LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

Macedonian and Thracian relations in northern Greece... 441
Kagan and hammond, followed by others, were radical in their revision
of raymond’s classification on different grounds. Kagan downdates the
emergence of royal coinage from c.480 to c.465 on the hypothesis that the
Bisaltai and not Alexander gained access to the mines near lake prasias
after the persian retreat. Following price and Waggoner, he argues from the
evidence of hoards that the volume of Bisaltic coinage presupposes access to
silver and that minting must have begun c.480 and not earlier as previously
thought. 7 hammond agrees with raymond on royal possession of the mines
in c.479, but proposes a rearrangement of the groups with raymond’s groups
I and II reversed, an attempt severely criticised by Kraay as noted above. 8
two points require further mention: first, hammond attributes the h-series
of tetrobols of Group II with types helmeted head/horse to the edones and not
to Alexander. Second, his new grouping (475-468 (with a prior transitional
phase: 478-476), 467-460, 459-452) assumes regular die output as the result
of regular metal output down to c.460, while the following decrease in the
number of dies after the re-allocation of the h-series is explained as the
consequence of edonian control over the mines after the Athenian retreat in
464. 9 I follow here raymond’s classification since the revisions by Kagan
and hammond raise more problems than they solve.
possession of Mount Dysoron and lake prasias is customarily regarded
as the prerequisite for the commencement of the royal coinage. Whether one
locates the Bisaltic mines in the northern 10 or southern Strymon area, 11 the
dilemma of dating the annexation of Bisaltia to Macedon in c.479 or much
later remains. or to refine the question, if Alexander was active in the area
and had access to the mines immediately after the persian retreat, does this
necessarily translate into annexation of the Bisaltai? An evaluation of literary
sources or scholarly views on the location of the mines is beyond my intentions
here. yet, a few points pertinent to Alexander’s role in the post-war balance
of power in the region and thus his mining rights deserve attention. Apart
from the explicit reference to Macedonian opposition against the persians
7 KAGAn 1987, 21-5. See also prICe 1987, 44-5; KreMIDI-SISIlIAnou
1999,646; lIAMpI 1993,797, n. 9 (yet, she dates the beginning of Bisaltic coinage prior
to 500 with further issues after 480); hAtzopouloS and louKopoulou 1992,15-
25, esp. 24-5; TAČEVA 1992, 59-60, 62.
8 rAyMonD 1953, 16; hAMMonD and GrIFFIth 1979,62,72-3,84,104-5,194.
9 hAMMonD 1983, 251-2; hAMMonD and GrIFFIth 1979,104-15.
10 on different locations see CASSon 1926, 62-3; DAVIeS 1932,145-6,152-3;
hAMMonD and GrIFFIth 1979,58; ShepherD 1993,70,105); SoKoloVSKA
1992. 11 hAtzopouloS and louKopoulou 1992, 19-20; lIAMpI 2005,35-8;
pICArD 2006, 270.