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Æ28 - Trajan Decius ϹΕΠ ΡΗϹΑΙΝΗϹΙωΝ L III P
| Issuer | Rhesaena (Mesopotamia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 249-251 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Laureate and draped bust of Emperor Trajan Decius facing right, rendered in the provincial style typical of Mesopotamian civic coinage. The effigy displays traces of paludamentum at the shoulder, with the laureate wreath clearly indicated despite significant surface wear. The Greek imperial legend encircles the bust within a dotted border, reading in abbreviated form the full titulature of the emperor. The portrait exhibits the characteristic broad, bearded features associated with Decian provincial portraiture, struck on an irregular bronze flan. |
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| Obverse lettering | ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙ ΓΑΙ ΜΕϹ ΚΥ ΤΡΑ ΔΕΚΙΟϹ ϹΕΒ (Translation: Emperor Caesar Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius Augustus) |
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Rhesaena was a Severan foundation in northern Mesopotamia — the city's Greek name derived from the Aramaic Rēsh Aynā, "head of the spring" — and it held strategic importance as a waypoint on the road between Nisibis and the Euphrates. Its civic coinage under Trajan Decius is exceptionally scarce; the mint operated for a narrow window, and the year-date formula visible in this issue places it squarely within Decius's short reign, which ended at the Battle of Abritus in 251, the first time a reigning Roman emperor died in battle against a foreign enemy.