Æ25 - Gordian III COL IVL AVG PELLA

Pella's civic bronze issues under Gordian III fall at a politically charged moment: the boy emperor, barely thirteen at accession, was effectively controlled by the praetorian prefect Timesitheus during the early years of his reign. Provincial mints like Pella were navigating that instability carefully, and the COL IVL AVG title in the legend reflects the colony's pride in its Augustan foundation — Julius Caesar had refounded the city, and Macedonian colonials were still advertising that connection nearly three centuries later.