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Æ26 - Trajan Decius ΚΙΑΝΩΝ
| Issuer | Cius (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 249-251 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 26 mm |
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| Obverse description | Diademed and draped bust of Herennia Etruscilla facing right, depicted in the provincial manner characteristic of Bithynian civic coinage under the reign of Trajan Decius. The empress wears a stephane-style diadem atop elaborately styled hair, with drapery visible at the truncation of the shoulder. The Greek legend encircles the effigy along the periphery of the flan, which shows the irregular edge typical of hammered provincial bronze issues. |
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| Reverse description | Tyche, the personification of civic fortune, stands in full figure facing left in the centre of the field, wearing a mural crown and long draped garments. She holds a rudder in her right hand, symbolising the guidance of the city's destiny, and a cornucopia in her left arm, denoting abundance. The reverse type is a standard civic allegory widely employed by Bithynian mints during the mid-third century, rendered in a competent if somewhat worn die-cutting style. The ethnic legend ΚΙΑΝΩΝ encircles the figure along the border of the coin. |
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Cius was a Bithynian port city on the Propontis with a long Greek colonial history, but by the mid-third century its civic coinage was running on borrowed time. Provincial bronze issues across Asia Minor collapsed almost entirely after Gallienus centralized imperial minting policy, making the Trajan Decius issues among the last Cius would ever strike. Decius's reign lasted barely two years before his death at Abritus in 251 AD — the first Roman emperor killed in battle against a foreign enemy.