DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45277#0021
PREFACE.
XVII
Professor Gardner’s valuable work The Types of Greek coins, Cambridge,
1882, to the Plates of the Niimismatic Chronicle, and to the volumes of the
British Museum Catalogue of Greek coins, where the autotype process (the
only thoroughly reliable method of reproducing ancient coins) will enable
him to appreciate delicacies of treatment which it is at present impossible
to indicate by means of cuts inserted in the text, which last however
possess the advantage of greater convenience than plates at the end of
the volume. The vexed question of the best mode of spelling Greek
names I have not attempted to solve. Any system carried out with un-
deviating consistency can hardly fail to lead to unsatisfactory or pedantic
and sometimes even to absurd results. I have therefore preferred to be
a little inconsistent, but have adhered as much as possible to the following
rule. For all names of cities, kings, and dynasts, I have chosen the Latin
spelling, as the Greek would have involved an alphabetical arrangement
different from that which has been generally adopted in numismatic works
and in the coin-cabinets of all the great museums of Europe. The names
of the Greek divinities, heroes, and other mythological personages, on the
other hand, I have kept approximately in their original Greek forms, as
Zeus, Kybele, Odysseus, instead of Jupiter, Cybele, Ulysses, but I have
never ventured upon such ugly and unnecessary transliterations as
Odusseus or Akhilleus.
At the end of the volume after the necessary Indexes will be found
five plates of alphabetical forms, which will I trust prove to be of some
use to young students. These I have compiled partly from the coins and
partly from the following sources:—Lenormant’s article ‘Alphabet’ in
Paremberg and Bagno’s Dictionary, Lenormant’s Essai sur la Propagation de
Valphabet plienicien, Kirchhoff’s Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Alpha-
bets, Isaac Taylor’s The Alphabet, S. Pveinach’s Traite d' Fpigraphie grecque,
Part II, Savelsberg’s Reitrdge zur Entzifferung der Lykischen Sprachdenkmdler,
J. P. Six’s Plate of the Cyprian syllabary in his Series Cypriotes, and
Gardner’s Table of Arian and Indian Pali characters in his Catalogue
of the Coins of the Greek and Scythic kings of India.
In conclusion, I have to return my sincere thanks to my friends and
colleagues, Professor P. Gardner, Mr. H. A. Grueber, and Mr. Warwick
Wroth, for the great assistance they have rendered me in the correction
of the proof-sheets. I have also to acknowledge the many valuable hints
which Professor W. M. Ramsay has from time to time been kind enough
to give me in those portions of my work which deal with the Imperial
issues of Phrygia and the southern coast of Asia Minor.
My indebtedness to Dr. Imhoof-Blumer is, I fear, but inadequately
attested by the many references to his works, citations which, numerous
as they are, should have been still more frequent. MM. Rollin and
Feuardent have likewise rendered me an invaluable service by most liber-
ally placing at my disposal the volumes of the late Mr. M. Borrell’s
carefully compiled MS. Catalogue of Greek coins.
XVII
Professor Gardner’s valuable work The Types of Greek coins, Cambridge,
1882, to the Plates of the Niimismatic Chronicle, and to the volumes of the
British Museum Catalogue of Greek coins, where the autotype process (the
only thoroughly reliable method of reproducing ancient coins) will enable
him to appreciate delicacies of treatment which it is at present impossible
to indicate by means of cuts inserted in the text, which last however
possess the advantage of greater convenience than plates at the end of
the volume. The vexed question of the best mode of spelling Greek
names I have not attempted to solve. Any system carried out with un-
deviating consistency can hardly fail to lead to unsatisfactory or pedantic
and sometimes even to absurd results. I have therefore preferred to be
a little inconsistent, but have adhered as much as possible to the following
rule. For all names of cities, kings, and dynasts, I have chosen the Latin
spelling, as the Greek would have involved an alphabetical arrangement
different from that which has been generally adopted in numismatic works
and in the coin-cabinets of all the great museums of Europe. The names
of the Greek divinities, heroes, and other mythological personages, on the
other hand, I have kept approximately in their original Greek forms, as
Zeus, Kybele, Odysseus, instead of Jupiter, Cybele, Ulysses, but I have
never ventured upon such ugly and unnecessary transliterations as
Odusseus or Akhilleus.
At the end of the volume after the necessary Indexes will be found
five plates of alphabetical forms, which will I trust prove to be of some
use to young students. These I have compiled partly from the coins and
partly from the following sources:—Lenormant’s article ‘Alphabet’ in
Paremberg and Bagno’s Dictionary, Lenormant’s Essai sur la Propagation de
Valphabet plienicien, Kirchhoff’s Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Alpha-
bets, Isaac Taylor’s The Alphabet, S. Pveinach’s Traite d' Fpigraphie grecque,
Part II, Savelsberg’s Reitrdge zur Entzifferung der Lykischen Sprachdenkmdler,
J. P. Six’s Plate of the Cyprian syllabary in his Series Cypriotes, and
Gardner’s Table of Arian and Indian Pali characters in his Catalogue
of the Coins of the Greek and Scythic kings of India.
In conclusion, I have to return my sincere thanks to my friends and
colleagues, Professor P. Gardner, Mr. H. A. Grueber, and Mr. Warwick
Wroth, for the great assistance they have rendered me in the correction
of the proof-sheets. I have also to acknowledge the many valuable hints
which Professor W. M. Ramsay has from time to time been kind enough
to give me in those portions of my work which deal with the Imperial
issues of Phrygia and the southern coast of Asia Minor.
My indebtedness to Dr. Imhoof-Blumer is, I fear, but inadequately
attested by the many references to his works, citations which, numerous
as they are, should have been still more frequent. MM. Rollin and
Feuardent have likewise rendered me an invaluable service by most liber-
ally placing at my disposal the volumes of the late Mr. M. Borrell’s
carefully compiled MS. Catalogue of Greek coins.