Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 138 18-19 May 2023
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Syracuse.
Dilitron circa 405, AV 1.78 g. ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ Head of Athena l., wearing Attic crested helmet; below, IM. Rev. Aegis with gorgoneion. Boehringer, Florilegium p. 76, 7 (this coin). Boehringer, Essays Thompson, pl. 38, 12 (this coin). Coins, Artists and Tyrants p. 68, note 119 (this coin listed).
Extremely rare, apparently only four genuine specimens of which this one is the finest.
A portrait of excellent style perfectly struck and centred. Good extremely fine
Ex Leu 36, 1985, 69; CNG 26, 1993, 27 and NAC 9, 1996, 219 sales. From an Exceptional Collection assembled between the early 70s and late 90s.
This rare Syracusan gold dilitron belongs to one of the many crisis periods at that greatest of Sicilian Greek cities. Although Syracuse had been governed by a largely democratic constitution since the overthrow of the last Deinomenid tyrant in 465 BC, about sixty years later the city stood on the brink of anew era of tyranny. Thanks to his exemplary leadership in fighting the Carthaginians at the battle of Himera in 409 BC, the Syracusan military commander named Dionysius was elected to the post of strategos autokrator (supreme general) in 406 BC to face a new Punic invasion. The latter was sparked by the death of Hermocrates, a rogue Syracusan general who was killed in 407 BC while attempting to establish himself as tyrant in the city with the support of Carthage. As strategos autokrator, Dionysius was granted a bodyguard composed of 600 hired mercenaries, but this was soon expanded to 1,000 after he faked an attempt on his life. With this large body of soldiers at his disposal, he was able to avoid the fate of Hermocrates and establish himself as the new tyrant of Syracuse. Unfortunately, while his mercenaries cowed opposition in the city, they seem not to have been especially useful in the conflict with Carthage for supremacy in Sicily. The army of Dionysius was repeatedly defeated by the Carthaginians as they made their inexorable eastward march, capturing and sacking the cities of Gela and Camarina as they advanced. Syracuse and Dionysius were only spared a siege by a plague that afflicted the Punic forces. As the death toll in his army mounted, the Carthaginian general Himilco gave up the campaign in 404 BC and made a peace that recognized all of his conquests. Like most Greek civic gold coinages, the gold dilitra of Syracuse struck in 406/5 BC represent an emergency coinage produced to meet military expenses-in this case the cost of fielding losing mercenary armies against the Carthaginians. The types celebrate Athena, the Greek goddess of war and military strategy, perhaps in the vain hope that she might aid Dionysius and the Syracusans against the Punic enemy. While the helmeted head of the goddess is ubiquitous on Greek coinages, the depiction of her aegis is much less common. Does it express the desire of the Syracusans that she might unfold this most famous of shields to protect their city from the expected Carthaginian onslaught?
Dilitron circa 405, AV 1.78 g. ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ Head of Athena l., wearing Attic crested helmet; below, IM. Rev. Aegis with gorgoneion. Boehringer, Florilegium p. 76, 7 (this coin). Boehringer, Essays Thompson, pl. 38, 12 (this coin). Coins, Artists and Tyrants p. 68, note 119 (this coin listed).
Extremely rare, apparently only four genuine specimens of which this one is the finest.
A portrait of excellent style perfectly struck and centred. Good extremely fine
Ex Leu 36, 1985, 69; CNG 26, 1993, 27 and NAC 9, 1996, 219 sales. From an Exceptional Collection assembled between the early 70s and late 90s.
This rare Syracusan gold dilitron belongs to one of the many crisis periods at that greatest of Sicilian Greek cities. Although Syracuse had been governed by a largely democratic constitution since the overthrow of the last Deinomenid tyrant in 465 BC, about sixty years later the city stood on the brink of anew era of tyranny. Thanks to his exemplary leadership in fighting the Carthaginians at the battle of Himera in 409 BC, the Syracusan military commander named Dionysius was elected to the post of strategos autokrator (supreme general) in 406 BC to face a new Punic invasion. The latter was sparked by the death of Hermocrates, a rogue Syracusan general who was killed in 407 BC while attempting to establish himself as tyrant in the city with the support of Carthage. As strategos autokrator, Dionysius was granted a bodyguard composed of 600 hired mercenaries, but this was soon expanded to 1,000 after he faked an attempt on his life. With this large body of soldiers at his disposal, he was able to avoid the fate of Hermocrates and establish himself as the new tyrant of Syracuse. Unfortunately, while his mercenaries cowed opposition in the city, they seem not to have been especially useful in the conflict with Carthage for supremacy in Sicily. The army of Dionysius was repeatedly defeated by the Carthaginians as they made their inexorable eastward march, capturing and sacking the cities of Gela and Camarina as they advanced. Syracuse and Dionysius were only spared a siege by a plague that afflicted the Punic forces. As the death toll in his army mounted, the Carthaginian general Himilco gave up the campaign in 404 BC and made a peace that recognized all of his conquests. Like most Greek civic gold coinages, the gold dilitra of Syracuse struck in 406/5 BC represent an emergency coinage produced to meet military expenses-in this case the cost of fielding losing mercenary armies against the Carthaginians. The types celebrate Athena, the Greek goddess of war and military strategy, perhaps in the vain hope that she might aid Dionysius and the Syracusans against the Punic enemy. While the helmeted head of the goddess is ubiquitous on Greek coinages, the depiction of her aegis is much less common. Does it express the desire of the Syracusans that she might unfold this most famous of shields to protect their city from the expected Carthaginian onslaught?