Herennius Etruscus - Apollo RARE and extremely fine (JJUL2159)
Herennius Etruscus - Apollo RARE (MA2216)
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Herennius Etruscus AE of Side, Pamphylia. AD 250-251.
KYIN ER ETR MEC DEKION KAICARA, bare-headed, draped bust right.
CIDHTWN, Athena standing left, holding palm branch and dropping
pebble into amphora before her.
7,75 gm, 24.5 mm
Voters deposited a pebble into one of two urns to mark their choice; after voting, the urns were emptied onto counting boards for tabulation. The principle of secret voting was established by at least the 5th century B.C., and Athenians may have used a contraption to obscure the urn into which a voter was placing his hand. In ancient Greece a pebble was called a psephos, which gives us the dubious term psephology, the scientific study of elections.