Tag Archive for: Greece

The Paradox of Thucydides. What Antiquity Teaches Us About Covid-19

We should all read Thucydides says historian Marek Węcowski. Because the Greek historiographer described meticulously the social consequences of an epidemic in his own time. Thus we may anticipate the most urgent tasks to tackle after Covid-19.

Human Faces Part 6: The 30 Pieces of Silver

Why is it that for centuries – or rather thousands of years – the head has served as the motif for the side of a coin? And why has this changed in the last 200 years? In this part we will talk about the coins Judas received handing over Jesus.

Human Faces Part 7: Alexander the Great

Why is it that for centuries – or rather thousands of years – the head has served as the motif for the side of a coin? And why has this changed in the last 200 years? In this part of the series all is about Alexander the Great.

Human Faces Part 3: The Nymph of the Spring Arethusa

For centuries the nymph Arethusa had been the beautiful face of the city of Syracuse. Here you will get information why she figured on the Syracusan coins.

Human Faces Part 1: The Father of the Gods, Zeus, in Olympia

Why is it that for centuries – or rather thousands of years – the head has served as the motif for the side of a coin? And why has this changed in the last 200 years? Ursula Kampmann poses these questions in her book ‘MenschenGesichter,’” from which the texts for our new series are taken.

How to detect forgeries

Part 3: Electrotypes
The last two parts on news from the forgery front have dealt with fakes that have been produced by newly cut dies and with cast fakes. This part is dedicated to a third kind of fakes: the electrotypes.
You will surely recognize …

And this is where Aristotle was wrong…

Aristotle, in his work on the structure of the Tarentine government, likewise described the coins of the city. He remarked that they depicted Taras, son of Poseidon, riding a dolphin. Was he right? Or is there another, more possible, option?

80,000 Euros for a work of two Sicilian die cutters

For an impressive amount of money some extraordinary Greek coins were auctioned at Gorny & Mosch’s, Giessener Münzhandlung on October 10. One of them is a remarkable tetradrachm from Syracuse whose story you will read here…

A King Named Teutamados

Beyond his name, there’s very little known about Teutamados. What we do have, however, is a splendid tetradrachm minted for him. Based on this, he was evidently a Paionian ruler.

The Delian League and the Athenian Money

In 479 BC the Greeks defeated the Persians at Plataiai. At that time nobody dared to hope that the fight was so soon to end. On the contrary, every Greek city was afraid of the Persian king, who had vast resources at his disposal. He was feared to raise another army in order to conquer the whole of Greece. Something had to be done to prevent that.