The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

244 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
Nor does there seem to be any objection to a recognition
of the name of the illustrious Epaminondas in the EP PA,
EP AMI, and EP AM of the coins. Epaminondas was a
Bceotarch in 371, 370, 369, 367, 363, and 362.
AAMO, OEOP, and HI^ME may also stand for
Damokleidas, Theopoinpus, and Ismenias, all friends of
Pelopidas (Plutarch, Pelop. c. 7, 8 ; Diod. xv. 78), the lastmentioned
perhaps a son of the great Ismenias, and on
more than one occasion a colleague in office with Pelo-
pidas.
It is unfortunate that among so many names we have
no precise information as to what offices excepting that of
Boeotarch, in the cases of Charon and Epaminondas, the
men who bore them held.
It is extremely unlikely that all the seven (or more)
Boeotarchs were in the habit of placing their names upon
the coinage qua Boeotarchs. The large number of names
on the coins as compared with the possible number of
years during which this coinage can have lasted, makes it
also very improbable that the signatures are only of those
particular Boeotarchs who held the office of eponymous
archons of Boeotia. The same fact precludes the idea that
they are those of the eponymous archons of Thebes, or of any
other single city. All that we can say about them, there-
fore, is that they seem to be the names of the presiding
magistrates of a board or committee, consisting of some of
the Boeotarchs and entrusted with the supervision of the
mints.
SMALL SILVEB AND BRONZE CURRENCY. B.C. 879 338.
To the same period as the foregoing didrachms we must
attribute the following obols : obv. shield, rev. head of
young Herakles ; and bronze : obv. head of Herakles, rev.
club, &c.