DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1004#0282
COINS OF AMBHACIA. 239
Perseus was detained for several days on the banks of the Arethon or
Aracthus, the river which flows by the town of Arta, and from which it de-
rives its name; and the traveller who remembers this circumstance will be
thankful for the facility now provided for crossing it by a handsome stone
bridge over the stream. On the other, or western side of this bridge, the
paved road lies through a rich and well-cultivated plain, which received from
its ancient Monarehs a pleasing acknowledgment of its fertility, in the em-
blems engraved upon the coins which recorded their own honours. Thus, on
those of Pyrrhus, the Epirot king, Ceres appears holding ears of corn in her
right hand. Ancient money, in this respect, possessed an advantage over
modern, that in presenting to the eye the principal characteristics of the soil
and country to which it belonged, it both indicated and inspired a feeling of
patriotism which was thus made, as it were, a part of the national currency.
Passing the small village of Roca, perhaps so called from the large quan-
tity of Indian corn, known here by that name, which is cultivated near it, we
arrive, in an hour and a quarter from Arta, at the river of Luro, which is the
western limit of the Ambracian plain. The stream is crossed in a canoe, and
in a quarter of an hour, going westward, we arrive at the foot of the hill on
which stand the Hellenic ruins, now called Rogus.
Perseus was detained for several days on the banks of the Arethon or
Aracthus, the river which flows by the town of Arta, and from which it de-
rives its name; and the traveller who remembers this circumstance will be
thankful for the facility now provided for crossing it by a handsome stone
bridge over the stream. On the other, or western side of this bridge, the
paved road lies through a rich and well-cultivated plain, which received from
its ancient Monarehs a pleasing acknowledgment of its fertility, in the em-
blems engraved upon the coins which recorded their own honours. Thus, on
those of Pyrrhus, the Epirot king, Ceres appears holding ears of corn in her
right hand. Ancient money, in this respect, possessed an advantage over
modern, that in presenting to the eye the principal characteristics of the soil
and country to which it belonged, it both indicated and inspired a feeling of
patriotism which was thus made, as it were, a part of the national currency.
Passing the small village of Roca, perhaps so called from the large quan-
tity of Indian corn, known here by that name, which is cultivated near it, we
arrive, in an hour and a quarter from Arta, at the river of Luro, which is the
western limit of the Ambracian plain. The stream is crossed in a canoe, and
in a quarter of an hour, going westward, we arrive at the foot of the hill on
which stand the Hellenic ruins, now called Rogus.