Triens Paestum

Paestum — the Latin renaming of the Greek colony Poseidonia — became a Roman ally in 273 BC, and this bronze reflects the uncomfortable numismatic negotiation that followed. The city retained limited local coinage rights while Rome's Second Punic War raged, and Paestan bronzes of this period circulated alongside Roman struck coinage in a region that Hannibal's army had marched through directly. The city stayed loyal to Rome after Cannae in 216 BC, one of the few southern Italian communities that did not defect — a loyalty costly enough to be recorded by Livy.