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<p>[QUOTE="NewStyleKing, post: 4510048, member: 106483"]The Great Transformation.Civic Coin Design in the Second Century BC</p><p>(Plates XL-XLVIII)</p><p>Andrew M</p><p>MEADOWS</p><p>∗</p><p>In 2001 Jonathan Williams and I published an article in which we examined the phenomenon of the paradigm shift in coin design at the mint of Rome, which seems to have begun around the 130s BC. At this point the traditional designs of the denarius began to be abandoned in favour of an annually changing series of designs, which tended to be based on the familial history of the moneyers responsible for the coinage. This was something distinctly Roman, we suggested,to do on the one hand with the relationship between the concepts of money and memory inherent in the identity of Moneta, a word which meant both remembrance, mint (and by extension money), and on the other hand between the strongly familial nature of political competition in the Republic of the second century BC. The spur to this change at Rome is perhaps to be seen in the widening imperial horizons of the Republic in the second half of the second century BC, the attendant social upheaval that this occasioned in the city of Rome, and the threat this began to create to the established political order.</p><p>1</p><p> As we composed that paper, we looked briefly to the Greek world to see if we could detect any similar shift in behaviour in Greek coins, but it was immediately apparent that this personal or familial element was essentially absent from Greek coin designs. Nonetheless, in this paper I want to suggest that there was a paradigm shift in Greek coinage in the second century BC. This did not manifest it selfin the form of the iconographic preoccupations of individuals or families, but</p><p>∗</p><p> Professor of Ancient History and Tutorial Fellow, New College, Oxford. OX1 3BN. UnitedKingdom. <a href="mailto:andrew.meadows@new.ox.ac.uk">andrew.meadows@new.ox.ac.uk</a>.1. M</p><p><br /></p><p>rather in a new view of communal identity, which may be witnessed in other aspects of civic behaviour in the same period.As will become clear, there is a massive body evidence to be considered, far beyond the scope of this short paper, so I shall try to give first an overview of the phenomenon, second to examine some particularly instructive cases, and finally to suggest how the numismatic material fits against a broader backdrop of evidence during this period.</p><p>THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION</p><p>The basic nature of the Transformation of Greek coin design that took place in the second century BC can most simply be appreciated by examining a few specific cases. We may begin with one of the most familiar, that of Athens. The archaic, classical and early Hellenistic coinage of Athens is familiar almost to the point of banality (Pl. XL, 1). Through a period of 300 years or so it underwent some stylistic change, but the basic conception remained remarkably constant.But in c. 164/3 BC, (Pl. XL, 2) the Athenians began the production of a New Style coinage, with a clear change in design. The basic types remain the same, but the execution is completely different. Athena’s head is now treated in exquisite detail,such that most have been tempted to see in this new depiction a rendering of the head of Pheidias’ statue.</p><p>2</p><p> Whatever the model, the effect is certainly more specific than the generic portrayals of the earlier coinage. The reverse is completely encircled in a wreath — the detail that is perhaps most frequently noted of these coins, and which gave rise to their nickname of “stephanephoroi”.</p><p>3</p><p> The wreath, of course, is of olive and is surely to be connected with the other new feature of the reverse design: the owl now stands on an amphora, generally assumed to represent one of the prize amphorae from the Panathenaic Games. The combined effect of these two new designs is surely to make us think not only of a specific,Athenian manifestation of Athena, but also of her temple on the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and her great games and festival, the Panathenaia. Athena and her</p><p>2. </p><p><img src="https://html1-f.scribdassets.com/xoi4qaoxs6cqt2v/images/3-d4a01391bf.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p> </p><p> C</p><p>IVIC</p><p>C</p><p><br /></p><p>owl have changed from the plain canting types of the early coinage, to bear more specific meanings about the city and its relationship to its goddess.In this development the Athenians were far from alone. Chalcis and Eretriain Euboea, almost simultaneously with Athens, it would seem, struck brief seriesof coinage on a similar model.</p><p>4</p><p> The issues of Chalcis (Pl. XL, 3) are characterized by a unique portrayal of Hera wearing a veil on the obverse, while on the revers ethe goddess appears driving a chariot. This is a phenomenon that becomes widespread in a number of coinages that we shall consider below: a deity shown full figure. There is no question here of a simple head, or a cult statue, but ratherHera is shown in action. As in the case of Athens, the difference from the earlier coinage of the city (Pl. XL, 4) is quite marked.</p><p>5</p><p> Eretria (Pl. XL, 5), on the otherhand went for a sumptuous depiction of the goddess Artemis, and on the reverse a sacrificial, filleted bull, as there had been on earlier Eretrian coinage (Pl. XL, 6),but here shown in its entirety. Further north in Thrace, again probably in the 160s, two more cities would transform their coinage. Thasos (Pl. XL, 7) and Maroneia (Pl. XL, 8) both abandoned past coin designs (Pl. XLI, 9 and 10) to produce coinage on a pattern that is beginning to become familiar.</p><p>6</p><p> On the obverse of both is a detailed rendering of Dionysus. For Thasos this is the replacement for an earlier portrait; for Maroneia it is new. The reverses of both coins are similar too in conception. At Thasos we find a standing, statuesque figure of Herakles; at Maroneia we have Dionysus in similar posture but in place of a club he holds grapes, and where Herakles holds a lion’s pelt, Dionysus has a cloak. But, as much as the designs of these coins, it is the legends that strike us. In addition to giving the impression that we are looking at figures based on specific depictions or statues, the coins explicitly tell us about the relationship between the cities and their deity and hero, for they have not just an ethnic, but also the name of the god and his local epithet: ΗΡΑΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΘΑΣΙΩΝ andΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΥ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΑΡΩΝΙΤΩΝ. These two figures represent not just t[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="NewStyleKing, post: 4510048, member: 106483"]The Great Transformation.Civic Coin Design in the Second Century BC (Plates XL-XLVIII) Andrew M MEADOWS ∗ In 2001 Jonathan Williams and I published an article in which we examined the phenomenon of the paradigm shift in coin design at the mint of Rome, which seems to have begun around the 130s BC. At this point the traditional designs of the denarius began to be abandoned in favour of an annually changing series of designs, which tended to be based on the familial history of the moneyers responsible for the coinage. This was something distinctly Roman, we suggested,to do on the one hand with the relationship between the concepts of money and memory inherent in the identity of Moneta, a word which meant both remembrance, mint (and by extension money), and on the other hand between the strongly familial nature of political competition in the Republic of the second century BC. The spur to this change at Rome is perhaps to be seen in the widening imperial horizons of the Republic in the second half of the second century BC, the attendant social upheaval that this occasioned in the city of Rome, and the threat this began to create to the established political order. 1 As we composed that paper, we looked briefly to the Greek world to see if we could detect any similar shift in behaviour in Greek coins, but it was immediately apparent that this personal or familial element was essentially absent from Greek coin designs. Nonetheless, in this paper I want to suggest that there was a paradigm shift in Greek coinage in the second century BC. This did not manifest it selfin the form of the iconographic preoccupations of individuals or families, but ∗ Professor of Ancient History and Tutorial Fellow, New College, Oxford. OX1 3BN. UnitedKingdom. [EMAIL]andrew.meadows@new.ox.ac.uk[/EMAIL].1. M rather in a new view of communal identity, which may be witnessed in other aspects of civic behaviour in the same period.As will become clear, there is a massive body evidence to be considered, far beyond the scope of this short paper, so I shall try to give first an overview of the phenomenon, second to examine some particularly instructive cases, and finally to suggest how the numismatic material fits against a broader backdrop of evidence during this period. THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION The basic nature of the Transformation of Greek coin design that took place in the second century BC can most simply be appreciated by examining a few specific cases. We may begin with one of the most familiar, that of Athens. The archaic, classical and early Hellenistic coinage of Athens is familiar almost to the point of banality (Pl. XL, 1). Through a period of 300 years or so it underwent some stylistic change, but the basic conception remained remarkably constant.But in c. 164/3 BC, (Pl. XL, 2) the Athenians began the production of a New Style coinage, with a clear change in design. The basic types remain the same, but the execution is completely different. Athena’s head is now treated in exquisite detail,such that most have been tempted to see in this new depiction a rendering of the head of Pheidias’ statue. 2 Whatever the model, the effect is certainly more specific than the generic portrayals of the earlier coinage. The reverse is completely encircled in a wreath — the detail that is perhaps most frequently noted of these coins, and which gave rise to their nickname of “stephanephoroi”. 3 The wreath, of course, is of olive and is surely to be connected with the other new feature of the reverse design: the owl now stands on an amphora, generally assumed to represent one of the prize amphorae from the Panathenaic Games. The combined effect of these two new designs is surely to make us think not only of a specific,Athenian manifestation of Athena, but also of her temple on the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and her great games and festival, the Panathenaia. Athena and her 2. [IMG]https://html1-f.scribdassets.com/xoi4qaoxs6cqt2v/images/3-d4a01391bf.jpg[/IMG] C IVIC C owl have changed from the plain canting types of the early coinage, to bear more specific meanings about the city and its relationship to its goddess.In this development the Athenians were far from alone. Chalcis and Eretriain Euboea, almost simultaneously with Athens, it would seem, struck brief seriesof coinage on a similar model. 4 The issues of Chalcis (Pl. XL, 3) are characterized by a unique portrayal of Hera wearing a veil on the obverse, while on the revers ethe goddess appears driving a chariot. This is a phenomenon that becomes widespread in a number of coinages that we shall consider below: a deity shown full figure. There is no question here of a simple head, or a cult statue, but ratherHera is shown in action. As in the case of Athens, the difference from the earlier coinage of the city (Pl. XL, 4) is quite marked. 5 Eretria (Pl. XL, 5), on the otherhand went for a sumptuous depiction of the goddess Artemis, and on the reverse a sacrificial, filleted bull, as there had been on earlier Eretrian coinage (Pl. XL, 6),but here shown in its entirety. Further north in Thrace, again probably in the 160s, two more cities would transform their coinage. Thasos (Pl. XL, 7) and Maroneia (Pl. XL, 8) both abandoned past coin designs (Pl. XLI, 9 and 10) to produce coinage on a pattern that is beginning to become familiar. 6 On the obverse of both is a detailed rendering of Dionysus. For Thasos this is the replacement for an earlier portrait; for Maroneia it is new. The reverses of both coins are similar too in conception. At Thasos we find a standing, statuesque figure of Herakles; at Maroneia we have Dionysus in similar posture but in place of a club he holds grapes, and where Herakles holds a lion’s pelt, Dionysus has a cloak. But, as much as the designs of these coins, it is the legends that strike us. In addition to giving the impression that we are looking at figures based on specific depictions or statues, the coins explicitly tell us about the relationship between the cities and their deity and hero, for they have not just an ethnic, but also the name of the god and his local epithet: ΗΡΑΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΘΑΣΙΩΝ andΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΥ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΑΡΩΝΙΤΩΝ. These two figures represent not just t[/QUOTE]
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