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

story, recorded in local traditions, survived to the early empire and was known to
Suetonius.
There is no doubt that the coins were minted by Naples for Nuceria Alfaterna
because the name of the community appears in the genitive plural. The legends with the
name of the issuing community usually appear around the head of the young man on the
coins. The silver type no. 2 is the only case where the we find nuvkirinum on one side
and alaf[ater]num on the other. The direction of the legend is from the right to the left.
The letters are Oscan, with the exception of the type no. 5 where Greek ß is used. In the
cases of the type no. 3 and 4 the letters are mixed up and the name of the city appears as
nuvirkum.
Interpretation of the legends on the reverse of the types no. I and 6 has caused
some debate. The word -arasnei-/arnsnei- on the coin no. I has been expanded as
(S)arasne(is), (S)arnsne(is) or (S)arnine(r). Cantilena excludes the third expansion. 833
It
is generally believed that this denotes the Sarrasthes (see above) and thus is an ethnic
name. 834 Cantilena challenges this idea and suggests that the -ei ending is either locative
or genitive singular and refers to the name of a river. 835 The legend of the coin would
mean: `(coin) of the Nuceria Alfaternians, (those who live) in the region of the (S)arno'
or `(those) of the region of the (S)arno'. But, again, the omission of the first letter is very
unlikely. Rutter instead suggests that the legend is derived from a personal name,
Arasne. 836 However the first case of Italic coins with a general's name,
833
Cantilena (1994) 12.
834
De Caro (1992) 87 argued that the Sauastes constituted the common ethnic of the confederation.
G. Papius
D'Agostino (1982) 42 went as far as to suggest that the coins document the survival of this ethnic tribe,
which provided the Nucerian league with a political core.
835
Cantilena (1994) 12.
836
Rutter (2001) 72.
248