Decius, 249-251, Tetradrachm

Decius, tetradrachm, billon (BI), reign AD 249–251, Antioch, AD 249–251, 9.22 g, 25 mm. Obverse with laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right; legend ΑΥΤ Κ Γ ΜΕ ΚΥ ΔΕΚΙΟϹ ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ. Reverse with eagle standing facing, head left, wings spread, holding wreath in beak; legend ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ΕΞΟΥϹΙΑϹ, with S C in the fields. Struck on the characteristic thick Antiochene tetradrachm flan in debased billon, with clear imperial titulature and reverse formula. RPC IX 1645.

Issued during the mid-third-century monetary and political crisis, Antioch’s billon tetradrachms formed the principal large-denomination currency for Roman Syria under Decius, reflecting continued provincial mint production alongside imperial coinage. The reverse legend referencing tribunician power and the presence of S C reproduce Roman constitutional language on a provincial denomination, while the eagle type maintains a long-standing Syrian iconographic tradition associated with Antioch’s tetradrachm coinage.