Æ24 - Philip I ΠΡΟΥϹΑΕΩΝ

Prusa ad Olympum occupied a commercially active position at the foot of Mount Olympus in Bithynia, and its civic bronze issues under Philip I reflect a city asserting local prestige during a reign preoccupied with Rome's millennial celebrations of 248 AD. Philip, an Arab from the Hauran, spent much of his five-year reign managing the frontier rather than provincial administration, which left cities like Prusa operating with considerable autonomy in their civic coinage decisions. The series to which this piece belongs is sparsely documented; VIII#19779 references place it among issues whose die links and surviving populations remain incompletely catalogued.