Greek Sicily Messana

Messana​

According to Aristotle, Anaxilas placed these types on his coins to commemorate his victory in the mule biga event at the Olympic Games in 484 or 480 BC, and his introduction of the hare for the first time into Sicily. Founded by Greek colonists in the 8th century BC, Messana was originally called Zankle, meaning ‘scythe’ because of the shape of its natural harbour [though a legend attributes the name to King Zanklus]. Herodotus and Thucydides relate that in the early 5th century BC, Anaxilas of Rhegium encouraged the Samians and other Ionian refugees to seize Zankle, which was then under the rule of the tyrant Skythes, who had been appointed to that post in 494 BC by Hippocrates of Gela. Shortly afterwards Anaxilas himself beseiged the city, drove out the Samians, peopled it with fresh inhabitants and renamed it Messana in honour of his native city of Messene, which had itself been founded by Epaminondas after the battle of Leuktra.