The New York Sale
Auction 42 9 Jan 2018
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Sicily, Naxos. Silver Drachm (4.17 g), ca. 460-430 BC. Bearded head of Dionysos right. rev. N-A-XI-ON, Silenos, nude, squatting half-left, holding kantharos before face. Chan 56 (V41/R47); SNG Lloyd 1152 (same dies); Jameson 676 (same dies); Pozzi 507 (same dies); de Luynes 1064 (same dies); BMC 9 (same dies). Extremely Rare. Nicely toned with touches of iridescence. A beautiful example of this iconic issue, Fine Style. Extremely Fine. Estimated Value $3,000
From the Dionysus Collection.
Naxos was the oldest Greek city to be established in Sicily, founded in 735 BC, the year before Syracuse by a body of Ionian colonists apparently involving an important contingent from the Cycladic island of Naxos. It is generally presumed that the Sicilian city gained its name from the Naxian origin of some of its colonists. The city flourished from the start and soon established its own colony at Leontinoi, but fell on hard times in the early fifth century BC, when Naxos was captured and fell successively under the domination of the tyrants of Gela and Syracuse. In 476 BC, Hieron of Syracuse forcibly removed the Naxians from their city and resettled it with new colonists as a means of breaking up power blocks that might have threatened his tyranny. The present drachm was struck after the end of the Deinomenid tyrany at Syracuse and the return of the exiled Naxians to their home in 461 BC. It features a somewhat Arachaic-looking head of Dionysos, but the three-quarter facing Silenos of the reverse is quite daring in its execution.
From the Dionysus Collection.
Naxos was the oldest Greek city to be established in Sicily, founded in 735 BC, the year before Syracuse by a body of Ionian colonists apparently involving an important contingent from the Cycladic island of Naxos. It is generally presumed that the Sicilian city gained its name from the Naxian origin of some of its colonists. The city flourished from the start and soon established its own colony at Leontinoi, but fell on hard times in the early fifth century BC, when Naxos was captured and fell successively under the domination of the tyrants of Gela and Syracuse. In 476 BC, Hieron of Syracuse forcibly removed the Naxians from their city and resettled it with new colonists as a means of breaking up power blocks that might have threatened his tyranny. The present drachm was struck after the end of the Deinomenid tyrany at Syracuse and the return of the exiled Naxians to their home in 461 BC. It features a somewhat Arachaic-looking head of Dionysos, but the three-quarter facing Silenos of the reverse is quite daring in its execution.