Note 836 — Chapter VI · Argos

See Homolle ap. Saglio, Dict. Ant. s.v. donarium, pp. 374, n. 155 and 378. It is hardly surprising (pace Th. Reinach, Rev. Num. 1894, p. 5) that no instance there quoted is contemporary with the first recorded event in Greek history. Nor is Reinach’s psychology sound when he maintains (ibid.) that giving away what one no longer needs is an action that by its sentimental or archaeological character betrays a rather recent epoch. Reinach, Rev. Num. 1894, pp. 1–8, notes that the ancients often kept in their temples samples of weights and measures and quotes examples from Athens, Delos, Lebadea, Rome (see also Homolle ap. Saglio, Dict. Ant. s.v. donarium, n. 176), whereas there is no other certain instance of the dedication of a disused currency (Paus. X. 14. 1, dedication at Delphi of double axes by Periklytos of Tenedos, is so interpreted by Babelon, Origines, pp. 75 f., 208, but see Regling ap. Pauly Wissowa s.v. Geld, p. 974 and references ibid. Coins have been found in temples superscribed ἀνάθεμα (dedication) and ἱαρόν (sacred), Babelon, Origines, p. 208, but these may be nearer in intention to the modern offertory than to Pheidon’s reputed dedication). He therefore maintains that the ὀβελίσκοι were not called in by Pheidon, but first issued by him: Pheidon’s invention thus becomes something that happened in Argos not in Aegina, and must be put back at least into the eighth century. Reinach accordingly dates the tyrant eighth Olympiad (748 B.C.). His conjecture only carries weight if that is regarded as the most probable date for Pheidon, against which see above, pp. 159–160.