Æ18 - Septimius Severus ΑΙΓΑΕΩΝ

Aegae was a minor Aeolian city on the Lydian coast whose civic coinage under Septimius Severus was produced in extremely limited volume — the city held no strategic importance and attracted little imperial attention. What makes these small bronzes historically pointed is the timing: Severus spent much of his reign at war, and provincial mints across the Conventus of Smyrna struck civic issues partly as a form of local loyalty signaling during the civil wars of 193–197 against Pescennius Niger, whose power base lay directly in the eastern provinces these cities inhabited.