Symbola (Monetiform Tokens)

Clare Rowan and M.E. (Mairi) Gkikaki join me in the Lesche to discuss the use of monetiform tokens in Greek (and a bit of Roman) antiquity. Clare was the PI on the ERC-funded project "Token Communities of the Ancient Mediterranean." Mairi was a postdoctoral researcher on the project, and her edited volume Tokens in Classical Athens and Beyond was published (open-access) with Liverpool University Press in 2023.

See here for the project's Database of Token Types.

Ancient texts (selection)

• Aristophanes, Ekklesiazousai (Assemblywomen)
• Aristotle, Athenaion Politeia
• Herodotus 6.86 (story of Glaucus)
• IG I3 34, the "Cleinias Decree"
• IG II3 4 76 (mention of tribal token distribution at line 79)
• Philochorus (Atthidographer)
• Plato, Symposium (Aristophanes' speech)

Also mentioned (selection)

• Kroll, J.H. and Mitchel, F.W. 1980, "Clay Tokens Stamped with the Names of Athenian Military Commanders," Hesperia 49, pp. 86–96. 
• Lang, M. 1959, "Allotment by Tokens," Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 8, pp. 80–89. 
• Lang, M. and M. Crosby. 1964, The Athenian Agora X. Weights, Measures and Tokens. ASCSA/Princeton.
• M.I. Rostovtzeff's work on tokens
• Svoronos, I.N. 1900, "Κατάλογος των Μολύβδινων Συμβόλων του Εθνικού Νομισματικού Μουσείου," Journal International d 'Archéologie Numismatique 3, pp. 322-343.
  • See further work by Svoronos on tokens (εἰσιτήρια) in the Journal International d’Archéologie Numismatique. 

About our guests

Clare Rowan is an Associate Professor in the department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. She specialises in ancient numismatics, in particular ancient tokens, iconography and small change. She was the principal investigator on the European Union Research Council-funded project "Token Communities of the Ancient Mediterranean" (2016-2021).

M.E. Gkikaki is an honorary research fellow at the Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick, where she has been a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow (2018–21) and a team member of the ERC-funded project "Token Communities of the Ancient Mediterranean" (2016–18). She is editor of the volume Tokens in Classical Athens and Beyond (Liverpool University Press 2023). Her monograph Symbola: Athenian Tokens from Classical to Roman Times will soon be appearing with Liverpool University Press. 

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Thanks for joining us in the Lesche!

Podcast art: Daniel Blanco
Theme music: "The Song of Seikilos," recomposed by Eftychia Christodoulou using Sibelius

This podcast is made possible with the generous support of Brown University’s Department of Classical Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study.

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