Æ20 - Gallienus (sole reign) (ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ)

Athens struck bronze coinage under Roman provincial authority throughout the imperial period, but issues of Gallienus's sole reign — after the capture of his father Valerian by Shapur I in 260 AD — reflect a empire contracting under simultaneous pressure from the Gallic breakaway state in the west and the Palmyrene sphere in the east. Greece itself remained nominally stable, which is precisely why Athenian civic bronzes of this period are so understudied: they belong to no crisis narrative, only to the quiet administrative persistence of a city still trading on its ancient name.