Sicily, Syracuse. Timoleon and the Third Democracy. Silver Stater (8.20 g), 344-317 BC. 344-339/8 BC. Pegasos flying left. Reverse: ΣYPAKOΣIΩN, Helmeted head of Athena right; behind neck, AI. Pegasi 7; HGC 2, 1400. NGC grade AU; Strike: 5/5, Surface: 3/5. Fine style, brushed. Estimated Value $1,000 - UP
After decades of suffering under the tyrants Dionysios I, his son Dionysios II, and Hiketas of Leontinoi, in 344 BC the Syracusans had finally had enough and begged for aid from Corinth, the mother-city of Syracuse. Corinth responded by dispatching Timoleon at the head of a Peloponnesian mercenary army in order to overthrow the tyrants and establish a new democratic constitution. By 343 BC, Timoleon had expelled both Hiketas and Dionysios II and began the work of destroying the symbols of the former tyrannies and restoring constitutional government at Syracuse. However, while Dionysios II had surrendered and quietly went into opulent retirement at Corinth, Hiketas remained at large and called in support from Carthage. Although Hiketas received a great Punic army to sweep him back to power, this was defeated by Timoleon and his much smaller force while attempting to cross the Krimissos River in 339 BC. Having expelled the tyrants, restored good government, and freed Greek Sicily from the Punic menace, Timoleon promptly retired to private life.Although Syracuse is most famous for its highly-artistic Attic-weight tetradrachms of the late fifth and fourth centuries BC, this Corinthian-type stater was struck by the city to meet the requirements of Timoleon’s mercenaries. As they hailed primarily from the Peloponnesos, the types and weight of the Corinthian stater would have been well known to them as a coin that could be easily spent at home, and thus was copied by Syracuse.
Purchased privately from Leu Numismatik, 20 August 2004.