DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45277#0704
620
CYPRUS.
CYPRUS.
In the time of the Assyrian kings there were in the island of Cyprus
ten small states, whose rulers are mentioned in several inscriptions.
Three centuries later Diodorus (xvi. 42) enumerates nine kingdoms in
the island, ’Ey -yap rfj irfcra) ravrr/ ttoXcls ?]crai> a£io\oyoi pev evvea, vtto de
ravras virr/pyei, rerayp-eva p.LK.pa Tro^Lcrpara, ra TTpofTKVpovvra rais evvea 'nokecnv.
eKaarr] Be tovto>v e^ye (BacrcXea, rfjs pev 7roAea>$ apyovra, Tip de ^acrtXei tG>v
Ylepcrwv viroreraypevov. These nine cities were—(1) Salamis, (2) Citium
with Idalium and Tamasus, (3) Marium, (4) Amathus, (5) Curium, (6)
Paphus, (7) Soli, (8) Lapethus, and (9) Ceryneia. (See J. P. Six, Rev. Num.,
■*883> P-.254-)
Notwithstanding the valuable researches of Mr.R. H. Lang {Num.Chron.,
18 71), M. Six {op. cit.') and Dr. W.Deecke (H. Collitz, Sammlung der gr. Pialekt-
Inschr. I. Die griechischkyprischen Inschriften in epichorischer Schrift, 1883) the
attribution of a large number of Cyprian coins still remains a matter of con-
siderable uncertainty. This is in great part owing to the extreme difficulty
of distinguishing one from another many of the characters of the Cypriote
syllabary on coins often ill preserved or carelessly struck, and in part
also to the fragmentary state of our knowledge of the history of the
island during the fifth and fourth centuries, the period to which the coins
belong. And yet when we remember how few years have passed since
the late Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum, discovered the key to
the interpretation of the mysterious Cypriote writing which had baffled
the ingenuity of students for more than twenty years, there is good
reason to congratulate ourselves on the advance which has been already
made. For a complete table of the Cypriote characters and their values
see Deecke {op. cit.).
The autonomous coinage of Cyprus begins in the lattei- part of the
sixth century, and lasts till the subjection of the island by Ptolemy
Soter, B. c. 312. It may be divided into the following principal classes :
—(a) the money of the kings of Salamis, Idalium, Curium, Paphus,
Marium, Soli, and perhaps of othei’ towns bearing inscriptions in the
Cypriote and later in the Greek character; {(3) the money of the Phoenician
kings of Citium and perhaps of Lapethus, bearing Phoenician inscriptions.
The weight-standard of all the silver money is at first the Aeginetic
somewhat reduced. The stater, weighing about 180 grs. maximum, is not,
however, divided into halves and quarters as in European Greece, but into
thirds, sixths, twelfths, twenty-fourths, and forty-eighths, the denomina-
tions weighing 60, 30, 15, 7-5, and 3-7 grs. respectively. In the first half of
the fourth century this system was modified (except at Paphus, where it
was maintained to the last) and brought into harmony with the Rhodian
standard, which began to prevail in south-western AsiaMinor,afterB. c.400.
The later Cyprian coins consist of pieces of 114 grs., with their thirds
CYPRUS.
CYPRUS.
In the time of the Assyrian kings there were in the island of Cyprus
ten small states, whose rulers are mentioned in several inscriptions.
Three centuries later Diodorus (xvi. 42) enumerates nine kingdoms in
the island, ’Ey -yap rfj irfcra) ravrr/ ttoXcls ?]crai> a£io\oyoi pev evvea, vtto de
ravras virr/pyei, rerayp-eva p.LK.pa Tro^Lcrpara, ra TTpofTKVpovvra rais evvea 'nokecnv.
eKaarr] Be tovto>v e^ye (BacrcXea, rfjs pev 7roAea>$ apyovra, Tip de ^acrtXei tG>v
Ylepcrwv viroreraypevov. These nine cities were—(1) Salamis, (2) Citium
with Idalium and Tamasus, (3) Marium, (4) Amathus, (5) Curium, (6)
Paphus, (7) Soli, (8) Lapethus, and (9) Ceryneia. (See J. P. Six, Rev. Num.,
■*883> P-.254-)
Notwithstanding the valuable researches of Mr.R. H. Lang {Num.Chron.,
18 71), M. Six {op. cit.') and Dr. W.Deecke (H. Collitz, Sammlung der gr. Pialekt-
Inschr. I. Die griechischkyprischen Inschriften in epichorischer Schrift, 1883) the
attribution of a large number of Cyprian coins still remains a matter of con-
siderable uncertainty. This is in great part owing to the extreme difficulty
of distinguishing one from another many of the characters of the Cypriote
syllabary on coins often ill preserved or carelessly struck, and in part
also to the fragmentary state of our knowledge of the history of the
island during the fifth and fourth centuries, the period to which the coins
belong. And yet when we remember how few years have passed since
the late Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum, discovered the key to
the interpretation of the mysterious Cypriote writing which had baffled
the ingenuity of students for more than twenty years, there is good
reason to congratulate ourselves on the advance which has been already
made. For a complete table of the Cypriote characters and their values
see Deecke {op. cit.).
The autonomous coinage of Cyprus begins in the lattei- part of the
sixth century, and lasts till the subjection of the island by Ptolemy
Soter, B. c. 312. It may be divided into the following principal classes :
—(a) the money of the kings of Salamis, Idalium, Curium, Paphus,
Marium, Soli, and perhaps of othei’ towns bearing inscriptions in the
Cypriote and later in the Greek character; {(3) the money of the Phoenician
kings of Citium and perhaps of Lapethus, bearing Phoenician inscriptions.
The weight-standard of all the silver money is at first the Aeginetic
somewhat reduced. The stater, weighing about 180 grs. maximum, is not,
however, divided into halves and quarters as in European Greece, but into
thirds, sixths, twelfths, twenty-fourths, and forty-eighths, the denomina-
tions weighing 60, 30, 15, 7-5, and 3-7 grs. respectively. In the first half of
the fourth century this system was modified (except at Paphus, where it
was maintained to the last) and brought into harmony with the Rhodian
standard, which began to prevail in south-western AsiaMinor,afterB. c.400.
The later Cyprian coins consist of pieces of 114 grs., with their thirds