Æ28 - Elagabalus ΠΡΟΥϹΑΕΩΝ

Prusa ad Olympum — modern Bursa, at the foot of Mount Uludağ — was a prosperous Bithynian city whose civic bronze issues under Elagabalus reflect a mint actively courting imperial favor. Elagabalus' short reign was marked by his insistence on elevating the cult of Elagabal above Rome's traditional gods, a religious program that alienated the Senate almost immediately and contributed directly to his murder at eighteen by the Praetorian Guard in 222.

Provincial bronzes from his reign are notably scarcer than those of Caracalla or Septimius Severus — the city workshops had barely four years to produce them.