Laodikeia ad Lycum was founded by Antiochos II around 261–253 BC and named for his wife Laodike — the same queen he later divorced in favor of Berenice of Egypt, a dynastic maneuver that ignited the Third Syrian War. By the time these bronzes were struck, the city had passed to Rome following the defeat of Antiochos III at Magnesia in 190 BC and the subsequent settlement at Apameia in 188 BC. The civic coinage that followed represents the municipality exercising the limited autonomous minting rights Rome permitted to loyal Asian cities.
Laodicea sat at the junction of the Lycus and Maeander valleys, making it one of the wealthiest commercial nodes in Phrygia. These bronzes circulated through a market economy already deeply integrated with Roman trade networks well before the province of Asia was formally organized in 129 BC.
Laodikeia ad Lycum was founded by Antiochos II around 261–253 BC and named for his wife Laodike — the same queen he later divorced in favor of Berenice of Egypt, a dynastic maneuver that ignited the Third Syrian War. By the time these bronzes were struck, the city had passed to Rome following the defeat of Antiochos III at Magnesia in 190 BC and the subsequent settlement at Apameia in 188 BC. The civic coinage that followed represents the municipality exercising the limited autonomous minting rights Rome permitted to loyal Asian cities.
Laodicea sat at the junction of the Lycus and Maeander valleys, making it one of the wealthiest commercial nodes in Phrygia. These bronzes circulated through a market economy already deeply integrated with Roman trade networks well before the province of Asia was formally organized in 129 BC.