pressure on the coastal cities of Ionia. At least, that is how Herodotus
presents the situation, within the context of the impending Greco-Persian
Wars. Herodotus’own narrative, however, reveals the kinds of mixed
motives behind the complex decisions of the various parties involved.
The Abderitans had difficultyfinding a good source of metal for their
iron tools and weapons, as we saw in Chapter 4. The city’s coinage,
however, is one of the earliest andfinest series of silver (and gold)
coins from anywhere in the Aegean. Where did the Abderitans get the
metal to make these coins? The ready availability of silver and gold seems
to be the main message of the city’s coin issues (and is the opposite of
what the iron tools seem to be telling us). Since there are no reserves of
silver and gold anywhere in the vicinity of Abdera, the inhabitants must
have negotiated access to reserves with one or other indigenous group.
More pretentious graves from the classical city’s cemetery contain gold
ornaments. The main sources were some distance away—either from the
area of Mount Pangaion, or from the western parts of the Thracian Plain,
where gold panning from the River Pyasechnik continues to produce
some of the highest quality metal even today; or from the mined reserves
in eastern Rhodope, perhaps a more plausible as well as accessible
location of available deposits.^17 The consistent quality of Abdera’s coin-
age suggests that the source of the metals was reliable for the whole of the
city’s pre-Roman history. Yet our principal sources give no indication
whatever of who provided access to the metal. The Abderitans are
conspicuously absent from among the various groups competing in the
Pangaion district. So the assumption has to be that they negotiated
successfully with the Thracian princes. Surviving coin issues in them-
selves provide only limited information about transactions. No Odrysian
regal issues have been found at Abdera until the late fourth centurybc
and Abderitan issues are comparatively rare in the interior of Thrace
until round about the same time. Chryssanthaki-Nagle has studied 2,925
coins found in the excavations at Abdera. Among them there were no
Odrysian coins before those of Seuthes III. Spokes, evidently a local ruler,
minted coins that are contemporary with hoards of Abderitan coins from
the last quarter of the fourth centurybc. She compares the relationship
of Spokes’output to that of another individual who is commemorated
(^17) Archibald 1998, 117–31 and Table 5.1; Nekhrizov and Mikov 2000, 162, mapfig. 1,
nos 1 (Startsevo) and 5 (Kurdjali), hoards containing Abderitan issues; Kagan 2006 for an
early hoard of Abderitan silver containing minor denominations, including 5 didrachms,
2 drachms, 2 hemidrachms, 2 obols, and 18 hemiobols; Chryssanthaki-Nagle (2007) has
dated the start of the silver coinagec.520/515– 500 bc; see also Ch. 4 n.87 with further refs to
mined reserves in eastern Rhodope.
256 The lure of the northern Aegean