[ 8 4 ] 
faid bigae and quadrigse, both in their type and 
workmanlhip, feem greatly to referable thofe of 
Gelo, king of Syracufe, and other Syracufian coins- 
bcfore Hieronymus, the laft of them, ever wore a diadem ; from 
whence he concludes, that all the coins of thofe monarchs, with 
diademated heads upon them, and particularly thofe of Gelo, Hiero 
I. Dionyfius I. & 1 I. Agathocles, and Hiero II. were pcfterior to 
the times in which thofe princes lived, and even to the reign of 
Hieronymus. But this falfe notion has been fully and effectually 
refuted by the Prince di * Torremuzza, in the prolegomena pre- 
fixed to his volume of antient inferiptions found in Sicily, and 
printed at Palermo, this very year. The learned Prince firft 
there fhevvs, that Baron Spanheim is inconfiftent with himfelf in 
this canicular ; and then to demonffration proves, that the coins 
of Gelo, Hiero I. Dionyfius I. & II. Agathocles, and Hiero IT. 
with diademated heads upon them, were actually ftruck when 
thofe princes fat upon the throne of Syracufe. To which I {hall 
beg leave to add, that the elegance of the workmanlhip of the 
very antient Sicilian coins is no argument at all againft their 
remote antiquity ; as the Sicilians, and particularly the Syra- 
cufians, who were the politeft part of them, excelled in all 
the arts of peace, and therefore in the elaborate concinnity of 
their money, as well as military lkill and bravery, in the 
days of Gelo, and even before, at leaf!:, the latter part of that 
prince’s reign. This has been clearly evinced by the learned Sig. 
f Bianconi, in the very valuable little treatife here referred to; 
in which, amongft other things, he inconteffably proves the 
medals of Gelo, and particularly thofe mentioned here, to have 
nrft appeared in the reign of that prince, adducing at the fame 
time feveral ancient Sicilian pieces even prior to thofe coins. 
Nor will it be improper farther to remark, that what has been 
advanced by Sig. Bianconi on the latter head is confirmed by 
(fee Tab. V. n. 5, 6, 7.) feveral medals of Leontium, or Leon- 
tini, Agrigentum, and Syracufe, now in my fmall cabinet; 
the forms of the characters on which moft evidently demonstrate 
* Prirccp. deTorremuz. Sicilia et objacentium infular. veter. iiifcriptian. 
no'V. colled, prolegom. et not. illufirat. prolegom. p, LIV, LV, LV1. Pa- 
ne rmi, 1769. 
■jr Joan. Baptift. Biancon. Dc antiqu, litter, Hebraor, G? Craccr. libel. 
p, 37— 45. Bononia?, 1748. 
3. The 
