Silver Didrachm

This didrachm was minted in Suessa Aurunca, Campania, sometime between 265-240BCE. The obverse depicts the head of Apollo wearing a laurel wreath in front of a trophy. The reverse depicts a naked horseman, most likely one of the Dioscuri, wearing the conical hat pilos leading a second horse beside him and carrying a filleted palm leaf over his shoulder. The exergue under this image reads “SUESSANO”, which means “of the Suessans”.

Suessa Aurunca was a Roman colony in southern Italy founded in 313BCE and was influenced culturally by the local colonies of Magna Graecia. At the time this coin was minted, Rome and its colonies were fighting the First Punic War against Carthage. The colonies of Rome each supplied soldiers and their soldiers’ pay to help the war effort, and this coin type was most likely used to pay soldiers from Suessa Aurunca to participate as part of the Roman army.

In Roman religion the Dioscuri were represented as fierce warriors, unmatched in horsemanship, and messengers of victory. This is because of their mythological role in the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496BCE, where the pair appeared to fight in the battle, and then rode on horseback into the Roman forum where they announced the victory of the Roman army.