Pentonkion

The Mamertinoi were Oscan-speaking mercenaries — originally from Campania — who seized Messana around 288 BC after their Syracusan employer Agathokles died and they found themselves suddenly unemployed and heavily armed. They held the city for decades, their aggression eventually drawing both Rome and Carthage into Sicily and triggering the First Punic War. By the time this bronze was struck, that war was long over and Messana had become a Roman ally, leaving the Mamertinoi in an awkward semi-autonomous position under Roman protection.

CNS 27 is among the later emissions of the series, produced as the community's independent monetary output was winding down under increasing Roman influence.