Numismata hellenica: a catalogue of Greek coins; with notes, a map ...

Metal Size
M
M
M
2+
H
N n
Weight
in grains
Troy.
10-7
10-7
y-5
11-5
INSULAR GREECE.
SECTION II.
SICILY AND ADJACENT ISLANDS.
ABAC.ENUM.
Note. —Remains of Abaceeniim are found near Tripi, four or five miles inland from a bay near the
north-eastern extremity of Sicily, on the western point of which are the ruins of Tyndaris, a city
founded by Dionysius I., and which deprived Abactenum of a great part of its territory. Hence the
coins of Tyndaris are generally of a late time compared with those of Abactenum, a Hellenized town of
the Siculi of early date.
Bearded laureate head to r, with hair in bunch behind,— in dotted circle. R. Hog,
standing to r. ; in field to r., acorn ; below, ABA ; above, KAINI, from r. to I. ;
all in linear circle.
Another similar ; in exergue, ABAK ; above, AINI, from r. to I.
ABAK. Same type. B. Hog to r. ; above, acorn ? in field below, AINI, from
r. to I.
Youthful head, adv., hair in separate locks, and radiating (Apollo as the Sun ?) ; aSl
in dotted circle. B. Sow, standing to I. ; before her, pig ; above, ABA.
ACRAGAS (Agrigentum).
Note.—From the almost total wreck of Sicilian literature of the ages when Acragas produced its
coins and other extant monuments, it was not to be expected that archaeologists should have been
able to extract the means of giving names to the temples which still adorn the site of this city,
with
a magnificence rivalled only at Paestum. The ruins of the Olympiura are alone identified with
certainty ; those of another temple very near it to the eastward, vulgarly called the temple
of Her-
cules, and which, among the sacred edifices of Acragas, was inferior only to the Olympium in magnitude,
I believe to have been a Posidonium, because we find that a large proportion of the coins of
Acragas have types relating to Jupiter on one side, and to Neptune on the other. The two noble
temples which stood on the brow of the chffs to the east of the supposed Posidonium, were sacred,
perhaps, the one to Apollo, the other to Ceres and Proserpine. Apollo would not be omitted
among the greater deities honoured by the Agrigentine temples, his head being one of the com-
monest types on the copper coins of Agrigentum ; nor would Proserpine, Pindar having designated
Acragas as Tlt(>in(p6vas tJof (Pyth. 12, v. 3), and the occurrence of a solemn festival in honour of
Ceres and Proserpine being mentioned in history (Polysen. 5, 1). The temple which stood in the
middle of the modern town was of Jupiter Polieus ; that of Minerva stood on the eastern height ;
that of Asclepius in the plain near the junction of the two branches of the river Acragas.
20-7 Eagle to r., seizing serpent. B. Crab ; below which, ?IAA