Chalcedon's civic bronze coinage under Gordian III belongs to a city with an awkward geographic destiny — founded before Byzantium, directly across the Bosphorus, yet consistently overshadowed by its neighbor. Ancient writers noted the irony; the Delphic oracle reportedly called Chalcedon's founders "blind" for ignoring the superior site opposite. By the third century AD the city had long made peace with that slight, functioning as a prosperous Bithynian center whose local magistrates continued authorizing bronze issues for regional circulation well into the crisis decades.
The reference VII.2#1852 places this within the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum corpus for the region.
Chalcedon's civic bronze coinage under Gordian III belongs to a city with an awkward geographic destiny — founded before Byzantium, directly across the Bosphorus, yet consistently overshadowed by its neighbor. Ancient writers noted the irony; the Delphic oracle reportedly called Chalcedon's founders "blind" for ignoring the superior site opposite. By the third century AD the city had long made peace with that slight, functioning as a prosperous Bithynian center whose local magistrates continued authorizing bronze issues for regional circulation well into the crisis decades.
The reference VII.2#1852 places this within the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum corpus for the region.