NUMISMATA ORIENTALIA. - Forvm Ancient Coins

THE COINAGE OF LYDIA AND PEESIA. 19
Asia, instead of the electrum money of ancient times, was a stroke of policy calculated in the
highest degree to raise the prestige of the Lydian power in a commercial point
that of any other state.
PERIOD III. REIGN OF CRCESUS ; HIS MONETARY REFORMS.
of view over
When Croesus ascended the throne of the Mermnadae, one of his first acts was to propitiate
the Hellenes on either side of the sea by magnificent ofierings of equal value to the great
sanctuaries of Apollo both at Delphi and at Branchidae.' He next proceeded to obtain a recog-
nition of his sovereignty from all the Greek cities of Ionia, of ^olis, and of Mysia, which one
after another fell into his hands, and were for the most part peaceably incorporated into the
Lydian Empire, to which they were in future to pay tribute, retaining at the same time their
fuU autonomy. Henceforth, as Prof. Curtius remarks,^ "the burdensome stoppages between the
coast and the interior were removed, and a free interchange took place of the treasures of the
East and "West. All the ports were open to Croesus, and all the maritime population at his
disposal; all the industry and sagacity, all the art and science, which had been developed on
this coast, were ready to serve him in return for his money By his resolution and
sagacity he had realized the objects of the policy of the Mermnadae, which had been pursued
with rare consistency through five generations of their house. His empire, acknowledged as one
of the great powers of Asia, had been the first among the latter to obtain possession of the sea-
coast, and to overcome the opposition between the Hellenes and the Barbarians. Beside being
a land power of the interior, feared in all Asia, and based on a well-defined and richly
endowed system of landed property, on sturdy popular forces and an efficient army, it included
the splendid succession of flourishing sea-ports; and the Pactolus unceasingly rolled his golden
sands before the portals of the royal citadel of Sardes."
Croesus, as we have seen, on his accession found two electrum staters current in his kingdom
in addition to the Phocaic gold stater, which he had himself lately introduced; one
weighing 220 grains for commerce with Miletus and the Greek cities which had adopted the
Milesian standard, and another weighing 168 grains for the purposes of the trade by land
with the interior and with Babylon.
Both these electrmn staters he abolished at a single stroke, and in their place a double
currency consisting of pure gold and pure silver was issued. In the introduction of this
new currency, however, a wise regard seems to have been had to the weight of the previously
current electrum staters, each of which was thenceforth to be represented by an equal value,
though of course not by an equal weight of pure gold.
Thus the old Graeco-Asiatic electrum
stater of 220 grains was replaced by a new pure gold stater of 168 grains, equivalent, like
> Herod, i. 46, 50, 92. 2 Hist. Gr. Eng. Tr. vol. ii. p. 116.