A Guide to the Exhibition Illustrating Greek and Roman Life

Part 2

Chapter 23,846 wordsPublic domain

=Corn Largesses.=--From the end of the second century B.C. it had become a regular feature of Roman policy to supply the populace of the city with corn either gratis or at an artificially cheap rate. After the fall of the Republic the Emperors carried still further the policy of free distributions (_congiaria_ or _liberalitates_). It has been reckoned that the annual cost of their largesses averaged £90,000 from Julius Caesar to Claudius, and £300,000 from Nero to Septimius Severus. Persius, who wrote in the time of Nero, notes with a sneer that it was one of the privileges of the meanest Roman citizen to exchange his ticket for a portion of musty flour. This policy of the Emperors is illustrated by the inscribed corn-ticket (_tessera frumentaria_) shown in this Case (No. =20=; fig. 10). It is inscribed on one side, _Ant(onini) Aug(usti) Lib(eralitas) II._, i.e., the second special largess of Antoninus, perhaps Antoninus Pius, who reigned from 138-161 A.D. On the other side appears _fru(mentatio) LXI._, i.e. the sixty-first monthly corn distribution, dating doubtless from the accession of Antoninus. The letters were originally inlaid with silver, as is shown by the remains of that metal in the numerals. The sepulchral inscription mentioned on p. 224 should be studied in connection with this corn-ticket.

=Official Emblem.=--The relief in Case =99= shows the _Fasces_ (that is, the axes and the rods tied in a bundle) which were carried by the lictors before the higher Roman magistrates.

=Slavery.=--The circular bronze badge (No. =21=) shows the Roman method of dealing with runaway slaves after the softening influence of Christianity had begun to make itself felt. In earlier times the runaway slave had been punished with the cruel penalty of branding. Apparently from the time of Constantine onwards an inscribed badge was substituted, authorising the summary arrest of the slave if he were caught out of bounds. The inscription on the badge exhibited runs: "Hold me, lest I escape, and take me back to my master Viventius on the estate of Callistus."

Two other objects may perhaps be brought into connection with slavery. The scourge (No. =22=), with its lash loaded with bronze beads, was frequently used for the punishment of slaves. It is the _horribile flagellum_ of Horace. A scourge very similar to the present is seen on a relief in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, representing a high-priest of Kybele, whose devotees were in the habit of scourging themselves in the service of the goddess.[7] The pair of iron fetters (No. =23=), found in 1813 in a cave behind the Pnyx at Athens, bear a close resemblance to those worn by a _bestiarius_ or beast-fighter represented on a relief from Ephesus exhibited in Case 110, (_Cat. of Sculpt._, II., No. 1286).

Two small bronzes (No. =24=) show dwarf slaves undergoing the punishment of the cangue, in which neck and wrists are fixed in a board.

(1) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 264; Hicks and Hill, _Greek Hist. Inscr._, No. 9; (2) Roberts, _Gr. Epigraphy_, No. 297; (3) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 263; _B.M. Inscr._, 953; (4) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 262; _B.M. Inscr._, 954; (5) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 333; (6) _ibid._, 334; (7) to (10) _ibid._, 329-332; Hicks and Hill, 151; _I.G._, II., 886, 901, 885, 908b; (11) _Jahrbuch d. Arch. Inst._, II., p. 161; (12) _B.S. Athens Ann._, V. pl. 5, fig. 112; (13) _B.M. Inscr._, 1155; _Cat. of Bronzes_, 250; (14) _B.M. Inscr._, 948A; _Journ. of Hellen. Stud._, II., p. 77; (15) Roberts, _Gr. Epigraphy_, No. 286; (17) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 319; _I.G._ XIV., 594; cf. _Hermes_, III., p. 298 ff.; (18) _Eph. Epigraph._, IV., p. 185; _C.I.L._, III., Suppl. i., p. 2000. On the _diplomata_ generally, see Smith, _Dict. of Ant._, and Daremberg and Saglio, _Dict. of Ant._, s.v.; (19) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 901; _C.I.L._, XV., 7166; Hübner, _Exempla_, No. 915; (20) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 3016; _C.I.L._, XV., 7201; _Klio_, Beiheft III., p. 21; _Philologus_, XXIX., p. 17; (21) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 902; _C.I.L._, XV., 7193.

[Footnote 1: _Pol._ i. 1, 8.]

[Footnote 2: [Greek:

Dionysion | Phrynichou | Athênaion.] ]

[Footnote 3: [Greek:

Pausanian Attalou | Ambrakiôtan.] ]

[Footnote 4: [Greek: Ath. Pol. 63: echei d' hekastos dikastês pinakion pyxinon, epigegrammenon to onoma to heautou patrothen kai tou dêmou kai gramma hen tôn stoicheiôn mechri tou k.]]

[Footnote 5: [Greek: Methanioi apo Lakedaimoniôn.]]

[Footnote 6: Imp. Cae(sar) M. Iulius Phili[ppus Pius] Fel(ix) Aug(ustus), pont(ifex) max(imus), trib(unicia) p[ot(estate) III, cos., p.p. et] M. Iulius Philippus nobil[issim(us) Caes(ar)] nomina militum, qui milit[averunt in] cohortibus pretoris Phil[ippianis de-] cem I. II. III. IIII. V. VI. VII. VIII. VII[II. X. piis vin-] dicibus, qui pii et fortiter [militia fun-] cti sunt, ius tribuimus con[ubii dumta-] xat cum singulis et primi[s uxoribus], ut etiam si peregrini iur[is feminas] in matrimon(io) suo iunxe[rint, proinde liberos toll(ant), acxi (for _ac si_) ex duob(us) c[ivibus Ro-] manis natos. a. d. VII. [idus Ian.] C. Bruttio Presente et C. Al(b)[- - - - - cos.] Coh(ors) V pr(aetoria) Philip[pian(a) p(ia) v(index).] Neb. Tullio Neb. f. M(a) - - - - - - - - Ael(ia) Murs[a]. Descript(um) et recognit(um) ex ta[bula aerea], que fix(a) est Romae in muro [pos(t) templum] divi Aug(usti) ad Mine[rvam].

]

[Footnote 7: Baumeister, _Denkmäler_, II., p. 801, fig. 867.]

II.--COINS.

(Table-Case K.)

The coins which are selected to represent the Greek and Roman currencies extend over a period of just one thousand years, in the course of which the coinage went through all the developments and anticipated all the varieties of type and fabric which it has since experienced, while in artistic merit it reached an excellence which will probably never be surpassed. The Greek coinage, moreover, has the great interest of being that upon which all later coinages have been modelled--for the Chinese money, which originated about the same time, and apparently independently, may be left out of account.

=Greek Coins.=--The character and provenance of the earliest coins agree with the best ancient tradition of their origin, in so far as it associates them with Asia Minor, although it is more probable that they were invented by the Greek cities of the coast than by the Lydians, to whom they have been credited in accordance with the Herodotean tradition.[8] The most primitive pieces are found in Asia Minor, and their metal is a natural mixture of gold and silver, called electrum, which occurs in the mountains of Lydia, and was brought down to the sea in the sands of the great rivers, the golden Hermus and its tributary the Pactolus. The cities which the Greeks had planted on the Asiatic shores grew in the seventh century B.C. to a high degree of wealth, by reason of their position on a rich coastland, where they were intermediary in the trade of east and west. There were great bankers in these Ionian cities who had large stores of treasure; their gold and silver would be kept in bars or ingots of definite weight stamped with the device, in place of the written signature, of the banker. From thus marking large ingots with his own signature, it would be a short step for the banker to do the same with smaller denominations of the same weights, so producing a private coinage for his own convenience in calculation, which would come to have a limited acceptance in the quarters where his credit was good. Such pieces are probably to be recognised in the nondescript coins of which the electrum stater is an example (No. =24=; fig. 12_a_); this is scored on one side with parallel scratches and stamped on the other with three deep punch-marks. There are many pieces in existence which have even less design than this, although their weights conform to definite coin-standards. We may perhaps regard this example as a private coin, one of the last of its kind, which immediately preceded the adoption of coinage by the state. The invention of coinage lies really in this innovation, which, however obvious it may seem to us now, was then of deep political significance. When once a state currency was instituted, the private coinage fell out of use, for no individual banker could compete with the guarantee of the state, and the state would not tolerate imitation of its own types. We may therefore take it that the successive stages in the "invention" of coinage were somewhat as follows: first, the occasional practice of stamping certain weights of metal with marks by which they could be identified; this probably continued in private use for a long period before it was adopted by a state; and finally the adoption all over the Greek world of a series of state coinages.

The example, once set, was quickly followed by the more important Greek cities, until by the middle of the sixth century the art of coinage had travelled from Ionia across the mainland of Greece to the colonies in Italy and Sicily. Owing to the peculiar political conditions of Greece, where every town held a separate and independent sovereignty, each state was jealous to assert its autonomy on its coins, with the result that the Greek coinage presents an enormous variety of types, held together, however, as the money of one people by the uniformity of their general character and of the art in which they are expressed.

We may now proceed to consider a few representative coins, which in the midst of innumerable local issues were important enough by their purity of weight and metal, or by their abundance, or by the commercial reputation of their issuing states, to predominate in the Greek world as a sort of international currency and standard of exchange.

The earliest electrum stater of Ionia is interesting on account of its fabric only, for it has no type. It is a bean-shaped lump of metal, one side of which has been stamped with a flat die marked with parallel scratches, the other with three punches, which have left deep impressions (No. =24=; fig. 12_a_). The pieces which immediately followed, such as the silver money of Aegina (No. =25=; fig. 12_d_), have a real type on the obverse, while the punch-mark on the reverse is more regular, and is often ornamented with some design of a special character, though it does not contain a type until later.

With the introduction of coinage into European Greece, a change was made in the metal of the currency, for gold and electrum, which were plentiful in Asia, were not common in Greece proper, and a silver coinage was there the rule until Philip of Macedon took possession of the Thracian gold mines. The few gold issues before his time were due to exceptional circumstances; thus the gold coinage of Athens (No. =26=) was occasioned by great financial stress, when treasure was melted down to supply the currency. There was, however, no lack of gold money in Greece, for after the first electrum issues came the fine gold staters of Croesus, in the early sixth century (No. =27=; fig. 12_b_), and, on his overthrow by Cyrus, an international gold coinage was still available in the enormous issues of the Persian darics (No. =28=; fig. 12_c_), which were in common use all over the ancient world until the Macedonian gold replaced them. A few subsidiary electrum coinages survived in Asia, the most famous being the Kyzikene staters (No. =29=; fig. 12_m_), which were a standard exchange in the Aegean and Black Sea regions. A peculiarity of this coinage is that the distinctive type of the town, the tunny, is relegated to a secondary place, while the main type is a constantly changing design. In the piece illustrated the subject is taken from a group of the Athenian tyrannicides, Harmodios and Aristogeiton, which stood in the market place of their native city.

Another important currency, used especially in western Greece, the "colts" of Corinth, took its type from the local myth that the winged horse Pegasos was captured by Bellerophon at the fountain Peirene, which flowed from the acropolis of the town (No. =30=; fig. 12_e_). The original punch-mark on the reverse was soon replaced by the helmeted head of Athena, who also had a part in the Pegasos myth, and these two types were constant as long as the Corinthian state existed. The money which enjoyed the fairest reputation was that of Athens, which, at the time of the Athenian empire, superseded the issues of the subject cities and became the standard currency in the Aegean Sea. It penetrated into the far East, and there are extant examples of native imitations from India and Arabia. The wide circulation of these staters among barbarous peoples was the cause of their peculiar style; for not only were the types of Athena's head and her owl and olive-branch unaltered from the first sixth-century design, but the execution was an imitation of the primitive manner, the stiffness of archaic art being reproduced in an affected archaism. As the money of Athens was the foremost in the Greek world, it is useful to note the extraordinary number of denominations which were struck in silver at its most flourishing period, the fifth century B.C. A large, but still not complete, series is exhibited here (No. =31=). It consists of the _Decadrachm_ (10 drachmae, fig. 12_f_), an early and rare coin, the _Tetradrachm_ (4 drachmae, fig. 12_g_), which was the famous Athenian stater or standard piece, the _Didrachm_ (2 drachmae), the _Drachm_ (fig. 12_h_), the unit of weight, which contained six obols, the _Triobol_ (3 obols), the _Diobol_ (2 obols), the _Obol_ (fig. 12_i_), the _Tritemorion_ (3/4 obol), the _Hemiobol_ (1/2 obol), the _Trihemitetartemorion_ (3/8 obol), and the _Tetartemorion_ (1/4 obol, fig. 12_k_), the half of the last piece being equivalent to the largest bronze coin, the _Chalkous_ (No. =32=).

With the Athenian series is the bronze core of an ancient imitation of a silver stater, of which the silver plating has perished (No. =33=). False coining was punished with extreme penalties even in those early days: in an extant monetary convention between Mytilene and Phocaea, of the fourth century B.C., the crime of adulterating the money is threatened with death.[9]

On the conquest of Athens by Macedon, at the end of the fourth century B.C., the autonomous Athenian coinage was largely superseded by the Macedonian regal issues, and did not recover its position until late in the next century. It was renewed in a different form, with none of the old archaism, of which the occasion was past. The coins of the new style exemplify the thin flat fabric of the period, and although the types of Athena and the owl are preserved, their arrangement is much more complicated. The new head of Athena is a copy from the colossal ivory and gold statue which Pheidias made, and on the reverse of the coins the owl and olive spray are accompanied by many new devices, of which the most remarkable are the names, symbols, and monograms of the monetary magistrates; eminent personages sometimes figure in this place. On the coins exhibited (No. =34=; fig. 12_l_) one of the officials is Antiochos, who was afterwards Epiphanes, king of Syria.

In the interval between the old and new coinages, when the Athenian money was scanty, the currency was supplied by the regal issues of the Macedonian kings and their successors. Under Philip II. and his son Alexander the Great, the Macedonian monarchy extended its dominion by conquest, not only over the isolated Greek cities, but over the ancient empire of Persia. The opportunity was thus provided for a universal coinage, and it was realised in the gold and silver issues of Philip and Alexander (Nos. =35=, =36=; fig. 12_n-q_). The acquisition of the Thracian gold-mines gave Philip the means for an abundant coinage of gold, the first considerable Greek issue of the kind, which contributed in no small measure to his political success. The style of these coins of Philip is not different from that of other Greek money, except that they are inscribed with a personal name--of Philip--instead of the name of a whole people, and the types, a horse and jockey and a two-horse chariot, are also personal, as they commemorate the racing successes of the king. The fine heads on the obverse, however, are still divine, that of Zeus appearing on the silver and the young Apollo on the gold, for the idea of representing a living personage on a coin was still distant. Of this money the gold especially was struck in enormous quantities, and the types were imitated more and more crudely, as time went on, in Gaul and Britain. (_See_ the series shown in the Room of Roman Britain.) The coinage of Alexander was even more widely spread. His types were more orthodox than those of Philip: the head of Athena and a Victory on the gold, and the head of young Herakles, wrapped in the lion-skin, with a figure of Zeus enthroned, on the silver staters, although in the head of Herakles there is some suggestion of the features of Alexander. These coins were struck all over the world which Alexander conquered, and lasted after his death as the money of his successors and of independent cities, in some cases even for two centuries; but the kings who divided his great empire modified the type by introducing real portraits of Alexander, as a deified hero, and later of themselves, as living deities, so that the representation of a ruler's head on coins, which is still practised to-day, began with quasi-religious Greek coin-types. The regularity of the Greek coinage which Alexander established was only temporary, and his influence was fast disappearing when the subjection of the world by the Romans in the first century B.C. merged all provincial issues in the complete uniformity of the Imperial mint.

=Roman Coins.=--As gold in the Asiatic coastlands and silver in European Greece, so in Italy the native medium of exchange was bronze. In the earliest times the raw metal was circulated in broken knobs of indefinite weight (_aes rude_), which required in all transactions the use of scales. The rude metal was afterwards superseded by cast ingots of an oblong shape, which bore a device to indicate their purpose as money (_aes signatum_). Yet the weights were still irregular, and no mark of value accompanied the types, so that the pieces were not strictly coins. A survival of this primitive currency is seen in the large ingot which has on one side a tripod and on the other an anchor (No. =37=; fig. 13). This piece itself belongs to a later period, when the lighter coined money was already in use. The special purpose for which this and similar pieces were intended is quite uncertain. The first coinage of Rome was less massive than this, but being entirely of bronze, was still inconveniently large and cumbrous (_aes grave_). The Roman of the fourth century B.C., when he found it necessary to transport any considerable sum, took his money about with him in a waggon.[10] The use of bronze for a token currency, as in Greece, was not possible without a superior coinage of gold or silver to secure its value.

A typical series of the Roman heavy bronze money is exhibited (No. =38=; fig. 14) The system is based on the pound of twelve ounces, and the denominations of the various pieces are distinguished by the heads or obverse types, and by the marks of value which they bear. The series consists of the _As_, or pound (+I+), the half, _Semis_ (+S+), the third, _Triens_, of four ounces (····), the quarter, _Quadrans_, of three ounces (···), the sixth, _Sextans_, of two ounces (··), and the _Uncia_, or ounce, the lower unit (·) (_cf._ p. 160). Each of these is further differentiated by the obverse head. The _as_ has the double head of Janus, the god of beginnings, whose coin opened the series of money, as his month begins the year. The _semis_ has the head of Jupiter, wearing a laurel wreath; the _triens_, Minerva armed; the _quadrans_, Hercules in the lion-skin; the _sextans_, Mercury, the messenger, with wings in his cap; and the _uncia_, a head of Bellona, the goddess of battle. All the reverses have a common type, the prow of a ship. This device may mark the date of the introduction of the Roman coinage, which coincided with Rome's first essays on the sea, in the middle of the fourth century before Christ. It remained as the reverse type of the bronze money all through the Republic, and even in later times, when a coin was tossed, the cry was "heads" or "ships."[11]

The heavy bronze coinage of the city of Rome was only one among many similar currencies of the central Italian states. As the Romans conquered the neighbouring territories, where there existed local weight-systems, which, in the interests of commerce, it was well to preserve, instead of imposing their own money, they inaugurated subordinate issues at the dependent mints. On this principle it was natural that when the march of Roman conquest came upon the peoples of South Italy, where a silver currency had been long ago introduced by the Greek colonists, a local issue for those parts was instituted as a subsidiary coinage. To this class of Roman money belongs the silver stater or didrachm with Campanian types (the head of Mars and the bust of a horse) which was struck by the Romans--as the legend +ROMANO+(_rum_) shews--in Capua for the use of the Campanian district (No. =39=; fig. 15_a_). With the extension of power and territory the old bronze pieces were inadequate, and in the year 268 B.C. a silver coinage was begun at Rome itself. At the same time the Campanian mint was closed, and the heavy bronze coins, being subordinated to the silver unit, were issued as token-money in a reduced and more convenient size.

The first Roman silver coinage bears the types of the goddess Roma, wearing a winged helmet, and on the reverse the patron deities of trade and commerce, Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins or Dioscuri (No. =40=; fig. 15_b-d_). They are armed with spears and ride on horseback, with their stars above their heads. These types occur on all three denominations of the earliest silver, the _Denarius_ (marked +X+), which was worth 10 _asses_; its half, the _Quinarius_ (+V+); and the _Sestertius_ (+IIS+) of 2-1/2 _asses_, which became the unit in reckoning accounts. The two smallest silver pieces were not always struck; but the _denarius_, with the reduced copper for small denominations, remained in use during the period of the Republic at Rome and long into the Empire. Although both series had a great variety of types, the fabric and general appearance were unaltered.