DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45277#0546
462
MYSIA.
quasi-federal coinage in Asia Minor may have been suggested by the
popularity of the Federal money of the Achaean League in Peloponnesus,
as well as by the eager adoption by so many Asiatic cities of Alexandrine
tetradrachms. The manifold advantages of a uniform currency were
evidently beginning to be understood and widely appreciated in the
ancient world about this time, and the cistophorus, whether intention-
ally coined for the purpose or not, met the popular demand, and was
issued in vast quantities from numerous Asiatic mints (cf. Livy, xxxvii.
46, 58, 59, and xxxix. 7).
The types of the cistophori may be thus described.
Fig. 287.
Cista mystica, with half-open licl, from
which a serpent issues; the whole
in wreath of ivy. (Fig- 287.)
Club and lion’s skin of Herakles, the
whole in wreath of ivy, vine, or laurel.
(Num. Chron., 1880, Pl. VIII. 12.)
Two coiled serpents, with heads erect;
between them a bow-case ....
JR Tetradr. 195 grs.
Bunch of grapes placed on a vine-leaf .
JR Didr. 92 grs.
JR Drachm. 46 grs.
Cistophori are known to have been issued at about eleven mints in
Asia Minor, viz. Parium, Adramyteum, and Pergamum in Mysia; Smyrna
and Ephesus in Ionia ; Thyatira, Sardes, and Tralles in Lydia ; Apameia
and Laodiceia in Phrygia ; Nysa in Caria; (see Pinder, Uber die Cisto-
phoren, 1856); and in Crete (Imhoof, Mon. Gr., p. 210, 1).
The cistophori of Pergamum may be divided into three principal
classes. With very few exceptions all the specimens bear the letters
riEP in monogram.
Class I. b.c. 197-133.
In the field of the reverse, to the right of the serpents, a changing. symbol
placed sideways, torch, caduceus, thyrsos, grapes, kantharos, ivy-leaf,
owl, eagle, star, club, ear of corn, cornucopiae, palm, Nike, gorgoneion,
fulmen, club and lion’s skin, club and caduceus joined, etc.
Class II. b.c. 133-67.
In field, as a constant symbol the snake-entwined Asklepian staff, often
with the addition of the letters riPY in monogram, standing for ITpuraris,
together with abbreviated magistrates’ names.
Class III. b.c. 57-54.
Series of 'Proconsular cistophori, bearing the names of the Proconsuls C.
Fabius, B.C. 57-56, with local magistrates’ names MHNO<hlAO£ and
MYSIA.
quasi-federal coinage in Asia Minor may have been suggested by the
popularity of the Federal money of the Achaean League in Peloponnesus,
as well as by the eager adoption by so many Asiatic cities of Alexandrine
tetradrachms. The manifold advantages of a uniform currency were
evidently beginning to be understood and widely appreciated in the
ancient world about this time, and the cistophorus, whether intention-
ally coined for the purpose or not, met the popular demand, and was
issued in vast quantities from numerous Asiatic mints (cf. Livy, xxxvii.
46, 58, 59, and xxxix. 7).
The types of the cistophori may be thus described.
Fig. 287.
Cista mystica, with half-open licl, from
which a serpent issues; the whole
in wreath of ivy. (Fig- 287.)
Club and lion’s skin of Herakles, the
whole in wreath of ivy, vine, or laurel.
(Num. Chron., 1880, Pl. VIII. 12.)
Two coiled serpents, with heads erect;
between them a bow-case ....
JR Tetradr. 195 grs.
Bunch of grapes placed on a vine-leaf .
JR Didr. 92 grs.
JR Drachm. 46 grs.
Cistophori are known to have been issued at about eleven mints in
Asia Minor, viz. Parium, Adramyteum, and Pergamum in Mysia; Smyrna
and Ephesus in Ionia ; Thyatira, Sardes, and Tralles in Lydia ; Apameia
and Laodiceia in Phrygia ; Nysa in Caria; (see Pinder, Uber die Cisto-
phoren, 1856); and in Crete (Imhoof, Mon. Gr., p. 210, 1).
The cistophori of Pergamum may be divided into three principal
classes. With very few exceptions all the specimens bear the letters
riEP in monogram.
Class I. b.c. 197-133.
In the field of the reverse, to the right of the serpents, a changing. symbol
placed sideways, torch, caduceus, thyrsos, grapes, kantharos, ivy-leaf,
owl, eagle, star, club, ear of corn, cornucopiae, palm, Nike, gorgoneion,
fulmen, club and lion’s skin, club and caduceus joined, etc.
Class II. b.c. 133-67.
In field, as a constant symbol the snake-entwined Asklepian staff, often
with the addition of the letters riPY in monogram, standing for ITpuraris,
together with abbreviated magistrates’ names.
Class III. b.c. 57-54.
Series of 'Proconsular cistophori, bearing the names of the Proconsuls C.
Fabius, B.C. 57-56, with local magistrates’ names MHNO<hlAO£ and