Undergraduate Course: Greek Coins in Greek History (ANHI10031)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course will follow aspects of the history of the Greeks from the archaic period (6th century BC) to the death of Cleopatra VII of Egypt (30 BC), with special reference at each stage to the coinage they produced.
Students will learn how to use Greek coinage in the study of Greek history, i.e. they will be directly exposed to the study of a key body of primary evidence.
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| Course description |
The course offers an introduction to the study of Greek history through the coinage produced by different city-states and rulers. Coins were issued by ancient Greek communities over a very wide range of space and time: from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Indian subcontinent, and from the sixth to the first centuries BC and beyond. Such coins can speak to us about many aspects of the societies that produced them: for example, about their history, their art, their religion and their mythology. This course will follow the history of the Greeks from the archaic period (sixth century BC) to the death of Cleopatra VII of Egypt (30 BC), with special reference at each stage to the coins they produced. Why was coinage invented? How and why did it develop in the ways it did? How do we study coins? How do we set about interpreting their types and inscriptions? These are just some of the questions that will be raised in classes.
A typical course schedule over 11 weeks with two weekly classes may look like this:
CLASS 1 Introduction to the course.
CLASS 2 The Bibliography of Greek Numismatics.
CLASS 3 Money and Exchange.
CLASS 4 Coins and Minting.
CLASS 5 The Beginning of Coinage.
CLASS 6 The Early Coinages of Aegina, Athens and Corinth.
CLASS 7 The Coinage of Athens (I).
CLASS 8 The Coinage of Athens (II).
CLASS 9 The Coinage of Athens (III).
CLASS 10 Greek Colonization in the Western Mediterranean.
CLASS 11 The History and Coins of Sicily (I).
CLASS 12 The History and Coins of Sicily (II).
CLASS 13 The History and Coins of Southern Italy (I).
CLASS 14 The History and Coins of Southern Italy (II).
CLASS 15 The History and Coins of the Persian Empire.
CLASS 16 The Royal Coinages of Cyprus.
CLASS 17 Philip II of Macedon.
CLASS 18 Alexander III, the Great.
CLASS 19 Introduction to the Hellenistic World.
CLASS 20 The Hellenistic World: Royal Ideology.
CLASS 21 The Hellenistic World: the Economy.
CLASS 22 The Kings and Coinages of Bactria.
In addition to the weekly classes, visits will be arranged to collections of Greek coins in Edinburgh (The National Museum) and Glasgow (The Hunterian Museum), where there will be opportunities to handle coins, and to discuss with the curators practical topics, for example, matters to do with the conservation and public exhibition of coins.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- gained a knowledge and understanding of the Greek world in the Mediterranean and beyond from the sixth to the first centuries BC;
- gained a knowledge and understanding of some of the problems raised by the study of the period;
- developed skills in the methodologies of collecting, analysing and comparing different forms of evidence for the period studied;
- gained practical experience of the study of coins and evaluated the information that can be derived from them in several different historical and cultural contexts;
- developed skills in evaluating and criticising the work of other historians, both contemporary and in earlier periods.
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Reading List
Balmuth, M.S. Hacksilber to Coinage: New Insights into the Monetary History of the Near East and Greece, New York 2001.
Carradice I., Greek Coins, London 1995.
Kraay, C., Archaic and Classical Greek Coins. London, 1976
Figuera T., The Power of Money: Coinage and Politics in the Athenian Empire, Pennsylvania 1998.
Harl K.W., Civic Coins and Civic Politics, California 1987.
Penn R.G., Medicine on Ancient Greek and Roman Coins, London 1994.
Plant R., Greek Coin Types and Their Identification, London 1979.
Rutter, N.K., Greek Coinage, Aylesbury 1983.
Rutter, N.K., The Greek Coinages of Southern Italy and Sicily, London 1997.
Rutter, N.K. Historia Nummorum, Italy, London 2001.
Seltman C., Athens, its Hitsory and Coinage, Chicago 1974.
Seltman C., Greek Coins, London 1977.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Special Arrangements |
In order for a student from outwith Classics to be enrolled on this course, contact must be made with a Course Secretary on 50 3580 in order for approval to be obtained. |
| Keywords | Greek Coins History |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Neville Keith Rutter
Tel: (0131 6)50 3586
Email: k.rutter@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Elaine Hutchison
Tel: (0131 6)50 3582
Email: E.Hutchison@ed.ac.uk |
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