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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Messana |
|---|---|
| Year | 412 BC - 408 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | A hare springing vigorously to the right occupies the central field, rendered with naturalistic detail in the fine Sicilian engraving tradition. Behind the hare, a stalk of grain bearing three ears rises in the background, serving as a symbol of the region's agricultural prosperity. The ethnic legend MEΣΣANION is inscribed within two parallel exergual lines beneath the main design, identifying the issuing city of Messana in standard Greek capitals. |
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| Reverse lettering | MEΣΣANION |
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| Additional information |
Messana's tetradrachms of this period belong to a city under acute political stress. In 408 BC, the Carthaginian general Hannibal Mago launched a devastating campaign across Sicily, sacking Selinus and Himera and threatening the entire Greek west of the island. Messana itself fell in 396 BC, and the coins struck in the years immediately preceding that collapse carry an implicit urgency — a civic mint asserting identity against an encroaching horizon. Caltabiano 600 represents a recognized die grouping within the series, placing this piece within a documented sequence rather than among the more loosely attributed variants.