The ancient Greeks were a seafaring people, they acquired cats through trading with Egypt. As Greeks traveled, they took their cats with them, including to their colonies in southern Italy. Archaeologists have found coins in that region, dating from around 750 B.C., showing a man (the colony’s founder) seated in a chair, while a cat on hind legs plays with something in the man’s hand. Another coin from about the same period shows a man with a cat seated behind him.
