Æ33 - Valerian and Gallienus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΑΥΡ ΕΥΠΟΡΟΥ Β / ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ

Metropolis in Ionia was a minor city that punched above its weight in civic coinage during the joint reign of Valerian I and his son Gallienus — a pairing that itself ended catastrophically when Valerian was captured by Shapur I of Persia in 260 AD, the only Roman emperor taken prisoner by a foreign enemy. Provincial bronzes issued under the magistrate Aurelius Euporos, whose name appears in the obverse legend, reflect the local civic pride that drove cities in the Ephesian conventus to fund their own coinage rather than rely solely on imperial supply.

Euporos held the strategia twice, as the Β in his title indicates — a second term, not uncommon for prominent civic officials in prosperous Ionian cities of the third century.