Æ18 - Hadrian ΜΥΛΑϹΕΩΝ

Mylasa was one of the most politically assertive cities in Caria, having spent centuries leveraging its position between competing powers — Hecatomnid dynasts, Seleucids, Rhodians, and finally Rome. By Hadrian's reign the city's civic bronze coinage was largely a matter of local prestige rather than economic necessity, Rome having long since absorbed the region's serious monetary functions. The conventus system placed Mylasa under the judicial circuit of Alabanda, a administrative grouping that carried no particular honor for a city that had once been a regional capital.