A guide to the principal gold and silver coins of the ancients ...

B.C. 480-400. 33
Plate 17. 29. Piiaxus. JR. Obv. Head of bearded Dionysus, crowned with ivj.
Rev. N AX I ON. Naked Silenus with pointed ears and horse's
tail, seated on the ground, with a wine-cup in his hand. Wt.
269-2 grs.
30. Naxus. Rev. NAZI ON. Similar types, but Silenus holds thyrsus
in his left hand, and by his side grows ivy. Wt. 264-7 grs.
A comparison of these two coins, the first struck about
B.C. 460, the second towards the end of the century, shows
the transition from the strong firm style which characterises
the earlier period to the softer modelling and more
ornate work of the later.
31. Segesta. M. Obv. ZELEZTAIIA (sic). Head of Segesta,
wearing sphendone ornamented with stars ; beneath, stalk of barley.
Rev. Youthful hunter (river-god Crimissus?), accompanied by
hounds ; he stands before a term, his left foot placed upon a rock.
Wt. 260 grs.
The terminations II A and ijB on coins of Segesta are
local dialectic forms equivalent to ^Scyco-rata and ^eyea-TaLrj.
32. Selinus. M. 06u. ZEAINOZ. Young river-god Selinus sacri-
ficing at altar, before which is a cock, indicating it as sacred to
Asklepius ; in the left hand of Selinus is the lustral branch ; behind
him, a selinon-leaf and an image of a bull standing on a base.
Rev. ZEAINONTION (retrograde). Apollo and Artemis in
quadriga ; Apollo discharging arrows. Wt. 269 grs.
The libation offered by the river-god to Asklepius
refers to the draining of a marsh by means of which the
territory of the city was relieved from a plague sent by
the god Apollo, referred to by the reverse type. A similar
idea is represented on the coin of Himera, No. 25, above.
33. Syracuse. M. 06?;. ZYRAKOZION. Head of Nike, laureate,
surrounded by dolphins. Rev. Quadriga, horses walking, crowned
by Nike. In exergue, lion. Wt. 685-6 grs. Pentecontalitron or
decadrachm.
These coins were called Demareteia because they were
coined from the proceeds of a present given to Demarete,
wife of Gelon, by the Carthaginians, on the occasion of
the peace concluded between them and Gelon by her intervention,
B.C. 480.
34-38. Syracuse.
A series of tetradrachras illustrating the various modes
of treating the head of Arethusa on the coinage during
the fifth century B.C. All these coins are remarkable for
refinement and elegance of style.
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