The Reign of Hiketas II

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 71. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Hiketas II. 287-278 BC. AV 60 Litrai - Dekadrachm (4.26 g, 6h). Struck circa 279/8 BC. Head of Persephone left, wearing wreath of grain ears, single-pendant earring, and pearl necklace; ΣYPAKOΣIΩN before, cornucopia behind / Nike, holding kentron in right hand, reins in left, driving fast biga right; fibula above, Φ to right, Θ below, EΠI IKETA in exergue. Buttrey, Morgantina, dies 4/I; BAR issue 41; SNG ANS 778 var. (same obv. die; no Φ); SNG Lloyd 1523 var. (torch on obv.); Basel 516 (same dies); Gulbenkian 345 (same dies). EF, underlying luster.

From the J. Olphin Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 45 (18 March 1998), lot 129; Classical Numismatic Review XXII.3 (Fall/Winter 1997), no. 8.

Little is known of Hiketas beyond his coinage, but Buttrey pieces together a history based on the numismatic evidence. Following Hiketas’s defeat of Phintias, tyrant of Akragas, he set out against the Carthaginians. This campaign ended in disaster at the Terias river, northwest of Syracuse. Buttrey, based on his die analysis, concludes that this gold issue was struck very hurriedly towards the end of Hiketas’s reign, and theorizes that this series was issued to pay for his Carthaginian campaign.