Mesambria was among the oldest Greek colonies on the Black Sea's western shore, founded by Chalcedonians and Dorians around 510 BC, and it retained the right to strike its own civic bronze well into the Roman imperial period — a privilege extended to relatively few Thracian coastal cities. Philip II was elevated to Caesar by his father Philip I (the Arab) following the latter's accession after Gordian III's death at Misiche in 244, making this issue tightly dateable to the three-year window before the younger Philip was raised to co-Augustus.
Mesambria was among the oldest Greek colonies on the Black Sea's western shore, founded by Chalcedonians and Dorians around 510 BC, and it retained the right to strike its own civic bronze well into the Roman imperial period — a privilege extended to relatively few Thracian coastal cities. Philip II was elevated to Caesar by his father Philip I (the Arab) following the latter's accession after Gordian III's death at Misiche in 244, making this issue tightly dateable to the three-year window before the younger Philip was raised to co-Augustus.