64, Lot: 63. Estimate $100. Sold for $215. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Hieron II. 275-215 BC. Lot of two Æ. Includes the following: Æ 18mm (5.57 gm). Diademed head of Poseidon left / Ornamented trident between two dolphins; Q-F beneath. Calciati II pg 397, 197 RI 14; SNG ANS 987. Near EF, brown patina // Æ 19mm (5.91 gm) same types, control letters off flan. Calciati II pg. 395, 197; SNG ANS 978. Good VF, brown patina. Two (2) coins in lot. 

From the David Freedman Collection.

Though he claimed descent from Gelon and Hieron I, Hieron II began his career as a lieutenant of Pyrrhus, then as an independant commmander of the Syracusan army. Soon, he defeated the Mamertini and, after his great victory at the Longanus River, he was declared king. As warfare between Carthage and Rome began to mount, Hieron shifted his alliances. First, supporting the Carthaginians, he subsequently became an ally of Rome. During the First Punic War, he provided men, material, and facitlities for the Romans, as well as an indemnity of 100 talents. It was during the latter years of his reign that he employed Archimedes to strengthen Syracusan defenses and his system of taxation, the Lex Hieronica became the basis of Rome's imperial taxation system.