Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ed Snible, post: 3351075, member: 82322&quot;]Allow me to quote from Barclay Head, more than 100 years ago:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://snible.org/coins/hn/ionia.html#571" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://snible.org/coins/hn/ionia.html#571" rel="nofollow">http://snible.org/coins/hn/ionia.html#571</a></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The interpretation of the remarkable inscription has given rise to much controversial discussion, for a résumé of which see Babelon, <i>Traité</i>, ii. I, 62. The weight, the type, and the Ionian character of the incuse reverse, all indicate Ephesus as the place of mintage rather than Halicarnassus, to which Doric city P. Gardner once attributed it, partly because it was acquired at Budrum, and partly on the ground that a certain Phanes of Halicarnassus is mentioned by Herodotus (iii. 4) as a mercenary soldier at the court of Amasis, whose service he deserted for that of Cambyses on his invasion of Egypt in B.C. 525.</p><p><br /></p><p>On various grounds, as Babelon (op. cit.) has pointed out, this attribution is unacceptable. The coin is certainly Ephesian, as the stag is the symbol of the great goddess of Ephesus. The relation of the inscription to the type is in so far certain that it seems to mean ‘I am the signet of Phanes’. The doubtful word in the genitive case Φαενος, Φαννος, or Φανος, has been differently explained. Newton (<i>Num. Chron.</i>, 1870, p. 238) regarded it as referable only to the type and to the cultus of the goddess Artemis; and he suggested as a translation ‘I am the sign of the Bright one’. Such an interpretation of the inscription would imply that the coin was a hierarchical issue from the temple treasury. It is, however, far more probable that Φηνος or Φαννος is not an epithet of Artemis, but the name, in the genitive case, of some prominent citizen of Ephesus, it may be of a despot, or of a magistrate, or of a member of one of the wealthy Ephesian families of bankers and money-lenders (see Babelon, <i>Traité</i>, l. c.).&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>(end quote)</p><p><br /></p><p>Here we have a 100-year-old summary of the then-current theories.&nbsp; Harlan Berk&#039;s opinion is popular but nothing has disproved Newton&#039;s theory that Phanes meant &quot;bright One&quot;.&nbsp; We will never know.&nbsp; If Phanes was a person we won&#039;t know if it is one one who went to Egypt with Cambyses or some other Phanes.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in