A question on Greek coin legends

Wow, thank you all for this thread. Great historic and linguistic fun. My only connection to a classic language is Latin mainly liturgical as a member of a
RC choir and theology as a member of a religious community. Also, I was
brought up with a missal for the liturgy in Latin and English side by side.

All my knowledge of Greek has come from collecting coins. The entire journey is still ongoing. I love this hobby.

 

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I'm pretty sure that the oldest one is the one posted by @robinjojo : a tetradrachm of Syracuse with legend ΣΥΡΑϘΟΣΙΟΝ circa 510 500 BC



The Ϙ comes from the corinthian alphabet (Syracuse was a colony of Corinth). The Q disappears soon after 480BC

The Omicron as a long vowel is definitly replaced by the Ω at the end of the 5th century (cf the four last reverse die of Tudeer's period I - Only a single Boehringer die dated c. 420 BC already has an Omega)

The reform (long o and ε replaced by ω and η) officially took place in Athens in 403 BC and extended to all of Greece in the 4th century.

so ΣΥΡΑϘΟΣΙΟΝ definitly means "of the Syracusans"

 

regarding the meaning of the legend ΑΘΕ, we have an interesting comparaison with the famous archaic staters of Sybaris bearing the legend MY (for ΣΥ).
A single coin in Berlin is known bearing the full legend MVBAPΣTAM retrograde (for Sybaritas)

 

Like you I studied only Attic Greek at the university level and a bit of Koine Greek in the seminary. But if I recall correctly, Syracuse was a settlement of Dorian Greeks from the Peloponnesus who be speaking the Dorian dialect which we never studied. Dorians were not known for any great literary achievements, being rather laconic in their language, so almost everything we studied, down to about Xenophon, was Attic. The Greek found on the coinage of the post Alexander period is different enough from Attic to raise eyebrows among the cognoscenti but the Greek of Roman provincial coinage of the early AD period would have caused our professors to auto immolate.

 

Like you I studied only Attic Greek at the university level and a bit of Koine Greek in the seminary. But if I recall correctly, Syracuse was a settlement of Dorian Greeks from the Peloponnesus who be speaking the Dorian dialect which we never studied. Dorians were not known for any great literary achievements, being rather laconic in their language, so almost everything we studied, down to about Xenophon, was Attic. The Greek found on the coinage of the post Alexander period is different enough from Attic to raise eyebrows among the cognoscenti but the Greek of Roman provincial coinage of the early AD period would have caused our professors to auto immolate.

 

I came across this stater from Syracuse, 344-317 BC, Third Democracy, with what appears to be the change in the second to last character in the city's name. It is available as one of the lots in Roma's upcoming live auction in October, first session.

An absolutely gorgeous coin.

 

This is a type that I recently attributed. It is the less common older Æ type with the bull walking left. It has been dated between 435-410/5 BC.


SOUTHERN LUCANIA, Thourioi. (435-410/5 BC). Æ. (17mm, 3.73g).
Obverse: Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet adorned with olive wreath.
Reverse: ΘOΥΡIΩN above; bull walking left; fish in exergue.


Now the above coin is fairly worn, and other Æ examples are tough to find showing the complete legend above the bull.



However, the AR Nomos of the type is a little more common.
(NOT MY COIN)

LUCANIA, Thourioi. Circa 443-400 BC. AR Nomos (20mm, 7.08 g, 1h). Head of Athena right, wearing crested helmet decorated with olive branch; A above visor / Bull butting left; below, bird alighting left; in exergue, fish left.



Does this bring something to the conversation?

 

Your post reminded me to check the Lucania, Thourioi double nomos that I have. It has the same format: ΘOΥΡIΩN, with a wide space between the Ω and N, which actually resembles more a H.

443-400 BC

15.47 grams

 

Ooh, nice coin!!!

In further researching of the type, yours seems less common. The bull is facing right, which would usually indicate that the coin was minted after 400 BC.

However, (on your coin)Athena's helmet is decorated with a laurel wreath (rather than a Skylla in later types); indicating that your coin is pre-400 B.C.

I've only been able to find a couple of examples like yours available at auction in recent times.

Yours being one of them sold @Triton XXIII

CNG's attribution refers to the 'H' as a Z with the [N] off of the flan.


LUCANIA, Thourioi. Circa 443-400 BC. AR Double Nomos – Distater (24.5mm, 15.47 g, 9h). Head of Athena right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with laurel wreath / Bull butting right on plain ground line; ΘOYPIΩ[N] above, Z to right; all within shallow incuse square. Noe, Thurian, Group A, 2 (same obv. die as illustration); Jörgensen 19; HN Italy 1762; BMC 1 (same obv. die); Basel 173 = Gillet 217 = Kunstfreund 70 (same obv. die); Sternberg XVI, lot 35 (same dies). Darkly toned, underlying luster. Good VF. From the first issue of double nomoi. Extremely rare.

From the B. G. Collection. Ex Leu 86 (5 May 2003), lot 247.


Apologies if derailing the thread a little, but perhaps the above type is one of the earliest to incorporate 'Ω' in place of 'Ο'.

 

When coins can only be dated to a long period like 443-400 BC and we really do not know what defined the dates as given, it is hard to use the information. Certainly different cities may have made the change at different times. What makes the coins of Syracuse interesting here is that we have examples both before and after the change.

 

Well if the earliest dating of the type is accurate to the 440s BC, did Syracuse make the change 'pre', 'post' or "sometime around" 400 BC?

 

Thourioi arose out of the ashes of Sybaris, which had been first besieged and destroyed by neighboring Kroton in 510/9 BC. Attempts to refound the city were foiled by Kroton over the next decades, until the refugees from Sybaris appealed to Sparta and Athens for help in gaining back their homeland. Athens sent ships, soldiers and colonists that were able to repel the Krotoniates, allowing the city to be refounded, now as Thourioi, circa 446/5 BC. However, the unhappy Sybarites were again driven out of the new city only a few years later. The new coinage of Thourioi would relate to both the support of Athens and to the foundation history of the original city. The helmeted head of Athena is the obverse type while the butting bull, recalling Sybaris, adorns the reverse. This specimen represents one of the earlier coins from the repopulated city.

 

T

Thank you.

I am especially attracted to the wonderful, dynamic modeling of the bull, which is also associated with Poseidon. One can imagine, in this context, the bull, head lowered, right leg raised, preparing to move the earth.