Segesta
d=31 mm
Tetradrachm circa 405-400, AR 17.36 g. EGES[TAIWN] Aigestes, the city’s founder, as hunter, standing r. with l. foot upon rock, r. hand resting on hip, l. elbow on knee; he wears a pilos suspended behind the neck, sword hanging from strap around l. shoulder, ankle-booths (cothurni) and chlamys over l. arm; two javelins in l. hand. At his feet, two hounds r. and in field r., ithyphallic herme l., wearing petasus. Rev. Head of the nymph Aigesta facing slightly to r., wearing earring, necklace and ampyx across her forehead, hair flowing loosely; below, SEGESTAIIB. L. Mildenberg, Kimon in the manner of Segesta pl. 10, 13 and pl. 11, 19 (this coin). AMB 402 (this coin).
Unique. A masterpiece of enchanting beauty and charm with an outstanding portrait well
struck in high relief. Old cabinet tone, minor area of weakness on obverse,
otherwise extremely fine
Ex NAC sale 13, 1998, 402. Unquestionably, this is the most fascinating and impressive coin of Segesta in existence. Not only does it add to our corpus of Sicilian facing-head tetradrachms from classical-period Sicily – a most remarkable circumstance in itself – but it sheds light our knowledge of the approximate dating of the coinage of Kimon, whose work at Syracuse is the obvious source of inspiration for the engraver who created this coin at Segesta. An intensive study was undertaken of this unique coin by Leo Mildenberg in 1973, which produced some interesting conclusions. He notes that this facing head offers further evidence of how engravers at Segesta often used Syracusan coins as their prototypes, and that even though the skill of the artists at Segesta is laudable, a trace of "local flavor" remains. This is of some interest: even though the people of Segesta were thoroughly Hellenized, they were of an uncertain composition – not strictly Greek or Carthaginian, or even Sicel, but probably of Elymian origin, as Thucydides and Vergil intimate. Just as the odd character of the coinage of Segesta would suggest, its inhabitants fell into a category all their own. The obverse die used to strike this coin was used with three other reverse dies from Segesta, all of which show a female head shown in profile. Interestingly, one of the profile-head reverse dies was originally intended to strike didrachms, and for some reason it was paired with this tetradrachm obverse. These links suggest not only that that the die was prized, but that all of these coins were struck in a relatively tight chronological framework, thus allowing us to date this discovery coin to c. 405-400 B.C. The subjects of these two designs were convincingly identified by Mildenberg, who worked with a combination of numismatic and epigraphic evidence. The young male on the obverse, though sometimes identified as the local river-god Krimissos, or Pan, almost certainly is Aigestes, the city’s founder. The young woman portrayed on the reverse seems to be the ancestress-nymph Aigesta (even though the source of her engraver’s inspiration was Kimon’s Arethusa Sotiera from Syracuse), for the curious inscription beneath likely translates to "I am the goddess of Segesta". Hardly a more patriotic combination of themes could be imagined, but since the fate of Sicily at the end of the 5th Century was ever in question, it is not out of place. Segesta was ever on guard against its enemy Selinus, and often it was at odds with other neighboring Greeks because of its pro-Carthaginian stance. The obverse is of special interest in that regard, for it suggests a defensive vigilance, an unfailing awareness of the dangers that lurked beyond the city. It has been noted, rightly so, that the design probably derives from a lost statuary group that would have been familiar to all who lived in Segesta.
NAC40, 236
