Campania, Cales (Circa 265-240 BC)

AE 23, 6.52 g

Obverse: Head of Athena l., wearing Corinthian helmet. CAΛENO (CALENO)

Reverse: Cock standing r.; in l. field, star.

Sambon 916. Historia Numorum Italy 435.

Before the Romans, Cales had been the center of an earlier Italic population called the Ausones (Aurunci in Latin), a people that inhabited areas of southern Italy well beyond Campania by about 1000 BC. That people may have come from Greece, but there is also archaeological evidence of Etruscan origin or at least influence. The source of the name Cales may be the proper name Calai, mythologically said to be one of Jason’s companions aboard the Argo and to have founded Cales.

Livy (VIII.16.13-14) relates that a Latin colony, the first in Campania, was established at Cales in 334 BC. It was apparently part of the area conquered by Rome circa 313 BC after which Cales became the center of Roman rule in Campania. Similar coins were struck at Cales, Suessa Aurunca, Caiatia, Telesia, Teanum, and at least one other town, doubtless by permission of the Romans. This uniformity of types suggests a monetary alliance.