THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

MUSEUM NOTES
X

' SOcfeTY1^^^^^ /

THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

NEW YORK
1962

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THE CROWN OF NAXOS*

(See Plate I)
The sack of Naxos on the eve of the Marathon expedition in 490 b.c.
and her subjugation to a decade of Persian rule marks the end of the
archaic coinage of the island.1 Her independence restored at the close
of the Persian Wars, Naxos came under Athenian influence, and her
ill-fated revolt of 466 b.c. resulted in absolute Athenian control.2 Thus

the Naxian mint remained inactive until it was reopened at the end
of the fifth century. In the archaic period, however, Naxos was a
powerful island. Largest of the Aegean Cyclades and situated in
their center, she could field 8,000 hoplites and commanded a sizeable
fleet.3 Her substantial coinage comprised staters and fractions in
silver which may be described as follows :
Obv. Kantharos, surmounted by an ivy leaf; below
handles, 1. and r., a pendant bunch of grapes.
Rev. Incuse square, shallow and quadripartite. Plate I, 1-3.
The attribution of these coins to Naxos rests on a secure foundation.

The kantharos reappears on later inscribed issues of the island.4 The

Dionysiac iconography of wine cup, grapes, and ivy reflects the

* With the exception of the stater in the collection of Mr. A. S. Dewing, the
material for this article has been gathered from published sources. I am indebted to Mr. Dewing for making his specimen known to me and to Mr. G. K. Jenkins of the British Museum, M. Le Rider of the Cabinet des Mdailles, and
Mme Blova of the State Hermitage for additional information regarding

certain coins.

1 The ruthlessness of the sack is described by Herodotus, 6:96. Naxian ships

fought for the Persians at Salamis, Aeschylus, Persae , 885 ff., or according to
Herodotus, 8:45, were sent to the battle but deserted to the Greeks. The
Naxians were free in time to join the Greeks at Plataea, Diodorus, 5:52, and
to be commemorated in the victory offerings at Olympia and Delphi, Pausanias,
5 : 23 : 2, M. N. Tod, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions , 1 (Oxford, 1946)
no. 19.

2 Thucydides, 1:98, 137.

3 Herodotus, 5 : 30. The Naxians were given a place in the thalassocracy lists as
masters of the sea in the late sixth century, Diodorus ap. Eusebius, Chronica , I,
p. 255 (Schne).
4 Cf. BMCat , Crete and Aegean Islands (London, 1890) 110-112, nos. 7-21.
i

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2 A. N. S. MUSEUM NOTES

important role played by the god in the mythological past of the

island.5

In the stater series two major varieties of obverse type are known.

In one the bowl of the kantharos is decorated with an ivy wreath

(Plate I, 3). In the other it is left unadorned (Plate I, 2). That the
undecorated class is the earlier is suggested by the development of
the design. A single stater is known which lacks the pendant bunches

of grapes below the handles as well as the ivy wreath (Plate I, i).
If this piece represents an early and formative stage of the design, the
large group of obverse dies with plain bowl and pendant grapes marks

an intermediate stage, and finally the wreathed kantharoi are the

latest phase in the sequence.
The addition of the ivy wreath to the well established design of the

plain bowl kantharos cannot have been a casual innovation. Archaic

mints allowed their engravers considerable freedom in executing dies,
but this freedom was never extended to an option over the elements
of the design. The charming variations in the execution of the kneeling

goat emblem on the late archaic drachms of Paros6 or the stylistic

differences among the dies used at the Aiginetan mint in the same
period7 bear out both aspects of this observation. An ivy leaf, moreover, was already a part of the design of the Naxian staters. Therefore, the decision to decorate the kantharos with a wreath of ivy was
a matter of policy on the part of the governing authority of the mint,
and the reasons which prompted it merit investigation.

The fabric of the coinage permits us to establish its chronology

with some accuracy. Throughout the archaic Naxian coinage, the
incuse reverse is a broad, shallow square evenly divided into four
smaller squares. Technically, this form of incuse is an advance over
the small, deep, oblong punches with irregular or triangular internal
segments which were used to strike the earliest electrum coinages in
5 The god was born on Naxos, and it was there he discovered Ariadne, Diodorus,
3:66, 4:61, 5:51-52.
6 The hoard of these drachms found on Paros in 1936 (J. Allen, British Museum
Quarterly y 14, 1939-1940, 95-96 and pl. 33) confirmed the attribution to Paros
proposed by F. Imhoof -Blumer, Kleinasiatische Mnzeny 2 (Vienna, 1902) 453.
7 Cf. E. Babelon, Trait des monnaies grecques et romaines , 2:1 (Paris, 1907)
pl. 30, i, 2, 4, 5, 6, 12, and 14, ail issues of the years 510-480 b.c. In a future
study I plan to treat the chronology of the early Aiginetan series in full detail.

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THE CROWN OF NAXOS 3

Asia Minor and which were imitated by the first mints of European

Greece such as Aigina (Plate I, 5 and 6).8 The Naxian type of incuse

is also familiar from coins of the mints in the Thraco-Macedonian

region that began operation in the second half of the sixth century

(Plate I, 7) Aside from Aglaosthenes' notion that the Naxians invented coins,10 which is patently mistaken, there is no reason to
place the beginning of the Naxian coinage earlier than those of the
silver-producing regions of Thrace and Macedonia. Moreover, the
tyranny of Lygdamis at Naxos in the third quarter of the sixth
century is precisely the period in which one might expect the opening
of the island's mint. Lygdamis owed his power to the support of his
fellow tyrant Peisistratos,11 and as a contemporary of the Athenian

ruler, the foundation of his mint should be placed well within the
third quarter of the sixth century, in the 54o's or later.
The relative number of dies in the unwreathed and wreathed series

adds evidence for the dating of the latter group. As may be seen from

the appended catalogue, the dies of the earlier unwreathed issues

outnumber those of the wreathed staters two to one. It is impossible
to estimate the length of time during which any one die or group of
dies was in service, but the natural inference drawn from this ratio
is that the wreathed kantharos type was introduced toward the end
of the coinage. Since the latest archaic Naxian staters were struck in

490 b.c., the close of the sixth century appears to be a reasonable

date for the change of type.
8 Ionian electrum stater, London, British Museum, after A Guide to the Principal
Coins of the Greeks (1959) ph I, 8; Aiginetan JR stater, B. Y. Berry Collection.

9 Akanthos, tetradrachm, B. Y. Berry Collection; cf. Babelon, Trait, 2:1,

pls. 44-60; J. N. Svoronos, L' Hellnisme primitif de la Macdoine (Paris and
Athens, 1919) = JI AN, 19 (1918-1919) 1-262. The dating of K. von Fritze,
"Die autonomen Mnzen von Abdera," Nomisma, 3 (1909) i4f. and J. Desneux, "Les tetradrachmes d'Akanthos," RBN, 95 (1949) 23 ff. is to be preferred

to that of D. Raymond, Macedonian Regal Coinage to 413 b.c. (NN M 126,

New York, 1953) 50_5L who suggests that the Macedonian series began at the
end of the seventh or the beginning of the sixth century.
10 Quoted by Pollux, Onomasticon , 9:83 = FGrHist, no. 499, frag. 7.
11 After his second restoration Peisistratos helped Lygdamis to become tyrant
of Naxos, Herodotus, 1 : 64 and Polyaenus, 1 : 23 : 2. Lygdamis was not the first
tyrant of Naxos, Aristotle, Pol., p. 1305 a, but he was a keen business man,
Aristotle, Oec., p. 1346 b. He appears to have been deposed by the Spartans
about 520, Schol. ap. Aeschines 2, sec. 80, p. 56 (Dindorff) and Plutarch, De
Her . Malig., 21 == Mor alia, 859 d.

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4 A. N. S. MUSEUM NOTES
The reason for the adoption of the new design at this time is not
difficult to find. In 500 b.c., Aristgoras, tyrant of Miletos, incited the
Persians to attack Naxos.12 A timely warning, however, and a stubborn defense by the islanders were sufficient to repulse the invasion
after a siege of six months. This campaign, on the eve of the Ionian
revolt, was the first Greek victory of the Persian Wars.
The wreath which appears on the coins of the Naxians at this time
was in every respect a fitting celebration of their triumph, for the
crown was the symbol of victory and the mark of rejoicing.13 Statues

of the gods and their attributes were commonly decorated in this

fashion.14 The ivy wreath, moreover, had a particular significance for

the Naxians. Dionysos himself had subdued the East, a legendary

triumph which the troops of Alexander the Great were later to commemorate at Babylon by crowning themselves with ivy.15 In 500 the
god was defending his own island against the forces of Asia, and the
ivy wreath again appears in his honor.
The kantharos is also symbolic. An entry in the lexicon of Suidas
states :

Naioupyp KccvSapo: ttooc fv otco eypeva KccvSapoi v Ncot

yvopeva

Nioi ypcovTO aToIs toi KavSpot.

Naxian-made kantharos: ships built in Naxos were thus

called

ruled the seas, they sailed these very kantharoi.

Thus the wreath of the kantharos is also a garland of victory decorating the warships of Naxos. Through this harmonious symbolism her
staters were the appropriate memorial of a national and an Hellenic

triumph. They are, moreover, the first known commemorative

coinage.
After the decisive victory of the Persian Wars, Athens appears to
have imitated the Naxian example. Beginning with a tetradrachm
12 Herodotus, 5 : 30-36.
13 Cf. the article, Corona , in C. Daremberg and E. Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquits, 1:2 (Paris, 1887) 1520-1537.
14 Relevant texts are collected by K. F. Herman, Lehrbuch der Gottesdienst ichen Alterthmer der Griechen, 22 (Heidelberg, 1858) sec. 24.
15 The earliest mention of Dionysos' triumph is Euripides, Bacchae, 13-20; for
Alexander's soldiers, cf. Pliny, HN 16:62, Tertullian, De Corona, 7.

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THE CROWN OF NAXOS 5

series and their decadrachm, probably struck to commemorate the
Battle of Salamis, the Athenians crowned the helmeted head of the
goddess Athene appearing on their coins with a wreath of olive
leaves (Plate 1, 4). 16 Just as the Naxians continued to strike wreathed
staters after the first issue of the type, the Athenians preserved the
olive crown in their subsequent coinage. This parallel confirms our
recognition of the wreathed staters of Naxos as a memorial to the
initial repulse of the Persians from the Aegean.
In conclusion we may review the hoards in which archaic Naxian
staters have been found. They are five in number.17 The Taranto
hoard, buried about 490 b.c., and the Benha el- Asi hoard, which belongs to the 480's, contained only unwreathed staters.18 Examples of
the wreathed class have come from the Sakha hoard, which dates
after 480, and the Demanhur hoard.19 Recent estimates of the
Demanhur hoard's date range from the last decade of the sixth
century to about 490, contemporary with the Taranto hoard.20 Save
16 C. M. Kraay, NC (1956) 54-58. Others, Babelon, Trait, 2:1, 776-778, A. B.
Brett, A JN , 53:3 (1924) 61-62, C. T. Seltman, Athens , its History and Coinage
(Cambridge, 1924) 107, and J. Jonkees, Mnemosyne (1945) no, argue for
Marathon. Wishing to date the first wreathed tetradrachms before Marathon,
F. Mainzer, ZfN , 36 (1926) 37-54, rejected the commemorative significance of
the wreath, but in the light of Kraay's hoard analysis, Mainzer's arrangement
seems unlikely. The Athenian decadrachm illustrated here, after C. T. Seltman,
Masterpieces of Greek Coinage (Oxford, 1949) no. 11, is in the Berlin Cabinet.
In celebration of the victory of Himera, the obv. head of the Syracusan

Demareteion and of the tetradrachms and fractions associated with it was

also adorned with a leaf crown. However, this victory crown did not become
a permanent element in Syracusan coin design.
17 Two drachms were found in the Myt-Rahineh hoard, S. P. Noe, A Bibliography of Greek Coin Hoards 2 (NNM 78, New York, 1937) - hereafter referred
to as Noe - no. 722, A. de Longprier, RN (1861) 421.
18 Taranto, Noe no. 1052, our catalogue no. 3. There is, of course, some question
whether these coins were found together or in two separate parcels. Benha elAsl, Noe no. 143, our catalogue no. 4.
19 Sakha, Noe no. 888, our catalogue no. 24. Doubt has been expressed whether
all the coins said to be from this hoard were actually found together (C. M.
Kraay, NC, 1956, 49), but if the contents is accepted as published, the Cyrenaic
material suggests that the hoard was buried after 480. Cf. ZfN , 22 (1900) pl. 8,

10 with BMCat, Cyrenaica (London, 1927) Period II, Group I. p. xxxviff.

Demanhur, Noe no. 323, our catalogue no. 23. An unwreathed stater is also

preserved from this hoard, catalogue no. 5 a.

20 W. L. Brown, NC (1950) 185, suggested the 49o's, but C. M. Kraay, NC (1956)
48, has given it a date about 510.

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6 A. N. S. MUSEUM NOTES

for generally earlier Corinthian pieces, its composition is similar to

that of the Taranto hoard, and on the basis of the preceding argument,
we may suggest that it was buried after 500 b.c.
The final hoard to be considered is the great find of archaic coins

made on the island of Santorin (ancient Thera) in 1821. 21 Only two

pieces from the hoard can now be identified with certainty,22 but the
following summary of the other coins may be derived from the list of

the contents made by H. P. Borrell:23

Aigina, 541; Naxos, 14; Siphnos ( ?), 3; Paros (?), 2; Thera( ?), 23;
other uncertain: boar's head obv., 84; cock obv., 1; one half
horse obv., 41; one half lion obv., 48; large fish head obv., 2.
In a previous note Borrell had stated that a wreathed stater was
among the Naxian coins.24 Its presence is of great importance. It has
been natural to consider the Santorin hoard an early deposit belonging
to the sixth century. However, its composition does not preclude a
burial date of 500 or after, possibly during the Persian Wars. If the
foregoing discussion of the wreathed staters of Naxos is correct, the
Santorin hoard should be dated in the early fifth century.
CATALOGUE

(Each obverse die is numbered independently).

Obv. Kantharos alone.

1. Hirsch 32, 1912 (Philipsen) no. 517, Ciani, February

1956 (Hindamian) no. 501. Plate I, 1. 12.20 gr.
Obv. Kantharos, surmounted by an ivy leaf; below
handles, 1. and r., a pendant bunch of grapes.

2. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, S. W. Grose,

C dialogue of the McClean Collection of Greek Coins, 2

(Cambridge, 1926), no. 7270. Same reverse as no. 1. 11.70 gr.

21 Noe no. 920.

22 One is the stater in London with the head of a satyr on the obv., NC (1884)
pl. 12, 17, Babelon, Trait , 2: i, pl. 62, 4. Thecoin is often attributed to Naxos,
e.g. H. A. Cahn, Die Mnzen des Sikilischen Stadt Naxos (Basel, 1944) 37, but
the attribution is uncertain. The second coin is in Copenhagen, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Ar golis- Aegean Islands (1944) no. 628. Its obverse is just as

described by Borrell, NC (1843-1844) 134, "Plain Vase, without handles."

Finally, an unwreathed Naxian stater from the Weber Collection, our catalogue
no. 6 a, is identified as coming from the Santorin Find.
23 VC (1843-1844) 133-134. A reconstruction of the contents was attempted
by W. Wroth, NC (1884) 269-280.
24 NC (1842-1843) 176-178.

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THE CROWN OF NAXOS 7

3. Taranto Hoard. Babelon, RN (1912) 18, no. 5, pl. III.
A second example, 11.80 gr., is not illustrated. 12.00 gr.
4. London, British Museum. Benha el-Asl Hoard. Robinson, NC (1930) 100, no. 21, pl. 9. 12.09 gr.
5. a. Demanhur Hoard. Hirsch, 2 June 1902, no. 324. 12.33 grb. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts. A. B. Brett, Catalogue

of Greek Coins (Boston, 1954), no. 1290. 12.50 gr.

6. a. Santorin Hoard ( ?). L. Forrer, The Weber Collection ,

2 (London, 1924), no. 4679, Schulman, 10 May 1926,

no. 609, Ratto, 4 April 1927, no. 1646, Schulman,

5 June 1930, no. 108. 12.49 grb. Paris, Cabinet des Mdailles. J. Babelon, Catalogue
de la collection de Luynes , 2 (Paris, 1925), no. 2377,

E. Babelon, Trait 2:1, no. 1950, pl. 62, 5. 12.43 gr.

7. Paris, Cabinet des Mdailles. Babelon, Catalogue de
la collection de Luynes , no. 2376. 12.48 gr.
8. Paris, Cabinet des Mdailles. 12.38 gr.
9. London, British Museum. BMC at, Crete and Aegean
Islands , p. no, no. 4, NC (1884) pl. 12, 7. 12.38 gr.
10. Copenhagen, Danish National Museum. Sylloge
Nummorum Graecorum, Argolis - Aegean Islands
(1944), no. 702. 12.33 gr.
11. Schlesinger 13, 1935 (Hermitage duplicates), no.
1088, Mnzhandlung Basel 4, 1935, no. 771. I44 gr12. Catalogue R. Jameson , i (Paris, 1913), no. 1306. 12.08 gr.
13. Egger, 1904 (Prowe), no. 840, Sotheby, April 1909
(White-King), no. 201, Merzbacher, 2 November
1909, no. 3043, Naville 7, 1924 (Bernent 2), no. 1328,

Rheims-Bourgey, 17-19 June 1959, no. 396. 11 .99 gr.

14. Hess, March 1906 (Berlin duplicates), no. 1145,
Egger 40, 1912 (Prowe), no. 1215, E. S. G. Robinson,

Catalogue of Ancient Greek Coins Collected by Godfrey

Locker-Lampson (London, 1923) no. 247, Naville 12,

1926 (Bissen et al.), no. 1680. Plate I, 2. 12.38 gr.

15. Hirsch 21, 1908 (Weber), no. 2229, Hirsch 34, 1914,
no. 460, Naville 4, 1922 (Grand Duke - Evans),
no. 652, Naville 10, 1925, no. 624. 12.40 gr.
16. Naville I, 1921 (Pozzi), no. 2043, Naville 10, 1925,

no. 625. 12.18 gr.

17. Sotheby, 1896 (Montagu 1), no. 463, Sotheby, 1909

(Benson), no. 628. 11.88 gr.

18. Feuardent Fr., 1913 (Burel), no. 239, Ciani, February

1956 (Hindamian), no. 500. 11.90 gr.

19. Hirsch 30, 1911 (Barron), no. 550. 12.40 gr.

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8 A. N. S. MUSEUM NOTES

20. Helbing, 24 October 1927, no. 3032. 11.80 gr.

21. Mnzen und Medaillen 7, 1948, no. 459. *2.33 gr.

22. Dorotheum, March 1957 (Zeno 3), no. 3913. 12.30 gr.
Obv. Kantharos, surmounted by an ivy leaf ; below

handles, 1. and r., a pendant bunch of grapes; on

bowl, a wreath of ivy.

23. Gotha. Demanhur Hoard. ZfN, 37 (1927) 60, no. 79. 11.86 gr.
24. Sakha Hoard. NC (1899) 275, no. 11, Forrer, The
Weber Collection , no. 4680, Florance-Ciani, Collection de monnaies grecques H. de Nanteuil (Paris,

1925), no. 997. 11.60 gr.

25. a. Paris, Cabinet des Mdailles. Babelon, Trait 2.i,

no. 1951, H. A. Cahn, Die Mnzen des Sikilischen

Stadt Naxos (Basel, 1944), pl. XI, S. 12.46 gr.

b. Naville 14, 1929 (Churchill et al.), no. 289. 11.60 gr.

26. a. London, British Museum. BMCat, Crete and Aegean

Islands , p. no, no. 1; B. V. Head, A Guide to the
Principal Coins of the Ancients (London, 1881), pl. 6,
34, P. Gardner, History of Ancient Coinage (Oxford,

1918), pl. 2, 2. 12. ii gr.

b. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. Grose, Catalogue
of the McClean Collection , no. 7271, C. T. Seltman,

Greek Coins,2 (London, 1955), pl. 12, 13. 12.23 gr.

c. Sotheby, 1911 (Sandeman), no. 233, Schlesinger,
1935 (Hermitage duplicates), no. 1087. 12.20 gr.
27. London, British Museum, BMCat, Crete and Aegean
Islands, p. 110, no. 2, A Guide to the Principal Coins

of the Greeks (1959), pl. 5, 44 12.34 gr.

28. London, British Museum, BMCat, Crete and Aegean

Islands, p. no, no. 3. 12.24 gr*

29. Paris, Cabinet des Mdailles. 12.07 gr.

30. a. Paris, Cabinet des Mdailles. ir. 57 gr

b. A. S. Dewing. 12.05 gr.
31. Forrer, Weber Collection, no. 4681, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, 3 (Lockett Collection) part 4
(1945), no. 2616, Glendining, 27 May 1959 (Lockett),

no. 2089. 12.32 gr.

32. Sotheby, 1896 (Bunbury 1), no. 1249, Sotheby, 1908
(O'Hagan), no. 483, Catalogue R. Jameson, no. 1305. 12.21 gr.
33. New Y ork, American Numismatic Society. Hirsch 25,
1909 (Philipsen), no. 1582, Hirsch 33, 1913, no. 796. 12.30 gr.
34. Grabow, 9 July 1930, no. 446. Plate I, 3. ^43 grR. Ross Holloway

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123

THE CROWN OF NAXOS ?

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