the Tyrants, and the rise of the democracies may be studied in " " The City State of the Greeks and Romans by W. Warde Fowler, " and in " La cite antique by Fustel de Coulanges. These works might well have been illustrated by photographs of the coins of Magna Graecia, and a study of this series of coins will help the reader to understand and realize the changes therein described. The religious types on the coins of this series throw light upon the relationship of the various cities to each other, and to those in their Mother-Land. We may obtain a far truer idea of the growth of Hellenism by the study of the colonial cities than would be possible were we to confine our attention to the history of Athens and Sparta. One of the great interests afforded by this series of coins is found in their association with the great men who dwelt in Magna Graecia : the early flat incuse coins of Croton, for instance, are VIII — associated with Pythagoras, Herodotus used the early coins of Thurium, some of the coins of Tarentum were issued by Archytas, and Parmenides used those of Velia. The mythological stories and legends of the foundation of some of these cities illustrate the love of Homer's poems and their influence in the schools of these cities. The beautiful plants, birds, insects and fishes, so delicately wrought on many of these coins, are evidence of the loving study of nature which prevailed in Southern Italy, and of which the poems of Theocritus afford similar evidence. The mythological subjects illustrated on the coins are treated in a similar manner on the beautiful terra-cotta vases of Southern Italy. Other objects of terra-cotta and bronze will be looked at with fresh interest by those familiar with these coin-types. It was in Southern Italy that the Romans first came into close contact with Hellenic culture, and those who have studied the coinage of the Roman republic will remember that some of the types of these colonial cities were copied by the Romans. Many of the coins first issued bearing the legend ROMANO were wrought by Greek artists. The chief myths to which we shall be introduced by the types are those concerning Persephone, Dia-Hebe, Parthenope, Ligeia, Acheloiis, Poseidon, and those of the western wanderings of Heracles. The types of Tarentum will be found to bear reference to the Mysteries or Brotherhoods connected with the cult of Dionysus and Iacchus. To Englishmen the history of these colonies planted among native tribes and spreading among them the culture of a higher race, must have a special interest. To collectors of modest means this series possesses the special advantage of containing large numbers of coins which may be obtained at a very small cost, many indeed of Bronze for as little as two shillings or eighteen pence. These chapters which have appeared in Spink's Numismatic Circular were written with no other arrangement or sequence than — IX — that suggested by the attraction felt at the time for each subject.