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HISTORICAL GREEK COINS - eBooks4Greeks.gr

HISTORICAL GREEK COINS - eBooks4Greeks.gr

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<strong>HISTORICAL</strong> <strong>GREEK</strong> <strong>COINS</strong>common to the Achaean coin with those of Stymphalus.Before the discovery of this didrachm, the smallerdenominations of the same <strong>gr</strong>oup (on which thepeculiarities of style were less patent) were attributedto Achaea Phthiotis in Thessaly. The reasonsfor that attribution seemed sound ; but they haveall been upset by this didrachm, the Peloponnesiancharacter of which isbeyondall doubt.Aegium was the chief city of the Achaean League,the meetings being held in the <strong>gr</strong>ove of Amarium,under the protection of Zeus Amarios and AthenaAmaria. It is probable, therefore, as Wroth suggests,that this coin was struck at Aegium, andthat the Zeus of the reverse is Zeus Amarios, whoappears on the coins of the later league. There isnothing that enables us to identify the goddess ornymph who is depicted with so much originalityand <strong>gr</strong>ace on the obverse. Possibly the figure ofAthena charging with spear and shield, which isfound on the smaller denominations, representsAthena Amaria. A somewhat similar Athenais found on the coins of Patrae of the period146-132 B.C. 1 The helmet on the reverse of ourstater isprobably a mint -mark or money er'ssymbol.1B. M. C. Peloponnesus, p. 23, PL v. 8.75

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