Rhegion was established in the late eighth century BC by Chakidians fleeing famine in Euboea. They were joined by Messenians fleeing the First Messenian war with Sparta (743-724 BC).  Strabo records that both sets of refugees were sent there by Apollo, with the Chalkidians coming via Delphi and the Messenians being instructed by the god to accompany then and to be thankful to Artemis that they did not face ruin with their native land.  Strabo further records that rulers of the city were always drawn from the Messenians. [1] The city reached its height with the rise of Anaxilas as tyrant in 494 BC.

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Rhegion’s position on the tip of the southern Italian peninsula led them into conflict with Zankle which was situated on the closest point of Sicily to the Italian mainland.  Anaxilas encouraged Messenians from the Peloponnese to attack Zankle, transporting them to Sicily where they were victorious on land whilst he defeated the Zanklian fleet at sea. In 486 BC the captured city was renamed as Messene [2] and Anaxilas then controlled both sides of the lucrative trade route through the straights of Messina.

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The first coinage of Rhegion is of the incuse type common to the Achaian cities of southern Italy (only two specimens have survived [3] ).  At the start of the fifth century BC this was replaced by double relief coinage featuring an obverse type of a facing lion’s head on the Euboic-Chalcidian standard (5.8g drachm).  This type was ubiquitous on the coinage of Rhegion through to its destruction in 387 BC by Dionysus I, with one exception. Anaxilas was recorded as having won the mule car race  in the 75th Olympiad (480 BC) and from 480-462 BC the tetradrachms and fractions of Rhegion were now minted on the Attic standard (17.2g tetradrachm) featured a mule cart biga on the obverse and a hare on the reverse.   This coin is dated as an earliest issue of 475 BC, however it would make more sense to have been immediately after the event, so around 480 BC, especially as Anaxilas died in 476 BC.  After his death, control of Rhegion passed to his sons, until they were overthrown in 461 BC. 

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The apene (mule-cart) race was introduced at Olympia early in the fifth century BC but discontinued in 444 BC together with the calpe (mare horse) race.  It was not one of the prestige events (Pausianus describes it as  neither of venerable antiquity nor yet a graceful performance) but it was an event in which the Greeks of Magna Graecia excelled.  This must have engendered some celebration in the city as it is the first recorded instance of an event having been won by a citizen (or ruler) of Rhegion.    

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This coin is 17.22g so exactly right for an Attic standard tetradrachm.  The ethnic is a retrograde ΡΕCΙΝΟΝ on the reverse.  The C here is an epichoric version of gamma Γ (local variations of the alphabet persisted until around 400 BC before the widespread adoption of the Anatolian Ionian forms). C-like forms of Γ (either pointed or rounded) were common in many mainland varieties and in the West [4].  The mule-cart/hare types also appear on the fractions of this period. 

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The mule on the obverse is walking rather than racing and is being guided by a driver seated rather than standing as would be found on the chariot races.  The driver is described as using a kentron, which is any implement used to guide or sting.  Below is an olive leaf, perhaps reflecting the wild olive leaf crown received by victors at the games. 

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In contrast the rather sedate obverse, the reverse brings a sense of energy  with a hare mid-leap. The use of the hare may be a reference to the abundance of the animal in the vicinity of Rhegion (according to Aristotle, Anaxilas is supposed to have also introduced it to Sicily), and to the cult of Pan that flourished among the Messenians. This hypothesis is supported by the presence of a head identified as Pan as an adjunct to the hare on later tetradrachms of Messana (The same type was introduced in Messana by Anaxilas in 480 BC with only the ethnic being different and Caltabiano identifies an obverse die link between the tetradrachms of the cities). Caltabiano regards the hare as connected with the death/rebirth concept dear to the Pythagoreans [5].

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Anaxilas is remembered kindly in history, with Justinian recording six centuries later reflecting that he “strove to be as just as the others were cruel, and reaped no small advantage from his equity; for having left, at his death, some sons very young, and having committed the guardianship of them to Micythus, a slave of tried fidelity, so great was the respect paid to his memory among all his subjects, that they chose rather to submit to a slave than to abandon the king's children;” [6]

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This coin was obtained privately from Bank Leu in 1972 before being sold in 2021 by Leu Numismatic and then by Numismatik Naumann in 2022 (relisted twice). I purchased it in June 2025 from CNG.  Its reference is HN Italy 2472.

 

[1] Strabo, Geography 6.1.6

[2] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 23.8-9

[3] Hoover HGC1 p478

[4] Jeffery, Lilian H. (1961). The local scripts of archaic Greece.

[5] Caccamo Caltabiano 1998: 33–40

[6] Justinus: Epitome of Pompeius Trogus'  Philippic Histories  4.2