Æ17 - Nero ϹΙΔΗΤ

Side was one of the most commercially active ports on the Pamphylian coast, and its civic bronze issues under Nero reflect a city confident enough in its own identity to mint without imperial portrait pressure — RPC I 3389 belongs to a local series that asserted civic autonomy even as Rome tightened provincial administration under Nero's later prefects. The city's magistrates, not Roman officials, controlled the type selection.

RPC I records multiple specimens with significant die axis variation, suggesting small-batch production runs rather than a single coordinated emission.