Bemerkungen zum ältesten sizilischen und römischen Münzwesen

Abstract

The coinage of most Sicilian cities shows from an early date a peculiarity found also in some communities of southern Italy but not in Greece itself or in the other colonial areas: beside the native division of the drachm into six obols there was a division into five litrai of twelve onkiai each. These denominations are well known elsewhere as libra and uncia; the kinship cannot be doubted, but the degree and nature of the relation need closer definition. The author notes that the fundamental insights were gained more than 260 years ago and then completely forgotten. The fullest reports come from the Aristotelian constitutions of Akragas and Himera, preserved in fragments in Pollux, together with evidence in the comic poet Epicharmus.

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Suggested citation

Chantraine, Heinrich: Bemerkungen zum ältesten sizilischen und römischen Münzwesen. In: Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte 12 (1962), pp. 51–64.

Subject tags

Greek world Roman Republic Metrology Italy Sicily