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

58
Metal
JR
/R
M
M
M M
JE
M
Size
n
2
2
I
] +
2+
2+
3+
3+
4-
9-7
87-4
INSULAR GREECE.
Weight
14-3 Another similar.
12-5 CEAA. Same type. B. Same type.
Four others ; medium weight,
10*9 grains.
7-6
Youthful male head to I., with horn on forehead. B- • • •
morphous bull to r.
Head of young Hercules, in lion's diadem of corn to I.
scalp, to r. R. TEAiiloN.
Vfikpav haXovv ol Sk
((iorepoi) ifiipav' oi Sk vvv rinkpav (Cratyl. 74).
M 131-4 Cock to I.; in a curved line near its breast, HIMERA. R, Crab,
Fore-part
of andro-
Bearded head, with
[rE]AaiiiN. Head of Ceres, adv. B. Bearded head, with diadem of com, to I.
Another.
Young male head to r., with horn on forehead, and hair divided into locks radiating
upwards (river-god) ; behind, grain of barley. B. TEAA?. Bull to r., with
head bent down ; above, ear of corn ? in exergue, • • • .
Same type to r., same symbol. R. Same type to I. ; same legend, symbol, and globules.
TEAA?. Young male head, with horn as before, but hair behind in descending
locks ; behind, grain of barley. R. Bull as before, but to r. ; above, branch of
olive, with two berries ; in exergue, • • • .
Similar head, with horn, narrow diadem, and shorter hair. R. TEAA?. Same type
to I. ; same globules.
Note.—The water plants attached to the andromorphous bull on two of the preceding silver coins
of Gela, leave no doubt that the figure was an emblem of the river Gela, and alone goes far to con-
firm the supposition, that in general, on coins of Sicily and Magna Grsecia, the bull, the andromorphous
bull, the tauromorphous man, and the young homed head, were all typical of rivers. When we
reflect on the importance of rivers in a climate, where successful agriculture depends so much upon
irrigation, and on the numerous instances in which rivers determined the sites uf new cities, and
gave names to them, the honours conferred upon rivers on coins is not surprising. Eckhel, who
dissented entirely from this theory, argues, " Si monstrum illud (bos cum facie humana) Gelas
putandus est, sequetur, Gelois juvenilis,
duplice modo suum effictum fluviuro, nempe typo bovis et capitis
quod vix verisimile, quin hac lege in nonnullis duplicem in eodem nummo habebimus
Gelam ;" but why should not the young horned head be the type of a subordinate river, that, for
instance, which flowed on the western side of the city, and which is now called the Montelunga !
Eckhel supposed the name of the river and city to have been Gelas ; but in every instance, I believe,
TEAAS to have been the second case of TEAA, and to mean money of Gela. Neither river nor city
was named Gelas,
HIMERA.
Note.—Himera was founded about the year 660 B.C., by people of Zancle (Messina), who moved
forward to the mouth of the river Himera from the previously-occupied Mylse (Milazzo) (Strabo,
p. 272). Himera had suffered so much from the Carthaginians, before it was liberated by the great
victory gained over that people by Gelou in 480 B. c, that it required to be restored by means of a
Doric colony, which was sent thither by Theron of Acragas, in B.C. 476 (Diodor. 11, 49). Himera
then flourished for sixty-eight years (not fifty-eight, as in the text of Wesseling), until it was
taken and destroyed by the Carthaginians, in the year 409 B.c. From that time it remained deso-
late, and "continues so," observes Diodorus (11, 49), "to our own time." Only two years, how-
ever, after its destruction, the Carthaginians themselves placed a mixed colony on the site of the
hot sources (Diodor. 13, 79), or Thermce Himeraeae, which, under the names " city of the Thermitse"
and " Termini," has subsisted to the present day. Agreeably to these annals of Himera, all its
coins are found to be of the style of the fifth and sixth centuries b.c.
Cock to L, in circle of dots. R. Hen to r., in square frame, in quad, incus.
Note.—The cock is a well-known type of ..Esculapius, and refers to the Thermae of Himera, as
the same emblem on the coins of Selinus refers to the Thermae Selinuntinorura. Eckhel (I. p. 212)
supposes that the cock, on the coins of Himera, may also allude to the name of the city ; ti/iipa (day)
having in very ancient times been written ifikpa, as Plato testifies, ol /liv dpxatoraroi ifiipav T))*