Note 944 — Chapter VI · Argos

Svoronos, J. I. d’A. N. V. p. 42 states that some of the earliest “tortoises” are bad money (κίβδηλα), and suggests that Pheidon debased the coinage when his prosperity began to diminish towards the end of his reign. This suggestion has no direct confirmation, but it harmonizes with what is known of the fall of the tyranny in other places, notably Athens, where it coincides with the loss of the Paionian mines, and Rome, where Tarquin fell, “exhaustus munificentia publicorum operum.”