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<p>[QUOTE="rg3, post: 6452392, member: 79213"]Over the years I’ve been slowly compiling a collection of ancient Sicilian silver. During this month, I’ve acquired two didrachms featuring crabs. The older is from Akragas (495-85BC)</p><p> [ATTACH=full]1257085[/ATTACH]</p><p>and the younger (not by much - 480-70BC) is from Himera.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1257087[/ATTACH] </p><p>It struck me as odd that both cities would employ crabs on their coinage (considering they’re nearly antipodal on the Sicilian shoreline) until I did a little digging. Akragas had used the eagle/crab motifs for many years, perhaps as early as 510BC. The earliest dates Himera employed the crab is estimated to be 483BC. I found this is (probably) due to the Akragian tyrant Theron’s expulsion of the Himerian tyrant Terillus in 483BC, and a more serious output of Himerian cock/crab coinage following the outcome of The Battle of Himera (pitting the expelled Terillus and the Carthaginians against Theron and allied tyrants) in 480BC. According to legend this battle (of which I previously was unaware) was fought on the same days as the Battle of Salamis. </p><p><br /></p><p>This little journey down the rabbit hole brought me some delight after a pretty tough week. Even more interestingly, I learned of the archeological discovery (in 2008/9) where mass soldier graves of the Battle of Himera were found. Officials are supposedly preparing (maybe have prepared) the associated artifacts for display. If anyone has seen this exhibit, I’d be interested in your experience.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you for reading. Feel free to post anything related to Akragas or Himera.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="rg3, post: 6452392, member: 79213"]Over the years I’ve been slowly compiling a collection of ancient Sicilian silver. During this month, I’ve acquired two didrachms featuring crabs. The older is from Akragas (495-85BC) [ATTACH=full]1257085[/ATTACH] and the younger (not by much - 480-70BC) is from Himera. [ATTACH=full]1257087[/ATTACH] It struck me as odd that both cities would employ crabs on their coinage (considering they’re nearly antipodal on the Sicilian shoreline) until I did a little digging. Akragas had used the eagle/crab motifs for many years, perhaps as early as 510BC. The earliest dates Himera employed the crab is estimated to be 483BC. I found this is (probably) due to the Akragian tyrant Theron’s expulsion of the Himerian tyrant Terillus in 483BC, and a more serious output of Himerian cock/crab coinage following the outcome of The Battle of Himera (pitting the expelled Terillus and the Carthaginians against Theron and allied tyrants) in 480BC. According to legend this battle (of which I previously was unaware) was fought on the same days as the Battle of Salamis. This little journey down the rabbit hole brought me some delight after a pretty tough week. Even more interestingly, I learned of the archeological discovery (in 2008/9) where mass soldier graves of the Battle of Himera were found. Officials are supposedly preparing (maybe have prepared) the associated artifacts for display. If anyone has seen this exhibit, I’d be interested in your experience. Thank you for reading. Feel free to post anything related to Akragas or Himera.[/QUOTE]
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