the excavation of the athenian agora twelfth season: 1947

192 HOMER A. THOMPSON
COINS
The number of coins found during the season was 3,460, bringing the total for
the first twelve seasons to about 94,000. Of the season's finds about one-third came
from the gravelly filling of the Great Drain to the west of the Areopagus, a Hellenistic
context, about one-third from late Roman levels in the same general area, the rest
from various places and contexts. With the exception of an Athenian tetradrachm
of the fourth century and eight tetrobols of Histiaea in northern Euboea all this
season's coinls were of bronze.
Two groups deserve special mention. The eight silver Dieces of Histiaea were
found together in the cistern on the north slope of the Areopagus mentioned above
(p. 161). They had obviously been held at one time in a purse, but how they reached
the cistern is not clear, whether they were secreted there deliberately or were thrown
in by error along with some of the rubbish. All eight are tetrobols, bearing on the
obverse a female head of maenad or nvmph, on the reverse the nymph IHistiaea seated
on the stern of a vessel with a stvlis or ship's ornament in her left hand. a type that
is assigned to the period ca. 197-146 B.C.133 Otir coins show the great irregularity in
weight, the careless workmanship, and the variety in detail common to this numerous
series.'34 The marked difference in condition suggests a considerable range in date
within the general period.
Interesting also as a group are the coins foound on the floor of a room in one
of the large houses on the lower slopes of the Hill of the Nymphs, the same room in
which lay the marble bust noted above (p. 178). Since the coins lay within a small
area directly on the floor it may be assumed that they fell from a purse or a money
box dropped in the confusion that must have attended the burning of the house. The
55 identifiable pieces have been assigned as follows: Athens, New Style, 1; Athens
Imperial, 12; Chios, Imperial, 1; Trajan ? (A.D. 98-117), 1; Hadrian (A.D. 117-138),
2; Sabina, 1; Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161), 1; Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180), 1;
Faustina the Elder, 3; Faustina the Younger, 1; Lucilla, 1; Commodus (A.D. 177-
192), 3; Julia Domna, 1; Julia Maesa, 1; Severus Alexander (A.D. 222-235), 4;
Maximinus I (A.D. 235-238), 7; Gordian III (A.D. 238-244), 4; Philip I (A.D. 243-
249), 5; Otacila, 2; Trajan Decius (A.D. 249-251), 2; Gallienus (A.D. 253-268), 1.'"
This sequence, taken in combination with similar series of coins found in other burned
buildings of the Agora, notably the Odeion, indicates clearly that the destruction was
caused by the Herulian sack of A.D. 267.
133 Head, Historia Nurnorum, ed. 2, p. 364; B.M.C., Central Greece, p. lxvi; Grose, Fitzzwillianz
Museum, McClean Bequest, II, p. 342.
134 The weights are gr. 1.77, 2.05, 1.60, 1.49, 1.47, 2.05, 1.82, 1.72.
135 For the identification we are indebted to Verna Broneer.