HE marked decadence, which during the third century before the Christian era was gradually permeating art, literature, religious belief and political institutions throughout the entire Greek world, finds abundant illustration in cointypes of the period. A growing weakness in design and treatment, and a servile yet far from successful imitation of compositions evolved in days of a truer and richer artistic spirit now characterize Syracusan coins; and our consequent disappointment is nowhere more acute than in the series which displays the head of Hieron's charming queen, whose clear-cut, classic profile would have at once animated a Euainetos or a Kimon with fresh inspiration for some immortal and world-delighting masterpiece. HIERON II. 116. Piece of 16 litrai, wt. 209 grs. Period II, B. C. 263-216. (Pl. X: 1.) Obv. Head of Philistis to left, diademed and veiled; behind, flaming torch. Rev. BAIAIA PIAIETIAO Quadriga to right, driven by winged Nike, horses galloping; beneath, E. (From the Bunbury sale.) 117. Piece of 16 litrai, wt. 208 grs. Period II, B. C. 263–216. (Pl. X: 2.) Rev. BAIAIA PIAIETIAO Similar to last, but above horses, crescent; in front, KI; and beneath, stalk of barley. 118. Piece of 5 litrai, wt. 69 grs. Period II, B. C. 263–216. (Pl. X: 3.) Obv. Similar to 116, but behind, palm-branch. Rev. BAIAIA IAITIAO Similar to 116, but in front, E. Precisely how many decades of Hieron's long reign were shared by the noble and beautiful Philistis we have no means of knowing, but that he found in this queenly daughter of the royal house of Dionysios a suitable and dignified consort for his stately public ceremonials, as well as a warm-hearted and sympathetic partner for his private joys and sorrows, admits of no doubt in our minds, as we study these calm, serene, lovely features. Greek antiquity has many a tale of the warm friendship and equal companionship and mutual dependence between man and woman; and we may feel sure that both Hieron and the Syracusans owed much of their happiness and prosperity to this gracious presence on the consort throne. But alas, we must here do more than "put ourselves in the place of the artist and try to gather his thought and intention." We must, as well, imagine him gifted with the skill in design, with the strength and accuracy of touch so peculiarly characteristic of that group of master engravers who flourished in the latter half of the fifth century. Then indeed could we rightly echo the words of one of our most charming writers (not himself a numismatist) on Sicilian affairs: "Of all the beautiful heads which we find upon the gold and silver coins of Sicily, and there are many, none can compare with that of Hieron's queen. One may fancy that Helen of Troy had such a face, or Semiramis, or divine Athene herself, but it is hard to believe that so fair a woman ever lived." It was my good fortune, when wandering once in the ancient theatre of the Syracusans, where so often for swiftly fleeting hours the rich sonorous lines of their adored Euripides must have entranced a sympathetic audience, to come upon a stone-hewn seat, unnoted by red-bound guide book. Rising in the place of highest honor, and evidently devoted to the use of some distinguished personage, it bore the inscription BAIAIA IAITIAO, so familΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΑΣ ΦΙΛΙΣΤΙΔΟΣ, iar to the coin student. Thus in these two most dissimilar and yet alike least perishable of earthly memorials, chiselled rock and beaten metal, have the love and pride and admiration of good king Hieron been preserved to us. The queen's style of wearing her veil drawn close around the head appears also on a small terra-cotta bust of about this period, in my possession, and the tenacity with which in remote parts of Europe old customs survive, is shown by the exact reproduction of this fashion among the lower classes of the present day, in Syracuse and adjacent portions of Sicily; a light shawl, however, being now substituted for the veil. The similarity in coin-design between this head of Philistis and that of Arsinoë, a contemporary queen of the Ptolemaic line, is but another indication of those bonds of kinship and friendship which at that time so closely connected Sicily and Egypt. The crescent poised over the weak quadriga-scheme probably symbolizes Philistis in her character of divine Artemis, while the abbreviation KI may stand for ΚΑΙ ΙΕΡΩΝΟΣ ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΟΥ, to signify that the issue was not wholly that of Queen Philistis, but belonged as well to "Hieron the Syracusan." We must now take one more glimpse of this wise and gracious king at the summit of his glory, when his dominion was at its greatest extent, and when the beneficial effects of a peaceful rule were already showing themselves. After the year 241 B. C., at the conclusion of that first Punic war which resulted in the undisputed conquest of all Sicily by the Romans, Hieron, always their firm ally, was the only independent ruler left by the conquerors in the island. Without interference, yet always under the suzerainty of Rome, he continued to exercise supreme power over the entire east coast, as well as over many of the adjacent inland towns; a territory of such size and importance as to seem deserving of a special coin-issue; a small one, however, to judge from the great rarity of extant examples. HIERON II. 119. Piece of 8 litrai, wt. 105 grs. Period II, circa B. C. 241. (Pl. X: 4) Obv. Head of Demeter to left, veiled and wearing wreath of barley-leaves; behind, leaf. Rev. ΣΙΚΕΛΙΩΤΑΝ Quadriga to right driven by winged Nike, horses prancing; above, monogram I. The choice of the mature goddess Demeter, whose worship was general throughout the island, in preference to the maiden Persephone, a type always more distinctively associated with Syracuse, would doubtless propitiate and join as by a common bond Hieron's subjects throughout his entire dominion. So, too, the inscription "Of the Sikeliots" would appeal to the national pride of the Sicilian Greeks, always, as we should remember, distinguished by this title from the aboriginal Sikans and Sikels. The monogram probably denotes, as before, Hieron the Syracusan, and from the extremely rude and careless workmanship displayed in this issue, we may infer that it was intended for circulation not in the ruling city but among the smaller towns where less attention would be paid to artistic merit. As has been the case with so many wise and good men, Hieron's closing years were embittered by the death of those dearest to him, and by domestic strife among his surviving relatives. Nor could even fifteen appointed guardians restrain the pride, pretension and arrogance of his grandson Hieronymos who, succeeding in 216 B. C., by an immediate assumption of all the attributes of absolute monarchy disclosed his determined will to rule not as a constitutional king, but as a genuine tyrant. This youth's career of weakness, vacillation, cruelty and excess, his desertion of Rome, alliance with Carthage, and alternate treachery towards both, found a righteous punishment in his assassination after less than two years of sovereignty. 120 and 121. (Pl. X: 5 and 6.) HIERONYMOS. Pieces of 24 and 10 litrai, wts. 313 and 131 grs. B. C. 216–215. Head of Hieronymos to left, diademed; border of dots. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΟΣ ΙΕΡΩΝΥΜΟΥ Thunderbolt; above, Ml and ΞΑ. Obv. (The former from the Montagu sale.) Not all the skill of a flattering coin-artist can dignify the weak, yet cunning lines of this face; while Hieronymos' assumption of omnipotence as the wielder of the thunderbolt of mighty Zeus, forms an amusing if pitiable commentary upon the vanity and uncertainty of human power. There can be no manner of doubt as to this portrait's identification, which is in full accord with the inscription. Such a concurrence, together with the first general appearance, shortly before that time, of royal portrait heads throughout the rest of the Greek world (No. 112), would seem to show the entire fallacy of a rival theory, even when advanced by so great an authority as Dr. Imhoof-Blumer. This scholar sees in the heads of the IEPONO and гENO type (Nos. 112-115) idealized representations of the Hieron and Gelon of the early fifth century, and considers the portrait series of Philistis a similar attempt to imagine and depict the features of Queen Damareta (Nos. 67 and 68). The violent death of Hieronymos, while at Leontinoi, was followed, immediately on the arrival of his assassins at Syracuse, by a public assembly, the hurried establishment of a democracy, and the commission of one of those atrocious massacres which have so often stained the annals of popular government. Every descendant of good King Hieron,— and all were of the tender sex,—was brutally slain in cold blood; even the innocent young girls who fled shrieking from the butcher's knife, being remorselessly hunted into corners like dangerous wild beasts. A government thus horribly inaugurated could possess little stability, and the next three years form a tale of confusion worse confounded, of violent changes, constant uncertainties, and incessant struggles, as yet unequalled even in this city of varying fortunes. It were useless to dwell upon the longdoubtful conflict waged betwen the Roman and Carthaginian sympathizers to secure supremacy in the civil and military councils. We need only note that the decision, forced to an issue by the gradual approach of Marcellus at the head of his Roman legionaries, was at last given in favor of Carthage, owing to the specious arguments and generous promises of the Punic envoys. And Marcellus, now encamped before the city, at once began the great siege, in |