I do like magnagraecia.nl. There are minor things overlooked, and minor errors. But, it is a wonderful achievement.
Great reference for the coins of Greek
Italy and
Sicily.
Of course, In 415,
Athens came over, ostensibly to
help their allies, the Segestans (Elmyians, not
Greeks), who were being pressured by the Selinous.
Athens was defeated by
Syracuse, but destabilized the whole region, opening the door for Carthaginian 'aid' to Segesta. Selinous and
Akragas and
Kamarina all fell to the Carthaginians. I'm sure I am missing others.
I have been trying to figure out an angle, particularly on the Selinunte coinage between 461 and 409. Looked through the Inventory of Greek
Coin Hoards (
Kraay, etc), but nothing jumps out to declare matters. It is clear that Selinous is one of the earliest, if not the earliest
mint in
Sicily. Early on it is on the Corinthian
standard (tridrachm), and is
anepigraphic. I am not sure anything else that early is on the Corinthian
standard. Something to check. Being
anepigraphic is something it has in common with the EL of
Asia Minor and early AG of Velia, and the
Auriol material, which in turn, are inspired by the coins of Phocaea, in
Ionia. Furthermore, like Phocaea which has the canting pun of the seal on their coins, Selinous has the canting pun of the wild celery leaf. Canting puns and other etymological games are favorites of Archaic cultures, not just Greek but also
Celtic. Canting puns are
part of certain playful theory of language, that later gets replaced by a more no-nonsense interpretation of language, as conventional instead of natural in how the word matches the thing. This debate between conventional and natural can be seen played out in Plato's dialogue the 'Cratylus.' between the linguistic naturalist Cratylus and the conventionalist Hermogenes, with
Socrates moderating and of course, overshadowing them. My point is that canting puns are a play off of certain pre-Socratic, sophistic linguistic theory, and they have a time when they are ascendant, and a time when they are in decline. The early Selinunte
anepigraphic staters are
part of this building trend. However, how that trend might
help us better understand 461-409 BC, I have no idea.
Another thing I looked at was
epigraphy.packhum.org. Also known as the Packard Humanity Institute (PHI), it is kind of fun to look through the inscriptions (including in some areas coins), to try to get a better picture, unfortunately, my efforts in the realm of Selinous did not turn up anything interesting. Other cities, yes, Selinous not much. Of course, my Greek is spotty at best, but I can tell whether something is interesting enough that I should
crack open a dictionary, and a grammar. A negative result is
still a result, and so mention it, so others will know that that is a possible source.