Suda On Line - Search

Aristophanes [sc. says this]. Rather than "captivating the powerful and assuaging and elevating myself in their favour, I convinced them to incline towards me."[1]
But obols are what we call folles. "Justinian himself, whereas money-changers would give lenders 210 obols for a gold stater, contrived profit for himself, and ordered that only 180 obols should be given per stater."[2]
Also in Aristophanes: "Alas, how much those two obols can achieve everywhere!"[3] Because it is said, that [they would place] two obols on the mouth of the dead.
Also attested is the three-obol coin, which generals would get for laziness.[4]
On the obol, see under assaria.[5]

Ὀβολοῦ κοριάννοις τὴν βουλὴν ἀναλαβὼν ἐλήλυθα: Ἀριστοφάνης. ἀντὶ τοῦ συναρπάσας ἱκανοὺς καὶ κουφίσας καὶ μετεωρίσας εἰς ἐμαυτὸν τῇ εὐνοίᾳ ἔπεισα ῥέπειν. Ὀβολοὶ δέ εἰσιν οὓς καλοῦμεν φόλλεις. ὁ Ἰουστινιανός, τῶν ἀργυραμοιβῶν ὑπὲρ ἑνὸς στατῆρος χρυσοῦ προί̈εσθαι τοῖς ξυμβάλλουσιν εἰωθότων ι# καὶ σ1# ὀβολούς, αὐτὸς ἐπιτεχνώμενος κέρδη οἰκεῖα π# καὶ ρ# μόνους ὑπὲρ τοῦ στατῆρος διετάξατο δίδοσθαι ὀβολούς. καὶ αὖθις Ἀριστοφάνης: φεῦ, ὡς μέγα δύνασθον πανταχοῦ δύ' ὀβολώ. διὰ τὸ λεγόμενον, ὅτι τοῖς νεκροῖς ἐπὶ τοῦ στόματος δύο ὀβολούς. λέγεται καὶ τριώβολον, τῶν στρατηγῶν βλακείας χάριν προστιθέντων. ζήτει περὶ ὀβολοῦ ἐν τῷ ἀσσάρια.

[1] Aristophanes, Knights 682 (the sausage-seller is reporting on his success in bribing the assembly), with comment from the scholia there.
[2] On the Byzantine coin follis, and the passage cited from Procopius (which glosses folles as obols), see kappa 1413.
[3] Aristophanes, Frogs 141, when Dionysus is first told of the need to pay the ferryman to Hades.
[4] Paraphrase of an Aristophanic scholion misquoted in tau 1171 and phi 235; the scholion is cited correctly in beta 317.
[5] alpha 4126.

Suda On Line Search