Naslov
Dionizijev novac Sirakuze u Starom Gradu na Hvaru
(Syracusan coinage of Dionysius the Elder from Stari Grad on the island of Hvar)

Autori
Dukat, Zdenka ; Jeličić-Radonić, Jasna

Izvornik
Vjesnik Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu (0350-7165) 42 (2009); 321-338

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
Dionizijev sirakuški trias; prekovi farskim novcem; Pharos; Issa
(Dionysius; Syracuse; trias; overstrikes; Pharos; Issa)

Sažetak
It would be interesting to analyze the distribution of Syracusan bronze coinage (litra and trias) on our territory. These are relatively common finds, at least among the early Greek coinage present in this area. Considering the date of these coins, that is, Syracusan litra and trias, there exist two chronologies, higher and lower. The SNG mostly places them in the time of Timoleon (345-336 BC) or the Third Democracy. Similarly, P. Kos dates their emission in the time of Timoleon (345-317 BC), same as M. Bonačić-Mandinić. P. Visonà uses a somewhat higher chronology, placing them in the rule of Dionysius the Elder (405-367 BC), which is more logical and is accepted by the authors. Taking into account the material recovered in the systematic archaeological excavations in Stari Grad on the island of Hvar, we conclude that these coins were found in the earliest layers. Taking into account the accepted date for the foundation of the Parian colony of Pharos (385/4 BC), together with the aid given by Dionysius the Elder during the event, leads us to the acceptance of the higher chronology. During the archaeological excavations in Stari Grad 15 Syracusan bronze coins of the tyrant Dionysius the Elder were found: three litra of the Athena/star between two dolphins type and 12 Athena/hippocamp type. Together with the coinage of Pharos and Herakleia, the coinage of Syracuse is present in significant numbers on the archaeological site of Remetin vrt, which revealed – through systematic excavations – a uniquely complex historical image of the city from Classical Antiquity. Precisely on the Remetin vrt the remains of the initial nucleus of the Parian colonists were spotted, on the ruins of the Illyrian settlement, where later the walls and the architecture of the planned Greek city were erected. In this context six of the Syracusan coins of the Athena/hippocamp type were found: two Syracusan well-preserved trias, one in the earliest Greek layer (N 433), and another in the disturbed Late Antiquity layer (N 270). The remaining specimens were overstrikes of Syracusan coins: one overstruck with the Pharian Persephone/he-goat type (N 373), which is the finest preserved overstrike, and another overstruck with a Parian coin, perhaps of the same type (N 381A). The overstriking of Dionysius’ coins with anepigraphic types was already known in the Central Dalmatian area: the heavy bronze Athena/star between dolphins was overstruck with the beardless youth/dolphin above waves type (Berlin, Staattliche Museen 7136 ; the specimen from Osor in a private collection in Padova ; Tipić collection, no. 6, fig. 4), and smaller denominations of the SNG-Cop 721-722 type (one specimen of the Hera l./dolphin r. from the numismatic collection of the National museum of archaeology in Venice, originally a part of the former Zadar Museum collection). In this context the example of an overstrike with the Pharian Zeus l. (?)/goat r. type, described by Š. Ljubić, is occasionally mentioned, and it was attributed to Lampsakos. The first overstrike of a Syracusan trias with the Pharian Persephone/goat type was published as a part of the Pharian coin collection of the Museum of Slavonija. During archaeological excavations in Remetin vrt a number of overstrikes of Syracusan trias with precisely this type of Pharian coins were recovered. The Issean head of Artemis/eight-pointed star type is often overstruck with the Pharian Persephone/goat type. This type is considered as the first coinage of the colony of Issa with an ethnic and is dated to the last quarter of the 4th century, following the emissions of the Ionios’ coinage. This dating is supported with Pharian Persephone-type overstrike, which belongs, according to Brunšmid and generally accepted, to the same period. Contemporaneous overstriking of Syracusan trias and Issean coinage with the same type of Pharian coinage shows the synchronization of their circulation. Thus, the safe dating of Syracusan overstrikes after 344 BC argues for a similar date for Issean overstrikes – that is, both types, Issean and Pharian, were struck earlier than supposed. This is confirmed by stratigraphical data from the archaeological excavations in the Remetin vrt. The first Issean coinage of the Artemis/star type was apparently struck during the rule of Dionysius the Elder, as corroborated with the fact it was overstruck with the Pharian Persephone/he-goat type following the tyrant’s fall. After 344 BC Dionysius’ bronze coinage was massively overstruck, and these overstrikes circulated in numerous Greek Dionysius-influenced cities, that is, through a wide area related to his military and political activities, especially on Sicily and in Italy. In this context one could emphasize the overstriking of Syracusan coinage after the withdrawal of Syracusan military power from the Central Adriatic area. Not only was Syracusan coinage overstruck in Issa, the mother-city of Syracusan colonists and founders of this Greek colony, but also in Pharos. These are represented with overstrikes of Syracusan Athena/hippocamp trias type with the same denomination Pharian Persephone/he- goat type (N 373, 381A), recovered during archaeological excavations in Remetin vrt, and with the same type of coinage bought in 1898 for the Osijek Museum (modern Museum of Slavonija). These overstrikes testify that Dionysius’ bronze coinage was no longer in circulation, which is corroborated with the lack of Syracusan coins in the Škudljivac hoard. Thus, with the fall of Syracusan domination the coinage of both Dionysius the Elder and Younger withdrew from circulation in the Central Dalmatian area. Visonà paid special attention to the analysis of Issean coinage and devoted numerous papers to the reconstruction of its chronology. Although he considered Gorini’s assumptions on the role played by Syracuse in the earliest circulation of coinage in the first half of the 4th century justified, attributed to the colonizing activities of Dionysius the Elder in this area, they were not, in his opinion, supported with archaeological evidence, especially in the case of Issa. On the basis of B. Kirigin’s categorical assumptions (he excavated the Issean B necropolises) – that not a single Issean coin was found in controlled excavations and securely dated in the 4th century and thus there is no firm evidence for the Greek presence on the island prior to 330 BC – Gorini’s conclusion on „un dominio siracusano e pricipalmente dionigiano nella zona“ does not stand any more. Therefore Visonà believes that the numismatists’ attempts to associate the finds of Dionysius’ bronze coinage in Dalmatia with Syracusan colonization suffered a severe change during the last three decades. Kirigin’s opinion on the complete absence of the ceramic material from the first half of the 4th century suggests that Issa could have been colonized from Syracuse only after 344 BC and thus after the fall of the tyrannies of the two Dionysii. From this, armchair perspective, arose the possibility of the Pharian Syracusans’ foundation of Issa, considering the close relations between Syracuse and Pharos and the large number of Dionysius’ coinage from that island suggesting, according to these permutations, the presence of Syracusan settlers. In his papers on the Issean coinage Visonà tried to conform the known numismatic finds, methodologically correctly dated, with archaeological excavations of the Archaeological museum in Split, which are often contradicting one another. He states that “Evidence for Syracusan colonization in Dalmatia, however, remains elusive. Although some scholars (including one of Kirigin's fellow-excavators) still maintain that Dionysius I colonized Issa (on the island of Vis), a theory which dates back to the 17th century, no remains of a Greek settlement datable to his reign, or to that of Dionysius II (367-344 B.C.), have yet been found.” The crucial evidence is „Kirigin's statement that „chance finds, excavations, and field surveys on this site have not yielded a single (ceramic) fragment from the middle of the 5th to the middle of the 4th centuries B.C.“ is hard to dispute. According to Kirigin, a continuous record of Greek occupation on the island begins only c. 330 B.C.“ These are unusually contradictory views, when we know that the Syracusan fleet was intensively present in the Adriatic, where, before the foundation of Pharos, it secured a military base from which it gave the support to the Pharians in a critical moment in time. This first historically affirmed naval battle in the Central Dalmatian area between the Greeks and Illyrian coalition is recorded precisely because the intervention of the leading military power of the time. In the focus of Dionysius’ economical interests was not Pharos, an agrarian colony, to which a relief fleet consisting of a number of triremes with a commander appointed by Dionysius (eparch) was dispatched, but rather a strategically extremely important harbor of Issa, ideally placed with respect to the naval corridors leading towards the northern Adriatic, that is the Po valley. In this context the still not located Herakleia was founded, probably not without Dionysius’ aid. The late Syracusan colonization of the Central Adriatic was accomplished under the patronage of the mighty war fleet patrolling – according to Diodorus – until 357/6 BC under Dionysius’ admiral Philistes, until the fall of the tyranny. With the end of Syracusan protection the overstriking of Dionysius’ bronze coinage commenced, not only in the Adriatic, but also in other cities of Southern Italy and Sicily historically connected to the activities of the Dionysii. It is thus hard to accept the opinion on the foundation of Issa after the fall of the Syracusan tyranny and the withdrawal of the Syracusan military power from the Adriatic, especially permutations on Syracusan refugees from Pharos that could have founded this strategically the most important Greek colony in Central Dalmatia and to scrutinize the circulation of Dionysius’ bronze coinage in this context. Historical literary sources, together with scientific papers of numerous authors on Greek colonization of the Central Adriatic, stand opposed to this contrivance. The founding of the military base in Issa, between 398/397 and 385 BC, that is, the documented military intervention and aid in the occupation of the territory of the future Parian colony of Pharos, was precisely the starting point of this late Syracusan colonization of the Central Dalmatian area. These lately created contradictions take us back to basic dilemmas that were solved long ago through the analysis of older finds in accordance with documented historical context, which is also supported by the new archaeological excavations of Greek graves on the western necropolis of Issa, Martvilo, as well as in Issa and Pharos.

Izvorni jezik
Hrvatski, engleski

Znanstvena područja
Arheologija

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