Æ21 - Trebonianus Gallus COL AVG, TROAD

Alexandria Troas was a Roman colony — technically Colonia Alexandria Augusta Troadensis — and its civic coinage reflects that status directly in the abbreviation COL AVG that appears on issues of this type. The city held ius italicum, exempting it from provincial land tax, a privilege granted by Caracalla and jealously maintained. Trebonianus Gallus came to power after Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus were killed fighting the Goths at Abritus in 251, making this a short reign bookended by military catastrophe — plague ravaged the empire throughout, the same Cyprianic Plague that had already been killing hundreds daily in Rome for years.