A FEW REFLECTIONS ON THE IMITATIONS OF THE RODOS DRACHMS AND THE MATTER OF MERCENARY SOLDIERS

AbstractA reference to the topic of Rhodian imitations from the end of the III and the first half of the II century BC is the result of a new study of Rhodes coins from the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum in Łodź (Poland). This collection includes pseudo-Rhodos drachmas minted in Crete, Central Greece and Samothrace. As a result of many years of study R.H.J. Ashton, it can be said that pseudo-Rhodos drachmas with a low weight in relation to Rhodes coins were minted in Crete, in Central Greece, including in Beotia in Haliartos, and in Tessalia, in Eretria and Histiaei in Euboea, on Samothrake, on Kos and centers of Asia Minor, in Miletus, in Jonia, in Karii – Alabanda and Mylasa, Kaunos. The influence of such emissions in Lycia is also visible. The production of imitations of the Rhodos dramas began in Crete at the end of the third century BC, durable, in various centers, until about 170 BC. Pseudo-Rhodos drachma, corresponding to Attic tetroboles and Egyptian trioboles (the weight of the coins coming from different centers is different) could become supra-regional money, but it does not change the fact of their “war” genesis. Such coins, however, were not circulated in Rhodes. The article refers to the circumstances in which the production of such coins began in Crete, and the reasons for the prevalence of such coins during the Third Macedonian War.