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THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 The Silver Coinage of 
 
 Crete 
 
 A Metrological Note 
 
 Bv 
 
 George Macdonald, C.B. 
 
 Fellow of the Academy 
 
 [From the Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. IX] 
 
 London 
 
 Published for the British Academy 
 
 By Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press 
 
 Amen Corner, E.G. 
 
 Price Four Shilling-'; net 
 
- 
 
p 
 
 
 THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 
 
 A METROLOGICAL NOTE 
 By George Macdonald, C.B. 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ACADEMY 
 
 Communicated December 10, 1919. 
 Introductory 
 
 A year or two ago I was able to acquire for the Hunterian 
 Museum an extremely interesting silver stater, struck at the Cretan 
 city of Itanus. It had formed part of a small collection belonging 
 to Sir Henry Yule, the editor of Marco Polo ; but there was nothing 
 to indicate how or when it had come into his possession. It appears 
 to be restruck, as are so many other Cretan coins. The style is 
 good, and points unmistakably to a date circa 400 b.c The descrip- 
 tion is as follows : 
 
 Helmeted head of Athena 1. [l]TANin[N] Eagle standing L, 
 
 looking backwards ; in field r., 
 small Triton ; incuse square. 
 
 [Plate, Fig. 1] 
 
 The types, it will be seen, are not unfamiliar. What makes the 
 coin remarkable is its weight ; it turns the scale at 14*58 grammes 
 (225 grains), whereas the sixteen other known specimens of its 
 class range from a maximum of 11*74 grammes to a minimum of 
 10*18. The difference is so great as to be explicable only on the 
 hypothesis that the standard is not the same. No clue to the puzzle 
 could be found in the recognized authorities. A systematic survey 
 of Cretan coin-weights was accordingly undertaken, in the hope that 
 a clearer light would be thrown upon the matter. The results can 
 make no claim to finality. But they do seem to carry us some way 
 farther forward, and it may therefore be worth while putting them 
 on record. Professor Gardner's recent book affords convincing proof 
 of the importance of this obscure and difficult department of numis- 
 matic study. 
 
 From more than one point of view Crete offered special advantages 
 for a survey of the kind. The island is a limited and self-contained 
 
 TX L 
 
2 /, PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 area, and there was already in existence what may not unfairly be 
 called a corpus of its coins. 1 That is to say, the material was not 
 excessive in amount, and much of it was readily available. On the 
 other hand, its proper chronological arrangement will always be 
 exceptionally hard to determine. Unskilled engravers were employed 
 in the Cretan mints far more freely than in the mints of any other 
 part of the Hellenic world. Consequently, in applying the criterion 
 of style, it is not always possible to distinguish between degeneration, 
 strictly so called, and mere clumsiness in the copying of first-rate 
 models, such as is apparent in Plate, Fig. % when contrasted with 
 Plate, Fig. 1. The broad lines of development are, indeed, obvious 
 enough. It is in the handling of individual specimens that trouble 
 is apt to arise. Yet, for the right solution of a metrological problem, 
 reasonable precision of date may be hardly less vital than reasonable 
 precision of weight. At every step, too, progress is more or less 
 seriously hampered by the general limitation that besets all inquiries 
 into Greek coin -standards uncertainty as to what should be regarded 
 as the norm for each particular group of pieces. Even well-preserved 
 specimens struck from the same dies hardly ever agree exactly, and 
 sometimes the variation is considerable. The truth would appear to 
 be that. Greek mint-masters had perforce to acquiesce in rough-and- 
 ready methods of calculation. In default of elaborate mechanical 
 appliances, they probably put their chief trust in the acquired instinct 
 of their skilled workmen, who would be given a definite quantity 
 of metal with instructions to produce from it a specified number 
 of coins. 
 
 Current Views: Need for their Revision. 
 
 According to the hitherto accepted opinion two standards, and 
 two standards only, were employed in Crete prior to the introduction 
 of the Imperial coinage : the first was a debased form of the Aeginetic, 
 and the second was the Attic, which began to be used circa 300 b. c. 
 and which ultimately prevailed everywhere. The conclusions thus 
 summarized are those of the Historia Numorum, and they therefore 
 represent the outcome of a review which was broad and comprehensive 
 rather than detailed. Closer examination shows that considerable 
 modifications are needed. It reveals the fact that, if we are to get 
 at the truth, we must look not merely at the coins as a whole, but 
 
 1 J. N. Svoronos, Numismatique de la Crete ancienne (Macon, 1890). During 
 the past twenty or thirty years many additional examples have been published in 
 sale-catalogues and elsewhere. Due account was taken of these in the statistics 
 that were compiled for the purposes of this survey. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 3 
 
 to some extent also at the issues of individual cities. During the 
 fifth and fourth centuries, more especially, there was far less homo- 
 geneity than is usually supposed. Once this has been realized, the 
 problem assumes a new aspect. Meanwhile it can be most con- 
 veniently approached through the quotation of Head's ipsissima 
 verba 1 : 
 
 4 Down to this time [i. e. about the end of the fourth or the 
 beginning of the third century B.C.] the weight standard employed 
 throughout the island had been the Aeginetic, or more properly 
 a debased form of the Aeginetic approaching in weight to the 
 Persic standard which prevailed along the south coasts of Asia 
 Minor and in Cyprus. After the age of Alexander, whose coinage 
 has left but slight traces in Crete (although the absence of Cretan 
 coins in the third century suggests the inference that the currency 
 of the island was at this time Alexandrine), the Attic standard 
 creeps in and replaces the older Aeginetic. In the second century 
 a general revival of the coinage takes place, at first on the pattern 
 of the new Athenian tetradrachms, which afterwards give place to 
 local Cretan types. This coinage continues sporadically until the 
 conquest of Crete by Q. Caecilius Metellus in b.c. 67 when auto- 
 nomous issues for the most part appear to have been put an end to, 
 until, in the time of the Empire (Augustus to Trajan), a new 
 Romano-Cretan coinage makes its appearance.' 
 
 Prevalence of the Aeginetic Standard Proper : Two Norms 
 Distinguishable. 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the Aeginetic standard having been 
 employed in Crete from the earliest period of coinage there, or in 
 other words from circa 480 b.c onwards. But it is hardly justifiable 
 to describe the Cretan form of it as 'debased 1 , since that term, 
 as applied to money, conveys a suggestion of deliberate intention. 
 The fall in weight can be accounted for in a perfectly natural way. 
 Wherever a coin-standard spread from one region to another by the 
 method of gradual infiltration, some reduction during the process was 
 virtually inevitable. The phenomenon recurs again and again, and 
 it can be very simply explained. We have seen that in Greek mints the 
 weighing of blanks was not carried out with the scrupulous nicety 
 that modern invention has made possible. Under Gresham's Law 
 it would doubtless be the heavier specimens that would find their way 
 abroad. But, in the course of their travels, even these would be 
 brought below the normal through the wear and tear of circulation. 
 It would thus be 'specimens reduced by a natural and inevitable 
 process that would serve as a model when the standard came to 
 
 1 H. N.\ pp. 383 f. 
 
 414956 
 
4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 be introduced elsewhere. The more numerous the intermediate 
 stages, the lower would be the level that was finally touched. The 
 Aeginetic standard had, of course, to travel southwards through 
 the Archipelago before it could take root in Crete, and we catch an 
 instructive glimpse of it upon its journey. The norm for the silver 
 stater of Aegina in its original home may be put at 12-60 grammes, 
 although that maximum is rarely attained and still more rarely 
 exceeded. By the time it had reached the Cyclades in its progress 
 southwards, it had lost fully half a gramme. Imhoof-Blumer says of 
 the archaic coins of that island group, which are somewhat older 
 than the earliest of the Cretan issues, that ' the weight of the best 
 preserved staters is twelve grammes on the average, and is in point 
 of fact more frequently below that figure than above it V Assuming 
 the same ratio of decline to be maintained, we should expect to find 
 the Cretan norm in the neighbourhood of 11*40 grammes. What 
 are the facts ? 
 
 If we were to take Crete as a whole, disregarding for the moment 
 the differences between individual cities and making no allowance for 
 the way in which the condition of specimens may vary, 2 we might fix 
 as a rough average for the three chief denominations 
 
 Staters or Didrachms .... 11 grammes. 
 
 Drachms 5*40 grammes. 
 
 Hemidrachms 2*60 grammes. 
 
 These, it must be remembered, are averages only. If the figures 
 relating to the staters could be set out in the form of a graph, the 
 curve might rise as high as 12*25 on one side of the line and might 
 sink as low as 9*40 on the other, 3 an excess over 12 being, how- 
 ever, of more common occurrence than a fall below 10. The other 
 denominations, if similarly treated, would show a similar oscillation, 
 although the distance between the extremes would naturally be less. 
 Tetrobols were occasionally struck, 4 and it is important that these 
 
 1 Griech. Miinzen, p. 13. 
 
 2 However desirable it might be to allow for this factor, it is not possible to do 
 so, since the c sources ' seldom trouble to note the condition of the pieces that 
 they register. 
 
 3 Even these limits are exceeded in a few exceptional cases. Thus Svoronos 
 (op. cit., p. 160, No. 25) records a stater of Gortyna, now in Berlin, which is said 
 to weigh 12*95 grammes. A misprint is, of course, possible, and at present the 
 statement cannot be verified. At the other extreme is the stater of Itanus 
 which was published in Num. Chron., 1913, p. 384. It scales.no more than 
 7"68 grammes, but is admittedly c badly worn, hence its low weight'. 
 
 4 I have noted an unmistakable group of four at Cnossus, with an average weight 
 of 3'91 grammes. Two of these are in the Hunter Collection (Catalogue, ii. 
 p. 175, Nos. 15 f.), and the latter of them is figured here (Plate, Fig. 7). 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 5 
 
 should not be mistaken for abnormally light drachms or abnormally 
 heavy hemidrachms. Where, as at Cnossus, there are drachms and 
 hemidrachms belonging to the same issue, the distinction is quite 
 clear. Smaller denominations, such as obols, hemiobols, and tri- 
 hemiobols, are not infrequent, but in the present state of our 
 knowledge an examination of the weights of these would not be 
 worth the trouble it would cost. 
 
 Based though they are on the coinage of the island as a whole, the 
 averages given above are sufficiently high to make it practically 
 certain that the reduction which the Aeginetic standard underwent 
 in Crete was the outcome of purely general causes. At the same 
 time it is not altogether satisfactory to be confronted with a stater 
 of 11 grammes where one of about 11-40 was anticipated. It there- 
 fore becomes necessary to see whether a better result can be got by 
 considering the issues of individual cities. Even a superficial scrutiny 
 brings marked differences to light. Thus, out of 211 staters of 
 Phaestus, of whose weights I have been able to secure a record, 
 there are only 17, or 8.05 per cent., that fall below 11 grammes. 
 At Gortyna with 198 staters the corresponding percentage is 10*1. 
 At Cnossus, on the other hand, with 128 it rises as high as 41*5. 
 A contrast so startling affords prima facie grounds for suspecting the 
 presence of two distinct norms. And, if we probe the matter farther, 
 we shall find that the suspicion is more than justified. Here a brief 
 digression on procedure is required. 
 
 The difficulty of determining the norm in any particular case has 
 already been alluded to. The obvious plan is to calculate the 
 average weight of all the members of the group in question. Indeed, 
 where only a few coins are available, there is nothing else to be done. 
 At the best, however, the results are apt to be of doubtful value ; 
 two or three abnormal pieces may disturb the balance of the whole. 
 After a good deal of experiment I am convinced that by far the most 
 trustworthy method is one originally suggested by M. E. Babelon, 1 
 and first turned to practical account by Mr. G. F. Hill 2 the con- 
 struction, with the aid of squared paper, of what may be termed a 
 table of frequency \ Each column of squares is regarded as repre- 
 senting some small fraction of the unit, a twentieth (say) of a gramme, 
 and a series of such columns is marked accordingly, beginning with 
 the heaviest coin in the group and continuing in regular descent until 
 the lightest has been reached. Within the limits thus staked off 
 the weights of the various specimens are then indicated by dots 
 
 1 Traite, i. pp. 577 f., note 4. 
 
 2 Num. Chron., 1906, pp. 342 f. 
 
6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 placed inside the blank squares, one to a square and each in its 
 appropriate column. The outcome is a complete conspectus of the 
 weights of the group. While abnormal examples are revealed as 
 abnormal and are not allowed to mar the general effect, the approxi- 
 mate position of the norm stands out conspicuously in the shape of 
 a solid block of dots, very often crowned by a more or less prominent 
 projection. 1 
 
 As was hinted above, it is essential to the success of the method 
 just described that the coins available for the construction of the 
 tables should be reasonably numerous. Consequently, although an 
 attempt was made to apply it to the Aeginetic staters of all of the 
 Cretan towns, there were only four cases in which a perfectly certain 
 and definite result was obtained. These were Gortyna, Phaestus, 
 Cnossus, and Cydonia. At the two former towns the norm lay 
 between 11-20 and 11-85 grammes, being slightly heavier at Gortyna 
 than at Phaestus. At the two latter it lay between 10-65 and 11-30, 
 being rather lighter at Cydonia than at Cnossus. We shall not be far 
 wrong if we fix it at 11-55 for Gortyna and Phaestus (with a tendency 
 to sink lower at Gortyna and to rise higher at Phaestus), at 11-10 for 
 Cnossus, and at 10-95 for Cydonia. 2 The drachms of the same four 
 towns, when tested in the same manner, bear witness to a similar 
 difference of norm. Further, the evidence from the remaining cities 
 of Crete, incomplete as it is, is useful for confirmation ; in the great 
 majority of instances the lighter norm would appear to have been 
 followed. It will be observed that at Gortyna and Phaestus the 
 reduction in the weight of the Aeginetic stater, as compared with its 
 weight in the Cyclades, is even less than we were prepared for. We 
 may conclude that these were the two earliest of the Cretan towns to 
 strike their own money, and that it was from them that the practice 
 spread to the other parts of the island. This gives a new significance 
 to the archaic staters with the quaint legends through which the 
 types are made to proclaim themselves ' the stamp of Gortyna ' 
 (Plate, Fig. 3) and ' the stamp of the Phaestians ' (Plate, Fig. 4). 3 
 
 It is, of course, possible though hardly probable that the 
 Aeginetic standard reached the northern side of Crete by a different 
 and more circuitous route, the longer journey involving a greater loss 
 
 1 For a practical example, see E. S. G. Robinson in Num. Chron., 1915 , p. 261. 
 
 2 This, too, although there has been excluded from the table the specially 
 light set of Cydonian staters which will be dealt with presently. 
 
 3 It is interesting to find that one of these archaic staters, which is uninscribed 
 and may, therefore, belong to either city, is restruck upon a stater of Siphnos : 
 it weighs 11*76 grammes. See Imhoof-Blumer, Antike griechische Miinzen, p. 13 
 and cf. supra, p. 4. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 7 
 
 than would have been incurred if the direct line from the Cyclades 
 had been followed, as it apparently was to Gortyna and Phaestus. 
 One thing, however, is clear. We may dismiss the idea that the 
 prevalence of the Persic standard on the southern coasts of Asia 
 Minor and in Cyprus had any influence in bringing about the reduc- 
 tion we have been discussing. The Cretan staters, which not 
 infrequently approach or even exceed 12 grammes, can hardly have 
 been interchangeable by tale with staters of the Persic standard, for 
 which a maximum of 11*50 may safely be assumed. And, unless 
 a system of interchange was secured, no practical purpose would have 
 been served by the reduction. A workable agio could have been 
 arrived at without it. Moreover, although it is notorious that 
 restriking was a very common custom in the mints of Crete, I have 
 not met with a single instance of a coin of Persic weight being 
 selected for such treatment, whereas the choice of foreign coins of 
 Aeginetic weight has frequently been noted. 1 
 
 Incidentally, the testimony of restruck coins throws an interesting 
 light on the official attitude towards the two distinct norms whose 
 existence within the island was revealed by our tables of frequency. 
 The difference between them would seem to have been ignored. 
 Both at Gortyna and at Phaestus the mint-masters used staters of 
 Cnossus as flans on which to impress their own types, 2 thus affording 
 another proof of that neglect of scrupulous exactitude which has 
 already been mentioned as characteristic of Greek moneyers. The 
 bulk of the pieces struck on the Aeginetic standard in Crete must 
 have been looked upon as readily interchangeable, although each city 
 continued, as a rule, to maintain at its own mint the particular norm 
 which it had adopted when it first began to issue coins. Here and 
 there exceptions may perhaps be detected. At Praesus, for example, 
 the table of frequency, inconclusive though it be owing to lack of 
 numbers, seems to suggest that the older staters were minted upon 
 the heavier norm and their successors upon the lighter one. At 
 Lyttus, again, something of the same sort may have happened, 
 
 1 Thus we have staters (Svoronos, op. tit., p. 159, No. 8, and p. 160, No. 25), 
 drachms {ibid., p. 66, No. 5), and hemidrachms {ibid., p. 163, No. 42) of Aegina 
 itself; drachms {ibid., p. 261, No. 41) and hemidrachms {ibid., p. 279, No. 17) 
 of Larissa in Thessaly ; and hemidrachms of Argos {ibid., p. 270, No. 7, and p. 279, 
 Nos. 16 f.). As to staters of Cyrene {ibid., p. 165, Nos. 65 f., p. 262, No. 53, and 
 p. 263, No. 59) and drachms of the same city {ibid., p. 278, No. 11) see Robinson 
 in Num. Chron., 1915, p. 263. 
 
 2 e.g. Svoronos, op. tit, p. 162, No. 36, and p. 255, No. 2. The latter of 
 these weighs only 10*15 grammes, showing that it was not simply the heavier 
 pieces that were chosen. 
 
8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 although there, in the absence of any well-defined change of types, 
 nothing short of a careful examination of the whole of the actual 
 coins would enable one to say whether chronology and metrology 
 were in agreement as to a line of demarcation. But at none of the 
 four cities for which reasonably full statistics were procurable does 
 the table give a clear indication of a transition from one norm to the 
 other. 1 Tradition, entrenched behind convention, did not deem it 
 needful to discriminate. 
 
 Sporadic Appearance of a Debased Form of the Aeginetic 
 
 Standard. 
 
 The general truth, then, remains as stated. The statement, how- 
 ever, was expressly limited to * the bulk ' of the pieces struck on the 
 Aeginetic standard in Crete. So far as I am aware, it has not 
 hitherto been recognized that at one time there was employed, in 
 a particular corner of the island, a variety of the Aeginetic standard 
 which may quite legitimately be called * debased ', and whose staters 
 can hardly have been interchangeable with those of either of the 
 ordinary norms. The reason for the debasement is quite obscure. 
 But the evidence for it seems indisputable, and accordingly the coins 
 concerned have up to this point been left out of account. They form 
 a class by themselves, and the fact that this has not previously been 
 noticed is undoubtedly responsible for much of the ill repute that has 
 come to attach to the Cretan form of the Aeginetic standard. Their 
 exceptionally low weight has produced a false impression by distorting 
 the perspective. Now that they have been segregated, we can deal 
 with them separately. In doing so it will be best to begin at the 
 fountain head, which would appear to have been Cydonia. 
 
 The most numerous, though not the oldest, group of Cydonian 
 staters have on the obverse the head of a nymph or Maenad, r., 
 wreathed with vine-leaves and grapes, and on the reverse a figure 
 of a naked archer, probably the hero Kydon, stringing his bow 
 (Plate, Fig. 8). Occasionally a dog with raised forepaw stands facing 
 the archer. My list contains twenty- six examples of this series which 
 are unquestionably minted on the lighter of the two usual Cretan 
 norms ; they range between 11-35 and 9-53 grammes, and yield an 
 average of 10-87 grammes, all save the lowest being well over 10. 
 There is, however, a unique stater with similar types, which is distin- 
 guished from the others by the presence of a symbol above the 
 
 1 Some of the earliest coins of Cnossus are, however, heavy enough to suggest 
 that they may reflect the norm used throughout at Phaestus and Gortyna. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 9 
 
 dog, and which weighs no more than 9*25 grammes (Plate, Fig. 9). 1 
 Had it stood alone, the abnormal weight might readily have been 
 attributed to accident. It is only when we examine the next group 
 that its significance becomes apparent. 
 
 It will be found that the latter pieces have the head on the 
 obverse turned to 1. and wreathed with vine. The reverse has the 
 archer Kydon as before, and sometimes he is accompanied by his dog, 
 always with a symbol in the field above. But here the presence of 
 the dog has a real meaning, as will be clear from the following list of 
 all the examples whose weights I have been able to ascertain : 
 
 Coins without dog or symbol. Coins with dog and symbol. 
 
 11-83 9-72 
 
 11-52 9-51 
 
 11-41 9-50 
 
 11-38 9-49 
 
 11-30 9-44 
 
 11-20 9-43 
 
 11-04 9-42 
 
 11 9-40 
 
 10-98 9-40 
 
 10-85 9-27 
 
 10-80 9-26 
 
 10.48 9-23 
 
 9-95 9-14 
 
 8-90 
 
 Examination reveals a difference in the obverse also ; on the lighter 
 series the bunches of grapes in the nymphs hair have been replaced 
 by ivy leaves. And the evidence of the contemporary drachms, so 
 far as it goes, is to the same effect, for the average weight of 11 
 examples on which there is no dog is 5-37 grammes, giving a stater of 
 10-74, whereas the solitary drachm on which the dog appears, weighs 
 no more than 4-65 grammes, 2 and would therefore give a stater of only 
 9-30. The gap between the two classes is thus about 1^ grammes, too 
 considerable to be the result of an accident, particularly as it is clean- 
 cut, with little or no gradation on either side and practically no 
 difference in the comparative preservation of the specimens. The 
 first explanation that suggests itself is that the lighter pieces are later, 
 and that their appearance indicates the substitution of one standard 
 for another. Plausible as it may seem, this theory must be dismissed 
 
 1 Svoronos, op. tit., p. 99, No. 2. The coin subsequently passed into the 
 Bunbury Collection (Sale-Catal. ,T*t. i. Lot 1162), and is now in the British Museum. 
 
 2 Ibid.,?. 101, No. 17. 
 
 l3 
 
10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 as untenable. The symbol above the head of the dog establishes a 
 direct connexion with the unique stater mentioned above (Plate, Fig. 9), 
 and so proves that the earlier group, too, had a light series as well as 
 a heavy one. Unfortunately the condition of the obverse is such that 
 it is not possible to determine definitely whether there was a corre- 
 sponding difference in the head-dress of the nymph. It will be 
 interesting to have this point settled should a better- preserved 
 specimen come to light. 
 
 Moreover, it can be shown that, on the one hand, the drop 
 was not permanent, and that, on the other, it was not due to a 
 temporary lapse at this particular mint. We find that the same 
 division recurs in the succeeding series of Cydonian staters. The 
 beautiful pieces bearing on the obverse a female head wreathed with 
 ivy, and on the reverse a hound suckling an infant, yield when 
 weighed two very similar groups, which are, however, indistinguishable 
 by any difference of type. The heavier is represented on my list by 
 only two examples, which weigh 11*33 and 10*91 grammes respectively, 1 
 and so give an average of 11*12, the ordinary norm of Cydonia. On 
 the other hand, seven specimens of the lighter group yield an average 
 of no more than 9*11 grammes, with a maximum of 9*52 and a 
 minimum of 8*39. 2 A contemporary drachm, with types similar to 
 those of the staters, weighs 4*62 grammes. 3 In all probability it is 
 an abnormally light example of the heavier class, for a parallel series 
 on which, however, the ivy-wreathed head is replaced by a head of 
 Athena, 4 is certainly struck on the debased ' standard. The average 
 weight of the ten specimens I have noted is only 4*15 grammes, with 
 a maximum of 4-58 and a minimum of 3*62. 
 
 Notwithstanding the obvious difficulty attending such a conclusion, 
 the facts seem to leave us no option other than to suppose that the 
 two classes were in circulation simultaneously, having been struck for 
 different markets. The difficulty is perhaps less serious than might 
 at first sight appear. The Greek trader was accustomed to handle 
 a miscellaneous currency, and his sense of weight must have been 
 highly developed. He was not likely to confuse two sets of staters 
 whose norms were separated by an interval of not less than a gramme 
 and a half, even if he received no assistance from the types. And we 
 have seen that, in the case of those with the archer Kydon, the 
 
 1 One of them is in Paris ; for the other see Hunter Catalogue, vol. ii. 
 PI. XLI. 8. 
 
 2 Svoronos, op. cit. } p. 104, Nos. 36 f. 
 
 3 Ibid,, No. 38. 
 
 4 Ibid., Nos. 39 ff. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 11 
 
 presence or absence of the dog provided him, during one period at least, 
 with a very obvious guide. With the drachms the risk of confusion was 
 naturally greater. Doubtless that is why, in the case of the later 
 coins with the hound suckling an infant, a different obverse type was 
 employed. We shall have occasion to refer to this question at a 
 subsequent stage. Meanwhile it may be pointed out that the ' normal 1 
 standard seems to have survived the disappearance of the ' debased' 
 one. There is a set of Cydonian hemidrachms, 1 having on the obverse 
 a head of Apollo and on the reverse the hound suckling an infant, 
 which are proved by their style as well as by the form of the 
 inscription (KYAnNIATAN)tobe later than the pieces of which we 
 have been speaking. The average of the six known specimens of the 
 set is %-55 grammes, which is virtually the norm for this denomina- 
 tion on the ordinary Aeginetic standard as used in Crete. 2 
 
 The debased Aeginetic standard is traceable also at Aptera. It is 
 true that the earliest and best-known staters of that city those with 
 an armed warrior standing before a sacred tree are struck on the 
 lighter of the two ordinary Cretan norms. My list of twenty-three 
 examples brings out an average of 11*03 grammes, with a maximum 
 of 11*53 and a minimum of 9*61. But there is a much rarer series, 
 with a head of Apollo on the obverse and a naked warrior on the 
 reverse, 3 which must be regarded as debased ; the only two specimens 
 that are known weigh 9*30 and 9*01 grammes respectively. Again, 
 Allaria appears never to have employed the ordinary standard at all. 
 Her silver coins are all drachms, and the fourteen recorded specimens 
 have an average weight of no more than 4*47 grammes, with a maxi- 
 mum of 4*80 and a minimum of 4*03. This represents an average of 
 slightly less than 9 grammes for the stater. Ceraia is possibly in 
 like case, although there the data are inadequate and the evidence 
 consequently less convincing. She, too, struck nothing but drachms, 
 and the three examples I have been able to find have weights of 4-90, 
 4*62, and 3*76 grammes. 4 The view that the debased standard was 
 intended to meet the needs of a particular market is confirmed by the 
 
 1 They are called ' drachms ' in Hist. Num.*, p. 464. But this is clearly a mis- 
 print. For an illustration see Svoronos, op. cit., PI. X. 2 (p. 107, No. 61). 
 
 2 The weight of 11*62 grammes given for Svoronos, op. cit., p. 107, No. 59, 
 suggests that Aeginetic staters were also minted with the later form of inscription. 
 But the coin, which is in Paris, has been re-weighed for me by M. Dieudonne, 
 who informs me that the figure should be 14*62. It, therefore, belongs to the 
 same set as No. 60, for which see infra, pp. 18 f. 
 
 3 Hunter Catalogue, ii. p. 169, No. 6 (PI. XL. 16). 
 
 4 If the last of these is in reasonably good condition, it may be a tetrobol. As 
 it is in Vienna, I have no means of ascertaining the facts. 
 
 l4 
 
12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 fact that its use seems to have been confined to a particular geo- 
 graphical area. At all events, Cydonia and Aptera lay close together 
 at the north-western extremity of the island. Although we do not 
 know precisely where Ceraia was, it is generally believed to have been 
 near Polyrhenium, 1 and if so it cannot have been far from Cydonia 
 and Aptera. The site of Allaria is wholly doubtful. Bursian, without 
 giving his reasons, expresses a belief that it was on the Bay of Mira- 
 bella, at the north-eastern end of the island. Svoronos, who also 
 favours the east, would rather make Allaria an inland town and 
 would place it midway between Hierapytna and Minoa. But he 
 candidly admits that his surmise is prompted solely by the existence 
 at this spot of a modern village called Messalare, which he suspects 
 of preserving the old name. 2 In all the circumstances the employment 
 of the debased standard seems at least as promising a clue. Ought 
 Allaria not to be searched for in the west rather than in the east ? 
 
 Limited Vogue of the Attic Standard : Coins with 
 Athenian Types. 
 
 The great majority of the silver coins of Crete were minted on the 
 Aeginetic standard. But there remain a certain number, for whose 
 weight we have still to account. It may be recalled that Head in his 
 first edition, after emphasizing 'the absence of Cretan coins in the 
 third century', was disposed to infer that 'the currency of the island 
 was at this time Alexandrine \ and that he then went on to say that 
 after the age of Alexander the Attic standard creeps in and replaces 
 the older Aeginetic \ 3 The drift of his argument was that the first 
 coins to be minted in Crete on the Attic standard were Alexandrine, 
 and that the new system of weight, starting from this vantage-ground, 
 gradually secured a supremacy which in the end became complete. 
 The pivot of the whole theory was Muller's attribution of tetra- 
 drachms with the types of Alexander to Ly ttus, Itanus, Aptera, 
 Cydonia, and Phalasarna, on the strength of the symbols which they 
 bear. 4 These identifications, however, like so many more of Muller's, 
 are now generally discredited. In the second edition of the Historia 
 Numorum they are abandoned sub silentio. At the same time, the 
 third century is left a good deal less barren of ordinary Cretan coins 
 than it originally was. But, in spite of the withdrawal of the pivot, 
 
 1 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 45. 
 
 2 Op. cit., p. 2. 
 
 s See supra, p. 3. 
 
 4 Num. dAleoc. le Grand, Nos. 900-909. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 13 
 
 the Attic standard is still allowed to play too prominent a part. Its 
 vogue was in reality extremely limited. 
 
 That there was a considerable slackening of activity at the Cretan 
 mints throughout the third century, is more than probable. But 
 there is no reason for believing that a Macedonian supremacy was 
 responsible. A sufficient explanation can be found in the general 
 condition of the island. Foreign intrigue, civic jealousies, and petty 
 disputes about boundaries combined to produce a state of affairs that 
 was not far removed from anarchy. 1 Towards the close of the period, 
 however, there was a lucid interval, which was marked by the issue of 
 the earliest coins of Attic weight that can be certainly claimed as 
 Cretan. 2 These were tetradrachms, closely modelled on the Athenian 
 tetradrachms of the ' new style ' which began to make their appear- 
 ance soon after 229 b. c. when Athens concluded a foedus aequum 
 with Rome. The types are identical as well as the standard. The 
 resemblance indeed is complete, except that the name of Athens and 
 the crest of the magistrate are replaced by the name of a Cretan town 
 and, usually at least, its Trapacrr)nov (Plate, Fig. 5). As will be 
 seen from the following list of the surviving specimens with their 
 weights, seven cities are known to have participated. They were 
 
 Cnossus 16*44. 
 
 Cydonia 16-10, 15-97, 15-40, 15-05, 13-68 (in poor condition). 
 
 Gortyna 17-13, 16-58, 16-50, 16-47, 16-19, 15-92 (a piece broken 
 away), 15-42, 14.84, 14-52. 
 
 Hierapytna 16-59, 16-50, 16-05, 15-97. 
 
 Lappa 17-2. 
 
 1 For a summary of the scanty historical notices see Niese, Geschichte der 
 griech. und makedon. Staaten, ii. pp. 427 ff. 
 
 2 Sir Arthur Evans is inclined to attribute to the mint of Cydonia a remarkable 
 tetradrachm with the types of Lysimachus, also of course of Attic weight, which 
 he purchased at Rethymno, where it was offered him in company with tetra- 
 drachms of the group now to be described, including some of Cydonia. There 
 is an exactly similar piece in the Hunter Collection {Catalogue, i. p. 434, No. 86). 
 If Sir Arthur's interesting suggestion be accepted the grounds for it do not 
 seem to me to be quite convincing the Lysimachus tetradrachms must be 
 contemporary with the tetradrachms that have Athenian types, for one of the 
 strongest links in the argument is the occurrence, on both, of the magistrate's 
 name A I O fl N . As the Hunter Cabinet is fortunate enough to possess a good 
 specimen of each coin I have been able to compare them closely, but have failed 
 to detect any similarity of fabric such as might have been looked for, had they 
 had a common origin. I have placed them side by side here (Plate, Figs. 5 and 6). 
 The bevelled edge of the obverse of Fig. 6 is characteristic of a whole set of 
 tetradrachms of Lysimachus, but I do not remember observing it on any coins of 
 Cydonia. Sir Arthur, however, tells me that he has found analogies for the 
 fabric at various cities of Crete. 
 
14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 Polyrhenium 1670, 1646, 1614, 1603, 15-77. 
 
 Priansus 15-80, 15-79, 15-24. 
 
 The sudden emergence of this group is remarkable, and one cannot 
 avoid speculating as to its occasion. Beule x put it about 200 b. c, 
 acutely connecting it with the political activities of Cephisodorus, 
 whose tomb Pausanias saw at Athens. Cephisodorus, according to 
 Pausanias, was ' a popular leader and a most determined opponent of 
 Philip, son of Demetrius, king of Macedonia \ He ' gained for the 
 Athenians the alliance of two kings, Attalus the Mysian and Ptolemy 
 the Egyptian, as well as the alliance of independent peoples, to wit, 
 the Aetolians and the islanders of Rhodes and Crete. But when the 
 succours from Egypt, Mysia, and Crete were mostly delayed, and the 
 Rhodians, whose strength was in ships only, were of little avail against 
 the Macedonian infantry, Cephisodorus sailed with other Athenians 
 to Italy and begged the help of the Romans \ 2 From Polybius (xvii. 
 10) we learn that Cephisodorus and his colleagues went to Rome in 
 198-197 b. c. This appears to be the only reference in the literary 
 sources to a friendship between Crete and Athens at a time that 
 would suit the style of the coins, and Beule's conjecture was accord- 
 ingly accepted by Poole. 3 Head was more cautious, believing that 
 the types might have been adopted for commercial rather than for 
 political reasons. 4 At the same time he acquiesced in Beule's date. 
 
 Head's scepticism seems to me fully justified ; even on the state- 
 ment of Pausanias the formation of the alliance was an emergency 
 measure, and the Cretans were so half-hearted about it that they did not 
 furnish the troops they had promised. But I am inclined to go farther 
 than Head, and to place the issue twenty years earlier. The Athenian 
 tetradrachms of Crete have all the characteristics of a federal coinage. 
 Now we are told by Polybius (iv. 53 f.) that about 220 b. c. practically 
 the whole island was welded into a league under the joint leadership 
 of Cnossus and Gortyna. Lyttus alone, an ancient colony of Sparta, 
 declined to be coerced into agreement, with the result that in the end 
 she was utterly and unexpectedly destroyed. 6 The confederacy was 
 short-lived, but that it was a reality while it lasted seems to be 
 indicated by a reference to to koivov tcov Kprjraticou in an inscription 
 which was found at Magnesia on the Maeander, and which is assigned 
 
 1 Monnaies d'Athenes, pp. 90 ff. 
 
 2 Pausanias i. 36. 5 f. The translation is Sir James Frazer's. 
 
 3 Num. Chron., N. S. \, p. 174. 
 
 4 B. M. Guide, p. 98 (vi. B. 30), and H. N. 2 , p. 462. This possibility had also 
 occurred to Beule (I.e.). 
 
 6 "ApSryv Kai napaXoyas avr^pnaaBr] (Polybius, /. C.). 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 15 
 
 to the last quarter of the third century b. c. 1 It is no doubt hazardous 
 to argue from the non-existence of any particular coin when a chance 
 discovery may dispose of the argument to-morrow. Nevertheless one 
 cannot refrain from observing that Lyttus is conspicuous by its absence 
 from the list of towns where Athenian tetradrachms were minted. 
 Nor would it be fair to recall its destruction in or about 220, and to 
 say that this absence might be cited with equal cogency in support of 
 BeuleTs conjecture. The town was soon rebuilt. We do not know 
 the date of its restoration, but its recovery must have been tolerably 
 rapid. As early as 183 b. c. its citizens stood fourth in the list 
 of thirty-one Cretan communities whose treaty of alliance with 
 Eumenes II is recorded in a Gortynian inscription. 2 Only Cnossus, 
 Gortyna, and Phaestus took precedence. This time it was Cydonia 
 that stood aloof. 
 
 It is true that, as has been already indicated, there is nothing in 
 the literary sources to suggest an association of Athens with the con- 
 federacy of 220. But the literary sources are too scanty to make the 
 objection a serious one. And in any event, as Head has pointed out, 
 the motive underlying the choice of types may have been purely com- 
 mercial. By 220 the Athenian coins of the * new style ' had made 
 good their claim to enter on the heritage of popularity which their 
 predecessors of the ' old style ' had enjoyed 
 
 zv re rols "EWrjcri Kal tois ftappdpoLcn TravTOtyov. 
 There would thus be nothing surprising in their being taken as a model. 
 Cnossus, by the way, is represented by Polybius as having been the 
 moving spirit of the federation. It is a curious coincidence that 
 Cnossus should also be the city which issued the only coins of native 
 Cretan types that are of indubitably Attic weight. 3 These are the large 
 ' spread ' tetradrachms having on the obverse the bearded head of 
 Zeus or Minos and on the reverse a square labyrinth. That they are 
 cansiderably later than the coins with Athenian types is evident, not 
 only from their style, but also from the fact that they are sometimes 4 
 restruck on tetradrachms of Antiochus IX (114-95 b. c), whose 
 money, by the way, is less likely to have reached Crete in the ordinary 
 course of trade than through the medium of returning mercenaries. 
 The weight is well maintained. The average of the twenty-nine 
 specimens known to me is 16-27 grammes. Only six fall below 16*12 
 
 1 O. Kern , Inschriften von Magnesia, p. 36, No. 46, and Dittenberger, Sylloge 2 , 
 : , No. 259 {Sylloge*, \\, No. 580). 
 
 2 Dittenberger, Sylloge 1 , i, No. 288 (Sylloge 3 , ii, No. 627). 
 
 3 See^ however, infra, p. 21, as to Gortyna at a later period. 
 
 4 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 78, No. 99 (two examples). 
 
16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 and, of those six, two at least are restruck on Seleucid tetradrachms. 1 
 In the face of such a record it is impossible to believe that the lighter 
 pieces many of them certainly older which occur at Cnossus and 
 elsewhere, are correctly described as being of reduced Attic weight \ 
 
 Widespread Use of the Rhodian Standard. 
 
 How, then, are we to classify them ? To find an answer, we may 
 turn to Hierapytna, where the system which they represent was 
 developed more fully than at any other Cretan city. With the 
 exception of the four Athenian tetradrachms already registered and 
 a very few older pieces of Aeginetic weight, the whole of the known 
 coins of this town are struck on the standard that has hitherto been 
 called * reduced Attic \ The following is a list of the examples I have 
 noted : 
 
 Tetradrachms 15-50, 15-15, 15-10, 15-09, 15-05, 14-90, 14-85, 
 14-50. 
 
 Didrachms 7-72, 7-68, 7-64, 7-60, 7-58, 7-57, 7-57, 7-54, 7-51, 
 7-50, 7-50, 7-50, 7-47, 7.45, 7-42, 7-40, 7-40, 7-38, 7-38> 7-37, 
 7-35, 7-32, 730, 730, 728, 725, 725, 7-25, 7-19, 716 5 7-15, 
 708, 7-08, 705, 704, 7-02, 6-88, 6-85, 685, 6-85, 6-84, 6-62^ 6-38. 
 
 Drachms 414, 371, 3-67, 3-63, 363, 361, 360, 359, 3-50, 340, 
 3-40, 3-38, 3-35, 3-20. 
 
 These coins must belong to one or other of two standards the 
 Phoenician or the Rhodian (originally the Chian). And the obvious 
 popularity of the didrachm is a strong argument in favour of the 
 latter ; Rhodian didrachms are relatively much more common than 
 Phoenician ones. Besides, the weights are a little too high to be 
 Phoenician, whereas they are exactly right for Rhodian. Speaking 
 of the standard when it was first introduced at Rhodes circa 395 b. cL 
 Head gives 15*55 as the maximum for the tetradrachm, 7-77 for the 
 didrachm, and 3-88 for the drachm. 2 In the centuries that followed, 
 there was considerable fluctuation. At one time, indeed, the drachms 
 struck at Rhodes were so light that in Crete they might have passed 
 as Aeginetic hemidrachms. 3 But, as we shall see presently, the trans- 
 planting of the standard took place very early and, that being so, there 
 was no reason why it should consistently reflect, in the land of i^ 
 adoption, all the variations that special conditions may have pre 
 duced at home. In point of fact, the Cretan coins of Rhodian weigh); 
 
 1 Svoronos, op. cit., pp. 77 f., No. 97 and No. 99. 
 
 2 B. M. Cat. Carta, S$c, p. civ. 
 
 3 One was actually so restruck at Cnossus : Svoronos, op. cit. 3 p. 88, No. 175. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 17 
 
 are, as a rule, well up to the original level. Here and there we shall 
 meet with small groups that are exceptional. That, however, need 
 not surprise us. 
 
 The conclusion that has been drawn from the list of weights at 
 Hierapytna is amply supported by more general considerations. 
 It is true that intercourse with Ptolemaic Egypt must have made the 
 Phoenician standard familiar enough to the Cretans. But Rhodes 
 was much nearer to Crete than was Africa, and in the days of her 
 greatness her traders must have been frequent visitors to the neigh- 
 bouring island. Nor were the bonds between the two commercial 
 only. In spite of the obscurity in which the history of Crete during 
 the Hellenistic period is shrouded, we catch occasional glimpses of 
 the intervention of Rhodes, now as the influential friend of one city, 
 now as the declared enemy of others. Thus an inscription, now in 
 the Museo Archeologico at Venice, 1 records the conclusion of 
 a defensive and offensive alliance between Rhodes and Hierapytna 
 towards the end of the third century b. c. Naber, who was the first 
 to print the document, 2 was inclined to date it circa 220 b. c. Niese 3 
 and others would put it sixteen or twenty years later. It is a remarkable 
 fact that Head, arguing on grounds of style, should have attributed to 
 circa 200 b. c. the earliest Hierapytnian coins that were (as we now 
 see) struck on the Rhodian standard. 
 
 Returning to the Hunter coin of Itanus which was our starting- 
 point, we find ourselves in a position to identify it as a Rhodian 
 tetradrachm. Its weight (14.58 grammes) falls within the limits 
 supplied us by the list from Hierapytna. But the identification 
 lends a new importance to its date. The style, as has been already 
 pointed out, is good, being in no way inferior to that of the very 
 best of the Aeginetic staters with similar types. This latter series is 
 attributed by M. Babelon to circa 376-360 b. c. 4 The Rhodian 
 tetradrachm cannot be any later. Mr. Hill and I independently 
 placed it shortly after 400 b.c, while Mr. E. S. G. Robinson was 
 disposed to think it might have been struck even before the turn of 
 the century. In the circumstances absolute accuracy of dating is, 
 of course, impossible. Nor is it necessary for our present purpose. 
 The general trend of expert opinion is sufficiently well defined to 
 warrant the statement that the Rhodian standard was originally 
 introduced into Crete very soon after it made its first appearance in 
 the city that gave it its name. No other coin of Itanus of Rhodian 
 
 1 Dittenberger, Sylloge 3 , ii, No. 581. 2 Mnemosyne, 1852, p. 79. 
 
 3 Geschichte der griech. und makedon. Staaten, \\, p. 431, footnote 27 . 
 
 4 Traiti, 2 e partie, iii, pp. 901 f. 
 
18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 weight is known, and we have already made a complete inventory of 
 the Rhodian issues of Hierapytna. It will be of interest to bring 
 together now the whole of the evidence for the use of the standard in 
 other Cretan towns : 
 
 Arcadia Of this city, as of Itanus, only a single Rhodian coin 
 appears to have survived, and that a tetradrachm. It is in the 
 Bodleian collection, and was first published by Svoronos in his 
 npocrdfJKai. 1 It weighs 14-99 grammes. 
 
 Cnossus The Cnossian tetradrachms of Attic weight were men- 
 tioned above. They have a head of Zeus or Minos on the 
 obverse and a square labyrinth on the reverse. Svoronos 
 records 2 two pieces on which the types are similar but smaller, 
 and which weigh 13-90 and 12-04 grammes respectively. But 
 for the fact that it is oxidized, the latter of these might be an 
 abnormally heavy stater of Aeginetic standard. Its condition, 
 however, precludes such an explanation. It undoubtedly belongs 
 to the same system as its companion, and thi^ can hardly be 
 anything save the Rhodian. It is true that the Rhodian 
 tetradrachms of Crete generally weigh a good deal more than 
 13-90 grammes. On the other hand, in Rhodes itself after circa 
 300 b. c. even 13-90 would be exceptionally heavy for a tetra- 
 drachm. Another set of coins of Cnossus is more normal. 
 They have on the obverse a head of Apollo, with the name 
 TTOAXO^, and on the reverse a circular labyrinth. 3 The seven 
 specimens which I have noted weigh 14-69, 14-52, 14-50, 14-48, 
 14-45, 14-32, and 14-30 grammes respectively. The analogy 
 with Hierapytna is conclusive. 
 
 Cydonia At Cydonia it would seem that the Rhodian standard 
 was employed, simultaneously with the Aeginetic and the 
 debased Aeginetic, 4 for the coins having an ivy-wreathed head 
 on the obverse and a hound suckling an infant on the reverse. 
 A fine specimen, published some years ago, is said to weigh 
 13-77 grammes. 5 Unless there is a misprint and the correct- 
 ness of the text is so far confirmed by the size of the piece as 
 shown in the illustration this can only be a Rhodian tetra- 
 drachm. It belongs to the fourth century b. c. Considerably 
 later a series of Rhodian tetradrachms, with a head of Artemis 
 
 1 'E<. y Ap K ., 1889, PI. XI. 9. 
 
 2 Num. de la Crete ancienue, p. 78, No. 101. 
 
 3 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 77, No. 96. 
 
 4 See supra, p. 10. 
 
 5 Hirsch, Auktions-Katalog , xiii, No. 2943, PI. XXXII. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 19 
 
 on the obverse and a full-length figure of the goddess on the 
 reverse, was struck by the magistrate TT A Z I H N } The weights 
 in grammes of the 8 known specimens are as follows : 14-91, 
 14-62, 2 14-59, 14-53, 14-46, 1444, 14-36, 14-25. 
 Gortyna The first group which calls for notice at Gortyna is 
 assigned in H. JV. 2 to the third century b. c. On the obverse is 
 Europa seated in a tree, on a branch of which an eagle is perched ; 
 on the reverse is a bull with reverted head and the legend 
 rOPT(YNinN). 3 I have noted the following weights: 6-65, 
 6-55, 6-37, 6-22, 6-21, 6-20, 539. It is not easy to be clear as to 
 the system to which these pieces belong. With the exception of 
 the last, which is obviously subnormal, they are too heavy to be 
 Aeginetic drachms. At the same time they are too light to be 
 didrachms of the original Rhodian standard, such as we met 
 with at Hierapytna. On the other hand, they correspond 
 exactly to the contemporary didrachms of Rhodes itself, and 
 it is probably with these that we should class them. Confirma- 
 tion of the suggestion is provided by the popularity, during the 
 next period, of a denomination which is clearly the half of the 
 pieces of which we have been speaking, and which seems to be 
 the Rhodian drachm. It is represented by two different sets of 
 coins, both having a head of Zeus upon the obverse and both 
 usually described as drachms of the reduced Attic standard. Of 
 the first set, 4 which have on the reverse a naked male figure, 
 seated on a rock, 28 examples are recorded, and of these as 
 many as 21 lie between 3-30 and 2-80 grammes, while 4 are 
 heavier and 3 lighter. My list of the second set, 5 the reverse 
 type of which is a naked male figure possibly the founder 
 Gortys advancing with spear and shield, includes 21 specimens, 
 12 of which lie between the limits indicated, while 5 are 
 heavier and 4 lighter. Taken by themselves, these figures 
 would be fairly convincing. But their significance is substan- 
 tially increased by the fact that three or four of the first set 
 bear the name of OIBOE. This was the magistrate who was 
 responsible for striking the much larger pieces that have a head 
 of Zeus on the obverse and a standing figure of Athena on the 
 
 1 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 107, Nos. 59 f. 
 
 2 See supra,j). 11, footnote 2. All these pieces read KYAQNIATAN, which 
 points to their being contemporary with the Aeginetic hemidrachms having the 
 same legend. 
 
 8 H. N. 2 , p. 467, and Svoronos, op. cit., pp. 170 f., Nos. 104 ff. 
 
 4 Svoronos, op. cit., pp. 177 ff., Nos. 157 ff. 
 
 5 Svoronos, op. cit., pp. 175 ff., Nos. 143 ff. 
 
20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 reverse. The latter are very rare. Svoronos l speaks of only two 
 examples, and I have not been able to add to his list. They 
 weigh 15-25 and 14-36 grammes respectively, and would thus 
 appear to be Rhodian tetradrachms. If that be so, the smaller 
 pieces must obviously be Rhodian drachms. Those* with the 
 name of OIBOZ are among the heaviest. 2 The lightest of all 
 weighs but 2-5 grammes. 
 
 As compared with the drachms of Hierapytna, then, the group 
 just mentioned exhibits a marked declension from the original 
 Rhodian standard. Yet at one time a lower point still was 
 touched, showing that at Gortyna the standard was occasionally 
 subject to vicissitudes as marked as those which it underwent in 
 Rhodes itself. Proof of this is afforded by another group, 3 the 
 weights of the eight members of which are as follows : 2-50, 2-37, 
 213, 213, 208, 2-04, 1-95, and 1-91 grammes. Although there 
 are many drachms of Rhodes as light or lighter than any of these, 4 
 one might have hesitated about their classification, 6 were it not 
 for a curious piece of confirmatory evidence, the significance of 
 which has hitherto remained unobserved. The obverse type is 
 a facing head of Helios, exactly resembling that on the ordinary 
 Rhodian coins. 6 Again, while the type of the reverse, an eagle 
 with a serpent in its talons, has nothing in common with the 
 Rhodian Trapdarjiiov, the abbreviated inscription V O, which 
 occurs on no other issue of Gortyna, 7 is a palpable imitation 
 of the P O of the drachms of Rhodes. 
 
 One might at first sight be tempted to associate with the 
 Rhodian system the tetradrachms having as types the head of 
 Roma and the statue of Artemis Ephesia. On second thoughts, 
 however, this idea must be set aside as inadmissible. They bear the 
 crest of Q. Caecilius Metellus, the conqueror of Crete, and were 
 doubtless minted circa 66 b. c. Svoronos mentions a specimen at 
 
 1 Op. eft., p. 177, No. 156. 
 
 2 The three on my list weigh 3*77 5 3*65, and 3*47 grammes. 
 
 3 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 174, Nos. 132 ff. 
 
 4 See B. M. C. Carta, S$c. , passim. 
 
 5 In H. iV. 2 , p. 467., they are described as Attic hemidrachms. 
 
 6 See Plate, Fig. 10, and the Rhodian drachm (Fig. 11) which is placed along- 
 side for comparison. Svoronos (I.e.) describes the facing head on the Gortyna 
 coins as that of Medusa. Wroth's view that it is the head of Helios (B.M. C, 
 Crete, $$c., p. 44) is far more probable, and is adopted in E. N. 2 . Even if 
 Svoronos's description be correct, however, it does not weaken the general 
 resemblance. 
 
 7 The usual abbreviations are TOPTY and TOP. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 21 
 
 Berlin, and another, in poor preservation, at Paris ; the former 
 weighs 15-99 grammes 1 and the latter 14-40. The British 
 Museum now possesses a third, with a weight of 15-09 grammes. 
 The heaviest of these rules the Rhodian standard out. On the 
 other hand, the weight of the remaining two, though relatively 
 low, is in no way inconsistent with the current view that all 
 three are Attic tetradrachms. 2 
 
 Lappa During the fourth century b. c. Lappa struck a few coins 
 on the Aeginetic standard. Subsequently it was, as we have 
 seen, one of the mints that produced tetradrachms with Athenian 
 types. At a still later period there was a fairly abundant issue 
 of pieces that are shown by their weight to be Rhodian drachms. 3 
 They have a head of Apollo on the obverse and a full-length 
 figure of the same god on the reverse. All of them bear the 
 name of the magistrate ZYAHKOZ, so that the issue, if plenti- 
 ful, must have been short-lived. Of the 17 specimens whose 
 weights I have been able to ascertain, as many as 13 lie between 
 the limits of 3-30 and 2-90 grammes, while the remainder come 
 very close to them (3-47, 3-40, 338, 275, and 2-65). 
 
 Lyttus It is generally considered that the whole of the coins of 
 Lyttus are of Aeginetic weight, and that they were struck before 
 the city was destroyed circa 220 b. c. But there is a small 
 group whose style does not preclude the possibility of their being 
 subsequent to its restoration. In Svoronos's list, 4 which I have 
 not been able to add to, it is represented by three examples. 
 They have on the obverse a boar's head and on the reverse an 
 eagle with outspread wings and the inscription AYTTIHN, 
 while they weigh 3-59, 3-52, and 3-18 grammes respectively. 
 They seem clearly to be drachms of the Rhodian system. 6 
 
 1 Reference to Z. f. N. x, p. 119, shows that the ' 11,99' of Svoronos, op. cit. 9 
 p. 181, is a misprint. It may be added that the specimen in the Photiades Pacha 
 Sale-Catalogue (No. 1280, PI. VI), which weighed 16*50 grammes, was acknow- 
 ledged to be false, and was withdrawn without being put to the hammer. 
 
 2 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 165, includes under No. 66 a Berlin coin, restruck on 
 a stater of Cnossus, which is said to weigh 16*62 grammes. The other examples 
 of No. 66 are all of Aeginetic weight, and it is hardly doubtful that e 16,62 ' is 
 a misprint for f 11,62 '. 
 
 3 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 213 f., Nos. 22 f. 
 
 4 Op. cit., p. 238, No. 85. 
 
 5 The two small coins published by Mr. G. F. Hill and Captain Cameron in 
 Num. Chron., 1913 (p. 385, PL XV, Nos. 18 f.), are also late. Metrologically 
 they are difficult to place (2*22 and 1*98 grammes). But it is possible that they 
 are light Rhodian drachms. Many of the later drachms of Rhodes with the 
 facing head of Helios are even lighter. 
 
22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 Polyrhenium Besides coins of Aeginetic standard and tetra- 
 drachms with Athenian types, Polyrhenium issued a small series 
 of what appear to be Rhodian tetradrachms. They have on the 
 obverse a whiskered head, bound with a taenia, which is possibly 
 that of Philip V of Macedon as Apollo, and on the reverse 
 a seated female figure holding a small statue of Nike. 1 They 
 are later than circa 200 b. c. and three of the four recorded 
 examples bear magistrates' names. The weights are as follows : 
 15*56, 15-51, 14*70, and 14-02. Along with these may be classed 
 a more numerous set of smaller pieces, 2 which have as types 
 a facing head of Dictynna and a figure of Apollo advancing 
 with his bow. One exceptional specimen is as heavy as 2*11 
 grammes. Thirteen others, however, are known. The heaviest 
 of these weighs 1*97, and, if all are taken together, the resulting 
 average is 1-80. Probably, therefore, they are Rhodian hemi- 
 drachms, for a hemidrachm of 1-80 grammes would yield a 
 tetradrachm of 14-40. 
 
 Recapitulation. 
 The foregoing resume of the statistical evidence provides, I think, 
 all the categories that are necessary for the proper classification, on 
 metrological principles, of the autonomous silver issues of Crete. It 
 may be convenient to recapitulate them briefly, (a) The dominating 
 standard was the Aeginetic. It was the first to be introduced, and 
 to it the great majority of Cretan coins belong. Care must, however, 
 be taken to discriminate between two norms a heavier, which was 
 in use at Gortyna and at Phaestus, and a lighter, which was charac- 
 teristic of Cnossus .and of Cydonia. The difference between these 
 two can be explained on grounds that are readily intelligible, (b) It is 
 far more difficult to account for the appearance, at a few towns in 
 the north-west of the island, of what appear to be Aeginetic staters 
 and drachms of decidedly debased weight, minted in some cases side 
 by side with pieces that are in no way abnormal, (c) Next to the Aegi- 
 netic standard the most important was the Rhodian. Its occurrence 
 at Itanus circa 400 b. c. is noteworthy. But neither then nor when 
 it came into use elsewhere two hundred years later, did it always 
 secure a monopoly at the cities by which it was adopted. Hierapytna 
 was the most conspicuous exception. This suggests that, wherever 
 we find it, the phenomenon should be connected with particular 
 developments of trade, (d) The same may be said of the Attic standard, 
 
 1 Svoronos, op. cit., pp. 281 f., Nos. 40 ff. 
 
 2 Svoronos., op. cit, p. 282., No. 43. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 23 
 
 although there, in so far as the tetradraehms with Athenian types 
 are to be regarded as a federal issue, the influence of political motives 
 can hardly be entirely ignored. Apart from these tetradraehms, it 
 was only at Cnossus and, to a much more limited extent, under 
 Roman domination at Gortyna that the Attic system obtained any 
 footing at all. 
 
 In the course of the inquiry one or two features of general interest 
 have emerged. The apparent indifference of the official mind to 
 scrupulous exactness of weight was well illustrated by the fact that 
 the coins of Cnossus, despite their somewhat lighter norm, were freely 
 used as flans at Phaestus and Gortyna. This is a clear warning 
 against the too strict application of modern canons to the solution of 
 questions of ancient metrology. Not less significant is the evidence for 
 the simultaneous employment of two (or even three) different standards 
 at one and the same town. It has, of course, long been known that such 
 a practice was not uncommon. Under the later Seleucid kings, for 
 instance, some of the great cities of the Syrian coast, to meet the 
 needs of different streams of trade, issued two parallel series of tetra- 
 draehms, one of which followed the Attic system and the other the 
 Phoenician. There, however, all risk of confusion was obviated by 
 using characteristic obverse and reverse types for each series. The 
 surprising thing is that in Crete so simple a precaution was not 
 always felt to be necessary. Thus, at Itanus it would be impossible 
 to distinguish the Rhodian tetradrachm- from the Aeginetic staters 
 by the help of the eye alone. Mr. E. S. G. Robinson has drawn 
 attention to an analogous difficulty at Cyrene. 1 He points out that 
 the more highly developed instinct of the Greek trader would enable 
 him to surmount it with an ease that it is hard for us to appreciate. 
 That is doubtless true. But it is probably also true that the custom 
 of appealing to the balances in private transactions enjoyed a much 
 longer life than one is sometimes disposed to credit it with. 2 How- 
 ever that may be, the central fact remains, and the example of Itanus 
 may sometimes be helpful to numismatists who find themselves baffled 
 by seemingly abrupt and unaccountable changes of standard. To 
 take a familiar crux? is it quite certain that at Abdera each variety 
 of weight -system must necessarily be associated with a period of 
 its own ? 
 
 At Itanus the difference between the Aeginetic stater and the 
 Rhodian tetradrachm of similar types, which circulated side by side, 
 
 1 See Num. Chron., 1915, p. 262. 
 
 2 Cf. English Historical Review, 1919, pp. 91 f. 
 
 3 See H. N.*, pp. 263 ff., and Gardner, Hist, of Ancient Coinage, pp. 276 ff. 
 
24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 was as much as three grammes. The two classes of Aeginetic stater 
 at Cydonia were separated by an interval of about half that weight. 
 It is of interest to note that at the latter city the awkward possibilities 
 were at least partially recognized. The use of similar types for the 
 drachms was avoided, while even on the staters an endeavour was at 
 one time made to mark the distinction by the presence or absence of 
 Kydon's dog. So again at Cnossus the Rhodian tetradrachms with 
 the name of TTOAXOZ have a head of Apollo on the obverse and 
 a circular labyrinth on the reverse, whereas the presumably con- 
 temporary tetradrachms of Attic weight have a head of Zeus on one 
 side and a square labyrinth on the other. Finally, it would seem that 
 after circa 200 b. c. the weights of the lower denominations of the 
 Rhodian and Aeginetic systems sometimes approximated so closely 
 that the Rhodian drachm was regarded as virtually equivalent to the 
 Aeginetic hemidrachm. We have already seen that a drachm of 
 Rhodes was actually so restruck at Cnossus. 1 Similar evidence comes 
 from Gortyna. At one period there was issued there a series of 
 what must be Aeginetic drachms, having as types a head of Zeus 
 and Europa seated on a bull. Svoronos records eight examples, 2 and 
 I have noted seven others. The weights 3 are conclusive as to the 
 system to which they belong ; all save one are much too heavy to be 
 Attic drachms. The corresponding halves must, therefore, be Aegi- 
 netic hemidrachms. The obverse type is the same as that of the 
 drachms, but the reverse has a bull without Europa. I know of only 
 two examples. 4 Two others, however, were used as flans for the later 
 series of Rhodian drachms with the facing head of Helios and TO. 5 
 That is, the process that was noted at Cnossus is reversed at Gortyna. 
 The proof of interchangeability could not well be stronger. 
 
 Postscript : Cretan Silver Coinage under the Romans. 
 
 In its original intention the scope of this inquiry was limited to 
 the period of autonomous coinage. But it may be convenient, for 
 the sake of completeness, to bring together by way of a postscript 
 the few facts that can be ascertained regarding the silver that was 
 
 1 See supra, p. 16, and cf. the two hemidrachms of Rhodes restruck as 
 Aeginetic trihemiobols at Cydonia (Svoronos, op. cit., p. 102, No. 18). 
 
 2 Op. cit., p. 172, Nos. 114 ff. In two cases, however, the weight is not 
 recorded. 
 
 3 5-12, 5*01, 4-97, 4-94, 4'90, 4*88, 4*88, 4*88, 485, 4'65, 4'65, 4*53, and 3*49 
 grammes. 
 
 4 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 173, No. 119. The weights are 2*05 and 2*01 grammes. 
 
 5 See ibid., p. 174, No. 133 f., and cf. supra, p. 20. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 25 
 
 issued while the island was under the dominion of the Romans. 
 Reference has been made above to the Attic tetradrachms struck at 
 Gortyna with the authority of Q. Caecilius Metellus. Imhoof-Blumer 
 is doubtless right in attributing to the same town the cistophorus 
 with the name of KYAAZ KPHTAPXHS, the only coin of its class 
 minted beyond the boundaries of Asia Minor. Imhoof gives good 
 reasons for dating it between 66 and 31 B. c. 1 The weight of the 
 Paris specimen is 11-27 grammes, so that the cistophoric standard in 
 its Cretan form was very much the same as the Aeginetic standard in 
 the guise it had worn in Crete four or five centuries earlier. It seems 
 to have been subsequently reduced, probably not as an act of 
 deliberate policy but rather as the result of official indifference, for 
 there can be little doubt but that the highest of the three denomina- 
 tions of the silver of early imperial times is the cistophoric tetra- 
 drachm. 2 The weights of the recorded specimens are notoriously 
 irregular, ranging between 10-47 and 7-65 grammes. The other two 
 denominations will then be the tridrachm (8-36-6-60) and the drachm 
 (2-72-1-80). 
 
 The imperial silver of Crete has few attractions for collectors, and 
 consequently our information regarding it is more scanty than it 
 might otherwise have been. Not a little of it is derived from the 
 older numismatists, whose descriptions are not always reliable, and 
 who do not give weights. But its issue would appear to have been 
 inaugurated under Tiberius during the governorship of Cornelius 
 Lupus, who was pro-consul of Crete and Cyrene, and whose con- 
 demnation and death in the reign of Claudius was afterwards one of 
 the indictments brought against Suillius Rufus. 3 The majority of 
 the surviving specimens bear his name. 4 The tetradrachms have on 
 the obverse the head of the deified Augustus and on the reverse the 
 head of the Cretan Zeus (TAN KPHTATENHZ), and examples struck 
 at Hierapytna and at Polyrhenium are known. Tridrachms of Axus 
 and of Cydonia are recorded, the types being the laureate head of 
 Tiberius and the head of the Senate, bearded and veiled. Lastly 
 there are drachms of Cydonia, of Eleutherna, of Gortyna, and of 
 Hierapytna, with the head of Tiberius on the obverse and that of 
 
 1 Mommies grecques, p. 210. 
 
 2 So Imhoof-Blumer, Griechische Miinzen, p. 164, footnote 2 . Head, who calls 
 it a didrachm, apparently preferred to regard it as belonging to the Aeginetic 
 system. 
 
 3 Tacitus, Annals, xiii. 43. For other details of the career of Cornelius Lupus 
 see Klebs, Prosopographia, i. 457, No. 1145. 
 
 4 The others bear the name of Laches : see infra. A drachm of Lappa is 
 doubtful, as the magistrate's name is off the fan (Svoronos, op. cit. } PL XX. 13). 
 
26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 the deified Augustus on the reverse. The form of the inscription 
 varies, being sometimes in the nominative and sometimes in the 
 dative, and so indicating more than one issue. 
 
 The only other magistrate whom we can associate with the Cretan 
 silver of Tiberius is Laches, whose name occurs on tridrachms of 
 Cydonia and on drachms of Hierapytna. History tells us nothing 
 regarding him, but we know that he must have been the successor 
 and not the forerunner of Cornelius Lupus, since his term of office 
 extended into the reign of Caligula. The evidence for this is supplied 
 by the appearance of his name on a unique drachm of Axus, which 
 has as types the head of the latter emperor and of Germanicus. 1 It 
 is unique, not merely in the sense that only a single specimen is 
 recorded, but also in the sense that Axus is the one Cretan town to 
 whose particular credit any silver of Caligula can yet be placed. It 
 is true that the second edition of the Historia Numorum, 2 on the 
 authority of Svoronos, cites *M coins of Caligula", under Lyttus. 
 Reference to the source, however, reveals serious grounds for doubting 
 the accuracy of the original statement. 3 The whole description, and 
 notably the use of the accusative case in the legends, is unlike that of 
 any other silver pieces of Crete, whereas it corresponds exactly to the 
 description of certain bronze coins of Gortyna and Polyrhenium, 
 most of which are signed by a magistrate Augurinus. 4 The suspicion 
 that the ' M ' of Svoronos's list is a misprint for ' M * arises at once, 
 and it is fully confirmed by an appeal to Mionnet, who is in his turn 
 the authority from whom Svoronos quotes one of the two examples 
 which he registers, the other being in the Berlin Museum. Mionnet 
 explicitly states that the coin of which he speaks is of bronze. 5 
 
 The uniqueness of the drachm of Axus indicates that the system 
 organized under Tiberius survived for only a short time under his 
 successor. The system that replaced it was possibly instituted by 
 Augurinus, whose name figures on contemporary bronze pieces of 
 Gortyna, Hierapytna, 6 and Polyrhenium. It was a provincial issue, 
 minted perhaps at Gortyna, but having neither legend nor symbol 
 to mark the city of origin. The denominations, with their weights, 
 are those introduced by Cornelius Lupus. On all three the obverse is 
 occupied by a head of Caligula with his name and titles. The 
 
 1 Hirsch, Auktions-Katalog , xiii, No. 2912 (PI. XXXI). 
 
 2 p. 472. 
 
 3 Svoronos, op. cit. , p. 239, Nos. 88 f. 
 
 4 Ibid., pp. 181 f., and 284. 
 
 6 Descr. de medailles antiques, Suppl. iv, p. 329, No. 214. So too Sestini, to 
 whom Svoronos (I.e.) also refers. 
 
 6 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 195, Nos. 49 f. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 27 
 
 reverse types are (a) for the tetradrachm a figure of Augustus, 
 clad in a toga and holding a patera and sceptre, enthroned in 
 a quadriga drawn by elephants; 1 (b) for the tridrachm the same 
 figure seated on a curule chair ; and (c) for the drachm a head of 
 Augustus radiate, as it is also on the larger pieces. In each of the 
 three cases there are seven stars in the field of the reverse. As these 
 stars reappear later in conjunction with an entirely different type, 
 they may be symbolical in some obscure way of the whole province 
 of Crete. The issue must have been an abundant one, for all three 
 denominations are well represented in our collections, more especially 
 the tridrachms and the drachms. Claudius continued it, substituting 
 his own image and superscription for those of Caligula on the 
 obverse, but with him the most common denomination is the 
 tetradrachm. 
 
 The rarity of the drachms of Claudius with the radiate head of 
 Augustus is no doubt partly to be explained by the occurrence 
 of drachms with other types two Korybantes dancing, Artemis 
 holding torch or bow, a figure of Hope. 2 And it is probably to his 
 reign that we should assign what seems to be a hemidrachm it 
 weighs only 1-23 grammes having on the obverse the bust and name 
 of Agrippina, 3 and on the reverse a quiver, arrow, bow, and club. 
 In any event the tendency to break away from the old conventions 
 becomes quite pronounced under Nero. His Cretan silver coins are 
 rare. The least uncommon are tetradrachms of the old system of 
 weight, at least six specimens of which have survived. The reverse 
 has for its type a standing figure of Zeus, surrounded by seven stars 
 in lieu of an inscription. There seem to have been two issues, which 
 are distinguished by the presence or absence of an eagle beside 
 the god. The group with the eagle is the lighter, the three known 
 specimens weighing 9-40, 8-72, and 8-40 grammes, as against 10-20, 
 9-98, and 9*46 for the remainder. 
 
 It has been suggested that Nero was responsible for something 
 more important than a change of type, and that he introduced a new 
 system of weight. The coins that are supposed to testify to this 
 are very rare. They have on the obverse a head of the emperor, 
 with his name and titles in Latin, and on the reverse a head of 
 Claudius or of Agrippina, accompanied by a mark of value, the whole 
 
 1 The quadriga may perhaps be interpreted as confirming the view that the 
 coin is a tetradrachm rather than a didrachm ; see supra, p. 25, footnote 2. 
 
 2 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 336, Nos. 9 if. 
 
 3 Svoronos {op. tit., p. 339, No. 30) calls her Agrippina Senior. The use of 
 the title C6BACTH, however, proves that it is the daughter, not the mother. 
 
28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 within a laurel-wreath. There are two denominations, the mark of 
 
 Ac Ac 
 
 value on the higher being KA and that on the lower IB. 
 
 The two published specimens of the former (Plate, Fig. 12) weigh 
 5*47 and 5-40 grammes respectively. The solitary published example 
 of the latter (Plate, Fig. 13) weighs 2*37 grammes. All three are in 
 London. Head, who was inclined to accept their conjectural attribution 
 to Crete, proposed to interpret the value-marks as ' da-ad pia 'IraXifcd 
 24' and * da-a-dpia 'IraXiKa 12V Imhoof-Blumer, in adopting Head's 
 conclusions, pointed out that an explanation of the change of system 
 should be looked for in some far-reaching reform of the Roman 
 currency, and he found it in Nero's reduction of the weight of the 
 denarius from % to % of the Roman pound. 2 He inferred that 
 advantage was taken ot the reduction to try and steady the swaying 
 weights of the provincial silver, the real value of each piece being 
 indicated upon its face. 
 
 Much as one must hesitate to differ from two such authorities as 
 Head and Imhoof, I do not feel satisfied that the coins with marks of 
 value are of Cretan origin at all. Mr. E. S. G. Robinson, who has 
 recently been studying the provincial silver of early imperial times, 
 has drawn my attention to the close resemblance which the pieces in 
 question bear to the contemporary silver of Cappadocia. He further 
 tells me that the late Mr. Warwick Wroth left a manuscript note in 
 which he recorded the finding of one or two examples in Paphlagonia, 
 a provenance which considerably strengthens the Cappadocian analogy. 
 On the other hand, Mr. Robinson believes that there is some ground 
 for attributing Plate, Fig. 14 to Crete. It has on the obverse the 
 heads of Nero and Poppaea face to face, and on the reverse the radiate 
 head of Augustus with the remarkable legend AYTOKPA KAIZAP 
 OEOZ OEOY YIOS SE. The weight is 7-41 grammes, which would 
 be suitable enough for a tridrachm of the cistophoric standard. 
 Mr. Robinson's suggestion is based upon the obvious likeness between 
 this piece and the bronzes struck at Cnossus, under the duoviri 
 Volumnius and Lupinus, and having on the reverse the heads of Nero 
 and Octavia face to face. 3 It certainly deserves very serious considera- 
 tion. Should it win general assent, the coins of 24 and 12 asses (Plate, 
 Figs. 12 and 13) will have to be finally removed from Crete. The 
 idea of a common origin for the two sets is precluded by their 
 style. 
 
 1 Hist. Num.\y. 384. 
 
 2 Griechische Milnzen, pp. 164 f. 
 
 3 Svoronos, op. cit., p. 95, No. 217, PL VIII, 26 f. 
 
THE SILVER COINAGE OF CRETE 29 
 
 In any event, during the latter part of Nero's reign, or possibly 
 upon his death, the island seems to have been deprived of the right 
 of minting in silver at all. There was a brief revival under Trajan 
 whose head, with his name and titles in Latin, appears on a fairly 
 numerous series of drachms (3-25-2-24 grammes) having on the 
 reverse a nymph with the infant Zeus, and the legend KPHT 
 A I KTYN N A. Thenceforward Crete struck only in bronze. 
 
No. 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 Weight in 
 Grammes. 
 
 14-58 
 
 10-62 
 11- 8 
 
 11-86 
 15-37 
 
 16-39 
 
 3-69 
 11-57 
 
 9-27 
 
 2-13 
 
 2-52 
 
 5-47 
 
 2-37 
 
 7-41 
 
 KEY TO THE PLATE 
 
 Itanus. Obv. Helmeted head of Athena 1. Rev. 
 [l]TANin[N]. Eagle standing 1., lodking back ; in 
 field r., small Triton ; incuse square. [Hunter.] 
 Rhodian Tetradrachm. ca. 400-375 B.C. 
 
 Itanus. Oho. Similar head r. ; rude style. Rev. 
 Eagle as above ; rude style. [Hunter.] Aeginetic 
 Stater, ca. 400-375 B.C. 
 
 Gortyna. Obv. Europa riding r. on bull ; beneath, 
 dolphin. Rev. A\ MD 0[T MO]MVT^O[A] 1 
 Lion's scalp facing ; linear square. [Hunter.] 
 Aeginetic Stater, ca. 480-400 b.c. 
 
 Phaestus. Obv. Similar type 1. Rev. A^JMD OT 
 V\OT7M^A3. s Similar type. [B.M.] Aeginetic 
 Stater, ca. 480-400 b.c. 
 
 Cydonia: Obv, Head of Athena Parthenos r. ; in 
 front, AlOftN. Rev. KYAHNI AT AN. Owl r. on 
 amphora ; in field r., hound suckling infant ; all 
 in olive-wreath. [Hunter.] Attic Tetradrachm. ca. 
 220 B.c. 
 
 Lysimachus. Obv. Head of the deified Alexander r. 
 Rev. BAIIAEOI AYZIMAXOY. AthenaNike- 
 phoros seated 1. ; in front, ithy phallic satyr h, with 
 pedum in l.hand; in ex., trident 1. ; above, A 1 OH N. 
 [Hunter.] Attic Tetradrachm. Third century b.c 
 
 Cnossus. Obv. Head of Hera 1., wearing Stephanos. 
 Rev. KNHZI. Square labyrinth; on either side A P. 
 [Hunter.] Aeginetic Tetrobol. ca. 350-300 b.c. 
 
 Cydonia. Obv. Head of nymph i\, wreathed with 
 grapes and vine-leaves, and wearing ear-ring. Rev. 
 KYAflN. Naked archer, stringing bow. [B.M.] 
 Aeginetic Stater, ca. 400-350 b.c 
 
 Cydonia. Obv. Similar. Rev. Similar, but, in front, 
 a dog looking up at archer and raising his fore- 
 paw ; above dog, arrow-head. [B. M.] Debased 
 Aeginetic Stater, ca. 400-350 b.c 
 
 Gortyna. Obv. Head of Helios, three-quarter face 
 towards r. Rev. T O. Eagle 1., with serpent in 
 talons ; border of rays. [B. M. ] Rhodian Drachm, 
 ca. 250-150 b.c 
 
 Rhodes. Obv. Similar. Rev. P O. Rose with bud 
 on r. ; on 1., caduceus and uncertain object ; above 
 []n*IKPATH. [B. M.j Rhodian Drachm, 
 ca. 250-166 b. c 
 
 Uncertain. Obv. NERO - CLAVD - DIVI -CLAVD-F- 
 
 CAESAR-AVG-GERMANI. Bust of Nero r.,laur. 
 
 AC 
 Rev. Bust of Claudius r., laur. ; behind - ; in 
 
 front, K A ; all within laurel-wreath. [B.M.] Piece 
 of2Jf Asses. 
 Uncertain. Obv. Similar. Rev. Bust of Agrippina r. ; 
 
 AC 
 
 behind, t._ ; in front, IB; all within laurel-wreath. 
 
 [B. M.] Piece of 12 Asses. 
 Uncertain. Obv. NEPHN KAAYAI KAIZAP TTOrT- 
 nAIASABEISE Busts of Poppaea r. and Nero 1., 
 face to face; above, crescent. Rev. AYTOKPA 
 KAISAP OEOS OEOY YIOS SE. Head of 
 Augustus 1., radiate. [B.M.] Cistophoric Tridrachm. 
 
i i IS&y^ 
 
 *>. * 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
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