Frentani

ancient_Marsica_and_Frentani.jpg

Ancient| Coins| (other than Roman) from Italy| including Magna| Graecia| in the Forum| Ancient| Coins| shop|

The Frentani occupied a fertile district between Samnium and the Adriatic. In B.C. 304 the Romans concluded peace with this people. The coins are well executed and date probably from circ. B.C. 268. They bear a retrograde inscription in Oscan characters, reading Frentrei.

Head of Hermes.
[Berl. Cat., III. i. Pl. II. 22.]
Pegasos.
Æ Size .8

These coins seem to have been issued at a town called Frentrum.

Larinum (Larino Vecchio), about fourteen miles inland, appears to have been a place of some importance. But as it struck no silver coins, we may infer that its money is all subsequent to B.C. 268, when the coinage of silver was chiefly monopolized by Rome.

The bronze money of Larinum falls into three classes :—


29

(i) With Campanian type and Greek inscr. Circ. B.C. 268.

ΛΑΡΙΝΩΝ Head of Apollo. Man-headed bull crowned by Nike.
Æ Size .8

(ii) With Apulian types and Latin inscr. Circ. B.C. 250.

Head of Athena. ADINOD Fulmen.
Æ .75
,, ADINEI Horse prancing; above, star
Æ .75

The inscriptions on these coins are probably Latin rather than Oscan (see Conway, Italic Dialects, pp. 207 and 211).

(iii) With local types. Circ. B.C. 217.

Series of struck coins on the uncial system, with marks of value from the Quincunx down to the Semuncia, and with inscr. ADINOD (= Larinor) :—

Obv. Types. Heads of youthful Ares helmeted, Dodonaean Zeus, Herakles, Amphitrite (?), Apollo (?). Artemis, etc.

Rev. Types. Galloping Warrior, Eagle on Fulmen, Centaur, Dolphin, Cornucopia, Hound, Crescent and Star.

Pallanum (?). Circ. B.C. 250.

Head of Vulcan. PALACINV Head of Medusa.
Æ .6
  „  Athena (?).   „  in oak-wreath.
AE.6

With regard to the attribution of these coins see Sambon, op. cit., p. 119, and Conway, Italic Dialects, pp. 209 sq. By some numismatists they are assigned to Palatium, near Reate, in the Sabine district (Z. f. N., xv. 3); and by others to the Peligni (Riv. Ital., 1906, p. 159).