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I nodded. ‘I shall do my best; but in this case I cannot accept money for my services.’ Though I did often accept money for such work when my help was requested, in this case I felt something like a filial duty to the dead man and his family. This had apparently become my guide. I saw shame on the face of Philodemus for his question. He stood and went over to Samson to embrace him. No words were uttered.
I took some coins from my pouch to pay for what we had consumed. ‘Cyzicus standard, please,’ said the slave who had served us. I sorted through, and handed him the relevant small coins. ‘What is Cyzicus standard?’ asked Philodemus, who had no commercial background, and was obviously not much used to handling coinage himself...‘ Well,’ I said, ‘coinage was invented here in Ionia and Lydia about two hundred years ago. It helps trade, and enables armies to victual themselves without pillage. But different cities use different standards, when they mint their coins.’ I picked one out from those in my hand. ‘This is a lettered Samian coin, for instance, minted in silver before the siege here.’ There was the image of an ox, signifying the worship of the goddess Hera in Samos. There was also a letter identifying the year in which the coin had been made.
‘But here and elsewhere one stater can mean something different according to the varying standards used by the city which produced it. And then there is the difference between normal coins in silver and bronze and the older ones made of electrum, and straight gold coins. It must be a nightmare for merchants to know or work out the cross rates between all the different standards. I think they keep tables of equivalence. Though Athens has been trying to impose her own currency. But the most reliable standard is the Persian gold coin, the daric,’ I showed him one, ‘which contains 130 grains of gold. Still, it is of high value, so is not convenient for day to day transactions.’ Philodemus digested this information, and asked, ‘What is electrum?’ ‘A mixture of gold and silver. It occurs naturally, and is lighter in colour than gold,’ I replied, as we left the table.
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