Hemidrachm

The Brettii — the Bruttian confederation of southern Italy — struck gold coinage during the Second Punic War as Hannibal's presence in Italy reshuffled regional loyalties with brutal efficiency. Following the Roman catastrophe at Cannae in 216 BC, the Brettii defected to Carthage, and this hemidrachm almost certainly served to fund military operations conducted under that alliance. Gold issues from the Brettii are rare precisely because the confederation's political existence was short and its end severe: after Carthage's defeat, Rome punished the Brettii by confiscating their territory and reducing the entire people to a servant class, effectively erasing them as a political entity.