Nuove osservazioni sulla circolazione monetaria a Camarina nel II e I secolo a.C.

A re-examination of the coins found during archeological excavations in the Agora of Camarina, both those already published in 2004 (Lucchelli 2004 et alii) and a small group of pieces kept in the Museo Archeologico Regionale of Syracuse studied in 2019, has led to a partially different reading of the monetary history of this ancient Greek colony in the period after the Second Punic War. In 2004 it was suggested that the monetary circulation at Camarina during the 2nd century BC remained intense until after the middle of this century, but now, considering that the chronology of a number of coinages traditionally dated to 2nd century BC is quite unclear, but that in many cases these coinages probably belong rather to the last years of the 3rd (Carroccio 2004; Puglisi 2009), it seems better to interpret the available evidence in a different way. Actually, the number of coins found at Camarina that can be assigned with a sufficient degree of certainty to the 2nd century is remarkably low, that is 11 Roman Republican coins (as well as other 14 Roman coins that are so poorly preserved that an identification is impossible and that therefore could be partly, but not necessarily dated to this period) and about thirty coins of Italian (i.e. Rhegium) or Sicilian cities (they are above all issues of Syracuse), out of a total of 1073 coins. If it is relatively easy to ascertain the quantity of coins produced in the 2nd century among the coin finds at Camarina, much more difficult it is to estimate how many coins of the 3rd century were still available in the circulation during the following century. Unfortunately the peculiar archaeological situation of the Agora of Camarina doesn’t allow to get a clear idea of the association of coins found on this site (anyway, there is no evidence of any 2nd century coin deposit). The comparison with the situation in other ancient centres of Sicily (e.g. Morgantina or Monte Iato; Buttery 1989 et alii; Frey-Kupper 2013) and with the few hoards that have been reliably studied shows that quite a lot of 3rd century coins could be potentially available after the Second Punic War in Sicily, but, all considered, one should conclude that it seems rather improbable that a great number of “old” coins survived for many decades at Camarina in the 2nd century, in a context where the inflow of new coins was extremely limited. In conclusion, it seems that the end of the Second Punic War marked a decisive change in the monetary history of Camarina and that afterwards the city was rapidely marginalized in respect to the general coin circulation of the Roman Sicily.