Tetradrachm of Aetna, Obv.: AITNAION Head of bald Seilenus r. wearing ivy-wreath;
The Brussels Coin Cabinet is supposed to possess the most valuable item in the entire field of numismatics whatever the period or the place of striking. This is the unique tetradrachm of Aetna which is often considered as the ultimate and impossible dream of any coin collector. This reputation, built at the end of the 19th c. AD, comes from both its historical and artistical interest. It gives a vivid illustration of what we know from ancient authors. In 476-475 BC, Hieron of Syracuse removed the inhabitants of Catana and Naxos from their homes, and replaced them by fresh citizens, drawn in equal proportions from Syracuse and Peloponnesus. The old inhabitants were removed to Leontini. Hieron renamed Catana Aetna, and gave it the old =Dorian= institutions. After his death (spring, 466) and the fall of Thrasybulus (spring, 465), it was not to be expected that the foundation would be left undisturbed; and indeed the Sicel leader Ducetius lost no time in attacking it. Assisted by the Syracusans, he was able to expel the Aetneans, who settled in Inessa, on the southern slope of Mount Aetna. This place in its turn took its name from the volcano, while Catana reverted to its old name.
The unique tetradrachm, one of the most remarkable in the whole Sicilian series, is the most spectacular monument of the dozen years or so during which Catana bore the name of Aetna (small silver coins reading AITNAI do exist as well). On the tetradrachm, every detail of the types serves to give local colour. As B.V. Head wrote in 1883: >It can hardly be doubted that the Zeus here represented is the great god of Mount Aetna, the volcanic soil of which was especially favourable to the cultivation of the vine, whence perhaps the vine-staff on which te god rests his arm... It is noteworthy that across the throne of the god is spread the skin of a lion, or of some other mountain-bred beast of prey; but the most characteristic symbol on the reverse is undoubtedly the pine-tree with which, according to Diodorus, the slopes of Aetna were once richly clad... Seilenos, as we learn from Euripides satyric drama Kyklops, was enslaved by Polyhemos, and dwelt in the caves of Aetna with his savage master. More generally the head of Seilenos may be taken as pointing to the cultus of Dionysos, who, as we know from other coins, was especially revered at Catana; but, as if still further to specialise the locality, the artist has placed beneath the head of Seilenos one of those huge scarabei for which Mount Aetna was celebrated.