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Æ Uncia
| Issuer | Brettii |
|---|---|
| Year | 215 BC - 205 BC |
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| Currency | Drachm |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Zeus facing right, rendered in vigorous Italic style with deeply incised curling locks of hair and beard radiating across the field. The portrait fills the flan almost entirely, with heavy, expressive modelling characteristic of Bruttian bronze coinage of the Second Punic War period. A fillet or wreath crown is discernible above the brow, and the facial features are boldly articulated despite the worn surfaces. No legend appears on the obverse. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain (irregular) |
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| Additional information |
The Brettii — a Samnite-related people of Bruttium in the toe of Italy — struck their own coinage during the Second Punic War largely because they had allied with Hannibal after his crushing victories at Trebia and Lake Trasimene. This bronze issue dates to precisely that window of defection, when the Brettii controlled much of southern Italy and needed independent coinage to pay troops and conduct civic administration outside Roman authority. Their mint was almost certainly Consentia, modern Cosenza.
Roman reconquest after 205 BC effectively ended Bruttian monetary production, and the alliance's collapse was punished harshly — Bruttian aristocrats were reduced to serving as Roman litter-bearers, a deliberate humiliation.