¼ Unit

Saguntum's bronze fractional coinage persisted stubbornly into the late Republican period, long after most Iberian mints had been absorbed into Roman monetary administration or simply ceased operation. The city's loyalty to Rome during the Second Punic War — it held out against Hannibal's siege for eight months before falling in 219 BC, an event that effectively triggered the war — was neither forgotten nor unrewarded; Saguntum retained unusual civic autonomy for a provincial town, which partly explains why local bronze production continued under indigenous Edetani authority well into the Augustan transition.