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Lipara — modern Lipari, the largest of the Aeolian Islands — was a Carthaginian ally during the First Punic War, which led to its sacking by the Romans under Gaius Duillius in 257 BC. By the date range of this issue, the city was firmly under Roman domination but retained enough civic identity to strike local bronze. That persistence of local coinage into the second century, under Roman supervision, reflects the broader policy of allowing Sicilian communities limited monetary autonomy as long as it served regional exchange needs rather than political assertion.