Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXV 22-23 Sep 2022
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Sicily, Segesta AR Tetradrachm. Circa 405-400 BC. The hunter Aigestes, nude but for chlamys over left arm and pileus hanging from neck, standing to right, left foot propped on rock, holding two spears over left shoulder and with sword hanging from strap around shoulder; two hunting dogs prowling to right at his feet towards herm standing to left in right field; [ΕΓΕΣΤΑΙ]ΩΝ behind / Head of the nymph Aigeste to right, wearing pendant earring and necklace, with hair bound up in amphyx and sphendone ornamented with stars; grain stalk behind; [Σ]ΕΓΕΣΤΑΞΙA before. Rizzo pl. LXII, 13 (same obv. die); Kraay & Hirmer 203 = BMC 32 = Lederer 6a = L. Mildenberg, 'Kimon in the manner of Segesta' in Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Numismatics (1973), pl. 11, 21 (same dies); Hurter T8; HGC 2, 1108. 16.29g, 27mm, 2h.
Extremely Fine; struck from dies of the finest classical style. Very Rare.
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction II, 2 October 2011, lot 52;
Ex A. Tkalec AG, 17 May 2010, lot 10.
This remarkable tetradrachm features a hunter traditionally identified as Aigestes, the mythical founder of Segesta, whom Virgil wrote was the son of the Sicilian river god Krimisos and the nymph Aigeste, who is portrayed in a beautiful portrait on the reverse, rendered with an elaborate curled hairstyle and jewellery. According to Servius, the Trojan nymph was sent by her father to Sicily to avoid the monsters who had infested the territory of Troy during the Trojan war (Comp. Schol. Ad Lycophr. 951). In the Aeneid, Aigestes, called Acestes, appears as king of Segesta and receives Aeneas, his fellow Trojan, on his journey from Troy to Italy to found Rome (Aeneid 5.36). Indeed, Virgil's description of King Acestes watching for Aeneas' ships, armed with javelins and dressed in bearskin, holds a striking similarity to the obverse composition of the present tetradrachm, which likely derives from a lost sculpture group that would have been familiar to the citizens of Segesta during the fifth century BC.
It depicts a vigilant hunter, heavily armed with two spears and a sword hanging around his shoulder, watchfully gazing into the distance, as two hunting dogs prowl around his feet. A herm stands before him, a traditional Greek sculpture, often erected to mark the boundaries of lands to ward off harm. The image is imbued with a sense of defensive alertness on the part of the city, which had been constantly at war with neighbouring Selinos from as early as 580 BC. Hostilities reached their zenith in the latter decades of the fifth century BC, and spurred on by assistance from first the Athenians and later the Carthaginians, Segesta achieved a decisive victory in 410 BC after which Selinos was destroyed. Thenceforth, Segesta was very much a dependent ally of Carthage.
The first tetradrachms were struck at Segesta in circa AD 415, almost certainly due to the military costs associated with the Athenian expedition to Sicily and the assistance from Carthage. The type of 'Aigestes the hunter' can be linked to the representation of a hound which adorned the earlier didrachms of Segesta, perhaps an homage to Aigestes' father Krimisos, who is said to have appeared to his mother Aigeste in the guise of a hound or a bear. It has been suggested that the issue of this particular highly patriotic tetradrachm, which celebrates both the mythical founder and ancestress of the city, could be viewed as an assertion of Segesta's comparative political independence and pride in its individual history during the time of Dionysius I of Syracuse's peace treaty with Carthage in 404 BC.
Extremely Fine; struck from dies of the finest classical style. Very Rare.
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction II, 2 October 2011, lot 52;
Ex A. Tkalec AG, 17 May 2010, lot 10.
This remarkable tetradrachm features a hunter traditionally identified as Aigestes, the mythical founder of Segesta, whom Virgil wrote was the son of the Sicilian river god Krimisos and the nymph Aigeste, who is portrayed in a beautiful portrait on the reverse, rendered with an elaborate curled hairstyle and jewellery. According to Servius, the Trojan nymph was sent by her father to Sicily to avoid the monsters who had infested the territory of Troy during the Trojan war (Comp. Schol. Ad Lycophr. 951). In the Aeneid, Aigestes, called Acestes, appears as king of Segesta and receives Aeneas, his fellow Trojan, on his journey from Troy to Italy to found Rome (Aeneid 5.36). Indeed, Virgil's description of King Acestes watching for Aeneas' ships, armed with javelins and dressed in bearskin, holds a striking similarity to the obverse composition of the present tetradrachm, which likely derives from a lost sculpture group that would have been familiar to the citizens of Segesta during the fifth century BC.
It depicts a vigilant hunter, heavily armed with two spears and a sword hanging around his shoulder, watchfully gazing into the distance, as two hunting dogs prowl around his feet. A herm stands before him, a traditional Greek sculpture, often erected to mark the boundaries of lands to ward off harm. The image is imbued with a sense of defensive alertness on the part of the city, which had been constantly at war with neighbouring Selinos from as early as 580 BC. Hostilities reached their zenith in the latter decades of the fifth century BC, and spurred on by assistance from first the Athenians and later the Carthaginians, Segesta achieved a decisive victory in 410 BC after which Selinos was destroyed. Thenceforth, Segesta was very much a dependent ally of Carthage.
The first tetradrachms were struck at Segesta in circa AD 415, almost certainly due to the military costs associated with the Athenian expedition to Sicily and the assistance from Carthage. The type of 'Aigestes the hunter' can be linked to the representation of a hound which adorned the earlier didrachms of Segesta, perhaps an homage to Aigestes' father Krimisos, who is said to have appeared to his mother Aigeste in the guise of a hound or a bear. It has been suggested that the issue of this particular highly patriotic tetradrachm, which celebrates both the mythical founder and ancestress of the city, could be viewed as an assertion of Segesta's comparative political independence and pride in its individual history during the time of Dionysius I of Syracuse's peace treaty with Carthage in 404 BC.