va- 
MEDAL. 
SOS 
beginning of the Peloponnefian war the Athenians had 
no gold coin. Mentioning the treafure in the Acropolis, 
or citadel of Athens, at the commencement of that war, 
the hiftorian notices filver coin, and gold and filver in 
bullion ; and, had any of the gold been in coin, he would 
certainly have mentioned it. Philip began iiis reign about 
fixty-eight years after the beginning of the Peloponnefian 
war 5 and we can fcarcely fuppofe that any city would 
have preceded the elegant and wealthy Athens in the 
coining of gold. 
Notwithltanding, however, this deficiency of gold coin 
among the Greeks, it is certain that the coinage of gold 
had taken place in Sicily long before; as we have gold 
coins of Gelo about 491 B.C. of Hiero in 478, and of 
Dionyfius in 404, all ufing the Greek characters; though 
not to be ranked among the gold coins of Greece, as Philip 
caufed his to be. Gold coins of Syracufe even appear of 
the third clafs of antiquity, or with an indented fquare, 
and afmall figure in one of its fegments. Gold coins are 
ufed in the cities of Brettium, Tarentum, and throughout 
Magna Grsecia; alfo in Panticapsea in Thrace, and like- 
wife Cofa in that country ; but not in Tufcany, as is com¬ 
monly believed, though Neumann proves that they were 
itruck by Brutus, and are unqueftionably as ancient as the 
Greek coins. The Thebans and Athenians probably 
coined the firft gold after Philip had fet them the example, 
and when they were attempting to refill the projects of 
that enterprifing monarch. TheiEtolians probably coined 
their gold during the time of their greateft power, about 
a centuryafter Philip, and when they w-ere combating the 
power of Aratus and the Achaean league. “There is 
(fays Mr. Pinkerton) but one of Thebes, much 
worn, in Dr. Hunter’s cabinet, and weighing but 59 
grains; and perhaps not above two or three %gvcrot, or 
gold didrachms, of Athens, in the world; one of which 
is alfo in the collection of Dr. Hunter, and weighs 132* 
grains. It appears to be more modern than the reign of 
Philip. That monarch, having got poffeffion of the mines 
of Philippi in Thrace, improved them fo much, that they 
produced him annually above a thoufand talents of gold, 
or 2,880,000k of our money. From this gold the firft 
coins, named from the monarch Philippi, were Itruck. 
They were marked with his portrait; and for many ages 
after were fo numerous, that they were common in the 
Roman empire; whence the name Philippi became at 
length common to gold, filver, and at la ft even braf's, coins 
of their fize. Even in the time of Philip, gold was very 
fcarce in Greece; but after the Phocians had plundered 
the temple of Delphos, this precious metal, which had 
beeir valued as gems, and confecrated only to the decora¬ 
tion of the temples of the gods, began to be known among 
the Greeks. 
The comparative values of gold and filver feem to have 
been at that time very different from what they are now. 
Herodotus values gold at 13 times its weight in filver; 
Plato in his Hipparchus at 12 ; and even the low value of 
10 to 1 feems to have been the ftated value in Greece, 
though in Rome the plenty of filver from the Spanifh 
mines made the value of gold to be much higher ; and 
there is no reafon to think that it was ever valued in tiiat 
city at lefs than 12 times its weight in filver. The Phi¬ 
lippics p^vcro;, gold piece, or Jiater, is a didrachm, and is 
the molt common of all the ancient coins. Mr. Pinker¬ 
ton is of opinion that it went for 20 filver drachms on its 
firft appearance ; but in latter times for 25 Greek drachmae, 
or Roman denarii. There are proofs of the Philippi being 
didrachms, both from the writings of ancient authors and 
from numbers of the coins themfclves, which remain to 
this day ; and that the or principal gold coin of 
Greece, was of the fame weight, is alfo evident from an¬ 
cient writings. It was anciently worth about 15s. but, 
valuing gold now at the medium price of 4I. per ounce, 
it is worth about 20s. The* i/zijcgvcro;, or half the former 
coin, fcarcely occurs of the coinage of Philip and Alex¬ 
ander, though it does of Hiero of Syracufe and of king 
4 
Pyrrhus. It palled for ten filver drachms, and was 
lued only at 7s. fid. though now worth 10s. There was 
another divifion of this kind worth about 5s. There 
were befides fome lefs divifions of gold coins, which could 
not be worth above two drachms. Thefe were coined in 
Cyrene ; and there were befides feveral old gold coins of 
Afia Minor, the value of which is now unknown. Our 
author fuppofes that they were coined, not with relation 
to their weight as parts of the drachma, but merely to 
make them correfpond with fo many filver pieces as was 
necefTary. There are alfo larger coins than the 
the Six^vaos of Alexander and Lyfimachus being double 
its value. Some others are met with of Lyfimachus, A11- 
tiochus III. and fome of the Egyptian monarchs, weigh¬ 
ing four times the and now worth about 4I. (ter- 
ling. Some weigh even more; but this our author fup- 
poles owing to a difference in the purity of the gold. 
In Dr. Hunter’s collection, fo often quoted, were fome 
very fingular medals ; Angular, as bearing the names of 
nations whom no ancient hiltorians, geographers, or poets, 
either Greek or Latin, have taken any notice of. From 
their infcriptions in Greek characters, it appears that they 
were (truck by a people called MAPAO, an abbreviation 
of MAPACI, or Marles. As thefe people could not pof- 
fibly mu take their own name, fo it is natural to fuppofe 
that they wrote it as they pronounced it. On the other 
hand, they could not have been unknown to the Greeks, 
as they made ufe of the fame characters that were ufed in 
Greece, and in all probability employed Greek artifls in 
ltriking thole medals which are Hill in being. Thefeeni- 
ing filence of the Greek authors with regard to thefe peo¬ 
ple, does not then arife from their not knowing that iuch 
a people exilted, but from their having treated of them by 
a different name from that by which thefe ancient nations 
diltinguifhed themfelves. We have a thoufand infiances 
of fimilar changes among ourfelves, occafioned by the diffi¬ 
culty of the pronunciation, when names are tranfiated out 
of one language into another : thus, the capital of Bavaria 
is called by the inhabitants Munchen, by the Englilh it is 
termed Munich, and by the Italians Monaco: thefe names 
are fo tot.illy different from each other, that they might 
eafily be taken foi tnofe of three different towns. The 
Greeks, who frequently changed names that even were 
analogous to their own language, fcarcely ever failed to 
disfigure thole whofe orthography, being diffimilar, ren¬ 
dered them more difficult to pronounce. 
There is not a word to be found in the Greek language 
in which the letters g and X immediately follow each other, 
as they do in the word Marloi. Though thefe letters are 
called liquids, becaufe each of them i'eparately taken is 
eafily pronounced ; yet, when they follow each other, 
their pronunciation becomes very difficult; it even pro¬ 
duces a cacophony, and their union feems evidently re¬ 
pugnant to the genius of the Greek language. In the 
northern languages they frequently occur together; as in 
the word karl, wnich fignifies a brave man; in the Saxon 
word ceorl ; in the title of earl ; and in the word erlik ; 
which among the Tartars, as well as the Englifh, ferves 
to denote an honourable diflinction. The Mardcs and 
Amardcs came originally from that quarter (the North) 
where thefe letters are (fill placed together. This ren¬ 
ders it probable that they made ufe of them in their names. 
But, when thefe letters were to be pronounced by the 
Greeks, the difficulty that occurred induced them to 
change them. We know that they made life of the word 
Xicr xo; inftead of oicrxo?, to fignify a difk; and that the 
Romans, as Quintillian obferves, affefting to imitate the 
.ZEolic and Doric dialects, changed the d into an l: thus 
the Greek name cSva-trevt; was by them changed to Ulyjfes. 
Had the Greeks borrowed the name from the Romans, 
they would have changed the l to a d ■, and they there¬ 
fore, with greater reafon, in the prefc-nt instance altered 
the names of the Maries and Amarlcs to Mardes and Amardcs, 
in compliance with the genius of their language. The 
Dai, and thole who were called Aparn.es, were, according 
to 
