Onkia

Eryx occupied one of the most strategically contested hilltop sites in the ancient Mediterranean — a fortified city atop Monte San Giuliano in western Sicily, long disputed between Carthaginian and Greek spheres of influence. This issue dates to the years immediately preceding the Carthaginian offensive of 409 BC, which destroyed Selinus and Himera and fundamentally reordered power across the island. Whether this bronze was struck under Elymian civic authority or already under Punic pressure remains debated, but the timing places it squarely at the edge of that catastrophe.