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Naxos (Sicily), Didrachm (silver
coin replica) c. 461 - 430 BC.
OBV: Head of Dionysios
r., wreathed with ivy and with long beard, hair in bunch behind.
R: NAXION, naked Silenos squatting facing, body inclined to r.,
looking l., holding kantharos in raised r. hand. Original worth c.
£3000.
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia:
Founded by Thucles the
Chalcidian in 734 B.C., it was never a powerful city, but its temple of Apollo
Archegetes, protecting deity of all the Greek colonies, gave it
prominence in religious affairs. Leontini
and Catania
were both colonized from here. Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela,
captured it in 494 B.C. Its opposition to Syracuse
ultimately led to its capture and destruction in 403 B.C. at the hands
of Dionysius
the tyrant,
after it had supported Athens
during that city's disastrous Sicilian
Expedition. Though the site continued to be inhabited, most activity
shifted to neighbouring Tauromenium. |