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Bahrfeldt, M. von. Die römisch-sicilischen Münzen aus der Zeit der Republik, etc. (Geneva, 1904).
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Boehringer, E. Die Münzen von Syrakus. (Berlin and Leipzig, 1929).
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Evans, A. Syracusan Medallions and their Engravers. (London, 1892).
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Gabrici, E. La monetazione del bronzo nella Sicila antica. (Palermo, 1927).
Gardner, P. The Types of Greek Coins. (Cambridge, 1882).
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Holm, A. "Geschichte des sicilischen Münzwesens" in vol. iii. of his Geschichte Alterthum, 1870-1902.
Hoover, O. Handbook of Coins of Sicily (including Lipara), Civic, Royal, Siculo-Punic, and Romano-Sicilian Issues, Sixth to First Centuries BC. HGC 2. (Lancaster, PA, 2011).
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Jenkins, G. "Coins of Punic Sicily, Part 1" in SNR 50 (Bern, 1971), pp. 25 - 78, pls. 1 - 24.
Jenkins, G. "Coins of Punic Sicily, Part 3, Carthage Series 1" in SNR 53 (Bern, 1974), pp. 23 - 41, pls. 1 - 7.
Jenkins, G. "Coins of Punic Sicily, Part 3, Carthage Series 2 - 4" in SNR 56 (Bern, 1977), pp. 5 - 65, pls. 1 - 22.
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Landolina, F. & L. Paternò, Ricerche numm. sull’ antica Sicilia. (Palermo, 1872).
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Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, München Staatlische Münzsammlung, Part 5: Sikelia. (Berlin, 1977).
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Westermark, U. "Himera. The Coins of Akragantine Type 2" in Travaux Le Rider.
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Chronology

Period I. Before B.C. 480.

First in this period comes the coinage of the Chalcidian colonies, Naxus, Zancle, and Himera. These early coins, some of which may belong to the end of the seventh century, follow the Aeginetic (?) standard, although as a rule the drachms do not exceed 5.83 grams, nor the obols 0.97 grams. It is possible that this standard was imported, together with the worship of Dionysos, from the island of Naxos, whence, as the name given to the earliest Sicilian settlement implies, a preponderating element of the first body of colonists must have been drawn. Possibly, however, the pieces of 5.83 grams are merely Euboïc-Attic octobols (see Holm, pp. 560 ff.).

Somewhat later, probably about the middle of the sixth century, begins the coinage of the Dorian colonies, Syracuse, Gela, Agrigentum, etc. The standard here is certainly not (with one possible exception) the Aeginetic but the Euboïc-Attic, which was soon universally adopted throughout the island, even by those Chalcidian colonies which had begun to coin on the supposed Aeginetic standard.

The definite change to the Attic standard took place at Naxos some time after B.C. 498, at Zancle between B.C. 493 and 480, and at Himera in B.C. 482.

The original Sikel and Sicanian population of Sicily possessed, however, a standard of their own, based on the pound or litra of bronze. To this weight of bronze corresponded a silver litra of 0.875 grams. Even during the earliest period of the Aeginetic (?) standard Zancle struck silver coins of this weight, and as it happened to be exactly 1/5 of the Attic drachm, it was readily adopted by those Greek cities which used the Euboïc-Attic standard, as an additional denomination slightly heavier than their own obol, from which they took care to distinguish it by giving it a different type, or by a mark of value. Thus at Syracuse the litra was marked with a sepia and the obol with a wheel.

The coins struck in Sicily during this first period exhibit all the characteristic peculiarities of archaic art, but they are far more advanced, both in style and execution, than the contemporary coins either of Magna Graecia or of Greece proper.

Period II. B.C. 480-413.

The great victory of the Greeks over the Carthaginians at Himera in B.C. 480 was the prelude to a long interval of peace and prosperity all over Sicily. The coins of this epoch, which are plentiful throughout the island, are of great variety and interest. In style they exhibit a continuous advance upon the methods of archaic art, and a nearer and nearer approach to the highest point of excellence ever reached in the art of die-engraving. The whole period between B.C. 480 and the failure of the Athenian expedition in B.C. 413 may therefore be appropriately called the Period of Transition. Greek art and civilization had already thoroughly penetrated the inland Sikel towns such as Abacaenum, Enna, Galaria, Morgantina, etc., and were now making their way even into the non-Hellenic cities in the western portion of the island, e.g. Segesta and Eryx, ancient cities of the Elymi, and Motya and Panormus, strongholds of Carthage.

Towards the end of this period (not before 440) a new feature appears on the Sicilian coins, in the shape of the signatures of the artists. The following names of Sicilian engravers occur on coins of this period: at Syracuse, Eumenes or Eumenos, Sosion, Euainetos, Euth[ymos?], Phrygillos, and Euarchidas; and at Catana, Euainetos.

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 issue coins on the occasion of agonistic contests with appropriate types, such as a quadriga crowned by Nike.

It seems nevertheless certain that as a general rule 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 honor 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 indication of date. Down to about B.C. 440 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 they 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.

Period III. B.C. 413-346.

The defeat of the Athenians was followed by an extraordinary outburst of artistic activity on the part of the great Sicilian cities, especially Syracuse. Syracuse and Agrigentum now issued their magnificent dekadrachms. The following names of engravers, among others, occur on coins of this period: at Syracuse, Euainetos, Kimon, Eukleidas, Parmenidas; at Agrigentum, Myr...; at Camarina, Exakestidas; at Himera, Mai...; at Messana, Kimon, Anan (?)...; at Naxus, Prokles; and at Catana, Herakleidas, Choirion) and Prokles.

One of the most striking peculiarities of Sicilian coins 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 Assinos (probably the same as the Akesines); at Katane we get a full-face head of the river Amenanos; 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 Selinos are represented as offering sacrifice.

In the archaic period the Sicilian rivers usually take the form of a man-headed bull, but in the transitional and fine periods 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, Kyane (?), Kamarina, and Eurymedusa.

The Carthaginian invasion at the close of the fifth century spread ruin through the island and put an end to the coinage almost everywhere. Syracuse alone of all the Greek silver-coining cities continued the uninterrupted issue of her beautiful tetradrachms and dekadrachms, and it was these which served as models for the Siculo-Punic currency of the Carthaginian towns.

It was probably at the beginning of this period that gold and bronze coins were first struck in Sicily, at any rate in considerable quantities. At the time of Dion’s expedition electrum was also introduced, and at Syracuse a large bronze litra was issued, the size of which shows that it was intended as real money and not as a token of artificial value.

Period IV. B.C. 345-317.

With the expedition of the Corinthian Timoleon (B.C. 345) a new era began for Sicily. Timoleon was everywhere the Liberator, and his influence is especially noticeable in the Sicilian coinage of his time. There are a few coin-types which now appear for the first time, not only at Syracuse, but at many other towns which Timoleon freed from their oppressors. Two of these types are the head of Zeus Eleutherios and the Free Horse. Pegasos-staters (first introduced by Dion in the previous period) and other coins with Corinthian types were also now coined in Sicily in large quantities. The number of inland towns which at this particular time began to coin money is remarkable, e.g. Adranum, Aetna (Inessa), Agyrium, Alaesa, Centuripae, Herbessus, etc.

At all the above-mentioned Sikel cities we note the appearance of large and heavy bronze coins, which, unlike the older small bronze currency, are without any marks of value. This monetization of bronze was probably due to the increasing influence of the native Sikel peoples of the interior of the island, accustomed to use bronze as a medium of exchange, who now combined to support Timoleon, and issued at Alaesa, and perhaps elsewhere, a new federal currency in bronze, with the legends ΚΑΙΝΟΝ and ΣΥΜΜΑΧΙΚΟΝ.

Period V. B.C. 317-241.

With the usurpation of Agathocles, Syracuse once more monopolizes the right of coinage for the whole of Sicily, even more distinctly than in the time of Dionysius. The civic coinages are entirely dominated by those of the great rulers, Agathocles, Hicetas, Pyrrhus, and Hieron II, down to the time of the First Punic War

Period VI. B.C. 241-210.

At the close of the First Punic War all Sicily, except the dominions of Hieron along the eastern coast from Tauromenium to Helorus, passed into the hands of the Romans. The immediate result of the new political status of the Sicilian communities was the issue of bronze money at a great number of mints, many of which, such as Amestratus, Cephaloedium, Iaetia, Lilybaeum, Menaenum, Paropus, Petra, etc., had never before possessed the right of coinage. Within the dominions of Syracuse, Tauromenium alone continued to coin in all metals.

Period VII. After B.C. 210.

After the fall of Syracuse and the constitution of all Sicily into a Province of the Roman Republic, bronze coins continued to be issued at Syracuse, Panormus, and a great many other towns, probably-for at least a century. These late coins possess, however, but slight interest.

Abacaenum - Styella

Abacaenum (Tripi) was a Sikel town situated some eight miles from the coast, towards the north-east extremity of the island.

Circ. B.C. 450-400.

Inscr. ΑΒΑΚΑΙΝΙΝΟΝ (usually abbreviated, but sometimes divided between Obv. and Rev.).
Head of Zeus laureate. Boar. Symbols: acorn, corn-grain.
AR Litra, c. 13 grs. and Hemilitron.
Head of nymph, facing, with flying hair. Sow and pig. AR Litra.
Female head r. Boar. AR Hemilitron 6 grs.

Circ. B.C. 400-350.
Female head, hair in sphendone. ΑΒΑΚ[ΑΙΝΙ]ΝΟΝ Forepart of man-headed bull. Æ Size .85
Id. ΑΒΑΚΑΙΝΙΝΩΝ Forepart of bull. Æ Size .8

After B.C. 241. Inscr. ΑΒΑΚΑΙΝΙΝΩΝ.
Head of Apollo (?). Bull walking. Æ Size .85
Id. Warrior with spear standing r. [Tropea, p. 7]
Æ
Id. Lyre [ibid.] Æ

The bull is probably the little mountain-torrent Helikon.

Acrae (Palazzuolo-Acreide) stood on a height some twenty miles due west of Syracuse, at the sources of the river Anapos. It was a dependency of Syracuse down to the capture of that city by the Romans.

After B.C. 210.
Head of Persephone (?) wearing wreath. ΑΚΡΑΙΩΝ Demeter standing; with torch and sceptre. Æ .8

Adranum (Aderno), on the upper course of the river Adranos, a few miles south-west of Mt. Aetna, was founded by Dionysius circ. B.C. 400, and was dependent upon Syracuse until the time of Timoleon (B.C. 345), when it first struck coins. It owed its celebrity to the temple of the Sicilian divinity Adranos (Diod. xiv. 37).

The bronze coins of Adranum apparently all belong to one period :—
Head of Apollo, sometimes with ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ beneath. ΑΔΡΑΝΙΤΑΝ (sometimes wanting), Lyre. Æ 3 sizes, 1.2, .95 & .8
Head of young River Adranos, horned. ΑΔΡΑΝΙΤΑΝ Rushing Bull. Æ .85
Head of Sikelia wreathed with myrtle, hair in sphendone. No inscr. Lyre. Æ 1.2
Id. ΑΔΡΑΝΙΤΑΝ Hippocamp. Æ .65
Female head. ΑΔΡΑ Corn-grain in wreath.
Æ .45

Aetna. This name was at first given by Hieron to the city of Catana, when in B.C. 476 he expelled the Catanaeans and re-peopled their city with a mixed body of Syracusans and Peloponnesians. For the coins struck at Katane during the fifteen years that it bore the name of Aetna, see Catana. The Aetnaeans (when they were expelled in B.C. 461) retired to Inessa (S. Maria di Licodia) on the southern slope of Mt. Aetna, about ten miles north-west of Catana, and to this place they transferred the name of Aetna and continued to look upon Hieron as their oekist (Diod. xi. 76). Aetna was always more or less dependent upon Syracuse, and was garrisoned by Syracusans before the Athenian war (Thuc. iii. 103). In B.C. 396 Dionysius established at Aetna a garrison of Campanians, who held the town until the time of Timoleon, B.C. 339, when the city regained its freedom. It is to the Campanian period that the first issue of its coins belongs.

Before B.C. 339.
Youthful head [Rev. Num., 1869, Pl. VI. 1]. ΑΙΤΝ Winged fulmen, as on coins of Catana-Aetna. Æ .45
ΑΙΤΝΑΙΩΝ Head of Athena. Free horse, rein loose. Æ .85
" Head of Persephone with corn-wreath. Id. Æ .6

The resemblance in style between the last mentioned coin and certain pieces of Nacona and Entella, issued while those cities were in the hands of the Campanians, is striking.

Circ. B.C. 339.
ΙΕΥΣ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΟΣ Head of Zeus Eleutherios. ΑΙΤΝΑΙΩΝ Fulmen. Æ .8

The coinage is not resumed until the Roman period.

After B.C. 210.
Trias. Head of Apollo radiate. ΑΙΤΝΑΙΩΝ Warrior standing, mark of value •••. Æ .8
Hexas. Head of Persephone. ΑΙΤΝΑΙΩΝ Cornucopia. Æ .6
" Head of Athena [Tropea, p. 7] ΑΙΤΝ Forepart of man-headed bull. Æ

Agrigentum was by far the richest and most magnificent city on the south coast of Sicily. The ruined temples still to be seen at Girgenti would alone be sufficient to prove its ancient splendor. It stood on a height a few miles from the sea near the confluence of the two rivers Akragas and Hypsas.

Its coinage begins during the prosperous period which intervened between the fall of the tyrant Phalaris (circ. B.C. 550), and the accession of Theron to supreme power (circ. B.C. 488).

Circ. B.C. 550-472.
Inscr. ΑΚRΑCΑΝΤΟS, ΑΚRΑCΑS (sometimes divided between Obv. and Rev.), ΑΚRΑ, etc.
Eagle with closed wings. Crab. AR Didrachms. [1]
[Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. IX. 24.]

The Eagle and the Crab have been usually taken as emblems of Zeus and Poseidon, but it may be doubted whether the crab is not in this case the fresh-water crab common in the rivers of Italy, Sicily, and Greece. If so, the crab represents the river Akragas and is the παρασημον of the city.

Theron of Agrigentum made himself master of Himera, B.C. 482. Α comparison of certain coins of Himera bearing Agrigentine types, which can only belong to the time of Theron, with some of the latest specimens of the series above described, is sufficient to fix the date of the latter.

The great victory of Theron and Gelon of Syracuse over the Carthaginians at Himera resulted in the further aggrandizement of Agrigentum. Theron died B.C. 472, after which a democracy was established, and a period of unexampled prosperity commenced which terminated only with the Carthaginian invasion in B.C. 406.

Numismatically, however, this space of sixty-seven years must be divided into two periods, which may be characterized as those of Transitional Art, B.C. 472-circ. B.C. 413, and of Finest Art, B.C. 413-406.

Circ. B.C. 472-413.
coin image
FIG. 65.

Inscriptions and Types (Eagle and Crab), as in the Period of archaic art. The Eagle sometimes stands on the capital of a column. On the reverse symbols are of frequent occurrence, flying Nike, rose, star, volute ornament (Fig. 65), and others.

Denominations. Tetradrachm, Didrachm, Drachm with letters ΠΕΝ (= Pentalitron), Litra (with ΛΙ), Pentonkion with mark of value :·:. There are also coins with obv. eagle’s head, viz. litra, rev. tripod; half-litra (?), rev. A; and hexas, reverse :. A bronze coin with eagle and crab also belongs to the close of this period.

The Tetradrachm apparently was not struck at Agrigentum before circa B.C. 472.

To this period may also be attributed a series of very strange-looking lumps of bronze, made in the shape of a tooth with a flat base, having on one side an eagle or eagle’s head, and on the other a crab, while on the base

1 A specimen at Paris (Salinas, Pl. IV. 15), weighing 173-77 grains, appears to show that Agrigentum also issued coins of the Aeginetic standard.

are marks of value ::, .·., : (Tetras, Trias, Hexas). The Uncia is almond shaped, with an eagle’s head on one side and a crab’s claw on the other.

The weights of these coins point to a litra of about 750 grs.

Circ. B.C. 413-406.
coin image
FIG. 66.

In this period the coinage reflects the splendor to which Agrigentum had now attained.

ΑΚΡΑ Eagle devouring serpent. Mark of value •• ΣΙΛΑΝΟΣ Crab. AV wt. 20.4 grs.
[Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. XVI. 14.]
ΑΚΡ Eagle devouring serpent.
[Strozzi Sale Catalog 1288.]
Crab; below, dolphin.
AV 20.5 grs.

Two eagles standing on a hare on the summit of a mountain; one lifts his head as if screaming, while the other, with wings raised, is about to attack the hare with its beak. Symbol in field: Locust. ΑΚΡΑΓΑΣ Male charioteer driving quadriga. Above an eagle flying with a serpent in its claws. Beneath, a crab (Fig. 66).
AR Dekadrachm, wt. 670 grs.

The finest known specimen of this rare and beautiful coin is in the Munich collection. See Th. Reinach, L'Histoire par les Monnaies, pp. 89-98.

Similar type, sometimes with magistrates’ names ΣΤΡΑΤΩΝ or ΣΙΛΑΝΟΣ. Symbols: locust, bull's head, lion’s head, head of River-god. ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΙΝΟΝ Quadriga driven by winged Nike or by charioteer crowned by flying Nike. Symbols: crab, Skylla, knotted staff or vine branch, etc. Engraver’s name ΜΥΡ.
[Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. XVI. 16.]. AR Tetradrachm.

Similar, or single Eagle devouring hare. Crab; beneath, Skylla or river-fish.
[Gardner, Types, Pl. VI. 32, 33.]. AR Tetradrachm.

Didrachms, Drachms, Hemidrachms, and Litrae, or Obols, with simpler varieties of the above types; the carapace of the crab on the drachm resembles a human face.

As a powerful composition the type of the two eagles with the hare is perhaps superior to any other contemporary Sicilian coin-type, and is certainly the work of an artist of no mean capacity. The subject cannot fail to remind us of the famous passage in one of the grandest choruses of the Agamemnon (ll. 110-120), where the poet describes just such a scene as is here represented. Two eagles, one black, and the other white behind:—

οιωνων βασιλευς βασιλευσι νεων ο κελαινος, ο τ’ εξοπιν αργας,
φανεντες ικταρ μελαθρων, χερος εκ δοριπαλτου, παμπρεπτοις εν εδραισιν,
βοσκομενοι λαγιναν ερικυμονα φερματι γενναν, βλαβεντα λοισθιον δρομων.
The victorious quadriga is an agonistic type of a class very prevalent in Sicily. The occasion of its adoption at Agrigentum may have been the Olympian games of B.C. 412, in which one of the victors was Exainetos, an Agrigentine citizen who, on his return to his native town, was brought into the city in a chariot escorted by 300 biga drawn by white horses (Diod. xiii. 82). But see above, p. 116.

The names ΣΤΡΑΤΩΝ and ΣΙΛΑΝΟΣ are too conspicuous to be the signatures of artists; they must therefore be regarded as magistrates.

BRONZE. Before B.C. 406.
Inscr. ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΙΝΟΝ, often abbreviated.
Hemilitron. Eagle with spread wings on fish, hare, or serpent. Crab; mark of value :::. Symbols: Conch-shell, sepia, Triton with shell, pistrix, hippocamp, crayfish, etc. The whole in incuse circle. Æ Average wt. 290 grs.
Trias. Eagle tearing hare. Crab. Symbol: Crayfish. Mark of value ••• Æ Average wt. 124 grs.
Hexas. Eagle carrying in claw s hare, pig, fish, or bird.  Crab. Symbols: Two fishes or one fish. Mark of value •• Æ Average wt. 115 grs.
Uncia. Eagle with closed wings on fish. Crab. Symbol: Fish. Mark of value • Æ Average wt. 58 grs.

Other small bronze coins (Salinas, xi. 24-7) have modifications of the above types (eagle’s head, crab’s claw, etc.).

The actual weights of these bronze coins, large and small, together yield an average of 613 grs. for the litra. This perhaps shows that the litra had already been reduced from 3375 grs., its original weight, to 1/5 of that weight, or 675 grs., a reduction which is thought by Mommsen (Momm.-Blacas, i. p. 112) to have taken place in the time of Dionysius, but which the weights of the bronze coins of Camarina (p. 130), and Himera (p. 146), if they are of any value as evidence, prove to have occurred much earlier.

After the memorable destruction of Agrigentum by the Carthaginians in B.C. 406, the surviving inhabitants appear to have returned to their ruined homes; but until Timoleon’s time the town can hardly be said to have existed as an independent state. No new coins were issued in the interval, but the bronze money already in circulation seems to have been frequently countermarked in this period.

Timoleon, circ. B.C. 338, recolonized the city (Plut. Tim. 35) with a body of Velians, and from this time it began to recover some small degree of prosperity.

Circ. B.C. 338-287.
Crab. Free horse. AR ½ Drachm.
Head of Zeus. ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ Eagle erect, with spread wings.
AR wt. 18.7grs. = 1½ Litra.
Id. Id. AR wt. 13.5 grs. = 1 Litra.
Head of bearded river-god. Id. AR wt. 10.5 grs.= 1 Obol.

BRONZE.
Hemilitron. ΑΚΡΑΓΑΣ Head of young River-god Akragas, horned. Eagle with closed wings standing on Ionic capital. In field, crab. Mark of value :::.
Æ Av. wt. 268 grs.
Uncia. Eagle standing. ΑΚΡΑΓΑ Crab. Mark of value • Æ wt. 61 grs. or less.

268 grs. is the average weight of the four specimens of the hemilitron in the British Museum, according to which the Litra would weigh 536 grs., which is intermediate between the first and the second reductions of the Litra.

There are also bronze coins of this period without marks of value, obv. Head of Zeus, rev. Eagle devouring hare, or winged fulmen. Size, .75-.55.

The coins attributed to this period are not numerous, owing to the fact that during the greater part of the reign of Agathocles at Syracuse (B.C. 317-289), Agrigentum was compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of that city, which for a time usurped the right of coining money for all those parts of the island subject to her dominion.

After the death of Agathocles, a tyrant named Phintias rose to the supreme power at Agrigentum, and extended his dominions also over other parts of Sicily.

Phintias Tyrant. Circ. B.C. 287-279.
ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΟΣ Head of Apollo. ΦΙ Two eagles on hare. Æ .8
ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΙΝ Id. „ Eagle looking back. Æ .55

Coins struck by Phintias for all his dominions.

Head of river Akragas, horned, and with flowing hair, crowned with reeds. [Imhoof MG, Pl. A. 16.] ΒΑΣΙΛΕΟΣ ΦΙΝΤΙΑ Wild boar.
Æ .8
Head of Artemis. „ „ Id. Æ .8
Id., with ΣΩΤΕΙΡΑ.  „ „ Id. Æ .8

The type of these coins illustrates in a remarkable manner a passage of Diodorus (Reliq. xxii. 7), in which he tells how Phintias ειδεν οναρ δηλουν την του βιου καταστροφην, υν αγριον κυνηγοντος ορμησαι κατ’ αυτου την υν, και την πλενραν αυτου τοις οδουσι παταξαι και διελασαυτα την πληγην κτειναι. We seem here to have a clear instance of a coin-type having been chosen with the avowed object of propitiating the goddess Artemis whose anger the tyrant probably thought he had incurred.

Circ. B.C. 279-241.

Nearly all the remaining coins of Agrigentum may be classed to this period, during which the city was for the most part an independent ally of the Carthaginians against the Romans and Hieron II.

On the conclusion of the First Punic War (B.C. 241) Agrigentum passed under Roman dominion.

Head of Zeus. ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝ ΤΙΝΩΝ Eagle with spread wings, various letters in the field.
AR 58 and 26 grs.
Id. [Salinas. xiii. 11.] „ Fulmen. AR Litra 12.7 grs.
Head of Apollo, a serpent sometimes crawling up in front. Two eagles on hare. Æ .85
ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ Young head of Zeus Soter diademed. ΔΙΟΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ Eagle on fulmen. Æ .85
Head of Apollo. ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ Tripod. Æ .85
Id. „ Naked warrior thrusting with spear. Æ .95

Cicero (Verr. iv. 43) mentions a statue of Apollo by Myron which stood in the temple of Asklepios at Agrigentum. The curious coin-type above described, where a serpent is seen crawling up the face of Apollo, taken in conjunction with the words of Cicero, seems to indicate a connexion between the cults of Apollo and Asklepios at Agrigentum.

Circ. B.C. 241-210, and later.
Head of Persephone. Behind, CΩCΙΟC, or in front, ΑCΚΛΑΠΟC. ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ Asklepios standing. Æ .85
Head of Apollo. [Salinas, xiii. 12, 13.] „ Striding male figure with javelin. Æ .95
Head of Zeus. „ Eagle on fulmen. Æ .9
Head of Asklepios. Serpent-staff. Æ .75
Female head. Tripod. Æ .7

The three coins last described sometimes occur with the name of the Roman Quaestor Manius Acilius on the reverse instead of ΑΚΡΑΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ; the same magistrate also issued from Agrigentum an As with the head of Janus and his name in a laurel-wreath, and a semis with the head of Jupiter.

For the Imperial coins of Agrigentum struck under Augustus, see Holm, p. 727, nos. 735-6.

Agyrium (Agira) was a large town in the interior of Sicily, standing on a steep hill, almost midway between Enna and Centuripae. At this town Herakles, during his wanderings in Sicily, had been received with divine honors, and down to a late period Herakles, his kinsman Iolaos, and Geryon, continued to be revered there. Its coins fall into three periods.

Circ. B.C. 420-353.
Eagle with closed wings. ΑΓΥΡΙΝΑΙ Wheel. Æ .9
ΑΓΥΡΙΝΑΙΟΝ Young male head (Iolaos ?). ΠΑΛΑΓΚΑΙΟΣ Forepart of man-headed bull. Æ .7

These two coins probably belong to the time when the city was governed by a tyrant named Agyris, a contemporary and ally of Dionysius (Diod. xiv. 9, 78, 95), or at latest to the time of Dion. Palankaios is perhaps the name of a river.

Circ. B.C. 345-300.

About the middle of the fourth century Agyrium was governed by another tyrant, by name Apolloniades. This despot was deposed by Timoleon, B. G. 339. The coins which I would give to the years immediately preceding the liberation by Timoleon are the following:—
Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. Forepart of man-headed bull. Æ 1.2
Man-headed bull, and star. Id. Æ 1.2
Head of young Herakles or Iolao s wearing taenia and lion-skin. ΑΓΥΡΙΝΑΙΩΝ Leopard devouring a hare. Æ 1.1
Head of Apollo, behind, bow. „ Hound on scent. Æ .7
Head of Zeus. [Tropea, p. 8.] „ Female figure sacrificing. Æ
Head of Apollo radiate. [Tropea, p. 9.] „ Warrior standing with spear and shield Æ

The following, from their types, appear to be subsequent to B.C. 339 (inscr. ΑΓΥΡΙΝΑΙΩΝ or abbreviation):—
ΖΕΥΣ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΟΣ Head of Zeus Eleutherios laureate. Fulmen; in field r., eagle (as on contemporary coin of Syracuse). Æ 1.
Head of Athena in crested helmet. Club and bow (?) (restruck on previous coins). Æ 1. 
Head of young River-god horned. Free horse. Æ 1.

In the third century we hear of Agyrium as subject to Phintias of Agrigentum. Subsequently the territory of the city was largely increased by Hieron of Syracuse, and even under Roman rule it remained a place of some importance. It is to this late period that the following coins belong:—

After B.C. 241.
ΕΠΙ CΩΠΑΤΡΟΥ Head of Zeus. ΑΓΥΡΙΝΑΙΩΝ Iolaos in hunter's dress, holds horn and pedum, at his feet, dog. Above, Nike.
Æ .9
Head of bearded Herakles. ΑΓΥΡΙΝΑΙΩΝ Iolaos burning the necks of the Hydra with a hot iron.
Æ .75

Alaesa (Tusa) was built on a hill about eight stadia from the sea (Diod. xiv. 16), on the north side of Sicily, in the year B.C. 403, by a colony of Sikels under a chief named Archonides, after whom the city was sometimes called Alaesa Archonidea (cf. the inscriptions on the later coins).

Its earliest coins date from the period of Timoleon’s war with the Carthaginians (B.C. 340), when many Sikel and Sicanian towns joined the alliance against the Carthaginians (Diod. xvi. 73). From the inscription ΑΛΑΙΣΙΝΩΝ ΣΥΜΜΑΧΙΚΟΝ Alaesa would seem to have been among the chief of the Sicilian allies of Timoleon, but, as the word ΑΛΑΙΣΙΝΩΝ is sometimes wanting, there is no absolute proof that all the coins of the allies were struck there. The coins reading ΚΑΙΝΟΝ (‘new money’) evidently belong to the same period as the rest.

Circ. B.C. 340.
ΖΕΥΣ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΟΣ Head of Zeus Eleutherios. ΑΛΑΙΣΙΝΩΝ ΣΥΜΜΑΧΙΚΟΝ Torch between two ears of corn (Head Syracuse p. 37).
Æ 1.2
ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ Head of nymph Sikelia. ΣΥΜΜΑΧΙΚΟΝ Id. Æ 1.
ΑΡΧΑΓΕΤΑΣ Head of Apollo. „ „  Æ 1.2
„ „ „ „ Fulmen and grapes. Æ .85
Head of Sikelia, in myrtle-wreath. [ΑΛΑ]ΙΣΙΝΩΝ Lyre. Æ .9
ΚΑΙΝΟΝ Free horse prancing. Griffin running, l. Æ .85

The heads of Zeus Eleutherios, of Apollo as original leader of the colonists, and of Sikelia herself, are all most appropriate on coins of an alliance formed under the auspices of Timoleon, as are also the torch and ears of corn, the symbols of Demeter and Persephone, under whose special protection Timoleon set out (Plut. Tim. c. 8; Diod. xvi. 66). The remaining coins of Alaesa belong to the following century, when it began, simultaneously with many other Sicilian towns, to coin money again after its submission to Rome during the First Punic War.

After circ. B.C. 241.
Head of Zeus. ΑΛΑΙΣΑΣ ΑΡΧ. Eagle. Æ .85
Head of Apollo. „ „ Clasped hands. Æ .9
„ „ „ „ Apollo beside lyre Æ .85
„ „ Lyre. Æ .65
„ „ „ Tripod. Æ .55
Head of young Dionysos. „ „ Naked figure resting on spear. Æ .5
„ „ „ „ Man-headed bull. [Tropea, p. 10, no. 8.] Æ
„ „ „ „ Cuirass. Æ .5
Head of Artemis. ,, „ Quiver and bow. Æ .5
„ „ [Tropea, p. 10, no. 12.] „ „ Dove or eagle. Æ .5
ΑΛΑΙΣΑΣ Head of Artemis. Archer. Æ
Head of Demeter. [Tropea, p. 11, no. 18.] ΑΛΑΙΣΑΣ Dancing female figure. AE.

Considerably later than the foregoing are the coins of Alaesa with Latin inscriptions:—
HAL. ARC. Head of Artemis (?). Tripod. Æ .8
„ ,, „ „ CAEC. R. II VIR Lyre. Æ .85
HALAESA ARC. Head of Apollo (?). M. CASSIVSM. ANT Wreath. Æ .9

To the time of Augustus belong coins with the name of the magistrate M. PACCIVS MACXV(mus): see Holm, p. 729, nos. 754, 754a.

Aluntium (San Marco d'Alunzio), on the north coast of the island between Tyndaris and Calacte, a Sikel town of no great importance. Its origin was ascribed to the followers of Aeneas under an Acarnanian leader named Patron.

Circ. B.C. 400.
Head of Athena in round, crested helmet. ΑΛΟΝΤΙΝΟΝ Sepia. Æ .75

Circ. B.C. 241-210, or earlier.
Head of bearded Herakles. ΑΛΟΝΤΙΝΩΝ Eagle on part of carcass. Æ 1.
Head of Patron in Phrygian helmet. ΑΛΟΝΤΙΝΩΝ Man-headed bull (River-god Acheloos ?), spouting water from his mouth.
Æ .85
Head of bearded Herakles. ΑΛΟΝΤΙΝΩΝ Club and bow-case Æ .7
Head of young Dionysos. „ in two lines, within wreath. Æ .5
Head of Hermes. „ Caduceus. Æ .5
Youthful head. „ Double cornucopia. AE.
Head of Apollo. [Tropea, p. 12, no. 8.]  ΑΛΟΝΤ Apollo standing with lyre. AE.

Amestratus (Mistretta), about eight miles south-west of Calacte, a town mentioned only by Cicero and Stephanus.

Circ. B.C. 241-210, or earlier.
Head of young Dionysos. ΑΜΗSΤΡΑΤΙΝΩΝ Armed horseman (Leukaspis ?) galloping, above ΛΕΥ.
Æ .65
Head of Artemis. ΑΜΗΣΤΡΑΤΙΝΩΝ Apollo standing with lyre.
Æ .8

Assorus (Assaro), an inland Sikel town, midway between Enna and Agyrium.

After B.C. 210.
ASSORV Head of Apollo. CRYSAS River-god Chrysas, naked, standing, holding amphora and cornucopiae.
Æ .85
Female head wearing stephane. ASSORV Yoke of oxen.
Æ .75

The figure on the first of these coins is probably a copy of that simulacrum praeclare factum ex marmore’ which Cicero (Verr. iv. 44) describes as having stood on the road from Enna to Assorus, perhaps on the bank of the river Chrysas.

Caena. Concerning the coins reading ΚΑΙΝΟΝ, sometimes ascribed to this town, see Alaesa and p. 117.

Calacte (Caronia), on the northern coast, midway between Tyndaris and Cephaloedium, was a Peloponnesian colony founded in B.C. 446 by the Sikel chief Ducetius on his return from his exile in Corinth. Its coins are all of a late period.

Circ. B.C. 241-210.
Head of Athena in crested Athenian helmet. ΚΑΛΑΚΤΙΝΩΝ Owl on amphora. Æ .8
Head of young Dionysos. „ Grapes. Æ .65
Head of Apollo. Lyre. Æ .6
Head of Hermes. „ Caduceus. Æ .5
Head of bearded Herakles. „ Club. [Salinas, xvi. 21.] Æ .4

The first of the above coins is clearly copied from the late Athenian coins. Note the close correspondence between obv. and rev. types (Maonald, Coin Types, pp. 119 ff.).

Camarina was a colony of Syracuse, founded circ. B.C. 599, between, the mouths of the Oanis and the Hipparis, on the south coast of Sicily. In consequence of a revolt against Syracuse it was destroyed by that city about B.C. 552. In B.C. 495 it was rebuilt and recolonized by Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela, but again destroyed about B.C. 484 by Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse. To this period the following archaic silver litrae seem to belong.

Circ. B.C. 495-484.

ΚΑΜΑRΙΝΑΙΟΝ or ΚΑΜΑRΙΝΑΙΑ or ΚΑΜΑRΙΝΑΙΟΣ or ΚΑΜΑRΙΝΟΣ etc. Athena standing. [Babelon, Traité II. i. Nos. 2298 f.] Nike flying; beneath, a swan: the whole in olive-wreath.
AR 13 grs.

The city was once more rebuilt as a colony of Gela in B.C. 461, and from this time until the removal of its citizens to Syracuse in B.C. 405 it enjoyed great prosperity. Pindar’s fourth Olympian ode and the ode which follows it record the victory of Psaumis the Camarinaean in the chariot race B.C. 456 or 452, an agonistic victory which Poole (Coins of Camarina, p. 2) believed to be commemorated on the tetradrachms of Camarina, struck during the latter half of the fifth century.

Circ. B.C. 461-405.
Corinthian helmet on round shield.
[Holm, Pl. II. 11.]
ΚΑΜΑRΙ Dwarf fan-palm with fruit, between two greaves.
AR Didrachm, 130 grs.
ΚΑΜΑRΙΝΑΙΟΝ Head of bearded Herakles in lion-skin. [Gardner, Types, Pl. VI. 12.] Quadriga driven by Athena; above, Nike crowning her; in exergue sometimes a swan flying or two amphorae.
AR Tetradrachm.

On the later specimens the head of Herakles is not bearded, and an artist’s name ΕΞΑΚΕΣΤΙΔΑΣ is sometimes written on the exergual line (Fig. 67), or (abbreviated) on a diptychon before the head of Herakles.

coin image
FIG. 67.

The following gold coin (which is more probably of Camarina than of Catana) belongs to the close of this period :—
Head of Athena; on her helmet a hippocamp. [Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. XVI. 19.] Two olive-leaves with berries; between them ΚΑ.
AV 18 grs.

To the close of this period also belong the following beautiful didrachms :—

coin image
FIG. 68.
Horned head of youthful River-god Hipparis, sometimes facing, and surrounded by an undulating border of waves with fish in the field; sometimes in profile with legend ΙΠΠΑΡΙΣ. Artists’ names ΕΥΑΙ [νετος] and ΕΞΑΚΕ[στιδας]. ΚΑΜΑΡΙΝΑ or ΚΑΜΑΡΙΝΑΙΟΝ The Nymph Kamarina with inflated veil, riding on a swan which swims over the waves of the Camarinaean Lake, amid which, one or more fishes (Fig. 68).
AR Didrachm.
Head of Nymph Kamarina facing, with hair flying loose; at sides, two fish. ΚΑΜΑΡΙ Nike flying, holding caduceus.
AR Drachm.
ΚΑΜΑΡΙΝΑ Head of Kamarina, hair in sphendone; below, two dolphins. Flying Nike carrying shield
[N. C. 1890, p. 313, Pl. XIX. 2.]
AR ½ Drachm.

The smaller silver coins are litrae weighing 13 grs. maximum.

Head of Athena. Nike with streaming fillet.
ΚΑΜΑ Head of Nymph Kamarina. Id.
ΚΑΜΑΡΙΝΑ Id. Swan swimming over waves.

Concerning these coins Poole remarks (l. c.) that nothing can be more striking than the agreement of the coin-types with the words of Pindar, with both, the Nymph Kamarina holds the foremost but not the highest place in the local worship, with both, Athena is the tutelary divinity, with both, the reverence for the river Hipparis is associated with that for the sacred lake.’

The bronze coins of Camarina yield a litra of 221 grs. Cf. remarks on the bronze money of Agrigentum, p. 122, and Himera, p. 146.

Circ. B.C. 413 (?)-405.
Trias. Gorgon-head. ΚΑΜΑ Owl and lizard ••• (sometimes also Γ). Æ 65 grs.
„ Head of Athena. „ Id. ••• Æ 54 grs.
Uncia. Gorgon-head. „ Id. Α and • Æ 14 grs.
„ Head of Athena. „ Id. • Æ 20 grs.

Circ. B.C. 339.

In the time of Timoleon Camarina recovered to some extent from the calamities inflicted upon her by the Carthaginians (Diod. xvi. 82). It is to this period that both style and types of the following coins seem to point:—
[ΚΑΜ]ΑΡ.. Athena standing. [Salinas, xvi. 25.] Free horse with raised l. foot. AR Litra.
ΚΑΜΑΡΙΝΑΙΩΝ Head of Athena in round Athenian helmet. Free horse prancing. Æ .6

After this time no coins of Camarina are known.

Campani. To the Campanian mercenaries of Dionysius are usually attributed the following coins, of which the large bronze is struck over a Syracusan bronze litra (Holm, Nos. 370-2). They have also been given to Tauromenium (Head Syracuse, p. 36), and Mataurus (Hill Sicily, p. 185). The monogram may consist of the letters ΚΑΜ.

Circ. B.C. 344-339.
Free horse. Α in wreath. AR obol.
Α Butting bull. Star. Æ litra 1.35
Campanian helmet. Α in wreath. Æ .55

For other coins struck by the Campanians in Sicily see Aetna, Entella, Nacona, and Tyrrheni.

Catana, which stood at the foot of Mount Aetna, was a Chalcidian colony from Naxus.

Its inhabitants were expelled by Hieron of Syracuse B.C. 476, to make way for a colony of Syracusans. These were, however, driven out B.C. 461, and the old inhabitants restored. The name of the town was changed to Aetna by Hieron when he founded his new colony there, but it was again called Katane after B.C. 461.

Before Circ. B.C. 476.
coin image
FIG. 69.
Man-headed bull with one knee bent; beneath, fish, pistrix, or floral ornament; above, sometimes, branch, water-fowl, or running Seilenos. The whole within a border of dots. ΚΑΤΑΝΕ or ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΟΝ Nike running, holding fillet or wreath or both; the whole in incuse circle (Fig. 69).
AR Tetradrachm.
Bull standing, crowned by flying Nike with fillet. ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΟΣ Similar
AR Tetradrachm.

In style these tetradrachms are decidedly in advance of the contemporary coins of most other Sicilian cities. With regard to the meaning of the types, it is perhaps preferable to look upon the bull as the river-god Amenanos (who on later coins is represented in human form) rather than, with Eckhel, as the tauriform Dionysos. The figure of Nike on the reverse may be compared with the winged figure of Nike-Terina (see Terina). They are both doubtless agonistic types.

Head of bald Seilenos with pointed ears. ΚΑΤΑΝΕ Fulmen with two curled wings.
AR Litra, 13 grs. max.

The form of the fulmen on these coins is unusual.

Coinage of Katane under the name of Aetna.
B.C. 476-461.
coin image
FIG. 70.
ΑΙΤΝΑΙΟΝ Head of bald and bearded Seilenos to the right, with pointed ear, and eye in profile, lower eyelids slightly indicated; he wears a wreath of ivy; beneath, scarabaeus. The whole within a border of dots (Fig. 70). Zeus Aitnaios seated, right, on a richly ornamented throne covered with a lion-skin. He is clad in a ιματιον which hangs over his left shoulder and arm, and he holds in his extended left hand a winged fulmen similar in form to those on the other Catanaean coins. His right shoulder is bare and his right arm, slightly raised, rests on a knotted vine-staff bent into a crook at the top. In the field in front of the figure is an eagle with closed wings perched on the top of a pine-tree.
AR Tetradrachm, 266 grs.

This unique coin, now in the Brussels Cabinet (bequest of the Baron de Hirsch), is in many ways highly instructive as showing the point of development which art had attained in Sicily between B.C. 476 and 461. The scarabaei of Aetna were remarkable for their enormous size (cf. Schol. Ar. Pac., 73), hence the scarab as a symbol on the obverse. As Mount Aetna was also famous for its prolific vines (cf. Strab., p. 269), Zeus Αιτναιος, under whose special protection the city of Aetna was placed, is appropriately shown as resting on a vine-staff. The pine-tree is also a local symbol no less characteristic than the vine-staff, for the slopes of Mount Aetna were at one time richly clad with pine and fir trees, την Αιτνην ορος γεμον κατ’ εκεινους τους χρονους πολυτελους ελατης τε και πευκης (Diod. xiv. 42). Cf. Pindar, Pyth. i. 53. For a full account of this coin see Num. Chron., 1883, p. 171.

Similar head of Seilenos, sometimes with ivy-wreath, as on the tetradrachm, sometimes laureate, and sometimes bare. ΑΙΤΝΑΙ Winged fulmen, as on tetradrachm: the whole in incuse circle.
AR Litra or Obol.

The Aetnaeans, expelled B.C. 461, retired to a neighbouring stronghold called Inessa, to which they transferred the name of Aetna. For the coins struck at this new Aetna, see p. 119.

Coinage of Katane after the restoration.
B.C. 461-413.
Inscr. ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΟΝ or ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΟS, never ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ.

Head of Apollo laureate, hair usually gathered up behind and tucked under the string of his wreath. Quadriga of walking horses; above, on the later specimens, a flying Nike.
AR Tetradrachm.
[Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. XVI. 20.]

coin image
FIG. 71.
Young male head with short hair laureate, but not resembling Apollo. Perhaps he is the river-god Amenanos, although without the horn. Id. (Fig. 71).
AR Tetradrachm.

Circ. B.C. 413-404.

Katane was for a time the head-quarters of the Athenians during their expedition against Syracuse. The finest coins date from this time until the capture of the city by Dionysius in B.C. 404, when, according to his frequent practice, he sold the population into slavery and gave up the city to his Campanian mercenaries.

For a gold coin of this period, which may belong to Catana, see Camarina.

The tetradrachms of this period always have the inscr. ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ. The heads of Amenanos (?) in profile resemble those of the previous period, but belong to a more advanced stage of art (Imhoof MG, Pl. A. 17).

The horses of the chariot on the reverse are in rapid action. On one beautiful specimen, signed on the reverse by the Syracusan engraver Euainetos, the chariot is seen wheeling round the goal. Aquatic symbols, such as a crab or a crayfish, are often added on one or other side of the coin. One piece is signed by an artist named ΠΡΟΚΛΗΣ who worked also for the Naxian mint (Weil, Winckcelmanns-Programm, 1884, Pl. II. 12). The following are the most important silver coins of this time:—

Head of Apollo laureate facing, between a bow and a lyre. Beneath, ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ; artist’s name, ΧΟΙΡΙΩΝ. [Holm, Pl. VI. 4 = Maonald, Hunter Catalog I. p. 172. 12.] ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ Fast quadriga; in the background an Ionic column (the meta). In ex., crayfish.
AR Tetradrachm.

coin image
FIG. 72.

Of this coin a variety (without bow and lyre), signed by the engraver Herakleidas, shows a laureate head facing with loose hair (Fig. 72). On some specimens the Nike holding wreath and caduceus is descending through the air in an upright posture towards the charioteer.

Some of the heads on the Catanaean tetradrachms are bound with a plain taenia in place of the laurel-wreath; all such (and apparently some also which are laureate) are heads of the river Amenanos, although he is without the characteristic horn of the river-god. On the following small denominations Amenanos is represented as a horned youth:—

Young head of Amenanos horned, with lank loose hair, three-quarter face. Around, two river-fishes. [Hill Sicily, Pl. IX. 5.] Fast quadriga.
AR Drachm.
ΑΜΕΝΑΝΟΣ Similar head in profile, horned, and bound with taenia. Beneath, artist’s signature, ΕΥΑΙ or ΧΟΙΡΙΩΝ; around, crayfish and two river-fishes. Similar.
AR Drachm.
ΑΜΕΝΑ[νος] Full-face head of Amenanos horned, with wavy flowing hair. Artist’s signature, ΧΟΙ. Quadriga driven by female charioteer. Beneath, Maeander-pattern. Artist's name ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΔΑ.
AR Drachm.
Head of bald and bearded Seilenos facing. [Holm, Pl. VI. 7.] Head of Amenanos wearing taenia.
AR Drachm.
Id. Head of Apollo laureate.
AR Half-drachm.
Head of bald Seilenos in profile, sometimes with ivy-wreath. Fulmen, usually with two wings. In field, two disks.
AR Litra and smaller coins.
Head of nymph wearing sphendone. Rushing bull.
AR Obol or Litra.

About B.C. 404 is to be dated an alliance coin of Katane and Leontini.

ΛΕ ΟΝ Head of Apollo. [Num. Chr., 1896, Pl. IX. 7 and Pl. X.] ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ Rushing bull; in exergue, fish.
AR Half-drachm.

There are not many bronze coins of Katane which can be attributed to the best period of art. The following may, however, be mentioned :—

ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ Head of Persephone, as on dekadrachms of Syracuse; around, dolphins. Man-headed bull walking.
Æ .95
ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ Head of Persephone with long hair. Fulmen as above.
Æ .75
ΑΜΕΝΑΝΟΣ Young horned head of river-god. ΚΑ fulmen with spread wings.
Æ .55

Of the subsequent history of Katane we possess very slight information. We know that the city continued to exist, but it does not seem to have struck any coins for more than a century. During the First Punic War it submitted to Rome, and under the Roman rule it attained great prosperity.

The bronze coins of Catana, which belong chiefly to the end of the third and to the second century, are very numerous.

Head of Athena. Fulmen. Æ .65
Reclining river-god. Helmets of the Dioskuri. Æ .75
Head of Seilenos. Grapes. Æ .5
Heads of Sarapis and Isis. Two ears of corn. Æ .5

With marks of value.

Litra. Head of Poseidon. Dolphin. Mk. of value XII. Æ .55
Dekonkion. Heads of Sarapis and Isis. Apollo standing „ „ X. Æ .8
Pentonkion. Head of Apollo. Isis standing, holds bird „ „ Π. Æ .8
Hexas. Id. Id. II. Æ .7
ΛΑΣΙΟ Head of young Dionysos. The Catanaean brothers carrying their parents. [Hill Sicily, Pl. XIV. 16.].
Æ .8

Λασιος is probably a local name of Dionysos. The meaning of the word,'hairy,’ is appropriate to the god whose characteristic garment was the hairy fawn-skin, νεβρις.

One of the Catanaean brothers carrying his father. The other brother carrying his mother. Æ .7-.5

These types allude to a popular tale that once during a fearful eruption of Aetna in the fifth century, when a stream of lava was descending upon Catana, and when every man was eagerly bent upon saving his treasures, the brothers Amphinomos and Anapias bore off on their shoulders their aged parents, but the lava overtook them, heavily laden as they were, and their doom seemed inevitable, when the fiery stream miraculously parted and let them pass unscathed. Ever after the Catanaean brethren were held up as types of filial piety, and received divine honors (Holm, Gesch. Sic., i. pp. 25, 339). A denarius representing the same subject was issued by Sextus Pompeius from Catana.

Head of young Dionysos. Dionysos in car drawn by panthers. Æ .9
Head of Hermes. Nike with wreath and palm. Æ .85
Head of Zeus Ammon. [Hill Sicily, Pl. XIV. 14.] Aequitas with scales and cornucopiae. Æ .9
Head of Sarapis. Isis standing with sceptre and sistrum; beside her, Harpokrates. Æ 1.1
Janiform head of Sarapis wearing modius. [Ibid., Pl. XIV. 12.] Demeter standing with torch and ears of corn. Æ .95
 
The coins with marks of value in Roman numerals are clearly contemporary with those of Rhegium with similar marks (p. 112). They usually bear in addition very elaborate monograms. There is no evidence that the money of Katane was continued after the end of the second or the beginning of the first century B.C.

Centuripae (Centorbi) was a city of the Sikels of some importance as a strong place. No coins are known of it before the middle of the fourth century, when, in common with many other Sicilian towns, it was liberated from tyrannical rule by Timoleon (B.C. 339). It then restruck with its own types the large bronze coins of Syracuse (obv. Head of Athena, rev. Star-fish between dolphins):—

Circ. B.C. 339.
Head of Persephone as on Syracusan dekadrachms. ΚΕΝΤΟΡΙΡΙΝΩΝ Leopard. Æ 1.3

Between this time and that of the First Punic War, when it submitted to Rome, no coins are known.

After circ. B.C. 241.
Dekonkion. Head of Zeus; in field, eagle. [Hill Sicily, Pl. XIV. 21.] Winged fulmen Δ. Æ 1.
Hemilitron. Head of Apollo. Lyre. :::  Æ .95
Trias. Head of Artemis. Tripod. Æ .85
Hexas. Head of Demeter. [Hill Sicily, Ibid., Pl. XIV. 20.] Plough, on which bird. Æ .7
Uncertain. Head of Herakles. Club ΧΙ. Æ .6
„ Head of Apollo. Laurel-bough. Æ .5
„ „ „ Tree. Æ .45

In style these coins are very uniform, and they seem to be all of the third century B.C. For the correspondence between obv. and rev. types see Maonald, Coin Types, p. 120. The territory of Centuripae was very productive of corn, and the inhabitants were farmers on a large scale,'arant enim tota Sicilia fere Centuripini’ (Cic. II Verr. iii. 45).

Cephaloedium (Cefalù), on the north side of the island, stood, as its name implies, on a headland jutting out into the sea. In early times it formed part of the territory of Himera, and in B.C. 409 it fell into the hands of the Carthaginians. The mint known as Rash Melkarth (‘Promontory of Herakles’) is probably to be identified with this place, rather than with Heraclea Minoa (see Holm, No. 398). Cephaloedium was recovered by Dionysius in B.C. 396. To the period of Carthaginian occupation belong the following coins:—


Head of Persephone; around, dolphins (copied from coins by Euainetos).
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 9.]
Punic inscr. דש מלקדח Victorious quadriga.
AR Tetradrachm.
Female head; around, dolphins.
[Hill Sicily, Pl. X. 1.]
Similar.
AR Tetradrachm.
Bearded male head, laureate (Melkarth).
[Hill Sicily, Pl. IX. 16.]
AR Tetradrachm.

On some specimens the inscription is דאש מלקדח. The work is at first very good, but rapidly degenerates. Coins were issued during this period by the exiled inhabitants of Cephaloedium, but at what place we cannot say :—

ΕΚ ΚΕΦΑΛΟΙΔΙΟΥ Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΩΤΑΝ Rushing bull. [Holm, Pl. VI. 10.].
AR 24-23 grs.
Id. Id.
AR 12.5 grs.
Similar head; inscr. off the flan. ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΩ... Id.
Æ .65

The next coins of Cephaloedium belong to the period after its capture by the Romans in B.C. 254.

Circ. B.C. 254-210 (and later ?).

ΚΕΦΑΛΟΙΔΙΟΥ Head of young Herakles. Pegasos.
Æ .5
Head of bearded Herakles, laureate ΚΕΦΑ Herakles standing to front.
Æ .95
Id. „ Club, bow, quiver, and lion-skin.
Æ .9
Head of bearded Herakles bound with taenia. [Tropea, p. 15, Nos. 5-6.] „ Helmet, cuirass, greaves, shield, club, and quiver.
Æ
Head of Apollo, laureate [Tropea, No. 18.] „ Apollo with phiale and lyre.
Æ
Head of Hermes. „ Caduceus.
Æ .5
C. CANINIVS II VIR Young male head. „ Herakles holding club and apple.
Æ .95
C. L. DOMINVS Head of Herakles, laureate [Tropea, p. 17, No. 28.] „ Herakles holding lion-skin.
Æ

Enna (Castrogiovanni), in the center of Sicily, stood on a fertile plateau, about three miles in extent, on the lofty summit of a mountain defended on all sides by steep cliffs. It was held to be one of the most sacred places in Sicily, being the chief seat of the cultus of Demeter, and the scene of the rape of Persephone. Its earliest coins are litrae of the period of early transitional art.

Circ. B.C. 450.
Quadriga driven by Demeter holding torch. ΗΕΝΝΑΙΟΝ Demeter with lighted torch sacrificing at altar
AR Obol or Litra.

The bronze coins of Enna are of two distinct periods.

Circ. B.C. 340.
ΔΑΜΑΤΗΡ Head of Demeter. ΕΝΝΑ (in ex.) Goat standing in front of torch between two ears of corn.
Æ 1.15
ΔΑΜΑΤ Head of Demeter wearing corn-wreath. ΕΝΝ Head of sacrificial ox with filleted horns.
Æ 1.0
Id. ΕΝ Two corn-grains.
Æ .6

Under the Romans after B.C. 258.
ΕΝΝΑΙΩΝ Demeter standing, holding torch and figure of Nike (?). Grapes in wreath.
Æ .9
ΕΝΝΑΙΩΝ Triptolemos standing, holding sceptre. Plough drawn by winged serpents.
Æ .9
ΕΝΝΑΙΩΝ Head of Hermes. Figure seated(?) before tree.
Æ .7

These statues of Demeter and Triptolemos, the former holding in her hand a Nike, are mentioned by Cicero (II Verr. iv. 49). The coins of Enna as a Roman Municipium, reading MVN. HENNAE, are the latest which we possess of the town. They bear the names of M. CESTIVS and L. MVNATIVS II VIR[I], and among the remarkable reverse-types are Hades in quadriga carrying off Persephone, and Triptolemos standing holding ears of corn.

Entella (Rocca d'Entella), originally an Elymian town, stood on a lofty summit in the interior of the island on the river Hypsas. Its earliest coins are of silver :—

Circ. B.C. 450.

Female figure sacrificing. ΕΝΤΕΑ (retrogr.) Man-headed bull (River Hypsas).
AR Litra.
Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. ΕΝΤ :::
AR Hemilitron.

In B.C. 404 the Campanian mercenaries who had been in the service of the Carthaginians seized upon Entella, which they held for many years. The following coins were struck under their occupation, but not until the time of Timoleon. (Head, Syracuse, p. 36 note.) For other coins struck by the Campanians in Sicily see Aetna, Campani, Nacona, and Tyrrheni.

Circ. B.C. 340.
ΚΑΜΠΑΝΩΝ Close fitting helmet.
[Imhoof MG, p. 17.]
ΕΝΤΕΛΛΑS Free horse.
AR ½ drachm
ΕΝΤΕΛ Head of Demeter in corn-wreath. ΚΑΜΠΑΝΩΝ Pegasos.
Æ .8
ΕΝΤΕΛΛ Head of bearded Ares in Close fitting helmet, laureate. Κ Pegasos or free horse.
Æ .85
ΕΝΤΕΛΛ.. Close fitting helmet. ΚΑΜΡΑΝΩ Id.
Æ .85-.7
Period of Roman Dominion.
ΑΤΡΑΤΙΝΟΥ Head of Helios. ΕΝΤΕΛΛΙΝWΝ City-goddess with phiale and cornucopia.
Æ .8
„ Head of Demeter; behind, triskeles. ΕΝΤΕΛΛΙΝWΝ Grapes.
Æ .6

The name of L. Sempronius Atratinus, who commanded in Sicily in the time of M. Antonius, also occurs on coins of Lilybaeum.

Eryx (Mte. S. Giuliano) stood on the summit of an isolated mountain at the north-west extremity of Sicily. Here was the far-famed temple of Aphrodite Erycina of Phoenician origin. In the archaic period Eryx would seem from its coin-types to have been for a time dependent upon Agrigentum, probably, like Himera, in the time of Theron.

Before circ. B.C. 480.

ΕRVΚΙΝΟΝ (retrograde) Eagle, sometimes on capital of column. [Hill Sicily, Pl. II. 2.] Crab (on the litrae, sometimes ΛΙ).
AR Drachms and Litrae.
 

In the transitional period the town appears to have been in close relations with the neighbouring city of Segesta, for the reverse-type, the dog, is common to the coins of both towns. Cf. also the unexplained termination ΖIB which occurs on coins of this city as well as at Segesta and on an alliance coin between the two cities (see Segesta).

Circ. B.C. 480-413.
Head of Aphrodite facing. ΕRVΚΙΝΟΝ (retrograde) Dog.
AR Litra.
Head of Aphrodite r., in sphendone. ΙRVΚΑΖΙ[Β] Dog and three stalks of corn.
AR Didrachm.
ΕΡΥΚΙΝΟΝ or ΙRVΚΑΖΙΒ Female figure sacrificing. Dog.
AR Litra.
Forepart of dog. [N. C., 1896, Pl. I. 11.] ΕΡΥ or ΕΡVΚ retrograde, around Η.
AR ½ litra.

Circ. B.C. 413-400.

Inscr. on obv. or rev. usually ΕΡΥΚΙΝΟΝ.
Victorious quadriga, horses in rapid action. Aphrodite seated, holding dove; Before her, Eros. [Gardner, Types, Pl. VI. 3.].
AR Tetradrachm.
Aphrodite seated holding dove : before her, Eros. [Hill Sicily, Pl. IX. 11.] ΙRVΚΑΖΙΙΒ (retrograde). Dog and three stalks of corn.
AR Tetradrachm.
Aphrodite seated before tree, holding dove. Dog; above, swastika.
AR Litra or Obol.
Aphrodite seated, crowned by flying Eros. Dog. „ „
Aphrodite seated, drawing towards her a naked youth (wingless Eros). Dog on prostrate hare.
AR Litra or Obol.
Head of Aphrodite r., in sphendone. Dog.
AR ½ Lit. or ½ Ob.

Circ. B.C. 400-300.

During the greater part of the fourth century Eryx was in the hands of the Carthaginians, and it is to this period that the coins with the Punic inscr. ארך belong.

Head of Aphrodite l. [Holm, Pl. VIII. 7.] Punic inscr. Man-headed bull standing
AR Obol
Head of Athena. „ Pegasos.
AR Didrachm.

The last type is due to the influence of the Corinthian coinage in Dion’s or Timoleon’s time.

There are also bronze coins which belong to the middle of the fourth century.

ΕΡΥΚΙΝΩΝ Head of Zeus Eleutherios. Aphrodite seated, holding dove.
Æ 1.25
(Restruck on large Æ of Syracuse.)
Trias. Bearded head. Dog. •••
Æ 1.03
Hexas. Id. Id. ••
Æ .8
Uncia. Id. Id.
Æ
Trias. ΕΡΥΚΙΝΟΝ Head of Aphrodite. Dog. •••
Æ .6
Hexas. ΗΕΖΑΣ (retrograde) Head of Aphrodite. [Num. Zt., 18, Pl. VI. 4.] Dog. ••
Æ .65
Uncia. Head of Aphrodite. Dog. ΟΝΚΙΑ.
Æ .55

The bearded head may be intended for that of the eponymous hero Eryx.

After circ. B.C. 241.
Head of Aphrodite. ΕΡΥΚΙΝΩΝ Herakles standing.
Æ .85

In Roman times the sanctuary of Aphrodite Erycina was held in great honor, a body of troops being appointed to watch over it, and the principal cities of Sicily being ordered to contribute towards the cost of its maintenance in due splendor.

Galaria (Gagliano ?). An ancient Sikel town about six miles to the north of Agyrium, founded, according to Stephanus, by Morges, a Sikel chief.

Circ. B.C. 460.
ΣΟΤΕR (retrograde) Zeus seated holding eagle. [Gardner, Types, Pl. II. 1, 2.] <ΑΛΑ Dionysos standing, holding kantharos and vine-branch.
AR Obol or Litra.
Dionysos standing, holds kantharos and thyrsos.] Imhoof MG, Pl. B. 1.] <ΑΛΑRΙΝΟΝ Vine-branch with grapes.
AR Obol.

Gela (Terranova). After Syracuse and Agrigentum, Gela was the wealthiest city in Sicily in early times. In the reigns of Hippocrates, B.C. 498-491, and Gelon, B.C. 491-485, it extended its dominion over a large part of the island. Gelon even made himself master of Syracuse, and transported thither a great portion of the population of Gela, after which its prosperity began to wane. Gelon’s coinage here is uniform in its obverse type with his issues for Leontini and Syracuse (q. v.). The city stood at the mouth of the river Gelas,'immanisque Gela fluvii cognomine dicta’ (Aen. iii. 702), and the figure of this river in the form of a swimming man-headed bull forms the type of nearly all its coins. (Cp. Schol. Pind. Pyth. i. 185 : statue of the river Gelas as a bull.)

Before Circ. B.C. 466.

coin image
FIG. 73.

Quadriga, horses walking, usually with Nike floating above. On some specimens the meta or goal, in the form of an Ionic column, is seen behind the horses; on some, the Nike is on rev. <ΛΑΣ forepart of bearded man-headed bull, swimming (Fig. 73).
AR Tetradrachm.
Naked horseman armed, with helmet, wielding spear; horse prancing. <ΕΛΑΣ Bull represented entire, swimming r.
AR Tetradrachm.
[N. C., 1883, Pl. IX. 3, and 1894, Pl. VII. 6.]

The type of the first of these tetradrachms is agonistic. The appearance of the horseman on the coinage shows the importance of cavalry in the Geloan army.

Similar horseman. <ΕΛΑΣ Forepart of man-headed bull
AR Didrachm.
 
Horseman with spear. [Holm, Pl. I. 16.] <ΕΛΟΙΟΝ Forepart of man-headed bull.
AR Drachm.
Horse with bridle; above, a victor's wreath. <ΕΛΑΣ Forepart of man-headed bull
AR Litra.
<ΕΛ Forepart of man-headed bull. Wheel.
AR Obol.

On some of the tetradrachms and litrae the name is written <ΕΛΑ, which is less probably an abbreviation of the river-name <ΕΛΑΣ than the nominative of the city-name.

After the expulsion from Syracuse of the dynasty of Gelon in B.C. 466, the inhabitants of Gela, who had been forcibly removed to Syracuse, returned to their native town, and from this time until its destruction by the Carthaginians in B.C. 405 it enjoyed great prosperity.

Circ. B.C. 466-413.
Quadriga of walking horses; above, Nike or a wreath; in ex. often a floral scroll, sometimes, a stork flying, or olive-branch.
[Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. XVI. 22.]
<ΕΛΑΣ and later ΓΕΛΑΣ Forepart of man-headed bull; beneath, sometimes an aquatic bird, or fish.
AR Tetradrachm.
ΓΕΛΟΙΟΝ (retrograde) Similar.
[Num. Chron., 1883, Pl. IX. 4.]
ΣΟΣΙΠΟΛΙΣ (retrograde) Female figure placing a wreath on the head of the bull Gelas.
AR Tetradrachm.

The goddess here called Sosipolis is the guardian divinity or Tyche of the city. She is represented as crowning the river-god. The coins were probably issued on the occasion of some local games.

Horseman armed with shield and spear. <ΕΛΑΣ Forepart of man-headed bull
AR Litra or Obol.

Circ. B.C. 413-405.
ΓΕΛΑΣ Forepart of bull, Gelas; above, corn-grain. Armed horseman r.; horse walking. [Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. XVI. 23.]
AV wt. 27 grs.
Similar. [Hill Sicily, Pl. VIII. 4.] ΣΩΣΙΠΟΛΙΣ Head of goddess, hair in sphendone.
AV wt. 18 grs.
Forepart of bridled horse.
[Evans Syracusian, p. 99, Fig. 7.]
ΣΩΣΙΠΟΛΙΣ Head of Sosipolis.
AV 13.5 grs.

The period immediately succeeding the defeat of the Athenians is that to which all these small Sicilian gold coins of Syracuse, Gela, and Camarina, weighing usually 27, 18, and 9 grs., undoubtedly belong.

coin image
FIG. 74.
ΓΕΛΩΙΟΝ Winged Nike driving quadriga of walking horses; in field above, a wreath (Fig. 74). Head of young river-god Gelas, horned and bound with taenia. Around, three river-fishes.
AR Tetradrachm

The presence of the Ω on this and the preceding coins shows that they belong to the last decade before the destruction of the city.

Armed horseman spearing prostrate foe.
[Holm, Pl. VI. 6.]
ΓΕΛΑ[Σ] Similar head of Gelas; the whole within a wreath
AR Didrachm.

This type may commemorate the victory of the Geloan cavalry over Athenian hoplites (Holm, Gesch. Sic., ii. 415), or it may be agonistic.

Armed horseman striking downwards with spear. [Imhoof MG, Pl. B. 2.] ΓΕΛΑΣ Forepart of man-headed bull.
AR Hemidrachm.
ΓΕΛΩΙΩΝ winged or wingless Nike driving quadriga of galloping horses; above, an eagle flying with a serpent in his claws. In ex., often, ear of corn. ΓΕΛΑΣ (retrograde) Forepart of man-headed bull, Gelas. In field, often, a corn-grain.
AR Tetradrachm.
Similar, but eagle has no serpent.
[Burlington Club Catal, 1903, No. 140.]
ΓΕΛΑΣ Man-headed bull standing; in front, plant; in ex., corn-grain.
AR Tetradrachm.

Tetradrachms such as the above, with the horses in high action, resemble those struck at Syracuse after the final defeat of the Athenians, signed by the artists Kimon, Euainetos, &c.

Head of young Herakles in lion-skin; symbol, astragalos. [Hill Sicily, Pl. VII. 6.] ΓΕΛΩΙΩΝ Bearded human head of River Gelas crowned with corn.
AR Litra.
Head of young river-god with loose hair. Behind, corn-grain. ΓΕΛΑΣ River Gelas as a bull walking with head lowered. Mark of value, •••
Trias, Æ .65
ΓΕΛΑΣ Head of young Gelas horned and bound with taenia. Bull with lowered head. Mark of value, •••
Trias, Æ .75
Wheel of four spokes, between which, four corn-grains. ΓΕΛΑΣ Id. •••
Trias, Æ .75
[Hunter Cat., I. 184, 20.]
Head of young Gelas with floating hair; symbol, corn-grain. ΓΕΛΑΣ Bull Gelas as on Trias. Mark of value, •
Uncia, Æ .45
Head of bearded Herakles. ΓΕΛΩΙΩΝ Bearded human head of river Gelas crowned with corn.
Æ .65-.45
ΓΕΛΩΙΩΝ Head of Demeter facing, crowned with corn. Similar head of Gelas.
Æ .55

The corn-wreath and corn-grain which so often appear in conjunction with the head of the river-god sufficiently indicate that to his beneficent influence the Geloans attributed the extraordinary fertility of their plains. Even now the upper course of the Terranova is rich in woods, vineyards, and corn-fields.

Circ. B.C. 340.

After an interval of more than half a century, during which the prosperity of Gela was at a very low ebb (for it never recovered from the ruin inflicted by the Carthaginians), it was recolonized in B.C. 338, and from this date until the time of Agathocles the town appears to have regained to some extent its ancient prosperity, although it never again struck large silver coins.

ΓΕΛΑΣ Head of bearded Gelas horned. [Gardner, Types, Pl. VI. 38.] Free horse.
AR Trihemiobol, wt. 16.2 grs.
ΕΥΝΟΜΙΑ Head of Demeter, hair in sphendone. ΓΕΛΩΙΩΝ Bull on ear of corn.
AR Diobol (?).

The epithet ΕΥΝΟΜΙΑ, here applied to the goddess Demeter, may be compared with that of ΥΓΙΕΙΑ on a coin of Metapontum (see above, p. 77).

Head of Persephone. [Tropea, p. 19, No. 11.] ΓΕΛΩΙΩΝ Forepart of man-headed bull.
AR wt. 8.5 grs.
Warrior holding a ram, which he is about to sacrifice. Free horse.
Æ 1.05

Subsequently Phintias of Agrigentum, B.C. 287-279, removed the inhabitants of Gela to a new city called after himself, at the mouth of the river Himeras, midway between Gela and Agrigentum. Gela nevertheless continued to exist, and struck bronze coins after the time of the Roman conquest.

After circ. B.C. 241.

Head of young river-god Gelas crowned with reeds. ΓΕΛΩΙΩΝ Warrior slaughtering ram.
Æ .85
Head of Demeter crowned with corn. Ear of corn.
Æ .75

Heraclea Minoa. For the Punic coins usually attributed to this mint see under Cephaloedium.

Herbessus. There were two towns of this name in Sicily, one in the Agrigentine territory, the other a Sikel town of more importance, a little to the west of Syracuse (Pantalica ?). It is to this last that the coins are usually attributed (Imhoof MG, p. 20).

After circ. B.C. 340.
ΕΡΒΗΣΣΙΝΩΝ Head of Sikelia.
[Imhoof MG, Pl. A. 21.]
The head and neck of a bearded man-headed bull.
Æ 1.2
Id. [Ibid., Pl. A. 22.] Eagle with closed wings looking back at serpent.
Æ 1.2
ΕΡΒΗΣΣΙ... Head of Zeus (Coll. Virzi). Head of Sikelia.
Æ 1.2
Head of Sikelia (Coll. Virzi). ΕΡΒΗΣΣΙΝΩΝ Lyre.
Æ 1.0

These coins belong to the latter part of the fourth century and are restruck over coins of Syracuse with the head of Zeus Eleutherios (rev. thunderbolt) or Athena (rev. star and dolphins).

Himera (Termini), on the north coast of Sicily, was an ancient Chalcidic colony from Zancle, founded in the middle of the seventh century B.C. Its coinage has been studied by Gabrici, Topogr. e numismatica dell’ antica Imera e di Terme (Riv. Ital., 1894). Of its early history hardly anything is known. Its first coins, like those of Zancle and Naxus, follow the Aeginetic(?) standard (see p. 115).

Before circ. B.C. 482.

coin image
FIG. 75.

Cock (Fig. 75). Flat incuse square containing eight triangular compartments, of which four are in relief.
AR Drachm. wt. 90 grs.
AR Obol, wt. 15 grs.
Cock. [Holm, Pl. I. 5.] Hen in incuse square.
AR Drachm.

These coins occasionally bear the inscr. ΗΙΜΕ, and sometimes the letters Old Italic ES, ΤV, or VOld Italic ESOld Italic ES, which remain unexplained (N. C., 1898, pp. 190 ff.). The cock may be an emblem of a healing god and refer to the properties of the thermal springs near Himera. (Cf. the coins of Selinus, on which the cock as an adjunct symbol probably has a similar signification.) This bird, as the herald of the dawn of day, is thought by Eckhel to contain an allusion to the name of the town, Ιμερα, an old form of ημερα (Plato, Cratyl. 74; Plutarch, De Pyth. Orac. xii), but this is a very doubtful derivation.

Circ. B.C. 482-472.

Before B.C. 480 Theron of Agrigentum made himself master of Himera, and in that year, with the help of Gelon, gained a great victory over the Carthaginians, who had blockaded him in the town. Theron and his son Thrasydaeus for some years after this exercised undisputed sway over Himera, and reinforced its population with a Doric colony. At the same time the old Chalcidic (Aeginetic ?) coinage was abolished, and money of Attic weight introduced, on which the crab was adopted for the reverse type as a badge of Agrigentine dominion.

ΗΙΜΕRΑ Cock. Crab.
AR Didrachm. 135 grs.
AR Drachm. 65 grs.
Cock. [Holm, Pl. II. 16.] ΗΙΜΕRΑΙΟΝ Astragalos
AR Drachm. 65 grs.
Astragalos. ••
AR Hexas 1.2 grs.

The astragalos as a religious symbol may refer to the practice of consulting oracles by the throwing of αστραγαλοι (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. iv. 337).

Circ. B.C. 472-413.

Theron died in B.C. 472, and soon afterwards his son Thrasydaeus was expelled. From this time until B.C. 408, the date of the destruction of the town by the Carthaginians, Himera appears to have enjoyed an interval of uninterrupted prosperity.

ΙΜΕRΑ (retrograde) Nymph Himera standing facing, wearing chiton and ample peplos. [Imhoof MG, Pl. B, 3.] ΠΕΛΟΨ Pelops driving chariot, horses walking; in ex. palm-branch with bunch of dates.
AR Tetradrachm.

coin image
FIG. 76.

ΙΜΕΡΑΙΟΝ (retrograde) Victorious quadriga of walking horses (Fig. 76).
[Evans Syracusian, p. 173.]
Nymph Himera sacrificing at an altar; behind her is a small Seilenos washing himself in a stream of water which falls upon him from a fountain in the form of a lion’s head; on one s specimen, on the altar, artist’s signature ΚΙΜΟΝ ?.
AR Tetradrachm.

The worship of Kronos at Himera is proved by a coin of the next period; that of Pelops, whom Pindar calls Κρονιος (Ol. iii. 41), falls perhaps into the same cycle. The presence of Pelops on a Himeraean coin might also be explained as referring to the Olympic victory gained by Ergoteles of Himera in B.C. 472 (Pind. Ol. xii), for Pelops was especially revered as the restorer of the Olympic festival.

ΙΜΕΡΑΙΟΝ Naked horseman riding sideways, about to spring from galloping horse. [Gardner, Types, Pl. II. 38.] ΣΟΤΕΡ (retrogr.) and later ΣΟΤΗΡ Nymph Himera sacrificing; in field caduceus and corn-grain.
AR Didrachm.

On the supposed inscription ΙΑΤΟΝ on these coins see N. C., 1898, pp. 190 ff.

ΗΙΜΕΡΑΙΟΝ Naked youth riding on a goat and holding a shell, buccinum, which he blows. ΝΙΚΑ Nike flying, holding aplustre.
AR ½ Drachm.
Monster with bearded human head, goat’s horn, lion’s paw, and curled wing. ΗΙΜΕΡΑΙΟΝ Naked youth on goat.
AR Litra.
[Κ]ΙΜΑRΟ? (retrogr.) Female head.
[N. Z., 1886, Pl. VI. 7.]
Forepart of boar; four grains of corn.
AR Litra.
Bearded helmeted head. ΙΜΕΡΑΙΟΝ Two greaves.
AR Obol.
Bearded head. ⊟ΙΜΕ Helmet.
AR Obol.

Circ. B.C. 413-408.

Quadriga, horses in high action; above, Nike holding a tablet with the artist's name ΜΑΙ...; in ex., hippocamp. Nymph Himera Sacrificing at altar; behind her, Seilenos washing at fountain.
AR Tetradrachm.
[Gardner, Types, Pl. VI. 2.]

ΚΡΟΝΟΣ Bearded head of Kronos bound with taenia. [Imhoof MG, Pl. B. 4.] ΙΜΕΡΑΙΩΝ fulmen between two corn-grains.
AR Litra.
ΙΜΕΡΑΙΩΝ Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. Athena standing facing, with shield and spear.
AR Obol or Litra.
Boar. [N. Z., 1886, Pl. VI. 8.] Female figure pouring water over lion's head.
AR Litra.

Kronos was revered as an ancient king of Sicily at various places in the island, one of which was probably at or near Himera (Diod. iii. 6).

146

BRONZE. Before circ. B.C. 413.

The earlier bronze coins of Himera fall into two distinct series:—

(α) Heavy class with marks of value.
Hemilitron. Gorgon head.
[Holm, Pl. VII. 8.]
:::
Æ 408 grs.
Pentonkion. Id. :·:
Æ 274 grs.
Tetras. Id. :: ΗΙΜΕΡΑ (retrograde)
Æ 330 grs.
Tetras. Id.
[Gabrici, Pl. VIII. 21.]
:: Herakles (?) seated.
Æ 312 grs.
Trias. Gorgon head. :.
Æ 253 grs.

(β) Light class with marks of value.
Nude youth riding on goat, blowing shell. ΚΙΜΑΡΑ, ΙΜΕΡΑ or ΙΜΕΡΑΙΩΝ Nike flying carrying aplustre.
Hemilitron with ::: Æ .8, Trias with ••• Æ .6, and Hexas with •• Æ .5.

Circ. B.C. 413-408.
ΙΜΕ Head of nymph Himera with hair in sphendone •••••• ::: in wreath.
Æ .65
Head of nymph facing. ΙΜΕ Crayfish.
Æ .5

Of the above series of bronze coins the first (α), judging from the tetras, yields a litra of 990 grs., while the second (β), judging from the trias, only yields one of about 220 grs. At Agrigentum during the same period the litra appears to fall only from 750 to 613 grs., and there even in the latter half of the fourth century it stands as high as 536 grs.

In the face of such contradictory evidence it is hazardous to draw any conclusions from the weights of the bronze coins as to the various reductions of the litra in Sicily. Cf. also the bronze coins of Panormus.

Thermae Himerenses. In B.C. 408 the old town of Himera was utterly destroyed by the Carthaginians and the inhabitants partly put to the sword and partly driven into exile. The remnant of the population was, however, permitted to settle within the confines pf the Himeraean territory, at the hot springs not far from the old city (Cic. II Verr. ii. 35). Here a new city grew up which was called Thermae or Thermae Himeraea. These thermal fountains were traditionally said to have been opened by the nymphs at Himera and Segesta to refresh the wearied limbs of Herakles on his journey round Sicily (Diod. iv. 23). Cf. the type of Herakles in repose (borrowed probably from Croton).

Circ. B.C. 405-350 (?).

ΘΕΡΜΙΤΑΝ Female head in sphendone; around, dolphins. Victorious quadriga, horses in high action.
AR Tetradrachm.
Female head in sphendone; around, dolphins. [Hôtel Drouot, Sale Cat., Dec. 1907, Pl. VI. 178.] Id. ΘΕΡΜΙΤΑΝ; artist’s signature ΚΛΗ; symbol, altar.
AR Tetradrachm.

ΘΕΡΜΙΤΑΝ Head of Hera in profile wearing stephanos adorned with foreparts of griffins. Herakles naked, seated on rocks over which is spread his lion-skin. [Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. XXV. 26.]
AR Didrachm. and obols.
Head of Hera. ΘΕΡΜΙΤΑΝ (sometimes on obv.) Head of Herakles.
Æ .8-.55
Head of Artemis; behind, crescent. ΘΕΡΜΙΤΑΝ Id.
Æ .75

After these coins there is a long interval, for Thermae does not appear to have struck money again until after its capture by the Romans in the course of the First Punic War.

UNDER ROMAN DOMINION.
After circ. B.C. 241.

Head of bearded Herakles in lion-skin. ΘΕΡΜΙΤΑΝ Three nymphs standing, the middle one (the City) veiled and turreted.
Æ 1.1
Id. „ or ΘΕΡΜΑ ΙΜΕΡΑΙΑ Veiled statue of City holding cornucopia and phiale.
Æ .8
Veiled female head. ΘΕΡΜΙΤΑΝ She-goat recumbent.
Æ .5
Head of City veiled and turreted. ΘΕΡΜΙΤΑΝ ΙΜΕΡΑΙΩΝ Statue of Stesichorus leaning on staff and reading book.
Æ 1.0
Head of Hera. Head of young Herakles.
Æ .6

Cicero (II Verr. ii. 35) mentions among the bronze statues which Scipio restored to Thermae after the destruction of Carthage that of the City of Himera,'in muliebrem figuram habitumque formata’; that of the poet Stesichorus,'erat enim Stesichori poetae statua senilis incurva, cum libro summo, ut putant, artificio facta; qui fuit Himerae sed et est et fuit tota Graecia summo propter ingenium honore et nomine,’ etc.; and that of a she-goat,'etiam quod paene praeterii capella quaedam est ... scite facta et venuste.’ It is interesting to find all these three statues copied on the latest coins of Thermae.

Hipana. Polybius (i. 24) mentions a town of this name not far from Panormus. The following coin was struck there :—

Circ. B.C. 450.
ΙΠΑΝΑΤΑΝ Eagle on capital of column. Dolphin and scallop-shell.
AR Litra.

A coin of Motya (q. v.) has very nearly the same types.

Hybla Magna (Paternò). The largest of the three cities in Sicily which bore the name of Hybla (Leake, Num Hell., p. 60) stood on the southern slope of Mt. Aetna, not far from the river Symaethus. No coins are known to have been struck there until the period of the Roman dominion (see also Megara Hyblaea).

After circ. B.C. 210.
Veiled female head wearing modius; behind, a bee. ΥΒΛΑΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΑΣ Dionysos(?) in long robes holding kantharos and sceptre. A she-panther jumps up to him.
Æ .8
ΣΑ Female head wearing stephane.
[N. Z., 1886, p. 253.]
ΥΒ ΜΕ Caduceus.
Æ .6
Head of Athena. [Ibid.] ΥΒ ΜΕ in monogram Bee in wreath.
Æ .65

The head on the first coin is that of the goddess Hyblaea (Paus. v. 23).

Iaitas (Greek), Ietas (Latin). A Sikel fortress and town on a precipitous mountain (monte iato) about fifteen miles south-west of Panormus. Its coins belong to the Greek period as well as to the period of the Roman dominion.

Coinage after circ. B.C. 241.
ΙΑΙΤΙΝΩΝ Head of bearded Herakles. Triskeles, in center of which Gorgoneion; three ears of corn.
Æ 1.0
Bust of Artemis. ΙΑΙΤΙΝΩΝ Standing figure leaning on spear surmounted by Phrygian helmet
Æ .85
Head in helmet, with crest like a mural crown. „ Warrior standing
Æ .75
Warrior standing. ΙΑΙΤΙΝΩΝ in wreath.
Æ .8
Bearded head. Id. Herakles or warrior standing.
AE.

Leontini (Lentini) was an inland town about twenty miles north-west of Syracuse. It was a Chalcidian colony from Naxus, founded before the close of the eighth century B.C. Unlike the other Chalcidian colonies, Naxus, Zancle, and Himera, it does not appear to have struck money on the Aeginetic standard, its first issues consisting of tetradrachms of Attic weight, none of which can well be earlier than the beginning of the fifth century.

Circ. B.C. 500-466.

Inscr. ΛΕΟΝΤΙΝΟΝ, ΛΕΟΝ, or ΛΕ (often retrograde).
coin image
FIG. 77.

Victorious quadriga (the horses on the latest specimens galloping). Lion’s head with open jaws; around, four corn-grains.
AR Tetradrachm.
[Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. IX. 28.]

Id. In ex. lion running.
[Hill Sicily, Pl. V. 5.]
Female head with hair turned up and wearing wreath.
AR Tetradrachm.
Id. (Fig. 77.) Archaic head of Apollo laureate; beneath, running lion, and around, three laurel leaves.
AR Tetradrachm.
Naked horseman. [Holm, Pl. II. 8.] Lion’s head and four corn-grains
AR Didrachm. and Drachm.
Lion’s head, usually facing. Corn-grain.
AR Diob. and Obol.
Lion’s head to right. Corn-grain :::
AR Hemilitron.
Id. :·:
AR Pentonkion.
Id. :
AR Hexas.

The tetradrachms where the lion (not the lion of Leontini) appears as a symbol in the exergue, show affinities with the Demareteion of Syracuse (q.v.). Cf. Holm, p. 582. The coinage of Gelon at Leontini with Nike over the quadriga on the obverse is, in this respect, uniform with the coinage at Gela and Syracuse (q.v.).

After passing successively under the dominion of Gelon and of Hieron, Leontini regained its independence in B.C. 466, and, like the rest of the Sicilian cities, enjoyed an interval of repose and prosperity until B.C. 427, when it became engaged in a struggle with Syracuse, which ended, circa B.C. 422, in its reduction into a state of dependency on that city. The coins which belong to this period are the following :—

Circ. B.C. 466-422.
Inscr. Old Italic ESΕΟΝΤΙΝΟΝ, Old Italic ESΕΟΝΤΙΝΟS, Old Italic ESΕΟΝ, or ΛΕΟΝ.
coin image
FIG. 78.
Head of Apollo, laureate style progressing from archaic to early fine. Lion’s head with open jaws; around four corn-grains, or three only, the fourth being replaced by a lyre, tripod, laurel-leaf, river-fish, etc. (Fig. 78).
AR Tetradrachm. and Drachm.
Similar. Corn-grain.
AR Litra.
Lion’s head as above. Naked river-god, Lissos (?), holding branch and sacrificing at altar; behind, corn-grain.
AR Litra.

From the above described coin-types it is abundantly evident that Apollo was worshipped at Leontini with special devotion. The lion, his emblem, probably also contains here an allusion to the name of the town. The corn-grains remind us that the Leontine plain was renowned for its extraordinary fertility (Cic. II Verr. iii. 18). After Apollo, Demeter was apparently the divinity chiefly worshipped there.

Circ. B.C. 422-353.

Leontini was revived for a short period between B.C. 405 and 403, when it issued a coin in alliance with Katane (q. v.). In Dion’s time there was a small issue of Corinthian staters similar to those struck at Syracuse at the same period, and also of bronze.

ΛΕΟΝΤΙΝΟΝ Head of Athena in Corinthian helmet. Pegasos.
AR Didrachm.
ΛΕΟΝ Head of Apollo. Tripod between two corn-grains; between legs of tripod, a lyre. Mark of value ••• Trias.
Æ .55

Not until Leontini by the fall of Syracuse came into the hands of the Romans did it again begin to strike money.

After circ. B.C. 210.
Inscr. ΛΕΟΝΤΙΝΩΝ on reverse.
Head of Apollo, quiver at shoulder. Demeter standing with torch and ears of corn; plough at her feet.
Æ .9
Head of river-god (?) bound with reeds; behind, crab. Demeter or Isis standing facing.
Æ .85
Bust of Demeter facing; in field, plough.
[Hill Sicily, Pl. XIV. 15.]
River-god seated on rock, holds branch and cornucopiae; in field, crab.
Æ .85
Head of Demeter veiled; symbol, plough. Wheat-sheaf.
Æ .7
Jugate heads of Apollo and Artemis. Two ears of corn.
Æ .65
Female Dionysiac head ivy-bound. Warrior facing.
Æ .6
Head of Apollo; behind, plough. Lion, or forepart of lion.
Æ .6-.5
Id. Two fishes.
Æ .55
Id. Sacrificial galerus.
Æ .55
Head of Apollo. Plough with bird on it.
Æ .55

Lilybaeum (Marsala). This city was founded by the Carthaginians in B.C. 397, a remnant of the inhabitants of Motya which had been destroyed by Dionysius being then settled there. It remained a Carthaginian stronghold until it was taken by the Romans after a ten years’ siege, B.C. 241. All its coins are subsequent to this date, and of bronze.

After B.C. 241.

Inscr. ΛΙΛΥΒΑΙΙΤΑΝ or ΛΙΛΥΒΑΙΙΤΑΙC.
Head of Apollo. Tripod (AE .55) or lyre (AE .9).
Veiled female head in mural crown within triangular enclosure. Serpent coiled round tripod. Mag. ΑΤΡΑΤΙΝΟ ΠΥΘΙΩΝ.
Æ 1.25

This head has been thought to represent the Cumaean Sibyl, whose tomb, Solinus states, was one of the ornaments of the city. It is more probably merely the city-goddess. L. Sempronius Atratinus, whose name also occurs on coins of Entella, was a lieutenant of M. Antonius in Sicily during the war against Sextus Pompeius. Lilybaeum also struck money with the head of Augustus (rev. types: lyre. head of Apollo: inscr. LILVBIT. or Q_. TERENTIO CVLLEONE PRO COS LILVB.).

Longane. Diodorus (xxiv. 6) mentions a fortress, Longon, in the territory of Catana, but the following coin was more probably struck at some town on the river Longanus, mentioned by Polybius (i. 9) as being in the Mylaean plain (Holm, Gesch. Sic., i. 345).

Circ. B.C. 466-413.
ΛΟΓΓΑΝΑΙΟΝ (retrograde) Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. Head of young river-god with short horns.
AR Litra.

Megara Hyblaea, a colony from Megara in Greece, was situated on the coast a few miles north of Syracuse. It was destroyed by Gelon in B.C. 483, but its fortress Stiela (q.v.) was revived and issued coins in the fifth century, while in the fourth century Megara itself struck the following coin :—

Fourth century B.C.

Female head.
[Evans NC XVI 1896, Pl. IX. 2.]
ΜΕΓΑ Man-headed bull.
AR Litra.

Menaenum or Menae (Mineo), about eighteen miles west of Leontini, was an inland town founded by the Sikel chief Ducetius B.C. 459. After its conquest by Dionysius it appears to have been always subject to Syracuse until the Roman conquest, when, like most other Sicilian towns it obtained the right of coining in bronze.

Period of Roman Dominion. (Inscr. ΜΕΝΑΙΝΩΝ.)
Head of Sarapis. Ε (or Π on reverse) Nike driving biga.
Pentonkion. Æ .75
Head of Apollo Π Lyre.
„ Æ .7
Id. „ Asklepios.
„ Æ .7
Head of Demeter veiled; or head of Athena. Two torches crossed, ••••, ΙΙΙΙ, or Δ,
Tetras, Æ .7-.65
ΚΟΡΑΣ Head of Persephone. Demeter with two torches.
Æ .75
Head of bearded Herakles. Club, •••
Trias, Æ .6
Head of Hermes. Caduceus, ••
Hexas, Æ .6
Head of Janus. [Tropea, p. 26, No. 6.] Victorious biga.
Æ

Messana, Mamertini, originally Zancle. Zancle, on the straits of Messina, was one of the earliest Chalcidian settlements in Sicily, founded according to Thucydides (vi. 4) from Cumae, and subsequently recolonized from Euboea. Strabo, however, asserts (vi. p. 268) that it was a colony of Naxus. The name is of native origin and signifies a sickle (ζαγκλον); it was given to the locality on account of the configuration of the coast, the port being there enclosed by a sickle-shaped bar of sand (Strab. l. c.; Thucyd. vi. 4).

Like the other Chalcidian colonies, Rhegium, Naxus, and Himera, Zancle began to coin at an early period on the Aeginetic (?) standard. Its earliest coins differ from all others issued in Sicily in that they bear the same type on obverse and reverse, but in the latter case incuse, thus showing that Zancle was in close commercial relation with the South Italian cities of which this fabric is characteristic.

Before circ. B.C. 490.

DΑΝΚOld Italic ESΕ Dolphin within a sickle shaped band (the port of Zancle). Same type incuse. [N. C., 1896, Pl. VIII. 1, 2.].
AR Drachm. 88 grs.

coin image
FIG. 79.

DΑΝΚOld Italic ESΕ, DΑΝΚ, &c. Id., sometimes with projections on the band. Scallop-shell within an incuse key-pattern of peculiar form.
[J. Ward Catal., No. 302.]
AR 146.3 grs.
Id. [Brit. Mus. Guide, Pl. IX.] Id. (Fig. 79).
AR Drachm 90 grs.
AR Obol 14 grs.
AR Litra 11.5 grs.
[N. C., 1896, p. 112.]
AR 1/8 Obol 2 grs.
AR Euboïc didrachm 116 grs.
[Babelon, Tr., ii, Pl. LXXII. 8.]

The coinage of this period presents difficult problems (see C. H. Dodd in J. H. S., xxviii).

Circ. B.C. 490-461.

Anaxilas of Rhegium, some time after his accession in B.C. 494, caused Zancle to be treacherously seized by a body of Samians and Milesians. He seems to have colonized the place with Samians and Messenian s and to have named it Messene. Thucydides (vi. 4) says that he gave it the name on the expulsion of the Samians; but the following coins with Samian types show that the name was in use during the Samian occupation. Similar types occur at Rhegium, but these probably belong to the earlier part of the reign of Anaxilas.

coin image
FIG. 80.
Lion’s head facing (Fig. 80). ΜΕSSΕΝΙΟΝ Calf’s head to l.
AR Attic Tetradrachm.
Id. ΜΕS in incuse circle.
AR wt. 14 grs.

Another coin of which the type is still more distinctly Samian was found some thirty years ago in a hoard near Messina. There were several examples of it, together with others of Rhegium and Messana, of the lion’s head and calf’s head type (Zeit. f. Num., iii. p. 135). Another specimen was found in Egypt. They are uninscribed, and it is highly probable that they were struck at Samos for the use of the Samian e migrants.

Round shield, on which a lion’s scalp, facing. [Dodd, op. cit., Nos. C. 1,2.]. Prow of Samian galley (samaena).
AR Attic Tetradrachm.

Anaxilas subsequently introduced at Messene, as at Rhegium, the types of the mule-car and the hare (see above, p. 108). The inscription ΜΕSSΕΝΙΟΝ was eventually changed to ΜΕSSΑΝΙΟΝ, and this change from the Ionic to the Doric form probably coincided with the expulsion of the Samian element in the population, which took place some time before the death of Anaxilas in B.C. 476. The chariot-type remained unchanged until the expulsion of the tyrants in B.C. 461. The type of the hare, whatever its origin (see Rhegium, p. 109 supra), was early associated by the Messanians with the worship of their god Pan, and was therefore not discarded.

Circ. B.C. 480-461.
Biga of mules, απηνη, driven by a bearded charioteer. Above, sometimes, Nike crowning driver or mules. In ex., laurel-leaf. ΜΕSSΕΝΙΟΝ, and later ΜΕSSΑΝΙΟΝ. Hare running. Letters in field: Α, Β. Symbols: olive-branch, bucranium, etc.
AR Tetradrachm.
Id. [J. H. S., 1897, Pl. II. 7.] ΜΕSSΕΝΙΟΝ Hare.
AR Didrachm.
Id. Id. Id. in wreath.
AR Drachm.
Hare. ΜΕS (retrogr.), sometimes in wreath.
AR Litra (?).

To this period belongs, if genuine, the gold coin (wt. 22.6 grs.) with the same types as the tetradrachm, and inscr. ΜΕSSΕΝΙΟΝ. (Strozzi Sale Cat., No. 1337.)

B.C. 461-396.

After the expulsion of the tyrants, the Messanians continued at first to strike with the old types; but in the course of this period the male charioteer was replaced by the city-goddess Messana.

coin image
FIG. 81.
Biga of mules, driven at first by male charioteer, then by female, sometimes inscr. ΜΕΣΣΑΝΑ; above, Nike; in ex., usually, two dolphins (Fig. 81).
[N. C., 1896, Pl. VIII. 9.]
ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΟΝ, ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΟΣ Hare. Symbols : dolphin, hippocamp, cockle-shell, head of Pan (sometimes with syrinx), stalk of corn with three ears, head of ΠΕΛΩΡΙΑΣ (with trace of signature [ΚΙΜ]ΩΝ (?)), dove (with trace of signature ΑΝΑΝ (?))
AR Tetradrachm.
Id. (male charioteer).
[N. C., 1896, Pl. VIII. 4.]
ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΟΝ ΛΟ Hare.
AR Tetradrachm.
Id. (male charioteer). ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΟΝ Hare.
AR Drachm.
Id. (artist’s signature. [Κ]ΙΜΩΝ) ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΩΝ Hare. Symbols : dolphin and waves, eagle devouring serpent.
AR Tetradrachm.
ΜΕΣΣΑΝΑ Messana in mule-car.
[Imhoof MG, Pl. B. 5.]
ΠΑΝ Pan naked, seated on rock covered with nebris, holding in left lagobolon, and with right caressing a hare which jumps up before him.
AR Tetradrachm.
ΠΕΛΩΡΙΑΣ Head of goddess Pelorias, r., wearing corn-wreath. ΦΕΡΑΙΜΩΝ Pheraemon, naked, with helmet, shield, and spear, charging.
AR Drachm.
Hare. Symbols : ivy-leaf, olive-spray, cockle-shell. ΜΕΣ in wreath.
AR Litra.
ΜΕΣ Hare. Dolphin in wreath.
AR Obol.
Hare. ΜΕΣ.
AR Obol.
Hare. ΜΕ in wreath.
AR Litra.

The tetradrachm with ΛΟ probably indicates an alliance between Messana and Locri, the enemy of Rhegium. About the middle of the century the name of Zancle seems to have been temporarily restored, probably with the help of Croton, to judge from a coin struck at the latter city with the inscriptions QΡΟ and DΑ (Hill Sicily, Pl. IV. 9). The restored Zancleans issued the following remarkable pieces on which the forms D and Old Italic ES must be archaisms such as occur frequently on coins and are especially natural here when the Zancleans were restoring the old régime.

Poseidon (?), wearing chlamys, wielding fulmen; before him, altar.
[Hirsch Coll., Brussels; N. C., 1896, Pl. VIII. 7.]
DΑΝΚOld Italic ESΑΙΟΝ Dolphin and shell. (Fig. 82.).
AR Tetradrachm.
Dolphin. [Ibid., Pl. VIII. 6.] DΑΝ.
AR Litra.

coin image
FIG. 82.

The bronze coins corresponding to the ordinary issues of Messana in this period are :—

ΜΕΣΣΑΝΑ, ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΟΝ Head of Messana, hair bound with crossing fillets. Biga of mules driven by City-goddess.
Æ 1.0
ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΩΝ Hare; in ex. locust. Cuttle-fish.
Æ .75
ΠΕΛΩΡΙΑΣ Head of Pelorias. ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΩΝ Trident.
Æ .7

In the year B.C. 396 Messana was utterly destroyed by the Carthaginians under Himilcon. The above described coins show most clearly that Pan and Poseidon were the two chief divinities at Messana. The long sandy spit called Peloris or Pelorias, with its three lakes of volcanic origin, abounded with both game and fish—‘duplicem piscandi venandique praebent voluptatem’ (Solinus, v. 3)—and was a fitting home for the worship of the two divinities to the cult of which the coins bear witness. The nymph Pelorias is the local heroine. Pheraemon, one of the sons of Aeolos, was the local hero who, with his brother Androkles, ruled over the northern part of Sicily from the straits to the western point (Diod. v. 8).

Circ. B.C. 357-288.

It was long before Messana recovered from the blow inflicted upon her in B.C. 396. There is no evidence of any further coinage there until after the death of Dionysius of Syracuse, when we find the town in a condition to render assistance to Dion against the younger Dionysius. The following bronze coins range in style from the age of Timoleon to that of Agathocles.

ΠΟΣΕΙΔΑΝ Head of Poseidon laureate, copied from the Syracusan Zeus Eleutherios. [Hill Sicily, Pl. XII. 14.] ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΩΝ Trident between dolphins.
Æ 1.0
ΠΕΛΩΡΙΑΣ Head of nymph Pelorias with flowing hair bound with corn.
[Holm, Pl. VII. 15.]
„ Naked warrior. Phememon, in fighting attitude.
Æ .95
Id. „ Nike in biga.
Æ .85
ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΩΝ Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. Lion advancing with foreleg raised; above, club.
Æ .85
ΜΕΣΣΑΝΙΩΝ Head of Messana. Id. [Tropea, p. 27, No. 10.]
Æ
ΜΕΣΣΑΝΑ Head of Apollo (?).
[Tropea, p. 27, No. 11.]
Hare; mark of value ••
Æ Hexas.

Circ. B.C. 288-200.

About B.C. 288 the city was seized and all its inhabitants put to the sword by a body of Campanian or Oscan mercenaries, who styled themselves Mamertini.

The Mamertini derived their name from Mamers, an Oscan form of Mars. Soon after their seizure of Messana they extended their dominion over the greater part of north-eastern Sicily, and were, in a short time, strong enough to maintain their independence against both Pyrrhus and Hieron II of Syracuse. They allied themselves closely with their Campanian kinsmen who seized Rhegium in B.C. 271, and they were also fortunate in obtaining the friendly aid of the Romans, with whom they continued to enjoy, down to a late period, the privileges of an allied state. Their coinage is wholly of bronze. The following are among the most frequent types (inscr. on rev. usually. ΜΑΜΕΡΤΙΝΩΝ):—

Circ. B.C. 288-210.
ΑΔΡΑΝΟΥ Head of Adranos bearded, in Corinthian helmet. [Hill Sicily, Pl. XII. 15.] Dog.
Æ .75
ΑΡΕΟΣ Head of young Ares laureate, resembling the head on AV staters of Philip II of Macedon. [Holm, p. 736.] Nike as on AV staters of Alexander the Great.
Æ
ΑΡΕΟΣ Head of young Ares laureate, with short hair, copied from the Syracusan Zeus Hellanios. Eagle, wings open on fulmen.
Æ 1.1
Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. „ „
Æ .95
ΔΙΟΣ or ΔΙΟΣ ΜΕΣ Head of young Zeus laureate, hair long. „ „
Æ .8
ΑΡΕΟΣ Head of young Ares. Rushing bull.
Æ 1.-.85
Head of Apollo laureate. Fighting warrior.
Æ .9
ΔΙΟΣ Head of Zeus. Hermes standing with ram.
Æ .75
Head of Zeus. [Tropea, p. 2 8, Nos. 9, 10.] Trident between two dolphins.
Æ
Female head. ΜΑΜΕ Warrior naked, standing.
Æ .55
Head of Apollo. „ Omphalos.
Æ .5
Head of Artemis. ΜΑΜΕΡΤΙΝΩΝ or ΜΑΜΕΡΤΙΝΟΥΜ Omphalos. [Hill Sicily, Pl. XII. 20.].
Æ .45

With marks of value. After circ. B.C. 210.
Hexas. ΑΡΕΟΣ Head of young Ares : Athena armed.
Æ .9

Reduced weight.
Pentonkion. Head of Zeus.
[Hill Sicily, Pl. XIV. 19.]
Warrior fighting. ••••• or Π
„ Head of Ares. Dioskuros beside horse •••• Π
„ Head of Apollo. Warrior standing, or seated. Π
Hemilitron. Forepart of bull •••••• Nike flying, holding aplustre.
„ Head of Apollo :::
(Mark of value sometimes on reverse.)
Nike with wreath and palm.
Trias. Head of Apollo. „ „ ΙΙΙ
Uncia (?). „ • (?) „ „
Uncertain. Head of young Herakles in lion-skin.
[Hunter Cat., Pl. XV. 3.]
Artemis running with long torch; stag beside her; in field, ΧΙΙ.

These coins belong to the same monetary system as that which prevailed at Rhegium. Their weights show a steady reduction in the weight of the copper litra.

The occurrence of the head of the god Adranos on Messanian coins shows that the worship of this divinity was not confined to the immediate neighborhood of his great temple on Mt. Aetna (cf. Plut. Tim. 12 Αδρανο θεου τιμωμενου διαφεροντως εν ολη Σικελια), in the sacred enclosure of which more than a thousand splendid dogs were kept, which, according to Aelian (Hist. An. xi. 20), appear to have been the Mt. St. Bernard dogs of antiquity, friendly guides to strangers who had lost their path. Adranos was an armed god, and partook of the nature both of Ares and of Hephaestos. His cultus was probably introduced into Sicily by the Phoenicians, and he seems to be identical in origin with Adar or Moloch, to whom the dog was also sacred (Movers, i. 340, 405).

Morgantina was a Sikel town of some importance, which lay in the fertile plain watered by the upper courses of the river Symaethus and its tributaries. Although it is often mentioned by ancient writers, we have no connected account of its history. Its coins may be classified by style in the following periods:—

Circ. B.C. 460.

Bearded head bound with taenia. ΜΟR<ΑΝΤΙΝΑ (retrogr.) Ear of corn.
AR Litra.

Circ. B.C. 420-400.

ΜΟΡΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ Head of Artemis. Naked horseman with spear.
AR Litra.
„ Head of Athena, facing. ΜΟΡΓΑ... Nike seated on rocks, holding wreath; beneath, corn-grain
AR Litra.
„ Head of Hermes, facing. Similar type.
AR Litra.

The above coins seem to refer, though it is not clear in what sense, to the relations of Morgantina with Gela and Camarina; in the peace of Gela (B.C. 424) Morgantina was ceded to Camarina (Thuc. iv. 65; see Holm, iii. p. 637).

BRONZE. Circ. B.C. 340.
ΜΟΡΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ Head of Athena in richly adorned helmet; behind, owl. Lion devouring stag’s head; serpent sometimes coiled beneath him.
Æ 1.05
Head of Sikelia bound with myrtle. ΜΟΡΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ Eagle on serpent. [Hill Sicily, Pl. XIII. 1.].
Æ .8
ΑΛΚΟS Head of Apollo(?) laureate; behind, sometimes, Phoenician m. ΜΟΡΓΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ Tripod. [Ibid., Pl. XIII. 3.].
Æ .6

The type of the eagle on the serpent perhaps refers to the omen seen by Timoleon before the battle on the Crimissus (Plut. Tim. 26).

Alkos is probably the name of the local god (Apollo ?).

Motya (i. e.'spinning factory'—Schroeder, Phoen. Sprache, p. 279) was a Phoenician emporium on a small islet (S. Pantaleo) which lay off the west coast of Sicily, about five miles north of the Lilybaean promontory. The island was united to the mainland by an artificial mole. Possessing a good harbor, Motya rose to be the chief naval station of the Carthaginians, and so remained until in B.C. 397 it was attacked by Dionysius, who put all the inhabitants to the sword.

The coins of Motya, like those of the other Carthaginian settlements of Sicily, are imitated from the money of the Greeks, chiefly from the coins of the nearest important town, Segesta, but also from those of Agrigentum, Himera, &c. Sometimes they bear the Punic inscr. המטוא, sometimes the Greek ΜΟΤΥΑΙΟΝ.

Coins with Punic inscr. Circ. B.C. 480-413.
Eagle with closed wings.
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 8.]
Crab.
AR Tetradrachm.
Female head. Dog gnawing stag’s head.
AR Didrachm.
Id. Dog standing.
AR Didrachm.
Id. Half man-headed bull.
AR ½ Obol.
Id. in wreath. Female figure standing before altar. [N. Z., 1886, Pl. VII. 5.].
AR Obol.

Circ. B.C. 413-397.
Head of nymph (copied from Kimon's Syracusan dekadrachm). Crab.
AR Tetradrachm.
[Evans Syracusian, Pl. II. 5, 6.]
Head of nymph facing; around, dolphins. Crab.
AR Didrachm. and Obol.
Id. (without dolphins). [Hill Sicily, Pl. IX. 14.] Palm-tree.
AR Obol.
Gorgon-head. Id.
AR Obol.
Trias. Gorgon-head ••• Palm-tree.
Æ .8
Uncia (?). Forepart of horse. Id.
Æ .4

Coins with Greek inscr. Archaic and Transitional.
Eagle on capital, serpent in beak. Dolphin and scallop.
AR Obol.
Head of nymph, hair tied with cord passing four times round it. Naked youth riding sideways on galloping horse. [Holm, Pl. IV. 9.].
AR Didrachm.
Head of nymph. Dog standing.
AR Didrachm.

Mytistratus (Marianopoli) was a strongly fortified place in the interior of the island (Imhoof MG, p. 24). Its coins are of bronze and belong to about the time of Timoleon, being usually struck over Syracusan bronze.

Circ. B.C. 340.
Head of Hephaestos in conical cap. VΜ in wreath :::
Hemilitron, Æ 1.15
Id. ΤVΜ Three objects arranged like spokes of a wheel.
Æ .8
ΜΥΤΙ Id. [Imhoof MG, Pl. B. 8.] Free horse; below, Μ.
Æ .6

Nacona. The site of this town is unknown. Its coins are of bronze, and belong to a good period of art.

Before circ. B.C. 400.
ΝΑΚΟΝ[ΑΙΟ]Ν Head of nymph; hair gathered up behind and bound with cord wound three or four times round it. Seilenos riding on ass, holds kantharos and thyrsos, •••
Trias, Æ .65
Id. Goat, grapes, and ivy-leaf. •
Uncia, Æ .5

In the first half of the fourth century Nacona was held by Campanian mercenaries who had come over to Sicily in B.C. 412, just too late to help the Athenians against Syracuse. These soldiers of fortune, after serving the Carthaginians for a time, subsequently settled at various inland cities, among which, as we learn from the coins, were Nacona, Entella, and Aetna.

Circ. B.C. 357-317.
ΚΑΜΠΑΝΩΝ Head of Persephone with wreath of corn. ΝΑΚ[ΩΝΗ]Σ Pegasos; beneath, helmet.
Æ .75
Id. ΝΑΚΩΝΑΙΩΝ Free horse; beneath , helmet.
Æ .7

A number of coins reading Ν or ΝΑ, or uninscribed, may perhaps have been struck at Nacona (Imhoof, N. Z., 1886, pp. 258 ff.) :—

Early fourth century B.C.
Eagle standing on capital. Dolphin.
AR 7.7 grs.

After circ. B.C. 241.
Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. Trident between dolphins.
Æ 1.0
Head of Poseidon.
[Berlin Bl., v. Pl. LIV. 13.]
Warrior.
Æ .8
Id. Trident.
Æ .6
Head of Zeus. Eagle.
Æ .8-.5

Naxus (Capo di Schiso) was the most ancient Greek settlement in Sicily: it was a colony from Chalcis, founded about B.C. 735, and derived its name, we may suppose, from a preponderating contingent from the island of Naxos. Of the early history of this place little is known, but between B.C. 498 and 476 it passed successively under the dominion of Hippocrates of Gela and of Gelon and Hieron of Syracuse. In B.C. 476 its inhabitants were transferred to Leontini. In B.C. 461 it seems to have recovered its autonomy, which it retained until its destruction in B.C. 404 by Dionysius.

Before circ. B.C. 480. Aeginetic (?) Standard.
coin image
FIG. 83.
Head of Dionysos with pointed beard and ivy-wreath. ΝΑΧΙΟΝ (retrogr.) Bunch of grapes (Fig. 83).
AR Drachm, wt. 90 grs.
AR Obol, wt. 15 grs.
AR Litra, wt. 12 grs.

Some specimens of these early drachms of Aeginetic (?) weight (see p. 115, supra) are of extremely archaic style and seem to belong to a period not later than the middle of the sixth century.

Circ. B.C. 461-413. Attic standard.
coin image
FIG. 84.

Head of Dionysos, of early style, with long beard and hair in bunch behind bound with ivy-wreath (Fig. 84). ΝΑΧΙΟΝ Bearded Seilenos of strong archaic style, naked and ithyphallic, with pointed ear and long tail, seated to front on the ground with head in profile; he holds a kantharos with one hand and leans on the other.
AR Tetradrachm.
Id. „ Id.
AR Drachm.
Id. „ Bunch of grapes.
AR Litra or Obol.

coin image
FIG. 85.

Head of Dionysos, of fine style, bearded, bound with broad band adorned with ivy-wreath (Fig. 85). ΝΑΞΙΟΝ Similar Seilenos, but of softer and more refined style, seated on the ground, from which Λ vine springs; he holds kantharos and thyrsos.
AR Tetradrachm.

Circ. B.C. 413-404.
ΝΑΞΙΩΝ Head of Apollo, laureate; behind, laurel-leaf. [Holm, Pl. VI. 8.] Similar; to r., a term; sometimes with artist’s signature, ΠΡΟΚΛΗΣ
AR Didrachm.
ΝΑΞΙΩΝ Head of Maenad ivy-crowned. [Hill Sicily, Pl. VIII. 17.] Naked Seilenos seated holding wine-skin, branch of ivy, and kantharos; in front a vine grows.
AR Tetradrachm.

In the Berlin Museum there is a diobol which in style and type resembles the coin with ΠΡΟΚΑΗΣ, but instead of ΝΑΞΙΩΝ on obv. it reads ΝΕΟΠΟ on rev. (Weil Künstlerinschriften Pl. II. 13). It is supposed by Holm (Gesch. Sic., ii. 432; iii. 627) that these pieces were issued by the Naxians at Mylae, where they found a new home (Diod. xiv. 87), after the destruction of their old town.

ΑΣΣΙΝΟΣ Young horned head of river-god Assinos. [Hill Sicily, Pl. VIII. 18.] ΝΑΞΙΩΝ Similar Seilenos.
AR ½ Drachm.
ΝΑΞΙΩΝ Young head of river-god Assinos crowned with vine-leaves. Bunch of grapes.
AR Litra or Obol.
ΝΑΞΙ Head of bearded Dionysos crowned with ivy. Similar.
AR Litra or Obol.
Young head with short hair, wearing wreath. ΝΑ Kantharos :. Trias. [N. Z., 1886, Pl. VII. 6.]

The river here called Assinos is either the Asines of Pliny (iii. 88) and the Akesines of Thucydides (iv. 25), the modern Cantara, or the torrent S. Venera, which is nearer to Naxus.

Neopolis. See Naxus, supra.

Panormus (Palermo) was the most important of all the Phoenician towns in Sicily. Its Greek name, however, is sufficient to show that here, as everywhere else in Sicily, the Greek language was predominant, at least in early times. Before the great repulse of the Carthaginians at Himera, in B.C. 480, no coins whatever were struck at Panormus. No Phoenician people had in those early days adopted the use of money. It was doubtless due to the victory of Gelon at Himera that the Greeks were able to extend their language and civilization even to the Phoenician settlements in the western portion of the island. Hence in the Transitional period the coins of Panormus bear for the most part Greek inscriptions.

Circ. B.C. 480-409.

ΠΑΝΟΡΜΙΤΙΚΟΝ (retrogr.) Head of Apollo, hair rolled. Slow quadriga; horses crowned by Nike.
AR Tetradrachm.
ΠΑΝΟΡΜΙΤΙΚΟΝ (retrogr.) Head of Nymph. Dog. [Holm, Pl. IV. 7.]
AR Didrachm.
Head of Nymph. ΠΑΝΟΡΜΟΣ Dog.
AR Didrachm.
ΠΑΝΟΡΜΟ[Σ] (retrogr.) Head of young river-god. Forepart of man-headed bull
AR Litra.

A few, however, have the Punic inscr. ציץ (ziz), of which many explanations have been offered, none of them thoroughly satisfactory.

Head of Nymph, hair turned up behind under diadem. Inscr. ציץ and ΖΙΒ. Dog; in field above, head of Nymph.
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 21.].
AR Didrachm.

The word ΖΙΒ occurs frequently on coins of both Segesta and Eryx. Its juxtaposition on this coin with the equally unexplained Phoenician ziz, looks as if it were a Greek transcript of the same word. On the many suggested interpretations of ziz (see Holm, iii. p. 647 f.), the most probable is that it is simply the Phoenician name for Panormus.

Poseidon seated on rock with trident and dolphin. ציץ Naked youth riding on man-headed bull.
AR Litra or Obol.
ציץ Similar. [Holm, Pl. VIII. 19.] ΠΑΝΟΡΜΟΣ Similar.
AR Litra or Obol.
Head of Nymph; around, dolphins. Poseidon seated.
AR Litra or Obol.

The signal successes of the Carthaginian arms in Sicily between B.C. 409 and 405, and the consequent influx of the precious metals from the devastated Greek towns into Panormus, led to the coinage by the latter of money on a far more liberal scale than before. The Greek language now completely disappears, but it is curious to note how from an entire lack of artistic originality the Phoenicians in Sicily were driven to-copy the types of the money of various other towns, e. g. Syracuse, Segesta, Himera, Agrigentum, Camarina, Gela, &c.

After circ. B.C. 409. (ציץ usually on rev.)

Head, usually of Persephone, copied from coins of Syracuse of the best period of art. Around, dolphins. Victorious quadriga.
AR Tetradrachm.
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 15.]
Head of Nymph with hair in sphendone. [Holm, Pl. VIII. 14, 20.] Dog standing.
AR Didrachm.
Young male head, and dolphins. Free horse.
AR Didrachm.
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 11.]
Cock. Crab; below, dolphin.
AR Drachm.
[N. Z., 1886, Pl. VII. 14.]
Dolphin and scallop; mark of value. Eagle devouring hare.
AR Pentonkion.
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 12.]
Head of Athena. [Holm, Pl. VIII. 13.] Swan over waves.
AR Litra or Obol.
Head of Nymph; hair in sphendone. Half man-headed bull.
AR Litra or Obol.
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 17.]
Head of young river-god. Similar, or whole bull.
AR Litra or Obol.
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 16, 18.]

The inscr. on the last described coins sometimes runs שבעל ציץ (=shbaal ziz)'of the citizens of Panormus’ (?).

Bronze with marks of value.

The following bronze coins may be assigned to the latter part of the fifth century :—

Hemilitron. ציץ Cock. :::
Æ .95
Trias. „ Id. [N. Z., 1886, Pl. VII. 15.] :.
Æ .75
Hexas. „ Id. ••
Æ .6

Cf. also an onkia with same obv. type and an uncertain Punic inscr. (Imhoof, N. Z., 1886, p. 248, No. 18). This whole group is assigned by Imhoof to Solus.

The weight of the litra, of which these coins are fractions, can hardly be ascertained. The hemilitron yields a litra of 380 grs., while the trias points to one of 604 grs.

Bronze without marks of value.
Circ. B.C. 400-254.
ציץ Boar running. Man-headed bull.
Æ .65
Head of Hera wearing stephanos. ציץ Id.; above, sun.
Æ .95
[Holm, Pl. VIII. 22.]
Head of Apollo laureate. „ Pegasos.
Æ .7
Female head. Horse; above, head of Helios.
Æ
Horse. Forepart of man-headed bull.
Æ

Panormus (?), perhaps in common with several of the western cities which joined Timoleon’s league, probably issued the following drachms which seem to refer to the victory of the Crimissus :—

ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ Female head crowned with myrtle. ΚΙΜΙΣΣ (sic) Flaming altar, wreathed with laurel.
AR Drachm.
[Num. Chr., 1896, Pl. IX. 13.]

In B.C. 254 Panormus was captured by the Romans, under whose rule it retained its municipal freedom, and remained for many years one of the principal cities of the island.

Bronze, with Greek inscr. ΠΑΝΟΡΜΙΤΑΝ, ΠΑΝΟΡΜΙ, or ΠΑΡ (in monogram).
After B.C. 254.

Bust of Athena. Head of Persephone.
Æ 1.2
Id. Female figure standing with phiale and cornucopia.
Æ 1.05
Id. Triskeles with gorgoneion in center.
Æ 1.0
Head of Zeus. Eagle on fulmen.
Æ .95
Ram standing over head of Janus. Eagle with spread wings.
Æ .85
Female head. Altar.
Æ .7
ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ Female head. Altar. [N. C., 1896, Pl. IX. 14.]
Æ .7
Id. Head of Demeter veiled. Cornucopiae.
Æ .7
Hermes seated on rock. Flaming altar.
Æ .7
Head of Persephone. Poppy-head and ears of corn.
Æ .65
Heads of the Dioskuri. ΠΑΝΟΡΜΙ in wreath.
Æ .7
Ram. Id.
Æ .7
Head of Demeter veiled. Prow with wing.
Æ .65
Head of Aphrodite in stephane. Dove.
Æ .45
Head of Zeus. Warrior standing; holds phiale.
Æ .7
Female head. Warrior resting on lance.
Æ .7
Head of Athena. Prow.
Æ

Later than the above is a series of coins with, on the reverse, the Latin inscription ΠΟR (for P[an]or[mus]? or Por[tus]?) in monogram. Obv. Heads of Janus (on the as), Zeus (on the semis), or Demeter (on the quadrans). See Bahrfeldt, Die röm.-sicil. Münzen (Geneva, 1904). In the time of Augustus, Panormus received a Roman colony (Strab. vi. 272). Its bronze coins continued to be issued for some time longer, bearing the names of various resident magistrates, e. g. Aqu(illius), M. Aur(elius), Q. B(aebius?), L. (Caecilius) Me(tellus), Cn. Dom. Proc(ulus), Laetor(ius) II VIR, Q. Fab(ius) Ma(ximus), L. Gn., Cato, S. Pos(tumius), etc. These coins as a rule follow the Roman system. the As being distinguished by the head of Janus, the Semis by that of Zeus, and the Quadrans by that of Herakles or Apollo. On some specimens the inscription is written PANHORMITANORVM. The heads of Augustus (Hill Sicily, Pl. XIV. 17) and Livia also occur.

Paropus (Polyb. i. 24) probably stood at Collesano, south-west of Cephaloedium. It coined in bronze during the period of Roman dominion after the end of the First Punic War.

After circ. B.C. 241.

Head of Apollo laureate ΠΑΡΩΠΙΝΩΝ Hunter standing, resting on spear; beyond him a running dog.
Æ .8

Petra (Petralia), an inland town near the sources of the southern Himeras. It struck bronze money after the end of the First Punic War.

After circ. B.C. 241.
Head of bearded Herakles. ΠΕΤΡΕΙΝΩΝ Female figure standing beside column.
Æ .75

Piacus, mentioned by Steph. Byz. as πολις Σικελιας. The site is quite unknown.

Circ. B.C. 415-400.

[Π]ΙΑΚΙΝ Head of young river-god, horned and laureate. Between the letters are the marks of value •••••• Dog seizing a fawn by the throat.
Æ .7 Hemilitron, wt. 70 grs.
[Imhoof MG, p. 26, Pl. B. 11.]

In style the head on this coin bears a striking resemblance to the laureate head on the tetradrachms of Katane (B. M. C., Sicily, p. 45, No. 25). Piacus may have been situated somewhere in the vicinity of that town.

Segesta (Sestri), west of Panormus, was a non-Hellenic town in the district of Sicily inhabited by the Elymi. It stood near a torrent which empties itself into the river Krimissos. According to a local tradition the city owed its foundation to Egestos, the son of a Trojan maiden Segesta by the river-god Krimissos, who met her in the form of a dog (Serv. ad Aen. i. 550, v. 30).

From the earliest times the Segestans were engaged in continual hostilities with the Selinuntines, doubtless concerning the boundaries of their respective territories. These disputes gave occasion for the Athenian intervention in Sicilian affairs, and subsequently to the great invasion of the Carthaginians, upon whom Segesta became dependent B.C. 409. The silver money of Segesta, notwithstanding the fact that it was not a Greek city, affords but slight indications of barbarism, unless indeed the words ΖΙΒ and ΖΙΑ are to be taken as such, It is on the Attic Standard, and ranges from the archaic period down to the time of the Carthaginian invasion in B.C. 410, when it suddenly ceases. No other Sicilian city minted didrachms so freely. The Segestan coin-types were copied both at Motya and Eryx on the west and at Panormus on the east of Segesta.

Circ. B.C. 480-461.
coin image
FIG. 86.

Inscr. SΑΓΕΣΤΑΙΙΒ, ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΙΒΕΜΙ, ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΙΕ, SΕΓΕSΤΑΙΙΑ or SΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΙΟΝ, usually retrograde. (For the various theories as to the meaning of the terminations ΖΙΒ, ΖΙΒΕΜΙ, ΖΙΑ, or ΖΙΕ, see the summary in Holm, iii. pp. 599, 600.)

Types:—

Dog (river Krimissos), often accompanied by symbols : murex-shell, corn-plant, or corn-grain. [Holm, Pl. II. 14.] Head of Segesta of archaic style with hair turned up behind under her diadem (Fig. 86). Didrachm. ½ drachm. and Litra.
Dog. Symbol: wheel. Female head facing.
AR Trihemiobol.
[Holm, Pl. II. 13.]

To the same period belongs an alliance coin (litra) with Eryx, obv. Head of Segesta facing, ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΟΝ; rev. Dog, ΕΡVΚΙΝΟΝ (Holm. No. 95 a).

Circ. B.C. 461-415.
Dog (river Krimissos); the head of Segesta in field above ΣΑΓΕΣΤΑΖΙΒ or ΣΕΓΕSΤΑΖΙΒ Head of Segesta, her hair variously arranged, in sphendone or otherwise.
AR Didrachm.
ΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΟΝ Dog standing; in front, a murex-shell. Head of Segesta, hair in knot behind, and bound by cord passing four times round it. The whole in ivy-wreath.
AR Didrachm.
ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑΖΙΒ Dog standing, sometimes beside stalk of corn, or devouring head of stag.
[Hill Sicily, Pl. VI. 9.]
ΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΟΝ [or ΩΝ] Head of Segesta, hair bound with cord passed thrice round it, or enclosed in sphendone, or rolled up behind.
AR Didrachm. ½ Drachm. and Litra.

Circ. B.C. 415-409.
coin image
FIG. 87.
ΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΩΝ Youthful hunter, naked, accompanied by two dogs; his conical cap falls back upon his shoulders; he holds two javelins and stands with one foot resting on rock. Head of Segesta, hair in sphendone (from die of didrachm) [Burlington Fine Arts Club Catal., 1903, Pl. 103. 195.].
AR Tetradrachm.
ΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΩΝ Youthful hunter, as on preceding. Before him is a terminal figure ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑΖΙΑ or -ΖΙΒ Head of Segesta; hair in sphendone, adorned with stars. Symbol : ear of corn (Fig. 87).
AR Tetradrachm.
ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΙΒ Victorious quadriga driven by female figure, probably Segesta, holding ears of corn; above, flying Nike. Similar to obv. of preceding (one or two dogs).
AR Tetradrachm.
ΕΓΕΣΣΤΑΙΟΝ Youthful hunter, as on preceding, with one dog. [Holm, Pl. IV. 12.] Nymph Segesta, crowned by flying Nike, sacrificing at altar.
AR Tetradrachm.
Head of Segesta, three-quarter face, between two laurel boughs. ΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΟΝ Dog standing. Symbols : murex, gorgoneion.
AR Litra.
ΣΕΓΕΣΤ Horse [? Dog] with head to ground. [Tropea, p. 29, No. 5.] Nymph seated receiving to her bosom serpent erect before her.
AR Litra.
Head of Zeus. [Tropea, p. 30, No. 6.] ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑ Dog; above, shell.
AR Obol.
Forepart of dog. ΣΕΓΕ around a large Η.
AR ½ Litra.
Dog’s head. ΕΓΕΣΤΑ ••
AR Hexas.

The young hunter on the beautiful tetradrachms of Segesta is probably the river Krimissos, who, according to Aelian (Var. Hist. ii. 33), was worshipped at Segesta in human form; Αιγεσταιοι δε τον Πορπακα και τον Κριμισον και τον Τελμισσον εν ανδρων ειδει τιμωσι. The dog, his special attribute, serves here to distinguish the figure. On the didrachms the same river is symbolized by the dog.

BRONZE. Before B.C. 409.

Tetras. Head of Segesta. Dog. ••••
Æ .85
Hexas. Id. Id. •• (beneath, sometimes, a weasel?)
Æ .8-.65
„ Id. Id.
Æ .45

From the weights of these coins we can form no idea of the real weight of the copper litra, as the tetras of which the weight is 139 grs. yields a litra of 417 grs., while the hexas (wt. 86 grs.) yields one of 516 grs. Cf. B. M. C., Sicily, p. 136.

For more than a century and a half Segesta was a mere dependency of Panormus, and struck no money whatever, unless indeed we suppose that the didrachms with Segestan types and the Punic legend ziz, here described under Panormus, were struck at Segesta.

After B.C. 241.

When, however, after the end of the First Punic War, Segesta had passed under the dominion of the Romans, it obtained once more the right of coinage, though only in bronze. The Segestans now made the most of their traditional Trojan descent, claiming relationship with the Romans on this ground (Cic. II Verr. iv. 33).

Head of Segesta veiled and turreted. ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΩΝ Aeneas carrying Anchises.
Æ .8
Id. „ Warrior standing.
Æ .85
Id. „ Warrior beside horse.
Æ .75
ΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΩΝ Similar. „ Id.
Æ .7
Head of Herakles. [Holm, No. 611 a.] ΣΕ Bow and quiver.
Æ

Under Augustus we find Segesta still in the enjoyment of the right of coinage (B. M. C., Sicily, p. 137); but it is probable that there was a considerable interval between the cessation of the autonomous and the commencement of the Imperial series.

Selinus (Σελινοεις, Σελινους), the most western of all the Greek cities of Sicily, stood near the mouth of the river Selinus and a few miles west of that of the Hypsas. It derived its name from the river, which in its turn was called after the σελινον (probably the wild celery, apium grareolens), which grew plentifully on its banks. The Selinuntines adopted from the first the leaf of this plant as the badge of their town, συμβολον η παρασημον της πολεως (Plut. Pyth. Orac. xii), placing it upon their coins, and dedicating, on one occasion, a representation of it in gold in the temple of Apollo at Delphi (Plut. l. c.).

Circ. B.C. 480-466.
coin image
FIG. 88.

Selinon leaf. [Babelon, Traité, II. Pl. 79. 1.] Incuse square irregularly divided
AR Didrachm.
Selinon leaf (Fig. 88). Incuse square triangularly divided into eight or more parts.
AR Didrachm.
Selinon leaf. [Holm, Pl. I. 4.] Selinon leaf in incuse square; letters ΣΕΛΙ sometimes in the corners.
AR Didrachm.

Obols or litrae and smaller coins also occur.

Circ. B.C. 466-415.

In the great Carthaginian invasion of Sicily in B.C. 480, Selinus appears to have sided with the invaders (Diod. xi. 21). During the period of general prosperity which followed the expulsion of the tyrants, B.C. 466, it rose to considerable power and wealth (Thuc. vi. 20). It must have been quite early in this period of peace that it was attacked by a devastating pestilence or malaria, caused by the stagnant waters in the neighbouring marsh lands (Diog. Laert. viii. 2.70). On that occasion the citizens had recourse to the arts of Empedocles, then at the height of his fame. The philosopher put a stop to the plague, it would seem, by connecting the channels of two neighbouring streams (Diog. Laert. l. c.). In gratitude for this deliverance the Selinuntines conferred upon him divine honors, and their coin-types still bear witness to the depth and lasting character of the impression which the purification of the district made upon men’s minds. The coins of this period are as follows :—

coin image
FIG. 89.
ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ Apollo and Artemis standing side by side in slow quadriga, the former discharging arrows from his bow (Fig. 89). ΣΕΛΙΝΟΣ The river-god Selinos naked, with short horns, holding phiale and lustral branch, sacrificing at an altar of Apollo (?) the healer, in front of which is a cock. Behind him on a pedestal is the figure of a bull, and in the field above a selinon leaf.
AR Tetradrachm.

Apollo, who on one specimen (Imhoof MG, p. 28) appears alone, is here regarded as the healing god, αλεξικακος, who, with his radiant arrows, slays the pestilence as he slew the Python. Artemis stands behind him in her capacity of ειλειθυια or σουδινα, for the plague had fallen heavily on the women too, ωστε και τας γυναικας δυστοκειν (Diog. Laert. l. c.). On the reverse the river-god himself makes formal libation to the healer-god in gratitude for the cleansing of his waters, while the image of the bull, being sometimes man-headed, perhaps represents the river in its former aspect as an untamed natural force.

ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ Herakles contending with a wild bull which he seizes by the horn, and is about to slay with his club.
[Gardner, Types, Pl. II. 16, 17.]
ΗΥ↓ΑΣ River Hypsas sacrificing before altar, around which a serpent twines. He holds branch and phiale. Behind him a marsh-bird is seen departing. In field, selinon leaf.
AR Didrachm.

Here instead of Apollo it is the sun-god Herakles, who is shown struggling with the destructive powers of water symbolized by the bull, while on the reverse the Hypsas takes the place of the Selinos. Perhaps the marsh-bird is retreating, because she can no longer find a congenial home on the banks of the Hypsas now that Empedocles has drained the lands.
ΕΥΡΥΜΕΔΟ (retrogr.) Head of Nymph Eurymedusa wearing sphendone. Behind her, a marsh-bird. ΣΕΛΙΝΟΣ (retrogr.) Head of young river-god Selinos with bull’s ear and horn. Behind, selinon leaf
AR Drachm.

Eurymedusa appears to have been a fountain-nymph, for one of the daughters of Acheloos was so called (Preller, Gr. Myth., 2nd ed., ii. 392, note 2).

Nymph or goddess seated on a rock receiving to her bosom an enormous serpent, which stands coiled and erect before her. [Cf. Segesta, p. 166.] ΣΕΛΙΝΟΣ, ΣΕΛΙΝΟΕΣ, or ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ Man-headed bull; above, sometimes, selinon leaf. [Hill Sicily, Pl. VI. 6-1.
AR Litra or Obol.

The obverse of this coin represents a local health-goddess or less probably Persephone visited by Zeus in the form of a serpent (Eckhel, ii. p. 240). The bull on the reverse is presumably the river Selinos.

Circ. B.C. 415-409.
ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ Nike driving quadriga, horses in high action. In exergue, ear of corn, and in field above, a wreath. ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ River-god sacrificing, as on the earlier tetradrachms. [Hill, Sicily, Pl. IX. 8.].
AR Tetradrachm.

The didrachms of this period resemble in type those of the last.

Head of Herakles bearded or beardless in profile or three-quarter face. ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ Victorious quadriga, horses in high action : above, selinon leaf.
AR ½ Drachm.

BRONZE.
Head of young river-god. Selinon leaf :. Trias
Æ .75, wt. 138 grs.

The weight of the Litra according to this coin would be 552 grs.

Selinus was destroyed by the Carthaginians B.C. 409, and although the Selinuntines are from time to time mentioned in later ages, the city was never again in a position to strike its own coins.

Sergentium or Ergetium in the neighborhood of Mt. Aetna.

Before circ. B.C. 480.
ΜΕΡ Satyr or Dionysos, naked, standing, holding kantharos and vine branch. Vine-branch with grapes.
AR Didrachm, wt. 122 grs.
ΜΕΡ Head of Satyr or bearded Dionysos. Bunch of grapes.
AR Diobol 19 grs.

These coins, usually assigned to an unknown city in Bruttium, have been attributed by Pais (Ancient Italy, pp. 117 sqq.) and De Foville (Rev. Num., 1906, pp. 445 sqq.) to Sergentium in Sicily. The low weight of the didrachm, supposing it to be of the Attic Standard, is remarkable. Μ for Σ in the inscr. may be due to the influence of the Chalcidian city of Naxus, for the Dionysiac types are evidently inspired by those of Naxian coins.

Silerae. The site of this town is quite uncertain, nor is its name mentioned by any ancient author. Its rare bronze coins belong to the time of Timoleon.

Circ. B.C. 340.
ΣΙΛΕΡΑΙΩΝ (retrogr.) Forepart of man-headed bull. [Imhoof MG, p. 28, Pl. B. 12.] ΣΙΛ (retrogr.) Naked warrior charging.
Æ 1.1 and .75

Solus (see Imhoof, N. Z., 1886, pp. 266 ff.) was a Phoenician town of no great importance some twelve miles east of Panormus. Its Punic name seems to have been כפרא (= Kfra, village). Although it was always a dependency of Carthage, some of its coins bear Greek inscriptions and betray the all-pervading influence of Greek religious ideas. The earliest Soluntine coin at present known is a didrachm copied slavishly from one of the coins of Selinus described above.

Before circ. B.C. 400.
Herakles contending with bull.
[Hill Sicily, Pl. VI. 14.]
ΣΟΛΟΝΤΙΝΙΟΝ River-god sacrificing. Symbols: selinon-leaf and marsh-bird.
AR Didrachm.
Cock. [Holm, Pl. VIII. 10.] כפרא Tunny-fish.
AR Obol.
ΣΟΛΟΝΤΙΝΟΝ Head of Herakles in lion-skin. Id. Cray-fish :::
Hemilitron Æ .8 wt. 119 grs.
„ „ Id. Id. :.
Trias. Æ .7, wt. 70 grs.
Id. [Tropea, Mus. Mandr., p. 31, No. 1.] Helmeted warrior.
Æ

For other coins of this period, attributed to Solus, see under Panormus, p. 162.

Middle and second half of fourth century B.C.
Hermes seated; in front, caduceus. כפרא Bow, quiver, and club.
AR Obol.
Hermes seated, with ram. Phoenician inscr. כא (?). Two dolphins and star (?).
AR wt. 4.6 grs.
כ-א Youthful male head, helmeted. Free horse and caduceus.
Æ .8
Head of Athena facing. כפרא Naked archer kneeling.
Æ .55
Id. Crab.
Æ .6
כפרא Head of young Herakles in lion skin. Hippocamp.
Æ .7
Head of Persephone in corn-wreath. כפרא Bull.
Æ 1.0-.8

First half of third century B.C.

The provenance of the following coins shows that they belong to Solus.
Bearded head (Melkart ?). Horse. [N. Z., 1886, Pl. VII. 23.].
Æ .6
Id. Tunny-fish. [Ibid. Pl. VII. 24.].
Æ .7-.5
Head of young Herakles in lion-skin. Tunny-fish. [Ibid. Pl. VII. 25.].
Æ .5

After the fall of Panormus, Solus passed under the dominion of the Romans. We then hear of it as a municipal town under the name of Soluntum.

After B.C. 241.
Head of Athena. CΟΛΟΝΤΙΝWΝ Head of Poseidon.
Æ .95
Id. „ Wreath.
Æ .9
Naked warrior. „ „
Æ .7
Head of Poseidon. CΟΛΟΝΤΙΝΩΝ Naked warrior.
Æ .7
Id. „ Sepia.
Æ .5
Id. Fish (hammer-headed shark ?)
Æ .6
CΟΛΟΝΤΙΝWΝ Dolphin. Tunny-fish.
Æ .5
CΟΛΟΝΤΙΝΩΝ Head of Herakles bearded. [Tropea, p. 32, No. 2.] Warrior with helmet.
Æ

Stiela or Styella (Evans NC XVI 1896, pp. 124-6, and Holm, iii. p. 639), described by Steph. Byz. (s. v. Στυελλα) as a fortress of the Sicilian Megara. Leake (Num Hell., p. 70) places it near the mouth of the river Alabon, which flows into the Megarian Gulf.

Circ. B.C. 450-415.

ΣΤΙΕΛAΝAΙΟ (retrograde) Forepart of man-headed bull. [Avellino, Opuscoli, iii. p. 157.] Young male figure holding sapling and sacrificing at altar.
AR
Young male head laureate, in front, branch of water-plant (?). [Hill Sicily, Pl. VI. 11; Evans, N. Chr., 1890, Pl. IX. 1.] ΣΤΙΑ or ΣΤΑ Forepart of man-headed bull.
AR Drachm and ½ Drachm.

The head on these coins, although not horned, is probably intended for a river-god. In expression it is quite unlike a head of Apollo, and may be compared with certain similar heads on coins of Catana.