Lot 3375

Description

Sicily, Syracuse, Philistis wife of Hieron II (219/7-214 B.C.), silver sixteen litrai, (12.74 g), obv. diademed and veiled head of Philistis to left, behind wreath, dotted border, rev. quadriga to right driven by Nike with horses walking, above crescent and **BASILISSAS*, below **[F]ILISTID[OS]*, A to right, (S.989, SNG ANS 876 [same dies], Caltabiano [CCO] 213 [D21/R19], BAR issue 65, A. Burnett, "The Enna Hoard and the silver coinage of the Syracusan Democracy," SNR 62 [1983], 24). Bright, minor cleaning marks, otherwise extremely fine and very rare.

After a long and distinguished reign marked by moderation and stability, Hieron II was sufficiently assiduous to avoid any imperial aspirations in favour of loyalty to Rome, the prosperity of his people and family. In 218-216, while the Second Punic War was raging in Italy, he provided a powerful counterweight to any Carthaginian ambitions. He not only cooperated at sea with the Republic, but sent a contingent of 1500 troops and money in the form of a newly reformed currency in silver and gold, based on multiples of the traditional Sicilian silver unit of about 0.86 grams, the litra. The most numerous issue of this new coinage was that in the name of his queen, Philistis, with her head shown wearing the royal diadem below a veil that inevitably recalls the portrait of Arsinoe II at Alexandria. Nike as the charioteer of the reverse biga is obviously auspicious of final victory.