Hadriani ad Olympum — modern Balıkesir in northwestern Turkey — was a minor Mysian city granted the honorific title of the emperor Hadrian, who toured the region extensively in the 120s AD. Its civic coinage under the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus falls within a period of near-continuous military crisis: barbarian incursions across the Danube, the catastrophic Persian campaign that would end with Valerian's capture at Edessa in 260 AD, the only time a sitting Roman emperor was taken prisoner by a foreign enemy.
The magistrate name ΑΝΤΩΝΙΟΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ appearing in the legend identifies the local archon responsible for authorizing the issue — a rare administrative fingerprint on a provincial bronze.
Hadriani ad Olympum — modern Balıkesir in northwestern Turkey — was a minor Mysian city granted the honorific title of the emperor Hadrian, who toured the region extensively in the 120s AD. Its civic coinage under the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus falls within a period of near-continuous military crisis: barbarian incursions across the Danube, the catastrophic Persian campaign that would end with Valerian's capture at Edessa in 260 AD, the only time a sitting Roman emperor was taken prisoner by a foreign enemy.
The magistrate name ΑΝΤΩΝΙΟΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ appearing in the legend identifies the local archon responsible for authorizing the issue — a rare administrative fingerprint on a provincial bronze.