THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

GREEK COINS
grade Oscan characters. Of Larinum we have bronze
money only, third century b.c, struck coins of the
uncial reduction of the ces.
Campania.—A province, containing many important
coin-yielding centres, and essentially Greek in the char-
acter of its money. The latter is chiefly in silver and
bronze ; the former was superseded about 268 b.c. by
the Roman currency {denarius) ;
the latter remained in
use much later. Of some places silver only is known,
of others bronze only. It is to this region and to the
period of the war with Hannibal, about b.c. 210, that
the series of Romano-Campanian gold coins, the earliest
money in that metal struck under Roman authority, is
ascribable. Many singularly beautiful types belong to
Campania, including those of Neapolis with the anthro-
pokephalous bull common to the coins of this district.
Some of the pieces with Oscan legends are perhaps to
be referred hither. The worship of Dionysos was more
or less widely diffused through Campania, sometimes in
conjunction with a female divinity.
Apulia.—The earliest coins are supposed to be those
of Tarentum, before Apulia acquired its own monetary
system. The types resemble those of Campania ; they
are of silver and bronze, the latter both cast and struck.
The coin-centres were numerous, and include Neapolis
Peucetiae, the modern Polignano, a town whose ancient
history is exclusively derived from its coins, of which
there have been many finds.
Calabria.—This district included Tarentum and
Brundusium (Brindisi) ; the money of the former, com-
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