25 Litrai The Sikeliotes

Morgantina's defection to Carthage in 214 BC, following Rome's catastrophic defeat at Cannae two years prior, almost certainly prompted this emergency gold issue. The city needed to pay troops and demonstrate political commitment to the Carthaginian cause — precisely the circumstances that produce sudden, short-lived gold coinages. When Rome retook Morgantina in 211 BC, the Spanish mercenaries who had held it for Carthage were rewarded with the city itself. The coinage window was narrow, which accounts for the extreme rarity of surviving specimens.