Tium was a minor coastal polis on the Black Sea shore of Bithynia, never a major civic mint, and its bronze issues under the joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus represent some of the last sustained provincial bronze coinage before the collapse of the civic mint system across Asia Minor in the 260s. The pressures that ended that system were immediate and violent — Valerian's capture by Shapur I at Edessa in 260 effectively ended the joint reign and sent shockwaves through provincial administration throughout the East.
The ethnic ΤΙΑΝΩΝ identifies the issuing community unambiguously as Tium's civic authority, still functioning under the framework of Greek civic identity even as that framework was disintegrating elsewhere.
Tium was a minor coastal polis on the Black Sea shore of Bithynia, never a major civic mint, and its bronze issues under the joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus represent some of the last sustained provincial bronze coinage before the collapse of the civic mint system across Asia Minor in the 260s. The pressures that ended that system were immediate and violent — Valerian's capture by Shapur I at Edessa in 260 effectively ended the joint reign and sent shockwaves through provincial administration throughout the East.
The ethnic ΤΙΑΝΩΝ identifies the issuing community unambiguously as Tium's civic authority, still functioning under the framework of Greek civic identity even as that framework was disintegrating elsewhere.