Chapter XXVII: Methods of Burial 220 (1)

Greek Burials (257-258); Italian Burials. Hut
Urns (259); Canopic Urn (260); Funeral Masks
(261); Etruscan Urn (262); Roman Burials and
Funeral Urns (263); Roman Grave Relief (264).

GREEK AND ROMAN LIFE

The exhibition is arranged in the central rectangle of what was formerly the Etruscan Saloon; it includes Wall-Cases =25-64=, =94-119=, and Table-Cases =E-K=. The subject naturally divides itself into the two chief headings of public and domestic institutions, and each of these occupies one half of the room. On the West side are grouped the sections relating mainly to Public Life, on the East those of Private Life: of the former, the section illustrating the monetary system of the ancients and its development naturally leads up to the Department of Coins and Medals. For the general scheme of the exhibition, reference should be made to the Table of Contents.

NOTE.--_The references at the end of each section correspond
to the numbers of the objects in this Guide. These numbers,
which are placed near the objects in the Cases, are
distinguished by being in red upon a white ground. Numbers
attached to the objects (such as B 77 on a vase) refer to
the British Museum Catalogues, which should be consulted for
fuller details than can be given in the Guide._

I.--POLITICAL INSCRIPTIONS AND SLAVERY.

(Table-Case K.)

A section of Table-Case K contains a series of inscriptions which illustrate various sides of Greek and Roman political life.

It must be borne in mind that the Greek state was generally of very small dimensions. As a rule all life was centred within a city, which had but a moderate extent of outlying country. Aristotle describes the perfect city or state (the words are interchangeable) as the union of several villages, supplying all that is necessary for independent life.[1] Greece, though small in area, was thus divided up into a large number of states, whose interests were constantly in conflict. It thus came about that it was provided with systems of treaties, arbitrations, and consular representation such as marked a fully developed international system.

=Treaties.=--The bronze tablet No. =1= dates probably from the second half of the sixth century B.C., at a time when the Eleians and Heraeans of Arcadia were still dwelling in villages, and were not yet united each into a single city. It is written in the Aeolic dialect of Elis, and records a treaty between the two peoples named. There was to be a close alliance between them in respect of all matters of common interest, whether of peace or war. Any breach of the treaty, or any damage to the inscription recording the treaty, would involve a fine of a talent of silver to be paid by the offender to Olympian Zeus, the supreme Greek deity. The tablet was brought from Olympia by Sir William Gell in 1813.

No. =2= is a cast of a similar treaty between the communities of the Anaiti and Matapii, for a fifty years' friendship. In case of a breach of the treaty the priests at Olympia have arbitrators' powers.

No. =3= (fig. 1) is a bronze tablet, with a ring at one end for suspension, recording a treaty made between the cities of Chaleion and Oeantheia on the Gulf of Corinth. It is in the Lokrian dialect, and can be dated to about 440 B.C. The main object of the treaty was to regulate the practice of reprisals between the citizens of the respective towns, and, in particular, to prevent injury to foreign merchants visiting either port. There are also provisions for ensuring a fair trial to aliens. The tablet was found at Oeantheia (Galaxidi), and was formerly in the Woodhouse collection.

=Colonization.=--This was a feature of peculiar importance in Greek life. In the course of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. numerous colonists had left their homes on the mainland of Greece or on the coast of Asia Minor, and had settled principally in Southern Italy and Sicily, or round the shores of the Black Sea. The reasons for such emigration were sometimes political, but more often commercial. Between the mother-city and the colony relations of an intimate character were almost invariably maintained. Representatives from either city attended the more important festivals held in the other town, and the daughter-city not infrequently sought the advice of the mother-city in times of difficulty and danger. The inscription on the bronze tablet No. =4= illustrates the way in which colonists left one Greek state to settle in another comparatively near at hand, and also shows the relations existing between the colonists and the mother-state. At a date probably previous to 455 B.C. colonists from the Opuntian or Eastern Lokrians (inhabiting a district lying opposite to the island of Euboea) left their homes to settle in Naupaktos, a town situated on the narrowest part of the Gulf of Corinth, in the territory of the Western Lokrians. The question arose as to how far the colonists were to remain in connection with the mother-country. The tablet shows that the settlers had the privilege of enjoying full social and religious rights on revisiting their native city, although during their absence they were exempt from paying taxes to it. Under certain conditions they might resume their residence in the mother-state without fee, and they also had a right to inherit property left by a near relative in that state. Other provisions deal with judicial arrangements affecting the new settlers.

=Proxenia.=--Just as modern states appoint consuls in foreign countries in order that the interests of their citizens abroad may be protected, so the various Greek cities appointed their representatives in different foreign states. These representatives were chosen from the citizens of the town in which they acted, and their appointment was regarded as a special honour, carrying with it substantial privileges. The main functions of the _proxeni_ were those of dispensing hospitality to travellers and assisting them in cases of difficulty, and of receiving ambassadors arriving from the state which they represented. They were also expected generally to further that state's commercial interests.

Two bronze tablets recording decrees of _proxenia_, passed by the people of Corcyra, are here exhibited. No. =5= (fig. 2), probably of the end of the fourth century B.C., records the grant of _proxenia_ to Dionysios, son of Phrynichos, an Athenian.[2] It mentions the date, the appointment, and the right of possessing land and house property in Corcyra, the last evidently a reward granted to the _proxenos_ for his services. No. =6= (fig. 3), of about 200 B.C., is a grant of _proxenia_ to Pausanias, son of Attalos, a citizen of Ambrakia.[3] He is accorded the usual honours, and the Treasurer is directed to provide the money for the engraving of the decree on bronze. Both these tablets were found in Corfu, the modern name of the ancient Corcyra. The persons appointed acted, of course, in Athens and Ambrakia respectively.

=Law-courts at Athens.=--One of the most striking features of democratic Athens was its elaborate machinery for the administration of justice. The system of popular control began in the fifth century B.C., and reached its full development in the fourth. For petty offences the various magistrates had the power of inflicting a small fine, but graver charges were usually decided by a jury court. Those who composed these jury courts were called _dikastae_. They were chosen at first up to the number of six thousand from the entire body of citizens over thirty years of age, but later on apparently any citizen over thirty years of age was a qualified juryman. From the time of Perikles each juryman received three obols (about 5d.) a day for his services. The whole body of jurymen was divided into ten sections, each of which was distinguished by one of the first ten letters of the Greek alphabet (A to K). Each dikast received a ticket ([Greek: pinakion]), at first of bronze, but in Aristotle's day of boxwood, inscribed with his name, his parish, and the number of his section. In Aristotle's day the father's name was always given as well.[4] Four of these dikasts' tickets (in bronze) are exhibited in this case, together with a fragment of a fifth. Upwards of eighty are known, all apparently belonging to the fourth century B.C. The tickets shown are:

No. =7=, which belonged to Deinias of Halae, of the third section ([Greek: G]). The ticket is stamped with the Athenian symbol of an owl within an olive wreath, two owls with one head, and a Gorgoneion.

No. =8=, belonging to Archilochos of Phaleron, of the fifth section ([Greek: E]).

No. =9=, belonging to Aristophon, son of Aristodemos, of Kothokidae. His was the third section ([Greek: G]).

No. =10=, the ticket of Thukydides of Upper Lamptrae (fig. 4). He belonged to the sixth section ([Greek: Z]). The ticket bears the symbols of an owl within an olive wreath, and a Gorgoneion.

The lowest fragment is part of a ticket belonging to Philochares of Acharnae of the fifth section.

=Ostracism.=--This was a peculiar device adopted by Greek city-states for getting temporary relief from the influence of prominent citizens, whose presence was for the time being considered undesirable. At Athens ostracism was introduced by the statesman Kleisthenes about 508 B.C. The method of effecting it was as follows. The popular assembly (Ekklesia) first decided whether they desired that ostracism should be carried out. If they considered it expedient, they met and recorded their vote. The name of the person they most wished to get rid of was written on a potsherd (ostrakon), and if six thousand votes were recorded against any one name, that man had to go into banishment for ten years. In Case K is a coloured illustration (No. =11=) of three ostraka found at Athens (fig. 5). The names written on the sherds are well known in Greek history. _Themistokles_ (fig. 5_a_), of the deme Phrearri, was the creator of Athenian sea-power. In consequence of this ostracism (ca. 471 B.C.) he died an exile at Magnesia on the Maeander. _Megakles_ (fig. 5_b_) of the deme Alopeke, son of Hippokrates and uncle of Perikles, was ostracised in 487 B.C. as "a friend of the tyrants." In the next year, 486 B.C., was banished _Xanthippos_ (fig. 5_c_), son of Arriphron and father of Perikles, on the ground of undue prominence. The Museum collection contains no ostraka of historic importance, but the potsherd inscribed by one Teos (No. =12=) gives an idea of the actual object (fig. 6).

=Dedications for Victory.=--The dedication in a temple of a part of the spoils of victory was not merely a religious observance. It was also the formal entering of a claim to victory. The Etruscan helmet (No. =13=) dedicated at Olympia by Hieron of Syracuse, is an example (fig. 7). It was found at Olympia in 1817, and was presented to the Museum by King George the Fourth. On the side is a votive inscription:

[Greek: Hiarôn ho Deinomeneos kai toi Syrakosioi tô Di Tyran' apo Kymas]--"_Hieron son of Deinomenes and the Syracusans offer to Zeus Etruscan spoils from Kyme_." Hieron was tyrant of Syracuse from 478 to 467 B.C., in succession to his brother Gelon, and was one of the most prominent figures of the age. Gelon had nobly upheld the supremacy of the Greeks in the west by destroying a Carthaginian host at Himera, in the same year and, as the tale went, on the same day as the battle of Salamis. Hieron added to the brilliance of the Sicilian court, and signalised his naval power in the great repulse of the Etruscans. The ancient city of Kyme, near Naples, the earliest Greek colony in the west, was hard pressed by the neighbouring barbarians and by the civilised and powerful state of Etruria. The Greeks appealed for help to Hieron, and he sent them a fleet of warships, which beat the Etruscans in sight of the citadel of Kyme, and broke their sea-power for ever (474 B.C.). From the arms and treasure taken in the battle Hieron made the customary offering in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, and this helmet with its eloquent inscription was part of the dedicated spoil.

For other votive helmets see below, p. 76.

The votive spear-head, No. =14=, dedicated by an unknown Theodoros to (Zeus) Basileus, about 500 B.C., was probably found at Olympia. The occasion of the dedication is unknown, but it nearly resembles No. =15= (cast), which was dedicated at Olympia by the Methanians as spoil from the Lacedaemonians.[5] The original is at Berlin. Several spear-heads of this type have been found. They do not seem to be effective for use in battle, and they are therefore supposed to have been specially made for dedicatory purposes. It has also been suggested that they are spear-butts, but this does not seem probable.

FIG. 8.--SPEAR-HEAD DEDICATED BY THEODOROS TO (ZEUS) BASILEUS. (NO. 14). 1:3.]

=Emblem of Office.=--The bronze caduceus (No. =17=), (familiar as the emblem of the herald Mercury), is inscribed "I belong to the people of Longene," and was apparently the staff of the public herald of that town. It was found in a tomb in Sicily, and is of the fifth century B.C. The device is in the form of a staff, surmounted by a pair of intertwined serpents.

=Roman military Life.=--This is illustrated by two of the Latin inscriptions here shown. The oblong bronze tablet No. =18= (figs. 9_a_ and 9_b_) is part of a Roman _diploma_, a document recording privileges in respect of citizenship and rights of marriage granted to a veteran soldier. The _diploma_ derived its name from the fact that it was composed of two tablets hinged together.

We have in the present instance only the left side of one of the tablets. The right side, which had two holes for the metal rings attaching it to the other tablet, has been broken away. The inscription[6] is a copy of one originally engraved on bronze and set up on the wall behind the temple of Augustus _ad Minervam_ at Rome. It is headed with the names of M. Julius Philippus, the Emperor, and of his son, who had the title of Caesar. This is followed by the grant of full matrimonial rights to the soldiers of ten cohorts and by the date, equivalent to Jan. 7th, 246 A.D. Next comes the name of the individual soldier to whom this copy of the original inscription was given, one Neb. Tullius, a veteran of the fifth praetorian cohort of Philip at Aelia Mursa in Pannonia. The grant of full matrimonial privileges was a considerable one, for it meant that the veteran's wife and children gained the privileges of Roman citizens, if, as was often the case, the wife was not possessed of citizen rights at the time of marriage. The two holes in the middle of the tablet were used for the wire thread, which was passed round the tablets three times according to the usual official custom, and had the seals of seven witnesses affixed to it. Fig. 9_b_ is a restoration showing the original form of the document opened, the exterior of the two tablets being seen. This _diploma_ was found in Piedmont. Parts of similar documents will be seen exhibited in the Room of Roman Britain.

Near the _diploma_ is a small bronze ticket (No. =19=), inscribed on either side. One side bears the name of Ti(berius) Claudius Priscus, the other records that he belonged to the fourth praetorian cohort and the _centuria Paterni_.

=Corn Largesses.=--From the end of the second century B.C. it had become a regular feature of Roman policy to supply the populace of the city with corn either gratis or at an artificially cheap rate. After the fall of the Republic the Emperors carried still further the policy of free distributions (_congiaria_ or _liberalitates_). It has been reckoned that the annual cost of their largesses averaged £90,000 from Julius Caesar to Claudius, and £300,000 from Nero to Septimius Severus. Persius, who wrote in the time of Nero, notes with a sneer that it was one of the privileges of the meanest Roman citizen to exchange his ticket for a portion of musty flour. This policy of the Emperors is illustrated by the inscribed corn-ticket (_tessera frumentaria_) shown in this Case (No. =20=; fig. 10). It is inscribed on one side, _Ant(onini) Aug(usti) Lib(eralitas) II._, i.e., the second special largess of Antoninus, perhaps Antoninus Pius, who reigned from 138-161 A.D. On the other side appears _fru(mentatio) LXI._, i.e. the sixty-first monthly corn distribution, dating doubtless from the accession of Antoninus. The letters were originally inlaid with silver, as is shown by the remains of that metal in the numerals. The sepulchral inscription mentioned on p. 224 should be studied in connection with this corn-ticket.

=Official Emblem.=--The relief in Case =99= shows the _Fasces_ (that is, the axes and the rods tied in a bundle) which were carried by the lictors before the higher Roman magistrates.

=Slavery.=--The circular bronze badge (No. =21=) shows the Roman method of dealing with runaway slaves after the softening influence of Christianity had begun to make itself felt. In earlier times the runaway slave had been punished with the cruel penalty of branding. Apparently from the time of Constantine onwards an inscribed badge was substituted, authorising the summary arrest of the slave if he were caught out of bounds. The inscription on the badge exhibited runs: "Hold me, lest I escape, and take me back to my master Viventius on the estate of Callistus."

Two other objects may perhaps be brought into connection with slavery. The scourge (No. =22=), with its lash loaded with bronze beads, was frequently used for the punishment of slaves. It is the _horribile flagellum_ of Horace. A scourge very similar to the present is seen on a relief in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, representing a high-priest of Kybele, whose devotees were in the habit of scourging themselves in the service of the goddess.[7] The pair of iron fetters (No. =23=), found in 1813 in a cave behind the Pnyx at Athens, bear a close resemblance to those worn by a _bestiarius_ or beast-fighter represented on a relief from Ephesus exhibited in Case 110, (_Cat. of Sculpt._, II., No. 1286).

Two small bronzes (No. =24=) show dwarf slaves undergoing the punishment of the cangue, in which neck and wrists are fixed in a board.

(1) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 264; Hicks and Hill, _Greek Hist.
Inscr._, No. 9; (2) Roberts, _Gr. Epigraphy_, No. 297; (3)
_Cat. of Bronzes_, 263; _B.M. Inscr._, 953; (4) _Cat. of
Bronzes_, 262; _B.M. Inscr._, 954; (5) _Cat. of Bronzes_,
333; (6) _ibid._, 334; (7) to (10) _ibid._, 329-332; Hicks and
Hill, 151; _I.G._, II., 886, 901, 885, 908b; (11) _Jahrbuch d.
Arch. Inst._, II., p. 161; (12) _B.S. Athens Ann._, V. pl. 5,
fig. 112; (13) _B.M. Inscr._, 1155; _Cat. of Bronzes_, 250;
(14) _B.M. Inscr._, 948A; _Journ. of Hellen. Stud._, II.,
p. 77; (15) Roberts, _Gr. Epigraphy_, No. 286; (17) _Cat. of
Bronzes_, 319; _I.G._ XIV., 594; cf. _Hermes_, III., p. 298
ff.; (18) _Eph. Epigraph._, IV., p. 185; _C.I.L._, III.,
Suppl. i., p. 2000. On the _diplomata_ generally, see Smith,
_Dict. of Ant._, and Daremberg and Saglio, _Dict. of Ant._,
s.v.; (19) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 901; _C.I.L._, XV., 7166;
Hübner, _Exempla_, No. 915; (20) _Cat. of Bronzes_,
3016; _C.I.L._, XV., 7201; _Klio_, Beiheft III., p. 21;
_Philologus_, XXIX., p. 17; (21) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 902;
_C.I.L._, XV., 7193.

[Footnote 1: _Pol._ i. 1, 8.]

[Footnote 2: [Greek:

Prytanis Stratôn. | meis Psydreus, hamera te | tarta epi deka;
prostatas | Gnathios Sôkrateus; | proxenon poei ha halia |
Dionysion Phrynichou | Athênaion auton kai | ekgonous. didôti
de kai | gas kai oikias empasin. | tan de proxenian grapsan |
tas eis chalkon anthemen | ei ka proboulois kai prodikois dokêi
kalôs echein.

Dionysion | Phrynichou | Athênaion.]
]

[Footnote 3: [Greek:

Edoxe ta halia, proxe|non eimen Pausanian At|talou Ambrakiôtan |
tas polios tôn Korkyrai|ôn auton kai engonous; | eimen de autois
kai ta | alla timia, hosa kai [tois] | allois proxenois [kai] |
euergetais geg(ra)|ptai. | tan de proxeni|an proboulous kai
pro|dikous grapsantas eis | chalkôma anathemen, | ton de
tamian domen | to genomenon analô|ma.

Pausanian Attalou | Ambrakiôtan.]
]

[Footnote 4: [Greek: Ath. Pol. 63: echei d' hekastos dikastês
pinakion pyxinon, epigegrammenon to onoma to heautou patrothen
kai tou dêmou kai gramma hen tôn stoicheiôn mechri tou k.]]

[Footnote 5: [Greek: Methanioi apo Lakedaimoniôn.]]

[Footnote 6:
Imp. Cae(sar) M. Iulius Phili[ppus Pius]
Fel(ix) Aug(ustus), pont(ifex) max(imus), trib(unicia)
p[ot(estate) III, cos., p.p. et]
M. Iulius Philippus nobil[issim(us) Caes(ar)]
nomina militum, qui milit[averunt in]
cohortibus pretoris Phil[ippianis de-]
cem I. II. III. IIII. V. VI. VII. VIII. VII[II. X. piis vin-]
dicibus, qui pii et fortiter [militia fun-]
cti sunt, ius tribuimus con[ubii dumta-]
xat cum singulis et primi[s uxoribus],
ut etiam si peregrini iur[is feminas]
in matrimon(io) suo iunxe[rint, proinde
liberos toll(ant), acxi (for _ac si_) ex duob(us) c[ivibus Ro-]
manis natos. a. d. VII. [idus Ian.]
C. Bruttio Presente et C. Al(b)[- - - - - cos.]
Coh(ors) V pr(aetoria) Philip[pian(a) p(ia) v(index).]
Neb. Tullio Neb. f. M(a) - - - - - - - -
Ael(ia) Murs[a].
Descript(um) et recognit(um) ex ta[bula aerea],
que fix(a) est Romae in muro [pos(t) templum]
divi Aug(usti) ad Mine[rvam].

]

[Footnote 7: Baumeister, _Denkmäler_, II., p. 801, fig. 867.]

II.--COINS.

(Table-Case K.)

The coins which are selected to represent the Greek and Roman currencies extend over a period of just one thousand years, in the course of which the coinage went through all the developments and anticipated all the varieties of type and fabric which it has since experienced, while in artistic merit it reached an excellence which will probably never be surpassed. The Greek coinage, moreover, has the great interest of being that upon which all later coinages have been modelled--for the Chinese money, which originated about the same time, and apparently independently, may be left out of account.

=Greek Coins.=--The character and provenance of the earliest coins agree with the best ancient tradition of their origin, in so far as it associates them with Asia Minor, although it is more probable that they were invented by the Greek cities of the coast than by the Lydians, to whom they have been credited in accordance with the Herodotean tradition.[8] The most primitive pieces are found in Asia Minor, and their metal is a natural mixture of gold and silver, called electrum, which occurs in the mountains of Lydia, and was brought down to the sea in the sands of the great rivers, the golden Hermus and its tributary the Pactolus. The cities which the Greeks had planted on the Asiatic shores grew in the seventh century B.C. to a high degree of wealth, by reason of their position on a rich coastland, where they were intermediary in the trade of east and west. There were great bankers in these Ionian cities who had large stores of treasure; their gold and silver would be kept in bars or ingots of definite weight stamped with the device, in place of the written signature, of the banker. From thus marking large ingots with his own signature, it would be a short step for the banker to do the same with smaller denominations of the same weights, so producing a private coinage for his own convenience in calculation, which would come to have a limited acceptance in the quarters where his credit was good. Such pieces are probably to be recognised in the nondescript coins of which the electrum stater is an example (No. =24=; fig. 12_a_); this is scored on one side with parallel scratches and stamped on the other with three deep punch-marks. There are many pieces in existence which have even less design than this, although their weights conform to definite coin-standards. We may perhaps regard this example as a private coin, one of the last of its kind, which immediately preceded the adoption of coinage by the state. The invention of coinage lies really in this innovation, which, however obvious it may seem to us now, was then of deep political significance. When once a state currency was instituted, the private coinage fell out of use, for no individual banker could compete with the guarantee of the state, and the state would not tolerate imitation of its own types. We may therefore take it that the successive stages in the "invention" of coinage were somewhat as follows: first, the occasional practice of stamping certain weights of metal with marks by which they could be identified; this probably continued in private use for a long period before it was adopted by a state; and finally the adoption all over the Greek world of a series of state coinages.

The example, once set, was quickly followed by the more important Greek cities, until by the middle of the sixth century the art of coinage had travelled from Ionia across the mainland of Greece to the colonies in Italy and Sicily. Owing to the peculiar political conditions of Greece, where every town held a separate and independent sovereignty, each state was jealous to assert its autonomy on its coins, with the result that the Greek coinage presents an enormous variety of types, held together, however, as the money of one people by the uniformity of their general character and of the art in which they are expressed.

We may now proceed to consider a few representative coins, which in the midst of innumerable local issues were important enough by their purity of weight and metal, or by their abundance, or by the commercial reputation of their issuing states, to predominate in the Greek world as a sort of international currency and standard of exchange.

The earliest electrum stater of Ionia is interesting on account of its fabric only, for it has no type. It is a bean-shaped lump of metal, one side of which has been stamped with a flat die marked with parallel scratches, the other with three punches, which have left deep impressions (No. =24=; fig. 12_a_). The pieces which immediately followed, such as the silver money of Aegina (No. =25=; fig. 12_d_), have a real type on the obverse, while the punch-mark on the reverse is more regular, and is often ornamented with some design of a special character, though it does not contain a type until later.

With the introduction of coinage into European Greece, a change was made in the metal of the currency, for gold and electrum, which were plentiful in Asia, were not common in Greece proper, and a silver coinage was there the rule until Philip of Macedon took possession of the Thracian gold mines. The few gold issues before his time were due to exceptional circumstances; thus the gold coinage of Athens (No. =26=) was occasioned by great financial stress, when treasure was melted down to supply the currency. There was, however, no lack of gold money in Greece, for after the first electrum issues came the fine gold staters of Croesus, in the early sixth century (No. =27=; fig. 12_b_), and, on his overthrow by Cyrus, an international gold coinage was still available in the enormous issues of the Persian darics (No. =28=; fig. 12_c_), which were in common use all over the ancient world until the Macedonian gold replaced them. A few subsidiary electrum coinages survived in Asia, the most famous being the Kyzikene staters (No. =29=; fig. 12_m_), which were a standard exchange in the Aegean and Black Sea regions. A peculiarity of this coinage is that the distinctive type of the town, the tunny, is relegated to a secondary place, while the main type is a constantly changing design. In the piece illustrated the subject is taken from a group of the Athenian tyrannicides, Harmodios and Aristogeiton, which stood in the market place of their native city.

Another important currency, used especially in western Greece, the "colts" of Corinth, took its type from the local myth that the winged horse Pegasos was captured by Bellerophon at the fountain Peirene, which flowed from the acropolis of the town (No. =30=; fig. 12_e_). The original punch-mark on the reverse was soon replaced by the helmeted head of Athena, who also had a part in the Pegasos myth, and these two types were constant as long as the Corinthian state existed. The money which enjoyed the fairest reputation was that of Athens, which, at the time of the Athenian empire, superseded the issues of the subject cities and became the standard currency in the Aegean Sea. It penetrated into the far East, and there are extant examples of native imitations from India and Arabia. The wide circulation of these staters among barbarous peoples was the cause of their peculiar style; for not only were the types of Athena's head and her owl and olive-branch unaltered from the first sixth-century design, but the execution was an imitation of the primitive manner, the stiffness of archaic art being reproduced in an affected archaism. As the money of Athens was the foremost in the Greek world, it is useful to note the extraordinary number of denominations which were struck in silver at its most flourishing period, the fifth century B.C. A large, but still not complete, series is exhibited here (No. =31=). It consists of the _Decadrachm_ (10 drachmae, fig. 12_f_), an early and rare coin, the _Tetradrachm_ (4 drachmae, fig. 12_g_), which was the famous Athenian stater or standard piece, the _Didrachm_ (2 drachmae), the _Drachm_ (fig. 12_h_), the unit of weight, which contained six obols, the _Triobol_ (3 obols), the _Diobol_ (2 obols), the _Obol_ (fig. 12_i_), the _Tritemorion_ (3/4 obol), the _Hemiobol_ (1/2 obol), the _Trihemitetartemorion_ (3/8 obol), and the _Tetartemorion_ (1/4 obol, fig. 12_k_), the half of the last piece being equivalent to the largest bronze coin, the _Chalkous_ (No. =32=).

With the Athenian series is the bronze core of an ancient imitation of a silver stater, of which the silver plating has perished (No. =33=). False coining was punished with extreme penalties even in those early days: in an extant monetary convention between Mytilene and Phocaea, of the fourth century B.C., the crime of adulterating the money is threatened with death.[9]

On the conquest of Athens by Macedon, at the end of the fourth century B.C., the autonomous Athenian coinage was largely superseded by the Macedonian regal issues, and did not recover its position until late in the next century. It was renewed in a different form, with none of the old archaism, of which the occasion was past. The coins of the new style exemplify the thin flat fabric of the period, and although the types of Athena and the owl are preserved, their arrangement is much more complicated. The new head of Athena is a copy from the colossal ivory and gold statue which Pheidias made, and on the reverse of the coins the owl and olive spray are accompanied by many new devices, of which the most remarkable are the names, symbols, and monograms of the monetary magistrates; eminent personages sometimes figure in this place. On the coins exhibited (No. =34=; fig. 12_l_) one of the officials is Antiochos, who was afterwards Epiphanes, king of Syria.

In the interval between the old and new coinages, when the Athenian money was scanty, the currency was supplied by the regal issues of the Macedonian kings and their successors. Under Philip II. and his son Alexander the Great, the Macedonian monarchy extended its dominion by conquest, not only over the isolated Greek cities, but over the ancient empire of Persia. The opportunity was thus provided for a universal coinage, and it was realised in the gold and silver issues of Philip and Alexander (Nos. =35=, =36=; fig. 12_n-q_). The acquisition of the Thracian gold-mines gave Philip the means for an abundant coinage of gold, the first considerable Greek issue of the kind, which contributed in no small measure to his political success. The style of these coins of Philip is not different from that of other Greek money, except that they are inscribed with a personal name--of Philip--instead of the name of a whole people, and the types, a horse and jockey and a two-horse chariot, are also personal, as they commemorate the racing successes of the king. The fine heads on the obverse, however, are still divine, that of Zeus appearing on the silver and the young Apollo on the gold, for the idea of representing a living personage on a coin was still distant. Of this money the gold especially was struck in enormous quantities, and the types were imitated more and more crudely, as time went on, in Gaul and Britain. (_See_ the series shown in the Room of Roman Britain.) The coinage of Alexander was even more widely spread. His types were more orthodox than those of Philip: the head of Athena and a Victory on the gold, and the head of young Herakles, wrapped in the lion-skin, with a figure of Zeus enthroned, on the silver staters, although in the head of Herakles there is some suggestion of the features of Alexander. These coins were struck all over the world which Alexander conquered, and lasted after his death as the money of his successors and of independent cities, in some cases even for two centuries; but the kings who divided his great empire modified the type by introducing real portraits of Alexander, as a deified hero, and later of themselves, as living deities, so that the representation of a ruler's head on coins, which is still practised to-day, began with quasi-religious Greek coin-types. The regularity of the Greek coinage which Alexander established was only temporary, and his influence was fast disappearing when the subjection of the world by the Romans in the first century B.C. merged all provincial issues in the complete uniformity of the Imperial mint.

=Roman Coins.=--As gold in the Asiatic coastlands and silver in European Greece, so in Italy the native medium of exchange was bronze. In the earliest times the raw metal was circulated in broken knobs of indefinite weight (_aes rude_), which required in all transactions the use of scales. The rude metal was afterwards superseded by cast ingots of an oblong shape, which bore a device to indicate their purpose as money (_aes signatum_). Yet the weights were still irregular, and no mark of value accompanied the types, so that the pieces were not strictly coins. A survival of this primitive currency is seen in the large ingot which has on one side a tripod and on the other an anchor (No. =37=; fig. 13). This piece itself belongs to a later period, when the lighter coined money was already in use. The special purpose for which this and similar pieces were intended is quite uncertain. The first coinage of Rome was less massive than this, but being entirely of bronze, was still inconveniently large and cumbrous (_aes grave_). The Roman of the fourth century B.C., when he found it necessary to transport any considerable sum, took his money about with him in a waggon.[10] The use of bronze for a token currency, as in Greece, was not possible without a superior coinage of gold or silver to secure its value.

A typical series of the Roman heavy bronze money is exhibited (No. =38=; fig. 14) The system is based on the pound of twelve ounces, and the denominations of the various pieces are distinguished by the heads or obverse types, and by the marks of value which they bear. The series consists of the _As_, or pound (+I+), the half, _Semis_ (+S+), the third, _Triens_, of four ounces (····), the quarter, _Quadrans_, of three ounces (···), the sixth, _Sextans_, of two ounces (··), and the _Uncia_, or ounce, the lower unit (·) (_cf._ p. 160). Each of these is further differentiated by the obverse head. The _as_ has the double head of Janus, the god of beginnings, whose coin opened the series of money, as his month begins the year. The _semis_ has the head of Jupiter, wearing a laurel wreath; the _triens_, Minerva armed; the _quadrans_, Hercules in the lion-skin; the _sextans_, Mercury, the messenger, with wings in his cap; and the _uncia_, a head of Bellona, the goddess of battle. All the reverses have a common type, the prow of a ship. This device may mark the date of the introduction of the Roman coinage, which coincided with Rome's first essays on the sea, in the middle of the fourth century before Christ. It remained as the reverse type of the bronze money all through the Republic, and even in later times, when a coin was tossed, the cry was "heads" or "ships."[11]

The heavy bronze coinage of the city of Rome was only one among many similar currencies of the central Italian states. As the Romans conquered the neighbouring territories, where there existed local weight-systems, which, in the interests of commerce, it was well to preserve, instead of imposing their own money, they inaugurated subordinate issues at the dependent mints. On this principle it was natural that when the march of Roman conquest came upon the peoples of South Italy, where a silver currency had been long ago introduced by the Greek colonists, a local issue for those parts was instituted as a subsidiary coinage. To this class of Roman money belongs the silver stater or didrachm with Campanian types (the head of Mars and the bust of a horse) which was struck by the Romans--as the legend +ROMANO+(_rum_) shews--in Capua for the use of the Campanian district (No. =39=; fig. 15_a_). With the extension of power and territory the old bronze pieces were inadequate, and in the year 268 B.C. a silver coinage was begun at Rome itself. At the same time the Campanian mint was closed, and the heavy bronze coins, being subordinated to the silver unit, were issued as token-money in a reduced and more convenient size.

The first Roman silver coinage bears the types of the goddess Roma, wearing a winged helmet, and on the reverse the patron deities of trade and commerce, Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins or Dioscuri (No. =40=; fig. 15_b-d_). They are armed with spears and ride on horseback, with their stars above their heads. These types occur on all three denominations of the earliest silver, the _Denarius_ (marked +X+), which was worth 10 _asses_; its half, the _Quinarius_ (+V+); and the _Sestertius_ (+IIS+) of 2-1/2 _asses_, which became the unit in reckoning accounts. The two smallest silver pieces were not always struck; but the _denarius_, with the reduced copper for small denominations, remained in use during the period of the Republic at Rome and long into the Empire. Although both series had a great variety of types, the fabric and general appearance were unaltered.

With the change to the Empire, reform in all directions was begun, and the coinage was set on a new basis. Gold was introduced to meet the needs of the metropolis of the world, and two new coins, the _Aureus_ and its half, were struck in this metal. They were modelled on the silver pieces. The standard silver coin was still the _denarius_, and the only change which it experienced was in type. The head of the emperor took the place of those of deities, with a superscription, which was the forerunner of modern coin-legends. It consisted of the name and titles of the emperor, often with the date of striking, arranged in a circle round the edge of the coin. The minting of gold and silver was assumed by the emperor, but the lower denominations were left to the senate, whose authority is expressed on each piece by the letters +S·C+ (_Senatus Consulto_, "by decree of the Senate"). The senatorial series consisted of the _Sestertius_, the equivalent of the smallest silver coin, now valued at 4 _asses_ instead of the original 2-1/2; the _Dupondius_, of 2 _asses_; the _As_, and fractions of the _as_, _Semis_ and _Quadrans_, which are of less frequent occurrence. These coins sometimes differed as to the metal used, the _as_ and _semis_ being of copper, and the _dupondius_ and _sestertius_ of brass; or in the style of the emperor's head; or, as in the case of the coins exhibited, the _as_ is marked +I+ and the _dupondius_ +II+ (fig. 15_h_ and _i_). Usually, however, the two pieces are confused, and are loosely termed by collectors "second brass," the sesterce being "first brass," and all denominations lower than the _as_ "third brass." The reverse types were very numerous, and, with the exception of the mark +S·C+ on the senatorial issues, none of them was peculiar to any denomination. The series which is selected here to illustrate the Imperial coinage is of the reign of Nero (54-68 A.D.); all the pieces, therefore, bear the image and superscription of that Caesar, and their reverses have complimentary references to the emperor and his family, or topical allusions to current events (No. =41=; fig. 15_e-l_).

Nero was the first emperor to reduce the weight of the _denarius_, and from his time the degeneration was rapid. A series of seven pieces, from Tiberius to Probus (14-281 A.D.), illustrates the debasement of the metal, which is apparent to the eye (No. =42=). By the time of Gordianus Pius (238-244 A.D.) no trace of silver is visible, and the coin of Probus here exhibited is plainly copper. Yet these pieces represent the only silver money which was then coined.

Many of the coins which have come down to us have been preserved by the care or avarice of their former owners, who hid their wealth for security and were unable to recover it. Portions of two such hoards are shown at the end of the case. One consists of Athenian staters of the late fifth century B.C. (No. =43=), which were found in the Greek settlement of Naukratis, and the other is a large collection of late Roman coins of the fifth century A.D. (No. =44=). These were buried in another Egyptian town, Hawara, in the egg-shaped jug which is shown with them. At Pompeii, a city which was overwhelmed by the volcano in the midst of its daily life, money, like all other things, has been found ready to hand and actually in use. There is in this Case all that the fire has left of a Pompeian money-box, and among the coins which it contains is a brass sesterce of Nero, whose reign ended eleven years before the catastrophe. Shreds of a net purse are also visible in the box (No. =45=).

=Special uses of Coins.=--A silver stater of Sikyon (No. =46=), is marked by an inscription punctured by the dedicator--_To Artemis in Lakedaemon_. A religious character attaches also to the bronze coin of Laodikeia in Phrygia, which is pierced and suspended from a wire loop for wearing as a charm against sickness, by virtue of the figures which it bears of Asklepios and Hygieia, the deities of health (No. =47=).

A curious coin, struck for a special religious purpose, is the copper piece of Nemausus (Nîmes, in the South of France), which is made in the shape of a ham for dedication to the deity of the local fountain (No. =48=). The offering was probably originally paid in kind.

=Ancient false Coins.=--With the exception of the Italian heavy copper, which was cast, nearly all ancient coins were struck in dies, and most of the false pieces which have survived are defective in the quality of the metal, while the fabric is good. In the later Roman Empire, when all the standard money was of base metal, the surface was so bad that the coins could easily be counterfeited by casting, and great numbers of the clay moulds used by forgers or by the monetary authorities date from this period. Among the large collection here exhibited (No. =49=) there are some unbroken moulds, and some with the run metal still adhering. Base metal was detected by the use of the touch-stone, and pieces of doubtful weight were tested by the balance. An ivory folding balance is shown (No. =49*=). The long arm is made just too light to counterpoise a good denarius--the test being that if the coin were heavy enough it would fall off the plate at the end.

For Greek and Roman coins in general, see Hill, _Handbook of
Greek and Roman Coins_ (with the Bibliography there given);
G. Macdonald, _Coin Types_ (Glasgow, 1905); Head, _Historia
Numorum_ (2nd ed. 1911.)

[Footnote 8: i. 94.]

[Footnote 9: Michel, _Recueil des inscr. grecques_, No. 8.]

[Footnote 10: Livy, iv. 60.]

[Footnote 11: Macr. _Sat._ i. 7, 22. pueri denarios in
sublime iactantes capita aut navia exclamant.]

III.--DRAMA.

(Table-Case K and Glass Shade above.)

The antiquities illustrating the ancient drama are placed in one half of Table-Case K, and under the glass shade standing above it.

=Greek Drama.=--This was in its origin essentially religious, and retained up to the decline of tragedy at the end of the fifth century B.C. the character of a religious ceremony. Thus tragedy gradually developed out of the rude dances in honour of the wine-god Dionysos, which were performed at country vintage festivals. The name tragedy means "goat-song," and is probably to be associated with the sacrifice of the goat, the enemy of the vines.

The dramatic part of a tragedy was at first confined to a dialogue between a single actor and the leader of the chorus, with long musical interludes, but the number of actors was gradually increased, with the result that more stress was laid on the dramatic action. Aeschylos introduced a second actor, Sophokles a third, and Euripides, the last of the great tragedians, reduced the lyrical element of the play to comparatively insignificant proportions.

Comedy underwent a development not unlike that of tragedy. It also had its origin in the coarse buffoonery common at the rustic festivals which celebrated the vintage. Introduced into Athens from the neighbouring Megara early in the sixth century B.C., it did not receive recognition from the state until the middle of the fifth century. The comedy of the closing years of that century is inseparably connected with the name of Aristophanes, who combined merciless political satire with exquisite poetry.

In the fourth century B.C. a great change came over comedy at Athens. The later plays of Aristophanes mark the beginning of the comedy of manners, which took the place of the old political comedy. The master of this new comedy was Menander. Through Roman translations and adaptations of Menander and his fellow poets by Plautus and Terence, comes the comedy of Molière and modern Europe.

The theatre, in which these ancient plays were performed, was of slow development. The grassy slopes of a hill, bordering on a circular dancing-place (_orchestra_), satisfied the earliest audiences. Later on, a definite place was set apart for theatrical performances, and a wooden structure erected for the actors. It was not until the fourth century that permanent stone seats were laid down in the Theatre of Dionysos at Athens, although performances had been given there for more than a century.

=Roman Drama.=--The drama at first met with a determined opposition from Romans of the old school as a new-fangled thing from Greece. The taste of the people, also, was not inclined to favour so cultured an amusement as the drama. The Romans preferred to see a fight between men or beasts rather than to listen to a play, and on one occasion, when listening to a play of Terence, they rushed pell-mell from the theatre, because a rumour arose that a combat of gladiators was going to take place.[12]

The more important Roman comedies were adapted from the New Comedy of the Greeks. These adaptations are familiar to us from the surviving plays of Plautus (254-184 B.C.) and Terence (ca. 185-159 B.C.). Actors at Rome had long to be content with temporary wooden structures, which were pulled down when the performances were over. A permanent theatre was not erected in Rome till 55 B.C.

The objects illustrating the ancient drama can conveniently be divided into (_a_) representations of scenes from plays, and (_b_) figures of actors and masks.

(_a_) =Scenes from Plays.=--The vase (No. =50=) placed under the glass shade is valuable as an illustration of the beginnings of Athenian drama. It is a plate of Athenian fabric of the sixth century B.C., with designs which probably represent the sacrifice made to Athena at the Panathenaic games, and two scenes relating to dramatic contests. The first of these scenes shows a tragic chorus with the goat, which was the prize of victory. The second shows a comic chorus, in which a man seated at the back of a mule-car appears to be making jests at the expense of another man who follows. This "jesting from a car" became a regular phrase to express ribald joking.[13] None of the men who took part in these contests is distinguished by any peculiarity of costume. Another early vase, however (No. =51=), gives a lively picture of two actors dressed up as birds. Before them stands a flute-player. Though this vase is many years earlier in date than the _Birds_ of Aristophanes (414 B.C.), yet it may serve to give us some idea of the appearance of the chorus in that play.

The two large vases illustrate Greek dramatic performances of a considerably later date. They give us scenes from _phlyakes_, a class of burlesques which were in vogue in the Greek cities of Southern Italy, especially at Tarentum, at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the third century B.C. They are associated with the name of Rhinthon, a Syracusan poet. These plays dealt in the wildest spirit of farce with subjects drawn from Greek mythology and legend, as well as with scenes from daily life. One of the vases (No. =52=; fig. 16) shows a contest upon the stage, between actors representing Ares ([Greek: Eneualios]) and Hephaestos ([Greek: Daidalos]) fighting in the presence of Hera. The grotesque mask, the padded figures, and the general air of exaggeration are indicative of the character of these plays, which earned for them the title of mock-tragedies ([Greek: hilarotragôdiai]). The other vase (No. =53=) is a parody of the myth of Cheiron cured by Apollo. The blind Centaur, whose equine body is represented pantomime-fashion by a second actor pushing behind, ascends the steps leading up to the stage, where stands the slave Xanthias. Behind is the Centaur's pupil Achilles, and looking on from a cave are two grotesquely ugly nymphs.

Case K contains two interesting representations of Roman comedy and tragedy respectively. The oblong lamp (No. =54=; fig. 17) gives a scene from a comedy, not improbably the mock-marriage scene from the fourth act of the _Casina_ of Plautus. The steps leading up to the door of the house divide the actors into two groups. On the left is the bridegroom (Olympio?) with his mule, in preparation for his departure into the country. On the right comes the marriage procession approaching a woman (Pardalisca?) who stands by the steps. First walks a Silenus, carrying a Cupid on his shoulders; next comes the bride, carried aloft by a man, in order that she may be lifted over the threshold in conformity with the usual Roman marriage rite (see below, p. 212). Behind is an altar in the courtyard of the house. A Cupid waits at the door to receive the bride.

The Gallo-Roman medallion (No. =55=; fig. 18) is from a vase. It gives a picture of a Roman tragedy. On a high stage sits Jupiter enthroned, with Victory and Minerva on his right and left hand respectively. Before the stage stand Hercules and Mars, disputing. Hercules has slain Cycnus, the son of Mars, and the irate father stands exclaiming: "Be assured that I am come as the avenger of my son." To which Hercules replies: "Unconquered valour can ne'er be terrified."[14] The characters speak in iambic verse.

(_b_) =Figures of actors and masks.=--In tragedy the actors probably wore a dress differing from that of the spectators only in a certain richness of material and colour, and in an adherence to the fashion of an earlier period. Two features, however, distinguished them in appearance from ordinary men, the buskin ([Greek: kothornos]) or high-soled boot, and the tragic mask. The use of the former (which increased in height as time went on) was due to a desire to enhance the wearer's dignity by raising him somewhat above the common height of men. The wearing of the mask was brought about chiefly by tradition, partly by the great size of ancient theatres, which rendered some easily recognized type of face a practical necessity. The tragic mask (fig. 22 below, right) was usually surmounted by a high projection over the forehead, called the _onkos_, on which the hair was raised to a height varying with the social position of the character. The mask illustrated (No. =56=) is of ivory and finely worked. It is a mask such as would have been worn by some king in tragedy, an Agamemnon or a Kreon. The general appearance of a tragic actor is finely brought before us by an ivory statuette (not in the Museum) which was found near Rieti, a place about 35 miles N.E. of Rome (fig. 19). The elaborately embroidered robe is coloured blue, and the _onkos_, mask, and buskins are clearly seen. (_Mon. dell' Inst._ xi. pl. 13.)