T H E AT H E N I A N E M P I R E Coinage played a central role in the history of the Athenian naval empire of the fifth century BC. It made possible the rise of the empire itself, which was financed through tribute in coinage collected annually from the empire’s approximately 200 cities. The empire’s downfall was brought about by the wealth in Persian coinage that financed its enemies. This book surveys and illustrates with nearly 200 examples the extraordinary variety of silver and gold coinages that were employed in the history of the period, minted by cities within the empire and by those cities and rulers that came into contact with it. It also examines how coins supplement the literary sources and even attest to developments in the monetary history of the period that would otherwise be unknown. This is an accessible introduction both to the history of the Athenian empire and to the use of coins as evidence. Lisa Kallet is Cawkwell Fellow in Ancient History at University College, Oxford. She has published two influential books on Thucydides, as well as articles on Thucydides, the Athenian empire, democracy, and Attic epigraphy. John H. Kroll is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin, and an Honorary Research Associate of the Heberden Coin Room at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is the author of the volume of the Greek coins from the Agora Excavations and has written widely on other numismatic topics and on Greek weights and inscriptions. He has served as Trustee and Second Vice President of the American Numismatic Society. G U I D E S T O T H E C O I N A G E O F T H E A N C I E N T W O R L D General Editor Andrew Meadows, University of Oxford Coinage is a major source of evidence for the study of the ancient world but is often hard for those studying and teaching ancient history to grasp. Each volume in the series provides a concise introduction to the most recent scholarship and ideas for a commonly studied period or area, and suggests ways in which numismatic evidence may contribute to its social, political and economic history. The volumes are richly illustrated, with full explanatory captions, and so can also function as a numismatic sourcebook for the period or area in question