SICILY. Segesta. Ca. 412-400 BC. AR didrachm (20mm, 8.56 gm, 11h). NGC Choice AU 4/5 - 3/5, brushed. ΣEΓEΣTAΞIB (retrograde) in relief within linear frame, hunting dog tracking right, on the scent; three grain ears in background / Diademed head of the nymph Segesta right, hair in decorated sphendone; all within shallow incuse circle. Hurter 195-6. SNG ANS 644-5. HGC 2, 1152. From The Ulysses Collection. Ex European collection, formed before 2005 (Leu Numismatik, Web Auction 15, 27 February 2021), lot 90 According to legend, Segesta was founded by Dardanians who accompanied Aeneas on his flight from the destruction of Troy; they were led by the local king Acestes, son of the river god Crinesus and a Trojan woman named Segesta (likely the lady depicted on the reverse of this rare early didrachm). Segesta was in constant conflict with the Greek city of Selinus and opened a proverbial Pandora's box by inviting the Athenians, and later Carthaginians, to invade Sicily in support of their cause. Selinus was ultimately destroyed, but the Carthaginians stayed, and Segesta became their loyal allies against the Greek cities of Sicily and, later, against the Romans. However Segesta switched sides in 260 BC and suffered no reprisals from the Romans due to their supposed shared ancestry.

HID09801242017

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