Meep, the matter of letters and
symbols on Neapolitan coins has been studied in deep by Marina
Taliercio Mensitieri in her works.
There is a long history of debate about the letters appearing on the coins of Taras. Some have argued for engravers' signatures, at least in some cases, others for local magistrates, still others for magistrates who had jurisdiction in several citites since the initials appear on the coins of more than one city at a time when the cities were in an active military alliance. I think the root of the problem is that we have very little information about just what was a magistrate who might have signed coins in a Greco-Italian city at that time. Might a die maker be also the official in charge of of the minting? Would a official in charge of the coining have specific duties that required his initials on the coins, or might he require the initials of a subordinate actually tasked with maintaining the standards of weights and purity be placed on the coins? We just do not know for lack of information. In short, we do not really know which magistrates did what in regard to minting. I find this just as frustrating as I am sure you do.
Mac
yes indeed, it is a very confusing topic.
i tend to draw a very rough line at about the time of Kleonymos, at the turn of the 4th-3rd centuries. prior to that i don't think many of the signatures were magistrates. after that the longer ones almost certainly are, especially those underneath the horse's belly.
but it is most certainly a frustrating issue.
~ Peter
Sorry
Peter and
Mac, I missed your previous posts.
Yes the issue is frustrating, but really interesting indeed.
The matter is really complex, and evidences are very
scarce, but in the last years new studies of
Epigraphy on some old archaeological founds from
Bruttium and
Sicily is giving us many informations on the political institutions of the ancient poleis of MG, at least for the "doric" poleis since IV centurt BC, (but those institutions
had to be earlier). For those reading
Italian I strongly recommend the reading of A. Filocamo and F. Cordano's works.
Maybe what we name "magistrate" on the coins of the ancient poleis of
Magna Graecia was not simply a monetary magistrate, but something more, like an eponymous magistrate of the poleis for the year (or period in charge) of minting. Sometimes they
had also religious offices, sometimes the eponymous and the religious offices were attributed to two different persons.
If I
had one more life to live I would study R. K. Sherk's monumental
work on "The Eponymous Officials of Greek Cities", trying to link those, and other most recent epigraphic informations with the various letters,
monograms etc. we see on
Greek coins. I think many interesting new things on the
ancient Greek world would be disclosed.
Maybe what I wrote in the previous message is totally wrong, and many letters and
monograms are to be referred to magistrates. Maybe the master engraver was himself the "official in charge of of the minting", as argued by
Mac, so the letters could be the master engraver's signature
and the monetary magistrate's name at the same time. Maybe the
monograms are not individual names, maybe
monograms had not the same meaning of letters and
abbreviations, maybe the
monograms are to be referred to a "group" of people of the polis. Only one thing is sure, there is much to learn on this matter.
Bye
Nico
