this is a coin of a Greek city, the king represented must be a Persian, as no portraits of Greeks occur in the period before Alexander’s successors,
Artaxerxes.
the age to which this coin, from its style, certainly belongs, and the head-dress is the same as that of the last Darius, in the famous mosaic from Pompeii. As this is a unique and very beautiful coin, there has been great desire to discover whose portrait it bears. M. de Longpérier, of the Louvre, suggested that it was struck by Cyrus the Younger; but Mr. Waddington has recently shown, by a very curious chain of reasoning, that it can only be of his brother, Artaxerxes Mnemon. The date is about B.C. 400, the head, that of a man between thirty and forty, or, perhaps, a little older, and the place of striking must have been somewhere on the west coast of Asia Minor. From the age of the person represented, the choice lies between Artaxerxes and Cyrus the Younger. Cyrus might be supposed to have struck coins during the short period of his revolt, and there is nothing more likely than that, if he did so, he would have issued a Greek coinage from his favour for the Greeks. The age of the portrait is, however, some years above that of Cyrus at his death, and we know from Xenophon that he kept his project very close, before he set out on his expedition. Were any further evidence wanted, it is supplied by the fact that there are two other coins with the same portrait, one of which was struck at Lampsacus, a place beyond the limits of the government of Cyrus. The coin must, therefore, be of Artaxerxes Mnemon. It is very interesting thus to recover a contemporary portrait of one of the great Persian royal family. The head is of much beauty and refinement, very like the most handsome Arab type of our day, and certainly it so far agrees with what history tells us of this king that it does not show indications of vigour or resolution. It is rather the head of a philosopher than an administrator or conqueror.
Far different are the features of a more famous eastern king, the great Mithradates, for so his name is spelt on his coins, whose portrait is one of the most remarkable that antiquity affords. He was of Persian descent, for his house was one of those founded by the conspirators against the Magian Smerdis. His career was one of the most daring attempts to withstand the power of Rome, and in some of its particulars is almost an anticipation of our own conflict in India. As inhuman and unscrupulous as our opponents, he was unlike them in his generalship and courage, but his thoroughly Asiatic cruelty makes it impossible for us to feel pity as we read of his disasters.
Silver Coin of Mithridates.
The silver coin of Mithridates which we engrave is, on the head-side, an extremely fine work of a period at which Greek art had generally fallen very low. It was probably struck at his capital Panticapæum, the modern Kertch. The reason of the excellence of the head is, no doubt, that portrait-art, even ideal, flourished after purely ideal-art had decayed, and that, in this case, the engraver had to deal with a head full of character. The subjects of Greek coins were frequently copies of statues, and thus they show us the images as well as the temples of the places where they were issued. Pliny tells us that when Mithradates was conquered by the Romans, they took golden and silver statues representing him in chariots. The head on this coin may well be that of a driver urging horses to their utmost speed, the very best expression and attitude to give the highest ideal portrait of a face of this character. It shows in full exercise the fire, energy, and daring, that are the key to the career of the King of Pontus, and is quite unrivalled by the medallic portraits of modern times, in not one of which has any such ideal likeness in action been attempted.
But perhaps the most interesting of all portraits on ancient coins is that of the famous Cleopatra.
Antony and Cleopatra.
Those who look for beauty will be disappointed, but the history of the Queen of Egypt would lead us rather to suppose that she was a woman of great charm of manner and the most highly educated mind. On the silver coin here given, which bears her head and Mark Antony’s, she has certainly a face more remarkable for intellect and determination than for beauty, and, though she was then in middle-life, her portrait represents her at her best age, as the Greeks never otherwise pourtrayed women on their coins, though they had not the same rule as to men. The great character which is seen in Mark Antony’s head gives us confidence in the truthfulness of Cleopatra’s, which, moreover, is like a ruder portrait on her copper coins.
It will be evident from these remarks how valuable an aid to history is afforded by the study of coins.
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