The Iron Money of Sparta

NOT the least intriguing of the many mysteries of Sparta is that of their so-called money. Plutarch is our most explicit authority for its use.1 In his Life of he tells us that the great lawgiver, seeing the evils arising from the use of money, ordained that the Spartans should only use as their currency and this should be so heavy and cumbersome that a yoke of oxen would be necessary to transport even a small sum. Furthermore, it was made brittle and useless as metal by being quenched in vinegar when red hot. The attribution of this reform to Lycurgus need not occupy our attention. Any ancient custom of Sparta was put down to that enigmatical lawgiver, who may, or may not, have actually existed. The alleged use of as money, on the other hand, is well worth looking into. In the first place, was there ever an iron in Greece? And was this standard superseded by the regularly minted currency introduced into Greece by Pheidon ?2 Quite a respectable theory of this currency can be built up by supposing that those curious obeloi, spits or skewers, or whatever they were, were used as money and that a handful of them, a drax, was the origin of the drachma.3 That obeloi did exist there is no doubt, as specimens have been discovered. But there is no definite evidence that they were ever used as money. Pheidon is a very shadowy figure, who may have existed and probably did. But that he introduced gold and silver coins into Greece is almost certainly fanciful. They just leaked in from the East, brought by merchants, and the Greeks learned the trick of coining from them. Laum4 has a most elaborate argument that those queer things, which have been called sickles but look more like boomerangs, that have been found in Sparta, were used as money. Undoubtedly they were cult instruments; but equally undoubtedly there is nothing to show that they ever were used as money and Laum's ingenious argument falls to the ground. But putting aside skewers and sickles, what about the alleged

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• Note su un’ideale moneta ellenica Per un contributo a Platone, Leg. V 742a-c

  Open Access•Leonardo Masone•Erga-Logoi Rivista di storia…•2023

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