[ 4^9 ] 
jullnefs of Its weight (9) : Xenophon -tells us, that 
whitherfoever a man carried Attic filver, he would 
fell it to advantage (i). And their money deferves 
our more particular attention, both becaufe we h^ve 
the mod: unexceptionable evidence of its ftandard 
weight; and what little we know of -the money of 
other Greek cities, is chiefly by comparifon with 
this. 
The current coin of Athens, was the fllver 
Drachm, which they divided into 6 Oboles, and flruck 
filver pieces of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 Oboles, of half an 
Obole, and a quarter of an Obole (2). Their larger 
coins above the Drachm were, the Didrachm, the 
Tridrachm (3), and theTetradrachm ; which lafl: they 
called Stater, or the flandard. 
It does not appear that they coined copper till the 
26th year of the Peloponnefi’an war, when Callias 
was a fecond time Archon (4^. It was foon after 
publickly cried down; and the conclufion of the pro- 
clamation was to this effedt, that, filver is the lawful 
(9) See Ariftophanes, Ranse ver. 733. Polybius, in Excerpt. 
Leg'. § 28. AoTWffav Js AIVwAoj dfiyvpi'tiv ’ArlixS 
X. T. A. and § 35. ’Apyup/a Jotw ’Avt/o;^©> ’At 7 jkou 
a^ffov, X. T. A. 
(1) Xenophon arep) mpocrc^uu. c.. 3. Ka» ot xpyvpiou 
xaXrjv ipiTToptxv E^ayo'.crtv’ oVoo yap- dv ttuXuo-iv auxo, -sravTap^ou 
■stAhov tou xp^ai'ov XxjU^ochc\j(riv. 
(2) The piece of 50 gr. in P. II. T. 48. .of the Pembroke 
coliedlion, feems to be a Pentobolon and the firft in that plate 
a Hemiobolion. Mr. Stuart brought both half and quarter Oboles 
of filver from Athens. 
(3) Pollux, L. IX. c. 6. § 60, There is a half Tridrachm of 
^Alexander in the Britifti ?vluleum. 
(4) See the Schol. on ver. 737 of Ariftophanis Ranse. 
money 
