region have more to do with modern preoccupations about identities
than they do with ancient institutional practice. Ancient perceptions of
differences between Greeks and non-Greeks in the north refer mainly
to those aspects of cultural practice where differences were much more
specific, such as attitudes to authority and commemoration, not in
terms of representative bodies or in exchange mechanisms.Markets and currenciesSince commercial transactions during thefirst millenniumbc were
normally bilateral, confirmed by signs and symbols of‘ritualized’friend-
ship,^92 what we would expect tofind is evidence of reciprocal relations
and this is what the variety of coin types at major hubs seems to
represent. At Nebet Tepe, the hilltop sanctuary and trading centre in
the middle of Plovdiv (ancient Philippopolis), there are silver coins from
various cities of Chalkidike, the lower Strymon valley, and beyond, as far
as the Straits. The earliest issues of the late sixth to fourth centuriesbc
read like a roll-call of the main coastal trading harbours of the region:
Akanthos; the‘satyr and nymph’issues of Thasos and Thasian imita-
tions; coins of Neapolis; Dikaia by Abdera; Abdera itself; Maroneia,
Orthagoreia, Ainos, Selymbria, the Thracian Chersonese, Parion, Kyzi-
kos, Amisos; and beyond, Thebes, Athens, Aegina, Apollonia Pontika,
and Istros. In the later fourth and third centuriesbc, these were joined by
numerous coins of Macedonian monarchs, by Pantikapaion, Kallatis,
Histiaia, and the various‘new style’second-centurybcissues of Athens,
Thasos, Mesambria, the First Macedonian district, the magistrate Aesil-
las, and Mithridates Eupator, reflecting the progressive transformation of
the economic drivers from the Aegean powers to Rome.^93 This panor-
ama of contacts reflects the rather complicated structure of exchange,
requiring specific agreements between specific community agents in
order for transactions to be validated. The range of coins enumerated
at Nebet Tepe is indicative of the general trend, rather than being a full
reflection of transactions.
Thefinds consist almost entirely of silver and some gold coins,
supplemented by a number of copper alloy ones. The proportions do
not correspond to what we would expect in a commercial centre, but
rather to the tastes and priorities of collectors. There are far too few
copper alloy issues in proportion to silver ones. The reasons are not hard
(^92) Onxenia-type friendships: Gauthier 1972; Herman 1987.
(^93) Kisiov et al. 1998, 10–33; Philippopolis:Inventory, no. 655.
Regionalism and regional economies 227