Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 134 21 Nov 2022
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Greek Coins. Syracuse.
Tetralitron circa 406, AV 3.48 g. ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙOΝ Circular shield decorated at centre with a facing gorgoneion. Rev. Ephebe, in the form of a naked athlete, standing l., holding strigil in his r. hand with which he is removing oil from his l. knee. C. Boehringer, Ehrenrettung einer syrakusanischen Goldmünze, FlorNum p. 74, 1 (this coin). C. Boehringer, Zu Finanzpolitik und Münzprägung des Dionysios von Syrakus, Essays Thompson pl. 38, 11 (this obverse die). de Luynes 1402 (this obverse die).
Exceedingly rare, undoubtedly the finest of only eight specimens known. A coin of
exceptional beauty and fascination perfectly struck and centred on a full flan.
Two almost invisible marks on obverse, otherwise good extremely fine
Ex NAC sale 9, 1996, 218. From the Athos and Dina Moretti collection and from an Exceptional Collection assembledbetween the early 70s and late 90s.
Following the death of Thrasybulus, the last of the Deinomenid tyrants, in 465 BC, the Syracusans took a break from tyranny and established a democratic constitution for themselves. This Second Democracy lasted much longer than the First Democracy of 490-485 BC, continuing for sixty years until 405 BC. It is more than a little ironic that it was during this rare period of democratic rule and not under the tyrants that Syracuse came into conflict with Athens, easily the greatest democratic state of the Greek world. As part of the grand strategy of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), the Athenians hoped to take control of the flow of grain from the Black Sea region and from the breadbasket of Sicily as a means of strangling the Spartan ability to fight. To do this, a military expedition was required to impose Athenian authority on the grain-producing cities of Sicily, many of which were Dorian colonies and had ethnic reasons to support Sparta. Syracuse, the most powerful Greek city of Sicily was at the top of the Athenian hit-list when an expeditionary fleet was sent to the island in 415 BC, but by 413 BC Syracuse had weathered a great siege and encompassed the complete destruction of the Athenian forces. The losses for Athens were so great that they ultimately cost the city the Peloponnesian War. In contrast, the victory over the Athenian expeditionary force greatly enriched Syracuse through plunder and the sale of slaves. As it turned out, this wealth was generated just in time. In 410/09 BC, a great Punic army arrived in western Sicily, which destroyed the cities of Selinus and Himera and defeated allied forces supplied by Syracuse. In 406 BC, the Carthaginians returned to destroy Agrigentum, capture Gela and sack Camarina, despite the ineffectual attempts to stop them made by a Syracusan commander named Dionysius. Amid the fear and chaos of the Punic advance against the Greek cities, Dionysius ended the Second Democracy and declared himself the new tyrant of Syracuse. This extremely rare gold litra multiple was an emergency issue struck in the context of the Syracusan military and political crisis of 406 BC, either to meet the costs of the war against Carthage or to shore up the loyalty of Dionysius' largely mercenary supporters. The obverse type features a shield emblazoned with a gorgoneion-an allusion to the protective aegis of Zeus that was regularly carried by Athena-and may have been intended to cast Dionysius as the defender of Syracuse (and Sicily as a whole), despite the fact that he had not yet enjoyed great success in this role. It is worth noting that on later coins, the island of Sicily was often symbolically represented as a triskeles with a gorgoneion in the centre. The intended meaning of the athlete or ephebe cleaning himself with a strigil on the reverse remains rather mysterious. Nevertheless, it is a remarkably lifelike depiction rarely found on ancient coins
Tetralitron circa 406, AV 3.48 g. ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙOΝ Circular shield decorated at centre with a facing gorgoneion. Rev. Ephebe, in the form of a naked athlete, standing l., holding strigil in his r. hand with which he is removing oil from his l. knee. C. Boehringer, Ehrenrettung einer syrakusanischen Goldmünze, FlorNum p. 74, 1 (this coin). C. Boehringer, Zu Finanzpolitik und Münzprägung des Dionysios von Syrakus, Essays Thompson pl. 38, 11 (this obverse die). de Luynes 1402 (this obverse die).
Exceedingly rare, undoubtedly the finest of only eight specimens known. A coin of
exceptional beauty and fascination perfectly struck and centred on a full flan.
Two almost invisible marks on obverse, otherwise good extremely fine
Ex NAC sale 9, 1996, 218. From the Athos and Dina Moretti collection and from an Exceptional Collection assembledbetween the early 70s and late 90s.
Following the death of Thrasybulus, the last of the Deinomenid tyrants, in 465 BC, the Syracusans took a break from tyranny and established a democratic constitution for themselves. This Second Democracy lasted much longer than the First Democracy of 490-485 BC, continuing for sixty years until 405 BC. It is more than a little ironic that it was during this rare period of democratic rule and not under the tyrants that Syracuse came into conflict with Athens, easily the greatest democratic state of the Greek world. As part of the grand strategy of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), the Athenians hoped to take control of the flow of grain from the Black Sea region and from the breadbasket of Sicily as a means of strangling the Spartan ability to fight. To do this, a military expedition was required to impose Athenian authority on the grain-producing cities of Sicily, many of which were Dorian colonies and had ethnic reasons to support Sparta. Syracuse, the most powerful Greek city of Sicily was at the top of the Athenian hit-list when an expeditionary fleet was sent to the island in 415 BC, but by 413 BC Syracuse had weathered a great siege and encompassed the complete destruction of the Athenian forces. The losses for Athens were so great that they ultimately cost the city the Peloponnesian War. In contrast, the victory over the Athenian expeditionary force greatly enriched Syracuse through plunder and the sale of slaves. As it turned out, this wealth was generated just in time. In 410/09 BC, a great Punic army arrived in western Sicily, which destroyed the cities of Selinus and Himera and defeated allied forces supplied by Syracuse. In 406 BC, the Carthaginians returned to destroy Agrigentum, capture Gela and sack Camarina, despite the ineffectual attempts to stop them made by a Syracusan commander named Dionysius. Amid the fear and chaos of the Punic advance against the Greek cities, Dionysius ended the Second Democracy and declared himself the new tyrant of Syracuse. This extremely rare gold litra multiple was an emergency issue struck in the context of the Syracusan military and political crisis of 406 BC, either to meet the costs of the war against Carthage or to shore up the loyalty of Dionysius' largely mercenary supporters. The obverse type features a shield emblazoned with a gorgoneion-an allusion to the protective aegis of Zeus that was regularly carried by Athena-and may have been intended to cast Dionysius as the defender of Syracuse (and Sicily as a whole), despite the fact that he had not yet enjoyed great success in this role. It is worth noting that on later coins, the island of Sicily was often symbolically represented as a triskeles with a gorgoneion in the centre. The intended meaning of the athlete or ephebe cleaning himself with a strigil on the reverse remains rather mysterious. Nevertheless, it is a remarkably lifelike depiction rarely found on ancient coins