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4 Litrai
| Issuer | Morgantina |
|---|---|
| Year | 214 BC - 213 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | AMB Basel#415 |
| Obverse description | Bust of a female divinity, most likely Persephone or Kore, facing left, rendered in fine Sicilian style. The head is adorned with an elaborate wreath of grain ears and foliage, with richly curled hair flowing behind the neck. The facial features are finely modelled with a smooth, idealised profile characteristic of late Sicilian Greek coinage. No legend appears in the field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A biga — a two-horse chariot — depicted in full gallop to the left, with the charioteer leaning forward and brandishing a long spear or goad, rendered with vigorous movement. Above the horses, a partial ethnic legend appears, while below the exergual line the inscription reads ΣΙΚΕΛΙΩΤΑΝ, identifying the coin as an issue of the Siceliots. A control mark or letter appears in the upper field above the horses. The composition is energetic and displays the confident engraving tradition of Sicilian mint workers. |
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| Additional information |
Morgantina's coinage effectively ends here. The city fell to Roman forces under Marcellus in 211 BC during the broader Sicilian campaign against Syracuse, after which the population was sold into slavery and the site given over to Spanish mercenaries who had betrayed it. This issue, struck in the final years before that destruction, represents one of the last independent monetary acts of a Sikel city that had already changed hands violently several times during the preceding century of Carthaginian and Syracusan rivalry.