The series begins early in the 5th centuryB.C. with coins, some of which are didrachms (Aeginetic), having as subjects an eagle carrying a serpent or a hare, and on the reverse a thunderbolt or Victory bearing a wreatharchaic types which in their vigour promise the excellence of later days.
The oldest coins may be as early as 480 B.C. They bear the figure of the Minotaur as a bull-headed man, kneeling on one knee, and a maeander-pattern, in one case enclosing a star (the sun), in another a head (Theseus?).
The surrender of Jugurtha by Bocchus to Sulla is represented on a denarius of Sulia's son Faustus (62 B.c., Pl. II.
After 6000 bc the settlements grew, becoming cities by the 4th millennium bc.
The oldest settlement in the area is believed to be Eridu, but the best example is Erech (Uruk) in the south, where mud-brick temples were decorated with fine metalwork and stonework, and growing administrative needs stimulated the invention of a form of writing, cuneiform.
A raid launched in around 1595 bc by the Hittites from Turkey brought Babylon down, and for four centuries it was controlled by non-Semitic Kassites.
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