Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVI 26 Sep 2018
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Sicily, Himera AR Chalkidian Drachm. Circa 530-520 BC. Cockerel standing left / Mill sail pattern incuse design. SNG Lockett 779; Kraay, The archaic Coinage of Himera, 103 (D74/R61). 5.46g, 20mm.
Extremely Fine. Beautifully toned and superb for the type. Very Rare.
Ex Fritz Rudolf Künker 216, 8 October 2012, lot 126 (hammer: EUR 7,500);
Ex Roma Numismatics III, 31 March 2012, lot 48.
Himera was one of the first cities to begin coining in Sicily, following the Chalkidian monetary standard of its parent city Zankle. Though it never struck staters, it coined drachms such as the present piece. Colonists from Zankle were joined by exiles from Syracuse, resulting in a city with Chalkidian (i.e. Ionian) institutions but a mixed Doric and Chalkidian dialect. The year of foundation, 648, is inferred from the notice that the city was inhabited for 240 years before its destruction in 409. The city was initially very prosperous and wielded considerable power; its territory stretched over a vast area, estimated at c.700 square kilometers, encompassing numerous rural and indigenous settlements. Its territory was divided to the south from that of Gela and Akragas by the Monte Cassero hills, and in the west at the river Thermos from the territory of the Phoenician city of Soloi.
Ruled from very early on by tyrants, the city's shining moment in history came in 480 BC when it became famous across the Greek world as the site of the great Battle of Himera, supposedly fought on the same day as the Battle of Salamis (according to Herodotus) or at the same time as the Battle of Thermopylae (Diodorus Siculus), which saw the Greek forces of Theron, tyrant of Himera and Akragas, along with Gelon of Syracuse defeat the Carthaginian force of Hamilcar Mago, despite great inferiority in numbers (55,000 Greeks to 300,000 Carthaginians). Diodorus Siculus (XI.1) saw in this victory (combined with the defeat of the Persians at the same time) the derailment of a Punic-Persian conspiracy to destroy Greek civilisation, though this notion has been largely rejected by modern scholars.
The city's end would come seventy one years later at the hands of Hamilcar's grandson, Hannibal Mago. Hannibal sacrificed 3,000 Greek prisoners at the place where Hamilcar, his grandfather and leader of the 480 expedition, had fallen. The city of Himera was utterly destroyed, even all the temples were flattened to the ground, and the women and children were enslaved.
Extremely Fine. Beautifully toned and superb for the type. Very Rare.
Ex Fritz Rudolf Künker 216, 8 October 2012, lot 126 (hammer: EUR 7,500);
Ex Roma Numismatics III, 31 March 2012, lot 48.
Himera was one of the first cities to begin coining in Sicily, following the Chalkidian monetary standard of its parent city Zankle. Though it never struck staters, it coined drachms such as the present piece. Colonists from Zankle were joined by exiles from Syracuse, resulting in a city with Chalkidian (i.e. Ionian) institutions but a mixed Doric and Chalkidian dialect. The year of foundation, 648, is inferred from the notice that the city was inhabited for 240 years before its destruction in 409. The city was initially very prosperous and wielded considerable power; its territory stretched over a vast area, estimated at c.700 square kilometers, encompassing numerous rural and indigenous settlements. Its territory was divided to the south from that of Gela and Akragas by the Monte Cassero hills, and in the west at the river Thermos from the territory of the Phoenician city of Soloi.
Ruled from very early on by tyrants, the city's shining moment in history came in 480 BC when it became famous across the Greek world as the site of the great Battle of Himera, supposedly fought on the same day as the Battle of Salamis (according to Herodotus) or at the same time as the Battle of Thermopylae (Diodorus Siculus), which saw the Greek forces of Theron, tyrant of Himera and Akragas, along with Gelon of Syracuse defeat the Carthaginian force of Hamilcar Mago, despite great inferiority in numbers (55,000 Greeks to 300,000 Carthaginians). Diodorus Siculus (XI.1) saw in this victory (combined with the defeat of the Persians at the same time) the derailment of a Punic-Persian conspiracy to destroy Greek civilisation, though this notion has been largely rejected by modern scholars.
The city's end would come seventy one years later at the hands of Hamilcar's grandson, Hannibal Mago. Hannibal sacrificed 3,000 Greek prisoners at the place where Hamilcar, his grandfather and leader of the 480 expedition, had fallen. The city of Himera was utterly destroyed, even all the temples were flattened to the ground, and the women and children were enslaved.