In 264 BC a power struggle broke out between the great powers of Rome and Carthage. The conflict spanned altogether over 63 years, during which three wars were fought. Rome finally defeated Carthage in 146 BC in The Third Punic War, annihilated the city of Carthage and established the Roman province of Africa within its former dominion.
This coin dates from the time between the first two wars. It was minted from the silver of the reparations that the Carthaginians were committed to pay after their defeat in the First Punic War (241 BC). The obverse depicts the head of the god Apollo with a laurel wreath, and on the reverse is a prancing horse modeled after a Syracusan coin motif.