Obverse: Bust of Athena Wearing a Crested
Corinthian Helmet
Reverse: A Winged Thunderbolt
Agathocles moved from his native town, Thermae
Himerenses (now Termini Imerese), Sicily, to
Syracuse about 343 and served with distinction
in the army. Twice banished for attempting to
overthrow the oligarchy, he returned in 317 with
an army and set himself up as ruler. Agathocles
then embarked on a long series of wars. His first
campaigns (316-c. 313), against the other
Sicilian Greeks, brought a number of cities,
including Messana, under his control. Carthage,
however, fearing for its own possessions in
Sicily, sent a large force to secure the island.
Thus the struggle that had gone on between the
Sicilian Greeks and Carthage intermittently since
the 6th century was renewed. In 311, Agathocles,
defeated and besieged in Syracuse, saved himself
by breaking through the blockade and attacking
his enemy's homelands in Africa. With
considerable success, he threatened the city of
Carthage itself in 310 BC but was defeated in
307. The peace he concluded in 306 was not
unfavourable, for it restricted Carthaginian
power in Sicily to the area west of the Halycus
(Platani) River. Agathocles continued to
strengthen his rule over the Greek cities of Sicily.
By 304, he felt secure enough to assume the title
king of Sicily, and he extended his influence into
southern Italy and the Adriatic. Later he formed
an alliance with Ptolemy I of Egypt. He raided
Italy and in 299 BC conquered the Greek island
of Corcyra (now Kérkira) in the Adriatic Sea.
Overall, Agathocles' reign as king was peaceful,
allowing him to enrich Syracuse with many public
buildings. Dissension among his family about the
succession, however, caused him in his will to
restore liberty to the Syracusans, and his death
was followed by a recrudescence of Carthaginian
power in Sicily.
How many hands have touched a coin in your
pocket or purse? What eras and lands have the
coin traversed on its journey into our
possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of
who might have touched the coin before us, or
where the coin will venture to after it leaves our
hands. More than money, coins are a symbol of
the state that struck them, of a specific time and
location, whether contemporary currencies or
artifacts of a long forgotten empire. This
magnificent coin is a memorial to an ancient king
passed down from the hands of civilization to
civilization, from generation to generation.
- (C.2226)
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