Hemidrachm

Naxos was the oldest Greek colony in Sicily, founded around 734 BC, and its final coinage was struck under circumstances of catastrophe. In 403 BC, the Sikeliot tyrant Dionysios I of Syracuse razed the city entirely, selling its population into slavery and distributing the land to Sikel allies. The coins minted in the years just before that destruction are among the last artifacts of a civic identity that was simply erased. No resettlement, no gradual decline — just an abrupt end.

The date range opens at 415 BC, the year Athens launched its disastrous Sicilian Expedition, in which Naxos was one of the few Sicilian cities to side with the invaders.