Leontini
Tetradrachm circa 460-450, AR 26 mm, 17.14 g. Laureate head of Apollo r., hair rolled behind neck. Rev. LEO – N – T – IN – ON Lion’s head r., with jaws open and tongue protruding; behind, tripod. Around, three barley grains. Rizzo pl. 23, 12 (these dies). Jameson 630 (these dies). AMB 350 (these dies). Kraay-Hirmer pl. 7, 22 (this obverse die). Ward 190 (this coin). Boehringer, Studies Price, pl. 11, 33 (these dies). Very rare. The finest representation of Apollo in Leontinian coinage and the master engraver’s prototype work of the entire series. Superb old cabinet tone, an absolutely insignificant double-strike on reverse, otherwise extremely fine

Ex Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge 23 May 1894, Bunbury, 332; Sotheby’s 4-5 April 1973, Metropolitan Museum part II, 148; Leu 15, 1976, 79; NAC 8, 1995, 133 and NAC 59, 2011, 519 sales. From the John Ward collection.

Leontini was a secondary Greek colony founded by the Sicilian city of Naxos in the late eighth century BC. It had the rather dubious claim to fame of being the first city of Sicily in which the government was seized by a tyrant. In c. 608 BC, the oligarchic constitution of Leontini was overthrown by a certain Panaitios who subsequently ruled as the city's strong man. His success inspired other like-minded individuals in Sicily to establish tyrannies in their own cities - an unfortunate fashion in Sicilian Greek politics that did not die out until the third century BC. Unfortunately, while Leontini was the first city of Greek Sicily with its own tyrant, it was not to the strongest. In c. 496/5 BC, Leontini was conquered by Hippocrates, the tyrant of neighbouring Gela, and by 476 BC the city found itself under the domination of Hieron I of Syracuse. In this year the Syracusan tyrant forcibly expelled the populations of Catana and Naxos and resettled them at Leontini. The Leontines seem not to have been consulted in this matter, but nevertheless hosted their dispossessed fellow Chalcidian Greeks until the death of Hieron I in 467 BC, when they were able to return to their original homes and Leontini again became an autonomous city. However, strong resentment against the Syracusans remained in Leontini and war broke out between the two cities in 427 BC. This dragged on until an end was made to the conflict through arbitration in 424 BC. Unfortunately, this settlement sparked a period of violence between oligarchic and democratic factions in Leontini. In the end, the oligarchs succeeded in driving out the democrats, but then the oligarchic party decided it would be in their best interest to simply move to Syracuse-the great power and cultural centre of Greek Sicily. Leontini henceforth became a mere fortress garrisoned by the Syracusans until 406/5 BC, when it received a new population of exiles from other cities. This beautiful tetradrachm of Leontini was struck during the period of Leontine autonomy between the fall of the Deinomenid tyranny and the later conflicts with Syracuse. The head of Apollo-a patron deity of Calcidian Greeks like the Leontines-is rendered in exquisite archaic style on the obverse while the roaring head of a lion appears on the reverse. The lion (leon in Greek) was the punning badge of the city used on the very first coinage of Leontini in c. 476-466 BC. Here the animal's head is surrounded by four oblong objects-a tripod and three grains of barley - in an arrangement that is clearly intended to mirror that of the four dolphins who regularly surrounded the head of Arethusa on contemporary tetradrachms of Syracuse. Alas, even in times when Leontini was free of direct interference from Syracuse, the influence of that powerful Dorian Greek city was still impossible to completely avoid.