CHAPTER XI. The Lydian and Persian Systems.

When Croesus ascended the throne in 568 B.C., one of his earliest acts seems to have been an attempt to propitiate the Greeks both of Asia and Hellas proper by sending offerings of equal value to the two most famous shrines of Apollo, Delphi and Branchidae. In the course of some fourteen years he reduced under the sway of Lydia all the regions that lay between the river Halys and the sea. “It seems probable (says Mr Head) that the introduction of a double currency of pure gold and silver, in place of the primitive electrum, may have been due to the commercial genius of Croesus.” If this be so, the monarch seems to have acted with thrift in his offerings, for according to Herodotus his dedications at Delphi were all of white gold, i.e. electrum. Perhaps then he got no more than he deserved when, induced by the declaration of the Delphic prophetess that he would destroy a mighty kingdom, he made war upon Cyrus with disastrous issue. There however can be no doubt that Croesus made some important monetary change, for in after years there still remained a clear tradition of Croesus’ stater (Κροίσειος στατήρ), just as the famous gold stater of Philip of Macedon was known as the Philippean or Philippus⁸. In his monetary reform Croesus seems to have had regard to the weights of the two old electrum staters, each of which was now represented by an equal value, though not of course by an equal weight, of pure gold.