he obverse shows the jugate heads of Honos and Virtus, Honour and Courage, placed one over the other. On the reverse, Italia and Roma shake hands, and most scholars take the coin as a celebration of the settlement that followed the Social War of 91–88 BC.

For generations Rome's Italian allies, the socii, had filled the ranks of its armies without being citizens. That meant they had no vote, no claim on public land, and little defence when a Roman magistrate mistreated them. Things came to a head in 91 BC. The tribune Marcus Livius Drusus proposed making the allies citizens and was murdered for it. Many Italian peoples rose in revolt, with the Marsi and the Samnites at their head. They set up a state of their own, Italia, based at Corfinium and complete with a senate, consuls and coinage. A few of their coins even show the Italian bull goring the Roman wolf.

Rome struggled at first and took heavy losses in 90 BC, despite having Marius, Sulla and Pompey's father, Pompeius Strabo, in command. In the end concessions did as much as fighting. The lex Julia of 90 BC granted citizenship to allies who had stayed loyal or put down their weapons, and the lex Plautia Papiria widened the offer a year later. Most of the rebels had given up by 88 BC, though pockets of Samnites kept fighting.

So the Italians lost the war and still came away with the citizenship they wanted. Italy south of the Po was now a single body of Roman citizens, and Sulla emerged from the war as one of Rome's leading men.