No. 162
copyright © 1982
the american numismatic society
ISSN 0078-2718
ISBN 0-89722-192-3
printed in belgium at cultura, wetteren
My thanks go to very many individuals for their help in this study, not only for supplying records of Lycian League coins in their care but also for aiding in tracking down and recording coins of the four hoards here published, before they were dispersed forever. The friendly co-operation and mutual assistance so freely offered in the numismatic world is not the least of its attractions.
I should like to thank the following curators and staff:
These curators, listed so tersely, have in many cases not only sent me a record of their holdings, but also volunteered, sometimes repeatedly, a
good deal of useful information, for which I am most grateful.
Some 20 collectors, in
The four hoards here published are central to the understanding of the League's coinage. In addition to the
Special thanks go to
All published collections included in the catalogue are listed below. Other publications are also given here if cited more than twice. In
general, ancient texts are from the Geography is cited from the edition of
Sales are auctions unless they include FPL (Fixed Price List).
During the past century, a great deal of scholarly attention has been directed to elucidating the coinage, and through it the internal history,
of 1
This was inevitable. Preeminent in Homer among the peoples of Asia, the Lycians seem always to have possessed a strong sense of national
unity, which kept them free of outside colonization and relatively free from foreign domination throughout the archaic and classical periods.
Even under the Persian Empire, whose strength they could not resist, the Lycians retained some degree of autonomy, for local dynasts coined in
their own names throughout the fifth and much of the fourth centuries. During this time, although inevitably influenced by the Greek and
Achaemenid worlds, a vigorous and original culture flourished in
For over a century and a half after the fall of the last dynast, ca. 362 b.c., the Lycians seem to have struck
virtually no coins.
2
But in the early second century b.c. our sources speak of a formal Lycian League of cities which were now
thoroughly Hellenized, and which struck a large and uniform federal coinage in silver and in bronze. Most of this coinage has been loosely dated
over the entire two-century span from 167 b.c., a.d. 43, when she finally lost her autonomy and was absorbed into the Roman Empire.
Although the League coins are frequently cited as evidence for the membership of this or that city in the League, they have received remarkably
little direct study.
Indeed, the League itself has been little studied, presumably because the Lycians were not racially Greek, and their government was not
considered part of the stream of Greek political development.
3
Yet the area was almost completely Hellenized by the time the League sprang up, and its institutions so far as we understand them seem
thoroughly Greek. In this politically sophisticated federation, at the end of the second century b.c. the largest
cities controlled three votes each in the assembly, while other cities, according to size, controlled two or one.
4
But an examination of the League's institutions is not, and cannot be, the subject of this study. The coinage can, however, tell us
something of the League's changing membership at different periods, and at times illuminate
As has been stated, scant attention has been paid to the Lycian League's coinage. Several scholars early in this century examined certain series
struck under 5
but the last work to survey even briefly the League coinage as a whole appeared over half a century 6
Except for the BMC and Historia Numorum, which are inevitably incomplete and occasionally
inaccurate as well as extremely imprecise about chronology and even the denominations in use, no useful treatment of the Lycian League's coinage
exists.
The southern coast of
Although
All of the known minting cities of the Lycian League lie within easy reach of the coast or of one of these rivers.
7
8
Two hundred thousand would indeed be considerably greater than the current population, but this is quite possible, as
9
b.c., says that 23 cities
shared the vote in the federal assembly.
10
But numerous sympolities are known from inscriptions, and these doubtless each controlled one vote. And what, in any case, is the
definition of a city as opposed to a deme or village? It is clear that speculation on the absolute number of "cities" is idle. We can be sure
only that the Lycian population was scattered in many small communities over its mountainous land.
Sea trade and agriculture seem to have been the Lycians' chief sources of livelihood. Timber was a highly important product, but ancient writers mention also wine, fruits, fish, sponges, cattle, and goats—but no mines, and nothing exceptional that would explain the rather surprising amount of coin struck in classical times, or in the period of the Lycian League, as one of the results of this study has been that the surviving League silver is a very small sample indeed of the original output.
Early nineteenth-century explorers in 11
But 12
and the area remains one of the least visited and least known in
Common Greek Coins (Beiträge zur älteren Münzkunde
(
NH 5.101.
14.665.
Although neighboring lands were settled by Greeks in heroic and archaic times, 13
That several Lycian cities have Greek names does not contradict this statement, for in most cases it is known that these were not the
cities' original names:
The Lycian culture of classical times flourished in the
14
b.c. assess the Λύϰιοι ϰαὶ συν[τελεῖς] for ten talents.
The dynast. Pericles, mentioned above, joined in the Revolt of the Satraps. When this collapsed in 362 b.c.,
After 15
This document of 240 b.c. records several acts of one
This control weakened late in the century under the ineffective Ptolemies IV and V, and in 197 b.c.
16
It is to this period that a fragment of Agatharchides may belong, although there are difficulties: "the Arycandians, neighbors of the
Limyreans, having become involved in debt because of their profligacy and extravagances, and because of idleness and fondness for pleasure
being unable to repay their loans, turned their hopes to 17
If the attribution to Agatharchides is correct, the fragment cannot refer to the invasion of b.c. But the reference to the cancellation of debts would
fit nicely, for
The usual view is that the fragment refers to the time of
There is no specific record of how easily 18
An inscription records 19
This is usually taken as indicating that
One telling incident, however, seems to show that the Lycians were willing allies of 20
But finally they (and Livy says "the Lycians," not the Syrian garrison) were defeated and driven back into the city; the Romans,
however, did not take the city but sailed off. A Lycian contingent of light-armed troops also served in 21
That this help was given willingly is also implied by the report that the Ilians, who interceded for ἁμαϱτήμενα.
22
Polybius reports that the Ilians were successful to the extent that the only punishment 23
But b.c.
24
From 167 until a.d. 43, when
Reisen im südwestlichen Kleinasien 1: Reisen in Lykien und Karien (Reisen im südwestlichen Kleinasien 2: Reisen in Lykien,
Milyas, und Kibyratis
(
This synopsis of Lycian history down to the arrival of
Herodotus 1.176.
TAM 1 = OGIS 55.
Livy 33.19–20 mentions no individual cities, but Comm. in Daniel
11.15 (Porphyrius frag. 46 in
Athenaeus 12.527F. See also Kalinka in TAM, pp. 288–89, and
33.20.
TAM 266 = OGIS 746.
Livy 37.16.
Livy 37.40; Syr. 32.
A strong sense of national consciousness and unity is evident throughout Lycian history and a league of some sort is often assumed in
classical times, chiefly because of the Λύϰιοι ϰαὶ συν[τελεῖς] entry in the 25
Mutual cooperation among the Lycians is clear, but to what extent this was voluntary rather than formalized and obligatory is not
known. In any case, any early League would have been one of princes, not of cities; and it would have come to an end in the fourth century
when the country was made subject to Mausolus.
The start of the League has often, especially in numismatic circles, been taken as 167 b.c. This date was based not
only on the obvious fact that in 167 BMC's dating of the League coinage. Hill in the BMC dated the League's silver coins to after 167 not only
because of political considerations, but also because the earliest League silver so clearly imitated the Rhodian plinthophoric drachms and, at
the time the BMC was written, the Rhodian plinthophoroi were themselves dated to after 167.
26
But Hill also, unfortunately, flatly stated that the Lycian League commenced only upon the withdrawal of the Rhodians;
27
and Head in Historia Numorum has followed the BMC in calling 167 the start both of the
coinage and of the League itself.
28
But the start of the Lycian League has long been suspected by its historians to have occurred earlier, quite possibly in the late third century. Proof both of this and of an earlier date for the Rhodian plinthophoroi has slowly been accumulating. The Rhodian coins will be discussed below, but a summary of the evidence for a late third-century start for the League follows.
Both Treuber and Fougères had suggested that the League's origin was to be put in the third century, probably in its closing years when 29
but b.c. He noted in 1945 that OGIS 99, which must be dated between 188 and 181, is a decree of τὸ ϰοινὸν τῶν Λυϰίων; and that in the 180s b.c. there were recorded at Λύϰιος
ἀπὸ Γάγων Λύϰιος ἀπὸ ᾽Αντιφέλλου, Λύϰιος ἀπὸ Πατάϱων. Larsen also believed that the numismatists' dating of League coins to after 167
was arbitrary.
30
Dramatic evidence for an even earlier League, organized and effective, appeared shortly thereafter. In 1948 31
The monument is a eulogy of one Orthagoras of
Subsequently two would-be tyrants seized
He then successfully represented 'Ρώμη θεὰ ἐπιφανής.
There is no clear-cut evidence of the date of this highly interesting inscription, but various indications point to ca. 180 b.c., which now seems generally accepted.
32
One reason for the dating is the use of praenomina alone to refer to two Roman legates: this usage, characteristic of the early second
century, is not found later. Another reason is the establishment of the cult of 'Ρώμη θεὰ ἐπιφανής. The epithet is most
easily understood in relation to b.c.
33
His active life, and that of the League, thus seem to antedate the 180s by some decades.
While this inscription provides little detail about the internal organization of the League, it does present us with a clear picture of an active and effective confederation in the earliest decades of the second century, and probably at the very end of the third century as well, for Orthagoras's career must have extended over some considerable time. The League sent ambassadors; waged wars; settled disputes, presumably in a court; and evidently had a fixed seat of government to which appeals could be sent, with an executive committee there of some sort which could make decisions between regular sessions of the assembly.
A final bit of information enables us to set the League's formation at least as early as 206/5 b.c. An illuminating
study of the forms of ethnics Λύϰιος, used chiefly by mercenaries, is found from the mid-fourth to the mid-third century. The federal ethnic, Λύϰιος ἀπὸ, e.g. Πατάϱων, is found first at the very end of the third century (see below), while most examples
date from the early or middle second century. The simple municipal ethnic, e.g. Παταϱεύς, first appears in the first
half of the second century, and later prevails over the federal ethnic by the time the predominant Roman influence in the affairs of the east
had made membership in the League increasingly meaningless. [Σϰ]ύμνος Πολέμωνος Λύϰιος ἀπὸ Ξάνθου.
34
It is accordingly to the decades preceding 167 b.c. that the following bronze issues have been assigned. They surely
antedate the League's silver, with its profile heads, whatever the exact date of the silver's introduction, and are also presumably earlier
than the Rhodian plinthophoroi which the League silver imitated. As will be seen below, the Rhodian coins are now known to have commenced some
years before 167 b.c., but that date will be used here as a convenient and historically significant terminus ante
quem for the Lycian League's bronzes of Period I.
Polybius 22.5.
Polybius 21.24 and 45; Livy 37.56 and 38.39.
Polybius 24.15, 25.4–5, 30.5, and 30.31; Livy 41.6, 41.25, 42.14, and 44.15. Livy again maddeningly says (41.25) that "it is not worth relating" the Lycians' struggles with the Rhodians.
See
BMCCaria and BMCLycia use 168, or at times 166, instead of 167, but 167 b.c. would appear to be the correct date. That the Lycian silver coins imitated the Rhodian plinthophoric drachms is stated not in
BMCLycia but in BMCCaria, p. cvi; the Rhodian plinthophoroi's start is there dated to ca.
167 (pp. cix and 252). Perhaps because this is not mentioned specifically in BMCLycia, Larsen seems unaware of this
reason for Hill's dating of the Lycian drachms, regarding the accepted terminus post quem of 167 b.c. as purely
arbitrary ("Representation and Democracy in Hellenistic Federalism," ClassPhil 1945, pp. 72f.).
BMCLycia, p. xxii.
HN
2, p. 693 (168 b.c. instead of 167 b.c., but see above, n. 26).
Treuber, p. 149; Fougères, pp. 15f.
ClassPhil 1945, p. 72 f. See above, n. 26.
"Notes and Inscriptions from JHS 1948, pp. 46-56.
Bean (above, n. 31) was uncertain about the date, but other scholars have agreed on ca. 180 b.c.:
REG 1950, pp. 185–97, no.
183; Riv.Fil.Cl. 78 (1950), pp. 326–50; Larsen, "The ClassPhil 1956, pp. 151–69;
It may be objected that the Lycians would not have instituted, and then continued to celebrate, a cult of the goddess Roma just as their
country was given by
Milet III, Das Delphinion
(b.c. is shown by TAM 263, the latest evidence for Egyptian
rule in
Most recently, NC 1971, pp. 1–29, and Acta Archaeologica 47 (1976), pp. 47-90.
Any minting during this period was minimal. NC 1961, pp. 124–27); and some of the autonomous bronze
of League cities may possibly antedate the League coinage (e.g. BMC
The earliest works to deal with the Lycian League and its history are Treuber and Fougères; the former is concerned chiefly with Lycian
history, with which it deals exhaustively, and the latter concentrates on the League and its institutions. History of Federal Government in Greece and Italy
, 2nd ed. (
Laffranchi (pp. 294–98) is alone in recognizing that the largest Lycian League bronzes, with
This study deals with the post-b.c.–a.d. 43. Approximately 1,825 League coins have been located and are
catalogued. Coins are considered League strikings if their markings include either 1) ΛΥΚΙΩΝ, or ΛΥ, the federal ethnic, or 2) ΚΡ or ΜΑ, the
abbreviations of the League's two great subdivisions in the late first century, b.c. These autonomous issues are not treated here.
Throughout the study, the term "mint" is used in the sense of the issuing authority, not necessarily the location at which a coin was actually struck.
For lack of a better term, "Period" has been used to denote the five major divisions of the League's coinage, alternately bronze and silver. There is, however, some considerable chronological overlap between Periods II and III, III and IV, and IV and V.
The cataloguing varies somewhat between the bronze and silver issues. Periods II and IV, the silver coinages, have series denoted by Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3). Here and in the silver issues of Appendix 3, obverse dies are numbered; reverse dies are indicated by lower case Roman letters (a, b, c); and brackets to the right indicate reverse die identities. Asterisks indicate coins illustrated.
Periods I, III, and V, the bronze coinages, have series denoted by upper-case Roman letters (A, B, C). There and in the bronze issues of Appendix 3, dies are not numbered, and Greek minuscules (α, β, γ) indicate merely the coins selected for illustration.
Relative die axes are not given because virtually all are ↑↑, with the few variations either ↑↗ or ↑↖; the only exceptions to this rule are issues of very small coins such as issue 4, in which a significant number of axes are random.
In the following catalogue of Period I, dies are not numbered. The three coins of issue 1 are from three pairs of dies, and the dies of issues 3 and 4 cannot be identified with certainty. Relative die axes of the few coins known of issues 1–3 are, like those of all Lycian League issues, ↑↑ with the few variations either ↑↗ or ↑↖. In issue H, however, composed of very small coins, in which a significant number of axes are random.
Coins illustrated are indicated by Greek minuscules (α, β, γ) merely for the purpose of identifying the coins on the plates and to facilitate reference to them in the text. Neither these letters nor the sequence of coins catalogued indicate particular dies, and only a representative selection of obverse dies is illustrated.
Quadruple Units:
Obv. Laureate bearded head of Bellerophon, facing.
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ Chimera r.; in exergue,
Double Unit:
Obv. Head of
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ
Units:
Obv. Laureate head of
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ Head of Artemis facing; to l., bow and
quiver.
Quadruple Units: 3 coins, 3 obv. dies, av. wt. 3.53
Double Unit: 1 coin, wt. 2.15
Units: 3 coins, av. wt. 1.15
1. Quadruple Units.
α. Private coll. 4.12; β. BMC pl. 44, 14 = RN 1893, p. 336, 22;
2. Double Unit.
α.
3. Units.
α. BMC p. 38, 4; β.
Waddington
3007;
Units:
Obv. Radiate bust of
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ Bow and quiver.
Units: 15 coins, av. wt. 1.07
4. Units.
α.
Waddington
3009; γ.
Issues 1–4 differ from all other League issues in bearing only the simple inscription ΛΥΚΙΩΝ, without further city or district
identification. (The exergue monogram of issue 1 cannot, perhaps fortunately, be equated with any known mint—but its position and the fact
that it is a monogram rather than simple initials would indicate a reference to an individual rather than to a mint, whatever that
individual's relationship to the coinage.) Issues 1–4 are also alone among League issues in bearing facing heads, as did the dominant
coinage of the area, the Rhodian, down to the 170s b.c. Sir Edward Robinson long ago in 1914 recognized that
these four issues were associated and that they were among the earliest issues of the Lycian League.
35
Issues 3 and 4, which are the same size and weight (average weights 1.15 and 1.07, respectively), appear to be not contemporary but
successive issues. Issue 4 appears to be the later, with its inanimate reverse type of bow and quiver both simpler in execution than the
facing head of issue 3, and also related to the crossed bow and quiver of later small bronze issues.
36
The average weight of the three known specimens of issue 1 is 3.53; the single weight of issue 2 is 2.15. These agree tolerably well with a quadruple and a double, respectively, of the weight of the smallest denomination represented by issues 3 and 4; and issues 1 and 2 may then be considered multiples of one or another of these smaller issues. Issue 3 seems the more likely, as it, like 1 and 2, bears two animate types, and like them appears to show a simple head rather than a bust, and a radiate one at that, such as appears on issue 4. Accordingly, issues 1–3 have been placed in Series A of the Lycian League's first period of coinage, and issue 4 in the following Series B.
All of Period I's types show connections with the
The types of issues 3 and 4 are those of certain small bronzes of 37
but whether these are earlier or later than the League coins is not clear.
Although the single coin of issue 2 is poorly preserved, its reverse representation of b.c.;
38
and is without a doubt that shown on the late first-century bronzes of the districts of 39
on both the silver and bronze of a.d. 43,
40
and on the Imperial bronzes of a.d.
41
The base lines on 42
So too must the earlier coins, under
Inscriptions reveal that the Lycian League's records were kept at 43
Issue 1 shows a spirited rendition of the chimera, body tense, head facing. When Bellerophon, banished from Corinth, arrived at "44
In later times the chimera became localized and identified with a burning jet of natural gas escaping from a hillside above
b.c.,
45
but as several localities in
In any case, the coins show a mythical creature and not a gas flame, and it is with the city of 46
By the time the coins of Period I were struck, 47
But Helios is never, to my knowledge, shown bearded. Hill in the BMC did not describe the obverse; and
Robinson called the head Heracles, believing that the Lycian obverse imitated certain coins of Selge which show a head of that deity.
48
But the style of the Lycian and Selgean coins is quite dissimilar, those of Selge showing the hair and beard in short, tightly
curled, distinctly separate locks, while the Lycian heads' hair and beard are loosely waved and long and flowing. And Heracles, while he
appears occasionally on Lycian coins of the classical period, has no particular connection with either
Even though it was probably struck more than a century and a half before the first League coins, the coinage of the dynast Pericles was the
last major coinage struck in 49
And Pericles's staters showing his facing laureate head, with 50
may possibly have served as the artistic prototype for the head of issue 1.
Whether or not issue 1 portrays Bellerophon, however, the choice of the chimera for the reverse must be significant. While the chimera is
depicted in Lycian art from the late fifth century onward, there is but one instance of its use on Lycian classical coinage, although other
monsters are frequently depicted.
51
Its appearance on issue 1 would seem to be intended to stress the Lycians' ties with 52
also issued bronzes under 53
Period I must have ended before the Lycian adoption of the Rhodian plinthophoric format, with obverse head in profile and reverse type in
incuse square. This is the format of most of the League coinage, especially the silver, and it is first seen on the silver drachms of the
following Period II. A discussion of the date of this style's introduction, first at
"Coins
See below, the units of Period III and the half units of Series A of Period V.
BMC
E.g. Plate 1, A and B, bronze coins of Period III (63α and 71α).
E.g. Plate 1, C, a bronze coin of Series F of Period V (222δ). Series E also shows the same figure.
E.g. Plate 1, D, a drachm from Appendix 3's obverse die C2.4; and E, a bronze coin from Appendix 3 (C11α).
E.g. Plate 1, F. See also BMC
Gordian
193–221, 230–31, and 253 (all
On RE II, col. 63 (Wernicke). GNC
1903, p. 402). Even
Gordian
did not attempt to identify the coins'
On the storage of the League's records at TAM 420 = IGR 680, and TAM 905 = IGR 739,
IIB, XIIIC, and XVIIE.
Iliad 6.172f.
RE III, col. 2281, s.v. Chimaira 2 (Ruge). NH 5.131) and one in the east (NH 5.100), and says that the latter is one of two nearby
places where fires burn.
14.665.
RN 1893, p. 336, 22.
"Coins BMC Selge 35. This coin shows
Heracles's head to r.; 36–44, with facing heads, would seem closer parallels.
BMC, pp. 36–37, nos. 158–62 and 163–64. The sizes are those of the League issues 2, and 3–4. Pericles's weights
average 2.03 (14 specimens located) compared to issue 2's single weight of 2.15; and 1.18 (12 specimens located) compared to issue 3's
1.15 (3 specimens) and issue 4's 1.07 (15 specimens). See Table 8. Other extremely minor bronze issues possibly struck in
SNGvAulock 4249–53.
Traité II.2, 219; see also
See pp. 212–13.
BMC 1.
There are two drachm coinages which have in the past been erroneously attributed to 54
It was in the last century ascribed to various cities of 55
The error of accepting these coins as Lycian has persisted as recently as 1950, for 56
Hill's attribution of the coins to Caunus,
57
plausible politically although not yet the true attribution, has unfortunately been revived in the most recent and thorough publication of
the series, by 58
Sheridan appears not to have grasped the arguments of 59
In any case, this pseudo-Rhodian series is emphatically not Lycian.
Sir Edward Robinson in 1914 published a silver drachm of another pseudo-Rhodian class, which he had acquired in 60
He noted a similar piece at the British Museum, whose countermark had previously been identified as a lion,
61
and a third example has since surfaced, from the island of Calymnos.
62
The beast of the countermark is remarkably similar in its stance to that of issue 1, with the lion head facing and the goat head reverted;
and Robinson is undoubtedly right, as usual, that the countermark was applied in
Several other silver coins, long known, seem to have been counter-marked by individual Lycian cities during the period of the League. A Rhodian
drachm of the pre-plinthophoric series bears a stamp with a cithara bracketed by the letters ΚΥ, just as on the League silver of 63
These two cities issued very little League silver in Period II (64
The earliest true Lycian League silver, however, that struck by the cities, consisted of drachms whose format echoes that of the plinthophoric
drachms of πλινθοφόϱοι, as opposed to δϱάχμαΙ παλαιαί or old style
drachms) and the Lycian ones as kitharephoroi (ϰιθαϱηφόϱοι).
65
The Lycian drachms of Period II divide into three series: the bulk of the coins are in Series 1, with relatively small numbers in the later,
reduced-weight Series 2 and 3. The original series, Series 1, is very close in its weights to the Rhodian plinthophoroi—at least to the
full-weight plinthophoroi, for this coinage also in its final years included small 66
Groups A-D, shown in Figure 2, are the large, full-weight plinthophoric groups.
The Rhodian plinthophoroi were struck to a standard noticeably higher than that of the old style drachms.
67
The weight of the Lycian coins of Series 1 is intermediate between these two, but must be understood as representing a standard very
slightly reduced from that of the plinthophoroi. This slight reduction was generally the case among the many imitations of Rhodian coinage: the
weights of the plinthophoric style coins of Carian Stratoniceia from the Muǧla 1965 Hoard, for instance, fall in exactly the same range as those
of Period II's Series 1.
68
Late in 1970 a deposit reported to have consisted of some 200 Lycian League drachms was unearthed in 69
One account gave the find spot as near modern Finike, on the southern coast; another, from probably a more reliable source, gave it
as near modern
All the hoard coins were issues of the cities, with ΛΥΚΙΩΝ and city initials on the reverse; or, in the case of most of the coins of
Virtually all of the hoard coins, furthermore, were of Rhodian weight, peaking at 2.80 grams (see Figure 2, above). Indeed, with very few
exceptions,
70
all the previously known examples of League coins issued by the cities and bearing ΛΥΚΙΩΝ on reverse are of Rhodian weight. The
A basic distinction is to be made between the two groups of kitharephoroi. One group is the civic kitharephoroi with ΛΥΚΙΩΝ on reverse:
these comprise the present work's Period II. The other group is the district kitharephoroi of
Because the League silver has not been understood as comprising two separate groups, confusion has been the rule in most former treatments
of their denominations. Hill in the BMC's catalogue calls the districts'—and BMC he calls the League's silver "drachms and hemidrachms (of degraded? Rhodian weight)." In the drachms he
includes all the kitharephoroi, city and district; by hemidrachms he means the small district silver pieces with Artemis's head and quiver as types.
71
In still another place in the BMC he considers these smaller coins as half drachms or
72
Head in Historia Numorum repeats Hill's indecision, mercifully in shorter form,
73
and these two publications have been generally followed. The first work which has consistently distinguished the two classes of
kitharephoroi is SNGvAulock, where the heavier coins are
consistently called drachms and the lighter ones hemidrachms.
74
To return to the
All the coins of Period II have the same format, with ΛΥΚΙΩΝ and two city initials on the reverse. ΟΛΥΜΠΗ or ΦΑΣΗΛΙ, however, replaces
ΛΥΚΙΩΝ on most coins of
Series 1's coins, as noted above, are of Rhodian weight, or nearly so: just very slightly under the weight of the Rhodian plinthophoric drachms. Series 2 is noticeably reduced from Series 1; and Series 3 is still further reduced (see Figure 3).
Figure 4 shows the weights of each area (west, south, and east) within Series 1, and of each mint within Series 2 and 3. The 75
The
The SNGCop in 1955, but in
vain, for the coin has gone seemingly unnoticed ever since.
76
Several new issues of known mints also appeared in the hoard, and the large number of coins from the two eastern cities of
Brackets to the left indicate obverse die identities; dotted brackets to the right indicate cases where the reverse initials of one city
have been cut over those of another. See discussion after
Shaded areas indicate
Shaded areas indicate
For discussion of the Rhodian plinthophoric drachm groups, see below, pp. 81–84.
JNG 1967, pp. 7–9 (
IGCH 1357).
The hoard is mentioned in
Gordian
, pp. 34, 37, 47, and 52; it is no. 96 in
These exceptions form Series 2 and 3, in contrast to Series 1 of Rhodian weight.
P. xxii. The Artemis-head pieces are indeed the half denominations of the district kitharephoroi but bear no relation to the heavier civic drachms.
P. xlviii; in catalogue,
HN
2, p. 693.
His division of the two classes in SNGvAulock is nearly perfect; he recognizes that the lighter civic coins (nos.
4318 and 4365) are to be classed with the district issues, but calls no. 4325 (an unusual heavy coin, with only Μ for mint
identification) a drachm of
French excavators at one of the major Lycian sanctuaries, the 77
The hoard contained about 30 bronzes and about 50 silver coins. Identified silver coins are three kitharephoroi of the League with reverse
legend ΛΥΚΙΩΝ, hence probably city coins of Period II; eight Rhodian drachms, both old style and plinthophoroi; 41 Rhodian triobols (the
only two described are plinthophoric); and at least one pseudo-Rhodian drachm (the last coin described, erroneously called a hemidrachm).
The only bronze coins described are three small ones of 78
Clearly none of the
SNGCop 111; cf. Mionnet, Suppl. 7, p. 17, 69. Overlooked, for example, by
Gordian
, p. 34).
Our chief literary source for the Lycian League is There are twenty-three cities which share the vote. The Lycians come together
from their various cities to their congress (
συνέδϱιον), at whichever city they have selected. Each of the largest
cities controls three votes, the medium-sized two, and the others one. In the same fashion they pay their contributions and perform other
liturgies. 79
And near the end of his treatment of 80
The floruit of b.c., and this gives us the valuable information that at the very end of the second century b.c. the six most important cities were
The names of these six cities are capitalized in Table 2, which gives a brief summary of the several types of evidence for the nineteen Lycian
cities which coined for the League, and for a twentieth,
Columns 1–4 of Table 2 give the League coinages of the twenty cities: column 1 shows the drachms of Period II and column 2 the civic bronzes of Period III. Columns 3 and 4 give silver and bronze struck during Periods IV and V in the names of the cities, although the bulk of the coinage struck in those periods was, of course, in the names of the districts, with only occasional issues bearing city initials. Many of the League cities also struck autonomous coinages, some quite possibly contemporary with League issues; these are not included in this study.
Columns 5–7 give the occurrences of the minting cities in the three chief geographical treatments of 81
who wrote in Augustan times but whose account was based on the earlier work of 82
from the late first century a.d.; and 83
from the middle of the second century a.d.
Roughly contemporary with TAM, provides the inscriptional data shown in column 8
for all the cities except 84
a.d. 43 (see Appendix 3), and under Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan in the brief period a.d. 95–99, but these strikings bear no indication of mint.
This tabular form should be more useful, and certainly is more compact, than a textual description, city by city, with all these bits of
evidence. 85
For many of the League cities, the inscriptions have been conveniently collected in TAM, which includes the
inscriptions from the western mints,
Several cities which in the past have erroneously been ascribed League coinage are discussed in Appendix 1.
Period II silver mints are in Roman letters, and
RevArch 1976, pp. 321–25. I am obliged to
Hansen and Le Roy (above, n. 77), p. 324, n. 1.
14.665.
14.667.
14.664–67.
NH 95–96 and 100–101.
Geog. 5.3.
TAM 905 (Opramoas) and IGR 704 (Jason).
Gordian
. The following additional cities struck under
Obverse dies are numbered within each issue. Individual dies are referred to on the plates and in the discussion by issue number followed by die number: thus 8.3 indicates the third obverse die of issue 8.
Illustrated coins are marked with asterisks. When more than one coin from one obverse die is illustrated, the illustrations follow the order of the catalogue. Every obverse die is illustrated. Unknown obverse dies are indicated in the catalogue by an x.
The reverse dies found with each obverse die are shown by lower-case letters (a, b, c) following the obverse die number; these lower-case reverse letters are not repeated on the plates. Brackets to the right indicate reverse die identities.
Relative die axis positions are not given, as the great majority are ↑↑, with the few variations either ↑↗ or ↑↖.
(
Mints are listed in order from west to east, and commentary on each mint follows its catalogue. General commentary follows Series 3.
Drachms:
Obv. Laureate head of
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ above and city initials to either side of cithara; all in shallow incuse square (the inscriptions vary
on the pseudo-League and imitative issues 42–45 and 47–49).
Xanthus
15 coins, 14 obv. dies, 15 rev. dies
5. Rev. ΞΑ (Ξ alone on 5.10a).
5.1 = 6.1 ( Sidyma). It is not clear which city's coins were struck
first.
5.2 = 8.1 ( Cadyanda). The die's slight deterioration (spreading
lines in the field present only on the
b.c., says that 86
It is therefore somewhat surprising that but 15 of the 316 coins of Period II are of
What is remarkable, however, given the meager amount of material available from
The recutting of not a recut one. A traveling group of dies
would presumably have gone first to
Therefore it seems probable that all the coins of the four cities were struck at
It is interesting to note that, although
Sidyma
2 coins, 1–2 obv. dies, 1–2 rev. dies
6. Rev. ΣΙ.
6.1 = 5.1 ( Xanthus). It is not clear which city's coins were struck
first.
The reverse die used with 6.1 is not recut. Although a Σ could easily cover a previous Ξ, and the Ι is tilted somewhat, there is no trace whatever of a previous letter under the Ι, and, with the cithara off-center to the right as it is, the space would hardly have been large enough for an Α.
The coin struck from 6.x was reliably reported to have been in the
The single drachm here catalogued, first published in 1902, is the only known coin of the city. A second League drachm from the 87
Only four of the 16 cities represented in Period II are missing from those striking the civic bronzes of Period III. The absence of two,
Pinara
2 coins, 2 obv. dies, 1 rev. die
7. Rev. ΠΙ, cut over
7.1 = 8.2 ( Cadyanda). It is not clear which city's coins were
struck first.
b.c.), or at any other time. Four of b.c. Nor do the two coins known of
A change of a very few letters in b.c., recording
88
With the substitution of b.c. have fallen away from the League into
piracy,
89
and
Cadyanda
3 coins, 3 obv. dies, 3 rev. dies
8. Rev. ΚΑ.
8.1 = 5.2 ( Xanthus). The die's slight deterioration (spreading lines
in the field present only on the
8.2 = 7.1 ( Pinara). The die break at one of the lower leaves of the
wreath on
The reverse die used with 8.3 has clear remains of an Ξ under the Κ.
To call 90
It had, however, been unknown in the literature until 91
Although the silver coins of 92
It has been uncertain whether their mint was
Earlier scholars hesitantly gave the small bronzes to 93
b.c. a dependency of Caunus, after which date it placed itself under the protection
of 94
b.c. was 95
96
An indication that 97
had it been known, for nine of the other eleven coins of this rare denomination are from
But the silver drachms here published firmly link the ΚΑ city, which must be
Furthermore, the inscriptions in TAM, although chiefly from Roman times, do show which cities were in easy reach of
others. The inscriptions from TAM make mention of
citizens of nine other communities.
98
Four (
Cadyanda or Candyba
1 coin
9. Rev. ΚΑ; to r., Isis crown.
The attribution of this coin must remain uncertain. Its obverse style is like no other known in all the League coinage. Its fabric, thick
and lumpy, is also unusual. Its symbol is unusually placed to the right, yet this placement is found occasionally on coins of mints
throughout 99
100
The Isis crown's southern and eastern associations are, however, suggestive but hardly conclusive, for the two symbols used at
101
Further, in 102
One might then expect that
Although it remains possible that
Tlos
12 coins, 9 obv. dies, 9 rev. dies
10. Rev. ΤΛ.
11. Rev. ΤΛ; to l., branch (see also issue 13).
12. Rev. ΤΛ; to l., helmet (to r. on 12.3a).
13. Rev. ΤΛ; to l., branch (see also issue 11).
Issues 11 and 13 have been separated because of obverse style and also because 13 has the dropped mint initials found only on some later Period II coins of Series 2 and 3.
One of 103
It is notable that
Patara
22 coins, 19 obv. dies, 22 rev. dies
14. Rev. ΠΑ (Π alone on 14.3a) (see also issue 19).
15. Rev. ΠΑ; to l., filleted branch.
16. Rev. ΠΑ; to r., caduceus.
17. Rev. ΠΑ; to r., star.
18. Rev. ΠΑ; to r.,
19. Rev. ΠΑ (Π alone on 19.7a) (see also issue 14).
20. Rev. ΠΑ; to l., star.
Issues 14 and 19 have been separated because of obverse style. The coin struck from 19.1, despite its having the curling hair of issue 14, has been placed in issue 19 because its head is smaller than those of issue 14 and because the coin's reverse is similar to that of the coin struck from 19.2.
Also one of b.c., and it is one of the
three known to have capitulated to b.c.
104
μητϱόπολις τοῦ Λυϰίων ἔθνους, applied in inscriptions of the Roman period to several cities.
105
As Livy, however, used the term in the speech of a Rhodian urging
Larsen also adduces the fact that the League's records are known to have been stored at 106
and 107
but this act was far later than the period of independence and, while it may well attest
Perhaps the argument here is only semantic. While it cannot be shown that 108
This was almost certainly 109
14.665–66.
See above, pp. 43–44.
OGIS 441, ll. 209–14.
See below, pp. 87–95.
TAM, p. 240.
Villes, pp. 161–68, commenting on NH 5.101.
Issue 64.
Waddington
3035), and Head (
Polybius 31.4–5.
Gordian
, p. 42.
Issue 63.
Citizens of TAM
307, 330, and 335.
At
The Agrinion Hoard, ANSNNM 159 (
The helmet at
Issue 80.
See n. 88.
Livy 37.15; Larsen, "The Class-Phil 1956, p. 166 and p. 169, n. 42, and GFS, pp. 254 and 256. In the 1956 article
Larsen's position is closer to that of the present author; he suggests GFS he seems to argue for
TAM, p. 146. The evidence is TAM 247, an inscription from the western coast dated ἐπὶ ἀϱχιεϱέος Λιϰιννίου Στασιθέμιδος Ξανδίϰου ϰη´ διὰ τῶν ἐν Πατάϱοις ἀϱχείων.
TAM 396 = IGR 659, mentioned by Larsen only in GFS, which appeared
after
For a possible issue of
Phellus
3 coins, 3 obv. dies, 3 rev. dies
21. Rev. ΦΕ; to l., crossed bow and quiver.
22. Rev. ΦΕ; to l., quiver.
But in 1892 BMC's map). In 1958, however, 110
This inland site is accordingly that shown on the map in this study.
The coinage does not favor one location over another.
Antiphellus
1 coin
23. Rev. ΑΝ; to l., star.
111
Aperlae
See p. 251.
Cyaneae
8 coins, 6 obv. dies, 8 rev. dies
24. Rev. ΚΥ; to l., grape cluster.
25. Rev. ΚΥ; to l., sword in scabbard with strap, behind shield.
26. Rev. ΚΥ; to l., Isis crown.
b.c., when the district coinage was predominant in 112
Trebendae
1 coin
27. Rev. ΤΡ; to l., Isis crown.
27.1 = 23 A.1 ( Aperlae). See p. 251.
Small bronzes with the initials ΤΡ have long been known,
113
but this drachm is the first published silver coin with this inscription.
The second (not the first) edition of Historia Numorum describes the League bronzes of Tr… as bearing ΤΡΕ as well as
ΤΡ, and this of course has been widely repeated. No League coins with ΤΡΕ have been found by the present author, however, and one must
assume that ΤΡΕ entry is an error.
114
Thus the third letter of the Tr… mint need not necessarily have been e.
Trabala, a city known only from Stephanus of Byzantium, has been suggested as the mint of the bronzes, but this would also seem an
error.
115
Trabala may be dismissed.
The BMC also cites sic], 116
The coins clearly show that the mint was not 117
and it is most unlikely that
There are three further indications that the Tr… mint was in the south. The two known provenances of the ΤΡ civic bronzes of Period III are
both southern: one coin was purchased on the
With
᾽Ελευθέϱᾳ τϱεβενδατιϰῇ (Eleuthera was the well-known
goddess of Μυϱεὺς ἀπὸ
Τϱεβένδων. The date of these inscriptions is uncertain, but ϱεβενδατῶν) occurs also in the second-century a.d. inscription honoring Jason of
εἰς
Τϱεβένδας. Thanks to Santa Claus, then, of all people, we know that the city's proper name was Τϱεβένδαι, or
᾽Αϱαβένδαι, Τϱάβενδαι, Τϱεβένδα, or Τϱεβένδαι, and have often been
amended to 118
Μυϱεὺς ἀπὸ Τϱεβένδων),
yet a League member in its own right in the second century a.d. (the Jason inscription). As stated above,
HN
2 prevented them from considering
Myra
36 coins, 22–23 obv. dies, 30–31 rev. dies
28. Rev. ΜΥ (see also issue 35).
29. Rev. ΜΥ; to l., Isis crown.
30. Rev. Μ; strap on lyre.
31. Rev. ΜΥ; to l., star.
32. Rev. ΜΥ; to r., ear of corn.
33. Rev. ΜΥ; to r., pileus (?) surmounted by star.
34. Rev. ΜΥ; to l., winged caduceus.
35. Rev. ΜΥ (see also issue 28).
The arrangement of
Limyra
32 coins, 18–19 obv. dies, 28–29 rev. dies
36. Rev. ΛΙ; to l., helmet.
37. Rev. ΛΙ (see also issues 38, 50, and 56).
38. Rev. ΛΙ; to l., fulmen, sometimes winged, on 38.1a–b and 38.9a–14b (see also issues 37, 50, and 56).
36.2 = 39.1 ( Gagae). It is not clear which city's coins were struck
first. The dies of issue 36 are very close to the early obverse dies at
Issue 38 contains coins both with and without symbol. There seems to be no way to separate the two groups into two successive issues.
Obverse die 38.1 is used with reverses both with and without symbol, and the die shows a large and handsome head which one would expect to
come very early in the series of dies of this style, with the hair falling in two ringlets; thus the die cannot be seen as the transitional
one between coins without and with fulmens. Further, 38.5 (used without fulmen) is very close to 38.9 (with); and 38.10–38.14 (with) are
πολίχνη).
The inscription from Stratoniceia mentioned above
119
is probably significant here. It gives the names of six Lycian cities prominent in 81 b.c. Of b.c. and 81 b.c. Perhaps she assumed
Gagae
1 coin
39. Rev. ΓΑ; to l., helmet.
39.1 = 36.2 ( Limyra). This coin, the only silver coin known of
120
Rhodiapolis
18 coins, 5–6 obv. dies, 10–11 rev. dies
40. Rev. ΡΟ (ΡΩ, apparently, on 40.1a); to l., fillet (to r. on 40.1a).
Obverse die 40.2 may be a recut version of 40.1. Reverse die 40.2a is described in its initial publication as having a spear to r. This is more probably a flaw; there seems to be a similar defect to the left also.
121
presumably many of these were among the coins which have fallen from sight, for the seven hoard coins here recorded can hardly be
described as "very many." At any rate,
122
123
E.g. the situations described in the Orthagoras inscription: see pp. 11–12.
See commentary on Period I.
Bean, "Die Lage von Phellos," Anzeiger der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Phil.-hist. Klasse 1958, pp. 49–58;
Gordian
, pp. 49-50. Bean's arguments are too lengthy to review here, but include a summary of the often conflicting accounts in the
literature, the size of the ruins (those on the Fellendaǧ are the larger), and the find-spots of numerous grave inscriptions mentioning
BMC, p. lix, note.
See issues 100 and 187–88.
Issue 78.
HN
1, p. 580; HN
2, p. 698. The source of the error is most probably a mistaken interpretation of
Waddington
3199 (an autonomous coin, perhaps of
BMC, p. lxviii. The sole report of a reading ΤΡΑ ΚΡ occurs in a nineteenth century sale catalogue: see Appendix
1, under Trabala. The small bronzes with ΤΡ had previously been ascribed to Traballa in Mionnet, Suppl. 7, p. 24,
93.
Asie Mineure, p. 115; Fougères, p. 35; Head, HN
2, p. 698; RE VIA, col. 2268 (Ruge);
Gordian
, p. 54;
See below.
Full accounts and discussions of the evidence for RE VIA, cols. 2267–68, and by
See n. 88.
Issue 83.
Olympus, League Coinage 3 coins, 1 obv. die, 2 rev. dies
41. Rev. ΟΛ; to l., Isis crown.
Olympus, Pseudo-League Coinage (without ΛΥΚΙΩΝ)
33 coins, 17 obv. dies, 25 rev. dies
42. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠΗ; to l., helmet; to r., sword behind shield.
43. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠΗ; to l.,
44. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠΗ; to l., Π and torch; to r., Μ.
45. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠΗ; to l., branch; to r., trophy.
42.1 = 47.1 ( Phaselis). It is not clear which city's coins were
struck first.
The low placement of the monograms of issue 43 would seem to be analogous to the low placement of the mint initials found at other mints on reverses coupled with this obverse style with rolled hair and ringlets at the neck.
The obverse dies of issue 44 are very similar to the early obverses of issue 45. Obverse dies 45.5 and 45.6, of very different styles, are reverse linked. The common reverse shows several small die breaks only on the coin struck from 45.6, indicating that obverse die 45.6 followed 45.5. The internal arrangement of issue 45, and the placement of issues 43 and 44, are determined by this observation.
The city of
Phaselis, League Coinage 6 coins, 3 obv. dies, 5 rev. dies
46. Rev. ΦΑ.
Phaselis, Pseudo-League Coinage (without ΛΥΚΙΩΝ)
54 coins, 32–33 obv. dies, 46–47 rev. dies
47. Rev. ΦΑΣΗΛΙ; to l. or r., Isis crown; to l. or r., torch (see also issue 58).
46.3 broke down badly in the course of its use; examples showing three stages of deterioration are illustrated.
47.1 = 42.1 ( Olympus). It is not clear which city's coins were
struck first.
Despite the variety of obverse styles, the pseudo-League series of both
Further, the wide range of weights in the pseudo-League issues, especially at
More material would almost certainly show an even tighter internal structure for these pseudo-League series. This is in complete contrast to the almost invariably isolated issues of true League coinage at the other mints of Series 1.
The east coast of 124
Bean has suggested that 125
But it is perhaps unlikely that
b.c., and her flat-flan Persian-weight
staters may have been struck even later.
126
And aside from the coins (for, as will be seen below, b.c., during the Rhodian occupation, included in the same catalogue
a Λύϰιος ἀπὸ Πατάϱων, a Λύϰιος ἀπὸ ᾽Αντιφέλλου, and a Φασηλίτης; a
reasonable deduction is that 127
Countermarked tetradrachms of Side have also been mentioned above. Most of these are countermarked by the cistophoric mints, and it
is presumed that this was done at the time of the introduction of the cistophoroi, perhaps 167/6 b.c. Two
tetradrachms, however, bear a lyre between the letters Α and Ν, a counterstamp interpreted as that of the League member 128
Whether these countermarks were applied ca. 167 as were those of the cistophoric mints, or somewhat later, the disparity between
b.c. to "many kings and countries."
129
Among these countries are both b.c.
130
Its overland access to
The parallelism between the coinages of BMC, for example, calls
a pseudo-League drachm of 131
But the two cities' strikings are parallel throughout. Thanks to the
The shared die which initiates both series attests the synchronism of the start of the two cities' pseudo-League coinage. In the case of
the shared dies of
The pseudo-League coinage continued in Series 2 and 3. During the whole of Period II, 132
The progression of styles in Series 1 was, as we have seen, parallel at the two mints, and their obverses became even more similar
in Series 2. The pseudo-League coinages reflect the obvious close political relationship of the two cities when this coinage was struck.
What the nature of that relationship was will be seen below.
Imitations of Pseudo-League Coinage, Mint(s) Uncertain
2 coins, 2 obv. dies, 2 rev. dies
48. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠΗ; to l., Isis crown (?); to r., torch (?).
The coin is struck over an old style Rhodian drachm. When the coin is rotated a quarter turn counter-clockwise, the outline of the rose can be seen on the reverse with the letters Ρ and Ο closely bracketing the stem. This is the placement of the ethnic only on the old style drachms; the Ρ and Ο on the plinthophoroi are higher and farther apart.
49. Rev. ΦΑΣΗΛΙ (traces only); to l., helmet; to r., branch.
Although little of the ethnic remains, there can be seen at the left a low vertical stroke, presumably the remains of a Φ; and to the right the lower portions of one vertical and two slanting strokes that correspond exactly to the lower portions of ΗΛ.
Issues 48 and 49 appear to be imitations. Their obverse styles are quite peculiar; and while the coin of issue 48 (the only overstruck
League drachm known) combines
Gordian
, p. 52; and private communication from a dealer who saw a lot of 30 to 35 coins before it was dispersed without record. Only two,
if any, of the seven recorded
See below, pp. 87–95.
See commentary on
Livy 37.22–24. The island of Megiste, off the southern coast and site of a Rhodian colony, was also on the Roman side. On
TSS, pp. 155–56.
ANSMN 23 (1978), pp. 69–75. The Persian-weight coins referred to are as BMC 14.
Zur. Gesch. d. Gymn. Agone an griech.-Festen
(
See p. 26 and n. 63. The Phaselitan countermark is published in
I Maccabees 15, 16–24.
In TSS, p. 177, Bean notes at b.c.
Verres
2.1.56.
BMC
Common symbols: torch, branch, fulmen. The Isis crown is also found both on
Drachms:
Obv. Laureate head of
Rev. Cithara in shallow incuse square.
Limyra
10 coins, 7 obv. dies, 8 rev. dies
50. Rev. ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ ΛΙ (see also issues 37, 38, and 56).
Obverse styles, with the hair falling in ill-defined locks, differ somewhat from the late obverses of
None of
Olympus, Pseudo-League Coinage (without ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ)
18 coins, 11 obv. dies, 15 rev. dies
51. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠΗ (51.2a), ΟΛΥΜΠ (51.1a–c, 51.2c-51.4a), ΟΛΥΜ (51.1d, 51.5a–51.7a), or incompletely preserved ethnic
(51.2b); torch; and sword behind shield.
52. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠΗ (52.1a), ΟΛΥΜΠ (52.2a), or ΟΛΥΜ (52.1b, 52.3a, 52.4a); fulmen; and branch.
Phaselis, Pseudo-League Coinage (without ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ)
13 coins, 12 obv. dies, 13 rev. dies
53. Rev. ΦΑΣΗΛΙ, fulmen, and torch.
54. Rev. ΦΑΣΗΛΙ and branch.
The coin struck from 54.2 has been placed in issue 54 as it bears no symbol to the left, and seems to have a branch
to the right. The ethnic is, however, quite illegible.
Unlike
Drachms:
Obv. Laureate head of
Rev. Cithara in shallow incuse square.
Cyaneae
4 coins, 4 obv. dies, 4 rev. dies
55. Rev. ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ ΚΥ.
55.1 = 56.1 ( Limyra). It is not clear which city's coins were struck
first.
Limyra
10 coins, 7 obv. dies, 9 rev. dies
56. Rev. ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ ΛΙ; and winged fulmen on 56.3a-b, 56.5a, and 56.6a (see also issues 37, 38, and 50).
56.1 = 55.1 ( Cyaneae). It is not clear which city's coins were struck
first.
Olympus, Pseudo-League Coinage (without ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ)
4 coins, 4 obv. dies, 4 rev. dies
57. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠ (57.1a–57.2a) or ΟΛΥΜ (57.3a–57.4a); branch; and torch (?).
Issue 57's reverses have only five or four letters in the ethnic, continuing the trend towards abbreviation commenced in Series 2. The workmanship on this issue is crude in the extreme, even the identification of the symbols being doubtful.
Phaselis, Pseudo-League Coinage (without ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ) 1 coin
58. Rev. ΦΑΣΗΛΙ, Isis crown, and torch (see also issue 47).
This coin, although bearing the symbols of issue 47 above, has been assigned here for three reasons. The first, of course, is the low weight. The second is the obverse style, unlike any in issue 47 but not dissimilar, so far as can be told from the coin's mutilated condition, to a number of other obverses of Series 3. The third consideration is the presence of the countermark.
The countermark on 133
The countermarks, increasingly concentrated towards the end of Period II, indicate that a fundamental change must have taken place
in the League's coinage at some point after the conclusion of Period II. This change clearly was the introduction of the district
coinage.
134
The present author must confess to some difficulty in accepting that a countermark would be applied in order not to increase but to
decrease a coin's value, for the district coins, to which the civic coins of Period II were apparently being made equivalent, were lighter.
One would expect that the earlier coins would have been melted and restruck in order to gain the extra silver. But perhaps the difference
was not worth the effort involved. In any case, there are other instances of countermarking making heavier coins equivalent to lighter
ones, the most noteworthy being perhaps the tetradrachms of Side countermarked by the cistophoric mints. The explanation of this would seem
to be that the countermarks were applied by overworked mints just as the cistophoroi were introduced, and that in 135
Series 1: coins struck from
Coins of Series 3 (see Figure 6, p. 96) have the same weight range as do the silver district coins of Period IV, but Series 3 is indistinguishable in its format from the heavier coins of Series 1 and 2 and as a practical matter would have had to be countermarked along with them. Even aside from the weights, it is of course quite possible that all previous issues required revalidation when the district coinage was introduced.
Despite the several die links found between cities in Period II, obverse links between issues of any one city are completely lacking. Few issues of any city have strong stylistic resemblances to any other of the same city, showing that the absence of die links is not due to chance, but that the League coinage was a sporadic one, produced in isolated bursts.
Only style, then, the least reliable criterion for arrangement, can serve as a guide for ordering Series 1. Series 2 and 3, of course, clearly
follow Series 1, as shown by the declining weights; the diminished numbers of Series 2 in the
One exception is the issues struck from obverse dies with 136
137
continue as the usual placement in Series 2 on
Perhaps preceding the ringlet style fairly closely is another type of obverse, with hair falling loosely and almost vertically over the ears
and neck in lightly waved parallel strands, and characterized by an unusual arrangement of locks at the forehead. The lock second from the
top, instead of curling forward or backward in the usual loop, is pulled straight back, apparently caught under the wreath. This style, found
only at 138
once linked by a reverse die to a ringlet 139
To turn to the beginning of Period II: as the kitharephoroi imitated the Rhodian plinthophoroi, it is understandable that the League obverse
dies which seem to come first are clearly derivative of the plinthophoroi. At 140
These dies are closer than any others to the Helios head of the plinthophoroi: they show heads in fairly high relief, with strong
features, and loosely waved hair arranged at the brow and side of the head in short locks, waving alternately backward and forward. This style
will be termed "proto-Rhodian." Almost certainly it was used for the earliest coins of Period II. Many other Lycian obverses continue this
general style, some with marked success.
141
Some are less successful,
142
most of them having a decidedly feminine cast, and will be referred to as "weak Rhodian."
Thus the "proto-Rhodian" coins seem to be the earliest in Series 1, and the "ringlet" coins the latest or nearly the latest, but the order of
all the other styles is almost completely conjectural. The interesting problem, however, is the placement of the pseudo-League issues relative
to the true League issues of the same and other mints. Olympia's scant true League coinage (one obverse die only) is of good "proto-Rhodian"
style and would seem to have been struck early in Series 1. 143
And at both
An effort has been made above to show that the pseudo-League coinages were compact ones, struck over a relatively short period of time despite
their variety of obverse styles.
144
Most of the pseudo-League obverses seem poor imitations of true League coins of other mints. The die which initiates both pseudo-League
series is a typical example of weak Rhodian style, very close to one in 145
but the dies which follow it at 146
And even the ringlet dies of the pseudo-League series differ from those of the true League coins. While the pseudo-League ringlet dies
of 147
the bulk of the pseudo-League ringlet dies at 148
At both
The arrangement suggested, with all of
See BMCLycia, pp. lxxxiii-lxxxiv, and RN 1963, p. 26, and ANSMN 18 (1972), pp. 31–32.
Reverses found with
E.g.
E.g.
E.g.
46.1.
See commentary on
Compare
Compare
47.19–47.26.
The end of the Lycian League's Period II coinage is here associated with the period of the first Mithradatic War, but the start of the coinage
cannot be dated with any precision. The chronology suggested rests entirely on the unpublished work of IGCH 1355) have been subjected to a die study by
149
I am extremely grateful to him for so generously allowing his work to be used here.
The traditional view has been that the plinthophoroi started only after 167 b.c.,
150
but b.c. calls for
payment in "old style" drachms. It is therefore quite possible, b.c.
151
Even if struck this early, however, it is clear b.c. is well known: 152
And
b.c.
153
It must be Group A which occurs in the inscriptions, and its tight die linkage indicates a concentrated period of minting. It could
well all have been struck before 167 b.c.
Group B, drachms and hemidrachms, and Group C, again drachms only, are easily distinguished from A by obverse style: the heads are 154
There is a limited amount of die linkage within each of these two groups, but none between them, or between them and Group A. The high
frequency of name repetition among the three groups A, B, and C strongly indicates that all must have been struck within a few decades at
most, perhaps by 150 at the latest.
155
A considerable gap may be assumed between 156
and the plinthophoric gold issues.
157
The latest hoard group D′ was struck by two men only, Neon (drachms and hemidrachms) and Peritas (drachms only). Peritas continues from
Group D, where he had struck gold fractions with the same symbol (coiled serpent) which he employed on his drachms of D′.
Not represented in the 158
Group D′ would also seem to have been of debased 159
D and D′ are thus connected by Peritas and his serpent, and D′ and E by reduced weight; two of E's eleven names are also found in D.
160
Changes in the reverse format also unite the three groups. The gold of Group D introduces more than one tendril at the base of the
stem, and sepals now fringed on both sides (rather than one as heretofore) and extending to the bottom of the flower; these changes occur
occasionally on D's silver, and become usual in D′ and E. The initials ΡΟ are invariably at the center of the sides of the incuse square in
Groups A-C. One example of a drachm with one initial dropped to the bottom of the square has been found among the rather rare drachms of Group
D, but coins with both initials placed at the bottom of the square are common in D′ and E. A final indication that D′ and E were close in time
is furnished by a small hoard seen at a 161
b.c.
Group E's heads also resemble the later, romanticized portraits of b.c.
162
The unruly hair, the heads tilted back, and the upturned eyes of the Rhodian pieces all recall the Mithradatic portraits. These
resemblances are a slim peg indeed on which to hang the suggested dating of the latest plinthophoroi, but in the total absence of helpful
mixed b.c. would satisfactorily explain, however, the last
plinthophoroi's obviously hasty production, as shown in their debased style and careless striking, and their reduced weight standard.
"Standard" is too precise a word, perhaps, for their weights do not peak; perhaps "weight range" is a more accurate description of the
scattered weights the coins exhibit—yet another probable indication of hasty striking.
Perhaps all of Groups D, D′, and E cannot be fitted into the years of the First Mithradatic War, although the three groups would seem to have
been close in time. Even though
To recapitulate: the Rhodian plinthophoric coinage commenced in the 170s or perhaps the 180s b.c., the first period
of minting lasting at most a few decades. The second minting period ended during or shortly after the First Mithradatic War of 88–84 b.c., and cannot have started too long if at all before that conflict. Considerable time separated the two periods of
coinage.
The significance of this for the Lycian League is that the reduced weight of Lycian Period II Series 2 is precisely that of Rhodian Group E
(see Figure 5). Further, in both Group E and Series 2 dropped mint initials become common, after their introduction and infrequent use in
immediately preceding issues. Both Group E and Series 2 are poorly and evidently hastily executed coinages, and they are probably contemporary
with each other and reflect the crisis of b.c.; as these pseudo-League coinages started in late Series 1 and continued through Series 2 and 3, the attribution of Series 2 to
88–84 b.c. seems almost inevitable.
The b.c.
The start of the Lycian League silver coinage cannot, however, be dated with any assurance. What are probably its earliest issues, those of
"proto-Rhodian" style,
163
would seem not to have Rhodian Group A as their model, being far closer in general appearance to Rhodian Groups B, C, and even D. All
that the elimination of Group A tells us, however, is that the Lycian silver coins probably did not antedate ca. 167 b.c., which in any case would have been extremely unlikely on historical grounds,
There is no answer from the history of the area, either. b.c. and the coming of b.c., and in this
b.c., taking first ὑπηγάγετο) 164
Then, after seizing or being welcomed in many of the cities of Λυϰίοις ἔτι ἀντέχουσι)."
165
Late in the year, while τινες ἀυτοῖς Τελμισέων τε ϰαὶ Λυϰίων συνέμαχουν.)
166
And during this siege, a group of Rhodian ships attacked a number of 167
which seems to imply that some part at least of 168
Whether
In 86 b.c. the Roman Lucullus collected a fleet from various Asiatic communities to attempt to win back Cos and
Cnidus. As 169
In any case, at the end of the First Mithradatic War, 170
These states in the southwest included 171
These communities were all within the Rhodian commercial sphere. It is worth noting that 172
Another historical development which seems to bear directly on the Lycian League coinage is the development of piracy in the eastern
Mediterranean during the second and early first centuries, for at some time before 77 b.c.
173
b.c., and was thereafter increasingly unable to perform her old function, as the
strongest naval power in the area, of policing the seas. By the third quarter of the second century,
b.c., sending out a force
under b.c. asks free peoples and rulers in alliance with 174
Then in 88 came
At the end of the First Mithradatic War,
The next mention of b.c.
175
governor in that year of the new Province of 176
This departure from the League would seem to be connected with these two cities' pseudo-League coinages, although there is little certainty about either the date of the estrangement or the start of the pseudo-League coins. The circumstances of the withdrawal from the League, however, I believe have been generally misunderstood, and they are important for understanding the pseudo-League coinages.
It is necessary to work backwards from 77 b.c., when the events occurred of which the sources tell us. In that year
the Romans, starting a new campaign against the Cilician pirates, overthrew a pirate chieftain named Zenicetes. Near the mountain ridges of the Taurus lies the piratical
stronghold of Zenicetes—I mean
177
b.c., under Pompey.
178
Florus states that a naval battle preceded the land attacks, and that 179
180
and it is generally assumed that Zenicetes's territory was incorporated by b.c. when he was 181
182
and Lucan describes Pompey, fleeing in 48 b.c. after Pharsalus, entering So far he had not dared to trust himself to any city, but now he entered the walls of
little
183
Yet, on the other hand, b.c.
184
If the letters can be trusted,
The evidence cited so far does not necessarily conflict with the usual view held today: that Zenicetes or a pirate predecessor had captured
185
Only the harsh
But b.c., with
They are the
general enemies of all mankind; but none the less there are some people of whom they make friends, not only sparing them but enriching them
with stolen wealth. They select, for this purpose, the inhabitants of conveniently situated towns, where it is often desirable and
sometimes necessary for them to put in. Thus
186
187
The truth thus seems to have been that 188
It seems inescapable that the large, late pseudo-League coinages of these two cities, especially perhaps that of the otherwise
insignificant 189
This is understandable if it was only the pseudo-League coinages which circulated outside of
Precision about the exact dates or the political implications of the pseudo-League coinages is not to be had. It is of course always possible
that 190
and that apparently neither city was a member in 81 b.c.,
191
it seems reasonable to associate the appearance of the pseudo-League coinages with the two cities' departure from the League.
When did this defection occur? The usual modern view of the cities as captured and oppressed by the pirates has, one hopes, been here refuted.
The modern view also usually holds that Zenicetes' rise to power occurred not earlier than the First Mithradatic War, whose disturbances and
dislocations increased the pirates' strength and numbers. But the combination of Florus's "diutina praeda" and
b.c. leads to the supposition that b.c. Piracy, after all, had been increasing all through the second
century; could its spread to b.c.?
A number of inscriptions relate to the problems in the area, but none afford any reliable dating for b.c.
192
But it is quite unclear to which, if indeed any, of these campaigns the inscriptions refer, especially as they make no mention of
In the Roman law against piracy of 101/100 (?) mentioned above, an isolated fragment reads Π]αμφυλία
ϰαί Λυ[ϰία?].
193
The section seems
Finally, an Athenian inscription honoring an Athenian admiral records the bestowal on him of wreaths by 194
The interpretation can only be that the admiral, whose name is lost, led an Athenian expedition against the pirates, most probably at
IG II2 date the inscription to b.c.—which is obviously quite
impossible, as 195
The admiral also had gone as emissary to one Lucius Furius Crassopes. Equating this individual with another of the same name who may
have been a functionary of some sort in Macedonia after the middle of the second century, Blinkenberg dated the inscription to the second half
of the second century.
196
This would seem the most probable date. And, while it does not help in the question of when was a League member. It has been shown above from non-numismatic evidence that b.c.—and indeed, were it not for the ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΦΑ drachms of
the b.c., when the pirates'
power was first being felt in the areas bordering 197
If then we can suggest that b.c., and ended before ca. 104–100 b.c., this would be the period of the
ringlet-obverse League dies, or at least of their introduction.
198
Only b.c.
The date of the last small section, Series 3 of Period II, is somewhat puzzling. On one hand, one would expect that the coinage of b.c., when b.c., would have closely followed Series 2.
On the other hand, the weights of the 19 coins of Series 3 fall precisely within the range of the district coinage of Period IV (see Figure
6). It will be suggested below that the districts were created in 81 b.c., but that their coinage did not start
until the time of the Roman Civil Wars of the 40s b.c. Period IV's standard is that of Roman quinarii of the 40s
through the 20s; quinarii of the 80s (the denomination lapsed between the 80s and the 40s) were considerably heavier, averaging 0.3 grams more
than those of the 40s.
Therefore if Series 3 is dated before 77 b.c. it is difficult to understand its standard. If, as is possible, it is
reduced from that of quinarii of the 80s, it provides a curious and most coincidental anticipation of the standard of later quinarii and of
Lycian Period IV.
Possibly, however, Period II's Series 3 came in the early 40s, after the cities of the eastern coast had recovered somewhat, immediately
before the introduction of the districts' own coinage. If so, the case for Roman direction and probably even supervision of the district
coinage is strengthened; for while the poorly executed coins of Series 3 bear little enough resemblance to those of Series 2, they are
completely dissimilar in every way to those of Period IV. Series 3's few coins present a wide variety of obverse styles, all inept copies of
earlier dies; but Period IV employs in each series a large number of nearly identical and competently cut dies of a given style—just as in the
Roman coinage. On balance, however, a date before 77 b.c. for Series 3 seems more likely.
The number of mints active (see Table 3) during Series 1 shrank from seventeen to six to one. The six mints using the "ringlet" obverses for
true League coinage were all major cities, which could be expected to continue a federal coinage after the initial contributions of the whole
membership. But the continuance of b.c. to have been elevated to membership among the six
leading cities of the League; but this is insufficient to explain why she alone continued in the first century to strike League money. Quite
possibly pirate attacks had by the late second century rendered coastal cities insecure, but
Another explanation, particularly if b.c.—and this is not certain—might be that 199
The coinage then might suggest that
Rhodian weights are drawn from the ANS collection and BMCCaria, SNGCop, SNGvAulock, and SNGLockett, augmented by a few examples in the ANS photo file.
E.g. BMCCaria, p. cix.
Études, pp. 166–76. The Delian inscriptions mention
οδίαι δύο παλαιαί · πλινθοφόϱος μία in 169
"La Circulation monétaire dans la Béotie hellénistique: Trésors de Thèbes 1935 et 1965," BCH 1969, p. 722.
Plinthophoroi are conspicuously absent from hoards from northern and central b.c.:
IGCH 228 and 231–33.
ANSMN 17 (1971), pp. 114–25.
Examples of all the plinthophoric groups' drachms are shown on Plate 12.
It is this first main period, Groups A–C, which appears in the Naxos 1926 Hoard (
IGCH 255; "Délos," p. 520). This hoard is dated to ca. 150 b.c. because of its
Athenian New Style coinage, the latest 159/8 b.c. on Thompson's dating. That the hoard's plinthophoroi can now be
shown to be approximately this age does not, however, confirm Thompson's dating of the New Style coinage, because of the probable hiatus in
the Rhodian coinage after the appearance of Group C. On the contrary, if the Athenian hoard coins are to be dated by the low chronology,
thirty years later, the hoard supports the hiatus in the Rhodian coinage.
Communication from
The plinthophoric gold has been collected by
For the weights of the plinthophoric groups, see Figures 2 and 5. I have found a record of 11 magistrates in Group E: Euphanes, Zenon,
Thrasymenes, Kallixein…, Lysimachos, Maes, Menodoros, Nikagoras, Nikephoros, Philostratos, and Philon. Examples of Group E in addition to
those illustrated here may be found in BMC-Caria, pl. 40, 7–8, and SNGCop, nos. 819, 824, and
833–39 (these last recognized as a separate group). The carelessly cut reverse dies of E are the first on which the central petal's free
edge is either left or right; earlier it is invariably to the right.
Fourteen weights are known, twelve of them of the well preserved latest coins from the
Maes and Nikephoros.
Communication from
See Plate 12, G (ca. 96 b.c.) and H (88 b.c.). On NC 1968, pp. 1–12; and ANSMN 19 (1974), pp. 3–7 and 24–25. Kleiner dates G on p. 6.
See p. 78 above, and n. 140.
App., Mith. 20.
App., Mith. 21.
App., Mith. 24.
App., Mith. 25.
App., Mith. 27.
App., Mith. 56; Plut. Luc. 3.
App., Mith. 61.
OGIS 441 supplies Stratoniceia; for Cos and Tabae see
BMCCaria Cos 117–18 (drachms) and 165–68 (hemidrachms): NC 1936, pp. 193–94). The Coan tetrobols
(BMC 119–55) must come somewhat later, but just when is uncertain. Stratoniceia's pre-Mithradatic drachms and
hemidrachms were struck to good Rhodian weight, as was JNG 1967, pp. 7–9); and,
like BMC 6–8).
The Cilician pirates are discussed in all the general treatments of the history of this time. The most comprehensive account is found in
Piracy.
SEG 3, 378.
Verr. 2.1.95.
Pp. 403–4, n. 13.
14.671, erroneously placed in the Cilician section of
Full lists of the sources for Piracy, p. 216, n. 1, and in
JRS 1922, pp. 35–36.
1.41.5.
Leg. agr. 1, frs. 3 and 5; 2, fr. 50. This mention of b.c.
so was evidently friendly to
Att. 6.5.3.
NH 5.100.
8.251–54.
E.g. letters 27 and 28.
E.g. Piracy, p. 216;
TSS, pp. 33 and
156;
Gordian
, p. 46.
Verr. 2.4.21. See also Cass. Dio 36.21, from a somewhat later period, on cities in alliance with pirates. Ormerod
cites an experience of Col. Leake's early in the last century: Leake travelled by sea one March from Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor
[
Verr. 2.1.56–57.
TSS, p. 156. Zenicetes's name is found in Imperial times at both TAM 951 and 1204), but to
my knowledge nowhere else in
See issues 48 and 49.
See above, p. 38.
See above, pp. 87-95.
TAM 264–65 and 319 = OGIS 552–54 = IGR 607, 616, and 1516.
SEG 3, 378A, Il. 7–8.
IG II2, 3218.
E.g.
Triémiolia. Étude sur un type de navire rhodien. Det. Kgl. Danske
Videnskabernes Selskab. Arch.-Kunsthist. Meddelelser 2, 3: Lindiaka 7 (1938), as cited in Rev. phil. 18 (1944), pp. 13–17. Hellenica 2 [1946], p. 123) seems to accept the traditional first century date—but as stated in the text above this
is impossible. On RE 7, col. 352, no. 55 (Groag).
A remark of the fifth century wit Stratonicus may still have been applicable in the period under discussion. When asked who were the most
shameless of men, he replied, "In Ath. 8.350a).
Similar coiffures are found on a number of western Asiatic stephanophoric tetradrachms, usually now considered roughly mid-second century
in date (e.g. BMC-Troas, Aegae 9 and Myrina 1–19). More probable models for the Lycian "ringlet" obverses, however
are the later and lighter coins of b.c., they have recently been tentatively assigned by b.c. ("Numismatique grecque," AnnÉcPratHÉt 1974, pp. 258–59). Such a dating would
accord well with the late second century date here proposed for the Lycian coins with "ringlet" obverses but unfortunately does not provide
a useful terminus post quem for the latter other than 134/133 b.c.
See above, pp. 86–87.
The Rhodian weights include only the full-weight plinthophoroi of BMCCaria, SNGCop, SNGvAulock, and SNGLockett.
BMCCaria,
E.g. issues 114, 185, 200–201.
BMCCaria, p. xliv.
"A Hoard of Rhodian-Type Drachms," ANSMN 18 (1972), pp. 5–15, especially pp. 5–6. Sheridan essentially publishes a
hoard, now
IGCH 1335.
Les Monnaies grecques de Mylasa
(
Plate 1, G = "Coins Lycia," pp. 37 and 41–42, 33 (not illustrated; commentary combined with that of 34).
Plate 1, H = BMCCaria,
NC 1936, p. 193.
ΚΥ: Plate 1, I = "BMCCaria, Suppl. 7, p. 10, 36. ΑΝ: Plate 1, J. BMC Side 29 and 29A are similar.
b.c., surely long after the
countermark was applied, and the small size of a countermark hardly allows for the full ΛΥΚΙΩΝ. In any case it seems unlikely that a single
city's countermark need have included the federal ethnic at all. BMC, p. lxxxiii) it seems reasonable to look for the source of the ΑΝ
countermark also on the mainland of
For the ancient evidence for these terms, see Études, pp. 151–52 and 166 ff.
All examples known to me of the quadruple and double units are listed. The mass of illegible and unattributable specimens of the single units
was so discouraging, however, and the pressure of time so great, that while in
Dies are not numbered, but die identities are noted where ascertainable. Relative die axes of the quadruple and double units are uniformly ↑↑, with but one variant each of ↑↗ and ↑↖. The axes of the single units are more random, but tend to favor the upright position.
Coins illustrated are indicated by Greek minuscules (α, β, γ) merely for the purpose of identifying the coins on the plates and to facilitate reference to them in the text. Neither the letters nor the sequence of coins catalogued indicate particular dies, and only a representative selection of obverse dies is illustrated for most issues.
To avoid frequent repetition, the types of each of the three denominations are here given for all mints.
Quadruple Units:
Obv.
Rev. ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ above and city initials to either side of cithara; all in incuse square.
Double Units:
Obv. Laureate head of
Rev. ΛΥ ΚΙΩΝ above and city initials to either side of draped bust of Artemis r.; all in incuse square.
Units:
Obv. Laureate head of
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ or ΛΥΚΙ above and city initials to either side of crossed bow and quiver; all in incuse square (
Quadruple Units: 12 coins, av. wt. 4.71
Double Units: 11 coins, av. wt. 2.74
Units: 93 coins recorded, av. wt. 1.35
Xanthus: Rev. ΞΑ.
Quadruple Unit.
A quadruple unit of 200
There seems no reason to doubt the accuracy of the description, although no such coins have been found by the present author.
59. Double Unit.
α. BMC 3
60. Units.
α. BMC 4;
Pinara: Rev. ΠΙ.
61. Double Unit.
α.
Waddington
3174
62. Units.
α.
Waddington
3171;
Cadyanda: Rev. ΚΑ.
63. Quadruple Unit.
α.
64. Units.
α.
Waddington
3035;
The ΚΑ coins, issues 63 and 64, are assigned to
Tlos: Rev. ΤΛ.
65. Quadruple Units.
α. Weber 7304, 5.22. 65α and 65β are from the same dies.
66. Double Units.
α.
67. Units.
α. BMC 4 =
Fellows, p. 284, 12; β.
Waddington
3187;
Patara: Rev. ΠΑ.
68. Quadruple Units.
α. SNG 4382; β.
Waddington
3140;
69. Double Units.
α. NC
1863, p. 44, 8; Kl. Münz., p. 307, 1;
70. Units.
α. BMC 2;
Waddington
3137;
70α and the
Vol. 3, p. 445, 78.
Phellus: Rev. øΕ.
71. Quadruple Unit.
α.
72. Units.
α.
Waddington
3168; β.
72ε is the only overstruck League bronze coin known. The obverse, inverted, shows possible traces of a helmet bowl, crest, and visor, and the reverse shows the remains of a circular dotted border; but the issue overstruck cannot be identified.
Antiphellus: Rev. ΑΝ.
73. Double Unit.
α.
Waddington
3017
74. Units.
α.
Waddington
3015;
Aperlae: Rev. ΑΠ.
75. Double Unit.
α. 201
= "Coins
76. Units.
α. Beiträge, p. 78, 28, and pp. 111–12; β.
Waddington
3022; γ.
Cyaneae: Rev. ΚΥ.
77. Units.
α.
Waddington
3062; β.
Trebendae: Rev. ΤΡ.
78. Units.
α. BMC 1; β. BMC 2 = Fellows, p. 284, 11
Myra: Rev. ΜΥ.
79. Units.
α.
Waddington
3121; β.
Arycanda: Rev.
80. Units
α. Asie Mineure, p. 117, 2; β.
Waddington
3024 =
80α has
Limyra: Rev. ΛΙ.
81. Double Unit.
α. Private coll. 3.78
82. Units.
α. BMC 8;
Waddington
3070, 1.40 =
Gagae: Rev. ΓΑ.
83. Quadruple Unit.
α.
Waddington
3066
This and the single drachm of issue 39 are the only known coins of
Uncertain.
Quadruple Unit.
α. Private coll. 7.24 (Plate 14, A).
The city initial to the left is completely obliterated. The vertical stroke visible to the right may be part of a Ρ, but seems more probably
an Ι.
Units.
These three bronze denominations of Period III, all with reverse types in incuse square, are the only Lycian League bronzes bearing the full federal ethnic ΛΥΚΙΩΝ combined with city initials. These markings connect the three denominations and also suggest that their chronology cannot be too different from that of the Period II silver, the only other League emissions with this combination of markings. The quadruple bronze units' reverses are, furthermore, identical in all respects to those of the Period II silver. The quadruple and double units' low placement of the mint initials is also suggestive: this low placement, as has been seen, was first introduced late in Period II, and is found elsewhere only on the earliest issues of Period IV. (The units' reverse type, occupying the lower corners of the incuse square, prevents this placement on the smallest coins.)
The weights of the three denominations of these "civic bronzes," as they will henceforth be termed for convenience, agree tolerably well with the interpretation of the coins as pieces of one, two, and four units. The average weight of the quadruple units is 4.71; of the double units 2.74; and of the units 1.35. These weights are all slightly heavier than those found for the three denominations of Period I, but here as there the double unit is very close to twice the weight of the single unit, and the quadruple unit somewhat less than four times the weight of the single unit. In both periods, however, the largest coins are well over three times the weight of the smallest and so must be considered quadruple rather than triple units. (See Table 8 for a summary of Lycian bronze weights.)
The almost invariably miserable condition of the Period III bronzes renders somewhat uncertain any discussion of their types and styles; in
many cases, even the mint attributions are only probable. For this reason the identification of the quadruple units' obverse type as 202
and the object a.d.
203
The obverse styles of
The obverses of Period III can be divided into two chief styles, called A and B in Table 4. Style A is the old "ringlet" style of Period II's
Series 1 and 2, with the hair rolled at the forehead, gathered in a chignon at the back of the neck, and falling in two ringlets down the
neck. On most examples these ringlets are tightly curled and hang in an inverted V; in a common variation the two coils hang parallel.
204
Style B has a wave or curl at the forehead, and the rest of the hair hanging in three, four (usually), or more parallel vertical ringlets.
205
On most of these coins there is a chignon, but on some there is none.
206
A variation (with chignon) has the forehead hair not in a short waving lock but in an additional tight coil, curving over the brow and
terminating next to the first of the parallel hanging ringlets.
207
Style A is found at every mint on the single units, but only at the western mints on the double units. Style B, on the other hand, is predominantly a southern style, as can be seen in Table 4. The reason for this is not clear.
Style A, the old "ringlet" style, must be contemporary with or some-what later than the Period II drachms of this style. The new bronze issues
may well have been introduced late in Period II, just when the number of silver mints was being so drastically reduced, or it may have
commenced only after the silver was discontinued. The absence of b.c..
Many of the district silver coins of Period IV have the parallel ringlets of style B, but none are like the coins of style B without the
chignon. Possible models for the non-chignoned variety of style B may be sought in the Roman Republican coinage of the 80s b.c.
208
Roman denarii would no doubt have been familiar in
But the single units at least continued into the second half of the century, as shown by those of style B with the coil of hair curving over
the brow. This unusual coiffure is precisely that of the Period IV hemidrachms from Series 4 on.
209
As Series 4 is dated below to the 30s b.c., the small civic bronzes of Period III must still have been being
struck then, contemporary with Series 4 and perhaps even Series 5 of the districts' hemidrachms. This is quite possible, for, as will be seen,
the Period V bronzes of the districts seem to have commenced only ca. 31 b.c., contemporary with Series 5 or 6 of
the districts' hemidrachms of Period IV.
210
Her use of three initials (in monogram) is doubtless to avoid confusion with 211
Four Period II cities, besides the dubious
Puzzling, however, is the absence of 212
which had an appreciable silver coinage. Perhaps its absence is due to chance; if not, could it be that
Finally, the absence of b.c.
213
If they did not strike in Period III, their position in the League can be presumed to have been a subordinate one. They cannot have
been League members, but must have been in the position of mandated territories.
Robinson qualified
63a, 65a, 65b, and 68b.
See pp. 20–21, and Plate 1, A-F.
See enlargements of 67α and 67β on Plate 14. Compare, e.g., issues 12, 13, 19, 38, and 51–54 in Period II.
See enlargement of 70β on Plate 14. Compare issues 88–90 and 92 of Series 2 in Period IV.
E.g. 69β, 73α, and 75α on Plates 13–14.
See enlargement of 74β on Plate 14. Compare issues 102–10 of Series 4–6 in Period IV.
See especially the large outputs of b.c.) and b.c.,) and also b.c.). The dates
given are Crawford's. The type was also copied in the 60s b.c. by Piso's son (Crawford 408/1 = Sydenham
840–78).
See Plates 18–19.
BMC
One would still rather suspect that
A small civic bronze is attributed to Beiträge, p. 108, 17. This is presumably the coin so attributed in the
Period IV consists of drachms, hemidrachms, and quarter drachms. The hemidrachms are the basic denomination, and their types repeat those of the
Period II drachms: obv. head of rev. lyre in incuse square. Only a few anomalous Period IV issues, however, follow Period II in bearing the full federal ethnic ΛΥΚΙΩΝ
on the reverse; the bulk of Period IV has instead Λ and Υ to either side of Λύϰιος ἀπὸ Πατάϱων), which had been the usual form in the second century, belongs to the Sullan era. The simple
municipal ethnic (e.g. Παταϱεύς) prevailed after that time, when 214
On the drachms, issued only under obv. head of
rev. sometimes one but usually two lyres, without the
incuse square. The two lyres indicate that the denomination is twice that of the hemidrachms with but one lyre. The drachms usually have Λ and Υ
on the obverse, as on the hemidrachms, and the mint initials on the reverse. The types of the quarter drachms are obv.
head of Artemis, and rev. quiver upright in incuse square.
The hemidrachms can be divided into seven distinct series, and all but the last reduced-weight series are precisely to the weight of the Roman
quinarius of ca. 48–ca. 23 b.c. The drachms weigh exactly twice as much as the hemidrachms; but since a Roman quinarius
of this time weighed less than half a denarius, the Lycian drachms weigh somewhat
A few small Period IV silver issues were struck in the names of cities, either alone or in combination with one or another of the districts:
No mention of the districts occurs in the literary sources, which describe only two mountains or mountain ranges, 215
No traces of a site for the city of 216
217
The district 218
The geographers' accounts of the location of
The mountain is mentioned five times in the sources. mons Masicitus, with manuscript
variants
Masycitus
and
The attribution of coins reading ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΜΑ, ΜΑΣ, or ΜΑΣΙ gave more trouble than those of Elles doivent … appartenir aux habitants de la montagne appellée
Μασίϰυτος par Ptolemée, &
Massycites
par Pline; n'ayant que ce seul lieu connu en Lycie, dont le nom commence par ΜΑΣ. Il y avoit apparemment une ville portant le nom de
la montagne, dont les anciens Écrivains n'ont pas fait mention.
Pellerin therefore attributed his coins to "y and i, "220
By the time BMCLycia ap- Μασίϰυτος); so is that of the monetary district.
That
An inscription, long known, from Roman times mentions a συντέλ[εια]πϱὸς τῷ
Κϱάγῳ.
221
Συντέλεια usually means a simple league or federation, but is used twice by Polybius for a district within the Achaean
League; and thus the term is intelligible for a formal subdivision of the Lycian League also, for the Lycian federation used many of the same
technical terms as the Achaean League.
222
The gist of the inscription is the honoring of one ἀϱχιφύλαξ of the συντέλεια. Inscriptions provide the three titles ἀϱχιφύλαξ, ὑποφύλαξ, and παϱαφύλαξ, the first two officials of the Lycian League itself, and the last of an
individual town. The very fact that an ἀϱχιφύλαξ, rather than one of the junior officials, was charged with the
district around ἀϱχιφύλαξ has sometimes been interpreted as a police position of some sort,
223
but ἀϱχιφύλαϰες of the League
and of the συντέλειαι were charged 224
This is precisely what ἀϱχιφύλαξ of the συντέλεια πϱὸς τῷ Κϱάγῳ; and thus the only mention of a district within the
League is made in a financial context, that of the imperial tax collection.
This context becomes significant on the realization that the chief evidence for the districts—their coinage—appears only after the First
Mithradatic War. For it was in 84 b.c. that 225
Just what these regiones were is unclear: they must have been smaller than the large geographical units (e.g.
regiones were responsible for
regular taxes as well as the war indemnity is not certain, and how long they continued in existence is also unknown. The usual view is that
"they remained the basis of the financial organization of Asia,"
226
but the last actual evidence for moneys collected "according to b.c.
227
Nevertheless, arbitrary financial districts were created in the Province of Asia in 84 b.c. for the purpose of
collecting moneys for 228
This may be excused as rhetorical exaggeration, but b.c., declared that even lands
and cities autonomous and free from taxes should all then pay tribute: All the allied nations and kings, and not only the tributary cities,
but those which had delivered themselves to the Romans voluntarily under sworn agreements, and those which because of furnishing aid in war
or for some other merit were autonomous and not subject to tribute, all were now required to pay and obey. …
229
230
yet ἢ συμμαχίας ἀμειβόμενος, ἢ ὧν διὰ πϱοθυμίαν
ἐπεπόνθεσαν οὗ ἕνεϰα).
231
He now says that in 81 b.c. tribute was imposed on "those which because of furnishing aid in war or for some
other merit" (ὅσαι διὰ συμμαχίαν ἢ τινα ἀϱετὴν ἄλλην) had been autonomous. The closeness in wording of the two passages
makes unmistakable the conclusion that the same peoples were the subjects of both passages.
Under whatever euphemism, then, and some euphemism there must have been, it appears that b.c. to make financial contributions to b.c., while still "free," for in return for what
she had suffered from 232
There thus seems little ground to doubt that she paid even earlier.
The explanation must be that ἀϱχιφύλαξ
rather than a ὑποφύλαξ was charged with the συντέλεια πϱὸς τῷ Κϱάγῳ. Whether the districts
performed any other administrative functions is uncertain. If formed in 81 b.c., the districts would at first have
collected revenues in the still abundant silver coinage of Period II. Even if the districts created in 81 in the Province of Asia fell into
disuse after a few decades (and this is not certain),
Creation of the districts in 81 b.c. does not necessarily imply, of course, that their coinage started promptly in
that year. The Period II drachms had been struck in quantity in previous decades. Silver seems not to have been struck in b.c., as the districts' silver
coinage (Period IV) appears to have commenced only in the 40s b.c. When the districts' coinage did appear, however,
it is significant that it corresponded exactly to a Roman denomination.
See issue 6, and BMC, p. xlvii.
"Monnaies lyciennes," RN 1886, p. 436.
143.6–143.9.
NH 5.100; Geog. 5.3.1 and 5.3.3;
Post-homerica 3.234 and 8.107. For coins with ΜΑΣΙ or ΜΑСΙ see issues 116
and 169. On the mountain and its name, see Geography, vol. 1, pt. 2 (
Recueil, vol. 2, p. 136. Six (above, n. 217) and Babelon (in
Waddington
) furnish happy examples of scholars drawing on ancient rather than secondary sources: they term the district
OGIS 565 = IGR 488.
Polybius 5.94.1 (τῆς συντελείας τῆς Πατϱιϰῆς, not πατϱιϰῆς, as usually edited, giving quite a
different sense) and 38.16.4 (Πατϱεῖς δὲ ϰαὶ τὸ μετὰ τούτων συντελιϰόν). See RE IVA, col. 1457 (Kahrstedt) for other examples of the word's usage; and GFS, p. 221.
E.g. GFS, "head of the federal police" (p. 254).
TAM 905 = IGR 739, IIE
and IIIF. See commentaries in IGR and OGIS, which derive from Fougères, pp. 117 f. Both
Apollonius and Opramoas had first paid the tribute out of their own funds and later sought reimbursement "temperately," by which we may
understand they did not exact full repayment from their fellow citizens. This also explains how one could fill the office of archiphylax
"generously" (e.g. TAM 905, IIE and XVIIA), an adverb rather difficult to apply to service as a police chief.
Cassiod., Chron. 670.
E.g.
Pompey in 67 and Flaccus in 62 levied special assessments for ship building: Qui [Flac. 32). regiones with civitates, whereas the equivalent word (a peculiar choice, to be sure) is provincias (pp. 1116–18, n.
17).
Mith. 121.
BCiv. 1.102.
P. 1118, n. 18. b.c., at the time of the
imposition of the war indemnity (p. 238), whereas the statement occurs in b.c. (BCiv.
1.103).
Mith. 61.
Weights are crucial to the explanation of Period IV's three denominations. It can be seen in Figure 7 that the weights of the hemidrachm Series 7 drop off considerably from those of Series 1–6, and this late, reduced-weight series will be omitted from subsequent figures comparing the hemidrachms' weights with those of other coinages.
Figure 8 shows the weights of the three Lycian denominations of Period IV. The figure speaks for itself: the three denominations are in the
ratio 4:2:1. An even closer correspondence between the drachms and the hemidrachms of Series 6 can be seen in Figure 9. Hoard and other
evidence, to be discussed below, shows that the
This is not to say that the Lycian drachms were not expected to circulate as denarii. Their size, weight, and general format, with the
emperor's head, usually surrounded by a linear circle, accord perfectly with denarii of the time. A number of other silver coinages similarly
resembling denarii are known from Asia in the late first century b.c., although these do not bear the Emperor's
head; on a few such drachms of Plarasa and Aphrodisias in 233
The first known hoard containing the Lycian 234
Nevertheless, as the drachms were issued in the name of a (at least nominally) free people, and do not bear
Figure 10 compares the weights of the full-weight hemidrachms of Series 1–6 with those of the Roman quinarii of the second half of the first
century b.c. This date is important. The fractional Roman denominations, the quinarius and sestertius, were issued
only intermittently in the course of the Roman coinage. Introduced with the denarius in the third century, they were struck then for only a
few years. Both were revived during the Social War of the early first century, b.c., after which the sestertius lapsed for good while the
quinarius continued for two decades or so. The quinarius was struck "in spectacularly large quantities as part of the main-stream coinage of
the Republic in 101 and 99–97, by 235
Quinarii of the late second and early first centuries are far heavier than those of the revived denomination of ca. 48 b.c. on, averaging some 0.3 grams more than the later ones. The denarius stayed the same weight, but whereas the
early quinarii weighed fully half as much as denarii, the later quinarii were markedly reduced in weight. It is these later quinarii with
which the Lycian hemidrachms are compared: their standards are obviously the same.
As has just been discussed, 236
Therefore it is not surprising that Series 6 of the hemidrachms, contemporary with the drachms, also was based on the Roman coinage.
And the districts' hemidrachms, all struck to the same weight, must then have been intended to complement the Roman coinage from the start.
They must have been struck to circulate as quinarii from the outset.
As will be discussed below, the suggestion is not made that the hemidrachms travelled directly to
To summarize, Period IV, the silver of the districts
Shaded areas indicate hoard coins: from the
Shaded areas indicate hoard coins.
Shaded areas indicate hoard coins.
Shaded areas indicate hoard coins. Quinarius weights are from the ANS collection; BMCRE;
Le Monete Romane dell'età Repubblicana
(Monete Imperiali Romane, 1
(
BCiv. 5.7. We can assume that this freedom from taxation was short-lived. b.c., just before Macedon was formally incorporated into the Roman
Empire (BMC-Macedon, pp. 7–8, nos. 1–10).
BMCCaria, Plarasa and Aphrodisias, Appendix 10a, and p. xxxiv.
E.g. ZfN 1912, p. 236, n. 4. The Metrology of the Roman
Silver Coinage, pt. 1, British Archaeological Reports Supplementary Series 5 (
Crawford, p. 628.
Issues 178–80, 182–84, 187, 189–91.
This study was completed in essentially its present form late in 1975. At that time but two hoards containing the district hemidrachms were
known. The
Road building and attendant development in southwestern Turkey in recent years doubtless led to the discovery of two additional hoards which have surfaced since 1975. Others may be expected, but the number of new coins in these two hoards was so considerable that the catalogue of Period IV's hemidrachms and quarter drachms (which comprised most of the 1977 hoard) has been rewritten to include them and a small number of other late arrivals. The arrangement and dating given here are precisely those arrived at in 1975 with the help only of the 1935 hoard and internal stylistic criteria.
The two new hoards have added but two new issues (137 and 140, both quarter drachms); and they have, most satisfactorily, confirmed at least to some degree the relative arrangement of the hemidrachm Series 1–7 which had been deduced earlier. The known contents of the four hoards are as follows.
The hoard
237
is known only because it contained the first known silver coin of
The hoard
238
contained over 55 coins —drachms and hemidrachms of the districts. It was first recorded at a Numismatic Chronicle, but no report is found there.
Fortunately, however, the accessions book records for each of the museum's eleven coins the number originally assigned it in Sir Edward's
list of the hoard, for no other account of the hoard has survived either in his manuscript hoard book at the museum or among his own
papers. Still more fortunately—indeed almost miraculously—the bulk of the hoard was still at the
The provenance of the hoard is unknown, but can probably be safely assumed to have been
Some slight wear is evident on the first three hemidrachms listed, but the remaining coins are all in virtually unworn condition. As will
be seen below, the Augustan drachms were probably all issued in the approximate decade 28/27–19/18 b.c., and the
hoard's burial date may thus be taken as ca. 15 b.c.
The significance of the hoard lies in its association of the drachms with the hemidrachms of Series 6. The large numbers of each present in
the hoard, all in excellent condition, show that the two are contemporary. This is the first clear indication of the date of any of the
districts' hemidrachm issues. Series 6's association with the drachms is further confirmed by the observation that only among the drachms
and in Series 6
Wiener Numismatische Monatshefte 1 (1865), pp. 99–100. I thank
Margaret Thompson for pointing out this reference.
Coin Hoards 1, 110.
In the spring of 1976, word was received of a Lycian League hoard containing, apparently, only hemidrachms of the districts.
239
The owner of a lot of 87 of the coins kindly allowed me to weigh and cast them, and subsequently supplied impressions of a second
lot of 43 coins. He knew of a further 5 coins, separated from the others on no particular basis ("with the swoop of a hand in a dark bar"),
and understood that the original hoard was composed of close to 200 coins. There is no reason to suspect that the two recorded lots
totalling 130 coins are not roughly representative of the whole hoard.
The first lot's owner had purchased them from a dealer in Europe. This dealer and another with whom the coins' owner spoke, as well as
another collector who had been offered similar coins in
The coins are hemidrachms of
As can be seen, the 130 hoard coins form a substantial addition to the 424 earlier ones. Indeed, if Series 6 (one hoard coin) and 7 (no hoard coins) are disregarded, the remaining 129 hoard coins equal precisely half the 258 coins previously known from Series 1–5.
The absence of Series 7 does, however, confirm that this reduced-weight series was the very latest; and the single coin of the large Series
6 indicates that the hoard was buried just as this series commenced. Series 6 is thus confirmed as the penultimate series.
The following issues were in the hoard.
These 130 coins were struck from 110 obverse dies. Only 33 of these 110 dies were previously known, while 77 were new—one more confirmation of the enormous original quantity of the Lycian League coinage. Two of the coins are of particular interest: 102.1 and 102.2, whose reverse legends ΚΡΑΓ are cut over ΜΑΣΙ, the only recuttings of inscriptions known in the Period IV coinage.
The burial date of the b.c.
Coin Hoards 3, 83.
Late in 1977 240
The hoard contained 7 hemidrachms and 24 quarter drachms, a considerable addition to the number of these small coins known. A
summary follows.
The hoard can be presumed to have been found in b.c. or later.
Coin Hoards 4, 78.
The hemidrachm Series 1–6 are catalogued first, followed by the drachms, the quarter drachms, and the reduced-weight hemidrachms of Series 7.
As in the catalogue of Period II's silver issues, obverse dies are numbered within each issue. Individual dies are referred to on the plates
and in the discussion by issue number followed by die number: thus 102.1 indicates the first obverse die catalogued in issue 102. When more
than one coin from one obverse die is illustrated, the illustrations follow the
The reverse dies found with each obverse die are indicated by lower case letters (a, b, c) following the obverse die number; these letters are not repeated on the plates. Brackets to the right indicate reverse die links.
Relative die axis positions are not given, as the great majority are ↑↑, with the few exceptions either ↑↗ or ↑↖.
The four hoards discussed above are cited as (
Hemidrachms or Kitharephoroi:
Obv. ΛΥ to either side of laureate head of
Rev. Mint initials to either side of cithara; all in incuse square.
Exceptions to the given format will be noted as they occur.
Total: 138 coins, 110 obv. dies, 111 rev. dies
Cragus
84. Obv. No ΛΥ on 84.1.
Rev. ΚΡ (ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΚΡ on 84.1a).
On the coin struck from 84.18 the mint initials are near the middle of the sides of the incuse square; on all other coins of the issue the mint initials are placed low.
Masicytus
85. Obv. No ΛΥ on 85.1–85.4.
Rev. ΜΑ (ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΜΑ on 85.1a–85.4a).
86. Rev. ΜΑ; above cithara, small star.
87. Rev. ΜΑ; to l., plectron. (to r. on 87.14a).
On the coins struck from 85.5–85.12 the Μ is high in the reverse square; on all other coins of issues 85–87 both letters are low.
On the coins struck from 85.17–85.28 the lyre is adorned with a tie to the right.
Total: 52 coins, 44 obv. dies, 50 rev. dies
Cragus
88. Obv. No inscription;
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΚΡΑ.
89. Obv.
Rev. ΚΡ; to r., filleted branch.
90. Obv.
Rev. ΚΡΑ; to l., tripod (to r. on 90.7a).
Masicytus
91. Obv. No inscription.
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΜΑΣ.
92. Obv.
Rev. ΜΑ; to r., filleted branch.
Total: 88 coins, 63 obv. dies, 78 rev. dies
Cragus
93. Rev. ΚΡ; to l., eagle on omphalos (to r. on 93.14a).
94. Rev. ΚΡ; to l., ear of corn.
95. Obv. Seemingly no inscription.
Rev. ΚΡ.
The coin struck from 93.14 is of anomalous style.
Pinara
96. Rev. ΠΙ.
Masicytus
97. Rev. ΜΑ; to l., serpent coiled around omphalos.
98. Rev. ΜΑ; to l., owl.
99. Rev. ΜΑ; to l., torch.
Cyaneae
100. Rev. ΚΥ; to l., helmet.
Myra
101. Rev. ΜΥΡΑ; to l., bee.
Total: 59 coins, 32 obv. dies, 54 rev. dies
Cragus
102. Obv. No ΛΥ; a taenia replaces
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΚΡΑΓ.
The reverse dies of the first two coins catalogued are cut over
Masicytus
103. Obv. No ΛΥ; a taenia replaces
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΜΑΣΙ.
Total: 85 coins, 64 obv. dies, 78 rev. dies
Cragus
104. Rev. ΚΡ; to l., filleted branch.
105. Rev. ΚΡ; to l., branch.
106. Obv.
Rev. ΚΡ; to l., ear of corn, crudely rendered.
On all dies of issues 104 and 105
Masicytus
107. Rev. ΜΑ; to l., filleted branch.
108. Rev. ΜΑ; to l., branch.
109. Obv.
Rev. ΜΑ; to l., winged caduceus (to r. on 109.5–109.11).
On all obverse dies of
Masicytus
110. Rev. ΜΑ; to r., tripod (to l. on 110.2a).
The obverse dies of issue 110 fall into three distinct classes. 110.1 is anomalous. 110.2–110.22 have large heads executed in low relief.
110.23–110.62 have smaller heads, worked in higher relief, and with finer features.
Coins struck from 110.3 and 104.4 include plated coins and bronze cores; these are the only such kitharephoroi known.
Drachms:
Obv. ΛΥ to either side of head of
Rev. Two citharas.
Exceptions to the given format will be noted as they occur.
Total: 161 coins, 88 obv. dies, 137 rev. dies
Cragus
111. Obv. No inscription.
Rev. ΛΥ to either side of single cithara above, and ΚΡ to either side below; to r., branch.
112. Rev. ΚΡ below (to either side on 112.2b-c); above, plectrum (below on 112.2b-c).
113. Rev. ΚΡ below; to either side, branch and star (in center on 113.1b).
Tlos-Cragus
114. Obv. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ to l. on 114.1.
Rev. ΤΛΩ above and ΚΡ below; in center, winged caduceus.
Masicytus
115. Rev. Μ over Α to l. of single cithara; to r., tripod.
116. Rev. Μ over Α to r. (to l. on 116.1b and 116.2a); to l., aphlaston (to r. on 116.1b and 116.2a).
117. Rev. ΜΑ to either side; in center, bow.
118. Rev. ΜΑ to either side (omitted on 118.4a); in center, aphlaston (cut over bow on 118.4a).
119. Rev. ΜΑ to either side; above, plectrum.
120. Rev. ΜΑ to either side (below on 120.11d–120.12a and 120.13b–120.14a); in center, two plectra.
121. Rev. ΜΑ below; no symbol.
122. Rev. ΜΑ below (to either side on 122.1a; above on 122.2a–122.5a); in center, ear of corn.
123. Rev. ΜΑ to either side; in center, owl above brach (branch omitted on 123.1a).
117.1 = 118.1; 117.3 = 118.2; 118.7 = 119.1.
As noted in the catalogue, coins struck from 116.3 include a billon piece, and coins struck from 118.2 include an Æ core—or perhaps a test
piece, as the weight is so high. I am indebted to
Quarter Drachms or Hemikitharephoroi:
Obv. Head of Artemis r.
Rev. Quiver in incuse square.
Total: 93 coins, 49 obv. dies, 65 rev. dies
Cragus
124. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΚΡ below (positions reversed on 124.1a and 124.3c; letters illegible on 124.3b); to l.,
stag's head facing (to r. on 124.3c).
125. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΚΡ below; to l., filleted branch.
126. Rev. ΛΥ, ΚΡ,
127. Obv. Head l.; to l., ΛΥ.
Rev. ΛΥ above, ΚΡ below (retrograde on 127.2a); and uncertain symbol to r. (127.1a) or l. (127.2a).
128. Obv. Double linear border.
Rev. ΛΥ above and ΚΡ below; to r., ear of corn.
124.1 = 130.1 ( Masicytus). This die was used in its earlier state
for the coins struck for
Kl. Münz. attributed to
Tlos-Cragus
129. Obv. Head l. on 129.1–129.2; ΛΥ to l. (129.1), to r. (129.4), below (129.6), or to either side (129.2, 129.5);
or ΛΥΚΙΩΝ to l. (129.7); or uncertain inscription, if any (129.3).
Rev. ΤΛ above and ΚΡ below; to r., winged caduceus (to l. on 129.5a–129.7a).
Masicytus
130. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΑ below; to l., stag's head facing.
131. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΑ below; to l., filleted branch.
132. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΑ below; to l., torch.
133. Rev. ΜΑ below (133.1a–133.2a) or ΛΥ below (123.3a–123.4a); to r. above, crescent (to l. on 123.4a).
134. Rev. ΜΑ below; above, crescent and star.
135. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΑ below.
136. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΑ below; to l., branch.
137. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΑ below; to l., bow.
138. Obv. ΛΥ to either side; linear border.
Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΑ below; to r., aphlaston.
139. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΑ below; to l. (to r. on 139.4a), uncertain symbol, possibly Isis crown (symbol doubtfully
present on 139.1a).
130.1 = 124.1 ( Cragus). See
The three coins of issue 137 have anomalous relative die positions of ↑↓. The only other silver Lycian League coin with this relative position is the first hemidrachm catalogued in issue 148 below.
Myra
140. Rev. ΛΥ above and ΜΥ below; to l., Isis crown.
The Υ below has the form
Myra-Masicytus
141. Obv. ΛΥ to r.
Rev. ΜΑ above and ΜΥ below.
Hemidrachms or Kitharephoroi of Reduced Weight:
Obv. ΛΥ to either side of laureate head of
Rev. Mint initials to either side of cithara; all in incuse square.
Exceptions to the given format will be noted as they occur.
Total: 92 coins, 62 obv. dies, 80 rev. dies.
Cragus
142. Rev. ΚΡ.
143. Rev. ΚΡ (143.1a–143.2a), ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΚΡ (143.3a–143.4a), or ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΚΡΑΓΟϹ (143.5a–143.7a); to r., ear of corn (to l.
on 143.4a–143.7a).
143.7 may be a recut version of 143.6.
144. Rev. ΚΡ to l., filleted branch.
145. Rev. ΚΡ; to r., star; to l., branch, filleted on 145.1a and perhaps others (symbols' positions reversed on
145.1a).
146. Rev. ΚΡ; to l., Τ; to r., star.
147. Rev. ΚΡ; to l.,
142.8 = 143.1; 142.9 = 144.1.
The
Telmessus-Cragus
148. Rev. ΤΕ above and ΚΡ below.
The issue was first described by Monn. gr. in 1883, and there attributed to
Masicytus
149. Rev. ΜΑ to r. (149.1a) or either side (149.2a); to l., ear of corn.
150. Obv. ΜΑ replaces ΛΥ on 150.1.
Rev. ΛΥ (ΛΥΚΙΩΝ on 150.1a); to l., bow; to r., arrow.
151. Obv. No ΛΥ; ΜΑ to either side on 151.9.
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ (ΛΥΚΙΟΛ on 151.1a; apparently omitted on 151.9a) and ΜΑ; to l., aphlaston (to r. on 151.3a–151.5a).
152. Obv. No ΛΥ; ΜΑ to either side.
Rev. ΜΑ; to l., star.
153. Rev. ΜΑ.
154. Rev. ΜΑ; above, two stars.
155. Rev. ΜΑ (retrograde on 155.3a–155.4a).
156. Obv. Head l. and ΛΥ retrograde on 156.3–156.5.
Rev. ΜΑ; to l., branch; to r., star.
157. Obv. Head l. and ΛΥ retrograde on 157.2.
Rev. ΜΑ, retrograde; to l., branch; to r., trident head (?).
158. Obv. Head l. and ΛΥ retrograde on all dies except 158.1.
Rev. ΜΑ; to l., trident head; to r., caduceus (symbols' positions reversed on 158.12a).
151.9 = 152.1; 153.3 = 154.1.
The first coin catalogued in issue 150 is tentatively assigned to BMC because the marking to right on obverse was read as in genere, but there can be little question that all of issue 150 belongs to 241
The BMC to
242
243
The dies
244
See the quarter-drachm issue 133 above, and the bronze coin 203α below, with ΜΑ and the same symbols as issue 150.
NH 5.101.
Kl. Münz., p. 306, Masikytes 1.
Villes, pp. 161–68.
The hemidrachms of Period IV divide themselves into seven obvious series. In the first five series, issues of the two districts are
parallel in obverse style, reverse format, and often even identity or similarity of symbols. Except for a very few instances among issues
of the last, reduced-weight Series 7, there are no obverse die links between issues of the same mint. Nor are there any obverse links known
between the two districts' issues of any one series, despite the often virtual indistinguishability of their obverses, and despite the
recut reverses (from ΜΑΣΙ to ΚΡΑΓ) known.
245
This is perhaps due to our lack of material, for one such obverse link between districts is known in the quarter drachms;
246
but such links would in any case tell us little, for the five early series are so clearly closely coordinated with each other
anyway.
In a few cases the assignment of issues to series is somewhat arbitrary: e.g. Series 3's issues 95 and 99, and Series 5's issue 106, all of poor style. The placement of the city issues 96, 101, and 102 is also a bit uncertain (see discussion below). But the remaining issues sort themselves out with little question into the seven clear-cut series.
The order of the series is more of a problem. The order was at first based on internal evidence alone, from the coins' weights and from an
analysis of their style, that least reliable of criteria. As discussed above, some confirmation of the relative order of some series was
subsequently provided by the appearance of the
Series 1 is without doubt the earliest series. It is the largest series, in terms of both coins and obverse dies known.
247
It is also slightly 248
Most of its coins bear no symbol. Its placement of the mint initials continues the low placement which is found elsewhere, with only
a few scattered exceptions, only on the late drachms of Period II, the multiple-unit bronzes of Period III, and some of the hemidrachms of
Series 2 in Period IV. Reverses found with
Series 2, despite the obvious coiffure change from loose locks to parallel ringlets, would seem for a number of reasons to follow Series 1. Issues 88 and 91 continue the dropped mint initials of late Period II, of Period III, and of Series 1 of Period IV; in Series 3–6 the mint initials are never low. Series 2 shares with Series 1 the Α with angled crossbar, Α; this form of the letter is the usual one in these two series, while an Α with straight cross-bar is the favored, if not the only, form in later series.
Series 2's issues 88 (
Whether Series 3 or Series 4 comes next is far from clear, but Series 3 has been placed thus because of the general similarity of its
obverse coiffures to many of those of Series 1 and 2; and because the mannered coiffures of Series 4, with the coil of hair curving over
the forehead, are so similar to those of Series 5 and 6. Series 3 opens with two obviously parallel issues: on 249
The other issues of Series 3 repeat with more or less success the attractive obverse style of issues 93 and 97:
In Series 3 have been placed the small civic issues of 250
and it is conceivable that the civic issues belong there. As has been seen, contemporary with Series 6 were the 251
And as will be seen below, roughly contemporary with Series 6 and the drachms were Series B and C of the bronze coinage of Period V.
In Series B rho,
Series 4 introduces yet another style of obverse, with the hair over the forehead coiled in a tight ringlet, which continues over the
temple and ends by falling vertically over the cheek, forward of and parallel to the four coiled ringlets falling over the neck. A
formalized flat single-loop chignon projects at the back of the neck. Exceptionally among the League's kitharephoroi, 252
so that it almost certainly was the smallest of any of the hemidrachm series of Period IV.
Series 5's issues 104 and 107, and 105 and 108, are the last parallel pairs of issues in Period IV. Each pair bears the same symbol, similarly placed, and all have the same obverse style: similar to that of Series 4, but with the short-lived taenia now replaced for good by the usual wreath. A line across the forehead, found on issues 104–5 and 107–9, is somewhat puzzling: it seems to be the lower edge of a band, rather than a cord, but nowhere continues as one would expect were it intended for a taenia.
The filleted branch symbol of issues 104 and 107 is of course the same as that of Series 2's issues 89 and 92. Yet the symbol's depiction
and placement are quite different in the two series, and the two series' obverses are also distinctly different. The corn ear symbol of
253
seem to be crude copies of Series 2 coins. One of 254
also seems to copy Series 2, yet the other dies of issue 109 clearly belong with issues 107 and 108; this offers some justification
for the inclusion of the rather anomalous issue 106 in Series 5.
The two hoards unearthed since the seven hemidrachm series were put in their present order have provided some confirmation of the order of
the last three series.
255
The
Only in Series 6 and 7 in any case does the parallelism of Series 1–5 disappear. Letter forms also associate these two final series: only
in them are found Μ's with spreading uprights, 256
Even apart from its low weight, Series 7 is set apart by its debased style, frequent use of two symbols, variations in format including
left-facing rho,
In summary, it is certain that Series 1 was the first series and that Series 7 was the last; virtually certain that Series 2 was the second, and that Series 6 was the penultimate series; and highly probable that Series 5 preceded Series 6. Only the relative placement of Series 3 and 4 remains conjectural. The absolute dating of the hemidrachms depends upon the positions held by Series 2 and Series 6, for whose dates there is external evidence, as will be seen below, and the positions occupied by these two series are fortunately fairly well assured.
Found with 102.1 and 102.2.
See Table 5.
See Figure 7.
These symbols refer to
Gordian
193–207.
110.1.
Issue 114, with which the quarter-drachm issue 129 must be associated.
See Table 5.
106.9–106.12.
109.11.
See above, pp. 124 and 127–30.
Compare 110.33–110.62 with
The order of
The arrangement of
Issues 115 and 116 are closely connected by obverse style, although no actual links have been found, and by their unique reverse placement
of the mint initials to one side or another. These issues have been placed first in the series because of this unusual format, the single
lyre of issue 115, and their large heads which alone in the series are fairly competent portraits of
Issues 117–19 are die linked; two obverses are shared by 117 and 118, which are further connected by the recutting of the reverse found with 118.4; and another obverse die is shared by 118 and 119. The three issues have the same reverse format, with initials to either side and symbol in center.
Issue 120, with two plectra in the center, would seem to follow, even if not immediately, issue 119, which has the single plectron. Sixteen of issue 120's reverses repeat the format of 117–19, with mint initials to either side, but five reverses have the initials below the citharas, as on the following issues 121 and 122.
Issues 121 and 122 introduce a dotted, rather than a linear, border on the reverse; and issue 123 (with the exception of the anomalous first coin listed) has dotted borders on both obverse and reverse. These borders and the double symbol of 123 form the basis of these three issues' placement at the end of the drachm series. The occasional low placement of the mint initials on 120 becomes dominant (17 of 24 reverses) in 121 and 122; issue 123 returns to the format with initials at either side.
The arrangement proposed is hardly confirmed by, but does accord well with, the
But the great value of the
Perhaps the tripod of issue 115, placed to the right, is to be equated with the tripod symbol of Series 6, which is also, most unusually in
the hemidrachm series, placed to the right. Another clear confirmation of the contemporaneity of the drachms and Series 6 is furnished by
the observation that only among the drachms and in Series 6, in all the League's silver coinage, are there found bronze cores, plated
coins, and coins of billon. Many of
The only obverse die link between districts in all the League coinage is found in the quarter drachms, between
A filleted branch, on
rho, rhos; but the succeeding Series 7, when
rho.
rho is possibly present also on
At least some of
Detailed knowledge of Lycian history in the first century b.c., is not to be had.
257
The country is mentioned in the sources only when from
We have seen above that b.c. in
In 67, however, the Lycians are definitely known to have participated in another Roman move against the Cilician pirates, this time their
final and effective suppression by Pompey. Under his extraordinary command, which gave him power over the whole Mediterranean and the right to
demand aid from all the lands bordering it, the sea was swept free of pirates within a few months, such were the magnitude of his preparations
and the speed of his movements. All the lands ringing the Mediterranean were organized under subordinates: 258
Lycian participation is thus assured, although no specifics are known.
Nothing further is heard of b.c. The country is not specifically named among those supporting him by the two chief sources,
259
260
but, as Treuber points out, 261
Still, as Treuber admits, it is hard to see how
During the Alexandrian War of 48–47 b.c., 262
The relative number of ships here from little 263
264
265
The historians revel in the siege, clearly exaggerating the story to stress the parallel with the Xanthians' mass
After the defeat and death of the tyrannicides at 266
Perhaps this remission of taxes was in lieu of the gift of money 267
As Treuber suggests, however, it is hardly credible that 268
b.c.; and it would most likely have been among the
"other nations" who contributed 30,000 troops for his invasion of b.c.
269
270
271
A period of relative peace began for a.d. 4 while returning to 272
A temple of "273
274
and to the honors known from inscriptions can now be added numismatic evidence of honors granted 275
In a.d. 43, however, τοὺς τε Λυϰίους στασιάντας, ὥστε ϰαὶ 'Ρωμαίους τινας ἀποϰτεῖναι).
276
Modern scholars have usually regarded these "disorders" as a mere pretext, considering 277
This was not, however, the end of the Lycian League. The League continued to function for at least three centuries as the internal government
of the country, subject to close and constant Roman supervision. 278
The Lycian League drachms with b.c. span of the
relevant Augustan coinage.
Perhaps the closest parallel to b.c.
279
The "layered" hair of many coins of issues 117–23 may echo that of cistophori of ca. 25–20 b.c.
280
A row of short free locks across the top of the head is a notable feature of this final issue 123, and this feature is seen on the
cistophori of 19/18 b.c.—but also on some drachms of 31–29 b.c.
281
b.c.—but also to denarii recently dated to 21/20 b.c.
282
The most prominent feature of b.c., but also on cisto- b.c.
283
It therefore seems unwarranted to date the Lycian drachms more precisely than to ca. 31–19/18 b.c., or,
perhaps more probably to ca. 28/27 b.c.–19/18 b.c., the span covered by the cistophori of
the Province of Asia. The variety of obverse styles found in
The lightweight hemidrachm Series 7 is thus probably later than 19/18 b.c. It has long been thought that the
League's coinage continued at least as late as 284
Nevertheless, there is no reason Series 7 could not have been struck this late, possibly at the time of the opening of the Imperial
mint at b.c. and a.d. 43.
But when did the district hemidrachms commence? The only other indication of their dates, besides the
A small isolated denarius issue of 285
The denarius's obverse bears no inscription; its reverse has Q CAEPIO BRVTVS IMP and shows a trophy with two
shields, flanked by male and female captives. Its obverse is virtually identical to the Lycian ones: the hair at the crown is waved in unusual
and rather confused short parallel S-curves; the curling lock at the forehead is the same; five ringlets fall over the cheek and neck; a
double-looped chignon is at the rear of the head; and
Another, earlier, denarius issue of LEIBERTAS on obverse; and on the reverse CAEPIO BRVTVS PROCOS
and a triple type—quiver, cithara, and filleted laurel branch.
286
None of these three objects occurs as a type on any other Roman Republican coinage. All of course refer to
All the tyrannicides' eastern coins are of course dated to the years 43–42 b.c., and are ranged in order by the
titles assumed by BRVTVS, through 2) those with title as proconsul, Q CAEPIO
BRVTVS PROCOS, to 3) those with title as Imperator, first Q CAEPIO BRVTVS IMP and then M BRVTVS
IMP. Crawford believes that the coins with title of proconsul began shortly after the tyrannicides' meeting in 287
Thus both the lyre-reverse denarius and the 288
so then would these denarii of
A tentative outline of the relationships of the Roman and Lycian issues may be suggested. The first of the Lycian issues must be 88 and 91.
Issue 88's obverses seem the finest of all, Lycian or Roman, of this style, and thus were probably the prototypes of all. The difference in
coiffure style between 289
Finally, the 290
Booty from
It is now that the importance of the stylistic order of hemidrachm Series 1–6 becomes apparent, for, with Series 2 dated to 42 and Series 6 to
ca. 28/27–19/18 b.c., the explanation of the historical context of all the series depends on this order. A possible
date for Series 1 will be suggested shortly, but Series 3, 4, and perhaps 5 must be considered as struck between b.c. and the battle of Actium in 31 b.c.—that is, during the period of
Two observations support, albeit weakly, such a period for Series 3 and 4. The civic issues of Series 3, unique among Period IV's hemidrachms,
may reflect the "freedom" confirmed by b.c. And
Series 4's obverse style may possibly go back to an Egyptian prototype. The coiffure with the front coil of hair extending from the top of the
forehead to the cheek, first introduced into the Lycian coinage in this series, is found elsewhere on ancient coins only on those of the
earlier Ptolemies.
291
b.c. may have been
responsible for this new style. b.c.; and during the preparations for Actium she furnished 200 of his 800 ships,
20,000 talents, and supplies for the whole army during the war.
292
In the coins making up these 20,000 talents perhaps there were old bronzes which provided the immediate inspiration for the
Series 5 may also have been part of the preparations for Actium, or may have been struck shortly after, before
Throughout Series 1–5, b.c., and b.c.—but b.c. I would suggest that
But when was Series 1 struck, and the hemidrachm coinage of the districts initiated? The coins themselves provide no clues. Five possible
historical occasions present themselves: b.c., Pompey's pirate
conquest of 67 b.c. and his exactions of 49 b.c., b.c.
It is worth noting that the dated Ephesian cistophori, which had been issued annually ever since 134/3 b.c., ceased
in 67 and resumed only under proconsular control in 58 b.c. This and other evidence has led
b.c., with the result that stocks of gold and silver in both 293
A hiatus in Lycian silver minting would thus be reasonable after the end of Period II.
It is here proposed that Period IV's hemidrachm Series 1 was struck under the overlordship of 294
was based on that of the Roman quinarii of the second half of the first century, Period IV's silver can only have appeared in 48 b.c. or later, for in that year 295
Further, 296
While any or all of the men cited may have demanded aid,
The following historical summary is based on the modern histories cited in n. 3, as well as the ancient historians cited for specific details.
Mith. 94–95.
App., BCiv. 2.49; Caes., BCiv. 3.3–5.
Att. 9.9.
P. 189, n. 3.
Caes, Bell. Al. 13.
47.32.
App., BCiv. 4.60–61.
App., BCiv. 4.75–81; Plut., Brut. 30–32; Dio Cass. 47.34.
App., BCiv. 5.7.
Dio Cass. 47.36.
Treuber, p. 204.
Plut., Ant. 37.
Plut., Ant. 56.
50.6.
Dio Cass. 55.10a.9. AJA 79 (1975), p. 212, and 80 (1976), p. 274,
where preliminary reports are cited.
OGIS 555 = IGR 482. FITA, p. 110).
E.g. TAM 556 = IGR 546; see also
See Period V, Series B and commentary on Series A-D.
Dio Cass. 60.17; see also Suet., Claud. 25.3.
SEG 18, 143. The most recent commentary is that in GFS, pp. 260–61.
But see Appendix 3 for a.d. 43 just as the country became a province.
31–29 b.c., with
CAESAR DIVI F,
See Plate 26, E, and Cistophori, Group V (b.c.); and Plate 26, F, and Cistophori, Group VI (b.c.).
See Plate 26, G, and Cistophori, Group VII (b.c.); and Plate 26, A (see above, n. 279).
Bronzes: see Plate 26, J, and BMCRE, BMCRE, BMCRE, b.c. by RN 1974, p.
62.
Denarii: see Plate 26, B (see above, n. 279). Cistophori: see Plate 26, F (see above, n. 280).
See Appendix 2, under
Crawford 503/1 = Sydenham 1293. See Plate 16, B.
Crawford 501/1 = Sydenham 1287. See Plate 16, A. The object to the left has invariably been described as a plectrum, but surely is not. It
is a quiver of the common cylindrical type with conical lid which often has a central projection. This object occurs throughout the Lycian
League coinage: see e.g. 4α-β, 12.2, 70β, 85.2, the quarter-drachm issues 124–41; and also the countermark present on 53.11 and others. For
larger numismatic representions of such quivers, see BMCIonia, pl. 10, 4, and pl. 18, 9–10.
P. 741, n. 3.
Crawford 505/1–3 = Sydenham 1311–13.
See pp. 20–21, and Plate 1, 2α and A-F.
Crawford, 503 ff. Both
On second century coins of Ptolemies V-VIII, on heads of Libya or of Isis: BMC-Ptolemies,
Dio Cass. 49.31.4; Plut., Ant. 56.
AJA 41 (1937),
pp. 248–49.
See Figure 10.
Crawford 452/3 = Sydenham 1012.
App., BCiv. 5.4; Dio Cass. 42.6.
See above, pp. 12–13.
Period V consists of the bronze issues of the districts of
Table 7 Types of Period V
Series A-E (four denominations)
Double Units (A, C, D, E)
Obv. Head of
Rev. Cithara in wreath (A, C, D) or standing
Units (all series)
Obv. Head of Artemis.
Rev. Stag (A, B), quiver (C, D
a
), or standing Artemis (E).
Half Units (A, B, E)
Obv. Head of
Rev. Quiver and bow crossed in incuse square (A), quiver in incuse square (B), or caduceus in incuse square (E).
Quarter Units (A)
Obv. Head of Artemis.
Rev. Quiver.
Series B, the only series of A-E without double units, also contains very large coins which must be considered Roman
denominations:
Sestertii (B)
Obv. Head of
Rev. Cithara, usually in wreath.
Dupondii (B)
Obv. Head of
Rev. Tripod, sometimes in wreath.
Series F (uncertain denominations)
Obv. Head of
Rev. Tripod.
Obv. Head of
Rev. Head of Artemis, or standing
Series G (uncertain denominations)
Obv. Stag.
Rev. Lyre.
Obv. Head of
Rev. Head of Artemis.
The Period V coins fall into seven series (coincidentally the same number as the number of hemidrachm series in Period IV, but there is no correlation between the two sets of series). As indicated in Table 7, Series A contains four denominations. Series B-E each contain two or three of these denominations, whose weights drop and some of whose types change between certain series. Series B also contains quasi-sestertii and quasi-dupondii. The last two series, F and G, abandoning the denominations of A-E, consist chiefly of coins of new weights and with significantly different types.
Table 8 compares the weights of Lycian bronzes. For Period V, it shows the cities and districts striking each series, the different series' denominations, and the weights of these denominations. In each case, the denomination called "unit" is the most common and most universally struck.
Die identities are not noted, although the total number of obverse dies known for each issue is given. (At times the coins' poor preservation makes these totals only approximate.) The occasional die links between issues are noted as they occur. Except for the very smallest coins, where die axis positions become rather random, relative die axis positions are, as usual in the League coinage, ↑↑, ↑↗, or ↑↖ and are therefore not given.
Coins illustrated are indicated by Greek minuscules (α, β, γ) merely for the purpose of identifying the coins on the plates and to facilitate reference to them in the text. Neither the letters nor the sequence of coins catalogued indicate particular dies, and only a representative selection of obverse dies is illustrated for most issues.
Series A-D are discussed following the catalogue of Series D, and each successive series following its catalogue.
Double Units:
Obv. Head of
Rev. Cithara in wreath.
Units:
Obv. Head of Artemis r.
Rev. Stag r.
Half Units:
Obv. Head of
Rev. Bow and quiver crossed in incuse square.
Quarter Units:
Obv. Head of Artemis r.
Rev. Quiver.
Double Units: 4 coins, 2 obv. dies, av. wt. 9.64
Units: 26 coins, 13 obv. dies, av. wt. 4.69
Half Units: 42 coins, 37–39? obv. dies, av. wt. 2.36
Quarter Units: 14 coins, 12–13? obv. dies, av. wt. 1.11
Cragus
Units
159. Obv. ΔΙ.
Rev. ΛΥ ΚΡ; in exergue, plectron.
α. Mavromichalis 91; BMC
160. Obv. ΕΠ.
Rev. ΛΥ ΚΡ; in exergue, plectron.
α.
Half Units
161. Obv. ΔΙ.
Rev. ΛΥΚΙ ΚΡ.
α. SNG 75; BMC
Waddington
3047. 8 coins, 7? obv. dies, av. wt. 2.47.
162. Obv. ΕΠ.
Rev. ΛΥΚΙ ΚΡ.
α.
Quarter Units
163. Obv. ΔΙ.
Rev. ΛΥ ΚΡ.
α.
Waddington
3050;
164. Obv. ΕΠ.
Rev. ΛΥ ΚΡ.
α.
The traditional ascription of the coins with ΔΙ on obverse has been to Dias, a city known only from Stephanus of Byzantium: a location in
the west of
Tlos-Cragus
Double Units
165. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛω ΚΡ.
α. BMC
The reverse wreaths are composed of trios of leaves, but the lashings connecting the trios are not shown.
Units
166. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛω ΚΡ.
α.
Half Units
167. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛ ΚΡ.
α.
Waddington
3192;
Masicytus
Double Units
168. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ and ΙΠΠΟΛΟ.
α.
Waddington
3102;
Units
169. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ or ΜΑϹΙ, and ΙΠΠΟ or ΙΠΠΟ; exergue line formed by torch on most if not all examples.
α. SNG 99; SNGFitz 5042; BMC 28, 4.60 = BMC 29, 4.48;
Waddington
3104, 5.04 =
Half Units
170. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ and ΙΠΠΟ or ΙΠ; dotted border around the incuse square on some examples.
α.
Waddington
3106; β.
Quarter Units
171. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ and ΙΠ.
α. SNG 4344;
ΙΠΠΟΛΟ is most probably an abbreviation of 'Ιππόλοχος (a name known from several Lycian inscriptions. In myth,
Hippolochus was the son born to Bellerophon after his marriage to the daughter of the king of
Cragus
Half Units
172. Obv. ΛΥ (on at least one die).
Rev. ΛΥ (on at least one die) and ΚΡ.
α. SNGFitz 5029, 2.06 = SNGFitz 5030; BMC 16. 8 coins, 8? obv. dies, av. wt.
2.28.
The usual bow is omitted on a few reverses.
Quarter Units
173. Rev. ΛΥ ΚΡ.
α.
Waddington
3049;
Masicytus
Half Units
174. Rev. ΛΥΚΙ ΜΑ.
α. Private coll. 2.12;
Waddington
3089. 4 coins, 3 obv. dies, av. wt. 2.51.
Quarter Units
175. Obv. ΜΑ (on at least one die).
Rev. ΛΥ ΜΑ.
α.
Half Units
176. Obv. ΜΑ (probably).
Rev. ΑΠΟ.
α.
Waddington
3107, 1.76;
Quarter Unit
177. Obv. Markings, if any, off flan.
Rev. ΑΠΟ.
α.
The types of issues 172–77 repeat those of the first section of Series A, and are not found again in the district coinage. The weights of issues 172–75 agree closely with those of the earlier fractions of Series A, but the weights of issues 176–77, with ΑΠΟ, are somewhat lighter. Their types place them in Series A, but their weights seem intermediate between Series A and B.
ΑΠΟ has understandably often been interpreted as the initial letters of the small city of Apollonia, on the south shore of 297
although, oddly, the only really reliably published coin with this inscription (
Waddington
3107) is there listed by Babelon simply as an issue
E.g. Asie Mineure, p. 113; BMC, p.
lxii; HN
2, p. 694, where the inscription is erroneously given as ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΑΠΟ;
Sestertii:
Obv. Head of
Rev. Cithara (within wreath except on 190).
Dupondii:
Obv. Head of
Rev. Tripod (within wreath except on 180 and 191).
Units:
Obv. Head of Artemis r.
Rev. Stag r.
Half Units:
Obv. Head of Artemis r.
Rev. Quiver in shallow incuse square.
Sestertii: 8 coins, 5–6 obv. dies, av. wt. 25.12
Dupondii: 8 coins, 5 obv. dies, av. wt. 14.26
Units: 111 coins, 26 obv. dies, av. wt. 3.48
Half Units: 3 coins, 2 obv. dies, av. wt. 1.53
Telmessus-Cragus
Sestertius
178. Rev. ΚΡ ΤΕΛ.
α. NC 1923, pp. 230–31, 38. 1 coin, wt. 25.27.
Dupondii
179. Obv. To r., cithara.
Rev. ΚΡ ΤЄΛ.
α.
180. Rev. ΚΡ ΤЄΛ; no wreath.
α.
Units
181. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΕΛ ΚΡ or ΤЄΛ ΚΡ.
α. SNG 4454; β. SNG 136; BMC 3, 3.11 = BMC 4, 3.12
= BMC 5;
Waddington
3186, 3.32;
Tlos
Sestertius
182. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛ.
α.
The similarity of the reverse format to
Tlos-Cragus
Sestertius
183. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΚΡ ΤΛ.
α.
Waddington
3060. 1 coin, wt. 24.21.
Dupondius
184. Rev. ΚΡ ΤΛω.
α. Private coll. 15.37. 1 coin, wt. 15.37.
Units
185. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛ ΚΡ.
α. Weber 7306; β. McClean 8883; SNG 149;
Waddington
3193, 3.32, 2.88; private colls. 4.46, 4.22, 3.73;
Hall Units
186. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛ ΚΡ.
α. SNG 64,
called
Cyaneae
Sestertius
187. Rev. ΛΥ ΚΥ.
α.
Waddington
3064 =
Babelon in
Waddington
read ΛΥ ΚΥΑ on reverse. The present author can read only ΛΥ ΚΥ on this worn coin, whose letters are so faint that they unfortunately
do not show up in the photograph.
Units
188. Rev. ΚΥΑ ΛΥ; on 187β and perhaps others, a torch forms the exergue line.
α. SNG 73;
SNGDavis 322; SNGFitz 5032; SNG 74; BMC 3, 2.92 = BMC 4, 2.40 = BMC 5, 3.46, 2.95, 2.49;
Waddington
3063, 3.52; private colls. 3.60, 3.07, 2.59;
Masicytus
Sestertii
189. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ (189α), ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΜΑ (189β), or ΜΑ ΛΥΚΙΩΝ (189γ); to r., winged caduceus.
α. SNGvAulock
4361; β. BMC 38 = Laffranchi, p. 294; γ.
Waddington
3116. 3 coins, 1 obv. die, av. wt. 24.07.
190. Obv. ΛΥ?
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΜΑ; to r., winged caduceus; no wreath.
α.
190α is known only from two eighteenth-century publications: Antiqua Numismatica…
Magni Ducis Etruriae (Numi Veteres Anecdoti (
Dupondii
191. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΜΑ; to l. or r., branch; no wreath.
α.
Waddington
3101; β.
191α-β and the
Units
192. Obv. ΛΥ or ΛΥΚΙ or ΜΑ or no inscription.
Rev. ΜΑ.
α. Hunter, p. 502, 6; δ. Mavromichalis 99, 3.63, 3.42, 3.41;
McClean 8879, 3.76
= SNGFitz 5043; SNG 100;
Hunter, p. 502, 7; BMC 31, 3.84, 3.49 = BMC 32, 2.92 = BMC 30, 2.65 = BMC 30A;
Weber 7279;
Waddington
3098, 3.64 =
193. Obv. ΛΥ or no inscription.
Rev. ΜΑ; above or to r., Isis crown.
α. BMC 33; β.
Waddington
3099;
Myra-Masicytus
Units
194. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΥ.
α. SNG 109; β.
195. Obv. ΛΥ or ΜΑ or no inscription.
Rev. ΜΥ; above or to l. or r., Isis crown.
α. BMC 9; SNG 108; BMC 8;
Waddington
3099, 3.44, 3.34; private coll. 3.33;
None of the three coins of issue 194 bears
Masicytus or Myra-Masicytus
Half Unit
196. Obv. Illegible inscription to r.
Rev. Illegible inscription.
α. Private coll. 1.68. 1 coin, wt. 1.68.
The similarity between issues 192–93 of 298
But the numerous die links between the city and district issues have gone unrecognized except for one handwritten ticket in the
trays of the Cabinet des Médailles in
The obverse legends seem to be irrelevant. All four tightly die linked issues must have been contemporary, and all must have been struck at
The types of issue 196 are of course those of the quarter drachms. The weight of the coin, however, shows that it cannot have been a bronze
core for a plated quarter drachm, but must be considered a simple bronze coin. The reverse is unfortunately quite illegible, but the piece
must be a half unit of
E.g. BMC, p. liii.
Double Units:
Obv. Head of
Rev. Cithara in wreath.
Units:
Obv. Head of Artemis r. (occasionally l. on 201).
Rev. Quiver.
Double Units: 45 coins, 20–22 or fewer obv. dies, av. wt. 6.04
Units: 39 coins, 12 obv. dies, av. wt. 3.54
Cragus
Double Units
197. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΚΡ; above, on most if not all dies, small star.
α.
Waddington
3053; β.
Units
198. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΚΡ; to l. above, star.
α. SNG 66;
199. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΚΡ; to r., branch.
α.
Xanthus-Cragus
Double Units
200. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΚΡ ΞΑΝ.
α. SNG 69; β. SNG 4315; γ. BMC
Waddington
3056;
200α and 200β share a reverse die; 200β and 200γ share an obverse die; 200γ and 200δ share another reverse die; and 200δ and 200ε share another reverse die. The obverses with ringlets, both left-facing and right-facing, and those with taenia and long flowing locks are thus all firmly associated.
Units
201. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΚΡ ΞΑΝ or ΞΑΝ ΚΡ.
α. SNG 71, 3.39 = SNG Phliasia-Laconia 487, called
Zacynthus; BMC
BMC
Waddington
3202, 3.08;
201α is from the obverse die of 205α (Series D,
Masicytus
Double Units
202. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑϹΙ or ΜΑ.
α. Mavromichalis 102; β.
BMC 36, 4.57; SNG 4345. 16 coins, 11 or fewer obv. dies, av. wt. 5.58.
Units
203. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ; to l., arrow; to r., bow (201α only).
α. SNG 4343. 7 coins, 2 obv. dies, av. wt. 3.62.
204. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ; to r., stag's head.
α. BMC 34; β.
Double Unit:
Obv. Head of
Rev. Cithara in wreath.
Units:
Obv. Head of Artemis r. (occasionally l. on 205).
Rev. Quiver (stag r. on 207).
Double Unit: 1 coin, wt. 4.40
Units: 30 coins, 8 obv. dies, av. wt. 2.71
Cragus
Units
205. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΚΡ.
α.
Waddington
3048; γ.
205α and SNGCop 65 are from the obverse die of 201α (Series C,
205γ and the two coins of issue 207 (Series D,
Tlos
Double Unit
206. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛ.
α.
Another coin of this issue is published in Mus. Hederv., p. 253,
Units
207. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΥ.
α.
The two coins of issue 207, with its anomalous stag reverse, are die duplicates. Their obverse die was also used for 205γ: see commentary under that issue. That the two coins of issue 207 belong here in Series D rather than in Series B's issue 185 is shown by this die link, and by the coins' omission of 185's ΚΡ.
208. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛ.
α. SNGFitz 5044, called SNG 147;
Waddington
3189, 2.97, 2.31; private coll. 3.46;
Most of the surviving coins of Period V are of Series A-D, which contain a rather bewildering number of variant issues with the same or
similar types. Attempts to arrange these by style—e.g. by
Certain groupings of issues—those with ΔΙ, ΕΠ, and ΙΠΠΟΛΟ
299
—are obvious and show that four denominations existed, whose weights were in 300
these heavy coins form Series A. The remaining coins then sort themselves out by weight and occasional changes of type into three
further series, B-D.
The chief denomination, the one found in every series, is the next-to-largest denomination. This has arbitrarily been termed the "unit"; there are thus also double units, half units, and quarter units, although each of these other denominations is not found in every series. The "units" of Period V are in no way related to the "units" of Periods I or III; in each case the term denotes merely the most common and most universally struck denomination in that period.
The types of the four "local denominations" of Series A-D are:
Double Units (A, C, D):
Obv. Head of
Rev. Cithara in wreath.
Units (all series):
Obv. Head of Artemis.
Rev. Stag (A, B, and one die in D) or quiver (C, D).
Half Units (A, B):
Obv. Head of
Rev. Quiver and bow crossed in incuse square (A) or quiver in incuse square (B).
Quater Units (A):
Obv. Head of Artemis.
Rev. Quiver.
The smallest denomination, the quarter unit, was struck in Series A only, and does not reappear in the League coinage. The half unit was 301
The incuse square on the reverse is the mark of the half unit throughout; an incuse square makes its appearance in Period V only on
these three series' half units. The half units' types change between Series A and B, and the units' reverse type changes between Series B and
C. Weights drop between Series A and B, and again between Series C and D.
302
The double units were struck with unvarying types in Series A, C, and D. They are missing only in Series B, and it is precisely here that two
exceptional groups of very large bronzes seem to belong. The largest of these coins have 303
To return to Series A: it has already been noted how their heavy weights set all issues of this series apart from other issues. omega, ω. The
The remaining "units" with stag reverses are all of distinctly lower weight, and these form the bulk of Series B. Many of these units are
among the most attractive of all League bronzes, and they survive in great numbers. No double units can be associated with them, but three
small coins, all poorly preserved and nearly or totally illegible, seem to be their half units. These three small coins' combination of types
(Artemis head and quiver in incuse square) is unique among League bronzes,
although it is of course that of the silver quarter drachms. The obverse styles agree perfectly with their accompanying units: compare 186α
and β and 185α, and 196α and issues 192–95. Their weights are also just right for the half denomination of the Series B units.
304
These three small coins thus confirm the distinction between Series A and B.
That the sestertii and dupondii of Series B are associated with each other is clear from several observations. The average weight of the
dupondii is far higher than that of any of the bronze "local denominations," and is approximately half that of the sestertii. Two dupondii
(179α and 184α) bear the wreath of the sestertii, the wreath enclosed by two dotted circles precisely as on most of the sestertii, and this
wreath is of a new type. It is not formed of two continuous branches, as is the wreath of Series A, but is composed of separate trios of
leaves, with the lashings between the trios clearly shown. Further, one sestertius of 305
Several indications associate the Roman-denomination coins with the "local-denomination" coins of Series B. Their issuers are the same, or
nearly so: only among the sestertii and dupondii and the smaller coins of Series B do upsilon,
Series C, struck to the same weight as Series B, contains only double units and units, and the units introduce a new reverse type: the quiver.
No longer needed for the smaller denominations, the quiver probably replaced the stag because of its simplicity and greater ease of depiction.
None of the cities of Series B are present in C, while
Series D, like Series C, is composed of double units—of which only one or two in Series D are known—and units. With the exception of the one
reverse die of issue 207, Series D's units continue the quiver reverse type of Series C, and are further linked to C by the obverse common to
201α (Series C,
Once again the diversity of styles of
Issues 159–64 and 168–71.
Issues 165–67 and 172–77.
Issues 212, 218–19.
See Table 8.
The average weights of the relevant sestertius and dupondius issues (see below, pp. 208–10 and n. 306), from examples in BMCRE, Ashmolean,
See Table 8.
The holes appear on 187α's obverse (Collectionneurs et Collections numismaliques—Monnaies, Médailles et Jetons, catalogue of the May-Sept. 1968 exposition at the
Hôtel de la Monnaie,
The clearest indication of the date of Series A-D is furnished by the sestertii and dupondii of Series B, which bear a striking resemblance to
certain sestertii, dupondii, and smaller bronzes issued by the Province of Asia. These "Asiatic" coins bear on obverse a portrait of 306
The portraits are obviously the prototypes of the Lycian ones: the rendering is identical, including the swirl of hair at the nape of
the neck, which can be distinguished on the better-preserved Lycian sestertii. Many of the Asiatic coins bear a corona navalis, but the
reverses with simple laurel wreath are again the models for the Lycian coins: the wreaths are formed
So close are the Lycian and Asiatic obverse portraits (although of course the inscriptions vary) that Laffranchi was led in 1916 to attribute
all the Asiatic C·A coins to 307
One wonders, indeed, if the Lycian sestertii's obverse dies were not cut in
The disputed meaning of the C·A on the Asiatic coins, and the chronology of these and the associated series with reverse legend AVGVSTVS have,
one hopes, been finally settled by a convincing study by 308
Commune Asiae, and that the
wreaths represent those granted to Commune Asiae in depicting wreaths is clearly paralleled
by that of ϰοινά or concilia elsewhere, especially those of the 309
To these ϰοινά can now be added that of the Lycians.
The Asiatic coins must be dated to between 27 b.c., when b.c., when he took the
further title Tribunicia Potestas, which occurs on subsequent bronzes of the provinces.
310
The Lycian sestertii can thus be assumed to date from the same period, ca. 27–23 b.c., and to these years
then also belong the dupondii and "local denominations" of Series B.
It is surprising that this obvious parallelism between the Lycian and Asiatic sestertii has gone almost completely unnoticed. It is especially
remarkable that 311
He states that the Lycian coins' portraiture derives from certain denarii struck before 27 b.c.
312
—coins which, to the present author's eye, bear little or no particular resemblance to the Lycian bronzes. Grant dates the Lycian
sestertii, whose denomination he does not recognize, to ca. 30–29 b.c., styling liberatio coinages. He further postulates that the coins record the elevation of the four
minting cities to "cities of the first class." Neither the four mints' sestertii themselves nor anything we know of the history of the time
suggests any reason for the assumption that some of the coins represent liberatio coinages while others do not; and
what Grant means by "cities of the first class" is far from clear.
313
In any case, as
The peculiar rho, 314
It has been suggested above that b.c., and with them the full-weight hemidrachms. The reduced-weight hemidrachms of Series 7 fall at some undetermined
time after that date, but also employ the peculiar rho. It is thus impossible to be certain of a terminal date for the
bronzes following Series B; but the competent and pleasant styles of Series C, at least, seem to make it unlikely that that series was
contemporary with the hemidrachm Series 7 which has such a variety of debased styles. The most likely period for Series C and probably D of
the bronzes may be ca. 23–19/18 b.c.
Series A, the earliest in Period V, would have been struck before ca. 27 b.c., but whether before or after Actium is
not clear. It will be recalled that the small civic bronzes of Period III continued into the 30s b.c. at least,
315
and thus that the introduction of the large bronzes of Period V might well be ascribed to b.c. But there are possible indications that the new bronzes commenced earlier, in
the late 30s b.c. under b.c., so closely preceding B; and some of Series
A-D's types may possibly be connected to other coinages associated with
b.c. during his war with the
Parthians, and again during his preparations for Actium.
316
Possible Egyptian models were suggested above for the hemidrachm Series 4, here dated to the late 30s b.c.,
and it is also tempting to suggest Egyptian-related models for the bronze units of Series A-D.
The Artemis head of the units is not an uncommon depiction, and the stag and quiver
reverses accompanying the goddess's head on the Lycian coins are nothing if not banal. Nevertheless, the coins' strong 317
The most recent analysis of these Cretan coins dates them only roughly to somewhere in the middle of the first century b.c.
318
Crete had come under b.c., and he had
ceded "Κϱήτης τινα" to 319
And in 34 b.c. he made further grants to 320
The Cretan bronzes could well have formed part of any large shipment of money sent by
Another phenomenon in the Lycian coinage may also reflect Egyptian associations: it is possible that the central cavities found on the Lycian sestertii and dupondii may be attributable to the influence of the recent Egyptian overlordship during the late 30s.
BMCRE 707–36. See Plate 26, J-K.
Laffranchi, pp. 294–98; see also NC 1923, pp. 230–31.
"Symbolism," pp. 94–109.
"Symbolism," p. 108.
BMCRE 737–44.
FITA pp. 342–43.
BMCRE "633, etc."
Especially when he cites FITA, p. 343, n. 6, referring not to FITA, and errs in his discussion of each. His attribution of a
BMCRE 643.
See above, p. 108.
Dio Cass. 49.31.4; Plut., Ant. 56. See above, p. 182.
The major city of 321
and it has been uncertain just when the city formally became part of the Lycian League.
When in 188 ϰαταλυθείσης δὲ τῆς
βασιλείας ἀπέλαβον πάλιν οἱ Λύϰιοι).
322
That it joined the League so early, however, has been doubted because of τινες… Τελμισέων τε ϰαί Λυϰίων)
323
aided
b.c. Its earliest League strikings are its bronze issues 178–80 of Series B.
BMCCyrenaica, pp. 114–15, 4–16 (see Plate 26, H); and BMCCrete, Cnossus 66–67 (see Plate 26,
I). The coins in BMCCyrenaica are assigned on p. cxxvi to Crete, which had been added in 67 b.c. to the province of Cyrenaica.
Robinson in BMCCyrenaica puts his Cretan coins to b.c. Bronze Coins of Knossos," NC 1968, pp. 13–26. I am grateful to b.c.
Dio Cass. 49.32.5.
Dio Cass. 49.41.3.
In contrast, b.c., but to find it only somewhat later in Series
C, where it is the sole city represented. As has been noted, b.c. and 324
There is, however, no record of his aiding them, and every likelihood that his own pressing concerns shortly led to a restoration of
the tribute. The period of relative peace and heal- b.c. would seem to confirm that it
was rebuilt under
Double Units:
Obv. Head of
Rev.
Units:
Obv. Head of Artemis r.
Rev. Artemis Huntress standing facing.
Half Units:
Obv. Head of Hermes wearing petasus (or
Rev. Winged caduceus in incuse square.
Double Units: 52 coins, 14 obv. dies, av. wt. 5.87
Units: 19 coins, 5? obv. dies, av. wt. 3.06
Half Units: 15 coins, 11? obv. dies, av. wt. 1.72
Cragus
Double Units
209. Obv. ΚΡ.
Rev. ΚΡ.
α. BMC 19; β. BMC 18;
Waddington
3051; private coll. 6.45;
Units
210. Obv. ΚΡ.
Rev. ΚΡ.
α. Hunter, p. 500, 4;
Half Units
211. Obv. ΚΡ.
Rev. ΚΡ or ΚΡ ΛΥ.
α.
Waddington
3173, called
The
The letters on the
Masicytus
Double Units
212. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ.
α. SNGFitz 5041, 5.35 =
McClean 8877; SNG 85; cast in
Waddington
3093, 5.14;
212β and 213α are from the same obverse die.
213. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ; to r., branch.
α. Hunter, p. 502,
212β and 213α are from the same obverse die.
214. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ; to r., star (often poorly preserved).
α. SNG 86;
Units
215. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ.
α. Hunter, p. 501, 4;
Waddington
3092; private coll. 3.11;
216. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ; to r., branch.
α. Private coll. 3.18; β. private coll. 3.35;
Waddington
3091. 4 coins, 2 obv. dies, av. wt. 3.13.
Half Units
217. Obv. ΛΥ. Head of
Rev. ΜΑ.
α. FITA, p. 333; β. Mavromichalis 97, obverse described as Hermes. 2
coins, 1 obv. die, av. wt. 2.23.
Grant in FITA erroneously describes 217α as struck over a coin of 325
218. Obv. ΛΥ (on some dies).
Rev. ΛΥ, ΜΑ, or ΛΥ ΜΑ.
α.
Waddington
3086; γ.
The inclusion of 218α, without
See Appendix 2, under
On
14.665.
App., Mith. 24.
App., BCiv. 5.7.
The three denominations of Series E continue from Series A-D, and the use of the reverse incuse square continues to mark the
half-denomination. The double units' and units' reverses now portray standing figures of
The emperor's head shows that the series is still Augustan in date. The introduction of Hermes, and the evident equation of 326
rhos continue the peculiar form
Uncertain Denomination (219):
Obv. Head of
Rev. Tripod.
Uncertain Denomination (220–22):
Obv. Head of
Rev. Head of Artemis r. (220); or
Uncertain Denomination (219): 5 coins, 3 obv. dies, av. wt. 8.79 Uncertain Denomination (220-22): 59 coins, 39? obv. dies, av. wt. 3.99
Tlos-Cragus
Uncertain Denomination
219. Rev. ΚΡ ΤΛΩ.
α. SNG 4314; γ.
BMC 27; RN 1893, pp. 457–58 = Monn.
gr., p. 329, 24;
Waddington
3055. 5 coins, 3 obv. dies, av. wt. 8.79.
The two
That 219 is a single issue despite its variety of obverse styles seems probable from the uniformity of its reverses: all with the same
letter forms—ΚΡ ΤΛΩ as opposed to
Tlos
Uncertain Denomination
220. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΤΛ, or ΛΤ (on one die), or ΤΥ (on two other dies).
ΛΤ: α.
Waddington
7147.
ΤΛ: β.
Waddington
3090, called
ΤΥ: δ. Monn. gr., p. 329, 26, called
Tymena; BMC Ty… 1; private coll. 2.8;
SNG 4474, called "Tyberissos?";
220γ, with ΤΛ, and 220δ, with ΤΥ, are from the same obverse die.
Much has been written about the attribution of the ΤΥ coins, the most favored mint in recent years being Tyberissos.
327
328
The poor and careless execution of the entire series, the reversed city ethnic ΛΤ on one die, the identity of style between the ΤΥ
and ΤΛ coins in general, and the obverse link between 220γ and 220δ—all these make it a virtual certainty that a hurried or incompetent
engraver made errors on three dies, adding ΛΤ and ΤΥ to the issue's other combinations ΛΥ and ΤΛ. There was no Lycian mint commencing with
ΤΥ.
329
Masicytus
Uncertain Denomination
221. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ; to r., branch.
α. SNG 4340. 4 coins, 1 obv. die, av. wt. 5.17.
222. Obv. ΛΥ.
Rev. ΜΑ.
α. BMC 27; β. Watcher de
Molthein 2536; γ.
Waddington
3073, called
See NC 1945,
pp. 41–57. I thank Carmen Arnold-Biucchi for pointing out this reference.
The most complete discussion is that of
Under SNGvAulock 4474, called "Tyberissos?" he remarks, "Vielleicht ist Τυ aber für ΤΛ (
Hill in the BMC, p. lvi, mentions "a small bronze coin of the League reading ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΤΥ (in the Bibliothèque
Nationale at
Series F consists chiefly of one uncertain denomination—that of issues 220–22—which cannot be equated with any of the denominations previously
used in Period V.
330
Issue 219 may have been intended as the double denomination of 220. Its weights (even leaving out the anomalous high weight of 219α) are a bit
heavy for this, though; and 219 bears
Series F, which introduces the new denomination of issues 220–22, was a large one: more obverse dies (39) are known for these issues than for the whole of any other series.
Uncertain Denomination (223-24):
Obv. Head of
Rev. Head of Artemis r.
Uncertain Denomination (225–26):
Obv. Stag r.
Rev. Cithara.
Uncertain Denomination (223-24): 23 coins, 10 obv. dies, av. wt. 3.87
Uncertain Denomination (225-26): 9 coins, 2 obv. dies, av. wt. 2.46
Cragus
Uncertain Denomination
223. Obv. ΚΡ.
Rev. ΛΥ.
α. Weber 7265; Walcher de Molthein 2529; BMC 22;
Masicytus
Uncertain Denomination
224. Obv. ΛΥ or ΜΑ.
Rev. ΛΥ or ΜΑ.
α. Weber 7278; γ. private coll. 3.25;
SNG 101, 3.87 = SNG 102; SNG 4346; Weber 7264,
3.24. 13 coins, 5 obv. dies, av. wt. 3.58.
At least one side of each coin of issue 224 bears ΜΑ.
The obverses and reverses of issues 223–24 have often been confused with each other in earlier publications, but the coins' very slight concavities are found only on the sides with Artemis's head, showing that the goddess is depicted on the reverse.
Cragus
Uncertain Denomination
225. Obv. ΚΡ.
Rev. ΛΥ.
α.
Waddington
3052;
Masicytus
Uncertain Denomination
226. Obv. ΜΑ.
Rev. ΛΥ.
α.
Presumably because the side with the federal ethnic is normally the obverse in the League coinage, the coins of issues 225–26 have always been described with the cithara as the obverse type. But that the stag belongs on obverse is shown by the proportion of stag dies (1) to cithara dies (3) in issue 225; by the dotted border around the cithara in issue 226, a feature found far more frequently on reverses than obverses; and, most conclusively, by the slight concavity of the sides with the cithara.
See Table 8.
Series G differs from the other Period V coinage in having the district initials, in most cases, on the obverse and the federal initials on
the reverse. It and issue 220 of Series F also differ from earlier series in
Many of 223–24's rather crude busts strongly resemble some of those of the non-League issue of 331
This issue of 332
On both
It was mentioned above
333
that inscriptions show that individual Lycians dropped the use of the federal ethnic in identifying themselves after the First
Mithradatic War, using thereafter only a simple municipal ethnic. This de-emphasis of the federal ethnic in inscriptions is explained by the
decreased independence and importance of the League after
A further similar development seems apparent here on the late bronzes of Period V. The usual ΛΥ on obverse and district initials on reverse of
Series A-D are altered in Series E, where
It has long been recognized that the Lycian League's coins of 334
And in 1906 335
The League's coinage can now be seen to reflect direct Roman dominance, and probably control, even more clearly and even earlier. The
sestertii and dupondii of Series B of Period V reflect honors paid to b.c.; and these district hemidrachms seem to have been struck in connection with Roman needs and military
activities in the East. Finally, the districts themselves appear to have been Roman creations, formed after the First Mithradatic War in order
to collect Lycian "contributions" to the Roman treasury. That perceptive scholar Oskar Treuber aptly 336
Even as early as this the Lycians were, as Treuber well knew, "ihrer formellen Rechtstellung nach Bundesgenossen des römischen Volke,
ihrer faktischen Stellung nach aber Knechte."
337
That the Lycians alone preserved even a nominal autonomy as late as a.d. 43, long after the rest of the
Mediterranean world had been turned into Roman provinces, is nonetheless rather remarkable. 338
Both factors no doubt played a part. Another, however, is shown by the League's coinage: from the time of
See Appendix 1, under
See Appendix 3.
See the beginning of the Period IV chapter.
ZfN 1906, p. 51, n. 2.
Cic., Verr. 2.1.32.
Treuber, p. 187.
There is one exception: the one reverse die of Series D, issue 207, has a stag instead of a quiver.
See n. 49.
Known from one coin only.
Obverse die links are indicated by brackets to the left.
Unit denotes the commonest and most universally struck denomination.
Known from one coin only.
If the anomalous high weight of 219α is omitted (8.79 g), the remaining four specimens of this denomination have an average weight of 8.05.
See Appendix 3.
See Appendix 1, under
As noted at the outset of this study, "mint" has been used strictly in the sense of the more cumbersome "issuing authority," not in the sense of the actual location at which a coin was struck. The question of just where certain coins were actually struck has been touched on from time to time, but the situation varies from one period to the next in the League's coinage; indeed, in Period IV, where the chief issuing authorities are the two great districts, the question is not only which cities acted as the districts' mints but which cities belonged to which district.
It is impossible to say where this scanty bronze coinage, issued in the name only of "the Lycians," was struck. As already mentioned, its
types echo those of
There are five die linked groups of drachms of different cities in Period II. In Series 1, one group includes
More Period II intercity die links will undoubtedly appear in the future. The evidence does not, however, suggest a single "central mint." The links all involve pairs or small groups of nearby cities, and indicate local cooperation in the mechanics of minting, either when one or more of the cities involved had a negligible output or when a variation in the standard coinage was being introduced.
A similar pattern of scattered die connections between pairs of nearby cities is found in the bronze Lycian coinage of 339
No central mint is there indicated, nor is any in Period II. The Lycian League's Period II coinage was obviously centrally controlled
as to weight, types, and format, but the great bulk of it must have been struck at the cities whose names appear on the coins.
While one style of 340
This hardly, however, suggests central minting. Three cities (
The League could have organized its Period IV and Period V minting in three possible ways: at a single central mint; at two different
mints,
To consider the silver first: only one obverse link is known between districts, that between the quarter-drachm issues
Two reverse dies are known in hemidrachm Series 4 with 341
But no obverse die links are known between districts in any hemidrachm series, despite the extremely close stylistic resemblance of
at least one pair of parallel issues of the two districts in each of Series 1–5.
342
These similarities could have been the result of central minting, or they could have arisen because dies were cut centrally and then
sent to locations where stores of metal were actually struck. The complete lack of links leads the author to favor the latter possibility.
In either case, the political conclusion is obvious and the same: firm central planning and control.
But a number of issues in Series 1–5 are not so closely related, either in style or markings, to any issue of the other district. Series 3
contains coins with the initials of three cities, and it is reasonable to assume that these dies were cut and the coins struck at those
cities (
After Series 5 the parallelism between the districts ceases. Only
There is no other candidate than a.d. 17 he toured Asia after receiving his extraordinary command over the
"provinces beyond the sea."
343
Here were the homes of the two leading cults of provincial 344
The second century a.d. inscription honoring the 345
Finally, the only homonoia coins known from 346
With all due respect granted to the richness and importance of
To turn to the bronzes: it was presumably at home that the Period V bronzes of
It remains unexplained why
A further question remains: which of the other cities known from Periods II-V belonged to each of the two districts of
During Periods IV and V, the names of four cities appear on the coins without mention of either district:
Three cities are named on the coins together with 347
Only one city struck in combination with
Among the four cities which struck independently, two (
348
(
Only
Other mints which 349
The only questionable cases are b.c. Perhaps after 67 b.c. they came under the jurisdiction of
the Province of 350
The above division of League mints between the two districts of
Gordian
, pp. 29–30.
See Table 4.
102.1 and 102.2.
Series 1, issues 84 and 85; Series 2, 88 and 91, and 89 and 92; Series 3, 93 and 97; Series 4,102 and 103; and Series 5, 104 and 107, and 105 and 108.
TAM 420 = IGR 680 (IGR 715–16 (Andriace,
TAM 905 = IGR 739, XIIIC.
IGR 704.
Gordian
258–59, obverse linked with
Issue 147's markings are, it is true, ΚΡ and
Geog. 5.3.
IGR 700;
Gordian
95–96.
See above, p. 109, and Appendix 1, under
Because of the great variety of issues and mints in the Lycian League coinage, the banality of the coins' types, and the difficulty in reading correctly the small bronzes in particular, it is not surprising that numerous misattributions of League coins have been made and that many non-League coins have been attributed to the League. It is hoped that most of these misattributions have been laid to rest in the present work. Those which have come to my attention are listed below and are either discussed or referred to the issues where the coins properly belong.
Pseudo-Rhodian drachms with an eagle across Helios's cheek on the obverse have been assigned to a number of Lycian mints, but the coins are
of
Kitharephoroi (e.g. BMC 1): see issue 155.
Bronzes (e.g. BMC, p. lxii): see issues 176–77. Apollonia was not a
mint at any time.
Small bronzes with ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΑΡΑ have been reported (Mionnet, Suppl. 7, p. 6, 18) and rejected (Asie
Mineure, pp. 113–14). No such coins were found by the present author. Nevertheless, they may have b.c. (see
above, pp. 11, 12).
Kitharephoroi (e.g. BMC 4): see issue 150.
Bronzes: obv. head of rev. ΑΡΥ ΚΑΝ and stag in wreath) has also
been attributed to Recueil, p. 135 = Asie Mineure, p. 117; 3). The coin's poor preservation prevented both the recognition of the turreted crown on the
obverse head and the proper reading of the reverse legend, which is ΑΒΥ. The coin is a striking of Abydus, of the issue of BMCTroas Abydus 42-43. The report of a continuation of the legend, ΚΑΝ, below the stag, arose from an apparent Κ
scratched into the coin and from leaves in the wreath resembling the other letters.
Conveniently contiguous alphabetically are these three cities, two of which struck small bronze coins with League types. obv. rev. ΒΟΥ
and bow and quiver crossed, but without incuse square (BMC 1); and rev. stag with ΒΟΥ (SNGvAulock 4286) or ΚΑΛΥ (BMC 4–7). None of these issues is precisely similar in its types and size to
League coins, and none bears the federal or district ethnic; they must therefore be regarded merely as imitations of League strikings. See
above, p. 109.
Bronzes (e.g. BMC
Kitharephoroi (e.g.
Waddington
3010): see issue 150.
Quarter drachms (e.g. NC 1863, p. 42, 4): see issue 133.
Bronzes:
Waddington
3088, ascribed to
Quarter drachms: Kl. Münz., p. 306,
Bronzes: a small issue of bronzes with League types (obv. ΜΥ and head of rev. cithara in wreath: BMC 7) might be considered a League issue. The coins do not, however,
bear the federal or district ethnic, and, most significantly, do not have the standard League die axis position of ↑↑. Eleven of the
fifteen coins known to me of this issue have an orientation of ↑↓; only four have ↑↑. The issue thus must date from Roman times, when the
↑↓ orientation became common, as in BMC 10, and as in a.d. 43: see Appendix 3. A brockage of this
issue at the ANS further tends to confirm the Roman associations of the issue, brockages being predominantly a Roman phenomenon. The mean
weight found was 3.70: see Table 7. An example is pictured on Plate 41, A; a reverse link exists between a coin with this obverse coiffure
and one similar to SNGvAulock 4367, with a different hair style.
Bronzes: obv. head of
rev. stag) described with ΠΑ ΚΡ on reverse in a sale catalogue of the last
century (Sotheby, June 29, 1863, 446), one can only conclude, was misread. Nevertheless, the error has been repeated in the BMC, p. lii, and in HN
2, p. 696. Suggestively, the next lot in the Sotheby catalogue contained a similar error: see under Trabala, below.
Waddington
3173) attributed to
Bronzes: Mionnet reports small bronzes with obv. ΛΥ and rev. ΠΟΔ and bow and quiver crossed in incuse square (Suppl. 7, p. 22, 88). The issue's existence is
accepted by
Gordian
, pp. 34 and 51). No such coins have been found by the present author, however, and most probably the attribution arose from a
misreading of
Kitharephoroi: a small issue bearing Τ, star, and ΚΡ has been ascribed to
Waddington
3044) but is more probably of
Bronzes: a bronze with
The Period III bronzes with ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΤΡ (issue 78) have often been ascribed to this northern city (BMC, p. lxviii; it is definitely accepted in
Gordian
, p. 54). The coins are, however, of
Bronzes bearing this reverse legend have been ascribed to various insignificant Lycian cities whose names start with these letters. The
legend, however, is a blundered one and the coins are of Ty.
Known forgeries of Lycian League coins include imitations of the kitharephoroi of Periods II and IV, and a bronze piece purporting to be of
Period V struck over
Obv. Head of
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΠΑ Cithara in incuse square.
Nos. 1 and 2 are die duplicates.
The multiple-ringlet coiffure of all four coins is not found elsewhere in Period II, but on silver only in Period IV, where Series 2 may have furnished the prototypes of the forgeries' obverses. The atrocious style of nos. 1–3, and the impossible weights of nos. 1 and 2, further conclusively condemn these three examples. No. 4 is more competently done, but its unusually high weight and generally heavy obverse execution also reveal its falseness.
Obv. Head of
Rev. ΦΑΣΗΛΙ Cithara; to l., Isis crown; to r., torch; all in incuse square.
The obverse is most awkward and unprecedented. On the reverse, the symbol to l. is unusually high and the lettering much too regular. The
Φ, in particular, is rendered with an almost perfect circle, unlike that on any other coin of
Obv. Head of
Rev. ΛΥΚΙΩΝ ΚΡΑΓ Cithara in incuse square.
The coin weighs too much, especially in view of its poor condition. Suspicions of its genuineness were confirmed on the arrival of the
Obv. ΛΥ Head of
Rev. ΚΡ Cithara; to r., filleted branch; all in incuse square.
Die duplicates, nos. 7–9 are fairly well executed imitations of Series 2's issue 88. The lyre with its indentation at the bottom and with
its
Obv. Head of Zeus r.
Rev. ΚΡ to either side of Cithara; to r., filleted branch; all in incuse square.
The coin is struck over a coin of obv.
ΤΙΒЄΡΙΟϹ ϹЄΒΑϹΤΟϹ and head of the emperor, and rev. ΙЄΡΩΝΥΜΟϹ ΖΜΥΡΝΑωΝ and garlanded altar (BMCIonia,
The coin has been published three times by Monn. gr., p. 325, 2; Choix, pl. 4, 149; and "Griechische Ueberprägungen," ZfN 1878, p. 149, 16). This conclusion
was accepted by Head (BMC, p. xlviii).
The coin, however, is like no other in all the League coinage. Its reverse, purportedly of the age of
Two other forgeries, which I have not seen, are mentioned in the literature. Both are silver coins supposedly of
Waddington
3042, with types of
All issue numbers are prefixed by "C" to avoid confusion with Lycian League issue numbers. In other respects the formats for the silver and bronze catalogues follow, respectively, those of the catalogues of the silver and bronze coins of the League.
The silver coins are termed denarii, as they bear
The three bronze denominations have been arbitrarily termed double units, units and half units, the unit here as elsewhere defined as the
most common denomination. Their weights seem to bear more relation to earlier local bronze issues than to contemporary Roman bronze
denominations.
351
Many of the bronze coins are in very poor condition. Only reasonably certain die identities are indicated; there may well be others,
unrecognized.
Denarii
Obv. ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟϹ ΚΛΑΥΔΙΟϹ ΚΑΙϹΑΡ ϹΕΒΑϹΤΟϹ Laureate head of the emperor r.
Rev. ΓЄΡΜΑΝΙΚΟϹ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤωΡ Varying type.
C1. Rev. Cithara; to l., and r. on C1.1a–C1.3c, ΛΥ.
C1.1 = C2.2; C1.3 = C2.3 = C3.1 = C5.2; C1.4 = C2.6 = C4.1.
C2. Rev.
C2.2 = C1.1; C2.3 = C1.3 = C3.1 = C5.2; C2.6 = C1.4 = C4.1.
The reverse type is that used throughout the League's coinage, and on the later Lycian coins of 352
The figure on the last two coins of issue C2 seems to belong to this issue rather than to issue C4 because of the figure's nearly
facing position and hipshot posture; the bow can be recognized, held vertically, below the left hand.
C3. Rev.
C3.1 = C1.3 = C2.3 = C5.2; C3.2 = C5.1.
C4. Rev. Spes standing l., holding flower in outstretched r. hand and holding up the hem of her garment with her l.
hand.
C4.1 = C1.4 = C2.6.
The reverse figure, which at first glance seems to be the same as that of issue C1, does on closer inspection indeed appear to be Spes, 353
C5. Rev.
C5.1 = C3.2; C5.2 = C1.3 = C2.3 = C3.1.
C6. Rev.
It is not clear to the present author whether the reverse figure is
Bronze
Obv. ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΣ ΚΛΑΥΔΙΟΣ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΟΣ Head of the emperor l. (all denominations).
Rev. ΠΑΤΗΡ ΠΑΤΡΙΔΟΣ ΓΕΡΜΑΝΙΚΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ (double units and units) or ΠΑΤΗΡ ΠΑΤΡΙΔΟΣ (half units). Varying type.
Double Units
C7. Rev.
α.
C7α is from the obverse die of C8α and C10α.
C8. Rev.
α. obv. countermark: P) = SNGFitz 5023;
C8α is from the obverse die of C7α and C10α. C8β is from the obverse die of C9α. The
C9. Rev. Cult-image of
α. obv. countermark: Μ)
The reverse type is found also on 354
C9α is from the obverse die of C8β.
C10. Rev. Libertas standing facing, holding pileus in outstretched r. hand.
α.
The reverse type is found on several issues of 355
C10α is from the obverse die of C7α and C8α. The other two coins of issue C10 share another obverse die.
Units
C11. Rev.
α. Private coll. 7.73↑ (rev. Ϲ replaces Σ); β. cast in SNG 6907, called Bithynia =
C11β is from the obverse die of C12β and C14α. C11γ is from the obverse die of C13α. The heavier
C12. Rev.
α. Crète 14; β.
C12β is from the obverse die of C11β and C14α. The privately owned coin is from the obverse die of C15β. The
C13. Rev. Cult image of
α. Crète 17; private coll.
7.41↓
C13α is from the obverse die of C11γ.
C14. Rev. Libertas as on issue C10.
α. SNGFitz 5024; Crète 16 (obv. not illustrated)
C14α is from the obverse die of C11β and C12β. The heavier
C15. Rev. Warrior mounted on horse galloping r.; he wears helmet and cuirass and his chlamys blows behind him; he
carries a shield and brandishes a javelin; to l., on pedestal, statue of an armored warrior (?), wearing triple-crested helmet or rayed
crown, holding patera or shield in l. hand, and javelin (?) in upraised r. hand.
α. Crète 18 = Ball 6 (Feb. 9,
1932) 587 = obv. countermark: Ο); SNG 6908, called
Bithynia
C15β is from the obverse die of the privately owned specimen (not illustrated) of issue C12. The heavier
Cl6. Rev.
α.
Half Units
C17. Rev.
α. Private coll. 3.44↖;
The
C18. Rev. Mounted warrior as on issue C15 but with the statue omitted.
α.
The first small assemblage of 356
357
and his publication was followed in 1905 and 1906 by brief, non-illustrated studies by 358
No subsequent study of the coinage is known to me.
The present compilation strengthens and confirms the conclusions reached by a.d. 43, in which year
The limited material available to the earlier investigators did not allow them to realize the extensive die linkage found in both the silver and the bronze series. Only 11 obverse dies are known for the silver, and multiple obverse die links connect 5 of the 6 issues. The repeated obverse links among the bronze coins show that these too must have been brief and concentrated issues (see Table 10).
The federal initials ΛΥ are found only on some of the denarii of issues C1 and C2; the remaining coins of these issues do not have the ΛΥ.
A helpful die flaw shows that some and thus very likely all of the coins with ΛΥ preceded those without. The obverse die C1.3 (= C2.3,
C3.1, and C5.2) was in its unflawed state when used with reverses C1.3a-b (with ΛΥ); when used with reverse C1.3c (also with ΛΥ), C1.3 had
developed a small but obvious flaw, a short line rising vertically from the top of the head towards the Λ in ΚΛΑΥΔΙΟϹ. This flaw is found
on all of the other coins (none with ΛΥ) of issues C1, C2, C3, and C5 for which this obverse die was used. The initial use, and prompt
abandonment, of the federal initials is a circumstance which seems most understandable if the coins were struck at the very moment when
Several issues are here either published or illustrated for the first time, but in themselves add little to the significance of the
coinage. One might single out only issues C17 and C18, which clearly are the smallest denomination of the bronze series, and recognized as
such for the first time. 359
but where this intriguing coin should be attributed I have been unable to discover.
See Table 8.
See pp. 20–21 and Plate 1, A-F.
E.g. BMCRE,
E.g.
Gordian
134–64. A bust of the same goddess is found on autonomous bronzes of
E.g. BMCRE,
Crète, pp. 336–37, nos. 10–12 and 14–18.
"Miscellanea," pp. 400–402.
Works cited in abbreviations list.
In late December 1982, as the page proofs of this study were being corrected, the ANS acquired a silver drachm of the League's Period II,
uniquely inscribed ΑΠ. The coin was too interesting to omit. Text and tables above have been altered to reflect knowledge of it, but the only
place its description could be accommodated was here. Practical considerations also dictated placing its illustration slightly out of
numerical order on the plates; but it will be found incorporated into Plate 5, next to the
Aperlae
1 coin
23A. Rev. ΑΠ to l., Isis crown.
23A.1 = 27.1 ( Trebendae). The identity of the rather confused locks at the crown, and some
small die breaks in the field to l., show that 23A.1 is the same die as 27.1. Recutting of the hair in front of the laurel wreath on 23A.1
shows that
'Απεϱλειτής.
360
361
As mentioned in the commentary under
Waddington
3011. Obverse and reverse are transposed in the published descriptions, and the inscription is not so complete as described. The
obverse bears a poppy head or caduceus head between leaves or corn ears above, clasped hands, and Λ (?) and Υ below; the reverse bears ]ΙΟΣ
ΚΛΑΥΔΙΟΣ surrounding a tripod.
IGR 690 and 692-93.
Other League bronzes with ΑΠ have occasionally been attributed to Apollonia, but the letters seem to refer to an individual, and are not evidence for Apollonia as either a League mint or League member: see issues 176-77 above.
Lycian League silver coins are identified in the catalogue and on the plates by issue number and die number: thus 84.1 is the first die catalogued in issue 84. Asterisks in the catalogue indicate the particular specimens illustrated.
Lycian League bronze coins are identified by issue number and Greek minuscules: thus 60α is the coin indicated by "α" in the catalogue of issue 60.
On the plates, brackets above the numbers indicate obverse die links; brackets below the numbers indicate reverse die links.
Lycian provincial strikings under
Other coins are identified on the plates by capital letters, and a key to these follows.
Plate 1
Plate 12
Plate 14
Plate 16
Plate 26
Plate 41
Plates 42–44
Lycian provincial coinage under