A Didrachm of Akragas
- sulla80
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Where it was minted
Akragas was the last of the major Greek colonies established in Sicily, founded circa 580 BC by settlers from Gela, who were themselves of Rhodian and Cretan origin. Situated on the southern coast between the rivers Akragas and Hypsas, the city occupied a strategic plateau that offered natural defenses and access to fertile hinterlands. For the first century of its existence, Akragas grew wealthy on agriculture - olives, grapes, and grain - and the breeding of horses, for which it became famous.
"The city of Agrigentum is superior to most cities not only in the ways I have mentioned but in strength and especially in the beauty of its site and buildings. It stands at a distance of eighteen stades from the sea, so that it enjoys all the advantages of a sea-coast town. It is encircled by natural and artificial defences of unusual strength, the wall being built on a ridge of rock either naturally steep and precipitous or artificially rendered so. It is also surrounded by rivers, that which has the same name as the town running along the southern side and the Hypsas along the west and south-west sides. The citadel overlooking the town is due south-east from it, being surrounded on its outer side by an impassable ravine and having on its inner side but one p65 approach from the town."
-Polybius, The Histories, IX.27
A Few Noteworthy Residents & Citizens
Phalaris: the tyrant famous for roasting his enemies in a "Brazen Bull." He ruled c. 570-554 BCE.
A rare moment of poetic justice in ancient history. Perillus, the bronze worker who designed a brazen bull, presented the device to Phalaris, allegedly boasting about the acoustic features, saying, "His screams will come to you through the pipes as the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowings." Phalaris, though a tyrant known for cruelty, disgusted by Perillus's sadism and lack of empathy for the victim, tricked him into demonstrating the device's effectiveness.
Empedocles (c. 492-432 BCE): a pre-Socratic philosopher, poet, and physician who is credited with originating the cosmogenic theory of the four classical elements (fire, earth, air, and water). He was also a champion of the poor and a radical democrat who reportedly refused the title of King when it was offered to him.
Acron (5th Century BCE): also a renowned physician. He gained fame for his methods of combating the plague in Athens (or arguably locally in Sicily) by lighting large bonfires to purify the air, a practice that became famous in medical history.
Phaiax (5th Century BCE): a celebrated architect and hydraulic engineer responsible for the Phaeacian aqueducts, a massive system of underground tunnels and conduits (hypogea) that supplied the city with water.
Gellias (died c. 406 BCE): awealthy citizen who became legendary for his hospitality. Ancient sources claim he had a wine cellar with 300 cisterns cut into the rock. When Akragas was sacked by Carthage in 406 BC, Gellias reportedly set fire to a temple and perished inside it rather than be captured.
Exaenetus (Late 5th Century BCE): a famous athlete who won the stadium race at the Olympic Games twice (416 and 412 BC). His return to Akragas was celebrated with a procession of 300 chariots drawn by white horses, symbolizing the city's immense opulence just before its fall.
The year 406 BCE marks a dividing line: Akragas was besieged and destroyed by the Carthaginians, ending its Golden Age. The city remained a shadow of its former self for decades.
The Reign of Theron (488–472 BCE)
Pindar celebrates Theron of Akragas as winner of an Olympic chariot race in 476 BCE.
This coin was minted during the reign of Theron, son of Ainesidemos of the Emmenid family. Theron seized power around 488 BC. Theron forged a military alliance with Gelon, the tyrant of Gela who would soon capture Syracuse (circa 485). This alliance was cemented by marriage: Theron’s daughter, Damarete, married Gelon, while Theron himself married a daughter of Polyzalos, Gelon’s brother.
In 483/2 BCE Theron aggressively intervened at Himera on the north coast, deposing its tyrant and installing his own rule. This act provoked Carthage – which had interests in Himera – to retaliate, setting the stage for the momentous Battle of Himera in 480 BCE.
In the summer of 480 BCE, the forces of Theron and Gelon jointly defeated a vast Carthaginian army at Himera, a victory that ended the immediate Punic threat to Greek Sicily. Akragas emerged from this triumph at the height of its prestige, Carthaginian influence was pushed back to the far west of Sicily for a long interval, while booty and imposed payments provide the material basis for the economic flowering of Syracuse and Akragas.
The thousands of Carthaginian prisoners captured at Himera (where this coin's series likely paid the victors) were enslaved and forced to build colossal Temple of Olympian Zeus in the Valley of the Temples. This temple is described by Polybious dcenturies laters as both "unfinished" and "second to none in design and dimensions".
Empedocles lived 484‑424 BCE: Timaeus explains that he [Empedocles] called Agrigentum great, inasmuch as it had 800,000 inhabitants. Hence Empedocles, he continues, speaking of their luxury, said, "The Agrigentines live delicately as if tomorrow they would die, but they build their houses well as if they thought they would live for ever.
-Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book VIII.2.63
My coin is from Dies O66/R105 in Westermark's die study this coin is cataloged as Period I group III and illustrated by coin 158.1.
The weight of this coin is right where it should be: Akragas didrachms target a heavy Attic standard around 8.70 g, and Group III in particular reflects a deliberate restoration of that norm.
Westermark notes a notable uptick in artistic quality from coin no. 154 onward on both obverse and reverse. Group III coincides with a measurable reorganization of the Akragas mint - more reverse dies relative to obverses, restored standards, and richer output - best attributed by Westermark to Theron’s accession. Whether this reflects primarily military expenditure (the Himera crisis) or broader administrative consolidation and inter‑polis circulation cannot be proven, but the die‑study shows the city suddenly wanted more coins, better controlled.
Westermark’s dating for Group III is anchored on the Gela hoard (buried c. 480), 258 Akragas didrachms in the hoard belong to Group III, and the represented die‑sequence breaks off abruptly - evidence that Group III extends only briefly beyond the hoard and that Group IV begins c. 480–478.
The Crab
The incuse circle around the crab is another noteworthy feature: starting in late Group II or early Group III, the reverse die itself was round, creating a distinct concave circular border around the crab as seen on this specimen.
Akragas’s crab is a river symbol, emblematic of the city as a parallel for other cities (e.g. Metapontum’s ear of wheat for its fields, Selinus’s celery leaf, Athen's owl etc.).
The depiction on this coin is realistic enough to identify the specific crab species, Potamon fluviatile, the Italian freshwater crab or river crab, is an omnivore found in streams, rivers, and lakes of Southern Europe. Grey, greenish, or orange, with a shell up to 50mm wide and strong claws, it eats insects, snails, tadpoles, small fish, plants, and detritus, helping clean waterways. The crab lives in burrows near wooded streams, rivers, and lakes in Southern Europe (Italy, Greece, Malta, etc.), can venture far from water at night.
The Eagle
The eagle is Zeus’s bird.
There has been debate about the specific species of eagle depicted. While early scholars often defaulted to the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Westermark, consulting with ornithologist Dr. Carl Edelstam, argues convincingly for the White-Tailed Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla). The coin depicts a bird with a heavy, prominent beak and unfeathered lower legs (tarsi). The Golden Eagle has feathered tarsi down to the talons. The Sea Eagle has bare yellow legs - a detail the engravers of Akragas meticulously captured.
Akragas is a coastal city. The Sea Eagle is a coastal raptor, hunting fish and water birds, fitting the local fauna of the southern Sicilian coast better than the mountain-dwelling Golden Eagle.
Move to Democracy
After Theron died in 472/1 BCE, ancient tradition described him as a comparatively “good” ruler. He was succeeded by his son Thrasydaios, whose reputation in the sources is the opposite: violent and destabilizing, especially once he tried to hold both Akragas and Himera.
A showdown with Hieron of Syracuse followed: Thrasydaios raised a large force, but Hieron struck first, defeated Akragas, and drove the tyrant into exile; Thrasydaios fled to Megara Nisaia and was condemned to death.
This was the end of the Emmenid moment: the dynasty’s fall was not simply an internal civic uprising but (at least in part) the outcome of external Syracusan intervention, after which Akragas “recovered” a non-tyrannical - often labeled “democratic” - government and made peace with Hieron.
The city still had decades of life ahead of it, but the arc ultimately swings back toward vulnerability: renewed Carthaginian campaigns in the late fifth century culminated in the siege and capture of Akragas in 406 BCE, after much of the population abandoned the city.
References:
de Waele, J. A. Acragas Graeca: Die historische Topographie des griechischen Akragas auf Sizilien. Vol. 1, Historischer Teil. Archeologische studiën van het Nederlands historisch instituut te Rome 3. s’Gravenhage: Staatsuitgeverij, 1971.
in the OpenAccess die study: Westermark Ulla. The Coinage of Akragas c. 510–406 B.C. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Boreas. Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilizations 14. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1983.
Comments