THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

GREEK COINS
yEtaei inhabited the mountain where Herakles is said
to have died. The island of Peparethus was once called
Euoinos, in allusion to the excellence of its wines.
Besides Poseidon and Herakles, Athena, Apollo,
Asklepios, and Achilles occur on the Thessalian money
at various epochs down to Roman times. The head on
the drachma figured at p. 253 of Head has been
supposed to be a portrait of the hetaira Lamia, mistress
of Demetrius Poliorcetes. Attention should be paid
to the rich variety of subjects on the archaic currency
of this place, and the interesting treatment of the
reverses, with the eponymous nymph Larissa holding
up a mirror, playing at ball, fastening her sandal, &c.
Illykia.—The coinage is constituted of three classes :
civic, regal, and that of the islands. It extends from
the fourth to the first century u.c. The chief places were
Apollonia and Dyrrhachium (Durazzo). Some of the
money is of Macedonian type, that Power having the
ascendency here from about 211 to 196 B.C. The regal
series is very short and unimportant. Of the Illyric
islands, Pharos is the best known, and produced coins
from the fourth to the second century B.C. The
Illyrio-Epirote series is similarly a brief one, chiefly
arising from the existence of silver mines at Damastium,
whose currency, with its mineral wealth, is recorded by
Strabo.
Epihos.—The Epirote coinage forms three classes :
the money struck at Ambracia in silver, and in bronze at
Cassope and elsewhere, before 295 b.c. ;
(ii.) that of the
short regal period, 295-72; (iii.) that of the Republic.
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