Nomos

Metapontion's agricultural wealth — built almost entirely on grain production across the Tarentine Gulf's fertile hinterland — made its coinage among the most stable in Magna Graecia during the fourth century. The city had backed the losing side in several regional conflicts by this period, yet its mint maintained uninterrupted output, suggesting the grain trade insulated it from the worst political consequences. Pythagoras had established his brotherhood here in the late sixth century and reportedly died in the city; whether that association carried any civic weight two centuries later is impossible to say with certainty.