Æ33 - Maximinus ΕΠ ϹΤ ΑΥΡ ΕΛΕΝΟΥ ΕΡΥΘΡΑΙΩΝ

Erythrae, a coastal polis on the Ionian littoral opposite Chios, maintained active bronze production well into the Severan and post-Severan periods, issuing coins under the authority of locally appointed magistrates whose names appear prominently in the legends — here the strategos Aurelius Helenus. The city had long traded on its mythological associations with the Sibyl of Erythrae, one of the canonical prophetesses of antiquity, and civic pride in that connection was a live political currency well into the third century.

The years 235–238 bracket the reign of Maximinus Thrax, the first emperor never to set foot in Rome — a soldier-emperor whose legitimacy provincial mints like this one were effectively asked to perform through bronze coinage.