Art Institute of Chicago

Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying Biga with Mules

Greek; minted in Messana, Sicily, ItalyLinkedCulture matchlcp-dceeee48faee

Date: 484-476 BCE
Medium: Silver
Culture: Ancient Greece
Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 141560

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

The official record of quadrennial games honoring the supreme Greek god Zeus at a sanctuary dedicated to him at Olympia began in 776 BC. With few interruptions, they took place every four years for about 1,100 years. In AD 394, the Christian emperor Theodosius I (r. 379–95) abolished them as pagan rites. The most prestigious competition remained the footrace, but eventually it was supplanted in popularity by the horse races. Horses were symbols of socioeconomic status, since only the privileged could afford to buy, feed, and train them and transport their teams and trainers to Olympia every four years. In time, many of the victors in the horse races included kings and tyrants. Anaxilas, tyrant of Messana and Rhegium, minted this coin to celebrate the victory of his two-mule chariot team in either 484 or 480 BC.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of William F. Dunham
Provenance: William F. Dunham (1857-1936), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1920.

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Object type: AAT300037334

Part of a LinkedCulture topic

Ancient Greek Silver Tetradrachms
These objects are all tetradrachm coins, a standard ancient Greek silver denomination, depicting various deities and symbols from Greek city-states and territories across the Mediterranean.
333 objects from 3 institutions