Æ30 - Trajan Decius ΕΠΙ Ϲ ΚΟΜ Φ ΓΛΥΚΩΝΟϹ ΠΕΡΓΑΜΗΝΩΝ Γ ΝΕ

Pergamum held the title of "three times neokoros" — thrice warden of the imperial cult — a designation fiercely competed for among the great cities of Asia Minor and awarded by the Roman Senate. The magistrate name in this issue's legend, Glykon, anchors the coin to a specific civic administration otherwise nearly invisible in the documentary record. Trajan Decius reigned fewer than three years before dying at the Battle of Abritus in 251 AD, the first Roman emperor killed in battle against a foreign enemy, which makes the entire output of his reign compressed into an unusually tight window.