“Nelle tasche dei marinai. Le monete siciliane da Anticitera e il commercio di opere d’arte in età tardo-repubblicana

This paper focuses on the bronze coins of Catana and Panormus retrieved from the Antikythera shipwreck, which were recently published in the catalogue of the exhibition held at the National Archaeological Museum at Athens in 2012. They belong to a group of about forty coins, most of which were too worn to be conclusively identified. Unlike the silver hoard of Cistophori found onboard, which seems to attest to the presence of a passenger originating in Asia Minor, such bronze coins no doubt represent the argent de poche that a member of the crew accepted as small change at the harbour–towns that the ship had called at on its previous journeys. Therefore, the light they can shed on the Antikythera shipwreck is twofold. On the one hand, since the Catana coins are only attested one more time in the Aegean area, namely at the island of Delos, their presence onboard can be considered a further clue of a connection between the ship and Delos. That the former journeys of the ship included the harbours of East Sicily is hinted at by the local discovery of several ceramic classes retrieved onboard (e.g., Eastern Sigillata Ware). On the other hand, both the Catana coins carry the representation of two mythic figures on one side, named eusebeis or pii fratres, who became a popular symbol of piety comparable to Aeneas during the 2nd and 1st century BC. Scholars put forward different dating for such coins, ranging from as early as the beginning of the 2nd century BC to as late as the mid–1st century BC. The Antikythera wreck safely attests to their circulation in ca. 70–60 BC. By drawing on the economical, religious, and political connotations of the representation of Dionysus on the other side of the Catana coins, the author contends that they were minted in the last quarter of the 2nd century BC.