KROISOS AND THE INVENTION OF BIMETALLIC COINAGE: The Lion and the Bull

Kroisos of Lydia was the first King to mint pure gold coinage. He started with the heavy standard of about 10.6 grams an ounce for staters, which was soon changed to the light standard of about 8.5 grams a stater. After Lydia was conquered by Darius of Persia, the Persians continued to mint lion/bull staters for a time, changing to a more "Persian style" of depiction. Kroisos selected the image of the fierce lion and the submissive bull. The lion was the symbol of the Royal House. The Bull was the symbol of the Siva/Dionysiac fertility religion that dominated the area before the wave of sky-God worshipping Aryans invaded from the northeast. Sivaism dates back to at least 3500 BCE, originating in persent day India and spreading throughout the Black Sea area to Northern Greece and Macedonia and down into Crete as the Dionysiac Religion. Dio means God and Nysus is the birth place of Siva. So Dionysus is literaly the God of Nysa or Siva. Siva/Dionysus was the God of a wild and wine-soaked religion of fertility and natural destruction. The Hordes of Aryans that swept down into the region from the Russian Steppes in waves beginning in about 1800 BCE, worshipped Sky Gods of War as befitted their nomadic conquering ethos. Dionysus was added to the sky-god pantheon ruled by Zeus, but was regarded as a sort ot nuisance God that needed to be controlled. Hence the badge adopted on the first coinage shows the dominance of the conquering Sky God people over the indigenous bull worshippers. The Athenian story of Theseus slaying the bull-god Minotaur in Crete depicts exactly the same dynamic.

THE DAWN OF COINAGE

A NOTE ON DATING: To date an historical object it must a) be dated or dateable through scientific means such as carbon dating. b) be discovered in situ in a dateable site - along with other dated or dateable objects, or c) be referred to in a contemporaneously dated text. That's it. Otherwise dating is purely speculative. Unfortunately the rivalry between numismatists and archeologists has caused numismatists to reject all historical dating and rely on the coins themselves to reveal their age. This leads to highly subjective dating. Many of the dates you see on holdered coins, and auctioned coins are educated guesses (that often conflict). By archeological evidence the earliest coins would date closer to 700 BCE and much of the dating of electrum would be pushed back closer to that date. (Reference: Kagan's "The Dates of the Earliest Coins." American Journal of Archeology 1982) - which in archeological circles is still considered definitive. The numismatic objections are dealt with in the article quite convincingly.

The Aechemenid or Persian Empire

was forged by Cyrus the Great (biblical liberator of the Jews of the Babylonian captivity). In about 550 BCE, Cyrus I conquered Croesus of Lydia, and adopted his system of gold and silver coinage. The Persian Empire dominated three continents spanning from Parthia and Bactria (modern day India) through Mesopotamia to the Black Sea Region and down through the Fertile Crescent. Around 505 BCE the Persian king Darios I decided to inaugurate a gold coinage bearing his own types, rather than continuing to use those of Kroisos of Lydia. These new coins, called Darics (meaning, literally, 'Of the King' - the same LMLK inscription that traveled from the fertile crescent to Lydia) - bore a generalized portrait of the Persian king. The earliest, which employs an image of the King shooting an arrow, is very rare. This coin financed Darios' war with Greece. Later types must have been produced in enormous numbers, and were surely the reserve currency' of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. The last Achemenid King, Darios III, was conquered by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. With the fall of Persia to Alexander, the many existing darics were surely melted down to supply bullion for Alexander’s own gold staters, though, for a time these two coins would have circulated together.

ATHENS

Athens was, without a doubt, the source of much of what has become viewed as Greek Culture: Democracy, Philosophy, Tragedy, Comedy, Rhetoric. It is currently fashionable to view the Greeks as "Anthropomorphic Polytheists." Yet when Euripides (ca 480 BCE) has Hecabe (widow of Priam) pray in the "Trojan Women," she says: "Zeus, whether you be force of nature or intelligence in man..." We can see through this quote that a very specific idea of Human Intelligence is as central to Greek religion as to its art and institutions. Athena was Goddess of Wisdom. The Owl a symbol of Human Intelligence. Thus the images on the coins of Athens were aptly chosen, and would have had evocative connotations for the average Athenian citizen - who would have been trained assiduously in Rhetoric, Philosophy and all the written arts. The Athenian Owl coin is undoubtedly the world's first reserve silver currency as it was not only accepted throughout the ancient world but by the mid 5th century it was stored in quantity in many regions alonside local currency, hence the amazing quantity of "Mid Mass Coinage." These early coins from the 6th century are very rare in fine Imperial Mint style.

MACEDONIA

Philip II of Macedon (359-336 BCE) inherited a war torn country from his brother Pedikas III. From his years as hostage of neighboring Thebes he learned the military strategy based on the phalanx whose manoevers were hidden by rows of warriors bearing "sarissas" - immensely long spears. A gifted warrior and statesmen, Philip, by a combination of strategic alliances and dramatic wars, managed to conquer Macedonia, Illyria, Epirus, Thrace, Thessaly and all of Greece save Sparta. He then set his eyes on Persia, but was murdered on the eve of his planned invasion. Philip was both a learned man of letters and the arts and a voluptuary of great appetites. Pella, the Macedonian capital, had long been a refuge for Greek men of letters, actors and artitsts. Euripides wrote the Bacchae there, describing a tradition that had been a force in that region for many centuries. Philip also established a strong link to Plato's school, and many philosophers became residents of Pella. Aristotle, who had formed his own school became a tutor during his son Alexander's formative years. Alexander III the Great is by far the greatest Classical Hero of well recorded times. He is the only man in history who was able to conquer the known world. This he did by systematically turning conquered adversaries and foes into allies and supporters by respecting rather than humiliating them, a strategy never since replicated. His education in the arts and letters inspired him to tracvel with a retinue of writers and artists. Thus his exploits were chronicled by contemporaries Ptolemy, Heironymus, Nearchus (Alexander's admiral), Aristobulus (Alexander's chief engineer) and Calisthenes (Aristotle's nephew) whose writings, though lost, were read and synthesized by Arrian of Nicomedia, much of whose work survives to this day. Herodotus , Diodorus, and Quintus Curtius roughly contemporay to Arrian, also wrote histories that are still partially extant, also drawing on the writings of Alexander's contemporaries. His image was also recorded by some of the greatest artists of the period. He traveled with reknowned Sculptor Lyssippos, and the reknowned gem carver Pyrgoteles. The coin engraving during this period, and especially during the period following his death was certainly heavily influenced by the court artists who surely trained some of the engravers who went on to carve masterpieces at the Pella, Lampsakos, Kolophon and Magnesia mints. During Alexander's lifetime he used Darics, Philip Apollo staters, and the Athena/Nike staters. But soon after his death the Apollo staters began to take on the features of Alexander, and sometimes other unnamed rulers. This practice spread to some of the portraiture of rival kings such as Pyhrus of Epirus and Agaothokles of Syracuse. Surely, many of the arists trained in the court of Alexander went on to successful careers throughout the Greek world. Much of the portraiture of this period is unrivaled. And the Features of Alexander served as ideal God-like features througout the Greek world. After Alexander's death from fever in Babylon, his General, Perdikkas seized control and legitimized his reign by passing the crown to Alexander's infirm half-brother Philip III, Arrhideus, who was eventually murdered by Olympia, Alexander's mother. Perdikkas was immediately contested by the rest of Alexander's generals, especially the inner circle referred to as his "bodyguards," who split up the empire in a series of bloody wars. Lysimachus ultimately took Thrace. He produced a series of gold staters bearing Alexander's portrait that became a standard of trade coinage that endured for 300 years. Ptolemy Soter (the savior) took Egypt, and founded a dynasty that lasted 300 years. He was the first living king to issue coinage with his own image. Seleukos Nikator (the victor),took over Babylon along with Peithon but they soon fell under the control of Antigonus Monopthalmos and his son Demetrios Poliokrates (sacker of cities) as they conquered all of Asia. But in 311 BCE Seleukos, supported by his old friend Ptolemy, was able to unseat Antigonos and Demetrios and claim Asia for himself, making his capital Antioch. He eventually was able to extend his Empire as far east as India. He defeated Lysimchos in 281, to regain most of Alexander's empire, save for Egypt.

WESTERN GREEK GOLD

was most often minted to pay mercenary armies in times of war. Many are emergency issues and as such are quite rare, even by the standards of ancient coins. The earliest Western Gold coins appear in the last years of the Fifth century when Athens is involved in wars with Sparta, and the Carthaginians are rampaging through Sicily. Dionysis I emerges in 405 BC to become Tyrant of Syracuse, and begins to ruthelessly expand his power throughout Sicily.

PTOLEMAIC EGYPT

After the death of Alexander the Great, his generals (referred to as his bodyguards) split up his empire in a series of wars. Lysimachus took Thrace. Seleukos Nikator (the victor) won the Eastern Empire, making his capital Antioch; and Ptolemy Soter (the savior) took Egypt. The Ptolemies presided over a tremendous period of financial and cultural prosperity that included the founding of the museum/college at Alexandria, which hosted the brightest scholars, scientists, mathemeticians and philosophers of the day, and the famed library which imported and commissioned copies of all the important literature of the era, including the translation of the Old Testament know as the Septuagint. This translation provides us with the earliest extant version of the five Books of Moses (Pentateuch). Ptolemy I himself wrote a difinitve history of Alexander's campaigns. Additionally a cadre of remarkable artists were hired to engrave an extensive gold coinage that includes the first portraits of a living king, and the largest gold coins of the ancient world. . Egypt lay in the center of the trade route that included the gold mines of Guinea West Africa, and Kush (Auxum/Ethiopia) so they had a prodigou source of gold. Yet their coinage seems to have been used exclusively within Egypt, as pieces are rarely discovered in other lands. Remarkably, Alexandria, to this day, remains a center of learning and culture in North Afica.

Carthage

was founded by Semitic Phoenician (Punic) traders around 700 BCE. About 300 years earlier the Phoenicians had developed the single greatest invention in Western History: the Alpahbetic system of writing. This Alphabet was quickly adopted by both the Aryan speaking tribes of Greece and the Black Sea (from whom we get Greek and then Latin) and the Semitic tribes of the Fertile Crescent (from whom we get Hebrew and the Arabic languages.) This system took written language out of the domain of priests and scribes and into the hands of merchants, householders, and essentially any bright shepherd who put in a little hard study time. In one of the great ironies of history, because the Phoenecians used this language primarily for practical accounting purposes, we know relatively little about this brilliant civilization, whereas their cousins to the South - the Judaeans (whose language, customs, city planning, art and religion were manifestly similar) - adopted the system of writing and created a narrative literature that captured the imagination of people down to this day. By the third century BCE, enriched by control of the gold trade from Senegal, Guinea and Kush, Carthage had become a military powerhouse of the Southern Mediteranean. The Punic goddess Tanit\Astarte (the consort of Baal) and the horse had become the standard types of Carthaginian coinage and remained so for the balance of the city’s existence. Tanit is always depicted on the coinage wearing a wreath of grain just like her Greek counterpart Demeter. Carthage waged a series of successful wars in Sicily and Italy ( notably under Hannibal - or Hani-Baal priest of baal) until it was destroyed in 146 BCE after the third Punic War by the Romans.