Tetradrachm

Messana's tetradrachms of this period were struck during a stretch of acute political instability — the city had been refounded by Anaxilas of Rhegion in the early fifth century after he expelled the original Zanclaean population, and control of the strait it commanded remained a persistent source of conflict between Sicilian powers. The approximate terminus of this issue, 413 BC, coincides closely with the catastrophic Athenian defeat in Sicily, which reshuffled alliances and revenue flows across the island.

Caltabiano 533 is a well-documented die pairing within a series known for relatively tight chronological attribution based on stylistic progression rather than literary sources.