ROMAN EMPIRE, City Commemorative, Time of Maximinus II. AD 310-313. Æ (16mm, 1.60 g,). ‘Persecution’ issue.

Time of Maximinus II. AD 310-313. Æ (16mm, 1.60 g,). ‘Persecution’ issue. Antioch mint, 6th officina. Jupiter seated left on throne, holding globe and scepter / Victory advancing left, holding wreath in outstretched hand; Z in right field (= officina 6) . Van Heesch, Last, 2.

J. van Heesch has provided the latest chronology for these anonymous civic bronzes of the fourth century AD. An active campaign of persecution against local Christians, abetted by Maximinus II, reached its height in Nicomedia, Antioch, and Alexandria. Churches were closed and property was seized from Christians who were expelled from many cities. These three major mint cities struck a series of small bronzes honoring the old Greco-Roman gods, Jupiter, Apollo, Tyche, and Serapis being among them. The persecutions subsided in AD 313, possibly as a result of concerns expressed by Constantine and Licinius, the emperors in the west.