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IONIA : THE Pattern OF COINAGE DURING THE Terminal CENTURY OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

Philip KINNS*

This paper aims to survey the issues made by the cities of Ionia between c. 404, the finish of the Peloponnesian war, and c. 332, when Persian resistance to Alexander was finally crushed. For many of the coinages nether consideration the evidence for chronology is far from satisfactory, just the distinction between issues made in the confused period betwixt 404 and 387 and those struck during the half century post-obit the Male monarch's Peace of 387 can usually be made with some confidence. To the extent that it is but after 387 that the Ionian cities unequivocally formed part of the Persian Empire, these later issues are the more important for our present purpose.

I shall review the individual coinages, going down the coast from Phocaea in the north to Miletus in the s. Statements as to chronology generally reflect the results of my own unpublished research. The numbers of recorded obverse dies, where such figures are available, or of extant bug (defined by unlike magistrates' names), volition enable the states to course some judgment of their respective importance ; coinages comprising only sporadic bronze issues must exist regarded as purely local, those characterised past extensive serial of high denomination coins are likely to have had wider significance.

* British Museum, London.

REA, Τ XCI, 1989, nos 1-2, p. 183 à 193.