War and peace and North-West Greece: a study of the fourth century B.C. Pegasi

This project investigates the motivating factors that led to the minting of silver pegasi (Corinthian-style) coins by fifteen city-states of North-West Greece in the mid-fourth century B.C. The basis of the project is a series of die-studies that will enable the quantification and analysis of each city’s minting activity during this period. The project includes the first diestudies of the pegasi staters of 12 poleis, data that will inform the project’s historical conclusions. Questions of chronology and the purpose for minting, which have been entangled in past literature, are addressed through a comprehensive analysis of the hoards and formation of a relative chronology. Employing postcolonial theory, the project takes a unique regional approach to the geopolitical history of North-West Greece by viewing the minting poleis as an interconnected and communicative network of cities along the coastline of Greece. The thesis also engages with cultural semiotics to evaluate the iconographical significance of the pegasi coin as a symbolic political medium.

This research has implications for our understanding of the geopolitical history of North-West Greece in the Classical period, a region of the Mediterranean that is under-researched in the archaeology and underrepresented in both the ancient and modern literature. Furthermore, the project highlights the usefulness of coinage as a class of evidence for the interpretation of macro-historical trends such as colonisation, commerce, and conflict in the ancient world.