★ Ex SKA-Monetarium, 1989 ★

Sicily, Syracuse AR 5 Litrai. Time of Hieronymos, circa 215-214 BC. Diademed head to left / Winged thunderbolt; BAΣIΛEOΣ and ΞA above, IEPΩNYMOY below. Holloway 60; SNG ANS -; SNG Lloyd 1566; HGC 2, 1568 (R2). 3.99g, 18mm, 5h.

Good Extremely Fine; beautifully centred on the flan with hints of iridescence. Extremely rare with these letters on rev.

Ex Bertolami Fine Arts - ACR Auctions, Auction 44, 20 April 2018, lot 112;
Ex The Coin Cabinet Ltd., Auction 4, 4 June 2017, lot 2;
Ex private Swiss collection, Nomos AG, obolos 6, 20 November 2016, lot 239;
Ex SKA-Monetarium, FPL 52, Autumn 1989, no. 36.

Hieronymos ascended to the throne of Syracuse at a time of crisis, for a Roman Consular army of eight legions and allied troops had been annihilated at Cannae only the year before, and Roman power had been dealt a considerable shock. The repercussions of that defeat had been profoundly felt in Sicily; the aged Hieron II had remained steadfast in his loyalty and support to Rome, though a significant party in the city favoured abandoning the Roman alliance and joining the cause of Carthage despite their traditional enmity to that people. After his death the young Hieronymos, who had already shown signs of weakness and depravity of character, allowed himself to be influenced by his pro-Carthaginian uncles into breaking the alliance and raising an army against Rome.

This course of action resulted in revolution within the city; Hieronymos and his family were slain and democratic government was restored, but the following year a Roman army arrived to lay siege to the city. Though the defenders held out for three years, in part thanks to the engineering genius of Archimedes, the Romans finally stormed the city under cover of darkness. Much of the population fell back to the citadel, but this too fell after an eight month siege. As retribution for the city having changed its allegiance to Carthage at the height of the Second Punic War, and for having forced the Romans into a lengthy and costly siege while Italy and Rome herself remained in peril, the city was thoroughly sacked and the inhabitants put to the sword or enslaved. Though the Roman general, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, gave instruction that Archimedes was to be spared, he too was slain in the sack.