Eppillus was one of the few late Iron Age rulers in Britain who styled himself REX on his coinage — a deliberate adoption of Roman titulature that signals just how thoroughly Roman political culture had penetrated the southern British kingdoms by the turn of the millennium. He ruled the Atrebates following Tincommius, likely his brother, who fled to Augustus around 7 AD according to the Res Gestae. That dynastic rupture almost certainly explains the relatively brief window during which these quarter staters were issued.
The fabric is characteristically small and thick, a compression of the earlier Gaulish stater tradition into fractional coinage that was already losing ground to Roman denominations filtering northward.
Eppillus was one of the few late Iron Age rulers in Britain who styled himself REX on his coinage — a deliberate adoption of Roman titulature that signals just how thoroughly Roman political culture had penetrated the southern British kingdoms by the turn of the millennium. He ruled the Atrebates following Tincommius, likely his brother, who fled to Augustus around 7 AD according to the Res Gestae. That dynastic rupture almost certainly explains the relatively brief window during which these quarter staters were issued.
The fabric is characteristically small and thick, a compression of the earlier Gaulish stater tradition into fractional coinage that was already losing ground to Roman denominations filtering northward.