28 / 194
42
Sicily, Selinos. Silver Tetradrachm (17.04 g), ca. 440-430 BC.
S
E
L
-IN-[ONTION], Artemis, holding reins,
driving quadriga right; beside her, Apollo standing, drawing bow; in exergue, grain ear.
rev.
S
-E
L
-INON-
TI-ON, Selinos standing left, holding phiale over altar and laurel branch; on base of altar, rooster standing
left; behind, selinon leaf above bull standing left on basis. Schwabacher 26; SNG ANS 700 (same dies).
Excellent detail and fine style, lightly toned. Very Rare. Choice Very Fine.
$2,500
From the Dionysus Collection.
Ex CNG 66 (19 May 2004), lot 126.
Selinos was founded as the westernmost of the Greek colonies on Sicily around 628 BC and named for the large quantities of
wild celery (
selinon
in Greek) that grew in the vicinity. Its location and the ambitions of the city frequently brought it into con-
flict with the neighboring Elymian (indigenous non-Greek) city of Segesta. These conflicts ultimately proved to be the undoing
of Silenos as the beleaguered Segestans looked for external help. Silenos narrowly avoided attack by the ill-fated Athenian expe-
dition in 415 BC, but were not so fortunate when the Segestans called in Carthaginian support. The Selinuntines were defeated
by a combined Punic and Segestan force in 410 BC, but in the following year a vast Punic army arrived and destroyed Selinos,
killing some 16,000 citizens and enslaving 5,000 more. The present tetradrachm was struck at at the zenith of Selinos’ wealth and
power, when the disasters wrought by Segesta and the Carthaginians still lay decades in the future.
43
Sicily, Selinos. Silver Tetradrachm (17.18 g), ca. 440-430 BC.
S
E
L
INO-NTI-ON (retrograde), Artemis,
holding reins, driving quadriga left; beside her, Apollo standing, drawing bow; in exergue, grain ear.
rev.
S
-E
L
-INONTI-ON, Selinos standing left, holding phiale over altar and laurel branch; on base of altar,
rooster standing left; behind, selinon leaf above bull standing left on basis. Schwabacher 6; SNG ANS
688 (same dies); SNG Lloyd 1224 (same dies).
Very Rare.
Lightly toned. Obverse struck from clashed dies.
Choice Very Fine.
$2,500
From the Dionysus Collection.