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Æ26 - Valerian and Gallienus ΗΡΑΚΛΕ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩ ΠΟΝΤΩ
| Issuer | Heraclea Pontica (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 253-268 |
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| Composition | Bronze |
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| Reverse description | Heracles standing right, nude but draped with the Nemean lion-skin over his left arm, holding a club downward in his right hand and the golden apples of the Hesperides in his left. The figure is rendered in a muscular, heroic style befitting the patron deity of Heraclea Pontica. The Greek neocorate legend is distributed across the reverse field. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΗΡΑΚΛΕ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩ ΠΟΝΤΩ (Translation: of the Heracleans, neocorate, in Pontus) |
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| Additional information |
Heraclea Pontica's neokoros status — the right to maintain an imperial cult temple — was a fiercely contested civic honor during the 3rd century, and this joint reign issue advertising that status belongs to a period when such titles were actively used as political currency between cities and emperors. Valerian needed loyalty; Heraclea needed prestige. The arrangement was mutually convenient.
The city had held neokoros rank since at least the Severan period, but reaffirming it on coinage under Valerian and Gallienus reflects the administrative turbulence of the 250s, when the Roman east was absorbing repeated Gothic incursions across the Black Sea littoral — waters Heraclea Pontica sat directly upon.