Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/482

458 History of Art in Antiquity. all the same, they obtained from one end of Anterior Asia to the ' other, and were used by the princes and the chiefs of the domi- nant nation. This is proved by the legends and the types or devices engraved upon them, as well as the fact that they are met with everywhere, in Media, Persia, and Mesopotamia, no less than in the western provinces in touch with the Mediterranean. A certain number were collected at Persepolis and Susa. This does not apply to coins, even those issued by the Great King, where his effigy is more easily recognizable. As far as I know, none have been found at Persepolis, nor did Dieulafoy in his two campaigns at Susa, during which he disturbed and turned about so much earth, light upon a single specimen either in the ruinous mass of the citadel or the palaces. This was no mere accident, for numbers of Parthian, notably Sassanid coins, were collected in the trenches by his men. If Achaemenid currency is sadly to seek in the Dieulafoy Mission, it is because its use was unknown in the interior of the empire until Alexander and his successors, and even then it was only introduced slowly and by degrees. Previous to that time, in all the districts that were in direct contact and relation- ship with the Greeks, the means of exchange for the ordinary purposes of trade were ingots of silver and gold carefully weighed. We learn from ancient writers that the royal treasury at Susa contained but a small proportion of money.' Alexander found forty thousand talents' worth of gold and silver bullion, but only nine thousand talents' worth of coined money.' The monarch had no interest in accumulating vast quantities of coins, which had no circulation in the region where he usually resided, lying between Ecbatana, Susa, and Babylon. All he required was to have enough at hand to make presents to some ambassador from Sparta or Athens, or reward the services of Greek leeches and sculptors. On the other hand, the rich provinces to the west of Lelanon, Amanus, and Taurus had used currency in their commercial tranS' actions some time before they were incorporated with the empire by Cyrus, an example that he and his successors must soon have followed, at any rate in their relations with traders and agents in distant provinces. Had they given up a royal prerogative which the kings of Lydia had exercised with brilliant result ere their country was absorbed by Persia, they could not but have fallen in the estimation of their subjects. It is probable tha ^ Polyditiu^ cited by Strabo, XV. Hi. 21. * Diodonn, xvil 66. Digitized by G'