Catalog
Æ16
| Issuer | Beneventum |
|---|---|
| Year | 265 BC - 240 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.39 g |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Apollo facing left, rendered in the Hellenistic style characteristic of South Italian coinage of the mid-third century BC. The hair is depicted in flowing locks drawn back from the forehead, with fine engraving detail visible around the temple and neck. The portrait is set within a plain field with no surrounding legend. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Horse prancing or galloping to the right, depicted in a dynamic pose with forelegs raised, in the tradition of Campanian and Samnite bronze coinage. The horse is shown without a rider, with a flowing mane and tail. Below the horse, a fragmentary or partially visible inscription in Oscan or Latin script may appear in the exergue, consistent with the municipal coinage of Beneventum during this period. |
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| Additional information |
Beneventum's bronze coinage of this period reflects the city's unusual dual identity: a Latin colony planted by Rome in 268 BC into the heart of Samnite territory, on a site renamed from the ominous Maleventum immediately after Pyrrhus was driven from Italy. The renaming was deliberate Roman propaganda, and the subsequent colonial coinage was part of the same project of civic legitimation.
The Campana attribution carries a query, which is not uncommon for this series — the small bronzes of South Italian Latin colonies remain incompletely die-linked, and examples surface infrequently enough that the corpus is still being refined.