DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45277#0184
100
SICILY.
Period III. b. c. 415-405. In this period the art of engraving dies
for coins was prosecuted in Sicily with remarkable success. The towns
appear to have vied with one another as to which could produce the
most perfect specimen of the numismatic art. The following names
of Sicilian engravers occur on coins; at Syracuse, Eumenos, Kimon,
Euainetos, Eukleidas, Euthfymos], Phrygillos, Parme[nides], and Sosion ;
at Camarina, Exakestidas ; at Catana, Euainetos, Herakleidas, Choirion,
and Prokles ; at Naxus, Prokles; at Agrigentum, Myr ...... etc.
Even before the age of Gelon and Hieron, whose victories at the great
Greek games were celebrated by Pindar, it had been usual at many
Greek towns in Sicily to perpetuate the remembrance of agonistic con-
tests by the adoption of a quadriga crowned by Victory as the principal
coin-type.
It seems nevertheless certain that no one special victory can have
been alluded to in these agonistic types; they are rather a general
expression of pride in the beauty of the horses and chariots which the
city could enter in the lists, while perhaps they may likewise have been
regarded, though in no very definite way, as a sort of invocation of the
god who was the dispenser of victories ; the Olympian Zeus, the Pythian
Apollo, or some local divinity, perhaps a River-god or a Fountain-
nymph, in whose honour games may have been celebrated in Sicily
itself. Some such local import would account for the presence of the
victorious quadriga on the money of some of the non-Hellenic towns in
Sicily, which would certainly never have been admitted to compete at
the Olympian, the Pythian, or other Greek games. The manner in
which the quadriga is treated may be taken as a very accurate indica-
tion of date. Down to B. C. 415 the horses are seen advancing at a slow
and stately pace; after that date they are always in high and often
violent action, prancing or galloping; not until quite a late period (on
the coins of Philistis) are the horses again represented as walking. The
only exception to this rule is the mule-car on the coins of Messana,
where the animals are never in rapid movement.
One of the most striking peculiarities of Sicilian numismatics is the
frequency with which personifications of Rivers and Nymphs are met
with. Thus on coins of Himera the type is that of the Nymph of the
warm springs; on a coin of Naxus we see the head of a river Assinus
(probably the same as the Akesines); at Catana we get a full-face head
of the river Amenanus; at Gela and Agrigentum we. see the rivers of
those towns, the Gelas and the Akragas; while at Camarina the head
of the Hipparis appears. On the coins of Selinus the rivers Hypsas and
Selinus are represented as offering sacrifice to Asklepios.
In the archaic period the Sicilian rivers usually take the form of a
man-headed bull, but in the transitional period they more often assume
the human form, and appear as youths with short bulls’ horns over their
foreheads.
Among the nymphs represented on Sicilian coins are Himera, Arethusa,
and Kyane, Kamarina, and Eurymedusa.
Period IP. B. C. 405-340. The Carthaginian invasion at the close
of the fifth century, which spread ruin through the island, put an end to
the coinage almost everywhere. Syracuse alone of all the Greek silver-
coining cities continued the uninterrupted issue of her beautiful tetra-
SICILY.
Period III. b. c. 415-405. In this period the art of engraving dies
for coins was prosecuted in Sicily with remarkable success. The towns
appear to have vied with one another as to which could produce the
most perfect specimen of the numismatic art. The following names
of Sicilian engravers occur on coins; at Syracuse, Eumenos, Kimon,
Euainetos, Eukleidas, Euthfymos], Phrygillos, Parme[nides], and Sosion ;
at Camarina, Exakestidas ; at Catana, Euainetos, Herakleidas, Choirion,
and Prokles ; at Naxus, Prokles; at Agrigentum, Myr ...... etc.
Even before the age of Gelon and Hieron, whose victories at the great
Greek games were celebrated by Pindar, it had been usual at many
Greek towns in Sicily to perpetuate the remembrance of agonistic con-
tests by the adoption of a quadriga crowned by Victory as the principal
coin-type.
It seems nevertheless certain that no one special victory can have
been alluded to in these agonistic types; they are rather a general
expression of pride in the beauty of the horses and chariots which the
city could enter in the lists, while perhaps they may likewise have been
regarded, though in no very definite way, as a sort of invocation of the
god who was the dispenser of victories ; the Olympian Zeus, the Pythian
Apollo, or some local divinity, perhaps a River-god or a Fountain-
nymph, in whose honour games may have been celebrated in Sicily
itself. Some such local import would account for the presence of the
victorious quadriga on the money of some of the non-Hellenic towns in
Sicily, which would certainly never have been admitted to compete at
the Olympian, the Pythian, or other Greek games. The manner in
which the quadriga is treated may be taken as a very accurate indica-
tion of date. Down to B. C. 415 the horses are seen advancing at a slow
and stately pace; after that date they are always in high and often
violent action, prancing or galloping; not until quite a late period (on
the coins of Philistis) are the horses again represented as walking. The
only exception to this rule is the mule-car on the coins of Messana,
where the animals are never in rapid movement.
One of the most striking peculiarities of Sicilian numismatics is the
frequency with which personifications of Rivers and Nymphs are met
with. Thus on coins of Himera the type is that of the Nymph of the
warm springs; on a coin of Naxus we see the head of a river Assinus
(probably the same as the Akesines); at Catana we get a full-face head
of the river Amenanus; at Gela and Agrigentum we. see the rivers of
those towns, the Gelas and the Akragas; while at Camarina the head
of the Hipparis appears. On the coins of Selinus the rivers Hypsas and
Selinus are represented as offering sacrifice to Asklepios.
In the archaic period the Sicilian rivers usually take the form of a
man-headed bull, but in the transitional period they more often assume
the human form, and appear as youths with short bulls’ horns over their
foreheads.
Among the nymphs represented on Sicilian coins are Himera, Arethusa,
and Kyane, Kamarina, and Eurymedusa.
Period IP. B. C. 405-340. The Carthaginian invasion at the close
of the fifth century, which spread ruin through the island, put an end to
the coinage almost everywhere. Syracuse alone of all the Greek silver-
coining cities continued the uninterrupted issue of her beautiful tetra-