One of the very interesting exhibitions in the new central building of the Polycentric Goat Museum is called “Ecoumeni antidoro”. Its main characters are the leaders of the Hellenistic world – the Ptolemies, the Attalides, the Seleucids, the kings of Bithynia and Pontus, Bactria and India, as well as all those who called themselves Macedonians several centuries after the death of Alexander the Great – as they are depicted on about six hundred coins of that era of the era , official symbols of their power and authority. These coins were lent to the museum by Theodoros Aravanis, who, through adventure and sacrifice, created perhaps the most important private collection of ancient coins in Greece. Although he serves legal science – he is a state councilor – but archeology and classical literature, according to him, cause him great disgust. And the classical secretariat is the starting point in his life, since his school years…

– With Homer, because this is the beginning of everything, an unsurpassed peak. Ever since I was a student, I have been fascinated by these two epics – you see, I was lucky to be taught by excellent philologists in my public school – but a chance event made me deeply love them. I learned that my father’s sister had taken possession of some of the books of my great-grandfather, who attended the scholararchy in Alexandria, Egypt. I found them in the attic of her house. Among them were Xenophon’s Memoirs and The Odyssey (Leipzig edition, 1860), which I read verbatim with the help of the Homeric Dictionary of Ioannis Pantazidis. In the same way, I read the Iliad while serving in the army.

– For two years, 1996-1998, I served in Luxembourg, at the Court of Justice of the European Union, as the Attorney General, who was Greek. In 1997, I learned that the British Museum in London was holding a large exhibition about Byzantium, and I decided to visit it. Opposite the museum was an antique shop. Something prompted me – I still don’t know what – to go and buy my first coins: the tetradrachm of Alexander, minted in Babylon, and the Athenian tetradrachm of the 5th century. BC, the era of Pericles. This is how the collection began to be created: with adventures, with many victims and with a rather long break in the years of crisis.

– It depends on the quality of the coins you are looking for and what era you are targeting. The most expensive ones are out of reach, prices can exceed 100,000. So far, I have tried to move at a reasonable level, aiming to create a representative collection. Its thematic support is Hellenism in space and time. From Emporio, an ancient Greek colony on the coast of Spain (now Embouries), to the foothills of the Himalayas and the Indus, Baktra, Taxila, Ai-Khanum. And from the beginning of coinage, at the end of the 7th century. for example (with a coin made of electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, from Asia Minor) until the end of the Trebizond Empire, in the 15th century. ANNOUNCEMENT.

“Let’s say a Syracuse silver ten drachmae. I think it was the pinnacle of the coinage of the classical era – and in general. Can anyone get it today for about 10,000 euros.

– Both. It is amazing how an entire era can be compressed in such a small object: its social conditions, its political associations, its ideology. However, I always think about the fate of people whose faces are engraved on coins. So I’m trying to connect them with ancient sources.

It is amazing how an entire era can be compressed in such a small object: its social conditions, its political associations, its ideology.

– In my opinion, there are no big differences in the centuries. The desire of people to acquire money in order to exchange it not only for a better quality of life, but also for power or influence over others, is timeless. This is evident from the sources themselves.

It would be a very difficult decision if I had to make it! Perhaps one from each historical period: one ancient Greek, one Roman, one Hellenistic (for example, one Seleucid), one Parthian, and one Byzantine.

“They studied positive sciences, followed different professional paths, but they know that this collection was made with great love and labor, and they respect it. Not that we lived badly, but surely our life would be more comfortable if the money invested in coins were placed elsewhere.

“First of all, I acquire knowledge; as Aristotle says, all people who know this are by nature hungry. I also take this as an offer to Hellenism to preserve a part of our history. Finally, this occupation changed me, made me look at things sub specie aeternitatis in the light of eternity. By putting myself in the bigger picture of people’s endless adventures, I can more easily overcome the challenges I may face. And my work has paid off. Immersed in ancient writing, I began to use the language better, to speak, to formulate my thoughts.

No, because by law it must be kept in a safe. So, if someone is interested in my coins in a bad way, know that they will not find anything in my house! (Laughs)