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Æ26 - Valerian and Gallienus ΠΥΘΑΓΟΡΗϹ ϹΑΜΙΩΝ
| Issuer | Samos (Conventus of Miletus) |
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| Year | 253-260 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Emperor Valerian facing right, portrayed in three-quarter rear view, with paludamentum visible over the left shoulder. The imperial effigy displays characteristic mid-third-century Roman provincial portraiture, with a bold laureate wreath and layered military dress. The circular legend runs around the periphery of the field, identifying the emperor by his full titulature in Greek characters. |
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| Obverse lettering | ΑΥΡΤ Κ ΠΟ ΛΙΚΙ ΟΝΑΛΕΡΙΑΝΟϹ (sic) (Translation: Emperor Caesar Publius Licinius Valerianus) |
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Samos claimed Pythagoras as its most famous export throughout antiquity, and civic coinages invoking his name were a deliberate act of local identity politics — the island's mints returned to the philosopher repeatedly during the imperial period, partly as a counter to the cultural dominance of larger Ionian cities like Ephesus and Miletus, under whose conventus Samos administratively fell. Issuing under the joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus placed this coin in one of the more turbulent stretches of the third-century crisis, when provincial mints were churning out civic bronzes even as the empire hemorrhaged territory on multiple frontiers.
Pythagoras was almost certainly born on Samos around 570 BC before emigrating to Croton.