Æ26 - Valerian and Gallienus ϹΑΜΙΩΝ

Samos joined the Ionian revolt against Persia, hosted Epicurus in his youth, and by the imperial period had long since traded political relevance for the comfortable obscurity of a provincial backwater — which is precisely why its civic coinage under Valerian and Gallienus survives in such variety. The city retained the right to strike bronze through the conventions of the Miletus assizes, one of the administrative groupings Rome used to manage judicial and commercial life across western Asia Minor.

The co-reign of Valerian and Gallienus, which provides the bracket for this issue, ended catastrophically in 260 when Valerian was captured by Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa — the only Roman emperor taken prisoner by a foreign enemy.