Greek SICILY, SYRACUSE Philistis, wife of Hieron II, Lead applique, 308 BC-215 BC. Size 1.25 inches diameter = 32 mm = 3.2 cm; Beautiful cast lead round applique with Philistis head facing right. Provenance: Ex East Coast Collection, Ex; Fortuna Fine Arts. References: Philistis, the wife of Hieron II, was a queen of ancient Syracuse, Magna Graecia, known from her coins, which are numerous, and of fine workmanship, and from the occurrence of her name (bearing the title of queen, as it does also on her coins) in some Greek inscriptions on the stands of the theater of Tauromenium (Taormina).[1] The circumstance that it is here associated with that of Nereis, the wife of Gelon II, as well as the style and fabric of the coins, which closely resemble those of Hieron II and his son, leads to the conclusion that these were struck during the long reign of Hieron II. The most probable conjecture is that Philistis was the wife of Hieron himself. Hiero II (Greek: Ἱέρων Β΄; c. 308 BC – 215 BC), also called Hieron II, was the Greek tyrant of Syracuse, Greek Sicily, from 275 to 215 BC, and the illegitimate son of a Syracusan noble, Hierocles, who claimed descent from Gelon.[1] He was a former general of Pyrrhus of Epirus and an important figure of the First Punic War.[2] He figures in the story of famed thinker Archimedes shouting "Eureka".