Decius, 249-251, Tetradrachm

Decius, tetradrachm, billon, AD 249-251, Antioch, 11.61 g, 27 mm. Obverse with Greek imperial titulature ΑΥΤ Κ Γ ΜΕ ΚΥ ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟϹ ΔΕΚΙΟϹ ϹΕΒ, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Decius right. Reverse with ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ΕΞΟΥϹΙΑϹ around; eagle standing on thunderbolt, holding wreath in beak; S C in the fields. Struck on a broad provincial flan in billon with the fabric typical of Antiochene tetradrachms of the mid-3rd century. RPC IX 1708.

Issued during the reign of Decius in the context of the mid-3rd-century imperial crisis, Antioch’s billon tetradrachms functioned as the principal large-denomination currency for Roman Syria and adjacent regions, maintaining long-established local monetary types such as the eagle and the S C mark while expressing imperial authority through Greek titulature used in the eastern provinces.