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Notes on the Monetary Union Between Mytilene and Phokaia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. F. Healy
J. F. Healy
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Extract

I.G. xii (2). 1. 13–15.

These lines come from the well-known unique inscription, in Aeolic dialect, recording the terms of a monetary union between Mytilene and Phokaia, whereby each agreed to issue, in alternate years, an electrum coinage for circulation in both cities. The inscription is, on the evidence of letter forms, accepted as belonging to the early years of the fourth or possibly to the end of the fifth century B.C. The story of the poet Persinos, attributed to Kallisthenes, implies that the treaty was still in operation within the period c. 373–55 B.C.

The present note re-examines the meaning of τὸ χρυσίον κέρναν here, and in 11. 4–6 convincingly restored by G. N. Papageorgiu (Unedierte Inschriften von Mytilene, 16, no. 53) as:

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , November 1957 , pp. 267 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1957

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References

1 Discovered at Mytilene by C. T. Newton and published by him in Trans. of Royal Lit. Society, viii, pp. 549 ffGoogle Scholar. For subsequent bibliographies see Buck, C. D., GD3 , p. 213, no. 25Google Scholar, and Tod, M. N., GHI ii, pp. 34 ff.Google Scholar, no. 112. To these should be added Kondis, I. D., Arch. Anz. 1940, p. 288 Google Scholar and Korteses, G., Λεσβιακὲς Σελίδες (Mytilene, 1950), 123–9Google Scholar.

2 The Mytilenean version. See Buck, C. D., Cl. Phil. viii, 153–5Google Scholar.

3 Wroth, W. W., BMC Troas, Aeolis, Lesbos, p. lxv Google Scholar, and Head, B. V., HN2 , p. 558 Google Scholar, proposed c. 400 B.C., and Newton, loc. cit., 392 B.C. The problem of dating the inscription has been complicated by its chequered history. Lost soon after discovery, it re-appeared in 1939—see I. D. Kondis, loc. cit.—(listed as missing in Tod and Buck.) Although not available for study when I visited Mytilene in 1951, it was later seen at the Museum in 1955. Mr. D. M. Lewis, to whom I am indebted for this information, inclines to accept the earlier date.

4 Pollux, , Onom. ix, 93 Google Scholar: . A reciprocity of exchange between the cities of Mytilene and Phokaia is implied. Persinos clearly means that, had he changed his money at Atarneus, it would have been subject to a discount not in operation at Mytilene. This was, undoubtedly, an important consideration in the Greek world where there was no agreed international standard of exchange in the modern sense.

5 Buck, , GD3 , p. 214 Google Scholar. Tod, , GHI. ii, pp. 34–6, no. 112Google Scholar, had followed Buck, , GD2 , p. 183 Google Scholar, commentary on no. 21.

6 Pollux, iii, 86, lists the main verbs which mean to strike, or to issue coins.

7 Cf. Breasted, J. H., Ancient Records of Egypt, ii, p. 265 Google Scholar (Punt Reliefs) where ‘Green gold’ from Emu is mentioned.

8 Two main expressions were used: (i) κεράννυναι, κερνᾶν, κιρνᾶν with ὕδωρ understood, e.g. Homer, , Od. xvi. 14 Google Scholar: … κιρνὰς αἴθοπα οῖνον and (ii) μίγνυναι with ὕδωρ., e.g. Od. i. 110, .

9 Dem. xxiv. 214: . Strabo xiii. i. 56 (κρᾶμα). Cf. also Forbes, R. W., Metallurgy in Antiquity, p. 215 Google Scholar. So LS 9—κιρνάω. There is also a usage of ἀναμίγνυναι parallel with that n. 8 (ii) above—Paus. v. 12. 7: .

10 Buck, loc. cit., n. 5 above: ‘Moreover, the electrum coinage of this time and place was based upon a natural, not an artificial, alloy.’ Cf. Milne, J. G., NC 1946, p. 1 Google Scholar. Yet Head, B. V., HN2 , p. 558 Google Scholar, had, albeit from the limited evidence then available, written: ‘The electrum was, therefore, in this case, not a natural but an artificial alloy.’

11 Strabo, iii. 2. 9; Pliny, , NH xxxiii. 80 Google Scholar; Paus. v. 127; Dionysios, , Περιήγησις, 293, n. 3Google Scholar; Isidorus, , Orig. xvi. 24 Google Scholar.

12 Hdt. i 50. 2, gave the ratio of the weights (4:5) and the information that the volumes of the bricks were equal. The specific gravity of the white gold would have been 15.46—indicating a gold content of about 70 per cent.

13 Head, B. V., NC 1875, pp. 245 Google Scholar ff. and NC 1887, pp. 277 ff. Hammer, J., ZFN xxvi, 1–144 Google Scholar. Johnston, J., Hermathena, xlvii, p. 144 Google Scholar.

14 Johnston, op. cit., p. 133.

15 As in the present inscription. Likewise Dem. xxiv, 212: .

16 Only one stater survives (Wroth, pl. xxxii, 1); this was clearly struck from an alloy of poor quality.

17 The results of my experiments in specific gravity measurements and X-ray diffraction analyses, are listed in a paper forthcoming in the Transactions of the International Numismatic Congress, Paris, 1953, Vol. ii, p. 529 f. Cf. also i, 190–1Google Scholar.

18 The earliest coins (Wroth, p. 156, nos. 1–4, pi. xxxi, 6–9) are descended in type and in style from the ‘Ionian Revolt’ issues, while the latest (Wroth, p. 167, nos. 110–11, pi. xxxiv, 21–2) are linked with Alexander the Great.

19 This corroborates, in part, Hicks and Hill, Manual 2, in their commentary on no. 94 (see also Head, , HN2 , p. 558 Google Scholar)—τὸ χρύσιον, however, being gold. Cf. Strabo, xiii. 1. 56.

20 Following the text of IG xii. 2. 1 with Papageorgiu's restoration (ll. 4–5).