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Æ21 - Gallienus sole reign) (ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ
| Issuer | Athens (Achaea) |
|---|---|
| Year | 260-268 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 5.35 g |
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| Reverse description | Athena standing right in a static, hieratic pose, extending her right hand to hold an owl and grasping with her left hand a downward-pointing spear, emblematic of the city's patron deity. The figure is rendered in the conventional Athenian provincial style, with drapery falling in schematic folds. The ethnic legend ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ curves around the field, identifying the issuing civic authority. |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Athens struck bronze coinage under the authority of the Roman provincial administration throughout the imperial period, but the issues of Gallienus's sole reign — after his co-emperor and father Valerian I was captured by Shapur I of Persia in 260 AD — carry particular historical weight. That capture, the first time a sitting Roman emperor had been taken prisoner by a foreign power, destabilized imperial finances and provincial minting in ways still debated by scholars. The Athenian civic series continued regardless, a local institution grinding on through the chaos of the Crisis of the Third Century.