©Peter van Alfen
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
Metoikêsis and Archaic Monetary Coordination: Teos-Abdera and Phokaia-Velia
Peter van Alfen
Introduction
The phenomenon of archaic (and classical) period monetary unions has been well
reviewed with a number of scholars recently cataloging instances of joint coinages and
contemplating the reasoning that lay behind their production. 1 Even so, we still do not
fully understand why such bi- and multi-lateral arrangements were conducted in the first
place, how they were organized, and how they were maintained over time. Some
commentators have sought the impetus for such arrangements within the realm of
economics: creating a joint coinage would reduce transaction costs between the partners
and could generate shared seigniorage revenues.2 These notions, however, have yet to be
fully tested for the archaic period, and indeed work on modern monetary unions suggest
that political factors, both domestic and international, weigh just as heavily in forming
and maintaining monetary unions as economic factors do.3 To be sure, politics seem to
have played a significant role in arranging the production of some archaic joint coinages.
We can, in general, identify two political modes in these arrangements: one in which
union was conducted between political equals on a voluntary basis, and another in which
it was imposed from above by a hegemonic power.4 What evidence we have also suggests
that arrangements between political equals might be formalized by treaties (or contracts)
between the partners;5 it is possible that less formal arrangements, especially between
unequal partners might also have existed.
Among the various examples of joint monetary arrangements in the archaic
period, two stand out for the very reason that it is far from clear if what we observe in the
numismatic record is the result of a monetary union of sorts between two discrete
partners or the continuing practice of a single political body. What makes the monetary
1
Psoma and Tsangari 2003; Mackil and van Alfen 2006; Mackil 2013: 247-255.
See, for example, Mackil and van Alfen 2006.
3
See, for example, the papers in Capie and Wood 2003.
4
For a discussion, see Mackil and van Alfen 2006: 205-210.
5
An inscription (IG XII 2, 1) dated c. 400 BC and found at Mytilene details aspects of the treaty
between Mytilene and Phokaia to produce jointly electrum hektai. For a full discussion and
earlier bibliography, see Mackil and van Alfen 2006: 210-219. Cf. Bodenstedt 1981, especially
pp. 29-31
2
1
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
arrangements of archaic Teos and Abdera, and Phokaia and Velia so peculiar is that they
were born of their shared experiences of metoikêsis, or “urban relocation”. 6 Their
relocations in the 540s BC resulted not in the total transfer of the populations, but in the
near even splitting of the poleis, with half of the people staying or soon returning home,
the other half setting out to establish a new settlement quite some distance away. Not
long after the split each half of the polis produced coins similar to those produced by the
other half; these were among the very first silver coinages produced by any Greek polis.
The political and numismatic interpretation of these events is complicated by the divide
between these communities not only in terms of distance and identity, but also by the
apparent attempts to maintain unity, at least in some of their dealings with one another.
Most political interpretations to date have assumed that there was from the beginning a
complete, formal break between those relocating and those staying, with each
community, new and old, (re)forming its own autonomous government, as well as its own
identity. But this static model of autonomy, which presupposes a certain level of state
formation and formal procedures for conducting external relations, does not fully capture
the particularities of the experience of metoikêsis and its aftermath. The massive scale of
relocation and strong (familial) ties between the halves of the split polis shaped their
relationships with one another quite differently than those between a ‘normal’ metropolis
and apoikia, or between two unrelated poleis.7 Since the interweaving of the
communities, particularly in the case of Teos and Abdera, appears to have gone beyond
what we would expect of autonomia, some have instead considered the relationship to be
a sympoliteia, an interpretation that also poses problems.8 Numismatic interpretations
meanwhile have ascribed the coin parallels either, in the case of Teos and Abdera, to
some sort of communal decision making, a political act that receives no further
6
I borrow here Demand’s (1990) translation of metoikêsis, who discusses the phenomenon at
length.
7
See Graham (1992) and Youni (2007) for the unusual nature of the relationship between Teos
and Abdera.
8
Hermann 1981: 26-29; Youni (2007) and Graham (1992) discuss but dismiss the possibility of
sympoliteia. See further below. For the concept of autonomia see Ostwald (1982) and Low
(2007).
2
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
explication, or, in the case of Phokaia and Velia, simply to imitation, a cultural act that
implies a lack of close contact and one which again is left mostly unexplained.9
In this paper, I set out to define more closely the nature of the monetary
arrangements between these split communities, and to delineate the effect that the
experience of metoikêsis had on these arrangements. I suggest that these bi-lateral
arrangements were significantly different from those found in other monetary unions
since they were predicated primarily on close political and social ties rather than on any
pressing economic need. These close ties allowed the partners to structure their monetary
union in ways that were much less formal than that between unrelated partners, and to set
it on more equal footing than the unions between metropoleis and their apoikiai. This
different type of arrangement I call “monetary coordination” to set it apart from more
formal, but still voluntary “cooperative” arrangements, and non-voluntary “hegemonic”
arrangements.
This paper is divided into four parts. The first part reviews the historical and
numismatic evidence for Phokaia and Teos and their settlements. Since monetary unions
of any sort were presumably concluded among those having the power to make critical
decisions, the second part of this paper addresses what it is we mean by monetary
authority in the archaic period, and where this authority, politically and bureaucratically,
was located within the polis. The third part expands the scope to consider problems of
polis autonomy and elite interaction within the international realm, and the final part
returns to monetary coordination in light of these considerations.
I.A. Phokaia and Velia
In the immediate aftermath of the fall of Sardis in the mid-540s BC, the Persians
turned their attention to the rest of western Asia Minor.10 The Phokaians felt unable to
come to terms with the Persian general Harpagos, then besieging them, and so abandoned
their city by ship taking with them their families, all their moveable goods, and
transportable cult objects After an initially slow start, they made plans to sail to the west,
9
Communal decision making in Teos and Abdera: Kraay 1976: 35, Chryssanthanki-Nagle 2007:
101; western Phokaian coinage imitating Ionian Phokaian models: Rutter 2002: 172.
10
The following paragraph is based on Herodotus 1.163-167 and ps.-Skymnos 250.
3
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
where other Phokaians had founded Alalia in Corsica and Massalia in Gaul a generation
earlier (map 1). Before heading west, however, the mother group first sailed back to
Phokaia, overcame the Persian garrison, and there called down mighty curses on anyone
who would stay behind, and, to make the point more dramatic still, sunk a mass of iron in
the sea swearing never to return to Phokaia until the iron resurfaced. Despite all the
theatrics, over half of the Phokaians turned back around and stayed home. In the western
Mediterranean, the other half landed in Alalia, and probably Massalia as well, and soon
began to prey on regional trade until the Etruscans and Carthaginians had had enough of
this. The Phokaians won their Pyrrhic sea battle against both forces, and for reasons
unclear abandoned Alalia only fives years after landing there, once again setting off in
search of a home, which they eventually found in Campania at Velia. And there the story,
at least for Herodotus, ends.11
Long before the Persians arrived at their gates, the Phokaians had minted electrum
coinage on their own standard, with an ideal stater weight of 16.45 g (figs. 1-2).12
Sometime around 520 BC, those who stayed behind concluded a formal agreement with
the Lesbian polis of Mytilene to produce a joint series of electrum hektai, an arrangement
that lasted for nearly 200 years producing a massive amount of electrum coinage, whose
purpose still eludes us (figs. 3-5).13 The situation with their contemporaneous civic silver
coinage is a little unclear, however. At least three separate silver series dated to the last
half of the 6th century have been attributed to Phokaia: 1) those with the phokê (seal) as a
punning type, used also on their earliest electrum coins. The denominations of this series
are mostly small—obols and hemiobols—but there are as well a handful of extant larger
“drachms” weighing close to 4 g (fig. 6).14 Findspots for this series include the western
11
The bibliography on Phokaian activities in the west is substantial. For recent, detailed
overviews of these activities with extensive bibliographies see Malkin 2010 and Morel 2006.
12
Bodenstedt 1981, series E.
13
See above n.5.
14
Drachms: Bableon 1907, nos. 512-513 (“drachme lesbiaque”); BMC Ionia, no. 78 (“Phoenician
standard”). Ten examples of these “drachms” have been recorded: 1) Bableon 42, pl. III, 9 (3.93 g
= Jameson 1508 = Leu MM 1965, 390; from the Taranto hoard); 2) Babelon 42b (3.70 g, from the
Taranto hoard); 3) Babelon 43, pl. III, 11 (3.75 g, from the Taranto hoard); 4) SNG Lockett 2847
(3.92 g, from the Taranto hoard); 5) ANS 1944.100.46729 (3.93 g, from the Taranto hoard); 6)
Paris (3.82 g); 7) Paris, de Luynes (3.68 g); 8) London (3.78 g); 9) Berlin (3.85 g); 10) New York
Sale XXVII (2012), lot 523 (Prospero col.)(3.93 g). Additional fractions appear to be related to
the drachm: Bableon 1907, nos. 514-520; Balcer 1970: 26. This coinage is discussed more below.
4
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
Mediterranean Taranto (IGCH 1874) and Auriol (IGCH 2352) hoards; 2) the second is a
series with a griffin head as a type, minted not, it would seem, on the Phokaic standard,
but possibly the Aeginetan, in six denominations, from staters to tartemoria (figs. 7-8).
The attribution to Phokaia rests primarily on the griffin, a type, as we have seen, possibly
used by Phokaia on one of its earlier electrum series.15 Findspots include hoards found in
Asia Minor (IGCH 1165, Asia Minor; 1183, Colophon), and the Auriol hoard. And,
finally, 3) Herbert Cahn’s so-called Ionische Damen, a series of smaller coins with the
type of a female head on the obverse minted on the Phokaic standard in three
denominations: 1/12, 1/24, and 1/96 staters (figs. 9-10).16 These have been found in
hoards in Asia Minor, Egypt, and in the western Mediterranean.17
In the west, the Phokaians who settled in Velia produced a series of “drachms”
with a forepart of lion tearing at its prey beginning around 535 BC shortly after they
settled there (fig. 11).18 Not long after, c. 525 BC, a series of small silver coins appeared
in Massalia, the so-called Auriol types named after the large hoard of them found at
Auriol near Marseille in 1867 (IGCH 2352)(fig. 12-13).19 Like the electrum hektai of
Mytilene-Phokaia, these were minted with constantly changing obverse types; nearly 40
are known to date.20 The weight standard appears to be Phokaic, although the weights of
15
Babelon 1907, nos. 521-530 (Aeginetan standard); Balcer 1970: 26-27.
Babelon 1907, nos. 531-532; Cahn 1998; see table 1 below.
17
Findspots: IGCH 1166 (Bayrakli); 1183 (Colophon)?; 1639 (Sakha); 1875 (Volterra, see Cahn
1998)?; 2311 (Morella, see Cahn 1998)?; 2352 (Auriol); 2353 (Ollioules, see Furtwängler 1978:
22); Blaundos (in Lydia; single find now in Vienna, no. 35.153, see Furtwängler 1978: 22);
Smyrna (single finds, cf. Robinson 1960: 33); Phrygia (Furtwängler 1978: 22); Saint-Remy (3
found in excavations, see Furtwängler 1978: 36).
18
Williams 1992; Rutter 2002; Cantilena 2006; Brousseau (2007) analyses the weight standard,
which I discuss below.
19
Furtwängler 1978 remains the key reference for the Auriol-type coinage; for the initial
publication of the Auriol material see Babelon 1907: 1571-1618. The date of 525 BC for the
earliest series of Auriol-type coins is based primarily on stylistic considerations and therefore
subject to revision.
20
Picard (1981) argues that the multiple types correspond to individual magistrates, not to a civic
program of commemorating the colonization and foundation of Messalia as Furtwängler (1978)
proposed. Cf. Brenot 2002.
16
5
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
the coins vary considerably; the denominational structure was oriented towards small
coins between c. 0.15 g to 1.20 g (see table 1).21
A third series of small silver coins, like those found in the Etrurian Volterra hoard
(IGCH 1875, c. 475 BC), were minted using nearly a dozen obverse types and have long
been attributed to yet another group of Phokaians in Etruria. More recently, however, this
Greek-Estrucan origin has been brought into question by the large number of these coins
found in the South of France, suggesting that these are rather Greek-Provençal issues,
most likely early issues of Massalia.22 The denominations are again on the small side and
the weight standard probably Phokaic (see table 1).
In a recent article, Pere Pau Ripollès and Jean-Albert Chevillon argue that another
Phokaian settlement, Emporion, began producing coinage c. 515 BC; previously the start
date was placed well after 500. Like the coinage of Massalia, the earliest coins of
Emporion were minted using a variety of obverse types in nine denominations, the
smallest being a 1/64th stater of c. 0.17 g, while the largest is what Ripollès and Chevillon
call a pentobol of c. 4.2 g (fig. 14). Like some of the coinage of Massalia, the weights
vary considerably suggesting to Ripollès that this far west colony was not able to obtain
mint workers of great skill. Phase A lasted until c. 500, when the more familiar ram
head/cross with dots type, Phase B, began.
I call attention here two things: that while there is affinity, in terms of the weight
standard, the denominational structure and the types used between many of the coins
produced by the Phokaians in Ionia and in their western settlements, this affinity is
generally a little chaotic; and that silver coins produced in Phokaia circulated in the west,
as the Auriol and Taranto hoards and single finds show.23 Also, it important to note that
scholars have attributed the similarities between the eastern and western Phokaian
coinages primarily to two mechanisms, neither of which includes direct administrative
21
The weight standard of the earliest coins of the western Phokaians remains a matter of
controversy; see Brenot 2002; Brousseau 2007; Morel 2002; Ripollès and Chevillon 2013; Parise
1996.
22
Cristofani-Martelli 1975; Orsini and Mescle 2002.
23
To date, no western Phokaian coins have been marked as coming from find spots in Asia
Minor. This, however, could simply be due to a lack of expectation of finding such coins in the
east. The similarities between, for example, Furtwängler’s (1978) group F and Cahn’s (1998)
Ionische Damen might easily lead scholars to confuse the Massaliote coins for their Ionian sisters
if examples came to light in Ionia (cp. figs. 9-10 and 13).
6
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
links: Greek engravers travelling west and there producing the types they produced at
home; or just simply imitation.24
I.B. Teos
Herodotus (1.168) relates that not long after the Phokaians abandoned their city,
the Teians, also besieged by Harpagos, likewise took to their ships and abandoned theirs,
sailing for Abdera in Thrace (map 2). He notes that all of the Teians left, leaving no one
behind. But the city was not abandoned for long, if it was ever entirely abandoned at all.
Composed to celebrate Abdera’s origins, Pindar’s Second Paian (fr. 52b SN.-M.)
composed in the early fifth century, has been taken as evidence that some of the Teians in
Abdera returned to Asia Minor and re-inhabited their city at some point after their arrival
in Thrace, a return that may have been prompted by several episodes of brutal fighting
between the Teians and Thracian natives (cf. Strabo 14.1.30). Whatever the reason for the
return, for Pindar both Teos and Abdera were, as Huxley (1984) put it, “mutually
metropolitan,” both simultaneously the metropolis of the other.25
Theirs was obviously not a typical relationship, a fact underscored by fifth
century epigraphic evidence. An inscription discovered near Teos in the mid-1970s (SEG
31.985), part of the so-called Teian Imprecations (cf. Meiggs-Lewis 30), dated by P.
Hermann in his editio princeps to the second quarter of the fifth century, lists various
measures that were intended to restrict magisterial power and protect citizens against
abuse including, for example, poisoning people, inhibiting the import of wheat,
deliberately betraying the city, and introducing a tyrant. 26 The context would appear to be
upheavals and possibly a tyranny in Teos following the Persian Wars.27 Astonishingly,
the enactments applied equally to Teos and to Abdera. As L. Lokopoulou and M.-G.
Parissaki (2004: 307) have noted:
24
Engravers: Chevillon 1990; imitation: Babelon 1907: 1575-1576; Kraay 1976: 170; Rutter
2002: 172.
25
The question of the date of Teos’ resettlement is controversial, taking place either soon after the
Teian foundation of Abdera (540 BC?), or following the Ionian revolt. There may have well been
several occasions in which groups of Abderites moved to Teos all throughout the period. See
Balcer 1968; Chryssanthanki-Nagle 2007: 100-101; D’Alessio 1992; Dougherty 1994; Graham
1991 and 1992: 54.
26
Hermann 1981; Graham 1991; Youni 2007.
27
Lokopoulou and Parissaki 2004; Robinson 2010: 140-145.
7
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
The situation is unique. Indeed, we know of instances where mother cities
promulgated legislation regulating their relations with their colonies, but the Teos
inscription appears to be the first known case of a state law of such fundamental
importance applying to both the metropolis and its colony.
But how do we define this “unique situation”? With some reservation, Hermann
(1985: 28) felt that the relationship between the two approached something like
sympoliteia, both cities forming a single political entity, a suggestion that has become the
fallback position.28 But when pushed, the evidence for sympoliteia in the classical period
is, as Hermann noted, rather equivocal: both cities had separate assemblies and law
courts. More recent commentators have continued to hedge. A.J. Graham (1992: 59), for
example, concluded that Abdera and Teos “were independent states, but were so closely
linked together that they admitted institutions and arrangements that effectively placed
their political unity above their political independence.” Marika Youni (2007), in her
close study of the Teian imprecations confirms Graham’s observations. Rubinstein (2004:
1101) has suggested simply that “that, to some extent, Teos and Abdera remained two
parts of one polis.”
The numismatic evidence does not help to clarify this “unique situation.” The
coinages of both Abdera and Teos, however, have received a fair amount of attention in
recent years, so the outline of both cities’ earliest coinage is now reasonably welldefined, even if the political situation is not.29 Aside from a possible early issue of
electrum, the Teians first appear on the numismatic map sometime around the 540s,
either before they left for Abdera or after they returned, when they initiated a short-lived
silver series on the Lydo-Milesian standard. At some point soon after, Abdera and Teos
started afresh, the southern city issuing silver now on the Aeginetan standard, while the
northern city issued coins on a standard variously called Thraco-Macedonian, Thracian,
or reduced Chian (figs. 15-16). The denomination range for both was extensive including
some of the largest archaic silver coins known as well as some of the smallest. These
28
E.g. Gorman 2002: 189; Robinson 2010: 140.
Chryssanthanki-Nagle 2007, Kagan 2006, and Matzke 2002, all building on the previous
generation’s studies by Balcer 1968 and May 1966.
29
8
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
issues, with Abdera’s griffin facing to the left, Teos’ still to the right, began at roughly
the same time,30 in what Katerina Chryssanthaki-Nagle (2007: 101) has called a “decision
commune.” Colin Kraay (1976: 35) for his part called it a “planned conjunction”, a odd
choice of words no doubt meant to convey the difficulties of defining what exactly went
on between the two cities monetarily, again a problem stemming from what went on
between them politically. In any event, the two different weight standards meant that
these two coinages, despite their mirrored types, were not compatible in exchange and so
were not intended to circulate together.
II. Mapping Monetary Authority: Who Decides?
Now that we have the basic outline of Phokaia’s and Teos’ relocations, and that of
their coinages, we now turn to the problem of monetary authority, and specifically the
question of who made the critical decisions about internal and external monetary
arrangements.
In its most basic form minting authority is simply authorship, a creative act by
individuals or groups who have the resources, skills and desire to produce stamped pieces
of metal for monetary use.31 Whether or not they can convince others to use the coinage
they produce is another matter entirely. Adding a political dimension to this creative act
complicates authorship considerably since it introduces power differentials between those
organizing the production of coinage and those who ultimately consume it. Although
there is no necessary relationship between states, however we choose to define them, and
monetary instruments, states often do assume the power to regulate both the production
and consumption of coinage as part of their larger command over public finance.32
30
Chryssanthaki-Nagle 2007: 383: “Le début du monnayage d’Abdère doit être légèrement
antérieur à celui de sa métropole Téos.” But Kagan (2006: 55) has argued otherwise:
“Chronologically speaking, the important point is that it is reasonable to assume that the coinage
at Abdera, with its links to the Aeginetan standard, began at about the same time Teos adopted
the standard. Hence the Milesian-weight coins of Teos are likely to be earlier than any issues of
Abdera.” In any event it is clear that both coinages began within a very short time of one another.
31
Here and throughout I make a distinction between monetary authority, which controlled the
totality of a polis’ monetary decisions, and minting authority, which oversaw only the production
of coinage. Minting authority was subordinate to monetary authority; this distinction will become
clearer below.
32
On the non-necessity of the relationship between states and monetary instruments see Cohen
1998; Dodd 1994: chp. 2.
9
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
Having powers of coercion they can mandate the types of coins, indigenously produced
or not, that are acceptable for use in whatever markets or territories they control. This
control over consumption brings further advantages when coupled with control over
production: theirs alone is the power to manipulate monetary instruments, most
notoriously by overvaluing them, and to compel people to use this currency, thereby
bringing benefits, like revenues, to the state.33 Thus authorship becomes authority, and
minting authority becomes linked to a community’s highest political power.
Here we are faced with two problems: 1) where is this highest power located
within a polis, and how is it defined?, and 2) what exactly is the nature of the link
between this power and coin production? Locating and defining this power proves
difficult on the one hand because the evidence for regime types, governmental structure,
and the political machinations of most archaic poleis is thin, and on the other because the
modern and ancient conceptualizations of this power do not exactly line up. While
“sovereignty” is the term frequently used to describe the supreme independent authority
associated with modern nation states, it is far from being a simple or unproblematic
concept. Sovereignty encapsulates a broad range of ideas about internally and externally
oriented power relations including the characteristics of the internal supreme power (the
sovereign or sovereign power), the nature of the state, the relationship between state and
society (vis-à-vis the rule of law), and state autonomy within the international
community. This conceptual range makes sovereignty unwieldy in analyses of power
relations, necessitating at the very least splitting sovereignty into its internally and
externally oriented components.34 Even then its inherent exclusivity, which is often at
odds with the reality of contemporary politics, also weakens its explanatory powers in
describing more inclusive real-world relations. Thus some political scientists have
declared that the concept of sovereignty has now run its course.35 These problems aside,
modern approaches to sovereignty have long had significant influence on ways of
33
The evidence for ancient populations being compelled to use overvalued coins includes:
Timotheos forced his soldiers to us a bronze coinage in the fourth century BC (Ar. Oec. II.2.23);
third century BC citizens of Gortyn were forced to use new bronze oboloi under pain of a fine of
silver staters (IC, iv, 163; Syll.3 525).
34
Davies (1994), for example, discusses Type A and Type B sovereignty, the former oriented
internally, the latter externally.
35
See, for example, the papers collected in Kalmo and Skinner 2010.
10
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
thinking about power structures within and between archaic and classical poleis. Recent
reappraisals of its applicability to the ancient polis, however, have shown the limitations
of this framework, particularly for understanding relationships between poleis and other
external powers.36 For understanding internal power relations, sovereignty also proves
problematic. While there seems to have been a notion of a concentrated, supreme power
within poleis, expressed elliptically by a combination of the words kratos and kyrion, a
clearer expression of this, e.g., “sovereignty,” cannot be found.37
Pursuing the definition and nature of this power further will take us too far afield.
Here my concern is simply to point to the existence of what I shall call, for the sake of
convenience, “sovereign power”, that entity which was the font of all other authorities,
including monetary authority, within a polis, and which acted as the final arbitrator of
important decisions concerning the community. This existed somewhere within the ruling
structures of the poleis, whether within the person of a tyrant, an oligarchic council, or
the assembled demos. And while generally closely associated with governmental
institutions, sovereign power could nevertheless exist independently of it. Here we might
recall, for example, that Peisistratos left Athenian governing institutions intact when he
became tyrant, but there is little question that he had the final say in any important
decisions concerning Athens.38 Also, the location of sovereign power within the ruling
structures was not static, but could shift from one group, institution or individual and
back again, sometimes within a short period of time. Again with the Peisistratids as our
example, following the collapse of their tyranny, power shifted momentarily to
competing elites before settling squarely on the demos following the Kleisthenic
refoms.39
The production of coinage has long been closely linked to sovereign power. Since
the early modern period the link between sovereignty and coinage has been made explicit
by various treatises defending the sovereign’s role as the sole provider of legitimate
currency. This tradition in turn has provided the conceptual and legal foundations for
36
See Berent 2000; Davies 1994; Hansen 1998: 73-83; Ostwald 1982; for problems of external
sovereignty and Greek coin production see Martin 1985 and Ziesmann 2005.
37
E.g., Arist. Pol. 3.10-11: τὸ κύριον τῆς πόλεως; Cf. Davies 1994, Hansen 2010: 500.
38
Hdt. 1.59.6; Thuc. 6.54.6
39
See Ostwald (1986: 15-28) for a concise account of power shifting in late archaic Athens.
11
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
today’s territorial currencies.40 Certainly by the fourth century BC, if not the fifth,
sovereign powers were claiming monopolies over coin production, but we cannot be
certain when or by what means sovereign powers laid this claim. Elsewhere I have
suggested that such claims were not widespread at the beginning of coinage in the early
sixth century, and offered an explanation for how later monopolies came to be (van Alfen
forthcoming). Here I assume that the sovereign powers already had full control over coin
production, but what is not clear is what sort of decisions pertaining to production were
made by the sovereign power. We can presume that the most important decisions about
coinage rested with the sovereign power, such as deciding whether or not to mint at all,
what denominations to produce, how many, in which alloys, etc., since the expense and
liabilities involved were significant. Thus monetary authority and sovereign power in
most cases were one. But the situation is complicated by the fact that monetary authority
could extend above a sovereign power, while generally it was also distributed below it.
Above it there was sometimes a hegemonic power. A fair number of archaic
poleis were, as Mogens Hansen has detailed, dependent poleis, controlled to some greater
or lesser degree by another polis or foreign imperial power.41 While Hansen’s typology of
dependency makes it clear that this was a complex phenomenon—he identified 15
different types of dependency--the common factor was that at least some portion of the
decisions concerning the dependent polis were made externally, if not by the hegemon
itself, then in alignment with or in deference to it. This might mean, for example, that
major decisions about coin production were, in fact, made elsewhere and not necessarily
by a polis’ sovereign power.
During the archaic period there seems to have been a sliding scale of hegemonic
interference in coin production. At one end, that of minimal interference, the hegemon
left most, if not all production decisions to a polis’ internal sovereign power. Such
generally seems to have been the case with the Persians in their dealings with the coinproducing poleis in Asia Minor and the northern Aegean. If, for example, the arguments
offered by Olivier Picard and others are correct, tying Thracian coin production to
Persian tribute payments, the Persians may have specified that they wanted tribute paid in
40
41
Cohen 1998; Helleiner 2003.
Hansen and Nielsen 2004: 87-94.
12
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
coin and simply left each polis to decide how best to fulfill this command.42 At the other
end of the scale, that of maximum interference, the hegemon would be far more involved
in the decisions, directing that coinage conform to set guidelines, as might have been the
case with the Sybarites and some of their dependencies, the Korinthians and some of their
colonies, and various Sicilian producers.43 In the case of the Korinthians the metropolis
seems to have taken it all a step further and actually produced the coins for one of its
dependent colonies, Ambrakia, and possibly others as well.44
Below the sovereign power, the actual business of coining was generally turned
over to a number of agents, a magistrate or panel of magistrates, who would then see to
carrying out the decisions made by the sovereign or hegemonic power. As a sort of
middle manager, the magistrate(s), or minting authority, would probably be responsible
for a number of lesser decisions pertaining to organizing the production of the coins, such
as, we might imagine, procuring monetary metals. Father down the chain, the
magistrate(s) might delegate further responsibilities to yet other agents, including the
mint master, contractor, vel sim., who would make on the spot decisions about coin
production as it was happening, including, for example, whether or not a die was too
worn for continued use.45
Here my concern is with the authority that lay with the internal sovereign power,
and not with hegemonic powers or agents. Although the Persians controlled Asia Minor
from the mid-sixth century onward, they do not appear to have had interfered with the
production of coinage in Phokaia or Teos c. 530 BC, the primary period of focus here.46
And while evidence for magistrates—namely ancillary symbols on coins and possibly the
changing types—can be found on archaic coinages from Teos, Abdera, Phokaia, and the
42
Picard 2011; Tzamalis 2011.
Sybaris: Rutter 2012: 129, 131; Korinth: Graham 1999: 121-152.
44
Psoma 2012: 166; cf. Kagan 1998.
45
By way of analogy, in the United States, Congress holds sovereign power, at least when it
comes to coinage and notes, while the Secretary of the Treasury is the top agent whose charge is
to carry out the will of Congress; his signature appears on US currency, along with that of the US
Treasurer. In some matters, such as commemorative coinage, the Secretary has latitude to act as
he sees fit, while in others, such as the denominational structure of the coins and bills, this is not
the case. Below the Secretary, the Directors of the US Mint and US Bureau of Engraving and
Printing are sub-agents whose task is to oversee the operations of coin and note production.
46
The Persians’ control of Thrace, and thereby Abdera, from c. 514 BC, is of less concern here
since my focus is primarily on the beginnings of the parallel coinages, not those that came later.
43
13
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
western settlements, their actions are of less concern to me than are those of the sovereign
power. Unfortunately, we have no solid evidence for archaic regime types in any of the
poleis considered here, so we cannot say where exactly this power resided or how it was
distributed.47 In the absence of evidence, it is probably safe to assume that as in most
other archaic poleis, some type of (narrow) oligarchy ruled, with sovereign power thus
lodged among a comparatively small number of men.48 It is also safe to assume that these
men were social and economic elites, who ruled by virtue of their own or their extended
family’s wealth and social standing. It was these men, likely in council, who made the
important decisions about monetary policy and coinage, while the role of the demos in
this process, if there was one at all, was probably insignificant, limited to ratifying the
decisions made elsewhere.49
III. Autonomy and Elites
If sovereign power, and by extension decision making about coin production, was
then located within a (small?) group of elites, what happened to this power when Phokaia
and Teos split in two? The simplest answer, of course, is that sovereign power divided as
well, with each smaller portion of the former larger metropolis forming independent
political and governing structures in each location. Certainly by the second quarter of the
fifth century, long after the initial acts of relocation and rehabitation had taken place, this
would seem to be the case for Teos and Abdera, and we can imagine for Phokaia and
Velia as well. But was this splitting of sovereign power the result of an enactment at the
moment of relocation, or was this the result of a process over the course of a generation
or more?
There is no way to know for certain, but we do know that the rituals of separation
47
By the 470s BC there appear to have been democracies in both Teos and Abdera, which may
have been immediately preceded by (Persian installed?) tyrannies; see Robinson 2010: 140-145.
A narrow oligarchy ruled Massalia in the archaic period: Arist. Pol. 1305 b, 1-16. Cf. Morel
2006: 379. An archaic oligarchy of wealthy and lustrous individuals is reported in Velia: Diod.
9.21 and Diog. Laert. 9.26. Cf. Cappelletti 2011: 9.
48
See Teegarten’s (2014) appendix entitled “The number and geographic distribution of regime
types from the Archaic to early Hellenistic periods.”
49
For the (limited) role the demos in archaic governance and power struggles see Anderson 2003;
chp. 2; Forsdyke 2005: chp. 1; Rose 2012: chp. 7.
14
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
between those leaving to form new settlements and those staying behind sometimes
included an agreement spelling out the legalities of the new relationship. We possess a
small number of these so-called foundation decrees from the late archaic and early
classical period, discussed in detail by A.J. Graham, which in the case of Cyrene and
Naupaktos, for example, were concerned primarily with issues of citizenship, land
ownership, taxation, inheritance, and rights of return.50 Both decrees assume that there
will be on-going social, economic and political interaction between metropolis and
apoikia but they set up barriers to keep the communities from becoming fully integrated.
Elsewhere we can find examples of greater political and legal integration, which may
have existed from the time of foundation, if not soon after. Potideia, for example,
received a magistrate every year from its metropolis Korinth, while the Milesians and
some of their apoikiai enjoyed isopoliteia, or shared citizenship, an arrangement that
dated at least to the early fifth century if not earlier.51 We can only speculate where on
this spectrum of integration the Phokaians and Teians initially arranged relations with
their other halves. But their enactments, if they existed, would probably have aimed for
greater integration for a number of reasons: 1) their acts of relocation (and re-habitation)
were a large-scale events, far more unusual and traumatic than any typical colonial
enterprise, however we chose to characterize such endeavors.52 This would arguably
encourage greater cohesion, not dissolution; 2) we have no evidence of political or other
conflicts within the communities immediately before or after their relocations indicating
there was no immediate reason to keep one another at arm’s length;53 3) each half of the
50
Graham 1999: 40-70.
Potideia: Thuc. 1.56.2; cf. Graham 1999: 135-37; Miletos: Gorman 2002; cf. Hdt. 6.19.2-22.1.
From the late fourth century, we have two treaties, one between Miletos and Olbia, and another
between Miletos and Kyzikos, both of which establish isopoliteia. Gorman maintains that both
were restatements of earlier treaties initially enacted during the refoundation and resettlement of
Miletos in the aftermath of the Battle of Mykale, after which most of Miletos’ population was
taken to Susa by the Persians. In order to bulk up the population of the old metropolis, she argues,
special privileges were extended to citizens of the Milesian apoikiai that they might come back
home as it were.
52
On the nature, purpose, and modern mischaracterization of archaic “colonial” enterprises see
Osborne 1998; van Dommelen 2012; see Asheri 1999 and Demand 1990 for the scale and trauma
of urban relocation.
53
Herodotus (1.165) says that Phokaians split because half were already homesick after their
initial excursion away and so decided to stay, despite the curses called down on anyone who did
stay. Given the potential for conflict in such a scenario, Herodotus probably would have recorded
51
15
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
split polis would probably haven been balanced in terms of relative political power with
the other, and so their relationships would be comparatively free of the inherent power
disparities and associated problems that often colored the relationships between those
who left and those who stayed behind.
A.J. Graham’s (1999) and R. Werner’s (1971) studies of metropolis-apoikia
relationships, for example, have shown how off balance these relationships could be, with
the metropolis often exerting primacy or rights over the daughter settlement no matter its
autonomy. We get a sense of such hegemonic intrusions in the foundation decrees, but its
fullest expression is found in Thucydides (1.31-43) in the speeches presented to the
Athenians by the embattled Korkyrians and the Korinthians on the eve of the
Peloponnesian War, the former insisting on the equal standing of mother and daughter
and thus the moral right to be left alone, the latter demanding the deference and
obedience owed to the parent. The Korinthians were particularly meddlesome parents, as
detailed by A.J. Graham, since the apoikia’s sovereign power was often cowed by the
metropolis’ desires.54 Thasos too, as Graham (1999: 96) put it, “exercised a strict
political, and possibly also economic, control, to the extent that her colonies were at
times treated like parts of the Thasian state.” While metropolis-apoikia relationships
could veer towards such power imbalances, nothing in our evidence suggests that this
was the case between Phokaia and Velia, or between Teos and Abdera, despite the fact
that these relationships were later characterized as ones between a metropolis and an
apoikia.55 This is important because it suggests that in dealing with one another, both
halves of the split polis approached the table as equals, neither trying to exert hegemonic
control. Whether their post-relocation starting point was formalized as a type of
sympoliteia, isopoliteia or something else we don’t know, but equality and integration
must have been key components however the relationship was structured.
tensions were there any. What tensions between Teos and Abdera might be teased out of the
Teian Imprecations (see above; Graham 1991, 1992; cf. Youni 2007: 726-727), these reflect
issues of the early fifth century, not of the 540s BC. The unusually close relationship between the
two poleis three generations later indicates that there were no serious problems to begin with.
54
Graham 1999: 152: “The position of Corinth’s colonies seems to have lain somewhere between
autonomy and absorption into the state of Corinth.”
55
Strabo (14.1.30) quotes a line from the archaic Teian poet Anacreon in which Abdera is already
called an apoikia of Teos.
16
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
From such beginnings there was no doubt a continually evolving process of
defining and redefining the relationship as time brought changes to each community’s
self-identity and introduced new challenges.56 If not dealt with in the beginning, later on
there certainly would have been the need to define as precisely as possible the issues of
property ownership, inheritance, tax liability, eligibility for office and citizenship
between the two communities as they each grew in their own location. Yet curiously, in
the case of Teos and Abdera, even after two or three generations of evolution, by which
time the autonomies of both cities had fully matured and the institutional processes of
doing business together had solidified, we still observe smudged lines where we would
expect more political demarcation. We have, in fact, no idea of where exactly the Teians
and the Abderites of the mid-fifth century drew the line between governing autonomously
and constant coordination. For purely local, low level business we can presume that
communal decision making was not required, whereas it seems to have been for higher
level political business like the “Teian Imprecations” noted above. This political
coordination at higher levels thus shaded into political unity, which in turn shaded into
political independence some levels below. If this was the case around 470 BC, the time of
the Imprecations, how much more blurred was their autonomy and split sovereignty 60 or
so years before? I would expect a great deal more. Whatever formalities, legal or not,
structured the relationship immediately post-relocation, these, I would suggest, were
largely conditioned, and perhaps even eclipsed by the strong interpersonal ties, identities,
and age-old practices that existed between families, associations, and other sub-polis
units, as well as those between the governing elites of that first generation, who arguably
continued to link the now geographically divided but still entwined and enmeshed
community at large. Again, what little evidence we have for late archaic regime types in
Teos and Phokaia and their settlements in the north and west suggest that like many other
archaic poleis they too were ruled by a fairly small group of elites, as noted earlier. This
is all the more reason to expect that when the community split, the personal and political
interconnections between these elites would continue.
56
See, for example, Dougherty (1994) for the role played by Pindar’s Second Paian in the
evolving identity of the Abderites, and Dominguez (2004) for evolving identity issues in the
western Phokaian settlements.
17
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
Here, the example an elite named Akêratos is instructive. His late sixth century
epitaph found on Thasos boasts that he was magistrate in both Paros and Thasos, a
metropolis and apoikia with famously close ties, illustrating precisely how the decision
making in two related communities could become entangled at a personal level, despite a
formal separation of sovereign powers.57 Personal entanglement could also occur at the
level of sovereign power as an episode concerning the notorious Histiaios of Miletus
shows. While still tyrant of Miletus, the Great King rewarded him with a place to settle in
Thrace near the Strymon River. There he founded the polis Myrkinos. Although
Herodotus (5.11, 23-24), our only source for the episode, does not go into further detail,
its not hard to imagine that many of those who followed the tyrant north were Milesians,
as were those who followed Histiaios’ successor Aristagoras to Myrkinos a number of
years later (Hdt. 5.124-126). If so, then the sovereign power of the two poleis, Miletos
and Milesian Myrkinos, was entangled within in the person of the tyrant.
My point is this: post-relocation sovereign power, and by extension monetary
authority, in Phokaia-Velia and Teos-Abdera was probably highly personal, residing not
so much in a bureaucratized, independent “State” hovering above society and tethered to
a single location, but rather residing with a handful of governing elites who remained
politically interconnected and entangled with their brethren in the community’s other
half. This entanglement, reflected in the community at large, in their still unified identity,
and in the many relationships that no doubt held them together even, most critically,
when they were living hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart, would persist until time
and distance lessened the intensity of these relationships and necessitated change,
eventually dividing the single polis more fully into two and in the process forging more
coherent separate identities, as Pindar’s Second Paian set out to do for the Abderites.
With this in mind, let us now look again at the monetary arrangements of Teos and
Abdera, and of Phokaia and Velia.
57
IG XII, suppl. 412 (CEG 416). In his initial publication of the inscription, Launcey (1934)
characterized the relationship between Thasos and Paros as an isopoliteia; Robert (1935: 500)
suggested a sympoliteia. Without committing to a formal description, Graham (1992: 59)
highlighted how blurred the relationship could become even if there was legal separation between
the two states.
18
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
IV. Monetary Coordination
In the case of Teos and Abdera, the governing elites decided to produce two
entirely different coinages, designed for local use and not for intra-poleis circulation as
the different weight standards and the hoard evidence indicates.58 They bowed to the
realities of the different economic and monetary needs of their two locations and pursued
two currencies, rather than attempting to shoehorn, as it were, both halves of the polis
into a single ill-fitting currency. Earlier commentators were correct to call this a
communal decision, but failed to appreciate the subtleties of its communality. Paros and
Thasos, which also were politically entwined as we have seen, also produced two very
different local coinages. But significantly they did not share types, a sign that their
monetary intimacy and identities did not run quite so deep.59 In the case of Teos and
Abdera, that initial decision to mirror the griffin on each polis’ coinage is, I suggest, a
reflection of a sovereign power and monetary authority not yet fully divided, one that
insisted on symbolizing continued unity despite the necessity of dividing the currency
systems. The symbolism of this act is key to understanding this monetary arrangement,
since indeed there is little else to it. The underlying sensitivities here are far more
emotive than bureaucratic, more political than economic. Nothing in this arrangement
entailed great administrative or economic risk; without the need to negotiate the finer
points of a common currency, such as the weight standard, the alloy, and the
denominations, or to decide how responsibilities would be divided and enforced, what
else was there to discuss besides which direction the respective griffins would face? Even
if the elites involved were not as politically entwined as I have argued, there still was no
need for the formalities of a treaty or contract in such an arrangement. If either the Teians
or the Abderites decided unilaterally to removed the griffin from the coins, what harm
would be done? Nothing monetarily, but it would send strong signals of political rupture
58
Chryssanthanki-Nagle 2007; Kagan 2006.
Jonathan Kagan (2008:107), however, has suggested rather close and unusual late sixth century
monetary ties between Thasos and Paros: “It is my suspicion that the Parian drachms were minted
in the region around Thasos and were shipped to Paros. They should be seen as a form of
payment—e.g., tribute, tax, royalties etc.—sent by the silver-rich colonies to the mother city.”
Kenneth Sheedy (pers. com.) has expressed grave doubts about this theory.
59
19
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
among those making the decisions. The replication of this arrangement generation after
generation attests to the ongoing desire to uphold its symbolism even as time and distance
made it less poignant. It also attests to the ease of maintaining a low-risk, informal
arrangement, even as sovereign power shifted and governing institutions changed,
especially when compared to high-risk, formal monetary cooperative arrangements like
the one between Phokaia and Mytilene to produce electrum hektai.
The monetary arrangement among the Phokaians themselves is much less tidy
compared to that among the Teians. Part of the problem stems from the uncertain nature
of the relationships between the early western Phokaian settlements and between the
Massaliotes and the newly arrived Ionian Phokaians, which in turn complicates how we
interpret the (dis)similarities between the coinages produced by each group.60 The starting
dates given for the coinages of Velia (c. 535 BC), Massalia (c. 525 BC), and Emporion
(c. 515 BC) are little more than best guesses, and might suggest a progressive line of
influence running from the transplanted coin-using Ionians to the Massaliotes, and finally
to those in second tier settlements, like the Emporitai. Such a progression might simply
be an illusion; all the Phokaians settled in the west may well have decided to produce
coins at more or less the same time, decisions that may have been more communal than
unilateral as suggested by the frequency of shared types and weights (see table 1). Given
the intensity of later inter-Phokaian cohesion in the west, it would not be out of place to
presume some form of earlier monetary coordination. 61 Even so, the nature of any such
coordination, and the role played by those left behind in Phokaia, is rather unclear since
not all the types and weights line up as nicely as we would hope, and those that do
present problems of their own.
Both in Asia Minor and in the west, the Phokaians adopted multiple obverse
types, which has the effect, from our perspective especially, of diluting the symbolic
significance of any single type. Thus even though, for example, the lion type of the
60
It is unclear from our sources, as Morel (2006: 368-370) notes, how welcoming or hostile the
Massaliotes particularly were to the massive influx of Ionian Phokaians. Cf. Malkin 2010: 146.
61
Morel 2006: 409-413. Morel does, however, note that for the earlier period “archaeology fails
to demonstrate solid economic links and commercial relations between Massalia, Emporion,
Alalia or Hyele, and the written sources are silent.”
20
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
Velian drachms is also found on coins minted in Massalia and Phokaia (figs. 5, 11, 12),
we cannot press this too hard as evidence for sovereign power connections the way we
can for the Teian and Abderite griffins (figs. 15-16). We simply do not know what the
Velian lion type means in a context where types changed regularly, as they did in both
Massalia and Phokaia. Despite the caveat, the (near?) concurrent use of the Velian lion
type in three Phokaian localities was not random and did symbolize important
connections, but whether this was shared cultural or civic legacies (the lion as a cultural
icon?) or shared governance (the lion as an elite’s personal seal?) we cannot say.62 Nor
can we do much better for most of the other shared types.63
Whatever the nature or intensity of the links symbolized by the types, the
monetary aspects of the coins also are problematic since they generally do not perfectly
align. The wide variations in the weights of the Phokaian coins minted both in Asia
Minor and in the west make it difficult to discern both the weight standard(s) and the
denominational structure(s) used. The variation in the west has been attributed either to
sloppiness on the part of unskilled mint workers,64 or to the use of different weight
standards. This latter was the suggestion of Andreas Furtwängler (1978), who argued that
the mint at Massalia produced coins first on the Phokaic weight standard, before
switching towards the end of the sixth century to the Milesian standard. Few have
followed Furtwängler in this, preferring instead to see all of the coins produced by the
Phokaians in the west on the Phokaic standard, although using a denominational structure
that was more suited to western purposes.65 I do not wish to enter into these problems
here, but will note that there is considerable, although not complete overlap between the
weights, denominations, and even the obverse types of coins produced before c. 500 BC
in the west and those produced in Phokaia (see table 1), which again might indicate there
62
See Cantilena (2006: 426-427) for the origin and possible significance of the lion type.
The phokê type (figs. 2, 4, 6) produced in both Phokaia and Massalia was clearly a shared civic
icon. If Cahn’s (1998) Ionische Damen and Furtwängler’s (1978) identical Massaliote type F
(figs. 9-10, 13) represent a deity, particularly Phokaian Artemis, these types then represent a
shared cultural icon. For the spread of the Phokaian cult of Artemis in the west see Malkin 2011:
chp. 6.
64
E.g., Ripollès and Chevillon 2013.
65
See Borel 2002; Morel 2002. Nicola Parise (cited in Morel 2002: 35, 45) has argued that there
was designed flexibility in the Massialiote system in order to operate within several different
systems, including the traditional Phokaian system.
63
21
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
was an attempt to coordinate a single currency system, although perhaps one somewhat
loosely conceived.66
Within all this confusion, there is, however, one set of coins that is different from
the rest: the “drachms” of Velia, and the phokê “drachms” of Phokaia. As can be seen in
table 1, the weight of both the Velian and phokê drachms stands well apart from all other
Phokaian coin weights, but again we are not sure what this rather unique weight
represents. Some suggest its an Aegientan tetrobol, others a Lesbian drachm, a Chian
drachm, or a Phoenician ½-stater; it could just as well be a Phokaic ¼-stater.67 Whatever
the denomination, the weights, fabric, and reverse punches of these two drachms are so
similar that George Hill (1902: 2, no. 13) suggested over a century ago that the Velian
drachms were minted in Phokaia for use in the west, a suggestion that has been since
ignored due to the large number of finds of the Velian type in Italy. Significantly, the
only find spot recorded for the ten known examples of the phokê drachms is the famed
western Taranto hoard of c. 500 BC (IGCH 1874), which produced at least four of the
coins. While we might entertain the possibility that the phokê drachms were also
produced in the west--smaller denominations with a phokê were produced in Massalia-the fact that one drachm from the Taranto hoard has a clear phi for Phokaia on the
obverse, and the fact of the Taranto hoard findspot itself, which included a large number
of coins from the Greek mainland and Asia Minor, weakens any such arguments.68
Keith Rutter sees in the similarities between eastern and western Phokaian
coinage a “transplantation,” part of the “cultural baggage of migration.69 For her part,
66
The use of Ionian denominational terminology (“2 ½ hektai”) in a mid-fifth century lead
business letter found at the Phokaian settlement at Pech Maho in Iberia (SEG 38.1036; 48.1308)
suggests at the very least that there was informal alignment between the monetary systems within
Phokaian networks, if not more coordinated, official efforts. The letter records a transaction
between a (western?) Ionian and another merchant, probably Greek and probably based at
Emporion concerning the purchase of a boat.
67
See n.14 above.
68
Drachm with phi = Babelon 1907, pl. III, 11. For the Massaliote phokê coins see Orsini and
Mescle 2002.
69
Rutter 2002: 171: “Il legame con Focea ha una certa importanza, e su questa base si ha la
tentazione di suggerire non solo un debito generale alle monetazioni egee, ma piu specificamente
la diffusione o il trapianto di una forma particolare della monetazione tramite la migrazione:
22
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
Renata Cantilena (2006: 426) ascribes the similarities to “an intense bond with the
traditions of the homeland.” These ideas of “tradition” and “transplantation,” however,
are predicated on notions of distance and separation, both temporal and geographic,
implying a clean and impassable break between the Phokaians who went west, and the
other half who stayed behind.70 The considerable distances involved between Ionia and
the western Mediterranean would make this a fair assessment. But we need not assume,
particularly in the case of the Phokaians, who were famed for their long-distance
seafaring abilities, that when half of them went west, they immediately severed or lost
connections with those who stayed behind.71 In fact, the Velian and phokê drachms
suggest that contact between the two halves was quite vigorous, at least initially. If we
consider the exceptionality of the drachms through the lens of evolving post-metoikêsis
sovereignty issues as discussed above, we may see in these coins an attempt to coordinate
a unified monetary system, one that would operate within and across their entire transMediterranean network. Finds of the phokê drachms in the west in a context (the Taranto
hoard, IGCH 1874) that included Velian drachms certainly suggests that both drachms
circulated together within the same extended system. The organization of any such
system would have required considerably more planning and decision-making than just
choosing obverse types, as at Teos and Abdera, and carried greater risks. While
formalities, like a treaty, might not have been needed again because of more unified than
divided ruling power, this arrangement would still require political harmony, diligence,
and some degree of enforcement to maintain over time. Whatever energy and good will
there was initially to maintain the system, it does not appear to have been especially longlived, pointing perhaps to political will and sovereign unity petering out despite whatever
economic benefits they might have derived from the arrangement. Elsewhere, however,
the Ionian Phokaians did have great long-term success pursuing a different long-distance
sembra che la monetazione sia arrivata sulla costa tirrenica come parte del bagaglio culturale dei
nuovi colonizzatori focei.”
70
For his part, Morel (2006: 371, 373, 409) sees little evidence in the archaeological record for
direct commercial links between the eastern and western Phokaians.
71
Herodotus (1.163) remarks that the Phokaians “were the earliest of the Greeks to make long
sea-voyages, and it was they who discovered the Adriatic Sea, and Tyrrhenia, and Iberia, and
Tartessus, not sailing in round cargoships but in pentekonters.” On the pan-Mediterranean
Phokaian commercial, social and religious networks see Malkin 2011: chps. 5-6.
23
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
monetary relationship, the one they had to produce electrum hektai with the Mytileneans.
This arrangement was highly formalized and regulated, and arguably originated not in
deep-seated political bonds between the partners, but rather in a mutual desire to generate
revenues from their arrangement.72
Conclusions
In view of the larger problem of understanding the various modes and
mechanisms of joint coinages and monetary unions in the archaic period, I have focused
on one group of monetary interactions, those arranged between portions of poleis split by
metoikêsis. I have proposed a starting point in which sovereign power, and therefore
monetary authority, was stretched between the two poles of local rule by bands of elite
interaction and interconnection. In time, these bands broke. In the case of Phokaia and
Velia, the drift apart, at least monetarily, became permanent. In the case of Teos and
Abdera, the change saw a shift to more formal ways of interacting and an embedding of
the relationship in government. In both cases, however, the initial close personal ties
between the elites governing the poleis would allow them, I suggest, to coordinate their
monetary affairs informally and with a high degree of evenhandedness. This type of
coordinated arrangement stands in contrast to more formal cooperative arrangements, or
imposed hegemonic arrangements.
Bibliography
Anderson, G. 2003. The Athenian experiment: building an imagined political community
in ancient Athens, 508-490 B.C. University of Michigan Press.
Asheri, D. 1999. Processi di ‘decolonizzazione’ in Magna Grecia: Il caso di Poseidonia
Lucana. In La colonization grecque en Méditerranée occidentale: Actes de la rencontre
scientifique en homage à Georges Vallet organizé par le Centre Jean Bérard, l’École
française de Rome, l’Istituto universitario orientale, et l’Università degli studi di Napoli
‘Frederico II’ (Rome-Naples, 15–18 novembre 1995), pp. 361–70.
Babelon. E. 1907. Traité des monnaies grecques et romaines, II.1.
Balcer, J. 1968. The early silver coinage of Teos. SNR 47: 5-50.
72
Mackil and van Alfen 2006: 219.
24
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
Balcer, J. 1970. Phokaia and Teos: a monetary alliance. SNR 49: 25-34.
Bats, M. 2010. Une lettre grecque sur plomb a à Lattes (Hérault) (Fouille 2005). In: Th.
Janin (éd.), Premières données sur la ville portuaire de Lattara au Ve s. av. Lattara 21.
Lattes, pp. 749-756.
Berent, M. 2000. Sovereignty: ancient and modern. Polis 17.1-2: 2-34.
Bodensted, F. 1981. Die Elektronmünzen von Phokaia und Mytelene. Tübingen.
Brenot, C. 2002. Marseille et les réseaux phocéens. Remarques sur le témoignage des
monnaies. In: A. Mele and J.-P. Morel, eds. La monetazione dei Focei in Occidente. Atti
dell’XI convengo del centro internazionale di studi numismatici—Napoli 25-27 Ottobre
1996. Instituto Italiano di Numismatica: Rome, pp. 113-137.
Brousseau, L. 2007. Sur l’étalon monétaire en usage à Poseidonia. In: G. Moucharte, et
al. eds. Liber amicorum Tony Hackens. Louvain-la-Neuve, pp. 47-56.
Cahn, H.A. 1998. Ionische Damen. In: R. Ashton and S. Hurter, eds. Studies in Greek
Numismatics in Memory of Martin J. Price. London, pp. 59-63.
Cantilena, R. 2006. La monetazione di Elea e le vicende storiche della città: limiti e
contributi della documentazione numismatica, Atti del XLV Convegno di Studi sulla
Magna Grecia (Taranto- Marina di Ascea 21-25 settembre 2005 ), vol. I, Napoli 2006, pp.
423-460.
Capie, F.H and G.E. Wood, eds. 2003. Monetary unions: theory, history, public choice.
Routledge.
Cappellitti, L. 2011. Elea/Velia. Il quadro istituzionale dalle origini al I sec. d. C. Klio 93:
7-22.
Chevillon, J.-A. 1990. Quelques monnaies archaiques de Provence. Cahiers
Numismatique 106: 11-17
Chryssanthanki-Nagle, V. 2007. L'histoire monetaire d'Abdère en Thrace (VIe s. avant
J.-C.-IIe s. après J.-C.) Melethmata 51.
Cohen, B.J. 1998. The geography of money. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Cristofani-Martelli, M. 1975. Il ripostiglio di Volterra. AIIN Suppl. 22: 87-104.
Davies, J.K. 1994. On the non-usability of the concept of ‘sovereignty’ in an ancient
Greek context. In: L.A. Foresti et al. 1994. Federazioni e federalism nell’Europa antica.
Bergamo, 21-25 settembre 1992. Milan, pp. 51-65.
D’Alessio, G.B. 1992. Immigrati a Teo e ad Abdera (SEG XXXI 985; Pind. Fr. 52b Sn. –
25
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
M.) ZPE 92: 73-80.
Demand, N.H., 1990: Urban relocation in archaic and classical Greece: flight and
consolidation. Bristol.
Dodd, N. 1994. The sociology of money: economics, reason and contemporary society.
Polity Press.
Dominguez, A.J. 2004. Greek identity in the Phocean colonies. In: K. Lomas, ed. Greek
identity in the western Mediterranean. Brill, pp. 429-455.
Dougherty, C. 1994. Pindar’s second paean: civic identity on parade. Classical Philology
89.3: 205-218.
Forsdyke, S. 2005. Exile, Ostracism and Democracy: the politics of expulsion in ancient
Greece. Princeton.
Furtwängler, A. 1978. Monnaies grecques en Gaule: le trésor d’Auriol et le monnayage
de Massalia 525/520-460 av. J.-C. Typos III. Fribourg.
Gorman, V.B. 2002. Milesian decrees of isopoliteia and the refoundation of the city, ca.
479 BCE. In: V.B. Gorman and E. Robinson, eds. Studies in Constitutions, Colonies, and
Military Power in the Ancient World. Offered in Honor of A. J. Graham. Leiden: Brill,
pp. 181-193.
Graham, A.J. 1991. ‘Adopted Teians:’ a passage in the new inscription of public
imprecations from Teos. Journal of Hellenic Studies 111: 176-178.
Graham, A.J. 1992. Abdera and Teos. Journal of Hellenic Studies 112: 44-73.
Graham, A.J. 1999 [1964]. Colony and mother city in ancient Greece. Manchester.
Hansen, M.H. 1998. Polis and City-State: an ancient concept and its modern equivalent.
Acts of the Copenhagen Polis Centre vol. 5. Copenhagen.
Hansen, M.H. 2004. A typology of dependent poleis. In: M.H. Hansen and T.H. Nielsen,
An inventory of archaic and classical Greek poleis. Oxford, pp. 87-94.
Hansen, M.H. 2010. The concepts of demos, ekklesia, and dikasterion in classical Athens.
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 50: 499-536.
Helleiner, E. 2003. The making of national money: territorial currencies in historical
perspective. Cornell University Press.
Hermann, P. 1981. Teos und Abdera im 5 Jahrhundert v. Chr. Chiron 11: 1-30.
Hill, G. 1902. Descriptive catalogue of ancient Greek coins belonging to John Ward.
26
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
London.
Huxley, G. 1984. Teos in Pindar. In: Studies presented to Sterling Dow on his eightieth
birthday. Caroline du Nord, pp. 149-152.
Kagan, J. 1998. Epidamnus or Ephyre (Elea): a note on the coinage of Corinth and her
colonies at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. In: R. Ashton et al. eds. Studies in
Greek numismatics in memory of Martin Jessop Price. London, pp. 163-173.
Kagan, J. 2006. The beginnings of coinage at Abdera. In: P. van Alfen, ed. Agoranomia:
studies in money and exchange presented to John H. Kroll. New York: American
Numismatic Society, pp. 49-60.
Kagan, J. 2008. Paros, Melos, and Naxos: archaic and early classical coinages of the
Cyclades. American Journal of Numismatics 20: 105-111.
Kalmo, H. and Q. Skinner. 2010. Sovereignty in fragments: the past, present and future
of a contested concept. Cambridge University Press.
Kraay, C. 1976. Archaic and classical Greek coinage. University of California Press.
Launey, M. 1934. Une dédicace thasienee à Héraklès. BCH 58: 173-183.
Loukopoulou, L. and M.-G. Parissaki. 2004. Teos and Abdera: the epigraphic evidence.
In: A. Moustaka et al. (edd.), Klazomenai, Teos and Abdera: Metropolis and Colony.
Thessaloniki, pp. 305-310.
Low, P. 2007. Interstate relations in classical Greece: morality and power. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Mackil, E. and P. van Alfen. 2006. Cooperative coinage. In: P. van Alfen ed.,
Agoranomia: studies in money and exchange presented to John H. Kroll. New York:
American Numismatic Society (2006), pp. 201-247.
Mackil, E. 2013. Creating a common polity: religion, economy, and politics in the
making of the Greek koinon. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Malkin, I. 2010. A small Greek world: networks in the ancient Mediterranean. Oxford.
Martin, T. 1985. Sovereignty and coinage in classical Greece. Princeton.
Matzke, M. 2002. Die frühe Münzprägung von Teos in Ionien. Chronologische und
metrologische Untersuchungen um die Fruhzeit der Silbermünzprägung. Jahrbuch fur
Numismatik und Geldgeschicte 50: 21-53.
May, J.M.F. 1966. The coinage of Abdera (540-345 BC). London: Royal Numismatic
Society.
27
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
Morel, J.-P. 2002. Archeologie phoceenne et monnayage phoceen: quelques elements
pour une confrontation. In: A. Mele and J.-P. Morel, eds. La monetazione dei Focei in
Occidente. Atti dell’XI convengo del centro internazionale di studi numismatici—Napoli
25-27 Ottobre 1996. Instituto Italiano di Numismatica: Rome, pp. 27-42.
Morel, J.-P. 2006. Phocaean colonialisation. In: G.R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), Greek
Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas. Volume 1.
Leiden: Brill, pp. 358-428.
Osborne R. 1998. Early Greek colonization? The nature of Greek settlement in the West.
In Archaic Greece: New Approaches and New Evidence, ed. N Fisher, H van Wees, pp.
251–69. London: Duckworth.
Orsini, P. and T. Mescle. 2002. Nouvelles monnaies archaiques aux du trésor de Volterra
découvertes en Provence: une hypothése sur l’origine de ce monnayage. Cahiers
Numismatiques 153: 5-13.
Ostwald, M. 1982 Autonomia. Its genesis and early history. Chico, California.
Ostwald, M. 1986. From popular sovereignty to the sovereignty of law. Law, society, and
politics in fifth-century Athens. Berkeley.
Picard, O. 1981. Les monnaies marseillaises aux types d’Auriol et les monnaies a à types
multiples. BSFN, 53-55.
Picard, O. 2011. La circulation monétaire dans le monde grec: le cas de Thasos. In: T.
Faucher, M.-C. Marcellesi, O. Picard, eds. Nomisma: la circulation monétaire dans le
monde grec antique: actes du colloque international, Athènes, 14-17 avril 2010. BCH
Suppl. 53. Athens, pp. 79-110.
Psoma, S. 2012. Greece and the Balkans to 360 B.C. In. W. Metcalf, ed. The Oxford
handbook of Greek and Roman conage. Oxford, pp. 157-174.
Psoma, S. and D. Tsangari. 2003. Monnaie commune et états fédéraux. La circulation des
monnayages frappés par les états fédéraux du monde grec. In: K. Buraselis and K.
Zoumboulakis, eds., The idea of European community in history, vol. 2: Aspects of
connecting poleis and ethne in ancient Greece, pp. 111-142. Athens: National and
Capodistrian University of Athens.
Ripollès, P.P. and J.A. Chevillon. 2013. The archaic coinage of Emporion. Numismatic
Chronicle 173: 1-21.
Robert, L. 1935. Inscription hellenistique de Dalmatie. BCH 59: 489-513
Robinson, E.W. 2010. Democracy beyond Athens: popular government in the Greek
classical age. Cambridge.
28
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
Rubenstein, L. 2004. Ionia. In: M. Hansen and T. Neilsen, eds. An inventory of archaic
and classical poleis. Oxford, pp. 1053-1107.
Rose, P.W. 2012. Class in archaic Greece. Cambridge.
Rutter, N.K. 2002. La monetazione di Velia. In: A. Mele and J.-P. Morel, eds. La
monetazione dei Focei in Occidente. Atti dell’XI convengo del centro internazionale di
studi numismatici—Napoli 25-27 Ottobre 1996. Instituto Italiano di Numismatica: Rome,
pp. 167-185.
Rutter, N.K. 2012. The coinage of Italy. In. W. Metcalf, ed. The Oxford handbook of
Greek and Roman conage. Oxford, pp. 128-141.
Teegarden, D.A. 2014. Death to tyrants! Ancient Greek democracy and the struggle
against tyranny. Princeton.
Tzamalis, A. 2011. Monnaies “thraco-macédoniennes”: quelques observations sur les
monnaies au centaure et à la nymphe. In: T. Faucher, M.-C. Marcellesi, O. Picard, eds.
Nomisma: la circulation monétaire dans le monde grec antique: actes du colloque
international, Athènes, 14-17 avril 2010. BCH Suppl. 53. Athens, pp. 67-78.
van Alfen, P.G. forthcoming. The role of “the state” and early electrum. In: H. Gitler, K.
Kounk, and C. Lorber, eds. White Gold. Jerusalem and New York: Israel Museum and
American Numismatic Society.
van Dommelen, P. 2012. Colonialism and Migration in the Ancient Mediterranean.
Annual Review of Anthropology 41:393–409
Werner, R. 1971. Probleme der Rechtsbeziehungen zwischen Metropolis und Apoikie.
Chiron 1: 19-73.
Williams, R.T. 1992. The silver coinage of Velia. London: Royal Numismatic Society.
Youni, M.S. 2007. An inscription from Teos concerning Abdera. In: A. Lakovidou (ed.),
Thrace in the Graeco-Roman world, Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of
Thracology. Athens, pp. 724-736.
Ziesmann, S. 2005. Autonomie und Münzprägung in Griechenland und Kleinasien in der
Zeit Philipps II. und Alexanders des Grossen. Trier.
29
Working Paper v.29.3.2014
©Peter van Alfen
30