house was entered and plundered by the minions of the Thirty, his money chest contained 100 Darics, 400 Cyzicenes, and 3 talents of silver. It is only necessary to enumerate some of the passages in the Greek authors, where mention is made of their coins, to show how wide an influence they exercised in the eastern Mediterranean. Besides Herodotus and Lysias already mentioned, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Arrian, Diodorus and many others all make mention of these famous coins[363]. No classification of them according to the reigns of the monarchs by whom they were issued is possible, for this is precluded by the absence of all inscriptions, and the great uniformity of style. They bear on the obverse the king of Persia bearded crowned and clad in a long robe; he kneels towards the right on one knee; on his back is a quiver, in his right hand is a long spear, and in his outstretched left a bow (from which came the familiar Greek name of Archers for these pieces). The reverse is simply marked by an oblong incuse. Their weight may be set at 130 grs., which of course is the light shekel or ox-unit. We have no difficulty in fixing the gold mina or talent. In fact we have already seen on p. 260 that the Persian talent of gold was the same as the Euboic-Attic talent. Hence 1 Daric = 130 grs. 50 Darics = 1 mina = 6,500 grs. 3000 Darics = 60 minas = 1 talent = 390,000 grs. For silver currency the Persians employed half of the Babylonian silver stater of 168 grs., its usual weight being about 84 grs. This coin was in every way similar to the Daric and in fact is sometimes called by the same name by writers of a later age[364], but the more usual appellation in the classical writers was the _Median_ siglos (Μηδικός σίγλος) or simply _siglos_. Twenty of these sigli were equivalent to one gold Daric, for Xenophon appears to count 3000 Darics as equal to 10 talents of silver, or in other words to 60,000 sigli (6000 × 10 = 60,000). The siglos may therefore be regarded as the Persian drachm or half-stater. As 130 grains of gold are thus made equal to 1680 grs. of silver (84 × 20), gold held to silver the old ratio of 13:1. The Persian silver standard was formed thus: 1 siglos = 84 grs. 100 sigli = 50 staters = 1 mina = 8400 grs. 6000 sigli = 3000 staters = 60 minae = 1 talent = 504,000 grs. As regards commercial weight we may fairly assume that the old light and heavy _royal_ systems continued in use in the respective regions where they had been employed in early days. CHAPTER XII. THE GREEK SYSTEM.