Nomos

Metapontion's prosperity was built almost entirely on grain — the city sat in the heart of Lucanian agricultural territory, and its coinage reflects that wealth in both volume and quality. By the early third century, however, the city was caught between Oscan-speaking Lucanians pressing from inland and the growing ambitions of Rome and Tarentum along the coast. This nomos belongs to the period when that pressure was becoming existential.

The city would back Pyrrhus of Epirus by 280 BC, a gamble that ultimately accelerated its decline.