Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/691

GE^ECO-ROMAN COINS.] NUMISMATICS 633 Grseco- The Grreco - Roman coins begin, at different periods, with the Roman, seizure by Rome of the territories of the Greek states. They are almost all bronze ; and those in that metal are the most character istic and important. In their types we see a further departure from the religious intention of those of earlier times in the rare admission of representations, not only of eminent persons who had received some kind of apotheosis, such as great poets, but also of others who, although famous, were not, and in some cases probably could not have been, so honoured. We also observe on these coins many types of an allegorical character. The following principal kinds of types may be specified, in addi tion to those of the two previous classes. (1) Head or figure of a famous personage who either had received a kind of apotheosis, as Homer (Smyrna), or had not been so honoured, as Herodotus (Halicarnassus) and Lais (Corinth). (2) Pictorial representations, always of a sacred character, although occasionally bordering on caricature. We may instance, as of the latter sort, a very remark able type representing Pallas playing on the double pipe and seeing her distorted face reflected in the water, while Marsyas gazes at her from a rock, a subject illustrating the myth of the invention of that instrument (Apamea Phrygiaj). (3) Allegorical types, as Hope, &c., on the coins of Alexandria of Egypt, and many other towns. These were of Greek origin, and owed their popularity to the sculpture executed by Greeks under the empire ; but the feeling which rendered such subjects prominent was not that of true Greek art, and they are essentially characteristic of the New Attic school Avhich attained its height at Rome under the early emperors. Of this kind of type* we must again speak in noticing the Roman coinage. Those types which were common to this and the older classes were also much developed in their subjects. Thus, for instance, groups frequently took the place of single figures ; and the repre sentations of sacred localities acquired a great prominence, the most common being of buildings, which are generally temples. In the architectural types a tendency to pictorial representation is evident in the constant endeavours to depict edifices in perspective. There is a class of coins which is always considered as part of the Greco-Roman, although in some respects distinct. This is the colonial series, struck in Roman colonise, and having almost always Latin inscriptions. As, however, these colonise were towns in all parts of the empire, from Emerita in Spain (Merida) to Niniva Claudiopolis (Nineveh) in Assyria, in the midst of a Greek popula tion and often of Greek origin, their coins help to complete the series of civic money, and, as we might expect, do not very markedly differ from the proper Greek imperial coins except in having Latin inscriptions and showing a preference for Roman types. Inscrip- We have now to speak of the meaning of the inscriptions of tioiis. Greek coins. These are either principal or secondary ; but the former are always intended when inscriptions are mentioned with out qualification, since the secondary ones are non-essential. The inscription of civic money is almost always the name of the people by which it was issued, in the genitive plural, as A0HNAIilN on coins of the Athenians, SYPAKOSIflN on coins of the Syracusans. The inscription of regal money is the name, or name and title, of the sovereign in the genitive, as AAEEANAPOY, or BA2IAEI22 AAESANAPOY, on coins of Alexander the Great. Jliis genitive form implies a nominative understood, which has been generally sup posed to be v6/j.iff/j.a, " money." There are four instances in which a nominative of this -kind occurs in coins, 4>ANOS EMI 2HMA, " I am the badge of Phanes," on an archaic coin of Halicarnassus ; rOPTYNOS TO IIAIMA, "the struck" money of Gortys, if the form suggested by M. Francois Lenormant be admissible, on an archaic coin of Gortys; and 2EY0A KOMMA, "the stamp" or "coin of Seuthes, ""as well as 2EY0A AJTYPION, the "silver piece" or "money of Seuthes. " The balance preponderates in favour of the idea that such a word as v6/jucrfj.a, or the more definite term for a piece of gold (xpwrous), silver (dpyvpiov), or copper (xaXKoDs), was intended. Yet the instances are not sufficient to establish the case. Besides their disagreement, it must be remem bered that the coins of Phanes and Gortys belong to the infancy of money in Asia Minor and Crete, and that Seuthes was a semi-barbar ous "chieftain. Any one familiar with Greek epigraphy will see the danger of resting on such evidence. In the eighth edition of the Encyclop&dia Britannica a different explanation was offered on the authority of the late Mr Burgon, who generously communicated it to the writer. He supposed the inscription to relate to the type, and that the nominative understood is the name of that type. It should be remarked that the type of the reverse of a civic coin is usually a complement of that of the obverse, and that the converse may be inferred of regal coins ; there is thus in general virtually but one type, that of the tutelary divinity or sacred symbol of the city or sovereign. Athenian coins with the inscription A0H[NAK2N] have as their obverse type the head of Athene ; the meaning of the inscription, according to Burgon s explanation, would be, not "the money of the Athenians," but "Athene of the Athenians." Wh- ii the name of the divinity represented is written, the nominative understood is supplied. Thus on coins of Syracuse, with the head of Aretliusa as the obverse type, we read APE00SA _ (rev.) SYPAKOEHHSr, "Aretliusa of the Syracusans," and on others with the head of Zeus, ZEYS EAEY0EPIOZ SYPAKOEHIN, "Zeus the giver of liberty of the Syracusans." There are instances in which the names of the divinity and of the people occur together as EIPHNH AOKPftN, "Irene of the Locrians," on a coin of the Locri Epizephyrii, the obverse having the head and name of ZEYS, as though the sense were Zeus (and) Irene of the Locrians. In the case of regal coins Burgon s theory cannot be applied in strictness. In most cases we could supply the name of the divinity represented on the reverse, as, for the gold staters of Alexander, [NIKH] AAEgANAPOY, and for the silver, [ZEYS] AAEaANAPOY; but when the type, as of almost all the Ptole maic coins, is a symbol, in this case the eagle, some modification is needed. If we suppose that the nominative, understood when none is expressed, or implied when a divinity is named, is some word expressing the idea conveyed by the badge, as Zeus by the eagle, we shall probably be not far from the truth. The secondary inscriptions either describe secondary types, as A0AA, "rewards," accompanying the representation of the arms given to the victor in the exergues of Syracusan decadrachms, 1 or are the names of magistrates or other officers, or in regal coins those of cities, or are those of the engravers of the dies, of Avhom sometimes two were employed, one for the obverse and the other for the reverse, or are dates. These inscriptions are often but abbreviations or monograms, especially when they indicate cities on the regal coins. The importance of Greek coins as illustrating the character of Art of contemporary art cannot be easily overrated. They are beyond all coins. other monuments the grammar of Greek art. Their geographical and historical range is only limited by Greek history and the Greek world ; as a series they may be called complete ; in quality they are usually worthy of a place beside contemporary sculpture, having indeed a more uniform merit ; they are sometimes the work of great artists, and there is no question of their authenticity, nor have they suil ered from the injurious hand of the restorer. Thus they tell us what other monuments leave untold, filling up gaps in the sequence of works of art, and revealing local schools known from them alone. The art of coins belongs to the province of relief, which lies between the domains of sculpture and of painting, partaking of the character of both, but most influenced by that which was dominant in each age. Thus in antiquity relief mainly shows the rule of sculpture, in the Renaissance that of painting. Sculpture best represents character (TjOos), painting expression (TO. Trd.07]). Character is the permanent aspect of the face and figure as denoting the dominant quality. Thus a great statue may be not unfairly described by a single epithet. Expression is the transient but intense effect of some sudden feeling. A single figure in a painting requires a fuller description than a statue ; the char acter is seen beneath the expression. Sculpture aims at embodying the ideal, and when it represents the real it must show the fulness of all qualities and even of all potentialities. Repose is the con dition of sculpture. Painting having for its purpose the repre sentation of light (colour), and the effects of light in bodies, can only deal with the circumstances of the moment. Movement is implied in painting. 2 Sculpture that is pictorial and painting that is sculpturesque belong to the decline of art. Expression of a ^ supreme kind is, however, found in sculpture of high quality, especi ally in that kind of relief which lies nearest to sculpture, alto- rilievo ; and character is seen in noble portraits which endeavour to represent the man in his completeness. -But such sculpture is properly in groups and such painting in the single form. The group suggests the treatment of painting, the single form in pictorial art that of sculpture. Relief, as intermediate between sculpture and painting, admits separately of movement and the momentary action, but the movement must be of the most dignified and rhythm ical kind, otherwise it will need colour to counteract confusion by a higher harmony, and the momentary action must be of supreme importance. Observe the dignity and rhythm of the Panathenaic frieze of the Parthenon, the want of colour in the Amazon frieze of the Mausoleum, contrasting it with the noble fragmentary chariot frieze, and the supreme moment chosen in the metopes of the Parthenon. Relief is usually divided into three kinds, low, middle, and high (basso-, mezzo-, and alto-rilievo), and it is convenient to retain these terms while admitting that they are only roughly correct. Work to be viewed in a feeble light and from a distance must have clearness in the most necessary outlines, and that simplicity which equally marks the Panathenaic frieze. It admits of simple and general movement. This is low relief, and must not be too much raised from the background. High relief differs from sculpture in the round in that it is not necessarily detached from the back ground, nor usually of the full depth of true proportion, and in 1 It is scarcely to be doubted that the arms on the Syracusan decadrachms represent a reward given to an Olympic competitor or competitors on return- 5 On the whole subject cf. C. O. Muller, Arcluiologie der Kunst, 25-27. XVII. 80