Graeco-Illyrian coinage

GRAECO-ILLYRIAN COINAGE
Zdenka Dukat and Ivan Mirnik

Throughout antiquity the peoples in Dalmatia were dominated by their country’s climate
and physical character in the basic economy of their food production. No one praises
their agriculture, but their cheese and wool were worthy of note. With such a small
surplus they attracted the interest of few traders, and between the peoples themselves
exchange of commodities was minimal. They could fight and defend themselves, but
their isolation from the politics of the Mediterranean World sometimes cost them dear,
from the time when they told a Roman consul in the middle of the 2nd century BC that
affairs in Illyria were no business of the Romans . J.J. Wilkes, Dalmatia (London, 1969), p.
182. *
As with numerous other alleged barbarians inhabiting dark peripheries of the known
world, Greek and Roman historians contempt for the communities of the eastern
Adriatic lands has left a highly distorted impression of the economies and commercial
relations of the Illyrians. Fragmentary sources hint at glass production amongst the
Japodes tribe, while giant Illyrian snails were remarked upon by Pliny. General comments
by the likes of Cassius Dio present the Pannonian peoples of northern Dalmatia, for
example, as cultivating no olives and produce no wine except to a very slight extent and
a wretched quality at that, since the winter is very rigorous and occupies the greater part
of the year Illyrian exports are traditionally listed as limited natural products such as
cereals, skins, and slaves, with economies being largely subsistence based.
At the other extreme Dalmatia was renowned for its imperial silver and gold mines in
the Argentaria district of eastern Bosnia and Gradina. Pliny’s description of an
exceptional strike of 50 lbs of gold in one day during the reign of Nero (AD 54-68)
inspired Arthur Evans to propose that for a limited time Dalmatia had been the El
Dorado of the Empire. Certainly inscriptions verify that an imperial bureau for Dalmatian
gold mines was based in Salona.
Although 92 shipwrecks recorded off Croatia have started to redefine the importance of
inter-regional trade and to emphasise the region’s strategic location between East and
West, the micro-economy of the Illyrians remains very much an under-developed area
of scholarship. Yet evidence of Graeco-Roman coinage reflects a level of sophistication
which very much opposes many prevailing simplistic interpretations.
When the earliest Greek colonies were founded on Adriatic islands and the mainland in
the 7th century BC, finds and hoards demonstrate that coin had to be imported from
cities such as Histiaia, Paros, Corinth, and Syracuse until the 4th-3rd centuries BC.
Gradually issues of local coinage began to appear, minted entirely for trade between the
Illyrians, not with Greek cities: the quantity of Graeco-Illyrian coinage found on Greek
sites is negligible. Graeco-Illyrian coins bear all the hallmarks of those of the Greek city-
states, but incorporate a certain amount of Illyrian influence.
Coins were issued from mints established in the Greek and Illyrian cities of Herakleia,
Korkyra, Issa, Pharos, Rhizon, Damastion (modern Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro),
Apollonia, Dyrrhachion, Lissos, Skodra (modern Albania), by various indigenous tribes
(the Daorsoi, Labeatai), and by rulers (Monounios, Mytilos, Genthios and Ballaios).

Graeco-Illyrian coinage can be characterised as small in size, sometimes occurring in

large denominations, struck in bronze, of rough craftsmanship in general, and from the
aesthetic point of view, essentially rudimentary. Most surviving coins are of bronze,
while silver is scarce (especially as one progresses northward up the Illyrian coast). The
obverse usually depicts the head of a deity or sometimes that of a ruler, while the
reverse features various attributes specific to the deities on the obverse ; for instance
Herakles club, bow and arrow (Herakleia). Or the obverse reflects the economy of the
country: ears of corn (Korkyra), grapes, kantharoi, amphorae, goats, stags, or does (Issa,
Pharos). Maritime symbols also occurs in the form of waves, dolphins, and galleys.

Greek and local coins were frequently overstruck, facilitating understanding of their
respective chronology. The most ancient of the Greek colonies located along the eastern
Adriatic coast were Dyrrhachium (Epidamnos) and Apollonia in modern Albania,
founded in the 7th and 6th centuries BC respectively. Silver drachms struck in these
cities from the 3rd to 1st century BC are densely concentrated all along the country
coast and interior. The main types of both cities are almost identical, depicting a cow
with a suckling calf on the obverse turned to either side, with a floral motif, the so-called
Alkinous garden, on the reverse. Legends describe the coins on the reverse as struck by
the citizens of Apollonia or Dyrrhachium. Each side also gives a magistrate name in
either the nominative or genitive. Other denominations were also struck in silver and
bronze.

The mints of Skodra and Lissos were founded later in the 3rd century BC under Philip II
of Macedon. From the reign of Augustus these mints produced Roman provincial
coinage.

The oldest coins known from the central Adriatic coast were struck in the town of
Herakleia. The exact position of this site remains an enigma. Was the town located on
the island of Hvar or Korcula (Croatia)? Wherever it awaits discovery, its mint struck
bronze coins in three denominations following Syracusan standards, with the head of a
young Herakles and lion skin on the obverse and with Greek inscriptions of abbreviated
forms of Herakleia. More rare is the second fundamental type with the head of Artemis
on the obverse and a dolphin on the reverse. As is frequently a case with Graeco-Illyrian
coins, overstrikes are common.
The rarest Graeco-Illyrian issues were struck in the 3rd century BC at Korkyra on the
island of Korcula, Croatia, another early colony founded in the Adriatic by the Knidians.
A further colony was later founded on the same island by the Issaeans. These two towns
may well conform to the two recorded ancient sites of Vela Luka (the large harbour in
translation) and Lumbarda. The island is often described as Black Korkyra, but this term
refers to the island itself, which was covered by dense forests in antiquity, and not to the
city. Josip Brunsmid, director of the Zagreb Archaeological Museum from 1893-1924
and the finest expert in Graeco-Illyrian coinage, ascribed only one type of bronze coin to
Korkyra. On the obverse is the head of Apollo and on the reverse an ear of corn or
barley with a legend naming the city.
Two other cities, Pharos and Issa, however, produced multiple issues. Relatively rich
issues emanated from the Parian colony of Pharos, founded in 385/4 BC in a very deep
bay on the island of Hvar, Croatia, which provided the settlers with an excellent port. The
remains of the Greek city are covered by medieval Stari Grad and the entire fertile valley
spreading from the harbour into the island hinterland still preserves the ancient division
of land layout in square plots. The quantity of surviving Pharian coins, dating from the
4th to 3rd centuries BC, is quite large, although certain types are very rare, such as the
silver tetrobols. Bronze was struck in four denominations: one unit and its parts ; one
half ; one quarter ; and one sixth. The main types depict Zeus/she-goat ;
Persephone/she-goat ; Artemis/she-goat ; Dionysos/grape ; Dionysos/kantharos.

A wide variety of coin types were struck at Issa between the 4th and mid-2nd century
BC. P. Visona has recorded about 650 specimens of Issaean coins, more than half of
which are in Croatian museums and private collections. Here too the reverse advertises
the economy of the island: she-goats, stags, does, grapes with vine leaves, amphorae,
and kantharoi, with inscriptions on the obverse. Sometimes the Issaeans reused
Syracusan and Pharian coins as flans for their strike. The first series begins with the so-
called IONIO types featuring on the reverse a male head facing right and a plain
dolphin, or dolphin jumping over the waves, or a lion’ s head facing or turned to
the right. Ionio is the old Doric genitive of Ionios, and on one inscription found at Vis
this island is described as the Island of Ionios, which led F. Imhoof Blumer and J.
Brunsmid to conclude that Ionios was the mythic eponymos of the Ionian Gulf. D.
Rendic-Miocevic held a different opinion, suggesting Ionios was a real person. The
IONIO issues were followed by different types of bronze coins, such as: Hera
head/dolphin, nymph head/star, Athena head/she-goat, Heracles head/stag,
amphora/grape and vine-leaves, Heracles head/kantharos, female head/kantharos,
sometimes turned to the right or left, with or without inscriptions.

In the 2nd century BC the Illyrian city of Rhizon, situated deep in the bay of Kotor,
Montenegro, issued silver and bronze coins, which are extremely rare today. The silver
coins depicted the Macedonian shield on the obverse and Pegasus on the reverse, and
on a smaller denomination the Macedonian shield and a star. In the second half of the
2nd century BC bronze coins were struck with the head of Zeus on the obverse and the
legend PI/ZO within a wreath on the reverse and with the head of a beardless male or
even female head on the obverse and Artemis or Hecate and the legend PIZONI/TAN on
the reverse. The style and execution of these coins are somewhat primitive.

Other Illyrian towns known to have struck coins included Lychnidos (Ohrid) on the lake
of Ohrid (now in the Republic of Macedonia), Lissos (Lesh), and Skodra (Shkodër ; both
in Albania).

The bronze coins of Lychnidos bear the Macedonian shield on one side and the prow of
a ship on the other.

Coins of Lissos dating from the last quarter of the 3rd century BC and the second half of
the 2nd century BC can be divided into several periods and six types (with inscriptions):
she-goat/thunderbolt, shield/helmet, Artemis/thunderbolt: Artemis/thunderbolt,
Gentios/galley (under Genthius) ; Hermes/galley (under the Roman domination after the
fall of Genthius).

The four types of coins from Skodra can be divided into three main periods and depict
Zeus/galley, Macedonian shield/helmet, Macedonian shield/galley, Genthius/galley. The
town name appears on those coins which were not struck under Genthius. The last type
was struck after the Romans imposed their rule in the area in 168 BC and bear the
names of magistrates.

In the southeast interior of the Illyrian lands the mining city of Damastion (its exact
position ist still unknown it lay in an area inhabited by the Dardanians, near a silver mine
and close to the Paeonian border) began to strike coins in the 4th c. BC. Its first series
comprise beautiful massive tetradrachms with typical Greek motifs (head of Apollo on
the obverse and tripod on the reverse). Dies for these were cut by Greek masters, but
gradually the coins lost their beauty, indicating that the mint was run by local, less
skilled personnel.
Two Illyrian tribes also isssued their own coins: the Daorsoi (who lived near the Neretva
and had their capital at Osanici, in Bosnia-Hercegovina) and the Labiatai (or Labeatae,
living near Lake Shkodër) issued coins during a short period, probably after the fall of
Genthius. Both series of bronze coins are similar and show the head of a young man
wearing a cap (Hermes) on the obverse and a galley on the reverse.

Turning to coins struck by various Illyrian rulers, the name of Monounios accompanied
with the title of king appears on fine staters or silver tridrachms of Dyrrhachium.
Monounios seems to have reigned c. 300-280 BC. A tetradrachm with Heracles
head/Zeus, minted after the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC), also bears his name.
Written sources refer to two Monounioi, one Dardanian and one Illyrian, but it seems
that they were one and the same person. Another exceptional testimony to the
existence of this king is a bronze helmet with his name inscribed on it found a century
ago near Lake Ohrid, preserved today in the Berlin Museum. This king seems to have
had a son whose name was Mytilos or Mytilios. Some bronze coins of Dyrrhachium
feature the head of Herakles with a lion skin, and the associated legend translates as
[coin] of king Mytilos.

Genthios (c. 197-168 BC) was an Illyrian king defeated and captured by the Romans with
his fabulous treasure containing 120, 000 pounds of silver. Only one silver issue
allegedly attributed to his reign, struck at Dyrrhachium, survives. His bronze coins
minted in Lissos and Skodra are less well known. On the obverse is a bust Genthios
wearing a cap (kausia) and a ship on the reverse. Both are inscribed.

The last name name of an Illyrian king appearing on Graeco-Illyrian coinage is Ballaios
(c. 167-35 BC), who is otherwise completely unknown historically. This series exemplifies
just how important numismatics are to history. Whilst coins of the kings mentioned
above are scarce, bronze coins of Ballaios are surprisingly numerous and widely
distributed. He seems to have reigned after the defeat of Genthios in 168 BC, although
some scholars date his coins earlier. Ballaios did not chose his seat in Skodra or Lissos,
but settled in Rhizon, once Queen Teuta capital. On the obverse of his coins is his bare-
headed portrait, turned to the right or left. The legend on the reverse of his coins,
depicting Artemis or Hecate with a torch in her right hand, walking or standing right,
appears in two different forms (as well as corrupted versions). The shorter occurs on the
bulk of his coins found on the island of Hvar and seem to originate from the mint at
Pharos, while the longer inscription with regal title is represented on most specimens
found in the south of the region and seems to derive from the Rhizon mint. Once again,
however, opinion on this matter is divided. Besides the high quality examples are many
barbarous imitations with mainly illegible legends, leading to the suspicion that some of
his contemporaries, as well as his successors, produced imitations. Interestingly, coins of
Ballaios have been excavated at Apulia in Italy and are the only Greek-Illyrian coins
found overseas. Graeco-Illyrian coinage has puzzled numismatists for over 100 years,
and much work still needs addressing on the series.