DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45274#0054
1
INTRODUCTION.
Bruttians. The staters bear the mon. ”E (See Imhoof, op. cit.,
p. 7).
§ 2. Sicily.
The date of the introduction into Sicily of the Corinthian stater
B C 344 ? has ^een alrea(ty discussed in my Coinage of
Syracuse, p. 24 sqq. and Hist. Num., p. 156. My
attribution of the first Syracusan issues of these staters to Timoleon’s
time, b.c. 344, has been contested by M. Six {Num. Chron., 1875,
p. 28), who prefers to place them some thirty years earlier.
Perhaps therefore it is safer to leave the question of the exact date
an open one. The inscriptions AEONTINON and SYPAKOXION
on some of the earliest specimens seem to point to the close of the
fifth century as the date of the first issue of Corinthian staters in
Sicily. On the other hand this may be an adjectival form, as the
art on the coins in question seems to be more in the style of the
middle of the fourth than of the end of the fifth century. There is
in fact little or no difference in style between the staters reading
ZYPAKOZION and those with XYPAKOEIHN.
Eryx.—A remarkable instance of the influence of commerce
upon currency is afforded by the Pegasos stater
of the town of Eryx in the north-western extremity
of Sicily. This place, chiefly famous for its temple of Aphrodite
Erycina, a goddess of Phoenician origin, belonged during the
greater part of the fourth century to the Carthaginians. Politically
it can have had scarcely any relations with the Greek cities of
Leontini and Syracuse. Commercially, however, Eryx found it
profitable to assimilate its coinage to the pattern which, as I think,
owing to Timoleoffs influence and to the consequent spread of
Corinthian money in Sicily, was gradually gaining ground in the
west and assuming the character of an international currency.
The stater of Eryx is distinguished by its punic legend “p^.
(Imhoof, Akarnania, p. 6.)
INTRODUCTION.
Bruttians. The staters bear the mon. ”E (See Imhoof, op. cit.,
p. 7).
§ 2. Sicily.
The date of the introduction into Sicily of the Corinthian stater
B C 344 ? has ^een alrea(ty discussed in my Coinage of
Syracuse, p. 24 sqq. and Hist. Num., p. 156. My
attribution of the first Syracusan issues of these staters to Timoleon’s
time, b.c. 344, has been contested by M. Six {Num. Chron., 1875,
p. 28), who prefers to place them some thirty years earlier.
Perhaps therefore it is safer to leave the question of the exact date
an open one. The inscriptions AEONTINON and SYPAKOXION
on some of the earliest specimens seem to point to the close of the
fifth century as the date of the first issue of Corinthian staters in
Sicily. On the other hand this may be an adjectival form, as the
art on the coins in question seems to be more in the style of the
middle of the fourth than of the end of the fifth century. There is
in fact little or no difference in style between the staters reading
ZYPAKOZION and those with XYPAKOEIHN.
Eryx.—A remarkable instance of the influence of commerce
upon currency is afforded by the Pegasos stater
of the town of Eryx in the north-western extremity
of Sicily. This place, chiefly famous for its temple of Aphrodite
Erycina, a goddess of Phoenician origin, belonged during the
greater part of the fourth century to the Carthaginians. Politically
it can have had scarcely any relations with the Greek cities of
Leontini and Syracuse. Commercially, however, Eryx found it
profitable to assimilate its coinage to the pattern which, as I think,
owing to Timoleoffs influence and to the consequent spread of
Corinthian money in Sicily, was gradually gaining ground in the
west and assuming the character of an international currency.
The stater of Eryx is distinguished by its punic legend “p^.
(Imhoof, Akarnania, p. 6.)