MONEY OF ATTICA. 



44£ 



Wheat in 393 B. C. was 3 Dr. the coomb. 



in 335 5 Dr. Ditto. 



An ox in 410 B. C. was 51 Dr. or 21. 2s. (id. 



in 374 80 Dr. 



in the same year 75 Dr. (Sand Mar.)* 



It has been much doubted whether the Athenians at any period of 

 their history ever coined money of gold ; and when we consider the 

 few original examples of this metal which have come down to us, in 

 proportion to those evidently forged, it is not surprising that many 

 should have been led to suppose the whole number spurious. At the 

 same time it appears to admit of satisfactory proof, both from the tes- 

 timonies of ancient authors, and from the gold coins which still 

 remain, of the genuineness of which we can entertain no doubt, that 

 the Athenians occasionally made use of this metal in their coinage, 

 although it is very probable, only on few occasions, perhaps after some 

 victory or other great event, and even then in small quantities. 



Eckhel ■]-, who has entered pretty much at large into this subject, 

 labours to establish a different conclusion. He rejects that passage in 

 the Frogs of Aristophanes |, which mentions anew coinage as ironical, 

 and not to be taken in its literal sense ; and at the same time adduces 

 another from the same writer in support of his own opinion : 



lands, the surplus cost in a manner nothing to the proprietors ; and as the numbers of 

 those who had occasion to buy were very few, the surplus was sold cheap." Pol. Econ. i. 

 404. This remark, though generally true, is not properly applicable to Athens; we have 

 seen by a passage of Demosthenes already cited, that the quantity of corn imported by 

 the Athenians was very great ; the number therefore of those who had to buy was not 

 small. From particular circumstances, indeed, the price of corn may have been some- 

 times cheap; for instance, the ships which brought it from the Euxine to Athens, were 

 allowed by Leucon to export it without paying any duty; utsXsixv 8=§coxe'v«i, Dem. c. Lept. 

 This was a great advantage to the Athenians ; as the sum paid to Leucon by those who 

 carried corn from his dominions was thirty per cent. There was also a law, which, in 

 order to prevent corn rising above its ordinary price, prohibited, under pain of death, 

 any citizen from buying more than a certain quantity. Lysias. 



* Mem. de l'Ac. des In. 48. 356. 



f Doc. Num. Vet. t. ii. 286. 



% V. 7-0. Yet Corsini considers the passage as clearly pointing out the use of gold 

 coin. The comedy was acted in Olym. 93. 3., and the scholiast says, that gold money was 

 introduced the year before. — See Corsini Diss. xii. 



