which is the inscription TPAKOZION (SYRAKOSION), of Syracuse, or of the Syracusans, occupying the upper part of the coin. The reverse of this coin presents what may be considered one of the masterpieces of the art of die engraving; it is a quadriga, or four-horse chariot, which, though on so small a scale, is yet treated with all the breadth and grandeur that Phidias might have imparted to it as a metope of the Parthenon. The magnificent subject of the quadriga, accompanied by a figure of Victory crowning the driver, which forms so frequent a device on many ancient coins, records most probably triumphs at the Olympic games achieved by the citizens of towns issuing coins of this type. The type, in the present instance, is accompanied by a complete suite of armour, panoplia (navondía) consisting of a coat of mail (thorax); helmet, shield, spear, and greaves (ocrex), which were defences for the leg; beneath, is the word AAA (ATHLA), signifying prizes, or, in the Doric dialect, the reward of victory. Greek writers do not allude to such prizes being distributed at the Olympic games, and only speak of the στέφανη, or wreath, using the verb στέφανιζω, to crown or cover with a wreath; but there are records of prizes at similar games, consisting of a golden tripod, &c. And Virgil especially mentions sacred tripods, arms, splendid robes, and talents of gold and silver. It is possible that Pindar and other Greeks who allude to the subject, considered the wreath the true symbol of honour, and so did not allude to the prizes consisting of armour, &c.*

The inscriptions on the Syracusan coins are in the Doric or Peloponessian dialect, being a Corinthian colony; and this circumstance shows the extensive range of study necessary to the full appreciation of the value of historical evidence afforded by coins. † In addition to the larger inscriptions, recent numismatic discovery has detected smaller ones, hitherto unperceived or thought to be the names of magistrates, but which, it is highly probable, are actually those of the matchless artists who produced these and other

There are archaic medallions of the same weight, which are attributed to the time of Gelo I., perhaps 480 B.C.; the fine ones, above described, are assigned to the age of Dionysius, probably from about 404 to 420 B.C. + See Chapter on Inscriptions.

exquisite Sicilian coins that have been preserved to us, for other particulars respecting which I must refer the reader to the chapter on "the art displayed in the Greek coinage," and the chapter on Greek inscriptions.

Many other types are found on the coins of Syracuse, such as the head of Jupiter the Liberator; adopted, a passage in Diodorus informs us, after they threw off the yoke of the tyrant Thrasybulus, when a temple was erected to Jupiter the Liberator; the Eleutherian games, or games of Liberty, were established at the same epoch. On the gold of Syracuse, Diana OTEIPA, or Diana the Saviour, was struck, to commemorate some great benefit supposed to be derived from the protection of that divinity.*

The representation of river gods occurs on several coins of Sicily, of Magna Græcia, and occasionally on coins of other places.

The head, a coin of Catanea,† in the collection of Lord Northwick, accompanied by aquatic symbols, a fish and a prawn, is that of the river deity Amenanus. The Ame

nanus, or Amenas, as Pindar calls this river, still flows through the modern Catana, and its present name is Giudicella. The reverse of this beautiful coin is the common Sicilian type, the quadriga, with KATANAION (CATANAION), of the Catanians. On other coins of Catana, there is a bull on the reverse, which is supposed also to represent the river Amenanus. The figure of a bull was frequently used to symbolise a rapid stream; first, perhaps, by the poetic imagination of Homer, who likened a bull to a river, when, in describing the conflict between the river deity, Scamander, ‡ with Achilles, he said of the former, that he roared like a bull, μeμvràs ηûte Taupos. The idea was afterwards amplified by other poets, and perhaps led to the fable of the combat of Hercules with the river-god Achelous, the latter changing himself into a bull, in which form he was conquered, losing one of his horns. Not only does the roaring of the bull suggest to the imagination

* A description of the coins of the kings of Syracuse will be found among the regal Coins. +Coins of Sardis, plate 1.

The Scamander, as is well known, flowed through the plains of Troy; and when Xerxes passed over that famous plain on his way to invade Greece, the Persian hordes are said by contemporary historians to have drunk it dry.

the roar of an impetuous torrent, but the impetuosity of the attack of the bull, carrying all before it, suggests the power of rushing waters. When intended as the symbol of a river, the bull is generally accompanied by some aquatic emblem, as a fish, a shrimp, a shell, &c.

The annexed woodcut represents a coin of Camarina in Sicily. Camarina was a colony on the south coast of Sicily,

founded by the Syracusans, about 600 B.C., destroyed by them in the 57th Olympiad, and rebuilt in the 82d. The beautiful coins attest that Camarina was once great and opulent. Near the town was a lake, and through the lake the river Hipparis flowed into the sea; immediately to the eastward flowed another river, the Oanus. Hipparis is supposed to be personified by the youthful head, with the bud-. ding horns of a bull; on the present coin is a corroboration of what has been said upon the subject of that symbol in the description of the preceding coin. The bordering round this beautiful head is formed of the well-known Greek pattern, used to indicate water, which beautifully expresses the curling and breaking into foam of a succession of small wavelets.

The meaning of this border in the present instance is placed beyond a doubt by the treatment of the water beneath the swan on the reverse of this coin. The beautiful

female figure, gracefully forming a sail with a mantle, is either the nymph of the river Oanus, or Leda; the children of Leda (the Dioscuri) being venerated in several parts of Sicily.

No. 9, Plate V., is a coin of Gelas.-The coinage of the Greek city of Gelas, in Sicily, affords us an example of one of the most remarkable types found on Greek coins, that of the human-headed bull. This type is also found on coins of

Acarnania, a province of Greece, in which case it personifies the river Achelous, which separates Acarnania from Ætolia. The same type occurs on the coins of the Greco-Italic city of Neapolis (the modern Naples), and may perhaps have been brought to Italy by the Achaian colonies, as we learn from coins of Caulonia that games were established in Italy in honour of the Greek river deity, Achelous. That it reached Europe from the East originally, is rendered probable by the recently discovered sculptures of Nimroud and Khorsabad, and in the East it probably signified the union of intellect and strength; the human head symbolising intellect, the body of the bull strength. In the East the same myth appears to be occasionally expressed by the figure of a lion with a human head. The lion overcoming the bull on Persian sculptures, and on the coins of Acanthus, is supposed by some to symbolise the sun or heat (in the form of the lion) overcoming the damps of the earth, represented in the bull. When it occurs on Greek coins it generally symbolises a river, which, however, is more commonly expressed by the simple figure of a bull, to be alluded to in the description of the next coin. In the present instance it is doubtless a personification of the river Gelas, which flowed close to the city, and is a pleasing example of the best manner of the Archaic period. The reverse bears the figure common to early Syracusan coins, and although of a somewhat archaic character of workmanship, is yet sharply and pleasingly modelled, and is interesting as showing the transition from the stiffest archaic style towards the freedom of the high school which succeeded it.

Among Sicilian coins issued during the finest period of art, those of Agrigentum must not be passed over without notice, being second only to those of Syracuse. This city was built upon the river Acragas, so called probably from abounding in crabs, xpaywv; from which circumstance the crab, being perhaps at an early period made sacred to the river deity, became the principal type of the money of this city, and was never discontinued, either as principal or secondary, among the types of the national coin. The ancient name of the city was the same as that of the river, Acragas, but became eventually Agrigentum, or rather

* In Lord Northwick's collection. See Dr. Nohden.

Acragentum. Acragentum, was originally built on Mount Acragas; and the existing ruins near the modern city of Girgenti, attest its ancient extent and splendour. On coins of this city, of the fine period, the obverse is generally an eagle destroying a hare, a type which has been very variously explained.

The monster Scylla, symbolising the well-known dangers of the strait between Italy and Sicily, occupies one side of a remarkable coin of Agrigentum, in the collection of Lord Northwick; and this figure well accords with the description of Virgil. Between each of the dolphins' tails appear intermediate heads of wolves, the noise of the monster being said to resemble the barking of dogs or howling of wolves. The crab, a production of the Italian and Sicilian seas, is frequently found forming one of the minor types of other maritime towns of the island; but seldom as a principal one, except on the money of Agrigentum.

The eagles and the hare of Agrigentum coins have been supposed to symbolise the victory of the Sicilian chiefs, Gelo and Theron, over the Carthaginians and Anaxilaus the tyrant of Messina, which latter had chosen the hare as his ensign. Others suppose the eagles (birds of Jove) to represent the god in a double form, as divine and human; and that the hare is Proserpine.

Other Greek towns of Sicily have issued coins nearly equal to those of Syracuse and Agrigentum, but it would be impossible to particularise them all in the space which I can here allot to this branch of the subject.

THE COINS OF CARTHAGE.

The coins of Carthage have not been referred to in following the course of progress of primitive coinage and its subsequent gradual improvement, as there is no evidence that the Carthaginians coined money previous to their close neighbourhood with the Grecian colonists of Sicily. The coinage of Carthage, therefore, belongs only to the period when the art was fully developed. Carthaginian money is so closely connected with that of Sicily, in consequence of the extensive colonies of Carthage in the northern portion of