AR24 - Pupienus and Balbinus L Α

The joint reign of Pupienus and Balbinus lasted roughly ninety-nine days in 238 AD — a year so chaotic that Rome cycled through five emperors. Both men were elevated by the Senate specifically to counter Maximinus Thrax, who was then marching on Italy. The Alexandrian mint, operating under its own prefectural authority, produced billon tetradrachmas for both co-emperors simultaneously, making issues like this one among the few physical records of a partnership that ended when the Praetorian Guard murdered both men and threw their bodies into the street.