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8 Litrai - Gelon I
| Issuer | Syracuse |
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| Year | 218 BC - 214 BC |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Head of Persephone (or Kore) facing left, rendered in fine Hellenistic style with softly modeled features, wearing a diadem and an earring; her elaborately wavy hair is bound by a broad fillet and gathered at the nape, with delicate curls framing the face. A small eight-pointed star appears behind the neck, serving as a control mark. The portrait displays the refined artistic tradition of Syracusan coinage, with high-relief modeling and attention to naturalistic detail. |
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| Reverse description | A fast quadriga driven to the right by a winged Nike, who holds the reins and a kentron; the four horses are depicted at full gallop with vigorous, dynamic modeling. Above the scene, the legend ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΟΙ is inscribed along the upper field, with BA and K as control letters to the right. Below the exergual line, the legend ΓEΛΩNOΣ identifies the coin as issued under Gelon, completing the full dynastic attribution. The composition reflects the grand tradition of Sicilian quadriga reverses established in the classical period. |
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| Additional information |
Gelon II — son of Hiero II — ruled Syracuse for less than a year before dying at the Battle of the Himera River in 214 BC, a catastrophic Carthaginian victory that effectively ended Syracusan independence from Roman entanglement. This issue belongs to the final, desperate phase of that dynasty, minted while Syracuse was nominally allied with Carthage following Rome's disaster at Cannae in 216 BC. The political calculation proved fatal. Within two years of these coins entering circulation, Marcellus had the city under siege.