SICILY, Katane. Circa 450-445 BC. AR Tetradrachm (30mm, 17.03 g, 2h). Charioteer, wearing long chiton, holding kentron in right hand and reins in both, driving slow quadriga right / Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath; KATANAIO-N around. Mirone 30–2; HGC 2, 566; SNG ANS 1241 (same obv. die); SNG Spencer 37 (same dies); Basel 326 (same rev. die); Rizzo pl. X, 11 (same obv. die). Old collection tone, hairline flan crack, minor flan flaw on obverse. Near EF. Well centered and struck from artistic dies on a broad flan.
From the Columbus Collection. Ex Numismatica Genevensis SA VII (27 November 2012), lot 144; Leu 77 (11 May 2000), lot 83.
The Sicilian city of Katane (modern Catania) was a Chalkidian colony founded from Naxos in 729 BC. Katane was located midway along the eastern coast of the island at the southern extremity of the slopes of Mount Aetna. Its fertile territory was coveted by neighboring Syracuse, and in 476 BC the Syracusan tyrant Hieron I removed the population of Katane to the inland city of Leontini. Katane was then given the name of Aetna and resettled with Syracusan citizens and a group of Dorian mercenaries. On the fall of the Sicilian tyrannies in the late 460s BC, the alien population was expelled and the former inhabitants of Katane returned from exile in Leontini to reclaim their city, which now reverted to its original name. It seems unlikely that any coinage was produced at Katane prior to the events of 476 BC, so any issues bearing the name of the Katanians must postdate the restoration of the original population in 461 BC.
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