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

812 NUMMUS. NUlMMUJS,
netan talent contained 10,000 Attic drachmae, as or, from Bickh's value, rather more than 93 (or
not referring to the genuine ancient money, but to 93'5792, B3ckh, p. 109). There exist several
the coins which passed as drachmae under the coins of Chalcis itself, of Rhegium in Italy, Naxos
Roman empire, and which either were, or were in Sicily, and other Chalcidian cities, which come
equal to denarii, - is not only unsupported by quite as near to this standard as could be expected.
any actual evidence, but is easily proved to be (See B1ickl, 1. c. and foll.) The Euboic gold
fallacious. Some minor, but important, arguments money is singularly scarce, and the few pieces
are satisfactorily disposed of by Bijckh. (lIetrol. that exist only give rise to new difficulties.
Untcrsuch. pp. 77, foll.; comp. Grote's Review ill (B6ckh, 1. c. ~ 5.)
the Classical.1iusemn, 1844, vol. i. pp. 10, 11; (3.) Money of the Attic (Solonian) Standard.I:ussey, Ancient Weighlts, pp. 31, foll., 61, foil.) Before the time of Solon, the standard of weight
For the actual value of the Aeginetan silver used at Athens was the Eubo'/c; and there still
money, as compared with ours, see DRACHNIA and exist coins, evidently from their form and workthe Tables. manship among the most ancient we possess, which
The Aeginetan system of money was adopted appear to be didrachms of the Euboce scale.
throughout the Peloponnesus (except perhaps in These coins are stamnped with the figure of an ox,
Achaea) in Boeotia, and Northern Greece generally, which we know from several ancient writers to
up to Thessaly, in Macedonia, in Crete, and gene- have been the regoular impress upon the oldest
rally in the Dorian settlements in the Aegean and Attic coins. (Sclol. A. B. L..ad Teom. I/. vi. 236;
on the coast of Asia Minor; and also in the Etynz. lUayg. s. v. EiavoT6U7; Pollsx, ix. 60; DioDorian states of Italy and Sicily, where, however, genian. iii. 48; Hlesych. s. vv. 3ovs erl i yAor??,
it assumed a peculliar form though coming into 6dg8eaosos,; Zenob. ii. 70; Suid. s. v. v. os Irl
connection with the native Italian system (see?yAc6Tr-rT ). This coin was called ho~s, and its
below). In Egypt also, the coins of the Ptolemies origin was carried back mythically to the time of
appear to have been at first conformed to the Theseus, who was said to hlave first coined it, and
Aeginetan system; but they were soon very much to have stamped it with the figure of an ox, in
debased. One state, in which the Aeginetan system allusion either to the Marathonian bull, or to the
was adopted, demands special notice. At Corinth, Minotaur; reasons which are mere guess-work.*
as being a Dorian state, and from its proximity to (Plut. T/Ies. 25.) This didrachm or fBous was the
Argos, there can be no doubt that the Aeginetan chief coin of the old Attic system: in the Solonianl
system was adopted, to which ii fact some of the systemn the chief coin was the tetradrachm stamped
oldest extant Corinthian coins approach very near. with the head of Athena and the owl, and this
But we also find a smaller Corinthian stater or also received a name from its impress, and was
didrachm of 10 Aeginetan obols, which, according called?yXsa. (Philoch. ap. Schol. ad Asristoph. Asv.
to the fixed ratio of the Aeginetan to the Euboic 1106.) The latter device contilnued to be the
scale (6: 5, i. e. 12: 10) would be 12 Euboic prevailing one throughout the whole history of the
obols, or a didrachm. This coin seems also to be Athenian coinage. (See the wood-cut on p. 438.)
equivalent to that found in Sicily as the piece of 10 Biickh supposes that the didrachms of the old
litrae (etcdAXrpov or 6 orecdt-Spo0s r-arp). Hence Attic system: passed for tetradrachms in the later
it would seem that the Euboic scale was early in- (or Solonian).currency..
troduced at Corinth, a fact which might easily The politico-economical history of Solon's alterhave been anticipated from the position and corm- ation of the Athenianl currency does not belong to
mercial activity of that state. This Corinthian tle present subject. (See Grote's HIistosy of'Greece,
stater or didrachm seems to have passed at a later vol. iii. pp. 131, foll.) That legislator is known to
period, at a depression of 1-10th of its value, that have lowered the standard of money in order to
is, as 9 Aeginetan obols. The Attic (Solonian) relieve debtors, anld Plutarch (Solon, 15) informs.
scale seems also to have been introduced at an us, on the testimony of Androtion, that " Solon
early period into Corinth, and afterwards to have made the mina of 100 drachmae, which had forbeen used there il preference to the Aeginetan merly contained 73." It is incredible that a large
and Euboic. Through Corinth, the Attic standard prime number, such as 73, should have been used
was introduced into Sicily and several states of as a multiplier in any system of weights; but what
Western Greece, such as Ambracia, Anactoritum, Plutarch meant to say was, that Solon made a mina
Lencas, Amphilochia, Aetolia, and the Locrians. or 1 00 drachmae ost of' the sanze quanstity of silver
Respecting the gold money of Aegina and the which was formerly used for 73 drachmae. The
other Greek states, see STATER. value, therefore, of the Solonian money to that of
(2.) Money of the Esuboi'c StandarCd.- In Asia the old standard was as 73: 100. Now this was
Minor, under the Persian empire, the tribute in very nearly the proportion of the old or commercial
gold was paid in Eiuboeic talents: Ibut we nmst weight to the new silver weight, namely, 100: 138,
here understand weight alone to be referred to: =72`}: 100, or, more exactly, as Biickh has shoown,
for the weight of the existing darics shows clearly as 100: 138-=72: 100)=18: 25. [PONTEnrmA.]
that the Persian money was conformed to the But why should Solon have adopted so sinogular a
Babylonian standard. That there were in some proportion? Biclkh suggested in his Public Eaoparts of Greece, current coins of the Euboic nomiy of _Athens that it was probably an accident;
standard of weight, is proved by the very term that Solon intended to reduce-the mina one-fourthll
EhosYcb, yaalr.oua, amid such coins are found amonsg that is, to make 100 drachmae of the new coinage
the extanlt money of the Euboean cities and their equal to 75 of the old, but that by some inaccuracy
colonies, especially those of Chalcis. First, however, the standard may be obtained theoretically The ox on the coins of Euboea is supposed to
from the Attic and the Aeginetan; and in this be in allusion to the name of the island, and posnloanoer, from I-IHussey's value of the Attic drolchmna, sibly the Attic coins may have borrowed the type
we obtain about 92 graitns for the Euboic drachhma, from thle coins of Euboea.