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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Syracuse |
|---|---|
| Year | 420 BC - 415 BC |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Reverse description | Head of the nymph Arethusa in three-quarter facing profile, turned slightly to the left, her elaborately braided and netted hair bound with a diadem and adorned with a reed wreath; four dolphins swim encircling her head in the field, a hallmark device of Syracusan coinage symbolising the sacred spring of Arethusa. The legend ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΟΝ is distributed in the field around the portrait. The portraiture displays the refined sculptural quality characteristic of the Euainetos and Kimon school of die engravers active in this period. |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
This issue belongs to the celebrated "fine style" period of Syracusan coinage, when the city-state was at the height of its power and had not yet committed to the catastrophic Athenian expedition of 415 BC. The die engravers working in Syracuse during these years — among them Eukleidas and Kimon, whose signatures appear on closely related types — were producing work of a technical standard that the ancient world would not surpass.
The Boehringer sequence places this emission in a tightly argued chronological framework built largely on hoard evidence, particularly the Gela hoard of 1956.