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The Chronology of the Bronze Coins of Knossos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
Extract
In this article I shall attempt to place in chronological order the bronze issues struck during the period when Knossos was an autonomous city; that is, up to the time of the Roman conquest in 67 B.C. I shall not deal here with the issues Zeus head/eagle (Svoronos, pl. vii, 18–23), since I have discussed these elsewhere.
The earliest bronze coins of Knossos seem to be the small pieces with a head on both obverse and reverse, some varieties of which are illustrated by Svoronos, Numismatique de la Crète Ancienne, pl. vi, 10–14.
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- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1971
References
1 Chapman, , Num. Chron. 7th series, viii (1968) 13 ff.Google Scholar
2 See for example Svoronos, Numismatique de la Crète Ancienne, pl. v, 14–18; pl. xix, 1, 2, 6, and 7.
3 G. le Rider, Monnaies Crétoises du Ve au Ier siécle av. J.-C, 178 and 179 n. 2.
4 None recorded by Svoronos or le Rider.
5 Le Rider, op. cit. 179 and nn. 2–3. The series is illustrated by Svoronos, op. cit., pl. vi, 6–9.
6 For the dating of the obols of Itanos see le Rider, op. cit. 196; for those of Phaestos, le Rider, op. cit. 195.
7 Triobols and obols (Svoronos, op. cit., pl. iv, 27–30) were minted in the earliest period, c. 425 B.C. to the second quarter of the fourth century (le Rider, op. cit. 175), but these seem not to have been numerous.
8 c. 250 B.C. See Jackson, , ‘The bronze coinage of the Gortyn’, Num. Chron. 7th series, xi (1971) 38–9.Google Scholar For decree enforcing the use of bronze at Gortyn see Inscriptiones Creticae (hereafter IC) iv. 162.
9 For the convenience of bronze for small denominations see Price, M. Jessop, ‘Early Greek bronze coinage’ in Essays in Greek Coinage presented to Stanley Robinson, 93.Google Scholar
10 e.g. the use of the Aeginetic standard and the copying of Peloponnesian types by Cretan cities; see le Rider, op. cit. 182–3.
11 See his chapter on the value of fourth-century B.C. bronze coinage in ‘The Introduction of Bronze Coinage and its Particular Development at Corinth’ (thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. in the University of Cambridge).
12 I do not believe that a bronze obol was minted even at Gortyn (see Num. Chron. 1971, 39, 50–1.) and there is nothing to suggest that one was minted at Knossos.
13 Over most of the Peloponnese the number of chalkoi to the obol was twelve (Tod, , ‘Epigraphical Notes on Greek Coinage ii: ΧΑΛΚΟΥΣ’, Num. Chron. 1946, 56 ff.Google Scholar), and Mr. Price has told me that the general tendency is for twelve to be the number in cities where silver was struck on the Aeginetic standard, as it was in Crete up to c. 280/70 B.C. There is, however, no evidence for the number of chalkoi to the oboi in Crete, and the suggestion that it was twelve can only be put forward as a hypothesis on the analogy of what was usual in the Peloponnese.
14 See M. Jessop Price in Essays … presented to Stanley Robinson 93 n. 5; and Warren, Jennifer, ‘The Earliest Triobols of Megalopolis’, American Numismatic Society Museum Notes (1969) 37 n. 31.Google Scholar
15 I owe this information and suggestion to Mr. Price.
16 Le Rider, op. cit. 178 n. 1; 179 n. 2. The staters with a head of Hera (Svoronos, op. cit., pl. vi, 6) were struck not before 300 B.C. and were shortly preceded by the staters op. cit., pl. v, 19–22 and vi, 1–5.
17 Svoronos wrongly states that this coin is from the collection of C. R. Fox. Note also that Svoronos, no. 106, pl. vii, I does not exist. Its reverse, in fact, is of this coin, my Plate 48, 20. The coin the obverse of which is illustrated by Svoronos, pl. vii, 1 has the following reverse: Square labyrinth. No circle of dots. Legend 
18 Le Rider, op. cit. 179 n. 2.
19 Le Rider, op. cit. 179–80.
20 Robinson, BMC Cyr. xcviii and cxii.
21 There was apparently a month named after him at Knossos, (IC iv. 181. 5)Google Scholar and at Gortyn, (IC iv. 172. 21).Google Scholar
22 For earlier influence of Cyrenean gold types on Knossian coinage see le Rider, op. cit. 176–7.
23 H. van Effenterre, La Crète et le monde grecque de Platon à Polybe 120–6, and IC i. 17. 1.
24 I have recorded 176 examples of the ‘two-headed' varieties. The next most numerous group is that consisting of the bronzes showing Europa on the bull. I have recorded 128 of these including all varieties.
25 Wroth, BMC Crete xvi–xvii; Jackson, , Num. Chron. 7th series, xi (1971) 45–6 f.Google Scholar For the alliance, Polyb. iv. 53–5 and van Effenterre, op. cit. 253—4.
26 For the Gortynian issues see Jackson, op. cit. 42–4.
27 Jackson, loc. cit., pl. 13, nos. 5 and 6.
28 Datable to a little after 250 B.C.: Jackson, op. cit. 41–2.
29 Polyb. iv. 53–4.
30 Van Effenterre, op. cit. 261 and n. 3.
31 See n. 1 above.
32 For this series see also le Rider, op. cit. 285 n. 2 and pl. xxvi, 1–12.
33 Le Rider, op. cit. 290.
34 The elephant's head is the device of the Caecilii family who chose it to commemorate the victory won over the Carthaginian elephants at Panormus by their ancestor L. Caecilius Metellus in 251 B.C.
35 Mr. E. J. P. Raven has suggested to me that Metellus himself struck these coins rather than the Gortynians, who would not have been allowed to coin so soon after their submission to Rome in 68 B.C., and perhaps could not have afforded to do so. See also le Rider, op. cit. 300 n. 8.
36 Mr. Raven has suggested the possibility that these coins were struck in 69 B.C. when Metellus took over the command in Crete and that his device, the elephant's head, was placed beneath the labyrinth to symbolize the Knossians' hoped-for victory over him.
37 See his chapter on the value of fourth-century B.C. bronze coins in ‘The Introduction of Bronze Coinage …’ (thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. in the University of Cambridge).
38 Price, loc. cit. See also n. 13 above.
39 See p. 290 and n. 28 above.
40 In particular by Mr. E. J. P. Raven.
41 Jackson, , Num. Chron. 7th series, xi (1971) 50.Google Scholar