Text/A Zhi
Preface
Athens was an important city-state in ancient Greece, and it created a splendid culture.
Athenian coins were an important part of this civilization, and they had a profound impact on the economy of the ancient Mediterranean world, so they have always been a hot topic of study for numismatists.
Although Greek coins have long attracted the attention of domestic scholars, there is no way to investigate the historical evolution of the coins of the city-state of Athens.
On the basis of previous research, this paper attempts to briefly sort out the coins of Athens in the Hellenistic era of the classical era and the Roman era based on the archaeological documents and physical materials unearthed in recent years.
Ancient Literature
Lydia in Asia Minor was the first to mint coins in the 7th century BC, and the advent of coins reduced transaction costs in the course of daily trade.
Classical writers believe that the monetary system was introduced to Athens around the time of Solon, but modern scholars disagree with this view, which argues that this view was clearly developed at a later date and is conflated with Solon's "reform of weights and measures".
Modern scholars tend to believe that the earliest Athenian currency appeared around 545 BC, and archaeological excavations have unearthed some coins from this period bearing the coats of arms of noble families, hence the nickname "heraldic coins".
The "CryptoSeal" is equivalent to the second drachma, and the coins come in a variety of shapes and styles, mostly round or oval, and are struck in different patterns, such as bull's head wheels, which also reflect the personal choice of the mint owner.
Between 525 and 510 B.C., Athens produced four drachmas bearing the head of Gorgon, and the reverse of a coin showed the first image of a bull's head or the front half of a lioness.
"Cryptoescudo" coins were mainly circulated in Attica, and Hibias, the son of Pisistratus, once ordered the collection of old coins and the circulation of re-minted coins.
In 1907, archaeologists excavated a bronze die for making a "Cryptoescudo" in the Temple of Poseidon in Sounion, and the discovery of this rare coinage tool provides strong evidence for the "CryptoEscudo".
At the end of the 6th century BC, the "CryptoEscudo" was gradually replaced by the drachma.
THIS NEW STYLE OF COIN FEATURES A HELMETED PORTRAIT OF THE GODDESS ATHENA FACING RIGHT ON THE OBVERSE, AN OWL ON THE REVERSE, AND THE LETTERS "ΑΘΕ" ON THE RIGHT, AN ABBREVIATION OF "AΘENAION", AND THIS "OWL" STYLE COIN WAS IN CIRCULATION IN ATHENS UNTIL THE LATE 1ST CENTURY BC.
There is debate about the exact timing of the change in the style of Athenian coins, but Claé and Kroll believe that it took place during the time of Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, on the grounds that such large-scale changes could only have taken place during periods of relative political stability.
Prince, however, and Wagona take a different view.
They believe that the existing "owl" coins are no earlier than 510 BC, or more precisely, no earlier than the Christian Reformation of 507 BC.
An archaeological excavation at the Acropolis in 1886 unearthed important evidence that the numismatic vaults around 480 BC contained both owl and Athena-style drachmas, as well as wheel-shaped "heraldic coins".
After the Greco-Persian Wars, the Athenian drachma was decorated with two important decorative images: the helmet of the goddess on the obverse of the coin with an olive branch laurel crown, and the crescent moon on the left of the owl on the reverse.
These two decorations symbolize the defeat of Persia by Athens at the battles of Marathon and Salamis, and mark the basic finalization of the style of the Athenian drachma.
The drachma of Athens also progressed from the period of "not wearing a crown" to the period of "wearing a crown".
At the same time, the discovery of the Laurion silver mine had a significant impact on the coinage of Athens, as reflected in the minting of the Ten Drachmas, a silver coin weighing 43.70g and having a different shape from the drachma.
The owl on the reverse of the coin has wings outstretched, with an olive branch on the left of its head, the letters "Α" on its right, and the letters "Θ" and "Ε" on the left and right of its claws.
The laurel-crowned city of Athena gradually gained maritime supremacy in the Aegean Sea, prompting her to quickly rise to become the world's leading Greek city-state after the Greco-Persian Wars.
In 454 BC, the treasury of the Delian League was moved from Delos to Athens.
This gave Athens almost 8,000 tarrants of silver.
At the same time, Athens received a high annual income of nearly 2,000 tarrants by collecting large taxes from the allies through the trade of ports and markets, which also provided a strong economic support for the city-state.
In 445 BC Athens enacted the Edict of Klearchos, the earliest surviving piece of legislation on currency in Athens.
The main contents of the decree are as follows:
1. Standardization of coinage styles.
The decree required the mint to convert at least half of the foreign currency it received into Athens, or "owl" coins, and imposed strict weight requirements on the coins it struck.
2. The decree was applied from Ionia, the Aegean islands, the Hellespont to Thrace.
If the general fails to appoint a herald in time, he shall be fined ten thousand drachmas; State officials were required to publish the decree in the square, and the mint owner was required to stand in front of the workshop.
3. Punitive Measures.
According to the decree, citizens of all states and foreigners who act in violation of this decree shall be deprived of their citizenship and their property shall be confiscated, and a tenth of it shall be owned by the goddess Athena.
If anyone proposes or approves the use of foreign currency or borrowing money in foreign currency, he will be charged by the Committee of Eleven and will be put to death; If you have any objections, you can argue them in court.
It can be said that the "Decree of Crearcs" regulated the coinage process and standardized the style of coins, which also won Athens a great reputation for the currency in circulation, and established its dominance in the world economy of the Greek world and even the Mediterranean.
"Owl" currency
The Peloponnesian War was an important turning point in the history of Greece, and in order to cope with the economic crisis of varying degrees on both sides, Athens had to pass legislation to force the allies to use Athenian coins and weights and measures.
In 413 BC, the disastrous failure of the Sicilian expedition was compounded by the flight of more than 20,000 slaves from Laurion to the Spartan barracks, in part because Laurion's silver mines were almost depleted.
Due to financial constraints, Athens had to melt down the seven statues of the goddess of victory on the Acropolis, along with other works of art made of gold, and Athens melted a total of 17 tarrants of gold, equivalent to 204 tarrants of silver.
Athens then minted gold coins from this gold – the stattel.
The gold stattel is also in the style of an "owl", with a stattel weighing as much as a silver drachma, but the former is twelve times as valuable as the latter.
Athens used the newly minted gold coins for fleet rebuilding and payroll, as evidenced by the relevant documents.
Although Athens minted a large number of gold coins, the economic situation that followed forced Athens to make unprecedented moves.
After the defeat in the Peloponnesian War, around 400 BC, Athens built a mint in the southeastern corner of the market, near the southern part of the colonnade.
Archaeologists have found only copper coin blanks, as well as industrial waste of copper and lead, while the location of the mint where the silver coins were made remains undetermined.
At this time, the "owl" of Athens was still the currency favored by the Greek world and the surrounding area, however, due to the long war in Athens, the money supply in Athens was insufficient.
THE MARKETS OF THE LEVANT AND ELSEWHERE APPEARED IN LARGE QUANTITIES OF IMITATIONS BASED ON THE FOUR DRACHMAS OF ATHENS, AND THE PERSIAN GOVERNOR TISAFONI ALSO COPIED THE "OWL" AND CHANGED THE ABBREVIATION OF "ΑΘΕ" ON THE REVERSE TO "ΒΑΣ" (BAΣILEOΣ), WHICH MEANS KING.
This practice has even been replicated in Lycia, Palestine and Arabia, where archaeologists have discovered a die for making "owl" coins in Tyre el-Asrib, Egypt.
The influence of political factors on coins
By the middle of the 2nd century BC, Rome had become the hegemon of the Mediterranean world, and the alliance between Athens and Rome heralded the city's brief revival and marked the Roman intervention in Greek affairs.
This effect was also minted on coins, with no small changes to the "owl" style, which had not changed for three centuries.
The obverse of this new Four Drachmas goddess Athena wears an Attica helmet and is deliberately modeled after a statue of Phidias, making it more solemn and harmonious than that of the 5th century BC.
The owl on the back of the coin stands on top of an amphora, and on the left there is a standing figure holding a scepter, which is recognizable as Dionysus.
THE OWL IS FLANKED BY INSCRIPTIONS, THE FIRST LINE "ΑΘΕ", THE SECOND LINE "ΔΙΟΓΕ", THE THIRD LINE "ΠΟΣΕ", AND THE FOURTH LINE "ΔΗΜΗ", THE LAST THREE LINES MAY BE AN ABBREVIATION OF THE CONSUL'S NAME.
In addition, there are two letters "ΣΦ" under the vase, and an olive branch corolla is surrounded by the periphery of the reverse of the coin, hence the name "Corolla Four Drachmas".
The exact timing of the issuance of this new coin is still under debate in academic circles.
However, Athens' short-lived prosperity soon ended with the First Mithridates War, when Mithridates IV, the "noble" of Pontus, joined forces with Assegnon and Aristion, members of the anti-Roman parties in the city of Athens, between 89 and 85 BC.
In 87/6 BC, the latter had proposed the issuance of a new type of Four Drachma named after King Mithridates IV.
epilogue
The Athenians continued to issue copper coins until Octavian's time, and these coins apparently did not belong to the Roman monetary system.
Because the Athenians chose a different radical approach, they still insisted that the goddess Athena be minted on the obverse of the copper coin, rather than the portrait of the Roman emperor as in other cities.
In addition, "owl" copper coins appeared in vast areas from Pontus of Mithridates VI to Arabia, and such imitations continued to circulate until the 1st century AD.
Since then, the owl of Athens has gradually faded into obscurity.