Abdera, the Thracian coastal city better remembered as the birthplace of Democritus and Protagoras, issued magistrate-signed bronzes like this one through a rotating eponymous system in which the issuing official's name — here Erogeitonos — served as the dating mechanism. The practice makes precise chronology difficult; without supporting die-linkage studies, the mid-third-century range is as tight as scholarship currently allows.
Abdera, the Thracian coastal city better remembered as the birthplace of Democritus and Protagoras, issued magistrate-signed bronzes like this one through a rotating eponymous system in which the issuing official's name — here Erogeitonos — served as the dating mechanism. The practice makes precise chronology difficult; without supporting die-linkage studies, the mid-third-century range is as tight as scholarship currently allows.