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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Syracuse |
|---|---|
| Year | 466 BC - 460 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Slow quadriga proceeding right, driven by a charioteer who holds the kentron in his right hand and the reins in both hands; above, Nike flies left and crowns the charioteer with an open wreath held in both hands; in the exergue, a ketos (sea-monster) swimming right. The composition reflects the grand Sicilian chariot-race iconography characteristic of early Syracusan coinage in the Demareteion tradition. |
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| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
This issue dates to the decade immediately following the expulsion of Thrasybulus in 466 BC, when Syracuse dismantled the Deinomenid tyranny and reconstituted itself as a democracy — one of the ancient world's more dramatic civic reversals. The new government inherited a mint already capable of producing exceptionally fine coinage, a technical infrastructure the tyrants had built and the democrats were content to continue using.
Boehringer's die study places this piece within a tightly sequenced group, allowing closer dating than most fifth-century Sicilian issues permit.