Hill, George Francis: A handbook of Greek and Roman coins (London: Macmillan, 1899)

ch. iv] THE COINAGE AND THE STATE III
the city, as ΠΑταρπ, ΠΗπρπ, ΛΙμιφα)1. There are a few speci-
mens without a city name, and these were probably struck at
Xanthus. The hemi-d.rachms were only issued in the names of
Cragus and Masicytes (of which below), and bear on the obverse
the head of Artemis, on the reverse her quiver and the name
ΚΡΑΓ or ΜΑΣΙ. The regular federal bronze has in some cases
an incuse square similar to that of the silver, but towards the
end of the period of the league this goes out, and a considerable
variety of types and sizes is found, although types relating to
Apollo and Artemis still prevail. On the silver, and on some
of the bronze, the mint officials are represented by symbols
(only in one case is a certain ΙΠΠΟΛΟχο$·(?) named). A pecu-
liarity of this federal coinage is the existence of two large
subdivisions, comprised in the districts of Cragus (which took
in, for this purpose, the banks of the Xanthus and the district
west of that river) and Masicytes, which, again for this pur-
pose, comprised the whole district east of the Xanthus valley
(the eastern coast and various outlying parts being probably
excluded). The chief mint of Masicytes was Myra, that of
Cragus probably Xanthus. There are large series of coins with
the names of Cragus and Masicytes (Pl. IX. 5), and in many
cases the names of cities such as Telmessus, Tlos, Xanthus,
Myra are combined on the coins with the letters KP or MA.
That the issues of Cragus and Masicytes do not belong to
towns of that name, but to sub-federal districts, is probable for
a number of reasons which I have given elsewhere2. From
the time of Augustus the coinage of the league is practically
limited to these two district issues, which are represented both
by silver coins bearing the emperor’s head on the obverse, and
two lyres on the reverse, and by bronze of a variety of types.
The Lycian league was celebrated in ancient times, and
apparently favoured by the Romans ; but of far greater historic
importance and of earlier date was the Achaean league, the
most ambitious attempt made by the Greeks towards federal
unity.
The earliest coinage of the Achaean league is prior to the
Macedonian conquest. The silver coin (a hemidrachm of
1 Occasionally the wider ethnic is omitted, and the name of the city
written in its place, as Φ ΑΣΗΑΙ, 0 AY Μ Π H.
2 Brit. Mus. Catal., Lycia, &c., pp. xlvii, lii.