The Atrebates of southern Britain were under direct pressure from Caesar's Gallic campaigns during this decade — the tribal leader Commius, once Caesar's ally and envoy to Britain, had by the late 50s BC turned against Rome following a failed assassination attempt against him. Coins attributed to his tribe from this period circulated in a political environment of acute instability, with loyalties shifting between accommodation and outright resistance.
Sills 209 places this type within a sequence that predates the introduction of inscribed coinage among the Atrebates, making ruler attribution impossible on numismatic grounds alone.
The Atrebates of southern Britain were under direct pressure from Caesar's Gallic campaigns during this decade — the tribal leader Commius, once Caesar's ally and envoy to Britain, had by the late 50s BC turned against Rome following a failed assassination attempt against him. Coins attributed to his tribe from this period circulated in a political environment of acute instability, with loyalties shifting between accommodation and outright resistance.
Sills 209 places this type within a sequence that predates the introduction of inscribed coinage among the Atrebates, making ruler attribution impossible on numismatic grounds alone.