DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45277#0046
xlii
INTRODUCTION.
Athens.
The Corinthian, system of dividing the stater by three prevailed also in the
Chalcidice during the period in which the Euboic standard was there in
use, but with this difference, that while at Corinth we get tridrachms of
135 grs. and drachms of 45 grs., in the Chalcidian towns we have distaters or
hexadrachms of 270 grs. and sixths or drachms of 45 grs.1
Dr. Imhoof-Blumer (Z. c.) would also apply the Corinthian system of division
by 3 and 6 to the coinage of the Chalcidian colonies in Sicily and Italy
(Bhegium, Himera, Zancle, Naxus), where the earliest coinage consists'of
pieces of about 90 grs. and 15 grs. which he would consequently call Thirds
and Eighteenths of the Euboic-Attic distater of 270 grs. But in this case
they may also be called Aeginetic drachms and obols2 3.
Next comes Athens, and here we must be cautious not to accept without
evidence the ancient traditions respecting the origin of the Athenian coinage,
such as that recorded by Plutarch, which ascribed to Theseus the issue of coins
with a Bull upon them 8.
The safest guide here, as indeed everywhere, is the coinage itself, which
neither in style of art nor fabric has the appearance of being more ancient
than the time of Solon. Before the age of Solon, Aeginetan didrachms
averaging about 194 grs. would seem to have been the only money current in
Attica as in Boeotia and Peloponnesus; but there are no extant Athenian
coins of Aeginetic weight, and there is consequently no proof whatever that
there were any coins minted at Athens before Solon’s time. There is only
the doubtful evidence of tradition.
For some long time after the first introduction into European Greece of
coined money its actual issue appears to have been confined to a few great
commercial centres such as Aegina, Corinth, and possibly Chai cis.
Athens, it will be remembered, was by no means a wealthy trading state
before Solon’s reforms; on the contrary, the lands were burdened with debt
and every farm in the country was heavily mortgaged.
One of the most important of Solon’s measures of reform was the famous
Seisachtlieia, a scheme for relieving the poorer masses of the Athenian popu-
lation from a portion of the debt which lay so heavily upon them.
This end appears to have been attained by the opening of a mint at Athens
itself,' and by the issue for the first time of Athenian silver money on the
Euboic standard. It was now decreed that all existing debts should be
payable in the new Attic money, and as these debts had been contracted in
the previously current money of Aegina it is clear that a saving of as much
as 27 per cent, was made by the debtor. A man who owed 100 Aeginetic
drachms (one mina) was thus enabled legally to discharge his debt by the
payment of 100 Euboic-Attic drachms (one mina) of the new Solonian coinage,
which were worth in actual metal value only 73 Aeginetic drachms.
This at least seems to be the sense of the passage in Plutarch4, enarov yap
enoirjae Spavpwu rpv pvav Trporepov elBboprjKOvra KaL Tptwv ovaav' war dpidpa pev laov,
1 Imhoof-Blumer, Annuaire de Numismatique, 1882, p. 94.
2 Cf. the arguments of J. Friedlander, Zeit.f. Num., 1881, p. 99 ff.
3 Plut. Thes. 25; Schol. ad Aristoph. Ates, 1106. Cf. also the remarks of Hultsch, Gr.
Metrologie, 1862, p. 138.
4 Sol. 15.
INTRODUCTION.
Athens.
The Corinthian, system of dividing the stater by three prevailed also in the
Chalcidice during the period in which the Euboic standard was there in
use, but with this difference, that while at Corinth we get tridrachms of
135 grs. and drachms of 45 grs., in the Chalcidian towns we have distaters or
hexadrachms of 270 grs. and sixths or drachms of 45 grs.1
Dr. Imhoof-Blumer (Z. c.) would also apply the Corinthian system of division
by 3 and 6 to the coinage of the Chalcidian colonies in Sicily and Italy
(Bhegium, Himera, Zancle, Naxus), where the earliest coinage consists'of
pieces of about 90 grs. and 15 grs. which he would consequently call Thirds
and Eighteenths of the Euboic-Attic distater of 270 grs. But in this case
they may also be called Aeginetic drachms and obols2 3.
Next comes Athens, and here we must be cautious not to accept without
evidence the ancient traditions respecting the origin of the Athenian coinage,
such as that recorded by Plutarch, which ascribed to Theseus the issue of coins
with a Bull upon them 8.
The safest guide here, as indeed everywhere, is the coinage itself, which
neither in style of art nor fabric has the appearance of being more ancient
than the time of Solon. Before the age of Solon, Aeginetan didrachms
averaging about 194 grs. would seem to have been the only money current in
Attica as in Boeotia and Peloponnesus; but there are no extant Athenian
coins of Aeginetic weight, and there is consequently no proof whatever that
there were any coins minted at Athens before Solon’s time. There is only
the doubtful evidence of tradition.
For some long time after the first introduction into European Greece of
coined money its actual issue appears to have been confined to a few great
commercial centres such as Aegina, Corinth, and possibly Chai cis.
Athens, it will be remembered, was by no means a wealthy trading state
before Solon’s reforms; on the contrary, the lands were burdened with debt
and every farm in the country was heavily mortgaged.
One of the most important of Solon’s measures of reform was the famous
Seisachtlieia, a scheme for relieving the poorer masses of the Athenian popu-
lation from a portion of the debt which lay so heavily upon them.
This end appears to have been attained by the opening of a mint at Athens
itself,' and by the issue for the first time of Athenian silver money on the
Euboic standard. It was now decreed that all existing debts should be
payable in the new Attic money, and as these debts had been contracted in
the previously current money of Aegina it is clear that a saving of as much
as 27 per cent, was made by the debtor. A man who owed 100 Aeginetic
drachms (one mina) was thus enabled legally to discharge his debt by the
payment of 100 Euboic-Attic drachms (one mina) of the new Solonian coinage,
which were worth in actual metal value only 73 Aeginetic drachms.
This at least seems to be the sense of the passage in Plutarch4, enarov yap
enoirjae Spavpwu rpv pvav Trporepov elBboprjKOvra KaL Tptwv ovaav' war dpidpa pev laov,
1 Imhoof-Blumer, Annuaire de Numismatique, 1882, p. 94.
2 Cf. the arguments of J. Friedlander, Zeit.f. Num., 1881, p. 99 ff.
3 Plut. Thes. 25; Schol. ad Aristoph. Ates, 1106. Cf. also the remarks of Hultsch, Gr.
Metrologie, 1862, p. 138.
4 Sol. 15.