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Obverse: A Quadriga Racing to the Left, Nike
Flying Above Crowning Charioteer
Reverse: The Head of the Nymph Arethusa
Surrounded by Four Dolphins, Initials Under the
Neck
In 734 B.C., the Corinthians overcame a local
Sicel settlement on the island of Ortygia and
established the colony of Syracuse. The island,
forming the north side of the Great Harbor and
with its own source of fresh water, the spring of
Arethusa (named after one of the Nereid sea
goddesses whose image graces the reverse of
this coin), remained the citadel of Syracuse. The
city, however, soon extended to the mainland,
and in the mid 6th century B.C., Ortygia was
connected to the mainland by a causeway. In the
course of the 5th century B.C., the wealth,
cultural development, and political power of
Syracuse rivaled Athens itself. In 485 B.C.,
Gelon, the tyrant of Gela, who had gained control
over most of Sicily, seized Syracuse and made it
his capital. In 480 B.C., Gelon led the Greeks in a
victory over the Carthaginians at Himera. Gelon's
brother, who succeeded him, defeated the
Etruscans in a naval battle in 474 B.C., thereby
ensuring the continued dominance of Syracuse
over the entire southwestern Mediterranean
basin. In 415-413 B.C., Syracuse was victorious
in a war with Athens. Between 410 and 397 B.C.,
Syracuse was again victorious over the
Carthaginians and renewed its claim to
supremacy in the western Mediterranean.
How many hands have touched a coin in your
pocket or your 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 touched the coin before us, or where the
coin will venture to after us. More than money,
coins are a symbol of the state that struck them,
of a specific time and place, whether
contemporary currencies or artifacts of a long
forgotten empires. This stunning hand-struck
coin reveals an expertise of craftsmanship and
intricate sculptural detail that is often lacking in
contemporary machine-made currencies. The
obverse depicts a quadriga or four-horse chariot
with Nike crowning its horses in victory. The
quadriga originally may have referred to the
favorite pastime of the Syracusan aristocracy, the
Gamoroi, who bred horses and sent chariots to
compete in the Olympic games. The
representation of Arethusa on the reverse refers
to her legendary connection with Syracuse. A
nymph of Elis in the Peloponnese, she was
pursued by the river god Alpheios. To escape
him, she withdrew under the sea, finally
emerging at Syracuse. She was transformed into
the fresh water nymph of the island of Ortygia,
the earliest settled portion of Syracuse. The
dolphins encircling her on the coin perhaps refer
to the location of her spring on Ortygia,
surrounded by the sea. This coin is more than an
artifact; it is a shining vestige of a powerful city’s
ancient glory passed from the hands of
civilization to civilization, from generation to
generation.
Initialed EV
- (C.3019)
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