v53_0018 - SICILIA - CATANA Tétradrachme

SICILY - KATANE

(5th - 4th century BC)

Catania was founded by settlers from Naxos, a Chalcidian colony, in 729 BC.. -VS. It was placed halfway between its metropolis, Naxos, and Leontini on the western coast of Sicily.. Hieron the Elder captured the city in 476 BC. -VS. and renamed it Ætna. Syracusan invaders were driven out in 461 BC. -VS. and the city regained its independence and its name. During the Peloponnesian War, Catania chooses Athens against Syracuse in 413 BC. -VS. It was temporarily saved by the Carthaginian invasion of 409 BC.. -VS. Dionysius of Syracuse captured Catania in 404 BC. -VS. and enslaved the people. The Catania region then came under Carthaginian influence. Several tyrants favorable to Syracuse followed one another before opposing Timoleon who crushed the Greek and Carthaginian allies under the walls of the city. In 278, the Catanese welcomed Pyrrhus. During the first Punic war, the city was one of the first conquered by the Romans under the leadership of the consul, Valerius Maximus Messala. During the First Servile War (135-132 BC. -VS. ) the slaves took over the city. Catania was one of the main ports of Sextus Pompey from 43 BC. -VS. Pompey's fleet was beaten by Agrippa's at the battle of Nauloque in 36 BC.. -VS. forcing Pompey to abandon Sicily.