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Æ33 - Valerian and Gallienus ΕΠ ϹΤ ΑΥΡ ΕΛΠΙΔΗΦΟΡΟΥ ΔΙϹ ΚΥΜΑΙΩΝ
| Issuer | Cyme (Conventus of Smyrna) |
|---|---|
| Year | 253-260 |
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| Composition | Bronze |
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| Reverse description | Athena Promachos, helmeted and draped, stands facing left in a martial pose upon a low base or plinth, raising a spear in her right hand as if to strike and holding the aegis in her outstretched left hand. The goddess is rendered in the classical Greek tradition befitting a coin of Cyme, an Aeolian city with strong Hellenistic cultural ties. The encircling reverse legend, naming the local strategos Aurelius Elpidephoros serving for the second time, frames the entire field. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΕΠ ϹΤ ΑΥΡ ΕΛΠΙΔΗΦΟΡΟΥ ΔΙϹ ΚΥΜΑΙΩΝ (Translation: under strategos Aurelius Elpidephoros two, of the Cymaeans) |
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Cyme's civic bronze issues under the joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus were administered through a local magistrate — here Aurelius Elpidephoros, serving his second term as strategos, which the ΔΙϹ ("twice") in the legend confirms. The city, one of the oldest Aeolian foundations on the Asian coast, retained considerable civic pride in naming magistrates prominently on its coinage well into the third century, even as imperial pressure and monetary instability were hollowing out provincial bronze production across the conventus.
Valerian's capture by Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa in 260 AD effectively ended this joint coinage. Issues attributable to the final months before that event are difficult to isolate by die study alone.