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| THE EVOLUTION OF LARISSIAN COINAGE |
Larissa was the first Thessalian city to strike coins. Its earliest coinage comprises drachms, hemidrachms, and obols on the Aeginetic weight standard. The types reflect the cult of Poseidon Hippios and Taureios, patron god of horses and of bulls, and the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, whose voyage was organized in Thessaly.
Drachms: Horse/Jason’s sandal in incuse square
Hemidrachms: Head of Jason/ethnic in incuse square
Obols: Head of Larissa/Jason’s sandal or bull’s head/ethnic
The second phase of Larissa’s coinage consists of very small denominations only, trihemiobols, obols, and hemiobols.
Trihemiobols: Horseman/enthroned male figure
Obols: Horse/nymph Larissa
Hemiobols: Horse’s hoof/horse’s head
The obverse type of the trihemiobols is clearly a Thessalian cavalryman, the reverse type perhaps Zeus Larisaios. On the obols the eponymous nymph Larissa is portrayed full figure, either holding a hydria after filling it at a water spout or playing with her ball. The first type expresses the nymph’s watery character, while the second illustrates a myth that she met her death while playing ball by the banks of the River Peneus (she fell in and drowned). Fritz Herrmann identified the weight standard of these coins as Persic and consequently dated them to the period of the Aleuad alliance with Persia, c. 500–479 B.C.1 For Herrmann this became a chronological fixed point. But the theoretical difference between the Aeginetic and Persic drachms is only 0.7 grams, decreasing to 0.17 grams for the trihemiobol and 0.11 grams for the obol. The various specimens recorded by Herrmann deviate from one another by more than these amounts. His identification of the Persic standard is therefore rather speculative and no reliable basis for an absolute chronology.
The third phase of Larissaian coinage comprised drachms, hemidrachms, and obols with types relating to the characteristic Thessalian sport of bull wrestling, as well as fractions with contrasting types. The drachms, on the obverse, depict an athlete grasping a leaping bull by the horns; the reverse type is a bridled horse running free. The hemidrachms echo these designs but show foreparts only, instead of the full animal figures. These types illustrate the taurokathapsia, a contest performed at the national games (Taureia) celebrated in honor of Poseidon Taureios. In this event, a young man approached a wild bull on horseback, dismounted, seized the animal by its horns, and threw it to the ground. It is customary to describe the young man on the coins as the hero Thessalus, who is mentioned in the Iliad as a son of Heracles and the father of Aleuas, founder of the Aleuad family. The repetition of the types on drachms and hemidrachms of Pherae and on hemidrachms of Tricca, Pharcadon, and the Perrhaebi seems to point to a federal coinage, but one that did not unite all of Thessaly. At a certain point Pherae withdrew from this federation in favor of another that issued a coinage in the name of the Thessalians, with the types horse forepart or head/barley grain; similar types were signed by the cities of Scotussa and Methylium. Peter Robert Franke has dated the coinage of this east Thessalian federation c. 470–460/450 and has proposed a connection with a change in governance of the tetrads around this time.2 While the coordinated coinages of the Thessalians, Scotussa, and Methylium were short-lived, Larissa’s bull wrestler coinage remained in production for many years, the only rival currency being the hemidrachms of the southern city of Pharsalus.
Larissa’s bull wrestler drachms exhibit a remarkable stylistic evolution, from a rather stiff late archaic style through early classical style to the fluidity of high classicism. The hemidrachms, however, ceased relatively early, sometime in the third quarter of the fifth century.
In the latter part of the century (perhaps c. 410–405) the bull wrestler drachms were supplemented by a second variety of drachms with a new obverse type, a profile head of the nymph Larissa. That the two series were concurrent is implied by the evolution of reverse dies (both series cover the transition from square to round dies), by identical reverse types, and by two instances of shared reverse dies. The patterns of die linkage also indicate that the bull wrestler drachms continued to be struck for a short time after the profile head series came to an end. If the bull wrestler drachms were indeed an alliance coinage, then the profile head drachms may reflect a temporary need for an explicitly civic currency at Larissa.
The early facing head drachms of Larissa represent a clear departure from the earlier coinage.3 The new coinage is perhaps to be associated with the warfare between Larissa and Lycophron of Pherae and the fracture of the Thessalian confederacy c. 404. The stylistic breaks between the seven groups of early facing head drachms may, in some or all cases, reflect interruptions in coin production. The closure of three Thessalian hoards (CH VIII, 137, CH IX, 64 and 65) corresponds more or less closely to the end of the early facing head drachm series, perhaps suggesting that the hoards were lost at a moment of crisis. The absence of Theban “magistrate” staters from these hoards could be a sign that they closed before 369, when Pelopidas first campaigned in Thessaly.
It is commonly said that the facing head drachms of Larissa were modeled on the Syracusan facing head of Arethusa by Cimon. This early series, however, is decidedly not imitative. The die cutters confronted the new challenge of representing a facing head with considerable imagination and varying degrees of technical and artistic success. Their works have an appealing freshness and authenticity that cannot be matched by the most polished copies of masterworks. In contrast to the facing heads, the horses of the reverse seem mostly not to have inspired the artists; virtually all of the dies show a grazing horse, although there are a few lively poses, especially in Group One.
Group Two begins with stylistically advanced facing heads but soon gives evidence of trouble at the mint. The second obverse die of the series developed disfiguring flaws and was either reengraved or used to hub a new die, but without improving its appearance. Many coins of this group are marred by severe double striking on the reverse. The impression is that the mint lost most of its experienced workers, perhaps as the result of civic strife or an attack on the city, resulting in a shocking decline from its usual high standards.
Group Three attests to an influx of new personnel, including Larissa’s first signing artist, Simo…, whose name appears in small letters above a number of facing heads and in the exergue of one reverse die (see O20/R3). We can observe a rapid growth in his skill in rendering a facing head, from somewhat primitive early attempts to heads that are charming if still a bit naïve. Simo… also signed a few dies of Group Four. On O85 his signature appears in the left field beside a head of mature style, almost impossible to relate to his earlier works. His signed reverse dies include one with a trotting horse (see O57/R3) but are otherwise unremarkable (see O58/R1 = O59/R2 and O91/R1 = O92/R1 = O95/R3). A second signing artist, Ai…, was active principally in Group Three. He developed a memorable reverse type, a bridled horse with a bucranium brand on its hindquarters, crouching as if about to roll, its lead line trailing in the exergue. It was first employed with Head Type 12, continued in use through Head Type 16, and was revived at the beginning of Group Four (see O57/R1). Ai… soon displaced Simo… as the premier engraver of Group Three obverse dies, introducing a fleshy, feminine type of the nymph Larissa, often accompanied by special attributes. On obverse die O30 the nymph’s head emerges from a lacy substructure with sphinx ornaments on the shoulders. On all dies of Head Type 14 Larissa is portrayed with an elevated right shoulder, apparently captured in the act of tossing a ball. And in Head Type 16 dolphins appear on either side of Larissa’s head. (The dolphins have been cited to support the derivation of Larissa’s facing heads from Cimon.) The dies of Ai… often bear an additional inscription, Γ–Ε flanking the head on die O29, more commonly ΓΕΥ on the ampyx (die O30 and Head Types 15 and 16). This must either be an epithet of Larissa, or a proper name indicating that the subject is not Larissa but Γ–Ε….
There are several important links between Groups Three and Four, including the activity of both Simo… and Ai…, the use of a reverse of Group Four style at the end of Group Three, the Group Three style of all three reverse dies employed with O57 at the beginning of Group Four, and the presence of dolphins on a head type of each group (Head Type 16 in Group Three and dies O95–O96 of Group Four). These clues hint very strongly that Group Three was followed by Group Four. This evidence, together with a hoard seen in commerce that apparently included only Group One drachms, inspired a reordering of the groups as presented in the original die study in Florilegium Westermark.4
An isolated issue features a profile head of the nymph Larissa strongly influenced by the head of Arethusa on Syracusan decadrachms of the great artist Euainetus. The nymph is explicitly identified by the obverse inscription ΛΑΡΙΣΑ; the reverse type is a trotting horse. An example of this type occurred in CH VIII, 137, which included all seven groups of the early facing head drachms but apparently no later coinage. This could mean that the Euainetus style drachm belongs not long after the other profile head drachms or, more likely in view of the fresh condition of the hoard coin, immediately after the early facing head drachms.
Another special issue may belong just before the early facing head drachms, between groups of the early facing head drachms, or between the early and middle facing head drachms, according to the contents of CH IX, 67. This is the famous variety showing a helmeted male head three quarters left, identified as the hero Aleuas by the accompanying inscription. Below the inscription is a double axe. The reverse type is an eagle standing left on a thunderbolt, its head reverted, with the double inscription ΛΑΡΙΣΑΙΑ and ΕΛΛΑ. Fritz Hermann interpreted the latter as the beginning of a personal name, though he was forced to admit that no historical personality with a name beginning Hella… is attested in the sources pertaining to Thessalian history.5 If the legend can be interpreted as recording an alliance between Larissa and the other states of Greece, the Aleuas issue would become a rare chronological anchor, datable to the time of Pelopidas’ interventions in the affairs of Thessaly, 369–364 B.C. Unfortunately, we cannot eliminate other possibilities; for example, the inscription could name Hellas, capital city of the tetrad of Phthiotis.
The middle facing head drachms of Larissa are defined by their occurrence in hoards (see CH VIII, 193 and CH IX, 67, 77–79, 87, 121). Visually, they can be distinguished by obverse style and especially by their frequently novel reverse types. These include a grazing horse with a large bucranium under its belly, a standing hero restraining his mount, a horseman riding right or left, and a mare and foal. The last is by far the most common reverse type of the middle facing head drachms.
A third isolated drachm issue with the types bull/horseman was probably struck between the middle and late facing heads, based on its occurrence in CH IX, 77.
On the late facing head drachms of Larissa the nymph’s head invariably faces three quarters left, and the reverse type is always a horse in a crouching posture, about to roll. The legend is fully spelled out in the genitive plural, ΛΑΡΙΣΑΙΩΝ, with half positioned above the horse and the other half in the exergue. The late facing head drachms were produced in four phases, whose relative chronology can be determined both from hoards and from analysis of style and iconography, which evolve toward ever greater standardization.
The earliest phase of this coinage (L-I) includes considerable variation in the style of the nymph’s head, with about ten subtypes. Sometimes the hair is combed smooth on the top of the head. The crouching horse may face either right or left, and the legend is divided variously, often beginning in the exergue and concluding in the field above the horse’s back. The largest issue of phase L-I, and the earliest, has a tall, spindly plant growing beneath a left-facing horse. Two drachms of phase L-I occurred in the Kalamaria hoard of 1963 (IGCH 385) together with tetradrachms of Philip II. The implication seems to be that the late facing head drachms can be associated with Philip’s involvement in Thessaly.
In phase L-II the nymph’s head is more standardized, always showing two large, hornlike locks on either side of the ampyx and a smaller pair of hornlike curls above it. Nevertheless there are a number of distinct emissions, distinguished by subtle differences in the facial features and proportions and sometimes by jewelry. The reverse type is now fixed, with the horse crouching right and the legend configuration ΛΑΡΙΣ above and ΑΙΩΝ in the exergue.
The succession of subtly differentiated emissions continues in phase L-III, but there is now die linkage between the different types. The reverse type is as for phase L-II, except that a portion of the dies associated with a late head type show a thorny plant growing beneath the horse. The transition from plantless reverses to those with the plant occurs in five separate die sequences, revealing the simultaneous use of at least five anvils to produce this mass coinage. An early drachm of phase L-III occurred in the Thessalonica region hoard of c. 1965 (CH I, 37 = Le Rider, Monnayage de Philippe II, hoard 5), together with Philip II tetradrachms of the Pella mint. According to Le Rider’s chronology, these Philip tetradrachms may have been minted as late as 336. An earlier date, c. 348, was proposed by Martin Price.6 Price’s date is satisfying because it would place the beginning of Phase L-III not too long before 348, allowing us to associate the mass coinage with the Third Sacred War.
The silver staters of Larissa have two reverse types. Except for a single recorded example that shares the crouching horse of the drachms, the regular type is a bridled stallion trotting right. T.R Martin proposed an inaugural date around 370 for the staters, because a worn example occurred together with four tetradrachms of the Chalcidian League in a small hoard reported c. 1935 (IGCH 371), which was very probably deposited in 348.7 The several legend configurations of the staters also might seem to imply a relatively early date. But the staters are associated by obverse style with the phase L-II and L-III drachms and generally occur in the same hoards. They too must belong to the time of Philip’s leadership of the Thessalian confederacy, as first proposed by Colin Kraay.8 Although the mint of Larissa had long mastered the art of striking of drachms, the early stater issues exhibit a number of obverse die breaks. Evidently the striking of larger flans — a routine matter for many other mints — presented technical problems that required some considerable time to overcome.
The final phase of the late facing head drachm coinage (L-IV) is a small and tightly die linked emission with a trident head beneath the horse. Whereas phases L-I though L-III seem to represent a continuous production with evolving features, there is a stylistic break between phases L-III and L-IV that may represent some passage of time.
C. Lorber
Notes
1. F. Herrmann, “Die Silbermünzen von Larissa in Thessalien,” Zeitschrift für Numismatik XXXV (1925), pp. 6–12.
2. P.R. Franke, “ΦΕΘΑΛΟΙ-ΦΕΤΑΛΟΙ-ΠΕΤΘΑΛΟΙ-ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΙ. Zur Geschichte Thessalians im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr.,” Archäologischer Anzeiger 1 (1970), pp. 92–93
3. For a contrary view and the suggestion that the earliest facing head drachms may have overlapped the last taurokathapsia and profile head drachms, see V. Demetriadi, “The earliest bronze coins of Larissa,” Coins in the Thessalian Region: Mints, Circulation, Iconography, History, Ancient, Byzantine, Modern. Proceedings of the Third Scientific Meeting, Volos on 24–27 May 2001 (Athens, 2004), pp. 17–18.
4. C.C. Lorber, “The early facing head drachms of Thessalian Larissa,” in H. Nilsson, ed., Florilegium Numismaticum: Studia in Honorem U. Westermark Edita (Stockholm, 1992), pp. 259–282. (Our Group One is the original Group Two; our Group Two is the original Group Three; and our Group Three is the original Group One.) The hoard observed in commerce also included one drachm of Group Seven which, if not intrusive, implies a relative chronology in which Group Seven is the second in the sequence. For V. Demetriadi Group Four is apparently first in the sequence, see “The earliest bronze coins of Larissa,” pp. 17–18 and pl. 2, 21.
5. Herrmann, “Silbermünzen von Larissa,” pp. 64–65.
6. M.J. Price, “The coinage of Philip II,” Numismatic Chronicle 1979, pp. 236–237; endorsed by C.C. Lorber, Amphipolis: The Civic Coinage in Silver and Gold Los Angeles, 1990), pp. 58–61 and 159–164.
7. T.R. Martin, “The chronology of the fourth-century B.C. facing-head coinage of Larissa,” American Numismatic Society Museum Notes 28 (1983), pp. 27, 29.
8. C.M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley/Los Angeles, 1976), p. 119.
Bibliography
V. Demetriadi, “The earliest bronze coins of Larissa,” Coins in the Thessalian Region: Mints, Circulation, Iconography, History, Ancient, Byzantine, Modern. Proceedings of the Third Scientific Meeting, Volos on 24–27 May 2001 (Athens, 2004), pp. 17–22.
P.R. Franke, “ΦΕΘΑΛΟΙ-ΦΕΤΑΛΟΙ-ΠΕΤΘΑΛΟΙ-ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΙ. Zur Geschichte Thessalians im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr.,” Archäologischer Anzeiger 1 (1970), pp. 85–93.
F. Herrmann, “Die Silbermünzen von Larissa in Thessalien,” Zeitschrift für Numismatik XXXV (1925), pp. 1–69.
C.M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins. Berkeley/Los Angeles, 1976.
G. Le Rider, Le monnayage d’argent et d’or de Philippe II frappe en Macédoine de 359 à 294. Paris, 1977.
C.C. Lorber, Amphipolis: The Civic Coinage in Silver and Gold. Los Angeles, 1990.
—, “The early facing head drachms of Thessalian Larissa,” in H. Nilsson, ed., Florilegium Numismaticum: Studia in Honorem U. Wetermark Edita (Stockholm, 1992), pp. 259–282.
—, “A hoard of facing head Larissa drachms,” Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 79 (2000), pp. 7–15.
T.R. Martin, “The chronology of the fourth-century B.C. facing-head silver coinage of Larissa,” American Numismatic Society Museum Notes 28 (1983), pp. 1–34.
M.J. Price, “The coinage of Philip II,” Numismatic Chronicle 1979, pp. 236–251 (review of Le Rider, Monnayage de Philippe II).
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