Sicily, Syracuse AR Stater

Sicily. Syracuse 344-317 BC.

Time of Timoleon and the Third Democracy

Stater AR

OBVERSE: Helmeted head of Athena facing right (toward mother-city Corinth), SURAKOSIWN (Syracuse)

REVERSE: Pegasus flying left.

Pegasi 2; SNG ANS 496-507.

In 344 BCE, Syracuse, threatened by Sparta, sent an appeal for aid to their motherland, Corinth. The Corinthians sent aid in the form of the statesman and general Timoleon, and 700 mercenaries. Upon landing in Sicily, Timoleon defeated Hicetas, the tyrant of Leontini and took control of Syracuse. Timoleon then established the Third Democracy, whose reforms lasted until the days of Augustus. Hicetas convinced Carthage to send him troops, and in 340-339 BCE, an army of 70,000 Carthagenians and a miscellaneous levy of 12,000 men landed at Lilybaeum(Marsala). Timoleon led his army to a great and decisive victory over Hicetas and the Carthagenians. Following one more attempt by Hicetas and Carthage to wrest control of Sicily from Timoleon, which resulted in the defeat and death of Hicetas, Carthage and Syracuse signed a peace treaty.

Riferimento : SNG ANS 496-507

Collezione : Greco-Roman Ancients