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Author Topic: Kalakate as an example of the Greek koinon-the wider world of Greekness  (Read 2390 times)

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Offline cicerokid

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There are coins from Kalakate which seem to imitate New style reverses...why?
 
I have found a paper in Italian which seems to re-date the coins from before the birth of the New Style ( pre c164 BC) to within the New Style range. I can see that the author of the link below is still using the high chronology and not the much more favoured low chronology c 164-c 42 BC.


www.panorama-numismatico.com/wp-content/uploads/Sicilia-Kalakte.pdf

Here is a typical bronze coin of Kalakate with the dating 240-210 BC from the auction house.

Anyone care to translate and comment.That would be appreciated.

Regards

John
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Offline curtislclay

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2019, 01:48:41 pm »
Crucial arguments for your concern:

It is probable that the coinage of Kalakate began as a result of the reorganization of Sicilian affairs undertaken by the proconsul M. Valerius Levinus in 209-207 BC, following the Second Punic War.

The earliest, heaviest issue of bronze coins of Kalakate copied the new-style types of Athens, which were apparently introduced in 196 BC.

Note 7: So Thompson, and although a later new-style introduction c. 164 BC was proposed by D. M. Lewis, Thompson's chronology seems more likely as argued by Morkholm, Museum Notes 29, 1984.

(But according to Morkholm's chronology that I penciled in to our copy of Thompson, Morkholm proposed that the new-style coinage began c. 185-180 BC, and this chronology was accepted by Margaret Thompson herself.)
Curtis Clay

Offline cicerokid

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2019, 01:53:03 pm »
Thank you. Food for thought.

John
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Offline cicerokid

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2019, 02:45:30 pm »
First thoughts.

The low chronology of Lewis, Mattingley and Meadows c164-42 BC
 The "compromise" of Morkholm based on some work of Habicht, accepted later by Thompson c186-50's BC
The discarded high chronology of Thompson 196-86 BC.

The Kalakate Owl on amphora is such an obvious copy of New Style that I shudder to think the vice versa!

Not only is the motif the same so is the way the sparse large lettering is presented and the lack of symbol, thus it is more like the early New Styles than the latter.

So what was happening in Sicily say around either 185 BC or 164 BC.

Why the need for pseudo-Athenian coins and in bronze too when at the times New Styles were in silver only?

Lets go for this coinage copying the silver New Style of the early, early catalogue who would want it and why?

Assume there was a shortage of real silver bullion, thus the replacement with bronze ( as a temporary measure?) to soldiers/mercenaries.

Where would the mercenaries come from and fight for whom?

Why not Athens and its allies. Is this historically possible? The latest views on some coinages and for the New Style is that some are essentially Roman proxy coinages.....(Giovannini, de Callatay) so that Athens itself can be seen as a source of troops for Roma at this stage.

Rome awarded Delos to Athens in 167 BC, quid pro quo Agent Starling!

Now over to the historical buffs amongst you!

John
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Offline curtislclay

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2019, 04:03:43 pm »
Proposed explanation for the type copying, not terribly persuasive:

New-style tetradrachms, in contrast to old-style, virtually did not circulate in Sicily, yet Kalakate might have copied the Athenian new-style types simply because the two cities had established a privileged commercial relationship (p. 264).

We know from an Attic grave inscription that a citizen of Kalakate, possibly a merchant, died in Athens (note 9).
Curtis Clay

Offline Molinari

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2019, 05:02:49 pm »
Were these bronze types minted in great numbers?

Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2019, 05:46:10 pm »
Hi folks,

Here is my example (scroll down, fourth coin):

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/meepzorp/gs_sicl_himera_kalakte.htm

Meepzorp

Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #7 on: July 15, 2019, 05:50:32 pm »
Were these bronze types minted in great numbers?

Hi Nick,

No, they are not common.

In my coin's case, the dealer classified it as Scarce (NC). I think it is even rarer than that, probably R1. You don't see these types in the market too often.

Meepzorp

Offline n.igma

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2019, 06:59:44 pm »
acsearch lists about half a dozen examples of the type in the numismatic market since 2014, all dated to late second century BC by the vendors.

The Obolos/Nomos dating to 240-210 BC is spurious.

As for why this type was struck at Kalakte is unknown, although I like Curtis Clay's suggestion that close trade relations with Athens may have played a role, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. As Kalakte appears to have struck only bronze coinage, that imitation took on a bronze denomination, rather that the silver of the copied Athenian type.
All historical inquiry is contingent and provisional, and our own prejudices will in due course come under scrutiny by our successors.

Offline Mark Fox

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2019, 09:32:43 pm »
Dear Board,

I also agree with Curtis that trade relations may have played a role, but the theory, as he implied, does have its problems.  Unless the Calacte bronzes had circulated far and wide enough for the Athenians to appreciate the attention given to them, then what was the point of issuing coinage for that purpose?  Then again, in thinking about it from a different angle, I suppose the idea could still hold some water if the the coins were struck to appeal to visiting Athenian merchants or the like.   

But, placing all of that aside, there is also the possibility that the coins were struck to advertise the origins of some of the colonists that had a part in founding Calacte.  A potentially good parallel for this is the grazing horse motif found on both Greek and Roman provincial coins of Alexandria Troas.  Below is a snippet from a brief article I wrote on the city's coinage several years ago:

"We know from the Greek geographer Strabo that the site was already occupied by a city called Sigeia.  It lay “in the Troad” of western Asia Minor (part of modern Turkey), along the coast of the Aegean Sea.  Some years after the death of Alexander the Great, one of his former generals, Antigonus I Monophthalmus (“Antigonus the One-eyed”), relocated the populations of several nearby towns to Sigeia and renamed it Antigonia Troas after himself, in or around 306 BC. 

"Around 300 BC, Lysimachus, another of Alexander’s former generals, changed the city name again, this time to Alexandria Troas, in honor of Alexander and to distinguish it from the Alexandria in Egypt."


Probably at some point during the research for this project, it dawned on me that Alexandria Troas's grazing horse looked strikingly similar to its counterpart found on Neandrian bronzes.  Neandria was one of the cities of Antigonus' synoecism.  In briefly looking at the foundation history of Calacte, it also appears to have been a rather complicated affair.  It may be worthwhile to see if other influences can be observed with the other bronze coin types, linking them possibly to other Greek cities.       

Hope some of this helps.


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan

Offline n.igma

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2019, 09:43:41 pm »
It strikes me that the other bronzes of Kalakte imitate a wide variety of other Greek types, so that the imitation of the Athenian new type is simply part of an imitative repertoire in the coinage of Kalakte. It appears the moneymakers of the city were not very original, or imaginative.

http://numismatics.org/search/results?q=calacte

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=kalakte&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=1&currency=usd&company=
All historical inquiry is contingent and provisional, and our own prejudices will in due course come under scrutiny by our successors.

Offline cicerokid

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #11 on: July 16, 2019, 03:35:33 am »
Copying Owl on Amphora types are known in bronze from Mysia , Priene in Ionia and Pergamun.
The Seleucid's also copied that type in bronze too under Thea and Antiochus Vlll.
The Cretans copied that type (and many other coinages) in silver.
We know there was a close relationship with the Seleucids.

I believe that a few winning athletes _ (at the games) have been commemorated in bronze coinage but I cannot remember more details as to when, where and type.

Why Priene and Pergamun? Certainly the latter Atallids donated a stoa to Athens.

So its probably best left that Kalakte copied the New Style as a sincere form of flattery and they were not alone in that.

Some copied the silver because they were international coins and were needed for trade and the supplies of official needed augmenting, eg the Arabian-Felix types. There are many copies of New Styles and one of mine was found in a hoard with official New Styles.

The bronze issues as above were not international coins.
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Offline cicerokid

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2019, 05:49:24 am »

Maybe imitation shows that they are not parochial but open to influences, that they should see themselves as not insular but a part of the wider Greek Koinon from which they sprung.This message is thus political to others as well as themselves. Maybe a gentle reaction against Rome: we are Greeks not Romans/Latins.

A wider identity now under threat.

This I like, not merchants or mercenaries

The coinage itself is, though, epichoral in nature.

Using the low chronology of Athens and similarity to Thompson #16 I date to the 140's BC, just around the time when Carthage must be destroyed.

I don't know if any of this this was in Alberto Campagna's paper.



Regards

John
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Offline Altamura

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #13 on: July 17, 2019, 12:29:35 pm »
The most comprehensive article about the coinage of Kalakte is by Katia Mannino, "La monetazione di Kalacte", Quaderni dell’Istituto di Archeologia della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Messina 2, 1986-1987, p. 125-134: https://www.academia.edu/34872744/La_monetazione_di_Kalacte
It is cited by Campana, Mannino dates the coinage from Kalakte immediately after the end of the second Punic War. She sees it as a confirmation of the high dating of the New Style coinage.

In Eleni G. Papaefthymiou, "Une contremarque islamique sur une monnaie de bronze de Kalè-Aktè provenant du trésor de 'Mardin'", the author lists the different datings (page 147, note 12) and pleads for "after 164 BC": https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Papaefthymiou_Eleni3/publication/328382701_Obolos_13_Papaefthymiou/links/5bc9b2ae458515f7d9c9d3e7/Obolos-13-Papaefthymiou.pdf

Francesco Collura in "Kalé Akté – Calacte. Una città greco-romana della Sicilia settentrionale (VI secolo a.C. – V secolo d.C.)" is on the side of the "after 190 BC" faction:
https://www.academia.edu/1506953/Kal%C3%A9_Akt%C3%A9_Calacte._Una_citt%C3%A0_greco-romana_della_Sicilia_settentrionale_VI_secolo_a.C._V_secolo_d.C._._Lo_stato_delle_conoscenze_ed_alcune_note_inedite

There seems to be no cast-iron explanation for using this type, only speculation  ;).

Regards

Altamura

Offline cicerokid

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2019, 02:25:15 pm »
Thanks guys for your input.

I am going for the 140's BC and style-wise the imitation would suit that period.

Corinth was their birth city but the Romans put that to the sword in 146 and Carthage too, thus no Pegasus-too risky but Athena and her attributes are safe enough.

Merchants and mercenary coinage is a non starter and would need to be in silver to be any use, so this epichoral bronze coinage is to signal their membership of the wider Greek koinon.

The first servile war probably put paid to the independent bronze coinages and the Greek identity was subsumed.

That's it folks and,

Thanks for your efforts.

Regards

John
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Offline n.igma

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Re: Sicilian experts, coins of Kalakate
« Reply #15 on: July 18, 2019, 06:44:42 pm »
Of relevance to the general consideration of imitating types across various Greek city states....


"Interpretation and Imitation of Classical Greek Coin Types"
MARBURGER BEITRÄGE ZUR ANTIKEN HANDELS-, WIRTSCHAFTS- UND SOZIALGESCHICHTE, 2010
Robert Weir

The present article explores the use of diagnostic types in the interpretation of Classical Greek coin types. Whereas it is not always possible to say definitively whether given coin types may have had economic significance, political significance, both, or something else entirely for their recipients, the study of large numbers of coins, whether on the market, in public collections, or in hoards yields useful results. Investigation reveals that there was a large degree of coherence in the sorts of types employed by dozens of the most important issuing authorities of the Classical world. Any notion that the Classical period was a Wild West free-for-all of largely interchangeable and meaningless types now seems improbable. The common perception of extreme type flux before Alexander is mistaken, probably because scholars hitherto gathered their data and impressions from museum collections, whose acquisitions naturally tend towards new varieties, the unusual, and the unique, at the expense of the run-of-the-mill that in fact made up the bulk of coins in antiquity and the majority of the material on the market today. The Hellenistic centuries did indeed see a further standardization and limitation of what poleis put on their coins, but the process had its inception with the arrival of coined money in European Greece, circa 550 BC, not in the carnage of Chaeronea. The copying of well-known diagnostic types by other issuing authorities raises the question of intentionality, and this paper will explore two possible explanations for a close imitation of Athenian coin iconography. This article is not concerned with the widespread and multifaceted phenomenon of coin forgery for economic reasons (one thinks here especially of plated fourrées, or of the good-silver copies of Athenian owls made in the ancient Near East), since this has been well discussed already, but with the extent and semiotics of image appropriation on Classical Greek coinage.
Publication Date: 2010
Publication Name: MARBURGER BEITRÄGE ZUR ANTIKEN HANDELS-, WIRTSCHAFTS- UND SOZIALGESCHICHTE

https://www.academia.edu/39276162/_Interpretation_and_Imitation_of_Classical_Greek_Coin_Types_
All historical inquiry is contingent and provisional, and our own prejudices will in due course come under scrutiny by our successors.

Offline cicerokid

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Thanks very much for this.

It seems I have, without evidence, blundered into a similar conclusion and blamed the Greek common koinon. Which is ironic since they spent so much time fighting each other. This fighting would then appear to be an ironic consequence of Greek-ness and to be top Greek. The Macedonians were considered barbarians by "proper Greeks".

I think I shall write my own tiny paper on Athens New Style copies and competitive Greek-ness.

Regards

John
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Offline Molinari

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I’d love it if you submitted for Koinon III.

Offline djmacdo

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This has been one of the very most interesting threads I have read in a long time.  John, you always fascinate!

 

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