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Pentonkion
| Issuer | Mamertinoi (Sicily) |
|---|---|
| Year | 210 BC - 200 BC |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Apollo facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic tradition with fine naturalistic detail. The hair is bound with a laurel wreath and falls in wavy locks behind the neck. The portrait displays a youthful, idealised profile characteristic of Sicilian Greek bronze coinage of the late third century BC. The field is plain and unadorned, with a beaded border partially visible along the coin's irregular flan edge. |
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| Reverse lettering | MAMEΡTINΩN Π |
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| Additional information |
The Mamertinoi were Campanian mercenaries who seized Messana around 288 BC after the death of Agathokles of Syracuse, slaughtering the male population and taking their wives and property. Their later appeal to Rome for protection against Hieron II of Syracuse in 264 BC became the immediate trigger for the First Punic War. By the time this bronze was struck, Messana had been a Roman ally for decades, and the community was threading an awkward line between its mercenary origins and a now-institutionalized civic identity expressed partly through a continued independent bronze coinage.