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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Messana |
|---|---|
| Year | 412 BC - 408 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm (20) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Charioteer depicted in profile, holding the kentron (goad) in his right hand and the reins in his left, driving a biga of mules at a brisk pace to the left. The figures are rendered in the fine early Classical style characteristic of Sicilian coinage, with careful attention to anatomical detail in the mules and drapery of the driver. In the exergue below the ground line, two dolphins are shown confronted, a civic emblem closely associated with the maritime city of Messana. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Messana's coinage of this period reflects the city's precarious position during the final, catastrophic phase of the Athenian expedition to Sicily. The city had been refounded by Anaxilas around 488 BC after he expelled the original Zanklaean population and repopulated it with Messenians from the Peloponnese — a colonial identity the coinage consistently asserted. By 412–408 BC, Syracuse had destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Great Harbor, and the regional power balance was shifting rapidly toward Carthaginian intervention in the west.
The Caltabiano corpus remains the authoritative die study for this series.