DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49262#0130
I IO GREEK AND ROMAN COINS [bk. i
which was issued not at one special mint, but at each city.
Nothing more than conformity in type and standard was
required. We have already seen that a currency of this kind
existed in Boeotia until the time when the power of Thebes
became so predominant that all the coins of the federation were
issued from that city alone. The type of coinage with which
we have now to deal thus belongs to a federation in which
no one member has a very marked predominance over the
others.
The early coinage of Lycia, previous to the age of Alexander,
has been placed in the category of federal coinages. In all
probability some sort of political union existed in Lycia in the
fifth century. Apart from the fact that the Λύκιοι και συ^τβλίΐ?
pay tribute to Athens1, the homogeneity of the coinage is
sufficient to prove this. The majority of the coins are, how-
ever, dynastic, and the federation probably consisted of an
alliance (or rather, a number of alliances) between the rulers of
the various Lycian cities. The prevailing type is the symbol
consisting of a central ring with three (or sometimes four) curved
branches radiating from it ; a symbol which is associated with
solar worship, and therefore doubtless with Apollo, the tutelary
deity of the Lycians2. There is, however, in the early Lycian
coinage so much variety within certain limits that it would be
rash to assume from it the existence of a highly organized
federation such as that known in later times as the Lycian
League.
This was founded in 168 b. c. at the time when the Bomans
delivered Lycia from the Rhodian domination, and lasted until
Claudius organized Lycia with Pamphylia as a province in
a. d. 43. The coinage consists of silver and bronze. The
silver is modelled in fabric and standard on the coinage of
Rhodes, in that the reverse type is placed in a shallow incuse
square. The drachms bear the head of the national deity,
Apollo (as often as not between the letters Λ Y), with his lyre3
on the reverse (legend: ΛΥΚΙ or AYKIilN, and the initials of
1 C. I. A. i. 234, col. iii. 1. 31.
2 The explanation of the triskeles (tetraskeles) symbol as symbolizing
a political union of three (four) members is fanciful. For the various
explanations, see Babeion, Les Perses Acliemenides, p. xc.
3 From which they were known as κιθαρηφόροι.
which was issued not at one special mint, but at each city.
Nothing more than conformity in type and standard was
required. We have already seen that a currency of this kind
existed in Boeotia until the time when the power of Thebes
became so predominant that all the coins of the federation were
issued from that city alone. The type of coinage with which
we have now to deal thus belongs to a federation in which
no one member has a very marked predominance over the
others.
The early coinage of Lycia, previous to the age of Alexander,
has been placed in the category of federal coinages. In all
probability some sort of political union existed in Lycia in the
fifth century. Apart from the fact that the Λύκιοι και συ^τβλίΐ?
pay tribute to Athens1, the homogeneity of the coinage is
sufficient to prove this. The majority of the coins are, how-
ever, dynastic, and the federation probably consisted of an
alliance (or rather, a number of alliances) between the rulers of
the various Lycian cities. The prevailing type is the symbol
consisting of a central ring with three (or sometimes four) curved
branches radiating from it ; a symbol which is associated with
solar worship, and therefore doubtless with Apollo, the tutelary
deity of the Lycians2. There is, however, in the early Lycian
coinage so much variety within certain limits that it would be
rash to assume from it the existence of a highly organized
federation such as that known in later times as the Lycian
League.
This was founded in 168 b. c. at the time when the Bomans
delivered Lycia from the Rhodian domination, and lasted until
Claudius organized Lycia with Pamphylia as a province in
a. d. 43. The coinage consists of silver and bronze. The
silver is modelled in fabric and standard on the coinage of
Rhodes, in that the reverse type is placed in a shallow incuse
square. The drachms bear the head of the national deity,
Apollo (as often as not between the letters Λ Y), with his lyre3
on the reverse (legend: ΛΥΚΙ or AYKIilN, and the initials of
1 C. I. A. i. 234, col. iii. 1. 31.
2 The explanation of the triskeles (tetraskeles) symbol as symbolizing
a political union of three (four) members is fanciful. For the various
explanations, see Babeion, Les Perses Acliemenides, p. xc.
3 From which they were known as κιθαρηφόροι.