SICULO-PUNIC, Motya. Circa 400-397 BC. AR Tetradrachm (24.5mm, 16.48 g, 11h). Head of Arethousa left, hair in ampyx and sakkos, wearing triple-pendant earring and pearl necklace; four dolphins swimming around / Crab. Jenkins, Punic 46 (O6/R8); Campana 22; CNP 502; HGC 2, 923 (same obv. die as illustration); SNG Ashmolean 1861 = SNG Lockett 836 (same dies); SNG Copenhagen 481 (same dies); SNG Lloyd 1138 = Bement 415 (same dies); Rizzo pl. LXV, 9 (same dies); Weber 1452 (same dies). Toned, off center and some die wear on reverse, some delaminations and marks on edge. Good VF. From the JTB Collection. Ex Nomos 27 (22 May 2023), lot 1037. Reportedly ex Richard Eidswick Collection.The island city of Motya was founded as a trading post by Phoenician settlers in the eighth century BC as part of a wave of Phoenician colonization in the western Mediterranean. The city was the largest and most influential of the Phoenician colonies founded in Sicily and this continued into the period of Carthaginian domination of the western half of the island. The city was used as a stronghold for Punic forces during Carthages conflicts with the Greek cities in Sicily and finally Dionysios of Syracuse decided to target the city. The siege and capture of the city in 397 BC resulted in its complete destruction and it never recovered. The survivors were eventually resettled in the new Punic stronghold in Sicily, Lilybaion. The final winners of all Triton XXIX lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 13-14 January 2026.Triton XXIX – Session One – Lot 1-301 will be held Tuesday morning, 13 January 2026 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyers fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
