Library

Arnold-Biucchi, Carmen (1990). “The Randazzo Hoard 1980 and Sicilian Chronology in the Early Fifth Century B.C.”, in Numismatic Studies No. 18, American Numismatic Society, New York.

Arnold-Biucchi's comprehensive study of the 1980 Randazzo Hoard—a massive "savings hoard" of 539 tetradrachms unearthed near Mt. Etna—constitutes a foundational challenge to the traditional "high" chronology of 5th-century Sicilian coinage, providing the empirical basis for a systematic downdating of the region’s most significant mints. By meticulously analyzing die sequences across eight cities (Rhegion, Akragas, Gela, Katane, Leontinoi, Messana, Naxos, and Syracuse), the author identifies the "restoration" issues of Naxos and Katane as crucial chronological anchors; since these coins were struck only after the return of exiled populations in 461 BC, their presence in the hoard establishes a firm terminus post quem that compresses the preceding "mass coinage" into a much narrower window than previously hypothesized by Boehringer. Most significantly, Arnold-Biucchi utilizes the hoard's evidence to relocate the Syracusan Demareteion issue from its traditional 480 BC (Himera) association to a later, Hieronian context (ca. 475–470 BC), while simultaneously lowering the start of Syracuse Group 3 to ca. 485 BC. The absence of the four-bar sigma at Messana and later Apollo-head tetradrachms from Katane suggests a burial date of ca. 450 BC, likely linked to the geopolitical upheaval of Douketios’s Sikel revolt. Through this rigorous comparative analysis with related deposits such as the Gela (IGCH 2066) and Villabate (IGCH 2082) hoards, the work vindicates the skeptical "lower chronology" proposed by Colin Kraay, demonstrating that the transition from the late Archaic to early Classical style in Sicily was a more rapid, post-Persian War phenomenon rooted in the specific economic requirements of the surviving tyrannies and the emergent democracies.

Retrieved from academia.edu (accessed 2025-11-08)

Bates, Albert (2024). “Octopodal Pictoriality: The Self-Reflexivity of the Octopus in Graeco-Roman Art”, in Art History 47 (1), Oxford University Press, pp. 154-186.

The octopus was renowned in Graeco-Roman thought for being a master of visual imitation insofar as it could imperceptibly mimic rocks by changing the colour of its skin. What did it mean, then, for the Greeks and Romans to imitate nature's consummate imitator in art? This essay takes two sets of artefacts that featured octopuses—Greek red-figure 'fish plates' and Roman 'fish mosaics'—and contextualises them alongside Greek and Latin poetry, biology and philosophy to explore the self-reflexivity of picturing polyps in Graeco-Roman culture. In establishing the octopus as mise-en-abyme, the essay salvages the sophisticated self-referentiality of the marine 'still life' and recovers a more ecologically grounded way of understanding the relation between art and nature than is traditionally associated with classical art history. Ultimately, seeing the self-consciousness of these octopodal artworks entails becoming more self-aware of ourselves and our place in the world at this juncture of climate crisis.

Retrieved from academic.oup.com

Benson, Frank Sherman (1901). “Ancient Greek Coins: IV. Terina. Magna Grecia”, in American Journal of Numismatics XXXV, T.R. Marvin & Son, Boston, pp. 65-71.

This paper examines the ancient coinage of Terina (ca. 480-388 BCE), a Greek colony in Magna Graecia whose numismatic evidence provides crucial historical insights despite scant written records. The analysis traces the stylistic evolution through three distinct periods, focusing particularly on the exceptional artistic merit of the Nike reverse types which reflect Athenian influence. The coins—featuring a nymph on the obverse and winged Nike figures in various graceful poses on the reverse—embody the South Italian Greek appreciation for nature and beauty through their delicate compositions, refined technique, and charming motifs. These small masterpieces of die-engraving, displaying Nike in activities like training birds or gathering water at fountains, represent one of Magna Graecia's most beautiful coin series, revealing a society that valued grace, purity, and artistic refinement in its material culture.

Retrieved from jstor.org (accessed 2025-03-17)

Bérend, Denyse (1989). “Histoire de Poulpes”, in Kraay-Mørkholm Essays. Numismatic Studies in Memory of C.M. Kraay and O. Mørkholm, ed. by G. Le Rider, R.G. Jenkins, N.M Waggoner and U. Westermark, Louvain-la-Neuve, pp. 23-28.

History of Octopuses

Through a comprehensive numismatic analysis of octopus imagery on ancient Greek coinage, particularly from Syracuse, this study traces the chronological evolution of octopus representations from 466-354 BC and demonstrates how careful examination of these small bronze fractions can illuminate broader historical episodes, including the founding and early coinage of Adranon by Dionysios I around 403 BC.

Bérend, Denyse (1993). “Le monnayage d'or de Syracuse sous Denys I”, in La monetazione dell'età dionigiana. Atti dell'VIII Convegno del Centro Internazionale di Studi Numismatici, Napoli 29 maggio – 1 giugno 1983, ed. by A. Stazio, M. Taliercio Mensitieri and S. Ceccoli, Istituto Italiano di Numismatica, Rome, pp. 91-143.

The Gold Coinage of Syracuse under Dionysius I

A die study of the gold coinage that Syracuse struck under Dionysius the Elder, in four denominations of 5.80, 2.90, 1.16 and 0.58 g. It concentrates on the 100 litras (Arethusa / Herakles wrestling the Nemean lion) and the 50 litras (a curly-haired youthful head / a free horse leaping). Bérend catalogues 44 die combinations of the 100 litras in five groups, defined by their field marks (grain of wheat and KI, the signature of Euainetos, pellets and solid star, letters and pellets, star), and 13 combinations of the 50 litras. Each specimen is recorded with its weight, die position and provenance, including the Avola and Mammanelli hoards. An appendix shows the weights are remarkably regular, with a dominant weight of 5.79 g, and die-link conspectus diagrams and plates complete the corpus. She dates the issue to about 404 B.C. and argues it was one massive, short emission. Her evidence is the switch from omicron to omega in the ethnic, shared with the signed tetradrachms of Kimon and Euainetos; Carthaginian copies of the 50-litra reverses that can be dated before 393; and a gold-silver ratio of 1:15, set above the market rate. She suggests Dionysius struck it to pay mercenaries at his seizure of power, and identifies the head on the 50 litras as Herakles the liberator.

Boehringer, Erich (1929). Die Münzen von Syrakus, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Leipzig.

The Coins of Syracuse

Boehringer's study, which began as a Würzburg dissertation in 1925 and was meant as the first part of a treatment of the whole Syracusan coinage, covers the archaic and early classical coinage of Syracuse from about 530 to 435 B.C. He arranges it in six groups and twenty-five stylistic series. Each die pair gets its own running number, and the dies are numbered V (obverse) and R (reverse), 364 obverses against 500 reverses in all. Die linkages give the sequence, and progressive die injuries show its direction; where linkage fails, style decides. Plates 1–27 show the coins side by side with lines linking shared dies. The Damareteion is his fixed point: thirteen decadrachms of about 43.10 g from three obverse and four reverse dies, identified as the fifty-litra pieces struck from Damarete's crown after Himera and dated to the turn of 480/79 and the first half of 479 B.C. Two more anchors complete the frame: a Syracusan reverse struck with a Leontine obverse places the start of Gelon's coinage in 485, and the ketos marks the sea victory at Cumae about 474. The wreath on the sakkos is tied to 451 or 446, and the olive leaf of Series XXIV to 440/39. Boehringer argues that about half of all dies fall between 485 and 480; in that rush unhardened dies were thrown into use, and a second mint with four engravers (Series XIIa–d) opened, the master of XIId having trained the Damareteion artist. Later chapters treat technique (upper reverse dies of steel or iron that wore out faster), economic matters, and the spread of Syracusan engravers to Gela, Leontini, Catana and Selinus, where he reads the RA on a Leontine die of 480 as possibly the first artist's signature on Greek coins. He also covers imitations at Segesta, Motya and Cumae, and the ketos as a sign of Cumae. The forgeries chapter separates subaerate forgeries (S 1–10, Plate 28) from barbarous imitations (B 1–76), which he places in Panormos and the Sicel cities. Literary and cult evidence lead him to identify the reverse head as Artemis (Alpheioa, linked with the spring Arethusa), and the afterword suggests that the portrait-like faces may show her priestesses.

Boehringer, Christof (1979). “Zu Finanzpolitik und Münzprägung des Dionysios von Syrakus”, in Greek Numismatics and Archaeology: Essays in Honor of Margaret Thompson, ed. by Otto Mørkholm and Nancy M. Waggoner, NR, Wetteren, pp. 9-31.

On the Financial Policy and Coinage of Dionysios of Syracuse

This study challenges the prevailing scholarly consensus that Syracuse experienced a numismatic void during the 38-year reign of Dionysius I (405-367 BC), revealing instead a sophisticated monetary revolution that fundamentally transformed Greek Sicilian coinage. By reexamining treasure finds—particularly the Ognina hoard of 1923 and the Naro find of 1925—alongside detailed stylistic analysis of signed artist coinages, the research demonstrates that famous dekadrachms by Kimon and Euainetos were primarily minted during, not before, the Dionysian period. The investigation reveals how Syracuse's monetary system evolved from traditional precious metal denominations to include innovative bronze drachms weighing 32-38 grams, identified here as the mysterious 'tin drachms' mentioned in ancient literary sources. Metallurgical analysis confirms these large bronzes contained approximately 12.5% tin, creating a silvery appearance that distinguished them from ordinary bronze fractions while maintaining significantly lower intrinsic value than silver equivalents. The study positions Dionysius as a monetary innovator who created an early form of fiat currency—coins whose value derived from state authority rather than metal content alone—establishing a dual system that reserved precious metals for international transactions while using bronze for domestic circulation. This transformation represents a crucial precedent for later Hellenistic monetary systems and demonstrates how military necessity and economic pragmatism drove fundamental changes in ancient Mediterranean coinage during the early 4th century BC.

Retrieved from academia.edu

Boehringer, Christof (1992). “Buchbesprechung: The Randazzo Hoard 1980 and Sicilian Chronology in the Early Fifth Century B.C.”, in Revue suisse de numismatique 71, ed. by Silvia Hurter, Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Bern, pp. 203-209.

Book Review: The Randazzo Hoard 1980 and Sicilian Chronology in the Early Fifth Century B.C.

This review examines Carmen Arnold-Biucchi's exemplary publication of the Randazzo hoard, a coin treasure of at least 539 Attic-weight tetradrachms discovered in Sicily near Randazzo at the end of 1980. The hoard contains silver tetradrachms from eight Sicilian mints: Rhegion (10), Akragas (8), Gela (29), Katane (29), Leontinoi (14), Messana (136), Naxos (5), and Syracuse (308). The statistically significant size of the hoard permits reliable chronological conclusions about Sicilian coinage in the early fifth century BC. Notable features include the unprecedented concentration of 24 Katane tetradrachms of the rare Amenanos bull/Nike type (increasing the known corpus by two-thirds), intensive die-linkage among coins from multiple mints indicating rapid hoarding, and numerous fresh specimens from late series suggesting the owner accumulated coins shortly before concealment. Arnold-Biucchi dates the hoard's closure to ca. 450 BC (not before 455 based on "independence issues" from Rhegion, Katane, Messana, and Naxos; not after 445 based on the absence of Messana tetradrachms with four-stroke sigma and Apollo-type issues from Katane and Leontinoi). Against Arnold-Biucchi's classification as a savings hoard, the reviewer argues the preponderance of late issues and complete absence of didrachms characterize it rather as a circulation hoard that incorporated a small lot of earlier hoarded material. Comparison with the unpublished Comiso hoard (ca. 475 BC) refines the Syracusan chronology: the Deinomenid "mass series" (Boehringer Group III, Series 6 - 12d) must be compressed into 478 - 470 BC rather than distributed evenly, with the Damareteion series (12e) struck around or shortly after 470 BC—before rather than after the fall of the tyranny in 467/466 BC. The publication's meticulous cataloging, complete illustration, and die studies provide an indispensable foundation for understanding early Sicilian monetary history.

Retrieved from e-periodica.ch (accessed 2025-10-18)

Boehringer, Christof (1999). “Bronze - Silber - Gold: Überlegungen zu den Nominalen einiger sizilianischer Goldmünzen”, in Revue Belge de Numismatique et de Sigillographie CXLV, La Société royale de numismatique de Belgique, Brussels, pp. 49-59.

Bronze - Silver - Gold. Considerations on the denominations of some sicilian gold coins

This article examines the denominational relationships between bronze, silver, and gold coinage in ancient Sicily during the 5th and early 4th centuries BC, building upon earlier research into Sicilian monetary systems. Boehringer demonstrates that Sicily's indigenous litra-based bronze currency system (with 1 litra = 109.15 grams bronze) was adopted by Greek colonists and maintained specific value relationships to silver (approximately 125:1) and gold (varying from 12:1 to 15:1 depending on period and political circumstances). Through careful weight analysis of Sicilian gold emissions from cities including Syracuse, Akragas, Gela, Kamarina, and Messana, the author argues that certain series—particularly the 1.74-gram pieces—should be understood not as gold equivalents of existing silver denominations, but as fractional parts of a gold talent (tenth-talents), with heavier pieces representing third-talents and sixth-talents. This reinterpretation suggests that during the Carthaginian crisis of 406/5 BC, Sicilian cities coordinated emergency gold issues based on talent fractions rather than silver equivalencies, creating a stable denominational system that could function independently of fluctuating metal ratios during periods of political and military instability.

Retrieved from numisbel.be

Boffa, Giovanni (2011). “L'astuzia del polpo. Simboli monetali e identità nella Eretria arcaica”, in La Parola del Passato LXVI, Macchiaroli Editore, Naples, pp. 401-430.

The Octopus's Cunning: Monetary Symbols and Identity in Archaic Eretria

By focusing both on the symbolic value of the octopus within the cultural context of ancient Greece and on the history of Eretria in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., the present paper is aimed at understanding why did the Eretrians adopt the image of that animal for their first coinage. Athena, the goddess of metis, proves to be a key element in this connection.

Retrieved from academia.edu

Bottari, Alessandra (2023). “The Image of the Dog on Ancient Coins in the Mediterranean Area”, in Dogs, Past and Present: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, ed. by Ivana Fiore and Francesca Lugli, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 347-355.

In ancient times, the dog image is very widespread in the coin typologies of the Mediterranean area and shows very varied iconographic patterns. From the fifth century BC, it appears in Segesta as a principal form coupled with the personification of the city, where it is the protagonist of the legend of the town’s foundation. It is subsequently adopted by the Elymian towns in western Sicily to then spread to the eastern part of the island in the Hellenistic age. In the remaining Greek and Roman worlds, the animal is more often the companion of gods and mythical or historical figures, especially of the goddess Artemis as both goddess of the hunt and of the moon.

Retrieved from jstor.org (accessed 2025-12-27)

Chantraine, Heinrich (1962). “Bemerkungen zum ältesten sizilischen und römischen Münzwesen”, in Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte XII, Bayerischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft, Munich, pp. 51-64.

Remarks on the Earliest Sicilian and Roman Coinage

Chantraine's 1962 philological and numismatic study undertakes a systematic re-evaluation of the fractional coin terminology used by the Sicilian Greeks, centering on the disputed values of the denominations trias, tetras, and hexas within the litra-onkia system. Drawing on literary sources ranging from the comic poet Epicharmus through Aristotle's constitutional histories of Akragas and Himera to the late antique lexicographer Hesychius, and corroborating these with physical coin evidence from Himera, Eryx, and Croton, the author demonstrates that the prevailing numismatic convention of labeling three-dot pieces 'triantes' and four-dot pieces 'tetrantes' rests on a misreading of Aristotle transmitted through an unreliable chain of excerptors. Following the largely forgotten argument of Richard Bentley, Chantraine establishes that hexas indisputably denotes a sixth of the litra, making trias its logical equivalent of a third and tetras a quarter, with the suffix -as reflecting a pre-Greek Sikel morphological element grafted onto Greek numerals rather than any borrowing from Latin triens or quadrans. The study then extends this corrected understanding into Roman monetary history, arguing that the classical Latin fractional terminology for the as, including triens, quadrans, and sextans, attested securely only from the late second century BC onward, was modeled on the Siculo-Greek dividing principle, while the older Roman practice, preserved in the archaic compound terruncius and in the persistent use of value dots on coinage and weights, counted upward from the uncia rather than downward from the libra. This ounce-counting mode of designation, structurally parallel to the additive logic of Roman numerals themselves, is shown to have gradually yielded to the Sicilian fractional principle during the second century BC, with the semis representing a practical early exception attributable to the intuitive simplicity of halving rather than to any precocious adoption of the dividing system.

Retrieved from bngev.de (accessed 2026-04-18)

Daehn, William E. (2023). “Minting Anomalies in Greek Sicily: Stepped Flans, Edge Ridges, and Edge Splits”, in KOINON: The International Journal of Classical Numismatic Studies 6, pp. 50-60.

Despite the absence of written ancient sources on Greek minting techniques, numismatists have long sought to understand coin production methods through experimentation and die analysis. This study addresses three commonly misunderstood minting anomalies characteristic of Sicilian Greek coinage: edge ridges (knobs), stepped flans, and edge splits. Through hands-on experimental archaeology using clay and glass vessels to simulate the coin-striking process, this research clarifies the physical mechanisms behind each anomaly. Edge ridges resulted from casting blanks in spherical two-piece molds, creating an equatorial seam that remained as diametrically opposed projections after striking—a technique that allowed flans to retain heat for more complete impression transfer. Stepped flans, previously catalogued as flan flaws, actually represent striking anomalies caused either by misalignment of the spherical flan's casting seam relative to die surfaces or by the use of flans with off-center casting defects from improperly aligned mold halves. Large V-shaped edge splits similarly derive from striking misaligned defective flans with the seam perpendicular to die faces, producing stress concentrations that fractured the metal under pressure. These findings vindicate earlier theoretical work, particularly that of George F. Hill (1922) and D. Sellwood (1963), demonstrating that Sicilian minting anomalies reflect deliberate or accidental variations in flan preparation and striking alignment rather than fundamental defects in production capability.

Retrieved from archaeopresspublishing.com (accessed 2025-04-02)

Favorito, Emilio N. (1996). “Signed Bronzes of Syracuse”, in The Celator 10 (7), ed. by Steven A. Sayles, Celator, Inc., Lodi, WI, pp. 6-18.

Signed bronze coins from ancient Syracuse bearing the signatures of master die engravers such as Kimon, Euainetos, Eukleidas, Phrygillios, and Exakestidas are far less rare than conventional numismatic scholarship suggests. This article examines five coin types struck at Syracuse between approximately 425-405 BC, demonstrating that signatures appearing as brief letter combinations (typically one to three characters) have been systematically overlooked due to their inconspicuousness, susceptibility to wear and patina, scholarly neglect of bronze coinage compared to precious metals, and limited photographic documentation. The Incuse Square type (Head of Arethusa left / quadripartite incuse square), traditionally considered rare when signed, actually shows traces of Euainetos's signature "E" on approximately half of examined specimens, with correlation between signed obverses and sixteen-ray reverse stars. The Arethusa Left/Octopus type, also signed by Euainetos ("EY"), likely represents a completely signed issue where all specimens bear the artist's mark. The Wheel type (Head of Arethusa left / wheel of four spokes) demonstrates the work of multiple masters: Phrygillios's signature "ΦPY" varies in placement depending on whether dolphins appear in the field, while Kimon's previously "discovered" but misidentified signature "KI" appears on specimens the author personally verified, and an "EY" artist also contributed to this abundant series. The Dolphin and Scallop Shell type bears an enigmatic signature reading either "IM" or (if retrograde) "MI," appearing on both bronze and silver versions, while the Facing Head type, clearly modeled on Kimon's famous tetradrachms, shows traces of Exakestidas's signature "EΞ" in the left field adjacent to Arethusa's cheek, though considerable stylistic variation suggests multiple artists worked on this type. The systematic neglect of these bronzes in dating discussions represents a significant scholarly oversight, as signed specimens provide crucial chronological evidence: the Incuse Square and Arethusa Left/Octopus types were struck contemporaneously around 425 BC (possibly as late as 410 BC), followed sequentially by the Wheel type and Dolphin and Scallop Shell type, with the Facing Head tetras coming later, all within the archaeological context at Naxos associated with the fall of Syracuse to the Carthaginians in 405 BC during the Athenian/Hippocratic period.

Retrieved from social.vcoins.com

Fischer-Bossert, Wolfgang (2012). “The Coinage of Sicily”, in The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage, ed. by William E. Metcalf, pp. 142-156.

The numismatic history of Sicily reflects the vicissitudes of its political history in truly unique fashion. Cities were conquered and destroyed, populations displaced and resettled, tyrannies raised and toppled. Many of these political shifts have left traces in the history of Sicilian coinage. The native Sicilian conception of coinage led to a groundbreaking innovation: the creation of small denominations in bronze, whose value was based not on their material worth but solely on a fixed exchange rate in silver coins—in other words, on the confidence of the citizens that they could exchange their bronze coins for silver the next day. The numismatic history of Sicily developed organically and gradually in the fifth century, years that saw the production of the coins for which Sicily enjoys a fine reputation among art lovers. Names such as Kimon, Euainetos, Phrygillos, and Eukleidas appear in this lexicon of artists.

Retrieved from researchgate.net (accessed 2025-07-14)

Fischer-Bossert, Wolfgang (2024). “Buchbesprechung: Hartmut Kreutzer - Syrakusische Drachmen und Kleinsilbermünzen in der ‚Periode der signierenden Künstler‘”, in Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte LXXIV, Bayerischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft, Munich, pp. 351-365.

Book Reviews: Hartmut Kreutzer - Syrakusische Drachmen und Kleinsilbermünzen in der "Periode der signierenden Künstler"

Fischer-Bossert's exhaustive critical review of Kreutzer's Nomismata 11 constitutes a systematic dismantling of the book's methodological foundations, cataloguing its scholarly omissions, factual errors, and idiosyncratic departures from established numismatic convention across its treatment of Syracusan drachms and small silver denominations from the final decades of the 5th century BC. Beginning with Lederer's 1913 pamphlet as intellectual backdrop, the review situates Kreutzer's work against a century of scholarship on Sicilian fractional coinage—from Boehringer's agrarian explanations for small-change scarcity to Sargent and Velde's economic theorization of the 'big problem of small change'—and finds it largely oblivious to these developments. Fischer-Bossert identifies three structural failures: Kreutzer's abandonment of standard die-axis recording and the obverse/reverse distinction in favor of a needlessly convoluted denomination-specific numbering system; his dismissal of hoard evidence as chronologically useless, while simultaneously ignoring documented hoard provenances for individual specimens (IGCH 2096, 2105, and the Balate di Marianopoli hemidrachm); and his uncritical reliance on the 'victory coinage' hypothesis of Baldwin Brett and Karl Christ to anchor a high chronology indebted to Tudeer's 1913 dissertation, without engaging the substantial downward revisions of the past sixty years. The review further documents that Kreutzer's die catalogue of 65 combinations is riddled with duplicates—at least nine instances of the same specimen listed twice, including multiple Arthur Lloyd collection pieces entered into the British Museum in 1946—alongside misattributed inventory numbers, chaotic citation ordering, and the omission of an entire hemidrachm type (female head with octopus, attested by specimens in Brussels, Cambridge, and Paris). Fischer-Bossert additionally corrects Kreutzer's conflation of the trionkion with the trias, his misreading of adjectival ethnics such as ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΟΣ, his anachronistic use of crista for the Greek λόφος, and his erroneous derivation of the Eukleidas Athena from the Parthenos, concluding that the catalogue may be used only with the greatest caution and the text is largely without scholarly value beyond its die descriptions.

Gallatin, Albert (1930). Syracusan Dekadrachms of the Euainetos Type, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

Gallatin's 1930 catalogue undertakes the first systematic die study of the Syracusan dekadrachms bearing the signature of Euainetos or sharing the style of his signed obverses, illustrating forty-two obverse dies (with five sub-varieties) paired against twenty-four reverse dies, each keyed to a list of known specimens. Rather than relying on stylistic judgment to order the series, as Hill and Evans had done before him, Gallatin establishes a relative chronology almost entirely from physical evidence of die deterioration, tracing the sequence of flaws, cracks, and progressive rusting shared between obverse and reverse dies as they were paired and re-paired at the mint; this method links the A-F group and the later G-L group through the transitional die F. IXa (F. IX with a dot added beneath the chin) and cross-checks the resulting order against a parallel stylistic evolution in the reverse Nike's drapery and hand position. On this basis Gallatin dates the inception of the series to 412 B.C., connecting it to the Assinarian games instituted after the Syracusan victory over the Athenian expedition, and proposes that the delta mark on die D. I commemorates the tenth anniversary of that victory in 403 B.C. while a dot added to later dies marks a second decennial around 393 B.C., a hypothesis he further supports by an argument from Euainetos's presumed working lifespan. The catalogue also addresses questions of attribution and workshop practice, arguing that the unsigned dies bearing symbols (shell, dot, star) likely represent assistants or mint subdivisions working from Euainetos's models rather than the master's own unsigned output, and that the eventual convergence of the unsigned reverse types with the style of Kimon's dekadrachms suggests shared die-cutters or mutual influence between the two engravers' workshops. Gallatin further weighs the authenticity of several disputed or unusual specimens, including the suspect C. V in Copenhagen and the anomalous reverse R. XIII, and closes by noting testimony to the series' incompleteness in the form of two ceramic cups from Hamburg and the Louvre bearing mould-impressions of an otherwise unrecorded Euainetos-type die.

Retrieved from academia.edu (accessed 2026-07-02)

Holloway, R. Ross (1996). “Further Notes on the Early Bronze Coinage of Syracuse”, in In Italiam fato profugi : Hesperinaque venerunt litora : numismatic studies dedicated to Vladimir and Elvira Eliza Clain-Stefanelli, Département d'Archéologie et d'Histoire de l'Art, Séminaire de Numismatique Marcel Hoc, Louvaine-la-Neuve, pp. 227-232.

Holloway revisits questions raised at the 1977 Naples conference on early Syracusan bronze coinage, presenting an updated chronological framework of four series spanning from before 405 B.C. through the reign of Dionysius I. The article opens by correcting the denomination of the rare female head right/hippocampus-above-polyp type—demonstrating through weight evidence and Calciati's new specimens that it is a hexas, not an oncion—before laying out a revised sequence: Series 1 (female head/polyp in three denominations, before 405 B.C.), Series 1A (variant male head trias and the hexas with hippocampus), Series 2 (female head with epsilon and incuse/polyp types), Series 3 (ca. 405 B.C., wheel hemilitron and facing female head trias), and Series 4 (after 405 B.C., the large Athena head/star-and-dolphins drachm and the Athena head/hippocamp litra). Against Gabrici's long-accepted identification of the heavy Athena head/star-and-dolphins pieces as Timoleontic 'heavy litrae,' Holloway confirms the modern consensus classifying them as bronze drachmae of Dionysian date; the countermark 'onki' on hippocamp litrae encodes an exchange rate of 125:1 between bronze and silver, demonstrating that Series 4 functioned as fiduciary rather than intrinsic-value coinage. The article's central argument is that Dionysius I doubled the nominal value of coinage by governmental decree: the bronze drachm became a fiat didrachm, the litra a fiat dilitron, and the theoretical weight was simultaneously raised by 20%—a maneuver greatly to the tyrant's advantage and confirmed by the over-weight hippocamp specimens (reaching 9.5 g) that otherwise cannot be accommodated in a single denomination system. Holloway also addresses the Manganaro overstrikes—Series 1 types struck over Himera and Selinus bronzes—arguing they need not disturb established dating since they may represent provincial imitations at a non-Syracusan mint serving Carthaginian-controlled areas of Sicily, whose operators deliberately reused familiar Syracusan types for local circulation. Excavation evidence from the Salso Valley, Naxos, and Motya confirms Series 4 predates 405 B.C., placing Series 3 in the period of Carthaginian pressure and Series 2 and the intermediate silver fractional issues in the aftermath of the Athenian defeat.

Jenkins, Gilbert Kenneth (1962). “Piakos”, in Schweizer Münzblätter 12, ed. by Dr. Herbert A. Cahn, Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Basel, pp. 17-20.

This article examines the location of the ancient Sicel city of Piakos through numismatic evidence. While the site of Piakos has remained uncertain, with various scholars proposing locations based on modern place-name similarities, a previously unpublished silver litra provides new insight into the problem. The coin, from a Swiss private collection, bears the legend ΠΙΑΚΙΝΟΣ on the obverse with a nymph's head, and ΑΔΡΑΝ[..] on the reverse with an attacking bull and fish. This represents an alliance coinage between Piakos and Adranon (modern Adernò), similar to known joint issues like that of Leontinoi-Katane. The coin's types derive from contemporary Katanaian issues, and its style suggests influence from the die-cutter of Naxos stamps. Given that three of five known Piakos bronze coins were found near Adernò, and considering the close connection demonstrated by this alliance issue, the author proposes that Piakos should be identified with the unnamed Sicel settlement at Mendolito, approximately 8 km southwest of Adernò in the Simeto valley. This site has yielded significant archaeological material including Sicel inscriptions and 8th-century bronze ornaments. The iconography of Piakos bronzes, featuring a dog attacking a deer, may relate to the famous sanctuary dogs of Adranos. The alliance coin likely dates shortly after 400 B.C., around the time of Adranon's founding by Dionysios I of Syracuse, and represents a valuable addition to the corpus of small silver issues from Sicel cities of the 5th-4th centuries B.C.

Retrieved from e-periodica.ch (accessed 2025-09-15)

Jongkees, Jan Hendrik (1941). The Kimonian Dekadrachms: A Contribution to Sicilian Numismatics, Adolf M. Hakkert (reprint, 1967), Amsterdam.

Jongkees's monograph (1941; reprinted 1967) revises and enlarges Regling's 1914 list of the Kimonian dekadrachms of Syracuse, cataloguing 152 specimens struck from three chariot dies (A, B, C) and thirteen head dies (α–ν) in fourteen die combinations, with each specimen's diameter, weight, wear and die-position recorded and arranged in order of progressive die injury so that the work of individual strikers can be distinguished. Successive chapters treat die statistics and counterfeits, the technique of striking (bronze dies, the formation of cracks, fractures and corrosion, and a pin apparatus for measuring relief whose profiles appear on Plate I), relative chronology, metrology (a normal weight of about 43.27 g) and the hoards from Contessa, Santa Maria di Licodia and elsewhere. A revised chronology of the Syracusan coinage of 413–400 B.C., built on Tudeer's tetradrachm series and Kimon's Arethusa tetradrachms, places the Kimonian dekadrachms in 412–407 B.C., with appendices on Kimon's Arethusa tetradrachms and the dekadrachms of Agrigentum. The second half turns to the engravers themselves: Jongkees argues that only the first head die (α) and chariot A are Kimon's own, and that the following dies, though several bear his name, are the work of copyists who reproduced his signature, a thesis he extends to Euainetos, Phrygillos, Molossos, Aristoxenos and Euarchidas and then, through Epiktetos, Douris and Polygnotos, to false signatures in Attic vase-painting and to the phenomenon of false attribution in Greek art and literature generally.

Kagan, Jonathan (2004). “The So-Called Persian Weight Coins of Larissa”, in Obolos 7: Coins in the Thessalian Region - Proceedings of the Third Scientific Meeting, Φίλοι του Νομισματικού Μουσείου, Athens, pp. 79-86.

Herrmann's influential 1925 chronology for Larissa's earliest coinage, which dated Group I drachms to c. 500-479 BC and attributed their reduced weight (5.2 g vs. the theoretical Aeginetan 6.1 g) to adoption of the Persian standard during Thessaly's medism, rests on methodologically flawed metrological and iconographic assumptions that cannot withstand scrutiny. The Persian weight system, far from being a monolithic imperial tool, consisted of multiple local variants (the light 5.3 g sigloi vs. the 11.2 g "double sigloi" standard), and Persian weights were demonstrably not adopted in Thrace or Macedonia despite occupation—undermining Herrmann's premise that a medizing Thessaly would naturally strike on Persian weights for international trade. The Group I drachms' light weight (averaging 5.1 g, with specimens ranging to 5.60 g) reflects instead a deliberate domestic monetary policy: Larissa's fractional coinage, including previously unknown hemiobols, was designed for internal circulation within the polis, with underweight coins kept at home while the profit from converting heavier foreign Aeginetan pieces sustained the local currency supply. Iconographic evidence further contradicts a pre-Persian War date: Jason, whose single sandal references his crossing of the Anauros (recognized by Millingen in 1831), represents an inherently anti-Persian choice—Herodotus (I.2) records that Persians viewed the Argonauts' expedition and Jason's abduction of Medea as a foundational act of Greco-Asian hostility—making his adoption logical only for a post-479 BC Thessaly seeking to rehabilitate its reputation, analogous to Protesilaos on Scione's coinage which Hill correctly dated post-480 BC despite later scholarly resistance. The crucial positive evidence comes from Lederer's 1943 publication of a Group I drachm bearing a dog (spitz) symbol beneath the horse, directly linking Larissa to Alexander I of Macedon's octodrachms and Mende's Dionysos tetradrachms; modern hoard evidence from Asyut demonstrates these Macedonian dog-type issues date to c. 460 BC, establishing a terminus for Larissa's Group I. Die study reveals a shared obverse between a late Group I piece and one bearing Macedonian-style square ethnic enclosure (sandal and axe with inscribed border), with reverse style placing this transitional die after 470 BC. This rechronology (479/75-460 BC for Group I) aligns with Thessalian historical realities: Leotychides' punitive expedition (479-475 BC) inflicted financial devastation—Pausanius (III.7.9) records the Aleuadae of Larissa bribing the Spartan king with a sleeve full of silver—explaining both the need for light-weight domestic coinage and the subsequent transition to the heavier Federal taurokathapsia issues (5.7 g) coinciding with Thessaly's reintegration into Greek affairs via the 462/1 BC Athenian alliance and the institution of Polemarchs documented at Delphi.

Retrieved from academia.edu (accessed 2025-06-18)

Koepfler, Denis (1992). “La chronologie du monnayage de Syracuse sous les Deinoménides: nouvelles données et critères méconnus”, in Revue suisse de numismatique 71, ed. by Silvia Hurter, Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Bern, pp. 5-39.

The Chronology of Syracuse Coinage under the Deinomenids: New Data and Unknown Criteria

The replacement of qoppa (Ϙ) by kappa (κ) in the ethnic ΣΥRΑΚΟΣΙΟΝ on Syracusan coinage represents not a gradual stylistic evolution but an abrupt state-mandated orthographic reform datable with precision to 478 BC. Previous scholarship, particularly Boehringer's influential corpus, misinterpreted this substitution as analogous to changes in letter forms (such as the alpha's crossbar straightening) and consequently failed to exploit it as a chronological criterion. However, the qoppa/kappa change constitutes a genuine reform in how the syllables ku/ko were transcribed—a deliberate modification of the sign system rather than mere formal variation. Three epigraphic monuments establish firm termini: Gelon's tripod dedication at Delphi (478 BC) preserves qoppa in ΣΥRΑϘΟΣΙΟΣ, while Hieron's helmets from the Etruscan booty of Cumae (474/3 BC) consistently display kappa in ΣΥRΑΚΟΣΙΟΙ, and a bronze kerykeion inscribed ΔΑΜΟΣΙΟΝ ΣΥRΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ confirms the reform's official character. Detailed die study reveals that the transition occurred not gradually but during a brief period when obverse die V26 was paired first with qoppa reverses (R22-25, R27, R30, R32), then with kappa reverses (R26, R28-29, R31)—a sequence spanning perhaps one year. The 'Master of Arethusa,' chief engraver under Gelon, initially resisted the reform (his final reverse R25 retains qoppa despite the decree), while his successor the 'Kröbylos Master' implemented the new orthography definitively under Hieron. This dating revolutionizes Syracusan numismatic chronology: Boehringer's Group II must be lowered from ca. 510-485 BC to 485-478 BC, while Group III's 'mass coinage' (150+ obverse dies) began not in 485 but in 478 BC. The stylistic connection between Syracusan obverse V26 and Gela's O32—both attributable to the same artist—confirms that Gela's Group II coinage commenced ca. 478 BC when Gelon transferred the engraver to his brother Polyzalus. The shared obverse die between Syracuse and the refounded Leontinoi (476 BC) provides a terminus ante quem, proving the reform occurred between 479/8 and 476/5 BC. The famous 'Demareteion' decadrachm, bearing kappa on all five known reverses, cannot date to Himera (480 BC) as tradition held but must be placed ca. 472/1 BC, commemorating not the Carthaginian victory but Hieron's triumph over Thrasydaeus of Agrigentum—an identification supported by the contemporary Leontinian tetradrachm bearing the letters ΑR (ἀριστεῖον, 'prize for valor'). This reinterpretation, while demolishing Boehringer's high chronology, vindicates the identification of the decadrachm with Diodorus's 'Demareteion' by demonstrating that Damarete's diplomatic intervention was transposed in historiographic tradition from the 472 BC conflict to the more celebrated Himera victory, ad majorem Gelonis gloriam.

Retrieved from e-periodica.ch (accessed 2025-10-18)

Kraay, Colin Mackennal (1958). “A Propos Des Monnaies Divisionnaires De Crotone”, in Schweizer Münzblätter 8, ed. by Dr. Herbert A. Cahn, Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Basel, pp. 99-102.

On the fractional coins of Croton

The divisional silver coinage of Croton in the first half of the fifth century BC presents an apparent paradox: while the city's staters and drachms display typical local types (incuse tripod, eagle, or helmet), the fractional denominations bear reverse types copied from foreign mints including Corinth (Pegasus), Syracuse (cuttlefish), Athens (owl), Messana or Rhegium (hare), Agrigentum (crab), and pre-480 Himera (rooster). A new interpretation proposes that these fractions served primarily as instruments of currency exchange rather than for local retail commerce. Croton's stater of approximately 8.10 g, a variant of the Corinthian standard but half a gram lighter, was not directly convertible with the principal Sicilian coinages—the Corinthian standard (8.7 g stater) and the Euboic-Attic standard (17.4 g tetradrachm). The deliberately light weight of Croton's triobols (ca. 1.25 g rather than the theoretical 1.35 g) allowed two Crotonian staters plus one triobol to equal one Euboic tetradrachm. The foreign types on these fractions visually identified which foreign coinages they were designed to complement, functioning as a primitive exchange rate system. Within Croton's territory these foreign-type fractions circulated as fiduciary money with value marks, while facilitating the integration of Crotonian merchants into Sicilian commercial networks.

Retrieved from e-periodica.ch (accessed 2025-10-17)

Kraay, Colin Mackennal (1972). “The Damareteion Reconsidered: A Reply”, in The Numismatic Chronicle 12, Royal Numismatic Society, London, pp. 13-24.

This systematic defense of revisionist Syracusan chronology refutes R.T. Williams's attempt to restore the traditional dating of the famous Damareteion decadrachm to circa 480 BC, demonstrating through rigorous hoard analysis and historical contextualization that a date in the late 460s BC remains the most defensible interpretation of the numismatic evidence. By methodically dissecting Williams's counterarguments—particularly his dismissal of crucial hoard evidence from Seltmann's find near Himera, his misinterpretation of die-linking patterns in Boehringer's Reihe XIIa-e, and his circular reasoning regarding epigraphical letter forms—the study exposes fundamental weaknesses in the traditional chronological framework that cannot be resolved through minor adjustments to Boehringer's original sequence. The research demonstrates that three independent Sicilian hoards (Mazzarino, Casulia, and Seltmann) all terminate with Syracusan issues contemporary to the decadrachm while containing coins from other mints that cannot be dated earlier than the mid-460s BC, creating an insurmountable chronological discrepancy for traditionalists. Most significantly, the study conclusively refutes attempts to conflate Seltmann's hoard with the later Villabate deposit, proving through detailed compositional analysis that these represent distinct chronological horizons and that Seltmann's unique correlation between late Gelon-period Syracusan tetradrachms and early Himera tetradrachms provides definitive evidence for downdating the entire massive silver series. The work establishes new methodological standards for ancient chronology by demonstrating how political-economic context must inform numismatic interpretation, revealing that the decadrachm's minting in the final years of Deinomenid tyranny or subsequent civil wars (466-461 BC) provides a far more compelling historical framework than the artificially early date demanded by uncritical acceptance of later literary traditions.

Retrieved from academia.edu (accessed 2025-09-02)

Lederer, Philipp (1913). “Syrakusisches Kleingeld im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr.”, in Berliner Münzblätter, ed. by Emil Bahfeldt, Deutsche Numismatische Gesellschaft, Berlin, pp. 493-495, 517-523, 542-548, 563-572.

Syracusan Small Coinage in the 5th Century B.C.

This pioneering numismatic investigation establishes the first systematic catalog of Syracusan small silver denominations from the archaic to the transitional period (ca. 478-440 BC), demonstrating that the city maintained a sophisticated hierarchy of litrae, hemilitria, and hemiobols that closely mirrored the artistic evolution of contemporary tetradrachm issues. By analyzing eleven distinct chronological groups defined by the changing hair fashions of the goddess Arethusa—from simple archaic arrangements to elaborate hoods with decorated ampyces and complex net caps (kekryphalos)—the study reveals how Syracuse's monetary system evolved from the Attic obol standard to the indigenous Sicilian litra system, with the hemilitrion emerging as the dominant small denomination marked by distinctive value-pellet arrangements. The research fundamentally revises scholarly understanding of Greek Sicilian coinage by proving that Syracuse's small silver production was far more extensive and systematically organized than previously recognized, filling the crucial gap between the rich archaic fractional series and the celebrated signed coinages of the Classical period, while establishing new methodological standards for examining ancient fractional denominations through die studies, weight analysis, and contextual examination of hoards like the important Girgenti find with its mixture of official issues and barbaric Sikel imitations.

Retrieved from academia.edu

Maltese, Sebastiano Paolo (2022). “Maestri Firmanti (e Anonimi) a Siracusa. Cronologia e rete produttiva”, in Siracusa Antica. Nuove prospettive di ricerca, ed. by Fabrizio Nicoletti, Palermo, pp. 151-171.

Signing (and Anonymous) Masters in Syracuse: Chronology and Production Networks.

This study examines the production network and chronology of Syracuse's signed coinage during the period of the Maestri Firmanti (Signing Masters) in the 5th century BCE, investigating how political transformation—specifically the transition from democratic governance to tyranny—shaped the artistic evolution of the mint. Through systematic die-sequence analysis of tetradrachms, decadrachms, and gold issues, the author establishes that at least ten named engravers (Sosion, Eumenes, Eukleidas, Euainetos, Phrygillos, Euarchidas, Kimon, and others) worked within a unified familia of artisans rather than in competing rival workshops, contrary to Holloway's influential but discredited theory of parallel "dolphin" and "grain-ear" ateliers. The phenomenon of signed coinage emerges as quintessentially democratic in origin, flourishing during Hermocrates' political ascendancy in the decades following the Congress of Gela (424 BCE), when middle-class magistrates—the χαριέστατοι overseeing the magistracies—commissioned coinage of exceptional artistic merit to celebrate their access to public office. The concentration of signed dies reaches its apex in the Transition Phase and Period I, precisely when democratic competition among artisans, small merchants, and retailers defined Syracusan civic identity. The democratic reforms of Diocles (412 BCE), mandating allotment election of magistracies, correspond to a visible decline in typological innovation during Period II, though celebratory types such as Euarchidas's "Demetrian" quadrigae and Eukleidas's Athena reflect the democratic regime's identification with tutelary divinities. The phenomenon's terminus arrives with Dionysius I's establishment of tyranny, when monumental gold denominations and the reintroduction of the high-value decadrachm supplant democratic artistic exuberance, leaving only the final masterworks of Kimon and Euainetos as the "swan song" of classical Sicilian engraving before the exhaustion of the tyrant's hegemonic projects around 380 BCE.

Retrieved from academia.edu (accessed 2025-07-22)

Maltese, Sebastiano Paolo (2023). “I tetradrammi di Leontinoi. Dinamiche produttive e storico-artistiche”, in Polymnia: Ancient and Medieval Numismatics. Documents, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste.

The Leontinoi Tetradrachms: Production and Historical-Artistic Dynamics

This work represents the first systematic study on the production of tetradrachms by Leontinoi, whose issues, among the major testimonies of Siceliote engraving art, are concentrated between the seventies and the twenties of the fifth century BC. The research addresses the minting of one hundred and sixty-two series of tetradrachms, commented on through the reconstruction of the sequences of the dies, the stylistic-formal analysis of the coin types, the comparison with the minor denominations, as well as the examination of the known hoards, offering new elements and considerations in the field of studies of numismatics and Siceliote art.

Manganaro, Giacomo (1984). “Dai mikrà kermata di argento al chalkokratos kassiteros in Sicilia nel V sec. a.C”, in Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte XXXIV, Bayerischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft, Munich, pp. 11-39.

From Small Silver Coins to Bronze-Copper Alloy in 5th Century BC Sicily

Through a comprehensive examination of the evolution from small silver denominations (mikrà kermata) to bronze coinage (chalkokratos kassiteros) in 5th century BC Sicily, this study investigates the complex monetary, economic, and political transformations that shaped Greek Sicilian numismatics during a period of significant upheaval. The analysis traces the circulation patterns of fractional silver coins—from litrai to onkeiai and hexantes—examining their role in local agorai, the challenges of money-changing, and the emergence of specialized financial intermediaries like the litroskopos. By analyzing archaeological evidence, literary sources including Epicharmus, and numismatic data from major poleis such as Syracuse, Katane, and Akragas, the work demonstrates how external pressures, particularly the Punic invasions and Athenian siege, necessitated the transition from precious metal small change to bronze substitutes, fundamentally altering the monetary landscape of Greek Sicily and marking the end of an era in ancient Mediterranean coinage.

Retrieved from bngev.de

Manganaro, Giacomo (1999). “Ancora sul mikron kerma siceliota”, in Revue Belge de Numismatique et de Sigillographie CXLV, La Société royale de numismatique de Belgique, Brussels, pp. 61-68.

More on the Small Sicilian Greek Coinage

Through a systematic examination of perforated ancient coins ('bucate') and the small silver denominations (mikron kerma) of Elymian Sicily, this study investigates the religious and monetary practices that shaped Greek Sicilian numismatics in the 5th-4th centuries BC. The analysis traces the phenomenon of deliberately pierced coins, demonstrating how specimens bearing divine imagery—from Demeter of Henna to Zeus of Abakainon and Aphrodite of Segesta—were transformed into protective amulets by devotees seeking religious protection. By examining archaeological evidence from necropoli and numismatic collections, alongside detailed stylistic analysis of silver litrai and hemilitrai from Entella and Segesta, the work reveals how Campanian mercenaries at Entella systematically overstruck Chalcidic coinage around 400 BC, maintaining Attic weight standards while introducing 'national' typology featuring galloping horses and Campanian helmets. The study demonstrates how Segesta's bilingual polis, despite economic potential, struggled with technical inconsistency in its mint productions, oscillating between crude provincialism and sophisticated imitation of Syracusan models, ultimately illustrating the complex interplay between religious practices, monetary policy, and cultural identity in the twilight of independent Greek Sicily before Carthaginian dominance.

Retrieved from numisbel.be

Manganaro, Giacomo (1999). “Dall'obolo alla litra e il problema del "demareteion"”, in Travaux de Numismatique grecque offerts à Georges Le Rider, ed. by M. Amandry, S. Hurter and D. Bérend, Spink, London, pp. 239-255.

From the Obol to the Litra and the Problem of the 'Damareteion'

By conducting a comprehensive analysis of the transition from obol to litra denominations in 5th century BC Sicily and examining the numismatic evidence surrounding the legendary Damareteion decadrachm, this study seeks to understand the economic and political forces that shaped Greek Sicilian coinage during a critical period of democratic transformation. The shift from tyrannical regimes to democratic governance in various poleis, particularly Syracuse, emerges as a key factor in understanding both the abandonment of traditional obol fractions and the circumstances surrounding extraordinary ceremonial issues like the Damareteion.

Retrieved from lamoneta.it (accessed 2025-09-14)

Manganaro, Giacomo (1999). “La Syrakosion Dekate, Camarina e Morgantina nel 424 a.C.”, in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 128, Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn, pp. 115-123.

The Syracusan Tithe, Camarina and Morgantina in 424 BC

The proverbial 'Syracusan dekate' (tithe) mentioned by ancient sources represents not merely ritual expenditure but a sophisticated fiscal system governing Syracuse's territorial empire from the archaic period through the Hellenistic era. This study reconstructs how Syracuse extracted tribute from conquered territories, particularly Camarina and its hinterland, through analysis of literary sources, numismatic evidence, and epigraphic material. When Syracuse founded Camarina in 598 BC, it reserved the right to collect a tithe from the fertile Iblean territory, a claim violently reasserted in 552 BC when the rebellious colony was destroyed and its population reduced to helot-like status. The dekate system, later formalized in the Lex Hieronica, was applied systematically to conquered Sikel centers under the Deinomenid tyrants and to territories ceded by Ducetius in 451 BC, including Morgantina. The transfer of Morgantina from Syracuse to Camarina in 424 BC during the Synhedrion of Gela—documented in Thucydides as a sale for currency—represents a rare recorded diminution of Syracuse's proverbial tribute base. Morgantina's coinage around this date, particularly silver litrae featuring a nymph's head echoing Syracusan Arethusa and local symbols (boar, barley), marks its transformation into a Hellenized polis integrated into the Geloan-Camarinaean economic sphere. The epigraphic monument from Castiglione di Ragusa, interpreted as a trophy commemorating cattle booty (σκῦλος) by a Camarinaean refugee, illuminates the violence underlying these territorial arrangements and the persistence of Camarinaean identity even under Syracusan domination.

Retrieved from uni-koeln.de

Manganaro, Giacomo (1999). “Zeus Eleutherios — Zeus Kronos. Himera — Therma Nel IV Sec. A. C.”, in Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte XLVIII - XLIX, Bayerischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft, Munich, pp. 71-99.

Zeus Eleutherios — Zeus Kronos. Himera — Therma in the Fourth Century B.C.

After a quick review, following Chr. Boehringer, of the sources relating to Himera and Therma from 409 B.C. and an examination of the last bronze series of Himera, an overview of the bronze issues of Syracuse is presented, with particular attention to the pair constituted by the heavy denomination (Athena Head/Starfish between two dolphins) and the submultiple (R/Hippocampus), to conclude that the first cannot be a ``heavy litra'' (at 35/30 g!), but must represent a multiple, that is a pentalitron (``drachma''). Thus Dionysius I obtained a financial profit, while such a heavy litra would have constituted a loss of wealth, inconceivable for the economy of a city engaged in continuous wars and therefore bent on saving. Of the two issues with the Head of Zeus Eleutherios, the lighter one (with short-haired Zeus) is attributed to Dion (the ``liberator'' from tyranny), imitated contemporaneously in coins of various cities, even at Alontion and Alaisa situated in the Punic epicracy (possible only during the years of Dion, when Carthage lowered its guard) and taken up on the obverse of restruck series with the legend Symmachikon (probably struck at Alaisa). The other, with the long-haired Head of Z.E. --- type of Zeus Olympios --- is attributed to Timoleon (issued to celebrate the institution in 343/2 B.C. of the amphipolia), to whom belong the two gold issues with the similar Head of Zeus, destined, to supplement stocks of pegasi, for the payment of mercenaries, in view of the battle at the Crimisus in 339 B.C. The two bronze issues with Zeus should be considered dilitron the first, hemidrachmon the second: to consider them litra, as is claimed for the heavy ``Dionysian'' bronze, would mean admitting a loss of wealth, inexplicable. The two small silver issues of Himera with the Head of (Zeus) Kronos, similar to that of the Zeus Eleutherios ascribed to Dion, are attributed to the latter. Two other silver litra issues, one from Himera with the Head of Herakles and the other from Therma with the Head of Hera, to be interpreted in comparison with each other, would belong to the years of Timoleon.

Retrieved from bngev.de

Mattingly, Harold B. (1992). “The Damareteion Controversy – a New Approach”, in Chiron. Mitteilungen der Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 22, pp. 1-12.

Mattingly's 1992 reexamination of the Seltmann hoard (ZfN 1895) fundamentally challenges Boehringer's chronology for fifth-century Sicilian coinage by demonstrating that methodological assumptions about hoard integrity have obscured the deposit's true evidentiary value. Previous scholarship dismissed Seltmann's proposed c. 450 BC burial date because the hoard's substantial archaic Syracusan component (Group II tetradrachms with qoppa-inscribed ΣΥRΑϘΟΣΙΟΝ ethnics) appeared incompatible with post-472 BC Himera tetradrachms showing minimal wear, an apparent contradiction resolved only through implausible hypotheses invoking time-lags in monetary circulation or unprecedented breaks in mint production. Mattingly's critical insight recognizes that the hoard's composition reflects not a single homogeneous deposit but either (a) two discrete hoards accidentally conflated by the 1890 workmen-finders (analogous to the Avola 1888 discovery where fourth-century gold and Hellenistic silver were archaeologically associated but numismatically distinct, IGCH 2074/2169), or (b) a c. 465 BC archaic assemblage subsequently augmented with recent Himera issues before final concealment c. 445 BC (paralleling the Asyut hoard's documented accretionary pattern, Kraay NC 1977). Die-linkage evidence proves decisive: the Himera Nymph/Seilenos tetradrachms GS 4 and GS 7, sharing reverse dies despite Seltmann's claim of twenty-year stylistic separation, must be contemporary issues of c. 465-460 BC, while the double die-gap between GS 9 (O3/R6) and GS 10 (O4/R7) marks a genuine hiatus in production. The Villabate hoard's contents (nine Himera tetradrachms through GS 6, seventy-nine "Gelonian" Syracusan pieces but only seven ketos types, and complete absence of GS 7-9 despite their relative abundance with fourteen GS 7 specimens known by 1929) confirm that Himera's post-Pelops coinage (initiated c. 464 BC commemorating Ergoteles' second Olympic victory, Barrett JHS 1973) constitutes a chronologically discrete element within Seltmann's assemblage. Recognition of this contamination liberates the hoard's archaic Syracusan, Egestan, and Leontinian components as reliable witnesses to c. 465 BC monetary circulation, vindicating Seltmann's core intuition while dismantling the high chronologies that have distorted understanding of Western Greek numismatics for a century.

Retrieved from publications.dainst.org (accessed 2025-10-19)

Miles, Margaret M. (2019). “Large Temples as Cultural Banners in Western Sicily”, in Religious Convergence in the Ancient Mediterranean (Studies in Ancient Mediterranean Religions) 2, ed. by Sandra Blakely and Billie Jean Collins, Lockwood Press, Atlanta, pp. 59-75.

An Elymian identity given by Thucydides (6.2.3) illustrates well ethnic convergences in classical Sicily. Refugees from Troy called themselves Elymians, founded Segesta and Eryx, and were later joined by some storm-driven Phokians. The Trojan ethnic component may reflect a Sicilian tradition at least as early as the late sixth century BCE (Stesichoros), strengthened through time, so that by the Roman period Segesta won tax relief on the basis of "kinship diplomacy. " Identifying what is Elymian about Segesta is challenging, and the main topic of two international congresses (Pisa 1997, 2000). The Sanctuary at Contrada Mango was partially excavated by Vincenzo Tusa in the 1950s, and yielded Archaic pottery with graffiti in Elymian, but written in the Greek epichoric alphabet of Megara Hyblaia: thus convergence began early. This article addresses convergences in religious architecture: the Unfinished Temple at Segesta (ca. 420 BCE), Segesta's stellar attraction today, has been studied thoroughly by Dieter Mertens (1984). Not as well known is a Greek, Doric temple of similar size but earlier fifth-century date, in the sanctuary at Contrada Mango at Segesta. Pieces of its superstructure lie scattered on the ground. Whereas Mertens was able to document Athenian influence in the unfinished temple, other sources of influence, and originality, are evident in Contrada Mango's earlier temple.

Retrieved from academia.edu (accessed 2025-12-18)

Morakis, Andreas (2012). “The Gamoroi and the History of Archaic Syracuse: A New Examination”, in Studia di Antichità 13, Congedo Editore, Salento, pp. 33-50.

Syracuse, founded in 734/3 BC by the Corinthian nobleman Archias, underwent a fundamental political transformation during the archaic period centered on the gamoroi, an aristocratic class descended from the original noble colonists. Initially monopolizing power through exclusive control of government magistracies and the best agricultural lands, the gamoroi ruled as a pure aristocracy based on noble birth until a stasis (civil conflict) erupted in the sixth century BC—an incident documented by Aristotle and Plutarch involving a love affair that escalated into broader factional warfare and resulted in the collapse of what Plutarch terms the "best regime." Following this conflict, political power shifted from exclusive aristocratic control to a broader oligarchy based on wealth rather than descent, allowing wealthy non-noble landowners to participate in governance while the gamoroi remained influential but no longer supreme. The Killirioi, identified as the conquered native population enslaved during Syracuse's settlement and comparable to Sparta's Helots, served as the gamoroi's agricultural laborers until the early fifth century, when they joined the demos in expelling their masters following Syracuse's military defeat at Helorus River (491 BC), leading to the establishment of a brief democracy. The gamoroi's political significance finally ended with Gelon's seizure of power around 485 BC, whose elevation of mercenaries and relocated populations and the subsequent establishment of a fully democratic system rendered this traditional landed aristocracy politically obsolete by the mid-fifth century.

Retrieved from academia.edu (accessed 2025-11-22)

Pope, Spencer (2009). “New Coin Types in Late Fifth-Century Sicily”, in Koine: Mediterranean Studies in Honor of R. Ross Holloway, ed. by Derek B. Counts and Anthony S. Tuck, Oxbow Books, pp. 131-137.

Pope's 2009 examination of Sicilian fractional coinage from the transitional period 405-390 BC demonstrates that dual ethnics and the innovative butting-bull reverse type (derived from Thurioi staters) functioned not as indicators of sympoliteia but as numismatic signatures of mercenary occupation and forced population transfers orchestrated by Dionysius I during Syracuse's establishment of eastern Sicilian hegemony. The critical evidence centers on three minting authorities whose legends reveal demographic upheaval: Katane's litrai and two-litrai (struck 403-396 BC between the city's betrayal to Dionysius and the mercenaries' removal to Aitna) replicate the Thurioi butting-bull type with fish in exergue, suggesting southern Italian mercenary origins for the new population despite the ethnic ΚΑΤΑΝΑ ΩΝ which designates the issuing authority rather than the river god Amenanos featured on earlier issues. Kephaloidion's silver litrai (post-400 BC) bear the unprecedented dual legend ΕΚ ΚΕΦΑΛΟΙΔΙΟΥ (obverse) and ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ (reverse), read by Consolo-Langher (1961) as "Herakleans living at Kephaloidion," documenting Lucanian mercenaries who seized control following Dionysius's treacherous capture of the polis (Diod. Sic. 14.78.7), paralleling the Campanian ΚΑΜΠΑΝΩΝ presence at Entella and Nakone where overstruck drachmae and hemidrachmae similarly advertised dual ethnics (ΕΝΤΕΛΛΑΝ/ΚΑΜΠΑΝΩΝ, ΚΑΜΠΑΝΩΝ/ΝΑΚΩΝΑΙΟΝ). The enigmatic Piakos issues (six extant specimens: three litrai, three hemilitra) present the most complex case: obverse legends oscillate between genitive plural ΠΙΑΚΙΝΟΣ and nominative singular ΠΙΑΚΙΝΩΣ, while the reverse legend ΑΔΡΑΝΟΣ (fully legible only on ANS 1999.31.1) has been misinterpreted as evidence for syntelia with the Dionysian foundation Adranon (established c. 401 BC at modern Adrano). Jenkins's restoration of fragmentary ΑΔΡΑΝ[...] as ΑΔΡΑΝΟΝ (1962) fails on epigraphic grounds since Sicilian Classical ethnics invariably appear in the genitive (the later Timoleontic issues correctly display ΑΔΡΑΝΙΤΑΝ), and the masculine singular ΑΔΡΑΝΟΣ necessarily references the Sikel deity whose sanctuary near Mendolito/Paternò-Civita was protected by guardian dogs (Ael. NA 11.20), not the polis itself. The precedent for this religious iconography appears in Piakos's earlier bronze hemilitra and tetrans (last quarter fifth century BC) attributed by Rizzo (1946) to the "Maestro della foglia" responsible for Katane's Apollo types, featuring a horned river god obverse and dog-attacking-stag reverse that prefigures the Mamertine third-century issues (ΑΔΡΑΝΟΣ/dog, ΜΑΜΕΡΤΙΝΩΝ). Critically, all three butting-bull series demonstrate typological dependence on Katane's post-403 BC innovations (compare Figs. 15.3-15.5), with die-engraving characteristics suggesting either a single itinerant artist or systematic workshop training, while their restricted chronological window (403-390 BC) corresponds precisely to Dionysius's campaigns against Herbessos (404 BC), Aitna and Leontinoi (403 BC), Katane and Naxos (403 BC, with Naxos razed and population enslaved), and the subsequent colonial foundations at Tyndaris (on Sikel Abakainon's chora), Taormenion (392 BC, initially with mercenaries), and Adranon (c. 401 BC as advanced outpost against Carthage). The numismatic evidence thus materializes Diodorus's narrative of demographic engineering: mercenary settlement replacing indigenous populations (Sikels at Naxos received the destroyed city's territory, while Greek mercenaries occupied Katane, Leontinoi, and Kephaloidion), with coinage advertising new civic identities through borrowed typologies and dual legends that proclaim both geographic location and ethnic composition of the issuing mercenary communities, all occurring during Syracuse's hegemonic expansion following the 405 BC Carthaginian treaty that had granted Sikel cities nominal autonomy while ceding Sikan territories to Carthage and establishing the Himera-Gela boundary line that would define the territorial competition culminating in Dionysius's wars of 398-392 BC.

Retrieved from academia.edu (accessed 2025-12-02)

Portale, Elisa Chiara (2012). “Le Ninfe nell'arte di Siracusa”, in Archivio Storico Siracusano s. IV n. IV, XLVII, pp. 323-366.

The Nymphs in the Art of Syracuse

This paper aims to detect the role of the Nymphs and of “nymphal” imagery at Syracuse. Although the coins of Syracuse regularly depicted, from late 6th to late 4th century B.C., the local Nymph Arethousa, the importance of such a subject in cult and art is underestimated. As a matter of fact, the identification of the Nymphs through iconographic criteria is somewhat difficult, apart some triadic representations on votive Hellenistic pinakes. The female head antefixes, which were argued to depict the Nymphs and to decorate the roofs of small cult buildings of “major” deities (like Artemis or Kore-Persephone, associated with the Nymphs in local narratives), and several high-quality artifacts from the Late Archaic period onward, between which the Arethousa coins and the “Sikeliote” terracotta busts can give us a glimpse of the pervasiveness of the “nymphal” imagery in official, religious and domestic contexts. To that a literary testimony (Timaeus ap. Athen. VI, 250a) has to be related, according to which in Sicily (and at Syracuse) was customary to make sacrifices to the Nymphs “kata tas oikias”, dancing around their agalmata and spending the night in a drunken condition. The “urban” and “domestic” dimension of Nymphs’ cult can be connected to the deep transformations of the civic body during 5th and 4th century, which enhance the importance of nuptial ties and rituals in the “construction” of the fabric of the city, while from the Archaic age the cults of such deities answered the needs of the colonists and the phenomena of interaction with the natives. During the Hellenistic period the Nymphs seem to return to their “canonic” environment and patterns of worship; in the town itself, they are inserted in the rocky landscape artificially reshaped in the huge Hieronian sanctuaries of the Neapolis, where from mid 2nd century B.C. a series of “Rhodian” statuettes of Nymphs and a fine a relief with dancing Nymphs were dedicated.

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Puglisi, Mariangela (2004). “Il simbolismo del polpo”, in La tradizione iconica come fonte storica. Il ruolo della numismatica negli studi di iconografia. Atti del I Incontro di Studio del Lexicon Iconographicum Numismaticae (Messina, 6-8 Marzo 2003), ed. by M. Caccamo Caltabiano, D. Castrizio and M. Puglisi, Falzeo Editore, Reggio Calabria, pp. 159-172.

The Symbolism of the Octopus

In monetary documents, the octopus as a principal type and also as a symbol has limited distribution. The interpretation of the octopus in a naturalistic sense, evocative of the marine environment, almost metonymic of the sea, does not seem to be the only possible one, nor the most significant. Its presence can indeed assume other meanings in association with other figurative elements on coins, within a broader symbolic language such as that of the Greek iconographic panorama. The frequency of this motif in Minoan civilization has been simplistically explained as a decorative motif evocative of abundance that comes from the sea. In light of its persistence in the Mycenaean sphere in funerary contexts and often now devoid of naturalistic connotations, and in the archaic-classical environment on coins where it always appears in connection with divinities, mythical figures, or other elements traceable to religious contexts, one is led to seek a deeper meaning. Its positive valence, which was probably the reason for choosing its representation on so many ancient figurative documents as an emblem of human capacity to overcome adversity and as a "companion" in the otherworldly journey, seems however to have, if not been lost, at least weakened over time, so much so that it is used less and less - even in ceramography - like a relic of a more ancient culture, explicated by various literary sources that associate the animal with mētis, cunning, wisdom, so much so that it can appear as a qualifying "adjective" of the contexts in which it appears. Its pairing with Poseidon, with the founding hero Taras, with Scylla, with the Gorgoneion, with the eponymous nymph Arethusa - figures that belong to a very ancient substrate - could be justified in this perspective and recall the idea of journey, passage, transformations that recur in human existence. It is significant that it is found, when used as a principal type, more often on the reverse of the coin, therefore subordinate to the obverse type, of which it seems to be the completion, referable to different characters and subjects (Poseidon, Athena, the Apollonian tripod, the shell), becoming their connotative element. These relationships certainly connote it in a favorable sense, as various literary sources understand it in a positive sense, sources that seem to refer back to a more archaic reality of Homeric derivation, since in the Greek imagination it is associated with Odysseus, the wise and cunning man par excellence, the man who knows how to extricate himself thanks to his intelligence and his "polymorphism."

Salzmann, Dieter (1990). “AKIΣ – Flussgott Statt Stempelschneider”, in Schweizer Münzblätter 40, ed. by Dr. F. Koening, Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Geneva, pp. 36-38.

AKIΣ - River God instead of Die Cutter

A new interpretation is proposed for a small Sicilian silver hemilitra previously attributed to various mints and die cutters. The coin shows on the obverse the youthful, horned head of a river god with the legend ΑΚΙΣ, and on the reverse a ship’s stern with the retrograde inscription ΝΙΚΑ. Contrary to earlier readings of the obverse legend as ΣΙΚΑ or ΣΙΧΙΑ and its interpretation as either a die-cutter’s signature or an ethnic designation, the correct reading is ΑΚΙΣ, identifying the figure as the river god Akis known from Sicilian myth. This identification aligns the coin with a broader series of Sicilian issues depicting named river deities, and the youthful style of the head suggests a date in the last quarter of the fifth century BC. The coinage cannot originate from Kamarina or other distant coastal cities but must have been struck in eastern Sicily near Mount Etna, in the vicinity of the river Akis—perhaps at a small settlement called Acium near modern Acireale—although precise localization of the mint remains uncertain.

Retrieved from e-periodica.ch (accessed 2025-10-17)

Tudeer, Lauri O. Th. (1913). Die Tetradrachmenprägung von Syrakus in der Periode der signierenden Künstler, Druck von W. Prometter, Berlin.

The Tetradrachm Coinage of Syracuse in the Period of the Signing Artists

Tudeer's 1913 study re-examines the Syracusan tetradrachms of the "flourishing period" that followed Evans's study of the signed "medallions". It works from the dies themselves, covering 694 Syracusan specimens in 106 die combinations (nos. 1–106), plus 4 specimens of imitations (107–109) and 11 subaerate pieces (110–113). Obverse and reverse dies are numbered separately, and their relative order is fixed by die links and by tracking cracks, corrosion and other progressive damage, which Plate VII illustrates stage by stage. The catalogue is divided into three periods: ca. 425–413, ca. 413–399, and ca. 399–387 B.C. under Dionysios. It is followed by chapters on chronology and style, weights and flan sizes, the artists, relations with other coinages, the identity of the head, and the date, with indexes of signatures, inscriptions and symbols, and a bibliography. Die statistics count 1–53 specimens per obverse die (19 on average) and 1–38 per reverse die (10 on average), so the anvil die lasted almost twice as long as the punch die. Among the signing artists, Tudeer puts Sosion first as the inventor of the galloping quadriga, separates Eumenos from Eumenes and from the artist signing EV, and shows through die links that Eukleidas worked before Euainetos; he also treats EYΘ, Phrygillos and Euarchidas, Kimon, Parme… and IM. He argues that Eukleidas's facing Athena came before Kimon's facing Arethusa and that Phrygillos was influenced by Thurii, and finds Kimon's foreign origin unproven, since the supposed Metapontine signature reads ΤΕΡΙΝΟΝ on an ancient forgery. Against Evans's 440 and Holm's 430, he dates the start of the signed coinage to about 425 or slightly earlier, because the last Leontine coins, struck before 422, match the earliest Eumenos dies. The worn, heavily used dies of group 34–45 belong to the war years 415–413; the break marked by EYΘ, Phrygillos and Euarchidas and the new Kora head comes right after the victory of 413, and Tudeer takes the Nike's attribute as possibly a palm rather than an aplustre. The flowing-hair group (88–104), which the Punic issuers did not imitate, falls under Dionysios, whose tetradrachm coinage may have lasted until the peace of 387. Finally, he identifies the head as the nymph Arethusa rather than Artemis.

Weiser, Wolfram (1989). “Die Älteste Bronzemünze von Katana”, in Schweizer Münzblätter 39, ed. by Dr. F. Koening, Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Geneva, pp. 1-3.

The Oldest Bronze Coin of Katane

A previously unknown bronze hexas from Katane is published, providing a "missing link" that confirms Chr. Boehringer's reconstruction of the city's early coinage. The coin shows on the obverse the head of a bearded silen with the legend KAT(αναίων), and on the reverse a six-armed polyp with a grape tendril above and two value dots below. This bronze issue was struck simultaneously with silver hexantes of the silen head/winged thunderbolt type, dated to ca. 415/405 BC, adopting its reverse design from Syracuse's first bronze coinage (ca. 420/15-410 BC) which featured an octopus. The engraver deliberately reduced the octopus's eight arms to six as a didactic device: the hexas was worth one-sixth of a litra, requiring six such coins to make a litra—matching the number of arms on the depicted creature. The practical advantage of bronze over the impractically tiny silver hexantes (0.12 g, 7 mm) made this denomination more suitable for circulation. The introduction of bronze coinage during the crisis period of the Athenian expedition (415-413 BC) reflects economic pragmatism in wartime, when token coinage with minimal intrinsic value could be more easily imposed than in prosperous times. The grape cluster above the polyp marks the first iconographic shift of Katane's silen from a local freshwater deity to a member of Dionysus's thiasos, likely reflecting Athenian cultural influence during their occupation of the city.

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Welz, Karl (1957). “Unedierte und Seltene Münzen aus dem Griechischen Westen”, in Schweizer Münzblätter 7, ed. by Dr. Herbert A. Cahn, Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Basel, pp. 77-81.

Unpublished and Rare Coins from the Greek West

This numismatic study examines rare and previously unpublished coins from ancient Greek cities in Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and Sicily, dating primarily from the 6th to 4th centuries BC. The analysis focuses on small denomination silver and bronze issues from Sybaris and its colonies, including detailed descriptions of fifteen specimens. The paper documents coins from Laos featuring river god imagery and oak tree symbols, fractional silver pieces from Poseidonia with bull and trident types, and various denominations from the second city of Sybaris (452-446 BC) showing Poseidon and bull motifs. Additional material includes bronze issues from Thurion with Athena and bukranion types, small silver fractions tentatively attributed to Terina with Nike figures, and Sicilian pieces from Tyndaris and Thermai Himeraiai. The study emphasizes the iconographic relationships between these cities, particularly the shared bull symbolism connecting Sybaris, Poseidonia, and Laos, and discusses the historical context of Sybarite refugees following the destruction of their city in 510 BC. Several pieces are identified as belonging to a single hoard find, providing insights into circulation patterns in ancient Southern Italy. The work contributes to understanding the monetary systems and artistic traditions of Greek colonial cities during periods of political upheaval and migration.

Retrieved from e-periodica.ch (accessed 2025-09-16)

Williams, Roderick Trevor (1972). “The Damareteion Reconsidered”, in The Numismatic Chronicle 12, Royal Numismatic Society, London, pp. 1-11.

This comprehensive reexamination of the Damareteion controversy challenges the recent scholarly trend toward downdating Syracuse's famous early decadrachm from circa 480 BC to the 460s BC, demonstrating through systematic analysis of hoard evidence, stylistic comparisons, and epigraphical data that the traditional chronology established by E. Boehringer remains fundamentally sound. By critically evaluating the arguments advanced by C.M. Kraay and C. Boehringer—particularly their interpretation of five key hoards (Gela 1956, Passo di Piazza, Mazzarino, Villabate, and Seltmann) and the stylistic implications of the newly discovered Aetna tetradrachm of 476 BC—the study reveals that apparent chronological discrepancies can be resolved through modest adjustments to Boehringer's original framework rather than wholesale revision. The research demonstrates that hoard evidence has been overinterpreted, as coins buried at sites distant from Syracuse would not necessarily contain the most recent issues, while detailed die analysis of the Aetna tetradrachm shows clear influence from the Damareteion section rather than supporting a pre-Damareteion dating. Most provocatively, the study proposes that the coin's name derives not from Queen Damarete but from an original "Damatreion" (shrine of Demeter), subsequently corrupted in popular usage, with ancient historians later fabricating explanatory stories about the queen's role. This etymological theory aligns with Gelon's documented priesthood of Demeter and Kore, suggesting the decadrachm was a special commemorative issue struck in connection with the dedication of Demeter's temple after Himera, representing a sophisticated example of ancient religious-political propaganda that has been misunderstood by modern scholarship through acceptance of later mythologized accounts.

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