Ancient Greek Exile Coinages

In antiquity, going into exile was hardly ever the lone act of a dissident. Under the conditions of the Greek city-state, it was often large population groups that went into exile as a result of a domestic dispute. There they sought to preserve their internal cohesion and political clout in order to be able to assert their return to their former position one day. Sometimes exile groups were so important as a political factor that they were accepted as members of multilateral alliances such as the 2nd Attic League. It is therefore not surprising that some exile groups minted their own coinage: in the name of their city-state and at the same time in competition with it. The minting of their own coins served less political than economic purposes. Even if the exiles constituted themselves as a personal organisation in a foreign country, even forming a government in exile and entering into alliances with benevolent powers, their political existence also required an economic basis. The project will analyse a number of confirmed as well as some suspected exile coinages in terms of their size, duration and function. The respective coinages of Sybaris in South Italy, Zankle in Sicily, the island of Samos off the coast of Asia Minor, Tiryns in the Argolis and late Hellenistic Athens can be regarded as certain. In all of these cases, there is evidence of the displacement of large population groups due to war or civil war; in most cases, the place of retreat of the exiles is also known. The designation as an exile coinage results from further circumstances. In the case of Sybaris, for example, there was no regular coinage in the period in question because Sybaris had been occupied by another city-state and legally obliterated. In the similar case of Tiryns, the inhabitants had fled to a neighbouring region, where they settled for almost two centuries under the protection of another city-state; their coins are only found there, and the mint was discovered in the course of excavations. The coinage produced by these exiles is quite poor, thus bearing witness to their precarious existence in exile. The exile coinages of the Samians and Athenians are quite different. These were all large denominations. Such coinages were not used to eke out a precarious existence; rather, they were intended to recruit troops in order to enforce the return of the exiles by force. The exile coinages of Tarentum, Syracuse, Aegina, Leontinoi and Siphnos may have had similar aimsif it can be proven that these were indeed exile coinages. The examination of the coinages in question will utilise proven numismatic and ancient historical methods, and also metallurgical analyses.