The Babylonian Woe

by David Astle

  [279] Herodotus: The Histories, Book I.

  [280] P.N. Ure, M.A.: The Origins of Tyranny, p. 280; New York; 1922.

  [281] Walter Leaf: The Journal of Hellenic Studies. p. 167.

  [282] The Origins of Tyranny, p. 281. In his footnote Dr. Ure remarks that Leaf might have gone on to quote the case of Timaeus the Cyzicene, who, like Euaion, and perhaps Hermias, had been a pupil of Plato: “Timaeus the Cyzicene having granted bonuses of money and corn to the citizens and having on that account won credit among the Cyzicenes as being a worthy man, after a short while made an attempt on the city by means of Aridias. Athens XI. 509a. footnote p. 281, Origins of Tyranny.

  [283] “if the praetor gave the money as it is set down, he drew it from the qoaestor, the quaestor from the public bank, the public bank derived it either from revenue or tribute.”. Which does not suggest that the great Cicero also had too much of an understanding of money: this was said over 2000 years ago. Orationes. Cicero. Book XIX, Pro Flaccus, p. 445. Vol. II, C.D. Yonge, B.A., Bell, London, 1883.

  [284] P.N. Ure, M.A.: The Origins of Tyranny, p. 285.

  [285] A. Andreades: A History of the Bank of England, p. 80; London; 1966.

  [286] A. Andreades: Annales D’histoire economique et sociale, p. 330; Paris; 1929.

  [287] A. del Mar: A History of Monetary Systems, p. 505: Ratios.

  [288] A. del Mar: A History of Monetary Systems. p. 355; New York; 1969. In the Maxims of Theognis (line 21) is stated: “ nor will anyone take in exchange worse when better is to be had.”

  [289] P.N. Ure, M.A.: The Origins of Tyranny, p. 285; New York; 1922.

  [290] A. del Mar: A History of the Precious Metals, p. 105; New York; 1966.

  [291] P.N. Ure, M.A.: The Origins of Tyranny, p. 285.

  [292] Mikhail I. Rostovtsev: A Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, Page 108; Oxford; 1941.

  [293] Oskar Seffert: A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, p. 91; (Trans. a Nettleship, M.A., New York; 1904.)

  [294] Mikhail I. Rostovtaev: A Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, p. 227, Vol. I.

  [295] Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 172, Vol. I.

  [296] Ibid.

  [297] Ibid.

  [298] Chronicles, Book II. Chapter 2.

  [299] On this matter The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia reads: “The objection that alexander could have no interest in the Jews is answered by his own life and subsequent actions. An astute statesman of penetrating vision, alexander was quick to grasp the indispensable value of the Jews in the cultural, political and intellectual sphere of his world empire. Alexander’s aim was the synthesis of Occidental and Oriental cultures into the mould of Hellenism; undoubtedly he appreciated the capacity of the Jews to absorb foreign culture, while rigidly maintaining their national identity thus making them an ideal vehicle for his civilizing enterprise. As Jews were already an International commercial power, numbers of them being found in most countries of Alexander’s domain, he granted them many political privileges when he founded Alexandria, and even gave them a portion of Samaria with exemption from taxes in order to gain their support. It is even possible that alexander had first heard of the jews from his teacher, aristotle who, according to the report of josephus, had met a jew who was a veritable philosopher and a “Greek” not only in language but in soul.” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 172. Vol. I.

  [300] Peter Bamm: Alexander the Great; Power as Destiny. p. 72. London; 1968.

  [301] Emil G.H Kraeling: Aram and Israel, p. 1.

  [302] Present work.

  [303] See present work..

  [304] Après avoir bien constaté l’existence avant Pheidon, de ces saumons ou broches de fer qui était la monnaie courant de Peloponnes, il nous sera facile de définir nettement le rôle de ce prince. Il ne fut pas l’inventeur de la monnaie mais seulement, comme servius tullius, un réformateur. il introduisit dans le péloponnèse un système fixé des poids et mesures, a la place des systèmes multiples qui jetaient la confusion et la désordre dans les relations commerciales; il adapta le poids des nouvelles monnaie au systèmes pondéral nouveau; il demoneta et aboli officiellement la vieille et encombrante monnaie de fer dont il consacra quelques échantillons dans le temple d’Argos”. Les Origines de la Monnaie, p. 211, Ernest Babelon, Paris, 1897.

  [305] François Lenormant: La Monnaie dans l’antiquité, pp. 215-216, Book II, Tome I.

  [306] Kingston-Higgins & Paul Einzig: A Survey of Primitive Money and Primitive Money, respectively.

  [307] Fritz Heichelheim: An Ancient Economic History, p. 478, Vol. I.

  [308] Robert Payne: The Gold of Troy, p. 199.

  [309] Christopher Dawson: The Age of the Gods, p. 255.

  [310] The kings of the dynasty ruling in Lydia until 689 B.C., or Phrygia as it may then have been, of which Myrsilus (or Candaules) was the last, mostly bore Hittite names. According to Del Mar in his History of Monetary Systems, p. 41, the Phrygian (or Lydian) chronicles extend back to 1300 B.C. (when Bog-Haz Koi and Troy still existed). According to Professor W.F. Albright (The Amarna Letters from Palestine, Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. II; p. 43.), “The Hittites had established several vassal states in northern Syria.” “At least two of them, Carchemish and Aleppo, were ruled by princes of the imperial Hittite dynasty. In a third state, Khattina, the reigning princes still bore names derived from imperial Hittite history as late as the ninth century B.C.”

  [311] Although the fall of Bog-Haz Koi undoubtedly ended forever the system of empire over which the kings of the Kheta presided, fragments established local autonomy thereafter. Such fragments were the state of Khattina above mentioned and the cities of Marqasi, and Carchemish.

  [312] Livy; Book I.

  [313] Christopher Dawson: Age of the Gods, p. 304; London; 1928.

  [314] E.J. Haeberlin: Aes Grave; Frankfurt; 1910.

  [315] Accepting the opinion of Mommsen however, the Aes Grave dates from 454 B.C.-430 B.C. Manuel Des Antiquités Romaines. Tome X. Paris; 1888.

  [316] François Lenormant: La Monnaie dans l’Antiquité, p. 66, Book II, Tome I.

  [317] Livy: Book I; (Aubrey de Selincourt: An Early History of Rome, p. 66; London; 1960).

  [318] The Aes Rude.

  [319] Augustus Boeckh: The Public Economy of Athens, Vol. I; p. 43; London; 1828.

  [320] According to Aeschines: “The Carthaginians make use of the following kind of money; in a small piece of leather a substance is wrapped of the size of a piece of 4 drachmae (3s); but what this substance is no one knows except the maker. After this is sealed and issued for circulation; and he who possesses the most of this is regarded as having the most money, and as being the wealthiest man. But if any one amongst us had ever as much, he would be no richer than if he possessed a quantity of pebbles.” (A.J. Church: Carthage, pp. 122-123; New York; 1914.)

  [321] R.A.G. Carson: Coins, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, p. 75; London; 1962.

  [322] Plato: The Laws, Book V.

  [323] Aristotle: The Politics, I, 9.

  [324] Aristotle: The Ethics, V, 5.

  [325] A. del Mar: A History of Money in Ancient Countries, p. 323; London; 1885.

  [326] Ibid.

  [327] According to Harold Mattingly, (Roman Coins, p. 53): “The bronze coinage of rome was the original coinage of the land; it always served the home market and played little part in rome’s expansion abroad. It is perhaps not surprising then that it resisted change more persistently than the world currency of the denarius.” (Italics by present author.)

  [328] Both Cicero (Pro Flaccus; Orationes; Book XXVIII), and Pliny (Naturalis Historia, xii, c.18), make mention of this flow of silver Eastward.

  Cicero says that gold moved Eastward to the temple at Jerusalem. This may also have been so.

  [329] A. del Mar: Barbara Williers or a History of Monetary Crimes; pp. 8-44.

  [330] A. del Mar: Money and Civilization, p. 303; London; 1886.

  [331] Fritz Heichelheim: An Ancient Economic His
tory, p. 251; Vol. I.

  [332] Potter: Antiquities of Greece.

  [333] Plato: The Laws, Book V.

  [334] W. Jacob: An Historical Enquiry into the Production and Consumption Metals. Del Mar, quoting from this book, gives a most reasonable analysis of the apparent loss associated with the working of the silver mines of New Carthage in Spain, by the Carthaginians. (A. del Mar: History of the Precious Metals, p. 68.)

  [335] Xenophon: A Discourse upon improving the Revenues of the State of Athens, (Pages 317-322, The Political and Commercial Works of Charles Davenant LLD; 1771)

  [336] François Lenormant: La Monnaie dans l’Antiquité, pp. 215-216, Book II, Tome I. Several Athenian and Corinthian residents have these clay coins in their possession (N. Boucara of Corinth).

  [337] In London 2000 years later, when the goldsmiths operated exactly the same “racket,” the confidence of the public was gained through the connivance, witting or unwitting, of the Royal House, and the storage of the goldsmiths reserves in the Tower of London. The fact of their being in the Tower offered the same sanctity to the goldsmith’s practice of issuing receipts as against non-existing reserves, i.e., fraudulent receipts, as had been offered to similar practice in ancient times by the undoubted storage of the reserves of the trapezitae in the Acropolis. In either case to encourage the circulation of his receipts, he could plead the difficulties and the dangers of the formalities attached to withdrawal of the metal itself for the purpose of settlement of an account.

  [338] Charles Seltsman, M.A.: Greek Coins, p. 179; London; 1933.

  [339] Royal Ontario Museum Display.

  [340] From the time of the Institution of the Financial Reforms of Lycurgus.

  [341] Mikhail I. Rostovtsev: A Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, p. 108; Vol I, Oxford; 1941.

  [342] Ibid. p. 106.

  [343] Ibid. p. 108.

  [344] Ibid. p. 104.

  [345] Perhaps an internationally functioning unit like the Euro-Dollar, originating from that form of ledger entry money known as the “swap” deposit. While doing the world’s business, relative to the work it does, it bears little relationship to the workings of the originating financial system. Such “swap” deposit money, although it will buy a loaf of bread or, at the other end of the scale, a ship, and therefore is money as much as any other kind of money, originates free of control of governments or central banks. Such Euro-currencies “can expand by the process of money creation without infusions from oil nations or payments deficits.” Clearly they largely exist more as a special convenience to a certain group of people whose “business” is manipulating world currencies, and therefore prices, for their own needs and profit without reference to the good or authority of the state that permits the generating of such externally circulating monetary units, or to the good of its peoples. For a detailed explanation of the Euro-Dollar see Report of the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance. pp. 138-140; Ottawa; 1964.

  [346] Augustus Boeckh: The Public Economy of Athens, Vol. I; p. 43; London; 1828.

  [347] P.N. Ure, M.A.: The Origins of Tyranny, p. 2; New York; 1922.

  [348] “The Smithsonian report for 1876, p. 399, mentions clay stamps for printing cotton cloths (in ancient times). These could scarcely have failed to suggest baked clay coins such as were used in China, Chaldea, und Egypt.” History of Money in America, p. 44. A. del Mar (in reference to Mexican money).

  [349] He might have added, pursuing the matter further, that the paper note of today merely act as small change for that abstract money created by the mass of cheques in transit, and behind which exists no more than the misappropriated will of the gods themselves.

  [350] C.M Kraay & Max Hirmer: Greek Coins, Preface. London; 1968.

  [351] W. Cleon Skousen: The Naked Capitalist, p. 112.

  [352] John R. Elsom: Lightning over the Treasury Building, p. 78.

  [353] W.B. Vennard: Conquest or Consent, p. 12.

  [354] Humphrey Michell, M A: Sparta, p. 27; (Cambridge University Press; 1952.)

  [355] Further than the findings of archaeology, the deductions of some of the classical scholars also attribute the so-called reforms of Lycurgus to the sixth century B.C., being therein the so-called Eunomia, c 610 B.C.; clearly, therefore, either inspiring the events at Athens brought about by Solon, or being inspired thereby. According to the writer on this subject in the Encyclopedia of World History. (p. 50).” By the so-called Eunomia, the Spartans, fearing further revolts (of the Messenians) completely reorganized the State to make it more severely military. Youths from the age of 7 were taken for continual military training. Men of military age lived in barracks and ate at common messes (syssitia, phiditia). Five local tribes replaced the three Dorian hereditary ones and the army was correspondingly divided, creating the Dorian Phalanx. In the tribes were enrolled as citizens many non-citizens. The gerousia, comprising 28 elders and the two kings, had the initiative in legislation though the apella of all citizens had the final decision. The chief magistrates, ephors were increased to five, with wider powers especially after the ephorate of Cheilon (556 B.C.). Later ages attributed the reforms (the financial sector of which is ignored by this writer) to the hero Lycurgus in the ninth century, perhaps because the new laws were put under his protection.”

  [356] Plutarch: Lycurgus (The Lives: Dryden Translation).

  [357] Humphrey Michell, M.A: Sparta; p. 12.

  [358] Ibid. p. 23.

  [359] Humphrey Michell, M.A.: Sparta, p. 23.

  [360] P.N. Ure, M.A.: The Origins of Tyranny, p. 8.

  [361] Humphrey Michell: Sparta, p. 27.

  [362] Paul Einzig: Primitive Money, pp. 36-40; also see E.J.C. McKay in Further Excavations at Mohanjo-Daro, p. 582.

  [363] Kingston-Higgins: A Survey of Primitive Money, p. 140. London; 1949.

  [364] Colin Renfrew: The Emergence of Civilization; pp. 483-544; London; 1972.

  [365] Paul Einzig: Primitive Money, p. 224; London; 1949.

  [366] Bracketed comment by present author.

  [367] Humphrey Michell, M.A.: Sparta, p. 30.

  [368] Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War, Book I, Ch. 6.

  [369] Sallust who lived from 86 B.C. to 35 B.C. drew the following picture of the state of society at that time: “When freed from the fear of Carthage, the Romans had leisure to give themselves up to their dissensions, then there sprang up on all sides troubles, seditions, and at last civil wars. A small number of powerful men, whose favour most of the citizens sought by base means, exercised a veritable despotism under the imposing name, sometimes of the Senate, at other times of the ‘People.’ The title of good or bad citizen was no longer the reward of what he did for or against his country for all were equally corrupt; but the more anyone was rich, and in condition to do evil with impunity, provided he supported the present order of things, the more he passed for a man of worth. From this moment the ancient manners no longer became corrupted gradually as before; but the depravation spread with the rapidity of a torrent and youth was to such a degree infected by the poison of luxury and avarice, that there came a generation of people of which it was just to say, that they could neither have patrimony nor suffer others to have it.” Sallust: Fragm. I.12-13.

  [370] A. del Mar: A History of Money in Antiquity, p. 165.

  [371] Xenophon: A Discourse upon improving the Revenues of the State of Athens, pp. 311-13; (Trans. Charles Davenant, London, 1771).

  [372] “Longtemps après que l’usage de la monnaie eut été partout répandu dans le monde Hellénique, Sparte continuait par tradition, a se servir de lingots de fer comme intermédiaires des échange. Ces lingots était connu sous le nom de (gâteau de Pâtisserie). Ils pesaient chacun une mine éginétique et pour en transporter six seulement, c’est a dire environs 4536 Kg il fallait un chariot attelé de deux boeufs. Ce renseignement qui nous fournissent Xenophon et Plutarch, est conforme a ce qui se passait dans l’Italie centrale où les encombrantes lingots de bronze étaient transporté sur des chariots: “a
es grave plaustris quidam convehentes,” dit Titus Vivius. Il circulait toutes sortes de fables au sujet du fameux Pelanor de Sparte, qui parait être rester en usage jusqu’a l’époque des guerres médiques: on disait par exemple que le fer destiné a fabriquer cette monnaie était impropre à tout autre usage et rendu cassant par une opération qui consistait à la faire rougir au feu et a la tremper ensuite de fer était, parait-il exclusif, et défense sous peine de morte, fur faite à tout citoyen de posséder une autre monnaie.

  Quand Epaminondas mourut il était si pauvre qu’on ne trouva dans sa maison, pour toute fortune, qu’un vieil en fer. A Thèbes, la patrie d’Epaminondas ou la monnaie fut connu et frappée de bonne heure, trouve dans la demeure du héros ne pouvait avoir qu’un caractère superstitieux. Ceci nous surprendra d’autant moins que dès le septième siècle, Phidon, roi d’Argos, lorsqu’il fit frappés un système régulier de poids et mesures, retira de la circulation les vieilles broches de fer qui auraient servit de monnaie jusqu’à là, et en consacra un certain nombres d’exemplaires en “ex-voto” dans la sanctuaire de Héra à Argos En temps de Aristotle on voyait encore dans le Temple.” (Ernest Babelon: Les Origines de la Monnaie. p. 79; Paris; 1897.)

  [373] Pausanias was the commander of the fleet of the Greek allies. After his success against the Persians on land at Plataea, in the same year, 479 B.C., he reduced both Cyprus and Byzantium. According to the record, he was executed by the Ephors by being starved to death in the temple of Athena of the Brazen House, having been found guilty of (kingly) domineering which was supposed to have alienated Ionia. The real reason of his disgrace and execution would have been buried amongst the secrets of National or International money power. He had most likely entered into secret dealings with the latter. (Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War; Book I; Ch. 10.)

  [374] According to A. del Mar, the iron currency of the pelanors was strictly a numerical system; confined to Sparta, it was a national system having no relationship to International Standards or ratios with other metals; thus being identical in character to the “Greenback” paper money issued by President Abraham Lincoln, during the American Civil War, and by which means the schemes of the international bullion braking fraternity were temporarily frustrated.