Artistic Naxos Drachm

CNG 94, Lot: 95. Estimate $10000. Sold for $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Naxos. Circa 461-430 BC. AR Drachm (19mm, 4.16 g, 7h). Bearded head of Dionysos right, wearing tainia decorated with an ivy branch / Silenos, nude and bearded, squatting half-left, holding kantharos in right hand and resting his left hand on his knee, tail behind; N-A-XI-ON around; all within shallow concave circular incuse. Cahn 56 (V41/R47); SNG Lloyd 1152; BMC 9; Jameson 676; de Luynes 1064; Pozzi 507 (all from the same dies). VF, toned, die break on obverse, minor roughness. Well centered and struck.

From the Alex Shubs Collection.

Located on the eastern shore of Sicily in the shadow of Mt. Aitna, Naxos was the oldest of the Greek colonies on the island, founded in 735 BC by colonists from Chalkis in Euboia, and Ionia. According to the historian Thucydides (1.100), Naxos established its own colony by founding Leontini in 730 BC, which was soon after followed by the foundation of a second colony, Aitne, later known as Katane. Owing to the fertility of the surrounding volcanic soil of Mt. Aitna, Naxos developed an economy of viticulture, and along with Leontini and Katane, became very prosperous. This wealth attracted the attention of Syracuse, which subjugated Naxos in 476 BC, removing its citizens along with those of Katane to Leontini. Upon the death of Hieron in 461 BC, the Naxians were reinstated to their original city, and formed a close alliance with Leontini and Katane. During the disastrous Sicilian Expedition in 415 BC, Naxos actively provided support to the Athenians, who had sent a large fleet to attempt to neutralize Syracuse’s aid to Sparta. In 409 BC, Naxos sided with Syracuse against the Carthaginian threat to Sicily, but in 403 BC, the tyrant Dionysios of Syracuse turned against the Naxians, destroying the city and selling the women and children into slavery.

This drachm was struck between 461 and 430 BC, when the Naxians returned to their city and formed a close alliance with Katane and Leontini. All three of these cities' coinage flourished in this period. Naxos' coins at this time exhibit a wonderful early classical style, clearly breaking from the archaic types that were also brilliant in their execution. While the obverse retains the portrait of Dionysos, the new, realistic quality of the rendition exemplifies the new standards of art that were emerging in Sicily. The reverse employs a novel type that became the standard for Naxos' tetradrachms and drachms: the satyr Silenos. Silenos was the oldest, wisest, and most drunken of the satyrs, and according to Eurpides’ only surviving satyr-play, the Cyclops, he had been forced to attend Polyphemos, who dwelled in the region of Mt. Aitna, and hence one reason for his appearance on this coin of Naxos. Although Silenos and other satyrs were not new to coinage, his portrayal, squatting facing in a naturalistic manner, was a striking contrast to the angular forms of the archaic age, and a paragon of the highest artwork of the classical era.