Aphrodisias in Caria was among the last Greek cities to maintain active civic bronze coinage, continuing to strike well into the sole reign of Gallienus even as most Asia Minor mints had already abandoned the practice. The city's unusually close relationship with Rome — it had held treaty-friend status since at least the late Republic and accumulated extraordinary privileges under successive emperors — likely sustained the administrative infrastructure needed to keep local coinage running longer than its neighbors.
Gallienus's sole reign began after his father Valerian was captured by Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa in 260, the first reigning Roman emperor taken prisoner by a foreign enemy.
Aphrodisias in Caria was among the last Greek cities to maintain active civic bronze coinage, continuing to strike well into the sole reign of Gallienus even as most Asia Minor mints had already abandoned the practice. The city's unusually close relationship with Rome — it had held treaty-friend status since at least the late Republic and accumulated extraordinary privileges under successive emperors — likely sustained the administrative infrastructure needed to keep local coinage running longer than its neighbors.
Gallienus's sole reign began after his father Valerian was captured by Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa in 260, the first reigning Roman emperor taken prisoner by a foreign enemy.