Choice Syracuse Tetradrachm
SICILY, Syracuse. Second Democracy. 466-405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 17.26 g, 12h). Struck circa 450-440 BC. Charioteer, wearing long chiton, holding kentron in right hand and reins in both, driving slow quadriga right; above, Nike, wearing long chiton, flying right, crowning horses with wreath held in both hands; in exergue, ketos right / Head of Arethousa right, hair in band, wearing single-pendant earring and pearl necklace with pendant; ΣVRAKOΣI-ON and four dolphins around. Boehringer Series XVIb, 571 (V287/R391); HGC 2, 1311; SNG ANS 184 (same dies); Bement 473 (same dies); Pozzi 581 (same dies); Jameson 769 (same dies). Lovely even gray tone, with golden and iridescent hues and underlying luster, tiny mark. Choice EF. Well centered, and with exceptional details.
The magnificent artistic flowering in Sicily in the 5th century BC, exemplified by the matchless coinage of Syracuse, originated in times of great strife. When the first colonists from Greece arrived on the fertile island in the 8th century BC, they found competitors in both the aboriginal inhabitants, the Sicels, Sicani, and Elymi, and the Phoenician colonists who established Carthage at about the same time. The social stresses set up by these conflicts prepared the way for the establishment of various tyrannies. Hippokrates of Gela was the first of the well known tyrants, and his son Gelon founded the greatest of the Sicilian courts at Syracuse in 485 BC. By the middle of the century, the situation began to resemble that of Renaissance Italy, where the princes engaged in continual warfare between themselves, while engaging the services of the finest artists and craftsmen of their time. Such fighting required significant amounts of money to hire mercenaries, and the increasing cultural sophistication of the courts encouraged experimentation in all of the arts, including the minor ones – the result was the patronizing of some of the most talented coin engravers in history.
Syracuse commenced its silver coinage at the end of the sixth century BC with an issue of tetradrachms on the Attic standard of about 17.2 grams. These coins are attributed to the Gamoroi, an oligarchic body of aristocrats who battled outsiders, and each other, for control of civic and financial affairs. The obverse features a charioteer driving a walking quadriga while the reverse originally bore an incuse square divided into four compartments, which quickly gave way to a swastika-pattern incuse with a circle at its center bearing a female head to left. This is certainly the nymph Arethousa, sacred to the spring of Ortygia which provided Syracuse its pure water. These designs set the paradigm for a century of Syracusan coinage, although the head of Arethousa would soon outgrow the confines of the small incuse circle to occupy most of the reverse, surrounded by frolicking dolphins as seen in this superb example.
