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Æ
| Issuer | Motya |
|---|---|
| Year | 400 BC - 397 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Litra |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A crab depicted frontally and in full, with both claws raised symmetrically and the multiple pairs of legs splayed outward across the field. The carapace is rendered in high relief with careful attention to anatomical detail, a motif closely associated with Motya and its maritime Phoenician-Sicilian identity. The field is plain with no inscription or exergual line. |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (400 BC - 397 BC) |
| Additional information |
Motya, the Phoenician trading colony on a small island off western Sicily, was obliterated by Dionysius I of Syracuse in 397 BC after a siege that ancient sources describe as one of the most brutal in Sicilian history. The city was sacked, its population massacred or enslaved, and the site effectively abandoned. This bronze was struck in the final years before that destruction, making the entire issue a product of a doomed mint.
Survivors fled to found Lilybaeum on the nearby mainland coast. No coinage continued under the Motyан name after 397 BC.