DARI´CUS
DARI´CUS or
daric stater (
στατὴρ δαρεικός). This was the name of the gold coin which
constituted for centuries, until the time of Alexander the Great, the main
part of the coinage of Asia under Persian dominion. Gold darics are to be
found in all great museums: their type is on the obverse a crowned archer
kneeling, on the reverse a mere rude incuse; their weight is about 130
grains [
PONDERA], and their
intrinsic value about twenty-two shillings of our money. In allusion to
their
[p. 1.598]type they were sometimes called
τόξοται; whence the saying of Agesilaus (
Plut. Ages. 15) that he had been driven from
Asia by 30,000 archers, when his recall was the result of Persian bribery at
Athens and Thebes.
The Greeks (
Etym. Mag. s. v.; Harpocrat. s. v.) connected the
word
δαρεικὸς with the name of Darius
Hystaspis, to whom they attributed the first issue of these coins. This
derivation; however, is certainly erroneous. Not only is there small
likeness in sound between the name of the coin and that of the king in their
Persian forms, but we learn from the Book of Ezra (2.69, 8.27) that darics
were in circulation in Palestine in the time of Cyrus; and M. Bertin has
found the word
dariku on a tablet of the reign of
Nabonidus, which is still earlier (
Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch.
1883-4, p. 87: cf. Head,
Historia Numorum, p. 698). Of course
in the cases just cited, though we have a complete proof of the great
antiquity of the word
daric, we cannot be sure
whether a fixed weight of gold or a coin is intended. The probability is
that the nations of the Euphrates valley did not coin money until they had
conquered Lydia and Ionia in the time of Cyrus. Darius, Herodotus tells us,
issued gold coin of great fineness (
Hdt. 4.166);
and this may have caused the Greeks to suppose that he issued the earliest
Persian coins. The abundance of the darics in circulation in Asia Minor in
the days of Xerxes is shown by the well-known story of Pythius the Lydian
(
Hdt. 7.28), who possessed four millions of
them.
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Gold Daric. (British Museum. Actual size.)
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Silver Daric. (British Museum. Actual size.)
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Beside the gold darics there circulated silver coins of the same shape and
bearing the same device of the archer: these were commonly known as the
σίγλος or shekel, but were sometimes
termed silver darics (
Plut. Cim. 10). Their
weight is about 86 grains; thus, the value of gold in relation to silver
being in Asia about thirteen to one [see
ARGENTUM], twenty sigli were equivalent to a gold
daric. In some parts of Asia, as in Ionia, Cilicia, and Phoenicia, Greek
cities and Persian satraps were allowed to issue silver money as they
pleased, of any standard and any types which suited them, the mintage of
gold only being reserved for the supreme government. As a corroboration of
these statements may be cited Herodotus's story, that Aryandes satrap of
Egypt incurred the displeasure of Darius by issuing silver coin of greater
purity than his own; for it seems that Darius, though excited to jealousy,
could not punish Aryandes for this, but had to find another charge against
him.
It appears that in the time of Xenophon a
daric was a month's pay of a Greek
mercenary in Asia (
Anab. 1.3.21).
With the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great the issue of darics
ceased, and their place was taken by the regal gold coins of Alexander,
which were a few grains heavier. In the far East, however, there were minted
for a time at the Greek cities coins of the same type as the darics, but of
double weight, and sometimes bearing Greek letters in the field. These
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Double Gold Daric. (British Museum. Actual size.)
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double-darics are not mentioned by extant ancient authors.
[
P.G]
