Roman Republic, Semuncia

This Roman semuncia shows the head of Bellona, the goddess of war, on the obverse. The reverse depicts the typical motif on Roman bronze coins, the prora, a prow.

When the coin was issued, Rome was just waging the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) against the Carthaginians, whom the Romans also called Punici. The two parties had already fought a long and bloody war some decades earlier, the First Punic War (264-241 BC). It would take yet another war, the Third Punic War (149-146 BC), to settle the power balance in the Mediterranean once and for all. The Roman Republic would remain victorious, the Carthaginian state would perish.