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HISTORICAL GREEK COINS - eBooks4Greeks.gr

HISTORICAL GREEK COINS - eBooks4Greeks.gr

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3 Syracusan 'Medallions,' p. 123. 39<strong>HISTORICAL</strong> <strong>GREEK</strong> <strong>COINS</strong>enshrines just the kind of error that an interpolatorwould make. Knowing the fact that preciousmetal obtained from the defeated Carthaginianswas associated with the name of Gelon's queen, hewould extend the name 'Damaretian' to all theweretreasure, out of a tenth of which the tripodsdedicated.Busolt l offers one solution of the difficulty.Acceptingthe tradition represented by Pollux andHesychius, and assuming the first Damareteia tohave been struck before the battle of Himera, heexplains the other tradition by supposing thatGelon, after the victory, struck a number of coinswhich were known asDamareteia, because the firstcoins of that kind were struck in the circumstancesalready mentioned. 2Evans, 3on the other hand, unhesitatingly prefersthe account of Diodorus. In his favour we mustremember that such a magnificent piece of moneyit stands alone in the Sicilian coinage before thedefeat of the Athenian expeditionis not the kindof coin which would be produced amid the pressureof war-preparations. It is, on the other hand, justthe kind of coin which would be produced in thetime of triumph after the victory of Himera. Wehave the analogy of the later Syracusan ' medallions/pieces exactly similar in motive, althoughlater in style by some seventy years at least.1Or. Gesch., ii. 2 pp. 789, 796.a Busolt's remark (p. 796, note 2), that the head on the Damareteiagives the impression of a portrait, will not, I think, be confirmed by anytrained numismatist.

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