Introduced early in the fifth century, the apene was one of the odder Olympic entries and was never as prestigious as the horse-chariot races. Since the mule-cart was viewed as an unworthy spectacle, and dropped after only a few decades. That short life is largely why the seated mule-driver is so rare in Greek art. Which makes Messana's coinage unusual. Aristotle records that Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegion and Messana, won the mule-biga race at the Olympic Games of 484 or 480 BCE, and rather than borrow the standard imagery of a horse quadriga, he advertised the exact race he'd won. To that end, Messana adopted the mule-biga and seated charioteer wholesale, and it became the template for the city's Classical coinage.