Æ15 - Augustus COL A A PATR

Patras received its colonial status directly from Augustus following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, when he resettled veterans from legions X Equestris and XII Fulminata there — soldiers who had fought under his command against Antony and Cleopatra just miles up the Corinthian Gulf. The colonial mint at Patras was among the earliest established in Greece under the new imperial order, and RPC I 1279 belongs to that initial wave of civic bronze struck to assert the colony's Roman identity in a heavily Greek region.