Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
2 Litrai - Timoleon / Third Democracy
| Issuer | Syracuse |
|---|---|
| Year | 344 BC - 317 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Litra |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ΣYPAKOΣI |
| Reverse description | A horse galloping vigorously to the right, rendered with dynamic naturalism typical of Sicilian coinage of the period; its mane and tail flow freely, conveying motion. A grain ear appears above in the upper field, serving as a symbol of Sicilian agricultural abundance. The Greek letter N (nu) is placed in the lower field beneath the horse. The exergue line is plain, and the design is contained within a circular border. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Timoleon arrived in Syracuse in 344 BC as a liberator — sent by Corinth, the city's mother polis, to dismantle the tyranny of Dionysius the Younger. He succeeded, and the coinage that followed was deliberately issued under democratic authority rather than in a tyrant's name. The "Third Democracy" designation reflects a conscious political reset, with the city distancing its issues from the personal coinage of the Dionysian dynasty that had dominated Syracusan silver for decades.
Timoleon himself retired to a country estate around 337 BC, reportedly going blind, and never sought personal power. The democracy outlasted him by twenty years before Agathocles ended it.