bgr_431986 - SICILIA - ZANKLE Drachme

SICILY - ZANKLE

(6th - 5th century BC)

Zancle was one of the first Chalcidian settlements in Sicily founded according to Thucydides (VI, 4) by settlers from Cumae and therefore colonized from Euboea. However Strabo (VI, p. 268) reports that Zancle was a foundation of Naxos. The colony was founded around 725 BC.. -VS. Zankle's name means sickle. This name was given to it according to the configuration of the coast and the shape of the port of Zankle. The Samiens, fleeing the Persian yoke, seized the city in 493 BC.. -VS. and kept it for four years, until Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegion, drove them out and renamed the city Messina.. Anaxilas and his son were overthrown in 461 BC. -VS. and established democracy. Messina was destroyed by the Carthaginians in 396 BC. -VS. Messina, after regaining some prosperity during the second half of the 4th century BC. -VS. , was once again ravaged by an invader, this time Oscan mercenaries who destroyed the city and massacred its inhabitants in 288 BC.. -VS. The new masters, the Mamertines, maintained their autonomy under the control of the Romans until the 1st century BC.. -VS. Coinage ceased in 38 BC.. -VS.