Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

AURUM. AURUM. 18i
that article. It would appear from a passage in the greatest treasures possessed by the state; but no
Antigone (v. 1038), that in the time of Sophocles such mention is made of gold. Thucydides (ii. 13)
gold was rare at Athens. Indeed throughout the in enumerating the money in the Athenian treawhole of Greece, though gold was by no means un- sury at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war,
known, it appears to have been obtained chiefly does not mention gold; and Xenophon speaks of
through the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and the the money of Athens in a manner which would
adjacent islands, which possessed it in abundance. lead us to suppose that it had no gold coinage in
The Homeric poems speak constantly of gold as his time (Vectigal, iv. 10). The mines of Scaptebeing laid up in treasuries, and used in large quan- hyle, in Thrace, were indeed worked some years
titles for the purposes of ornament; but this is before this period (Thucyd. iv. 105); but the gold
sufficiently accounted for by the fact that Homer procured from them does not appear to have been
was an Asiatic Greek. The chief places from coined, but to have been laid up in the treasury in
which the Greeks procured their gold were India, the form of counters (poozoes, Biickh, Inscrip. vol. i.
Arabia, Armenia, Colchis, and Troas. It was pp. 145, 146). Foreign gold coinwas often brought
found mixed with the sands of the Pactolus and into the treasury, as some of the allies paid their
other rivers. tribute in money of Cyaicus. The gold money thus
Almost the only method of purifying gold, known introduced may have been allowed to circulate,
to the ancients, seems to have been that of grinding while silver remained the current money of the state.
and then roasting it, and by this process they suc- The character of the Attic gold coins now in
ceeded in getting it very pure. This. is what we existence, and their small number (about a dozen),
are to understand by the phrase Xpvalou are'q0ouo is a strong proof against the existence of a gold
in Thucydides (ii. 13), and by the word obrussam currency at Athens at an early period. There are
in Pliny (H. N. xxxiii. 3. s. 19), and elsewhere three Attic staters in the British Museum, and one
(Forcellini s. v. obrussa). Respecting the use of in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, which there
gold in the fine arts, especially in the chrysele- is good reason to believe are genuine; their weights
phantine statues, see Tar.EEU-IICE. The art of agree exactly with the Attic standard. In the
gilding was known to the Greeks from the earliest character of the impression they bear a striking
times of which we have any information. (Hom. resemblance to the old Attic silver; but they differ
Od. iii. 425, vi. 232; Plin. HI. N. xxxiii. 3. s. 19, from it by the absence of the thick bulky form, and
6. s. 32.) the high relief of the impression which is seen in
GREIEK GOLD MONEY. - The'time' when gold the old silver of Athens, and in the old gold coins
was first coined at Athens is very uncertain. of other states. In thickness, volume, and the
Aristophanes speaks in the Frogs (406 B. c.) of rbi depth of the die from which they were struck, they
iarvbv Xpu-iov, "the new gold money " (v. 719), closely resemble the Macedonian coinage. Now,
which he immediately afterwards calls 7ror7pa& as upon the rise of the Macedonian empire, gold
XaxKca (v. 724). The Scholiast on this passage became plentiful in Greece, and was coined in
states that in the preceding year the golden statues large quantities by the Macedonian kings, it is not
of Victory had been coined into money, and he improbable that Athens, like other GrecianI states,
quotes Hellanicus and Philochorus as authorities may have followed their example, and issued a gold
for this statement. It would appear from the lan- coinage in imitation of her ancient silver. On the
guage both of Aristophaines and the Scholiast, and whole, it appears most probable that gold money
it is probable from the circumstances of Athens at was not coined at Athens in the period between
the time (it was the year before the battle of Pericles and Alexander the Great, if we except the
Aegospotami), that this was a greatly debased gold solitary issue of debased gold in the year 407.
coinage, or perhaps only gilt money, struck to meet A questionl similar to that just discussed arises
a particular exigency. This matter is distinct from with respect to other Greek states, which we know
the general question respecting the Athenian gold to have had a silver currency, but of which a fewgold
coinage, for the Attic money was proverbial for its coins are also found. This is the case with Aegina,
purity, and the grammarians, who state that Athens Thebes, Argos, Carystus in Euboea, Acarnania,
had a gold coinage at anll early period, speak of it and Aetolia. But of these coins all, except two,
as very pure. There are other passages in Aristo- bear evident marks,, in their weight or workmanphanes in which gold money is spoken of; but in ship, of belonging to a period not earlier than
them he is referring to Persian money, which. is Alexander the Great. There is great reason, thereknown to have been imported into Athens before fore, to believe that no gold coinage existed in
the Athenians had any gold coinage of their own, Greece Proper before the time of that monarch.
and even this seems to have been a rarity. (See But from a very early period the Asiatic nations,
Aristoph. Acharn. v. 102, 108, Equit. v. 470, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the adjaAv. v. 574.) Demosthenes always uses a&pyvpL'v cent islands, as well as Sicily and Cyrene, possessed
for money; except when he is speaking of foreign a gold coinage, which was more or less current in
gold. In the speech against Phormio, where he Greece. Herodotus (i. 94) says that the Lydians
repeatedly uses the word Xpuvaio,, we are expressly were the first who coined gold, and the stater of
told what was the money he referred to, namely, Croesus appears to have been the earliest gold coin
120 staters of Cyzicus (p. 914; compare his speech known to the Greeks. The Daric was a Persian
7rpbs Aacpir'. p. 935). Isocrates, who uses the coin. Staters of Cyzicus and Phocaea had a conword in the same way, speaks in one passage of siderable currency in Greece. There was a gold
buying gold money (Xpusvcre'v) in exchange for coinage in Samos as early as the time of Polycrates.
silver (Trapezit. p. 367). In many passages of the (Herod. iii. 56.) The islands of Siphnos and
orators, gold money is expressly said to have been Thasos, which possessed gold mines, appear to have
imported from Persia and Macedonia. If we look had a gold coinage at an early period. In most of
at the Athenian history, we find that the silver the coins of the Greek cities of Asia Minor the
mines at Laurion were regarded as one of the metal is very base. The Macedonian gold coinage
N 3