Westermark & Jenkins Plate Coin

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 34. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $17000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Kamarina. Circa 415-405 BC. AR Didrachm (8.20 g, 12h). Horned head of young river-god Hipparis left, wearing taina; KAMAPINA before / Nymph Kamarina, holding up her veil in her left hand, reclining right, head left, on swan swimming left; waves around. Westermark & Jenkins 159.7 (O1/R2) = Nanteuil 266 = Warren 210 (this coin); SNG ANS -; SNG Ashmolean 1700; McClean 2154; Hirsch 327 (all from the same dies). Near EF, toned. Among the finest known.

Ex Hess-Leu 31 (6 December 1966), lot 107; Feuardent (8 July 1919), lot 139; H. de Nanteuil Collection, 266; Edward P. Warren Collection, 210.

Originally founded by settlers from Syracuse in 598 BC, Kamarina history was intertwined with its mother-city for much of its existence. A revolt in 553 BC left the city devastated and partly abandoned, until 492 BC, when the expansionist tyrant Hippokrates of Gela was granted the site in return for a peace treaty with Syracuse. Hippokrates re-founded the city with groups of mercenaries from his many wars across Sicily, and Kamarina became a source for later recruits. It is believed that this is the time of the first coinage of Kamarina, with its martial design of a panoply of arms. The first period of coinage ended in 484 BC, when Hippokrates' successor Gelon forcibly relocated Kamarina's residents to Syracuse. The city was re-founded a second time in 461 BC, by settlers from Gela and, at least until the 420s BC, the city remained attached to its new parent-city. During this period, Kamarina rebuilt its akropolis defenses, public buildings, and road system. At least one athlete from the city, Psaumis, was victorious at the Olympics, a feat celebrated in Pindar’s fourth and fifth Olympian odes. At the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, Kamarina sided with Athens, although a strong pro-Spartan faction remained in the city. At this time, the various Sicilian city-states engaged in maneuvers designed to achieve some balance between the Athenian and Spartan-Syracusan factions. In 427 BC, Laches, who had been sent from Athens with a fleet for the purpose of bringing Sicily into the war, tried to elicit the support of Kamarina with a naval treaty. Kamarina agreed to give them use of its port, but the stipulation that allowed for only one Athenian ship to enter at a time shows that Kamarina was less than enthusiastic about supporting Athens. Between 422 BC and 415 BC, both Athens and Syracuse pressured Kamarina, which remained neutral, for support. As Syracuse began to become the leading power on the island, when troops from Sparta arrived there in 413 BC, Kamarina offered 500 hoplites and 300 javelin throwers as support. Soon, however, the Athenian threat was replaced by one from Carthage which, between 409 BC and 405 BC, conquered or destroyed the cities of Selinos, Himera, Akragas, and Gela. While preparing for a defense of Gela and a potential attack on Kamarina, the Syracusans compelled the citizens of Kamarina to be evacuated to Syracuse. The city virtually ceased to exist until Timoleon re-founded it a third time in 399 BC.