To the reign of Gyges, the Founder of the new Lydian Empire, as distinguished from the Lydia of more remote antiquity, which, as we have seen above, was closely united with the Empire of Assyria, must be ascribed the earliest essays of the art of coining. The wealth of Gyges in the precious metals may be inferred from the munificence of his gifts to the Delphic shrine, consisting of golden mixing cups and silver vessels, and amounting to a mass of gold and silver such as the Greeks had never before seen collected together.1 It is in conformity with the whole spirit of a monarch such as Gyges, whose life's work it was to extend his empire towards the West, and at the same time to keep in his hands the lines of communication with the East, that from his capital Sardes, situate on the slopes of Tmolus and on the banks of the Pactolus, both rich in gold, he should send forth along the caravan routes of the East, into the heart of Mesopotamia, and along the river-valleys of the West down to the sea, his native Lydian ore gathered from the washings of the Pactolus and from the diggings on the hill-sides. This precious metal he issued in the form of ingots stamped with a mark to guarantee their weight and value. For his commerce with Babylon by land a crude lump of electrum was issued weighing 1684 grains and consequently worth, at the proportion of 10:1 to silver, exactly one-fifth of the Babylonian silver mina of 8420 grains. On the other hand, for dealings with the Ionian coast towns, where the Babylonian silver mina was unknown, it was necessary to put into circulation an electrum stater of the weight of 224 grains, five of which would exchange for one Græco-Asiatic silver mina of 11200 grains. Thus then the first issues of the Sardian mint went forth in two opposite directions, embracing both East and West in the circle of their far-reaching currency. The commercial instincts of the Lydians guiding the policy of the State even in times of war, for the border-feuds with the Ionian territory by no means interfered with the intercourse between Greeks and Lydians, as is evident from the care taken by the Lydian kings to conduct the war with extreme moderation, all Temples of the gods and even human habitations being spared in the struggle for hegemony between Lydia and Ionia. To the reigns of Gyges and Ardys, B.C. 700-637, may probably be attributed all such staters of electrum as bear no type,-the obverse being plain and the reverse marked with three deep incuse depressions, the one in the centre oblong, and the others square,-together with certain similar smaller coins which appear to represent the , the, the and the parts of the larger of the two staters. The following is a description of the earliest issues of the Sardian mint, none of which would appear to be later than the reign of Ardys. 1 Curtius, Gr. Gesch. Bd. i. p. 466, Berlin, 1857. Herod. i. 14: ὁ δὲ χρυσὸς οὗτος καὶ ὁ ἄργυρος, τὸν ὁ Γύγης ἀνέθηκε, ὑπὸ Δελφῶν καλέεται Γυγάδας ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀναθέντος ἐπωνυμίην. 2 There was another form of the Babylonian silver mina, weighing 8645 grs., but this does not appear to have come into use until Persian times, the Persian siglos weighing 86-45 grs. and the stater 172.9. It is therefore convenient to distinguish this heavier form by the name of the Perso-Babylonic silver mina. 3 The full weight of the stater and mina of this standard were 230 and 11500 grs. In the Fox, which is more or less visible in the central incuse on the staters both of the Babylonic and Græco-Asiatic standards, M. F. Lenormant recognizes a symbol of the Lydian Dionysus, whose name Bassareus may be connected with the word Bassara or Bassaris, a Fox.1 From the Temple treasury of this god the earliest coins of Sardes may therefore have been issued. The example, having been once set by Sardes, of stamping pieces of electrum with punchmarks containing small devices as a guarantee of their weight, was soon followed by her haughty rival Miletus, the wealthiest commercial city on the whole Asiatic coast, and the artistic Greek Stephanus, Thesaurus, s. v. was quick to adopt and to beautify the Lydian invention. The first issues of the Milesian Mint, while retaining the form of incuse peculiar to the Lydian money, bore upon the obverse the figure of a Lion generally in a recumbent attitude with head turned back. Ephesus, Cyme, and another city which has not been identified with certainty, soon followed suit, striking electrum staters with their respective types, the stag, the fore-part of a horse, and a bull; the Ephesian stater bearing in addition to its type an inscription in archaic characters which has been read by Mr. Newton (Num. Chron. N.s. vol. x. p. 237), AMEZIME, "I am the token or coin of the Bright One" (i.e. Artemis). This stater, now in the collection of the Bank of England, is the earliest inscribed coin known. All these cities, in applying the Lydian invention, restricted their first issues to electrum, which they coined according to the Græco-Asiatic or Phoenician silver standard, the average weight of the stater of which is about 220 grains. Samos alone adopted a different standard,' and struck her electrum coins according to the light Babylonian gold mina, the stater of which weighed about 130 grains; and as we know that this standard was in use for silver in the island of Euboea, there is every reason to suppose that we possess in this circumstance the key to the otherwise anomalous fact of electrum and gold being weighed according to one and the same standard. To account therefore for the weight of the Samian electrum stater, we must suppose that the Euboic silver mina was in use in that island as well as in Eubœa; but whether Chalcis originally derived it from Samos, or Samos from Chalcis, it is impossible to say with certainty. PERIOD II. REIGNS OF SADYATTES AND ALYATTES. The second period of the coinage of Lydia extends from the accession of Sadyattes in B.C. 637, to that of Croesus in 568.2 Sadyattes, the son of Ardys, after the Cimmerian hordes had been at length finally expelled from Asia Minor, found himself at liberty again to turn his attention to the West. He laid siege to Miletus, and year after year wasted her fertile lands; but, owing to the obstinate resistance of the citizens, was never permitted to enter their walls as a conqueror. He was succeeded by his son Alyattes, who continued for some years longer the blockade of the great Ionian city, but with no more fortunate result. Under their Tyrant Thrasybulus, the Milesians, though indeed hard pressed for food, contrived to deceive the Lydian monarch as to the extent of their remaining resources, and finally he was induced to abandon all hopes of subduing them by force of arms, and to conclude with them a treaty of alliance after a war which had lasted for the space of eleven years. During this time of hardship and impoverishment it is probable that Miletus ceased to issue 1 Metrol. Not. on Anc. El. pp. 26-37; Num. Chron. 1875, p. 270 sq. 2 The dates here assigned to the Lydian kings can only be looked upon as approximate. Chronologists are still at variance respecting them. staters, and that her coinage was restricted to the smaller denominations such as Thirds and Sixths, which would suffice for her domestic necessities; the mintage of the Græco-Asiatic stater being transferred to her ally Chios and to other coast towns. Among these electrum staters of the second period, which are all probably subsequent to the siege of Miletus, specimens have come down to us of Chios, Clazomena and Chalcis in Ionia, and of Lampsacus and Abydos in the North. The reverses of these staters are no longer of the primitive Lydian type, but exhibit the ordinary incuse square sometimes divided into four quarters. The character of the work upon the obverses of these later coins is also more advanced than that of the extremely archaic staters of Miletus, Ephesus and Cyme mentioned above (p. 13). In the mean time the coinage of the Lydian Empire itself seems to have undergone some modification. The influence of the arts of Ionia began to be felt in Sardes, and instead of the uniform plain surface of metal, relieved only by irregular streaks, which characterizes the coins of the reigns of Gyges and Ardys, those of a somewhat later period, which I would give conjecturally to the time of Sadyattes and Alyattes, are adorned with types after the Greek fashion, and, if we may judge by their style, are the works of Greek engravers in the employment of the Lydian monarch. It is indeed impossible to distinguish them with absolute certainty from the coins of the Greek coast towns, and there will always be some difference of opinion among Numismatists as to which are Greek and which are Lydian. It is only by comparing them with the coinage of Croesus, which as I shall show later on is well defined and uniform in type, that we are able to set aside from the numerous types of the Græco-Asiatic electrum stater of this period one or two specimens as Lydian. The money of Croesus, both of gold and silver, is distinguished by one invariable device, which is the same on all the denominations, from the gold stater to the smallest silver coin-the fore-parts of a Lion and Bull; and this same device, or at any rate something of a similar nature, would seem to have been the special mark of the Lydian currency from the time of Sadyattes or thereabouts. This imperial device—the Arms, so to speak, of the city of Sardes—was doubtless, like the types of all the earliest coins of Greek cities, of religious origin, and is therefore to be distinguished from that of the Royal Persian money of Darius and his successors, which was adorned with the effigy of the Great King himself. The only stater of the Græco-Asiatic standard which in my judgment is undoubtedly Lydian, and of the time of Sadyattes or Alyattes, is one which may be thus described. The following I should prefer to attribute to Miletus during the time of her prosperity before the wars with Lydia, rather than to Sardes, notwithstanding the occurrence of the Fox upon the reverse of the Half-stater. The Lion on the obverse is the principal type, and by this we must be guided in our attribution. The Stag's head and the Fox on the reverse of the Half-stater may simply indicate that the coin, although issued from the Milesian Mint, was current both in Ephesus and Sardes. ELECTRUM. GRECO-ASIATIC STANDARD. Staters. WEIGHT. 215.3 OBVERSE. Fore-part of Lion, right, star above 217.8 218 REVERSE. Three incuse depressions, that in the centre oblong, Lion recumbent right, looking left. | Similar, but incuses containing ornaments. Lion recumbent left, looking right, within an oblong frame. Three incuse depressions, that in the centre oblong, the others square but irregularly formed. [Cabinet de France. Brandis, p. 394.] The Thirds, Sixths, etc., having on the obverse the head of a Lion surmounted by a star, are undoubtedly Milesian, and represent, in my opinion, the later period of the activity of the Milesian Mint; for the Milesian electrum would seem to have undergone some alteration in its value, if, as is generally the case, the numerous countermarks which occur on nearly all the coins to which I am now alluding are any indication of a reissue. This alteration in the value of the Milesian electrum, and if of the Milesian probably also of the Lydian electrum, may be in part the effect of the rise in importance of Phocæa, and of the first issue of a comparatively pure gold coinage on the so-called Phocaic standard, a coinage which would naturally serve still further to depreciate the value of the less-pure Lydian metal, already perhaps circulating somewhat above its intrinsic value. It is not, therefore, sur |