438 



MONEY OF ATTICA. 



time, it bears the most evident marks of neglect and bad taste. 

 The variations to be met with in the tetradrachm of each of these 

 divisions are numberless ; but they are so very slight, and the agree- 

 ment of the general characteristics of each so universal, that they 

 are by no means sufficient to constitute any other class than the 

 two already described ; to one of which indeed they are all easily 

 reducible. These observations are equally applicable to the di- 

 drachm and drachm, and may be extended to nearly the whole silver 

 coinage of Athens. It is not improbable that the head on the older 

 tetradrachms was copied from that most ancient and most holy statue 

 of the goddess preserved in the double temple of Neptune and 

 Minerva ; it was formed of olive-wood, and was said to have fallen 

 from Heaven in the reign of Ericthonius. It is clear, however, that 

 the superior beauty of the Minerva of Phidias proved more attractive 

 than the age and sanctity of the wooden image ; for on all the 

 later tetradrachms we find precisely the same figures which adorned 

 the head of that magnificent statue ; although even in the more 

 recent coinage, instances frequently occur, where the inscription in 

 ancient characters is still preserved. 



One of the greatest problems in numismatical difficulties, is the 

 cause of the manifest neglect, both in design and execution, which is 

 invariably to be met with in the silver money of Athens ; in which the 

 affectation of an archaic style of work is easily distinguished from the 

 rudeness of remote antiquity. Different attempts have been made to 

 elucidate the subject ; De Pauw affirms, that owing to a wise economy, 

 the magistrates whose office it was to superintend the coinage of 

 silver, employed none but inferior artists in making the design, as 

 well as in other branches of the process ; an hypothesis wholly 

 inconsistent with the characteristic magnificence of the republic. 

 Pinkerton asserts, that it can only be accounted for, from the ex- 

 cellence of the artists being such, as to occasion all the good to 

 be called into other countries, and none but the bad left at home. 

 It would be somewhat difficult to explain, how Athens came to be 

 so long honoured both by the presence and the works of Phidias 

 and Praxiteles, Zeuxis and Apelles. 



