THE ACADEMY BRITISH The Gold of Asia before Coinage Alexander the Great By Gardner Percy Fellow of the Academy [From the Proceedings ofthe British Academy, Vol. Ill] London Published for the British Academy By Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press Amen Corner, E.C. Price Two Shillings and Sixpence net THE GOLD COINAGE OF ASIA BEFORE ALEXANDER THE GREAT By PERCY GARDNER FELLOW OF THE ACADEMY January 29, 1908 I propose to give a brief account of the issues of gold money in Asia down to the time of Alexander the Great. A sketch ofthis kind may have its uses, since numismatists are apt to dwell on small points, and to neglect broader aspects of the subject, while the historians of Greece have often lacked that close familiarity with coins which is necessary before one can use their testimony with con- fidence and success. Coins are ofallthe materials for the reconstruc- tion of ancient history the most trustworthy and objective, together with inscriptions, but their testimony must needs be weighed by ahand usedto them before its value can be fully appreciated. What I shall especially attempt is a chronological survey of the relations between the Persian state and the subject countries and cities, as they are reflected in the issues of gold and electrum coin. And in doing so we shall have carefully to consider the view now generally held, that the issue of gold coin was the exclusive privilege of the Great King, a privilege jealously guarded and enforced. Satraps of the Persian Empire were allowed to strike silver coins freely for the needs of military expeditions, and the Greek cities of the coast struck silver for ordinary purposes of trade. But no issue ofgold coin was allowed, saveunder exceptional circumstances. Although this view is generally accepted, yet it is not easy to establish it by quotations from ancient writers. Herodotus seems under the influence ofsuch a view when he writes,1 'Darius wished to leave such a memorial of himself as no king had ever left before : therefore, refining his gold to the last degree of purity, he issued coins ofit.' But this is, ofcourse, noassertion ofa principle ofstate, that no one else should issue coin. Nor in fact is it likely that the issue ofgold coin was from the first looked upon as something quite 1 iv. 166. El 193473 2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY exceptional. The first issue of pure gold was due to Croesus, not to Darius. It seems likely that the principle that the issue ofgold coin was the first privilege of authority was one which made its way slowly and perhaps almost unconsciously. From ageto age itbecame more solidly fixed: and the Roman Empire maintained it even more rigidly than did that ofPersia. There is, however, another question as to which modern expert opinion is more divided. If we allow that the issue of gold was a rightjealously guarded by the Great King, how far does this apply to the issues ofwhite gold or electrum, ofthat mixture of gold and silver which was in ordinary use for coinage in the earliest period ? Did Persia regard these as issuesofgold ? or did Persiaplacethem on the levelofissuesofsilver? or didit pursue a middlecourse in regard to their authorization ? This is not an easy question ; and it is one on which we may hope to throw some light in the course of the present investigation. — I propose to divide my subject into five sections, as follows : I.' The early electrum coinage. II. Croesus to Darius. III. The Ionian Revolt. IV. Electrum coins, b.c. 480-330. V. Gold coins ofthe same period. I. The early Electrum Coinage. It is generally thought, alike by numismatists and historians, that the coinage ofthe western world took its origin on the coast ofAsia Minor in the eighth or at latest in the seventh century b.c, in those primitive and rude coins ofelectrum, which are now abundant in our museums. Of this coinage I do not propose to treat in detail, as it has been the subject of able papers by Head, Babelon, and other writers,1 nor is it possible to discuss it without taking into account a multitude of small numismatic considerations, the introduction of which would thwart the purpose of the present paper, which is to give a broadhistoricsketch. I will, however, give a briefsummary of views held in regard to it. In the first place, it has been disputed to whom belongs the honour ofthe first invention ofcoins. We know from Julius Pollux that this question was much discussed by his learned authorities. He writes2 that it was disputed * whether coins were first issued by Pheidon of 1 Head in Numismatic Chronicle, 1875; Catalogue ofGreek Coins in the British Museum: Ionia,Introduction. Babelon, TraitedesMonnaiesgrecquesetromaines, Part II, vol. i, where further references. Also Revue Numismatique, 1894 and 1895. 2 ix. 83. THE GOLD COINAGE OF ASIA 3 Argos, or by the Cymaean Demodice, wife of the Phrygian Midas, who wasdaughterofAgamemnon,KingofCyme,orbytheAthenians, Erichthonius and Lycus, or by the Lydians, as Xenophanes asserts, or by the Naxians, according to the view of Aglosthenes.' Some ofthese views are now out of court, especially those which give the originationofcoins to Pheidon ofArgos or to Athens. It is univers- ally allowed that money first appears on the western coast of Asia Minor. But it may still be doubted whether it originated with the wealthy Mermnad kings of Lydia or with Miletus and other Ionian cities ofthe coast. In favour ofthe Lydians it may be urged that Herodotus seems to support their claim. He writes of the Lydians,1 itpmoi avOptoimv, tS>v 37/*€is tbfJLtv, vopLHrpLa \pvcrov Kd\ apyvpov Ko^/dpievoL kyjpr\(TavTO' TipGiToi he Kal Kaiii]\oi eyevovro. There seems to be some connexion between the clauses of the sentence that the fact that the : is, Lydianswerepedlarsorhucksters was the reason for their inventionof coin. And here it may be allowed that we can cite a parallel : the great extension of the Aeginetan currency is explained by the fact that the Aeginetans were the pedlars of Greece Proper. At the same time the words of Herodotus are too ambiguous to be pressed. To say that the Lydians firststruck coins ingold and silver is not the same thing as to say that they first issued money of mixed gold and silver or electrum. There is thus some justification for those who have regarded Herodotus asreferringto the coins ofgoldand coins of silver, issued, as we shallpresently see, by Croesus. Another ancient authority for the Lydian origin ofcoins has been found in the phrase ofJulius Pollux,2 who speaks ofTvydhas xpwds in the same breath with darics and staters of Croesus ; and this passage has been taken as a proof that the early electrum staters were issued by Gyges. To this argument, however, there lies an insuperable objection in the fact that in another passage3 Pollux speaks ofthe gold of Gyges as notable for purity ; it could not, then, have been electrum. Gyges, as we are told by Herodotus,4 dedicated at Delphi many objects in gold. It was from this that his gold had its reputa- tion ; and Pollux, in bringing it into line with darics and staters of Croesus, no doubt mistakes his authorities. Certainly no coins ofpure gold ofthe time of Gyges areknown. The mere fact that Lydia possessed in great abundance the raw material of the electrum coinage can scarcely weigh very heavily, since that material was also easily accessible to the Ionians. The only definite proof of an early issue of coins in Lydia is furnished 1 i. 94. 2 Onomasticon, iii. 87. s Ibid., vii. 98. 4 i. 14. 4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY bythe legend FAAFEI inarchaiclettersread(firstbyM. Six)on some electrum coins, as the name of King Alyattes of Lydia. To these coins I will presently return. Meantime it is clear that, even if we accept M. Six's reading, all that it would prove would be that Lydian coins were issued in the reign of Alyattes b.c. 610-561, not that coins originated with the Lydians. Quite as early as these coins is the remarkable stater of electrum T which bears the name of Phanes, and which was almost certainly struck in one of the cities of Ionia. Most numismatists, Lenormant, Six, Head, andothers are disposed to assign the earliest electrum coins to early Lydian kings, Gyges and his successors. But the most recent writer on the subject, M. Babelon, is disposed, alike from the probabilities of the case, and the evidence of extant coins, to think that coinage originated with the Greeks ofAsia. I am ready to support this view. It would be strange if the Lydian horsemen anticipated the quick-witted and versatile Ionians in so remarkable a discovery as that of striking coins. Moreover, in addition to the intrinsic probabilityofthis view, the balance of evidence to be drawn from existing coins is in its favour. It may well seem strange that the Greek world contrived to do without coins until the eighth century b.c. We now know what a highly developed civilizationflourished inCreteandin Peloponnesus at a much earlier time. But there are abundant examples of an elaborate civilization without money. The great empires of Egypt and Assyria had no coins. The Phoenicians did not issue money for centuries after its invention, though they may have used the coins of Persia and ofGreece. It is conjectured from a survey of the places where Persian gold coins are found, that they were but little used in the eastern provinces ofthe Persian Empire, but almost exclusively in Asia Minor. And we have a modern parallel for indifference to the use ofcoin. In China, down to our own days, only copper and iron coins have been issued by authority, gold and silver still passing by weight, whether in the form ofbars or offoreign coin. The earlyelectrumcoins ofthe Ionic coastarebean-shaped, bearing usually on one side a type, on the other punch-marks enclosing smaller devices. The unit is divided into halves, thirds, sixths, and so on, down to ninety-sixths. The metal is hard ; the art and fabric primitive. They present us with a series of problems, which cannot at present be said to be solved. In the first place, were they issued by cities or by temples, or 1 Br. Mus. Cat. : Ionia, PL III. 8. THE GOLD COINAGE OF ASIA 5 by private persons? It was perfectly natural that numismatists, accustomed to the fact that in later historic times every Greek city had one or two easily recognized devices which stamped its coin as belonging to it only, should have begun by trying to assign the early electrum also to city mints, by help of the types which the coins bear. The lion was held to be the mark of Miletus, the lion's scalp of Samos, the stag of Ephesus, and so forth. But there are grave reasons for thinking that this procedure was mistaken, or at least was carried much too far. The lion, the lion's head or his scalp, appear on a large number of the electrum coins, which differ so widely in style and in monetary standard that they can scarcely come from any one mint. To suppose that the lion is always the regal sign ofthe Lydian kings is a view which cannot be maintained. Again, there are on electrum coins many devices, the cock, the chimaera, the fox, the human head, and others, which cannot be satisfactorily assigned to any known mint. It therefore seems prob- able that, to begin with, the custom of issuing money by state authority, and impressing upon all coins so issued the civic badge as a type, was not observed with any regularity. A confirmation ofthis view may be found in the fact that even in the case ofthe later issues ofelectrum coins, such as those of Cyzicus andMytilene, there is no uniform type, as on the coins ofmost Greek cities, but an almost unlimited number of devices, which do not indicate place of mintage, but far more probably belong to the monetary magistrates. Thus the types of early electrum coins are no safe indication of their place of mintage. And since, with one or two exceptions, they are uninscribed, there is a dearth of clues to direct us to their of place origin. It is maintained by M. Babelon that these primitive coins were not state-issues at all, but struck by the bankers of Ionia and Lydia for the purposes of trade, and stamped with their private signets.1 He has several historic parallels to cite. He shows that among the Franks of the Merovingian age money was issued by private coiners, and varies remarkably in alloy, and even in weight. And he brings forward examples in which trading companies in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries issued great quantities ofcoin in their own name, and on their own responsibility. It must also be noted that large classes ofcoins in Persian times, especially thePersiansilvershekels orsigli,andthemoney ofAspendus in Pamphylia, bear a multitude of small stamps or countermarks 1 Originesdela Monnaie,pp. 93-134. 6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY which seem to be the marks of bankers, or possibly of local financial officers, guaranteeing the quality of the coin. This custom might well be the successor of a system ofprivate coinage. Terrien de la Couperie observes 1 that on early coins ofChina we find many private marks. *The exchange being generally limited to the region ofthe issuers, they used on their currency to put as their marks names of regions, places, families, individuals, or things.' In early India also small ingots circulated bearing many countermarks, which may have been stamped on them either by financial authorities or else by 2 private capitalists. I cannot examine in detail the theories of M. Babelon as to the way in which the Ionian bankers stamped the coin and in that ; matter I do not think his particular views can be maintained. But as regards the probability that many ofthe types of early coins are only private marks, I agree with him. Certainty is not to be attained. It is, however, at the least quite possible that private issues made their appearance before the rise of the regular civic coinages. Long ago Professor Ernst Curtius called attention to the probability that in some cases, at all events, very early issues ofcoins may have taken place in connexion with the wealthy temples of Ionia, where specie tended to accumulate. And thisviewhas been generally accepted, even by Professor Ridgeway,3 who is generally disposed to deny the religious origin ofcoin-types. But however much truth there may be in the view that the earliest coins belong to bankers or temples, we have good reason for thinking that not later than about b.c. 650 the Greek cities of Asia were beginning to take the issue of electrum into their own hands, and to stamp itwith an official seal. It was first clearly set forth by Mr. Head4 that certain classes of electrum coins may be distinguished belonging to different districts of Ionia, and following different—monetary standards. M. Babelon has further developed this view5: (1) There is a very primitive class of coins following the Milesian standard of weight (stater, grammes 1440, grains 222). Some of these have scarcely anytype; and the fabric ofthe earliest ofthem is rude. (See PL I. 2; weight 215«3 grains, British Museum.) Their pale colour indicates, what is confirmed byanalysis, that they contain 1 Br. Mus. Cat.: Chinese Coins, Introd., p. 4. 2 Thomas, AncientIndian Weights, p. 52andfoil. 8 Origin ofCurrencyand Weight-standards, p. 215. 4 Numismatic Chronicle, 1875. 5 RevueNumismatique, 1894-5, fourpapers.