v49_0081 - SICILIA - SELINOS Hemilitron, (PB, Æ 15)

SICILY - SELINUS

(5th century BC)

Selinunte was founded by Megarian settlers. The new coinage begins after 466 BC when Selinunte experienced great economic prosperity. The aggression against Segesta, in 413 BC, provoked the intervention of Athens in Sicily and the disastrous expedition of Alcibiades recounted by Thucydides in the Peloponnesian War. The city emerged victorious from this first test, but could not resist the Carthaginian invasion. The city, besieged, was destroyed in 409 BC and came under Carthaginian domination.