ARGENTUM
ARGENTUM The use of silver among the Greeks, although no doubt
later introduced than that of gold, dates from pre-historic times. In the
archaic tombs opened by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenae were several vessels and
ornaments of silver. Homer mentions on several occasions vessels of silver,
sometimes as coming from Sidon (
Il.
23.743), sometimes as imported from Egypt (
Od. 4.125), sometimes as of home manufacture (
Od. 19.57). Our museums exhibit numerous
specimens of all these kinds of ware. The method of manufacture in early
times was the same for silver as for gold and copper: the material was
beaten out with a hammer and fastened either with nails or solder, or else
cast in moulds.
In Asia, in the time of the Persian Empire, silver must have been common, for
we know that it was thirteen times less valuable than gold (
Hdt. 3.95) ; and the stores of gold accumulated by
kings, such as Croesus, and even by private individuals, such as Pythius
(
Hdt. 7.27), were enormous. From Asia it came
to Greece in the way of commerce. But there were also silver mines in Hellas
of great importance. Among these the most prolific were the mines of
Laurium, the property of the Athenian people and the chief source of their
wealth. With regard to the working of these mines we possess many details;
as to which see Boeckh
On the Silver Mines of Laurium, and
Rhangabé in the
Mémoires de l'Acad. des
Inscr. 8.297. There were also extensive silver mines in the Pangaean
range in Thrace and in Epirus. From these sources came the supplies of
Greece before the age of Alexander. Silver was at that time in great demand
in Greece. It was used by the rich for drinking vessels, by ladies for
mirrors and toilet-boxes, by the pious for statues and ornaments to be
dedicated in the temples. Among Greek silversmiths the most celebrated was
Mentor (
Plin. Nat. 33.154), whose name is
mentioned by the Romans in conjunction with those of Polycleitus and Scopas,
and whose works were eagerly sought out by the connoisseurs of later times.
Mys and Acragas and other silversmiths had wide reputation. But the chief
use to which in earlier and less luxurious times silver was put was in
coinage. The usual issues of Asia Minor were in silver, and that metal was
almost the only currency in Hellas proper, and used conjointly with copper
in Sicily and S. Italy. As early as the 6th century Aegina, Corinth, Euboea,
Athens, Samos, and many other cities issued an abundance of silver coin, and
during the next century the example was followed by nearly every Greek
independent city of any pretensions. It may be remarked here that all the
Greek words connected with money are derived from
ἄργυρος, and not from
χρυσός, as
καταργυρόω,
“to bribe with money;”
ἀργυραμοιβός,
“a money-changer,” &c.; and
ἄργυρος is itself not unfrequently used to signify money in
general (
Soph. Antig. 295),
as
aes is in Latin.
In the time of Alexander the mines of Laurium were of diminished richness,
and their produce decreased until in the time of Pausanias and Strabo they
were looked on as exhausted (Paus.
ad init.).
But their place was far more than supplied by the enormous treasures of
silver which the Persian kings had laboriously hoarded, and which Alexander
and his captains spent with lavish profusion. A whole corps of Alexander's
soldiers bore silver shields (the
ARGYRASPIDES), Mithradates Eupator had numerous
chariots of silver, and we read in Athenaeus' description of the pomp of
Ptolemy Philadelphus (v. p. 196
sqq.) of such things
as a silver bowl holding 600 metretae and embossed with figures of animals.
Italy is less richly furnished by nature with silver than Greece. In early
times, indeed, the Etruscans were celebrated for working in silver, many of
their productions still surviving; and they issued silver coins as early as
the 5th century. But we may suppose the metal imported either from the Gauls
to the north or the seafaring Phoenicians. Certainly at the same period
silver was rare at Rome, as is shown by the fact that Rome long contented
herself with copper money, and only followed the example of her richer
neighbours in striking silver in B.C. 269. Before that period Greek silver
was in circulation at Rome; and the principal silver coin of the Romans, the
denarius, was borrowed from the Greek
drachma. This dearth of silver disappeared when the
Romans acquired the rich mines of Spain, which the Carthaginians had worked
before them. These were situate at Osca and elsewhere, but those near
Carthago Nova were so rich (
Plb. 34.9) as to
employ forty thousand miners, to the great profit of the Roman state. This
makes, more surprising the statement of Pliny (
33.141) that at the capture of Carthage the booty in silver only
amounted to 4370 pounds. It was really the victories of Scipio Asiaticus
which flooded Rome with silver as with other luxuries, until silver tables
of 100 pounds' weight became common at Rome, and even the cooking utensils
of the wealthy were sometimes made of the same material (
Plin. Nat. 33.140). Statuettes and parts of
statues of silver of the Roman period have been found, together with many
silver cups and vessels. Some of these latter were found at Pompeii, some at
Caere, but the largest hoard, weighing upwards of 100 pounds, at Hildesheim
in Germany. This treasure, consisting of upwards of seventy vessels, must
have been part of the baggage of a Roman officer on the frontiers,
[p. 1.184]and forcibly illustrates the luxury of wealthy
officers in late times. It also shows what immense strides the practical art
of the silver-smith had made since early Greek times. The Hildesheim vases,
which are now in the Museum of Berlin, are composed of a body of silver,
over which is fastened a second layer covered with alto-rilievos of beaten
work, admirably designed and excellently adapted to the forms and purposes
of the vessels. On the subject of working in silver, Pliny has a
dissertation (33.127 ff.).
Silver as Coin.--We have already stated when and where silver
was principally used for currency; and for further details, see NUMMUS, DENARIUS, AS, DRACHMA. But we must add
here a few words as to the alloy of silver. In the 6th and 5th centuries
B.C. the silver issued in the Greek world is usually of almost perfect
purity. Of a number of pieces of S. Italy tested, many offer a proportion of
94 to 96 per cent. of pure silver, none less than 91 per cent. The coins of
Aegina are about .96 fine. Those of Athens, which were noted in antiquity
for their purity, give a percentage of .986 to .983. Even after Alexander
the coins of Athens retain their purity, the analysis of some specimens
yielding .966 of silver, .032 of copper, and .002 of gold. But in some
places the standard of fineness rapidly falls in late times. A tetradrachm
of Philip, one of the last kings of Syria, yielded only .678 of silver, and
the contemporary coins of Egypt are still more debased. When the Romans
occupied that country, they found the money so debased in quality, though it
still retained its weight, that a Roman denarius was equivalent in value to
the Ptolemaic tetradrachm of nearly four times its weight. Among the Romans
silver retained its standard, excepting in the case of some denarii of M.
Antony [NUMMUS LEGIONARIS], until the time of
Augustus, who fixed the purity at 98-9 per cent. But after Vespasian we find
a continual decrease in the standard of silver currency, with occasional
slight reactions, until the so-called silver money is but copper plated. The
substances used for adulteration of silver were copper, tin, zinc, and lead,
all of which are found in the later Egyptian money. For fuller details see
Lenormant,
La Monnaie dans l'Antiquité, vol. i.
Proportionate Value of Silver as compared with Gold and
Copper.--A few words must be said under this head as to the
relations held, in value one with another, of the three precious
metals,--gold, silver, and copper. According to Herodotus (
3.95), in reckoning the revenues of the Persian
Empire gold was esteemed at thirteen times the value of silver. And Brandis
tries to show by induction that this relation, or more exactly that of 13
1/31 to 1, held between gold and silver in the Levant during many centuries.
But in the 4th century the value of gold began to fall in Greece. The
pseudo-Plato (
Hipparch. 231 D) speaks of the comparative
value of the two metals as 12 to 1; and after Philip of Macedon had
possessed himself of the rich gold mines of Thrace, and his son of the
treasures of the Persian kings, it fell to 10 to 1 (Menander, ap. Pollux,
9.76). Mr. Head (
Coinage of Syracuse, p. 26) shows reasons
for supposing the relation in value of gold to silver in Sicily to have been
15 to 1 until about B.C. 344, and afterwards 12 to 1. Roman laws of the
middle of the 2nd century show that the relation of 12 to 1 was then current
in Italy; but Roman gold coins bearing marks of value show considerable
variations in the relation, from 9 to 17 to 1. Under the empire it was about
10 or 12 to 1. (See Sabatier,
Production de l'or, de l'argent et du.
cuivre, p. 50.) The relation between silver and copper was in
Sicily 250 to 1, and nearly the same result is given for Rome (if we accept
the theories of Mommsen as to the reductions of the as), by a comparison of
the weights of silver and copper coins of the 3rd century which bear marks
of value. At a later time copper would seem to have become far more valuable
in proportion. It is, however, difficult to prove this, because copper coins
of later time are mere money of account, and not struck up to the full.
value.
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