Cimelia entellina. Coin finds from the Rocca d’Entella and the coinage of its Campani. Reflections on Sicilian events in the late fifth century BC

Two silver coins of Catana found on the Rocca d’Entella, a litra of 408(?) and a drachm of 406/405 BC, are published in this contribution for the first time. They are not overstrikes, but silver coins of Catana, Naxus and Rhegium, as well as a single specimen of Athens were used as flans for the production of the first silver coins of the Campani in Entella. These were drachms and hemidrachms, so far all from collections or from the market, issued in large quantities in the last decade of the fifth century BC for military purposes by the authorities of the Chalcidian cities in the area of Etna and of Rhegium. Over recent years various studies have been dedicated to these overstrikes taking into account the written sources dealing with the Campanians of Entella, yet their authors have come up with different chronologies. This article assembles all overstruck specimens, eleven in total. The date of the overstrikes is considered in the light of a new specimen from the market whose undertype is the last issue of Catana before its occupation by Dionysius I in 403/402 BC according to Diodorus (14.15.1-3), yet more likely around 401/400 BC according the overall context of his account. The conclusion is that, after this event, when Dionysius also granted to the Campanians the city of Catana as their dwelling place (Diodorus 14.15.3), the coins were brought by a group of Campanians to Entella where in 404 BC another group of Campani had settled after being released by Dionysius from his service (Diodorus 14.9.8-9). The coins were part of booty or pay only ―it is uncertain if ransom money was involved ―and were overstruck in Entella. Since both drachms and hemidrachms were produced from two obverse and two reverse dies, the quantity cannot have been very large and may have covered e.g. the pay of a group of 600 warriors engaged for 100 days. Hemilitra and bronze coins were also produced, the latter from fresh bullion. They are studied and, with the drachms and hemidrachms, discussed within the framework of the other coin finds from the Rocca d’Entella, and of Sicilian coinage issued in the late fifth century BC. Both the metrology of the bronzes (inspired by those of the Chalcidian cities) and the iconography of the horse on all denominations (inspired from Dionysius’gold coins which also inspired the Punic tetradrachms of Jenkins’series 1, latter part) attest to further influence from eastern Sicily. Overall, the coins raise fundamental questions related to the creation of the Campanian community’s institutional organisation and on the process of how to equip the city with monetary instruments and use them also as a tool of propaganda