arising from the enjoyment of peace and free institutions, a condition which lasted until the time of the Athenian siege, B.C. 415-412.10 I would attribute to this period five distinct types of the tetradrachm, all of which exhibit a decided advance upon the semi-archaic series with the pistrix. They may be distinguished, as follows, by the arrangement of the hair of the female head. Type 1 with the sphendone (Pl. III. 1); Type 2, with the saccos or bag, generally ornamented with the Mæander pattern (Pl. III. 2, 3); Type 3, with a cord wound four times round the back hair. (Pl. III. 4.) All these have the exergue plain and the quadriga driven by a male charioteer. Types 4 and 5, on the other hand, have a locust in the exergue, and the quadriga is driven, for the first time, by a charioteer apparently female (Pl. III. 5, 6); the hair on type 4 is in a jewelled net, on type 5, bound by a cord twisted round it. The horses on all these coins are walking. There are, as far as I am aware, no didrachms or drachms of this period. The P is generally used during this period, but the older form R sometimes recurs: the N is not yet seen. Before I proceed to the next period of Syracusan history, viz., that which succeeded the Athenian siege, B.C. 415-412, I must briefly consider the question as to which were the earliest copper coins, and whether they were first struck during the Democracy, 466–415, or later. The ancient proportion in Sicily of copper to silver in value was 250: 1, and the copper litra, which then weighed 3,375 grains (218 grammes), or half an Attic mina, was in value equal to 13.5 grains of silver (87 grammes), or of the stater or didrachm, which was, in consequence, called the deκáλTρos σTarp.11 A new coin, the silver litra, foreign δεκάλιτρος στατῆρ.1 to the Attic system and in value of the drachm, or 12 ounces of copper, was issued in very early times probably to take the place of the obol, or of the drachm, equal only to 10 ounces of copper, the duodecimal system of division into 12 ounces having been always applied to the litra of copper. = Some time during the reign of Dionysios the elder, 405-367, the weight of the copper litra was reduced to 675 grains (43-73 grammes). This reduced litra is called by Aristotle "the old" (tò μèv åpxaîov),12 to distinguish it from the one in use during his own time (rò dè VσTEρOV), when it had undergone a second reduction of The silver litra 337.5 grains (21.86 grammes). -otherwise called the nummus, originally equal to one copper litra-was now, therefore, equal to ten; the two litræ being distinguished by the epithets silver and copper. 13 = Brandis expresses his opinion that the value of copper in proportion to silver rose from 250 : 1 to 50: 1, and afterwards to 25:1, on the several reductions of the litra. I can, however, find no evidence that such was the fact, and I therefore prefer to treat, as Mommsen does, the several reductions of the litra as so many bankruptcies or expedients adopted by the State to facilitate the payment of debts, the proportionate values of copper and silver probably remaining about the same from the time of the first issue of copper coins down to the time of Hieron II. It is worthy of remark that during the whole of this period-viz., until B.C. 269-the same 12 Pollux, ix. 87. 11 Pollux, iv. 175. 13 Mommsen, ed. Blacas, ch. ii. § 1. relation between copper and silver existed at Rome as in Sicily-viz., 250: 1.14 We now approach the question as to when copper was first coined at Syracuse, and whether it was issued of full weight according to its value in proportion to silver, or was only money of account with a fictitious value above its real one. Brandis is of opinion that copper was coined in Sicily of full weight only so long as the original proportion of copper to silver as 250: 1 was maintained. 15 Starting with this theory, he is obliged to make the heaviest copper coins of Syracuse the earliest in that metal. His classification is as follows: Copper to silver as 250: 1. Weight of litra, 3375 grains. Two-ounce piece (562 grs.): Obr.-Head of Pallas. Rer. Star between dolphins. Actual weight, 530-450 grs. (Pl. VII. 1.) One-ounce (281 grs.):— Obr.-Head of Zeus Eleutherios. Rev. Free horse. Actual weight, 280 grs. (Pl. VII. 8.) Rev.-Thunderbolt. Actual weight, 262-229 grs. (Pl. with smaller divisions, which I need not here mention. Notwithstanding the weight of these pieces, I cannot bring myself to believe that they are as early as Brandis maintains. The coins with the head of Zeus, Rev. Thunderbolt, bear a strong resemblance to the silver of Alexander of Epirus, struck in Italy B.c. 332—326, and, I should 14 Mommsen, ed. Blacas, vol. ii. ch. iii. p. 31. 15 Brandis, p. 276-"Es kommt vor allem darauf an, zu bestimmen, in wie fern und wie lange das Kupfergeld Werthmünze war und blieb. Offenbar war dies in Syrakus und in ganz Sicilien so lange der Fall, als die ursprüngliche Werthung der beiden Metalle wie 250: 1 fest gehalten wurde." say, cannot be very much earlier than his time. The head of Zeus Eleutherios, also, is far more appropriate to the Democracy restored by Timoleon, than to the tyranny of Dionysios the elder.16 As regards the large pieces with the head of Pallas, it is certainly possible that they may have been issued by Dionysios; but it seems to me that a type so thoroughly Corinthian in style, is far more likely to have been borrowed from the Corinthian staters which were struck at Syracuse at the time of the recolonisation by Timoleon. These two types, with others which I shall afterwards mention, would seem therefore to belong to the Democracy restored by Timoleon in B.c. 344. In this case, instead of being two-ounce and one-ounce pieces of full weight, they would be pieces of two litræ and one litra of the second reduction. This, however, is doubtful, for very little can be inferred from the weights of copper coins, and it is probable that even these massive coins are in reality only money of account which approximate in appearance to pieces of full weight and value. If, then, these are not the earliest copper coins of Syracuse, which are? Mommsen, who differs entirely from Brandis on the subject of Syracusan copper coins (looking upon them simply as money of account), is inclined to accept, as the earliest, the pieces with the incuse square divided into four quarters, with a star in the centre. (Pl. V. 13.)17 The style of these coins is, however, that of the fine period 16 Of course it is quite out of the question that the coins with ΖΕΥΣ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΟΣ could have been struck during the first democracy after the exile of Thrasybulos in в.c. 466, when this worship was first instituted at Syracuse. Their style, not to mention the occurrence of the on the reverse, entirely precludes this supposition. Mommsen, ed. Blacas, vol. i. p. 108, note 1. of art, and they bear a marked resemblance to Kimon's tetradrachms. The pieces which I believe to be the earliest copper, are a series having on the obverse a female head, with the hair gathered into a knot (korymbos) at the top of the head, and, on the reverse, the surface of which is slightly incuse, a cuttle-fish surrounded by the marks of value ..; smaller divisions are known without these marks. (Pl. III. 7, 8.) These coins I take to be the trias, hexas (?) and ounce (?) of the earliest copper issue, of nominal, but not of real value, struck during the Democracy B.c. 466-412. The occurrence of the P precludes the possibility of their being earlier than this time. The head upon the obverse bears a strong resemblance to one of the pistrix-types of Hieron I. (Pl. II. 12.) The style is semi-archaic, or transitional, and they cannot possibly belong to the period to which Brandis classes them-viz., after the second reduction of the litra, which is more than a century later.18 V. FROM THE ATHENIAN SIEGE TO THE ACCESSION OF DIONYSIOS THE ELDER, B.C. 412-406. Grote, in his history of Greece (ch. lxxxi.), says that the Syracusans, after the destruction of the Athenian besiegers, "elate with the plenitude of recent effort, and conscious that the late successful defence had been the joint work of all, were in a state of animated democratical impulse. On the proposition of an influential citizen named Diokles, a commission of ten was named, of which he was president, for the purpose of revising both the constitution and the legislature of the city." Unfortunately, nothing is known of the details of the 18 Brandis, p. 590. |