LA NIKE E ILTROFEO: INFLUSSI SELEUCIDI SULLE MONETE DEI BRETTII*

Abstract

This paper is focused on a quite common iconography in Brettian coins, the Nike figure crowning a trophy.
Up to now these archaeological finds - part of either private or museums' collections - haven't been considered at all, not even by the monographic works about the Nike-type on the coins.
According to some scholars, such an iconography is closely
connected to Agathocles coins, which display a similar Nike with trophy.
After a review of the morphological and typological features of these coins, trying to give an explanation for all the symbols on the verso, the paper reconsiders the different coinage contexts, where it's possible to find Nike with trophy. Such a systematic analysis
clearly demonstrates that the Brettian iconography wasn't influenced by Syracuse, but by the coinage of the Seleucid mints (in particular those of Seleucus II). Ptolemaic Egypt and/or Hellenistic Rhodes, where some Brettii are also attested, represent the link between
Seleucia and ancient Calabria.