Colophon had been a shadow of itself for centuries by the time this coin was struck — Alexander the Great had depopulated the original city in the fourth century BC, relocating its inhabitants to his newly founded Ephesus. The settlement that persisted bore the name but little of the old commercial weight. Under Maximinus Thrax, whose reign from 235–238 AD was marked by near-constant military campaigning and brutal taxation of the provincial elite, civic bronze issues like this one from smaller Asian conventus cities are notably sparse.
Maximinus never visited the eastern provinces. He ruled entirely from military camps.
Colophon had been a shadow of itself for centuries by the time this coin was struck — Alexander the Great had depopulated the original city in the fourth century BC, relocating its inhabitants to his newly founded Ephesus. The settlement that persisted bore the name but little of the old commercial weight. Under Maximinus Thrax, whose reign from 235–238 AD was marked by near-constant military campaigning and brutal taxation of the provincial elite, civic bronze issues like this one from smaller Asian conventus cities are notably sparse.
Maximinus never visited the eastern provinces. He ruled entirely from military camps.