Saguntum's bronze coinage of this period occupies an awkward historical position: the city had been sacked by Hannibal in 219 BC, the event Rome used as pretext for the Second Punic War, yet by the time these ases were struck the town had long been rebuilt under Roman patronage and functioned as a loyalist showcase on the Iberian coast. The Edetani retained local magistrate names on their issues well into the first century BC, a privilege Rome allowed selectively and one that effectively ended across Hispania after Sertorius's defeat in 72 BC — which marks the likely terminus for this type.
Saguntum's bronze coinage of this period occupies an awkward historical position: the city had been sacked by Hannibal in 219 BC, the event Rome used as pretext for the Second Punic War, yet by the time these ases were struck the town had long been rebuilt under Roman patronage and functioned as a loyalist showcase on the Iberian coast. The Edetani retained local magistrate names on their issues well into the first century BC, a privilege Rome allowed selectively and one that effectively ended across Hispania after Sertorius's defeat in 72 BC — which marks the likely terminus for this type.