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Incuse coinage of Magna Graecia and Pythagoras
Andrew McCabe:
The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans, William Harris editor, 2008, is also really worth getting. For the Greek period, relevant essays include:
John Kroll, The Monetary Use of Weighed Bullion in Archaic Greece. Written records of money use in Greece regularly pre-date coinage, thus showing that weighed bullion acted as money before the invention of coinage.
David Schaps. What was Money in Ancient Greece? Contra the remainder of the book, makes the case that money was essentially coin "I do not see a cowrie shell, nor a token of an embedded transaction, nor a transient marker in a vast system of credits and debits... after more than twenty years of looking at Greek money I still see a coin.
Richard Seaford. Money and Tragedy. The Tyrants of Greece used the power given by early money to influence dramatic festivals that had traditionally been local, voluntary, communally funded by participant donations-in-kind, and uncoded. Money made Greek tragedy coded and transferable - the services of an actor or music player could be bought and relayed at a different festival in a different location.
Edward Cohen. Elasticity of the Money Supply at Athens. Cites evidence of banking and bank credit at Athens. Athenian control over their large silver mines also gave them a reserve currency role, able to issue new money or withhold at will.
J.G. Manning. Coinage as Code in Ptolemaic Egypt. The institutionalisation of coinage by the Ptolemies was an important lever of control in what was essentially a command economy.
Molinari:
--- Quote from: Andrew McCabe on February 08, 2013, 01:43:09 pm ---The Monetary Systems of the Greeks and Romans, William Harris editor, 2008, is also really worth getting. For the Greek period, relevant essays include:
--- End quote ---
Now on my list, thanks, Andrew!
Belisarius:
My apologies, I've come to this thread quite late. In your piece you say that:
--- Quote ---...we know that that cosmogony originates from Pythagoras because that cosmogonyis mirrored in its entirety by the types of the five mints of the spread fabric incuse staters of Magna Graecia. These coins are contemporary with Pythagoras.
--- End quote ---
I know nothing at all about this subject so just out of interest do you have any sources which support this? It seems that your whole paper relies on it and no source is cited...
JBF:
Belisarius, for the cosmogony, my sources are primary sources in that I look at the coins on the one hand, and Hippolytus' "Pythagorean cosmogony" on the other. Hippolytus was a church father who wrote Refutation of All Heresies, in which he refers to Greek philosophy as the source of many heresies and in the process describes it. For the coins, there are 5 mints known that produced spread fabric incuse staters. Other, later mints produced incuse staters, but they are not spread fabric and therefore belong to a later time. The first to mint was Sybaris with its bull, then Metapontum with its barley-ear, and Kroton with its bronze tripod. Then comes Poseidonia with Poseidon brandishing his trident, and Kaulonia with Apollo, purifying himself with a branch. These match up nicely with the Pythagorean cosmogony mentioned in Hippolytus. Animal (Sybaris' bull), vegetable (Metapontum's barley-ear) and metal (we would say mineral, Kroton's tripod), Poseidon brandishing a trident represents the force of strife, and Apollo purifying himself represents the force of love, or peace.
For the incuse coins, its best to look at Historia Numorum Italy by NK Rutter, or Gorini. the Magna Graecia coins website is also good.
But no, Belisarius, there aren't really sources for my work, other than looking at the coins and researching into primary sources for bits of Pythagorean tradition and getting a dialectic going between the two. However, I would invite anyone to look at my academia.edu site (John Francisco), for a more organized write up on some of these related topics. Or google: Pythagoras celator; or Pythagoras incuse coins; or Pythagoras and Magna Graecia.
I hope that that explains why I don't cite a lot of writers. I'm a philosopher playing with numismatics, and there aren't a lot of people out there like me.
If something comes up that you are not sure about, or you are sure that I got it wrong, call me on it. For example, looking at Diogenes again, I think I have some of the particulars of the case confused in my mind. But point is that the oracle commanded him to counterfeit the currency, and as an ignorant mope he went home to Sinope and did it!
I have looked at Seaford before, and I probably need to look at him again. Also, I seem to remember Leslie Kurke, but I don't own either of those books. I have also read Moses Finley on Ancient Economy, that was quite interesting.
Kind Regards,
John
Belisarius:
Dear John,
No problem. Thank you for the information.
Best wishes,
Belisarius
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