Æ15 - Augustus

Berytus — modern Beirut — was refounded as a Roman colony, Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus, around 15 BC, when Augustus settled two veteran legions there after the Actian campaign. The city became one of the most thoroughly Romanized settlements in the eastern provinces, later home to a famous school of Roman law. Colonial bronze issues like this one functioned within a highly localized economy and were struck by the colony's own magistrates under Roman authority rather than by any imperial mint.