Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 104. Estimate $20000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $20000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Stiela. Circa 405 BC. AV 10 Litrae or didrachm (0.90 gm). Head of young river-god left, with short hair bound by wreath; to left, long reed / STI above forepart of man-headed bull walking left. Unique and unpublished. For this type in silver, cf. Rizzo pg. 58-59, fig. 16 a and b = BMC pg. 144, 1 and 2 (drachm and hemidrachm); SNG ANS 748 = Jameson 733 (hemidrachm); NAC 13, 420 (drachm). EF, of high artistic style, reminiscent of the celebrated Catanian "maestro della foglia" Apollo head (SNG ANS 1256). (See color enlargement on plate 1.) ($20,000)

This previously unknown gold coin of Stiela fits into the pattern of the first gold issues of Sicily, struck on the litra weight standard, that was introduced in the period of confusion after the Athenian invasion of Sicily in 413 and the invasion of Hannibal in 409. In 405, Dionysius the Elder took advantage of the war with Carthage to seize the tyranny of Syracuse, and upon assuming the position of supreme chief of the Republic, he set about an aggressive war against the Carthaginians, and planned to occupy most of the towns of Sicily. In order to raise money for this vast undertaking, he had to plunder far and wide. He carried off the golden mantle from the statue of Zeus that was consecrated by Gelon, took the golden beard from Asklepios, and seized as much silver and gold from all the temples that he could, saying that he would make use of the bounty of the gods (Cicero, de Natura Deorum, iii, 34). Only four mints were hitherto known to have issued gold at this time: Syracuse (SNG ANS 316-356), Akragas (SNG ANS 998-999), Kamerina (Westermark-Jenkins 206; SNG ANS 1209), and Gela (Jenkins 490-494; SNG ANS 103-104).The site of Stiela, or Styella as identified by Stephanus of Byzantium in Ethnika, was a fortress of Megara near the river Alabon which flows into the Megarian Gulf. Gelon had destroyed Megara in 483, but the survival of a stronghold in the service of Dionysius, located beside a strategic river crossing between Syracuse and Katane, is plausible.