SICILY. Messana. 478-476 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 25 mm, 17.19 g, 4 h). Charioteer driving biga of mules walking to the right; in exergue, olive sprig with two leaves and tiny berry. Rev. ΜΕSSΕ-Ν-ΙΟΝ Hare springing to the right. Caltabiano 75 (D41/R38). Randazzo 105-6 ( same dies ). About very fine.

Beginning in c. 480 BC the obverse type chosen for tetradrachms of Messana refers to the tyrant Anaxilas's victory in the mule car races at Olympia. In 494 BC, Anaxilas, then tyrant of Rhegium, just across the straits from the Sicilian city of Zankle, encouraged some Samian and other Ionian refugees - fleeing from the Persians - to seize and settle Zankle. A few years later - in 488 - he threw them out, took over the city himself, resettled the city with settlers from his native city of Messene in the Peloponnesos, and renamed the city Messana. As for the Olympic mule car races, they were held from 500 until 444 BC when they dropped; Anaxilas was so proud of his victory in a race in the 480s (of course, he personally wasn't the driver - he was the patron who paid for the whole team, but the patron was the person who was declared the winner; the same was true for horse races of all types - the owner was the winner, not the jockey or the driver), that he displayed it on the obverse of his coins!