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

feeding on the reverse. Some of the bronze coins bear a head of a young man with long
hair tied with a band on the obverse, and on the reverse the Dioscuri galloping. Another
type shows an Apollo head crowned with laurel on the obverse and a feeding dog on the
reverse. Cantilena suggests on the basis of the similarities of type and weight with the
Neapolitan coinage that the minting of the Nucerian coinage may have begun towards
the mid-third century BC. 828
The head of the young man has been the subject of numerous interpretations. He
has traditionally been thought to be a personification of the god of the river Sarno. 829
Some have identified him with the Nucerian hero called Epidius, son of Epidius
Nuncionis (the Nucerian? ). Suetonius recounts that this hero fell into the river, emerged
with horns and later was numbered among the gods. 830 However, Cantilena doubts that
an author from the imperial period would refer to a legend depicted on coins from the
middle of the third century BC. 831 She also rejects the idea of the young man being the
personification of the river-god. She notes that the gods of rivers usually have straight
horns like those of a bull, rather than twisted horns like those of a ram. In her opinion
the young man should be interpreted as Apollo Kameios, the god of the Doric people,
well known in the Peloponnese, and protector of armies and those who explore new
territories. Virgil and Servius mention an ancient population, the Sarrhastes. 832 Servius
says that they came from the Peloponnese and that they were the first inhabitants of the
Sarno region, gave their name to the river and founded Nuceria. In my opinion
Cantilena's doubts are unnecessary and the best view is that he is a local deity, whose
828
Cantilena (1994) 10.
829
Cantilena (1994) 10.
930 Suet. De claris rhetoribus 4.
831 Cantilena (1994) 11.
832
Virgil 7.738, Servius Ad Aen. 7.738.
247