Samos sat comfortably within the Milesian conventus — the Roman judicial district centered on Miletus — and retained the right to strike civic bronze through much of the third century. Philip I's reign saw a brief resurgence of provincial coinage across Asia Minor, partly because the emperor needed goodwill from eastern cities following his controversial peace with Persia in 244 AD, a settlement that cost Rome a substantial cash payment and struck many provincials as humiliating. Civic issues from this period carry an implicit politics: local elites honoring an emperor whose legitimacy was actively disputed.
At 17mm and under 2.5 grams, this falls among the smaller denominations in the Samian civic sequence.
Samos sat comfortably within the Milesian conventus — the Roman judicial district centered on Miletus — and retained the right to strike civic bronze through much of the third century. Philip I's reign saw a brief resurgence of provincial coinage across Asia Minor, partly because the emperor needed goodwill from eastern cities following his controversial peace with Persia in 244 AD, a settlement that cost Rome a substantial cash payment and struck many provincials as humiliating. Civic issues from this period carry an implicit politics: local elites honoring an emperor whose legitimacy was actively disputed.
At 17mm and under 2.5 grams, this falls among the smaller denominations in the Samian civic sequence.