La moneta dei Brettii e l'identità di Nika

Winged or wingless, but in any case identifiable by the inscription of the name NIKA, Nike proves to be the most frequent represented subject on the Brutian’s coinage. Coupled on the reverse by the figure of a young fluvial god (a “sentinel” or border defender), Nike’s image is represented on the obverse of the didrachms, very much like Hera who, coupled by Zeus at rest, is represented in a series issued in the same period. In Magna Graecian and Sicilian areas the iconography concerning Nike – either winged or wingless – coincides with the iconography of the Personifications of the Cities, or Eponymous Nymphs. In the double function of Brides of the Governor and Mothers of the citizens, they show iconographic and ideological characteristics derived from the figures of the Great Oriental Mother Goddesses and, in particular, from the Phoenician-Cypriot Aphrodite. The diachronical and diatopical analysis of Nike’s iconographies and related symbols demonstrates how the Bruttian Nike found her most direct pattern in the Nike/Terina, also represented either winged or wingless. The evident continuity in cultural traditions indicates Terina as the city of the mint that issued all – or the greatest part – of Brutians’ coinage. The localization of the Brutian hoards proves, in fact, that the most important findings are placed in the middle-western area of current Calabria, particularly in the area which gravitates towards the Gulf of Lamezia.