ANCIENT ICONOGRAPHY The first depictions of the myth come from ancient coins: a Roman denarius of the late second century BC (fig.1); two bronze coins of Catania (90-40 BC); and a Roman denarius of Sextus Pompeius from the civil wars (42-40 BC) (fig.2). It is possible that some of these coins took inspiration from a statue group in Catania. A late fourth-century AD poem by Claudian, which describes the brothers in detail, suggests the existence of such a statue group. The inscribed statue base displayed here records the restoration of the statues in the mid-fifth century AD.
The Catania brothers are one of several examples of filial piety from antiquity: the most famous Roman version was the story of Aeneas rescuing his father and son from the sack of Troy (featured on Octavian’s civil war coinage, in competition with that of Sextus Pompeius). The story of the Catania brothers is probably the explanation for the likely full name of the Roman colony: Colonia Iulia Augusta Pietas Catina.
Fig. 1
Denarius of M. Herennius, late 2nd cent. BC.
Fig. 2
Denarius of Sextus Pompeius, 42-40 BC.
