Kinzer Coins

Brundisium Bronze Sextans — Civic Coinage of Roman Italy (c. 215 BC)

Name: Brundisium Bronze Sextans — Civic Coinage of Roman Italy (c. 215 BC)
Brand: Kinzer Coins
Price: 395.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Brundisium Bronze Sextans — Civic Coinage of Roman Italy (c. 215 BC)

$395.00 USD

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Brundisium Bronze Sextans — Civic Coinage from the Second Punic War Era

Own a Coin from an Important Adriatic Port in Roman Italy

The exact bronze sextans of Brundisium shown, struck around 215 BC in Calabria during the Second Punic War era.

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🔱 Obverse features Poseidon/Neptune with trident and Nike
🐬 Reverse shows a youth—identified on some references as Phalanthos—riding a dolphin while holding Nike and a kithara
🏛 A civic bronze issue of Brundisium during the period of Roman control in southern Italy

Own This Piece of History

Why This Coin Matters

Brundisium, modern Brindisi, possessed one of the best natural harbors on the Adriatic and became an increasingly important gateway between Italy and the eastern Mediterranean.

This bronze type is catalogued as a sextans of Brundisium and is generally dated to around 215 BC, in the middle of the Second Punic War.

The coin belongs to the civic monetary tradition of southern Italy rather than being best described as an ordinary central Roman Republican issue. Brundisium was already within Rome’s political sphere, but its local coinage retained imagery and conventions rooted in the Greek and Italic monetary world of the region.

The obverse depicts Poseidon/Neptune, accompanied by a trident and Nike. The reverse shows a youthful figure riding a dolphin and holding Nike and a kithara; some catalogues identify the figure as Phalanthos, while others describe him more cautiously simply as a youth on a dolphin.

Those maritime images suit a major port city, but the coin itself does not prove that the design was a specific wartime declaration of Roman naval supremacy or a direct propaganda message about Hannibal.

The dating still gives the coin a compelling historical setting. Around 215 BC, Rome was fighting for survival after devastating defeats at Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae. Southern Italy was politically unstable, and ports such as Brundisium were strategically important to Roman communications and movement across the Adriatic.

This exact specimen therefore offers a genuine connection to the world of the Second Punic War without claiming that it personally financed a campaign or carried a specific state propaganda message that cannot be demonstrated.