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Plutarch states the Spartans had an iron obol of four coppers. They retained the cumbersome and impractical bars rather than proper coins to discourage the pursuit of wealth. [5] Silver Athenian obol, prominently featuring the regional owl design. 510–490 BC. In Classical Athens, obols were traded as silver coins. Six obols made up the drachma.
Spartans were obliged to use iron obols (bars or spits), meant to encourage self-sufficiency and discourage avarice and the hoarding of wealth. A Spartan citizen in good standing (a Spartiate) was one who maintained his fighting skills, showed bravery in battle, ensured that his farms were productive, was married and had healthy children.
Sparta deliberately used iron currency to make amassing wealth unwieldy, and remained on an iron currency standard all through Greece's golden age. [2] Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, mentions iron currency in Britain. [3] "For money they use bronze or gold coins, or iron bars of fixed weights." — Julius Caesar, 54 BC [1]
The three most important standards of the ancient Greek monetary system were the Attic standard, based on the Athenian drachma of 4.3 grams (2.8 pennyweights) of silver, the Corinthian standard based on the stater of 8.6 g (5.5 dwt) of silver, that was subdivided into three silver drachmas of 2.9 g (1.9 dwt), and the Aeginetan stater or didrachm of 12.2 g (7.8 dwt), based on a drachma of 6.1 g ...
Pelanor (Ancient Greek: πέλανορ, lit. 'cakes') [1] was the currency reportedly used in Sparta during the reign of the semi-mythical Lycurgus. [2] According to Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus, [3] not only did Lycurgus ban the use of gold and silver currency in favor of iron, but, just as the iron was red hot, it would be quenched in vinegar, thus rendering the metal unusable for any other ...
In Scandinavia, scattered examples of Charon's obol have been documented from the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period; in the Viking Age eastern Sweden produces the best evidence, Denmark rarely, and Norway and Finland inconclusively. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Charon's obol appears in graves in Sweden, Scania, and Norway.
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Areus I (Ancient Greek: Ἀρεύς; c. 320 or 312 – 265 BC) was Agiad King of Sparta from 309 to 265 BC. His reign is noted for his attempts to transform Sparta into a Hellenistic kingdom and to recover its former pre-eminence in Greece, notably against the kings Antigonos Gonatas of Macedonia and Pyrrhus of Epirus.