Gold Tritartemorion - Pyrrhos of Epiros

Panormos was a Phoenician settlement occupying the site of present-day Palermo. The city was never Greek and subsequently became the capital of Carthaginian Sicily. Its spacious and magnificent harbor made it an important naval and military base. Panormos briefly fell into the hands of Pyrrhos (276 B.C.) along with most of the rest of the cities controlled by Carthage, including Enna, Akragas, Heraklea, Selinos and Segesta. Distrust and rivalries among his Sicilian allies, the arrival of Carthaginian reinforcements, and his own heavy-handed tactics caused Pyrrhos to lose his Sicilian Greek allies and forced him to return to Italy. Thereupon Panormos again became Carthaginian and remained so until captured by Rome in 254 B.C.

This fractional gold Stater may have been struck as a donative issue by the Greek forces of Pyrrhos who briefly occupied the city. Struck on the Attic standard, it should be viewed as related to contemporary gold issues of Metapontion and Tarentum, also struck to finance the military operations of Pyrrhos of Epiros. The choice of Athena/owl and Apollo/lyre types may have been intended to highlight the concept of Greeks fighting barbarians.