Æ Triobol

The Brettii — a Samnite-related people of Bruttium in the toe of Italy — began striking their own coinage only after breaking from Rome during the Second Punic War, aligning with Hannibal following the catastrophe at Cannae in 216 BC. This issue falls squarely within that window of defection, struck by a people who controlled most of southern Italy with Carthaginian backing but whose political independence proved short-lived. Rome retook Bruttium by 205 BC and effectively ended the Brettian minting program entirely, which concentrates the entire coinage into a tight decade of production.