The Greek language and alphabet spread far from its Eastern Mediterranean origins via colonization and conquest. Some neighboring societies adopted Greek legends on their coinage, while others used only the writing system. Some groups copied Greek coinage, even imitating the inscriptions.
Greek-derived alphabets were also heavily influential, and coins issued with these alphabets were in turn imitated by neighboring peoples. This map shows the areas where coins and coinlike objects with some iteration of Greek were issued.
Additional Details, Choices, Justifications
This is not a chronological map; the entire 2000 year date range is shown all at once. Instead, I tried to show influence by degrees. So if a region issued coins in Greek at one point in time and in Latin at another point in time, I colored the area as using the Greek alphabet. The arrow in the legend shows how I prioritized the categories.
When it came to labels, I tried to provide the label that would be the most informative. So if an area had a large polity and several small polities that all used the Greek alphabet, I labeled it according to the large polity. If a particular polity occurs at the extreme geographic end of Greek influence, I made sure to include its name as well.
When deciding where to color, I used a mix of borders and mint locations. For small polities, I might shade the entire area that was occupied. For polities with far-flung outposts that didn’t have any active mints, I might only shade the core coin-minting region. I chose to count the Byzantine Empire as a Greek state for the times/places in which it issued coins with Greek.
Raw Research
Below are the issuers I used when making the map. I was focused on the farthest borders, so I ignored many polities whose land area was overshadowed by larger ones. Some information below is not on the map, so feel free to browse through it if you want more.
Greek states: Various colonies, Bosporan Kingdom, Macedon and successor states, Byzantium (sometimes), Bactrian, Indo-Greek
Greek language: Parthia, Elymais, Characene, Nabataea, Hasmoneans, Greater Armenia, Kushans, Indo-Scythians, Bukhara, Axum, Kingdom of Sicily, Kingdom of Georgia, 2nd Bulgarian Empire, Tylis, Mauretania (Cleopatra Selene)
Greek script: Western Kshatrapas, Ligures, Lingones, Remi, Meldi, Leuci, Suessiones, Senones, Mercenary War Libyon, Chaka (Golden Horde)
Imitation of Greek: Thracian tetradrachms, Thraco-Getae, Insubres, Veneti, Sequani, Guptas, Tmutarakan, Khwarazm (King Artav), Arab-Byzantine, some Umayyad, Zangid, Danishmendid, Chinese 白金三品 ingots, South Arabian and Lihyan Owls, East Arabian Alexanders, Samarian Owls, Cherginov, Sweden, Gotland, Denmark, Finland, Mainz pfennig of Theophilu, Various Western Celts/Gauls, Boii, Pannonia, other Eastern Celts/ Lower Danube, Noricum, Vindelici
Greek-derived script: Visigothic Kingdom, Ostrogothic Kingdom, Romans, Novgorod and Muscovy, Britain and Scandinavia, Hepthalites and other Huns
Imitating Greek-derived script: Central Asian bracteates, burial pieces Sogd – Gaochang, North China, South India imitations including plugged, Ceylon, Vietnam (Oc Eo), Thailand (U Thong, Khlong Thom)
Unsorted: Osroene/Edessa, Indo-Parthians, Pushkalavati, Sogd, Colchis and Celts in Colchis, Kushano-Sasanian?, Despotate of Dobruja, Odryssian Kingdom, other Thracian tribes, Arab-Sasanian, Arab Armenian