akritas
04-05-2006, 04:36 PM
The systematic counterfeiting of the history of Macedonia by the Skopjans since 1944 and their attempt to monopolize the “Macedonia” name were considered by the Hellenic people as absurd and unworthy of their attention.
One from the most circular Skopjan propagandas is that the non Greek coins (known as Thraco-macedonians) written with Greek letters and in Greek language show that not only Greeks used Greek language in inscriptions of public and administrative significance but and others tribes. Thus, inscriptions in Greek can not be trusted as proof that Greeks were creators of the artifacts where such inscriptions were found. The aim is known. The Macedonian coins and the Greek letters of them.
As you a remarkable development was the issue of coinage in a fine silver by Thracian and Peaonian tribes from at the late archaic period, the dating being controversial and an increase in the quantity during the Persian occupation (Ancient Cambridge History VI,page 252). These coins in large denominations usually carrying no lettering , have been found more in hoards in Asia and Egypt than in Europe and it is clear that they were issued perhaps mainly for the market which developed first with the extension of Persian rule to the coast of Minor Asia and later with the formation of the Persian Satrapy.
The mines of the Thracian tribes were in Crestonia, Bisalitia, Paroreia, the region of the Pangeum mountain (Hrd, VII,112) and the region of Crenides-Phillipoi all within the Persia Satrapy. The Paeonians were the earlier owners of some of these mines but after their defeat in the coastal sector they maintained their independence in the hinterland and coined large denominations in the upper Strymon and the upper Axius areas in the names of the Laeaei and the Derrones.
As I said the majority of them was without lettering but some of them appeared on the coins, it was in Greek and cut by Greek craftsmen. For many Greek cities -colonies in Chalkidike and on the Thracian coast were coining at this time and benefiting from the Persian market. The period of prosperity to which theses coinages testify owned much to the inposition of peace and the provision of markets through the presence of Persian market. Decline came with the expulsion of Persia from Europe.
The Macedonians in that period had no deposits of precious metals in their territory and when they ousted the Paeonians from Ichnae its coinage ceased. They were less healthy than the Paeonians and the Thracians, and the main ports of the Thermaic Gulf were outside their contril. But through the favour of Darius and Xerxes, the capable kings Amyntas and Alexander gained territory and exercised some form of rule over the tribes in Upper Macedonia. The foundations of the greater Macedonian state were laid under Persian suzerainty and when the Persian army fled in disarray Alexander was quick to seize the mine of Bisaltia and issue his fine coinage.
The earliest inscribed tribal coins north of the Aegean usually bear the ethnic in the gentive case but rulers' names are occasionally found also. The best known are Getas, king of the Edonians ( Getas Edoneon basileus), and the near contemporary or slightly later oktadrachms and oktobols of Mosses of the Bisaltians.Both kings may have been copying the practice of inscribing the ruler's name around the quartered incuse square on the reverse from Alexander I of Macedon. Other civic and tribal issues with this form of inscription soon followed. There is a close connection between the iconographic types of the Bisaltai and Alexander which immediately preceded the inscribed horseman types. Unlike Getas, both Alexander and Mosses omit the ethnic. It is unlikely that the Bisaltai, who already had a wellestablished line of kings (Hdt. 8. 116), were unusual among the tribes of this region, even if there were others who had no such tradition.
The earliest known issues which can confidently be associated with the Odrysians were not those of the central authority. Sparadokos, a brother or half-brother of Sitalkes, is not known to have been a king himself but fathered Sitalkes' successor, Seuthes I. Small silver denominations were issued in his name -- drachmai, diobols, and obols, within the Thraco-Macedonian standard, and the types follow Olynthian and Maronitan dies. For this reason he is thought to have ruled a principality in south-western Thrace. The reverse types show an eagle with a snake in its beak, similar to Olynthian issues, which also formed prototypes for the coinage of Paionian Damastion. The obverse types of the drachmai show a walking horse, the diobols a horse protome; both symbols were used on Olynthian tetrobols and on Maronitan tetradrachms, didrachms and drachmai. The Olynthian models date to the period before the creation of a new coinage for the Chalkidian League after its foundation in 432 BC. Moreover, it now looks as if regular issues did not begin at Ainos before the late 460s and at Maroneia not before the third quarter of the fifth century.Five tetradrachms of Sparadokos (reminiscent of Perdikkas II's tetrobols of the 440s), which have been documented in public and private collections since the 1880s, with obverses showing a horseman in a chlamys holding two spears, are of doubtful authenticity. The use of Chalkidian dies by an Odrysian prince does not seem to have been followed up by later rulers after the foundation of the Chalkidian League, although some Thracian regal coins reappear at Olynthos in the fourth century BC.
The weight standard, the type faces, and the location and character of the Greek lettering on Sparadokos' coins place them firmly in the same tradition as the early tribal issues of the Aegean coast, which shared many common features with colonial and later Macedonian regal issues. Sparadokos' territorial control may not have been as close to the Aegean as the die models suggest. Later Odrysian coins followed the same pattern, with the chief mints of the period, Ainos, Maroneia, and the Macedonian mint providing die models. But unlike the early tribal issues, which are often variations on the same theme (satyr or centaur and nymph, oxen and driver), the Odrysian regal or princely coinages soon developed quite independent images alongside better known Greek ones.
So as you see the coinage in the specific era was clear as about the meaning of the coins (lettering or not). Is clear the differences between Thracians and Macedonians kingiships. The latter claimed their Greek origin and the Historical-arcahelogical evidence confirmed that. Actually they spread Hellenic culture, not Thrakian or other non-Greek .
References
1-Ancient Cambridge History Vol VI
2-History of Macedonia, Hammond, Vol 2
3-The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked, Archibald, Oxford University
One from the most circular Skopjan propagandas is that the non Greek coins (known as Thraco-macedonians) written with Greek letters and in Greek language show that not only Greeks used Greek language in inscriptions of public and administrative significance but and others tribes. Thus, inscriptions in Greek can not be trusted as proof that Greeks were creators of the artifacts where such inscriptions were found. The aim is known. The Macedonian coins and the Greek letters of them.
As you a remarkable development was the issue of coinage in a fine silver by Thracian and Peaonian tribes from at the late archaic period, the dating being controversial and an increase in the quantity during the Persian occupation (Ancient Cambridge History VI,page 252). These coins in large denominations usually carrying no lettering , have been found more in hoards in Asia and Egypt than in Europe and it is clear that they were issued perhaps mainly for the market which developed first with the extension of Persian rule to the coast of Minor Asia and later with the formation of the Persian Satrapy.
The mines of the Thracian tribes were in Crestonia, Bisalitia, Paroreia, the region of the Pangeum mountain (Hrd, VII,112) and the region of Crenides-Phillipoi all within the Persia Satrapy. The Paeonians were the earlier owners of some of these mines but after their defeat in the coastal sector they maintained their independence in the hinterland and coined large denominations in the upper Strymon and the upper Axius areas in the names of the Laeaei and the Derrones.
As I said the majority of them was without lettering but some of them appeared on the coins, it was in Greek and cut by Greek craftsmen. For many Greek cities -colonies in Chalkidike and on the Thracian coast were coining at this time and benefiting from the Persian market. The period of prosperity to which theses coinages testify owned much to the inposition of peace and the provision of markets through the presence of Persian market. Decline came with the expulsion of Persia from Europe.
The Macedonians in that period had no deposits of precious metals in their territory and when they ousted the Paeonians from Ichnae its coinage ceased. They were less healthy than the Paeonians and the Thracians, and the main ports of the Thermaic Gulf were outside their contril. But through the favour of Darius and Xerxes, the capable kings Amyntas and Alexander gained territory and exercised some form of rule over the tribes in Upper Macedonia. The foundations of the greater Macedonian state were laid under Persian suzerainty and when the Persian army fled in disarray Alexander was quick to seize the mine of Bisaltia and issue his fine coinage.
The earliest inscribed tribal coins north of the Aegean usually bear the ethnic in the gentive case but rulers' names are occasionally found also. The best known are Getas, king of the Edonians ( Getas Edoneon basileus), and the near contemporary or slightly later oktadrachms and oktobols of Mosses of the Bisaltians.Both kings may have been copying the practice of inscribing the ruler's name around the quartered incuse square on the reverse from Alexander I of Macedon. Other civic and tribal issues with this form of inscription soon followed. There is a close connection between the iconographic types of the Bisaltai and Alexander which immediately preceded the inscribed horseman types. Unlike Getas, both Alexander and Mosses omit the ethnic. It is unlikely that the Bisaltai, who already had a wellestablished line of kings (Hdt. 8. 116), were unusual among the tribes of this region, even if there were others who had no such tradition.
The earliest known issues which can confidently be associated with the Odrysians were not those of the central authority. Sparadokos, a brother or half-brother of Sitalkes, is not known to have been a king himself but fathered Sitalkes' successor, Seuthes I. Small silver denominations were issued in his name -- drachmai, diobols, and obols, within the Thraco-Macedonian standard, and the types follow Olynthian and Maronitan dies. For this reason he is thought to have ruled a principality in south-western Thrace. The reverse types show an eagle with a snake in its beak, similar to Olynthian issues, which also formed prototypes for the coinage of Paionian Damastion. The obverse types of the drachmai show a walking horse, the diobols a horse protome; both symbols were used on Olynthian tetrobols and on Maronitan tetradrachms, didrachms and drachmai. The Olynthian models date to the period before the creation of a new coinage for the Chalkidian League after its foundation in 432 BC. Moreover, it now looks as if regular issues did not begin at Ainos before the late 460s and at Maroneia not before the third quarter of the fifth century.Five tetradrachms of Sparadokos (reminiscent of Perdikkas II's tetrobols of the 440s), which have been documented in public and private collections since the 1880s, with obverses showing a horseman in a chlamys holding two spears, are of doubtful authenticity. The use of Chalkidian dies by an Odrysian prince does not seem to have been followed up by later rulers after the foundation of the Chalkidian League, although some Thracian regal coins reappear at Olynthos in the fourth century BC.
The weight standard, the type faces, and the location and character of the Greek lettering on Sparadokos' coins place them firmly in the same tradition as the early tribal issues of the Aegean coast, which shared many common features with colonial and later Macedonian regal issues. Sparadokos' territorial control may not have been as close to the Aegean as the die models suggest. Later Odrysian coins followed the same pattern, with the chief mints of the period, Ainos, Maroneia, and the Macedonian mint providing die models. But unlike the early tribal issues, which are often variations on the same theme (satyr or centaur and nymph, oxen and driver), the Odrysian regal or princely coinages soon developed quite independent images alongside better known Greek ones.
So as you see the coinage in the specific era was clear as about the meaning of the coins (lettering or not). Is clear the differences between Thracians and Macedonians kingiships. The latter claimed their Greek origin and the Historical-arcahelogical evidence confirmed that. Actually they spread Hellenic culture, not Thrakian or other non-Greek .
References
1-Ancient Cambridge History Vol VI
2-History of Macedonia, Hammond, Vol 2
3-The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked, Archibald, Oxford University