Siglos
Siglos ( Greek σίγλος, σίκλος , Latin siclus , sicel , from Akkadian šiklu , shekel) is the Greek name for a Median or Persian coin.
The origins and name of the coin probably go back to the Phoenicians , who minted the silver coin shekel (from the Semitic stem for weigh ), which in turn was derived from an ancient oriental weight that was in use from Babylon to the Mediterranean coast. The Siglos was in a fixed exchange rate to the Dareikos , the gold coin of the Persian rulers. 20 siglos were given for a darikos . The weight of the Siglos increased from approx. 5.4 g to approx. 5.6 g.
The minting of the coin continued under the rule of Darius I around 520 BC. And had a bean-shaped flan. The obverse showed the great king initially as a half-figure with a bow (type I from approx. 520 to 510 BC), then the great king kneeling and shooting an arrow (type II from approx. 510 to 485 BC), later in the knee-run scheme with bow and spear (type III from approx. 485 to 465 BC) and finally the great king kneeling with bow and dagger (type IV from approx. 450 to 350 BC). The reverse side remained undesigned ( quadratum incusum ). The coin retained its importance as an important means of payment in the Persian Empire until the reign of Alexander the Great at the end of the 4th century BC. Chr.
literature
- Heinrich Chantraine : Siglos. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, Col. 182.
- Kurt Regling : Siglos. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II A, 2, Stuttgart 1923, Sp. 2316-2322.
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Franz Mittag, Greek Numismatics - An Introduction, Heidelberg 2016, page 57, ISBN 978-3-938032-85-5