Tium was a minor Bithynian coastal city whose civic coinage under Elagabalus reflects the broader pattern of provincial mints leveraging imperial accession to assert local identity — the city's ethnic ΤΙΑΝΩΝ marking it as a rare issuer even within the relatively well-documented Bithynian series. Elagabalus himself reigned just four years before the Praetorian Guard murdered him at eighteen, his mother Julia Soaemias killed alongside him.
The reference VI#3581 places this within the Waddington-based classification of Pontic and Bithynian bronzes, a cataloguing tradition that still leaves numerous Tian issues inadequately documented by modern die-study standards.
Tium was a minor Bithynian coastal city whose civic coinage under Elagabalus reflects the broader pattern of provincial mints leveraging imperial accession to assert local identity — the city's ethnic ΤΙΑΝΩΝ marking it as a rare issuer even within the relatively well-documented Bithynian series. Elagabalus himself reigned just four years before the Praetorian Guard murdered him at eighteen, his mother Julia Soaemias killed alongside him.
The reference VI#3581 places this within the Waddington-based classification of Pontic and Bithynian bronzes, a cataloguing tradition that still leaves numerous Tian issues inadequately documented by modern die-study standards.