Boeotian coinage in archaic and classical periods

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Characteristic of Boeotian coinage is the Aeginetic coin base or standard, on which the coins are divided into weight classes, and the design of the coin face with a uniform design. Above all staters are minted , the weight of which, according to the already mentioned Aeginetic foot, was 12.2 grams.

The Boeotian coinage as federal coinage

In general, it should be noted that Boeotian coins are minted as part of a so-called federal minting.

Federal coins are coins of a federal government - either of some kind of political alliance or an agreement to mint certain coins, so to speak, special coins. Federal issues have the purpose of facilitating the financial as well as general exchange between two parties or, in the case of Boeotia, the participating cities. It follows that federal issues are based on one and the same weight system - such as the Aeginetic standard in the case of Boeotian coinage.

The alliances / frets designed the front and back of their embossing in different ways. The embossing can be divided into three groups based on the procedure:

  1. The federal government left the members free choice in the design of the front and back of the coin.
  2. The members agreed on a common motif, which was embossed on the front. The back was determined by the defining city in each case - there are motifs that are characteristic of the city.
  3. The federal government completely took over the coinage, so that individual members or cities were no longer named.

The joint representations were representations of things that were of central importance for the federal government as a whole; either mythological-cultic or historical. Taking Boeotia as an example, this is the so-called “Boeotic shield”. It is an oval shield, on the sides of which there are semicircular openings and the front of which is covered with cowhide. It is characteristic of the obverse of every coin of the Boeotian League during the Archaic and Classical periods. The back motifs were determined by the defining city.

While the shield was absolutely uniform at the beginning of the minting, in later minting series after the Battle of Leuktra there are also references to the formative city on the shields. Haliartos, for example, decorated the Boeotian shield with a trident - a symbol of Poseidon , which was typical of the reverse of the city's coins. The only exception to the design of the front was the city of Orchomenos , which instead of the usual sign depicted a grain of wheat on the front. At the beginning of the 4th century BC However, Orchomenus also used the shield as a motif on the front.

Chronology of coinage

After the covenant in the early 6th century BC BC, began probably from the second half of the 6th century BC. The cities of Thebes , Haliartus and Tanagra to mint coins. The obverse is already adorned with the Boeotian shield at these first coins. The backs are characterized by the so-called windmill incusum, which is already used in Aegina. This windmill incusum is a square in which there are alternating raised and punched triangles. The inscriptions, if any, are in the middle. Tanagra, for example, signs his coins with a Tau or Tau and Alpha , Haliartos with an Asper - a somewhat older Greek letter, and Thebes, which does not have an inscription.

End of the 6th century BC In addition to the previously formative cities of Tanagra, Haliartus and Thebes, four other cities were added: Akrapheia , Koroneia , Mykalessos and Pharai . Furthermore, the front of the coin is decorated with the Boeotian shield and the back with the windmill incusum, which was already used during the last series and in the middle of which the initial letters of the (minted) cities can also be found: Phi for Pharai, My for Mykalessos . Thebes now also signs a theta in the middle of the windmill incusum.

Around 480 BC After the Persian Wars, Thebes' position as a hegemon within the Confederation began to fluctuate and it took a back seat. In the finds from this period more and more coins from Tanagra can be found, which are either inscribed with the TA typical of Tanagra or with TA and BOI. The latter is interpreted as an indication of the assumption of supremacy within the federal government by Tanagra. The windmill incusum is retained as the motif on the back, while a four-spoke wheel appeared as a new motif.

After an invasion by Athens with the subsequent establishment of democracies began around 456 BC. BC, other cities also increased their minting coins, including Haliartus, Akrapheia, Thebes and Koroneia. The windmill incusum disappeared in favor of clearly distinguishable images, which were also added with city initials.

From 446 BC. BC, the expulsion of the Athenians, for another fifty years, i.e. until approx. 400 BC. The covenant coins were issued solely in the name of Thebes. Among them is a series of staters, on the back of which Heracles , who is closely linked to the city of Thebes through mythology, can be seen in different types:

  • Winner in the fight
  • Archer (standing or kneeling)
  • stealing a Delphic tripod
  • as a child strangling snakes

Another Theban coinage appeared in the last quarter of the century: The back motifs were now heads of Heracles or Dionysus in profile or from the front. The 387 BC The king's peace between the Greeks and the Persian king Artaxerxes II as a guarantee for ending the Corinthian War meant the dissolution of the Boeotian covenant, as this peace declared every Greek city to be independent. This initially resulted in the minting being stopped.

After the expulsion of the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. The Boeotian covenant was re-established by the Thebans. Thebes again assumed the supremacy within the federation. The coins minted at this time can be summarized in three groups on the basis of different reverse sides, whereby group I can be further subdivided into three groups.

Group Ia is characterized by one with a serpent-strangling Heracles, whom we know from the middle of the fifth century. Here, however, he is depicted completely differently - now seated, front view and a snake in each hand.

Group Ib has an amphora on the back that is accompanied by an icon related to Heracles or Dionysus. It is dated to the beginning of the 4th or late 5th century BC. One can sometimes see a change in the design of the front, the shield of which may have been decorated with a club. This use of club, bow, grapes and vine leaves began with this coinage and then continued in Groups Ic and II.

The reverse of the coins from Group Ic has an amphora, which is accompanied by various symbols and abbreviated personal names. The various symbols are initially the well-known ones, i.e. H. Club, bow, grapes and vine leaves, but also roses, wheat grains and other symbols that relate to the families of the persons included. The names of these people are usually abbreviated to four letters; however, there are also variants with only three or even six letters. These names were initially interpreted as the names of Boiotarchs, the heads of the federal government, but it is much more likely that these names are the names of civil servants or private individuals whose task is to monitor the minting of coins.

The back of group II again bears a typical Theban amphora, on the sides of which there are no longer individual names of families, but the inscription BOIO (ton), which is to be understood as the main distinguishing feature between group Ic and group II. Furthermore, the amphora is accompanied by symbols relating to Heracles and Dionysus.

Group III subsumes the coinage of the other cities at this time, that is, coinages of, for example, Haliartus, Orchomenos and Tanagra and shows, in addition to characteristic backs, changes to the front, Boeotian shield.

Motifs

The so-called Boeotian shield served as the obverse motif of the Boeotian coins, the importance of which for the Boeotian League is disputed. It is believed that either the statue of Athena Itoneia in the federal shrine of the Boeotians at Koroneia wore such a shield or that its meaning derives from its design: the front of the Boeotian shield was covered with cowhide and the Greek word for cow was eponymous for the entire region. The back motifs depend on the city. At the beginning of the minting of coins, these differ only slightly from each other, for example through different city initials in the middle of the windmill incusa. From 456 BC In contrast, the cities coined clearly distinguishable images and signed them with abbreviations of the city name. Some of these motifs were also used in the coinage after the Battle of Leuctra. The Boeotia region was already considered rural in antiquity. The reverse of many coins therefore features motifs from the agricultural sector: Tanagra, for example, embossed the front of a horse on the reverse of his coins and the town of Kopai a cattle head in front view. In general, the reverse motifs of coins can represent city deities, landmarks or mythical motifs.

Thebes

About 440 to 425 BC Chr.

The motif that Thebes on the reverse of its coins in the second half of the 6th century BC BC, is a windmill incusum without inscription, which from the beginning of the 5th century BC. Was ascribed with a theta. Economically weakened after the Persian Wars, increased Theban minting activity did not begin again until 456 BC. With an amphora and the city initials. Ten years later, the city shaped a series of staters whose main character is Heracles, whose mother Alkmene , according to myth, was a resident of the city. She was impregnated by Zeus , who had turned into her husband, while he was on a campaign. After the birth of Heracles, the jealous wife of Zeus, Hera , placed two snakes in the cradle of the newborn Heracles, which he was able to strangle thanks to his divine descent. This scene is depicted on a coin from that time. Further, simultaneous motifs are Heracles as an archer or victor in battle or Heracles as he wears a Delphic tripod. In order to re-establish the Boeotian League after the Battle of Leuktra with Thebes as the hegemon, the city issued various coin series. Mainly, with the exception of a series that took up the motif of Heracles as a snake strangler again, there are amphoras on the backs with various inscriptions and symbols that refer to either Heracles or Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Semele , the daughter of the mythical city founder of Thebes, Kadmos , relate.

Haliartus

Haliartus was one of the first cities of the Boeotian League to mint coins. At the beginning there is a windmill incusum on the back, in the middle of which there is an asper as an inscription. From 456 BC The main motif of the city coinage is Poseidon . The federal shrine of Poseidon of Onchestus , which should be on the territory of the city, can serve as an explanation for this motif . After the Battle of Leuktra, the city imprinted a trident on the face of the shield.

Plataiai

Plataiai did not mint until 456 BC. BC Coins with the Boeotian shield. Before that, the city was allied with Athens. A portrait of Hera in profile was used as the motif on the back, which can probably be interpreted as a reference to a Hera sanctuary in the city.

Orchomenos

Orchomenos is an exception. Instead of the usual Boeotian shield, the city embossed a grain of wheat on the front. On the back the motifs change over the centuries. At the beginning of minting, around 500 BC. BC, there is also a windmill incusum. This motif is replaced by a series of embossed wheat ears as the reverse motif with the inscription Epsilon Rho (ER). The fact that an epsilon belongs to the city initials instead of an omicron can be explained with the Boeotian dialect of that time. After the Battle of Leuktra, Orchomenus also adopted the shield as a front motif, but also decorated it with an ear of wheat; an amphora with the inscription Epsilon Rho Chi Omikron (ERXO) was embossed on the reverse.

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