MONEY OF ATTICA. 



437 



plained by commentators and translators. Thus in Lysias, the 

 words cxpiiXuv dyyvpiov Itt\ Tp«r* fyotxpalig, do not mean, as Dalecampius 

 and the French version render them, " owing three drachmae of 

 silver j" but they are equivalent to this expression, " he owed three 

 per cent, interest every month* ;" the sentence, when complete, being 

 tou (iqvoQ riig pvaz. In the same writer, we find, citron Se <roi ewe oftoXoug 

 rvig pvuc tokovc. " I will pay you one and a half per cent, every 

 month." f 



The Attic tetradrachms X ai *e of two kinds ; the first, or more 

 ancient, is of the rudest description, being of a globular form ; the 

 head of Minerva is covered with an ancient helmet ; or sometimes 

 there is only a radiated diadem. The face of the goddess is distin- 

 guished by the most striking deformity ; a long neck and pointed 

 chin, with an eye like that of a fish, are among the most remarkable 

 features. The second or more modern is less rude, is much thinner, 

 and the surface more extended ; the helmet of the goddess is highly 

 ornamented ; the face is more graceful ; and altogether it is exe- 

 cuted in a much better style of work than the former ; at the same 



* The common interest at Athens was one per cent, per month, 

 t See Schweig. in A then. lib. xiii. c. 94. 



X The representation of a vase is very frequently seen upon the medals of Athens, either 

 as the principal subject, or as what the French call a contremarque : on the latter 

 tetradrachms, the owl is invariably represented as standing upon a vase reversed. The 

 explanation of this is doubtful: Corsini and others have supposed that it refers to the 

 perfection which the Athenians had attained in the art of fabricating earthenware. But I 

 am inclined to think with Eckhel, that as the vase upon the medals of Corcyra, Thasos, 

 and Chios, denoted the abundant produce of wine in those islands ; so upon the later 

 tetradrachms of Athens, it had a reference to the quantity of oil, the staple commodity, as 

 it were of Attica. I am the more strengthened in this opinion, as I possess vases of pre- 

 cisely a similar form, found in the neighbourhood of Athens, where they are far from 

 rare. From their frequency and perfect resemblance one to another, it is probable that 

 they were designed for some one particular use, and not formed according to the fancy of 

 the potter; nor is it. probable that a vase of such an ungraceful shape and rude workman- 

 ship (as all of the kind which I have seen are), should be placed upon their medals in 

 order to show the perfection of the Athenians in the art. 



But although this supposition will account for the representation of the vase on the 

 tetradrachms, yet the prodigious variety which we meet with upon the other medals will 

 still remain unexplained. Perhaps some were really meant to commemorate the preten- 

 sions of the Athenians with respect to the art. — (Extract from Lord Aberdeen's Journals.) 



