Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

with the late period of the Hyrina coins. 599 The small number of Neapolitan coins
suggests that in the period between 410 and 385/80 BC the coins of Hyrina and Nola
dominated the coinage of Campania 600 Rutter also discovered several die-transferences
among the coins of Nola, Hyrina, Capua, Fistelia, Allifae and those of the Fenserni,
which prompted him to conclude that the coins of all these communities were struck for
them in Naples. 01 Neapolitan coinage resumed after the Oscan coinages ceased.
The quantity of coins bearing the legend Hyrina is surprising, especially when we
consider the short length of time within which they were issued. The close relationship
between the issuing of coins and wars has long been recognized. Rutter argued that these
Oscan coins were expenditure-driven and were minted in order to pay the Campanian
mercenaries who fought with the Athenians against Syracuse in around 410 BC and later
remained in Sicily to form part of the Carthage's help to Segesta. 602 Later, the
603
Campanians fell out with the Carthaginians and were transferred to Libya. Rutter
suggested that some of the soldiers probably returned to Campania, and that the coins of
Hyrina and Nola were issued for these soldiers. They were paid after they returned
home, which is why the coins were issued somewhat later. If this were right, we would
have to assume that the `Campani' of these events were Campanians mainly from Nola
and Hyrina rather than Capuans, and that the troops were paid in silver bullion which
they, or their states, got Naples to mint for them. The latter assumption is not
implausible in itself: Naples apparently minted silver coins for Rome in the late fourth
century BC. 604 The more or less contemporaneous issues of Capua, Fistelia, Allifae and
599 Rutter (1979) 72-3.
600 Crawford (1985) 27 suggests that Cumae and Hyrina continued to strike didrachms until and perhaps
beyond the middle of the fourth century BC.
601 Rutter (1969) 185 and 207-8 and (1979) 73.
602 Rutter (1969) 214.
603 Diod. 13.80.4.
604 Crawford (1985) 29-30.
166